Chapter 17: Genius Mage
Back in his dorm, Hodell did not hesitate any longer.
The moment the door locked behind him, he sat at the desk, exhaled once, and opened the panel.
Experience existed to be spent. Hoarding it until death would be the real joke.
First, he poured 70,000 experience into [Basic Esper Affinity], pushing it all the way to its Level 5 cap.
The change was immediate.
His perception of energy flow grew sharper. The trajectories of power within his body, the tiny losses during conversion, the subtle distortions when simulating magical effects, all of it became more distinct than before, as if a fog had been stripped from his senses.
At the same time, the panel flashed.
[Basic Esper Affinity has reached Lv.5 [MAX]]
[You have comprehended the skill [Intermediate Esper Affinity]]
That also completed one half of the advancement requirements for [Esper Novice]. Only one obstacle remained now: obtaining a piece of advanced Superpower System knowledge.
He briefly checked the skill details.
[Basic Esper Affinity] increased ability control by 1% per level. For [Energy Simulation], that meant better perception of energy trajectories, faster learning of new effects, more efficient energy channeling, and less waste during conversion.
[Intermediate Esper Affinity] raised control by 2% per level.
The effect was simple, but for someone like him, it was the sort of simple that quietly changed everything.
Then came the next question.
Among the four skills that were still not maxed, [Basic Combat], [Grappling], [Pickpocketing], and [Acting Skill], only one of them felt like it would immediately pay for itself.
Hodell stared at the list for a second.
Then he spent 45,000 experience and pushed [Acting Skill] all the way to the top.
The logic was cold and practical.
Combat mattered, yes.
Stealing mattered, unfortunately.
But right now, his greatest battlefield was still other people's eyes.
The skill maxing reward granted him 2 Potential Points. Together with what he already had, that left his reserve looking much more comfortable.
He still kept 100,000 experience untouched.
After that, he turned to the class knowledge branch.
So far, among all the knowledge pieces he had found, [Enhanced Cell Engineering] was the only one that directly increased attributes. He spent the necessary points and pushed it to the maximum he currently could.
A warm current spread through his limbs.
Strength +3.
Agility +3.
Mystery +3.
Then the panel finished updating.
[Personal Attributes]
[Strength: 14]
[Agility: 14]
[Endurance: 23]
[Intelligence: 109]
[Mystery: 14]
[Charm: 9]
[Luck: 6]
[Energy: 120/120 [Lv.3]
[Health: 330/330]
[Stamina: 446/446]
[Energy Level: 233 Ona]
[Rank: E Grade Esper]
[Evaluation: Heaven chosen research laborer. Please remember to bring the product manual when socializing.]
Hodell stared at that final line for a long second.
Then his face twitched.
"What the hell does that mean?"
A heaven chosen research laborer?
Was the panel calling him a machine now?
He almost wanted to argue with it, but the interface remained its usual silent, shameless self.
…
The next day, the practical combat grounds were packed.
Tiered spectator seats rose in rings around the arena, already filled with students. Along the edges of the field, layers of complex protective runes emitted a faint steady glow, ensuring that whatever happened inside would stay inside.
Excitement, tension, and the smell of anticipation hung in the air.
Professor Marcus stood at the center of the arena, his voice carrying clearly through the venue.
"Today's combat session will use random matching. Remember this well: stop before causing serious injury, but do not hold back so much that the exercise loses all meaning. Actual combat only has value when you truly commit to it."
Carlo was nearly vibrating in place.
He nudged Hodell twice with his elbow.
"Ryan, are you confident?"
Hodell spread his hands in a helpless gesture.
"How could I be? I haven't had much real combat experience."
Carlo looked at him with naked suspicion.
"You also said you were just an ordinary student from a County."
Before Hodell could answer, the first pairing was announced.
"Next match: Eric versus Semyon."
Carlo's eyes lit up instantly.
"Oh, this guy's unlucky. Eric's combat level is no joke."
Hodell also focused his attention. He wanted to see how actual mage combat on Liuli Star looked when students were forced to take it seriously.
The two stepped onto the field and bowed briefly.
"Begin."
Semyon struck first.
With a sharp flick of both hands, he condensed several ice spikes that whistled through the air toward Eric in a dense spread, cutting off most of his movement paths. At the same time, a pale blue sheen spread across the floor beneath Eric's feet, turning the stone slabs slick with a film of water charged by mana.
The opening was fast and disciplined.
Continuous pressure.
Reasonable battlefield control.
"Actually…" Carlo muttered, expression shifting, "I take that back. Semyon's not weak either."
Eric responded with almost annoying calm.
He raised his left hand slightly and traced a short line through the air with his fingertips. A pale yellow shield appeared in front of him, compact and simple, no wasted structure, just enough to cover his body.
The ice spikes struck one after another.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
The shield only flickered.
At almost the same instant, Eric's right hand had already moved.
He pointed two fingers toward the floor.
A silent ripple spread beneath his feet, and the watery sheen that Semyon had laid down vanished like morning frost under sunlight.
Semyon's face changed.
He pushed more mana forward, preparing to chain into his next cast, but Eric had no intention of giving him that time. The moment the ground interference disappeared, he burst forward like a released spring.
Semyon's eyes went cold. A twisting current of water had already begun to gather at his side, ready to become a compact vortex.
Then Eric raised one hand again.
Gravity Spell.
Semyon's expression broke.
His casting arm suddenly felt as though an iron weight had been bolted onto it. The half formed water vortex twisted out of alignment and collapsed on itself. The resulting backlash made him grunt and stagger, his rhythm broken for a fatal instant.
Eric was already within three steps.
He turned his palm upward.
A fist sized earth sphere condensed in a heartbeat and shot forward in a curved arc toward Semyon's chest.
Semyon froze.
The backlash was still chewing through his body, and there was no time left to raise another defense.
His face went bitter.
"I yield."
The whole exchange had lasted less than thirty seconds.
Defense.
Disruption.
Pressure.
Close range finish.
Not a single wasted motion.
"Eric wins," Marcus announced.
The spectator stands burst into applause and chatter.
"So strong!"
"He barely used anything flashy."
"That's what makes it scarier. His fundamentals are ridiculous."
Hodell watched the entire fight in silence.
There it was.
The difference between having power and truly knowing how to use it.
Eric's combat experience was clearly far above his own.
Carlo was grinning like an idiot.
"That was clean. Not one unnecessary move."
Fortunately, Hodell's own match was scheduled later, which gave him time to watch several more bouts.
After Eric returned, he sat down not far from Hodell and said without pretense, "I'm looking forward to your fight."
Hodell smiled.
"I'm afraid you may end up disappointed. I'm really not that experienced."
Eric looked unconvinced.
Soon after, Carlo's turn came.
Compared to Eric, Carlo's combat level was a step lower, but his opponent was no monster either. The two fought back and forth for a while, with neither side managing to fully suppress the other. In the end, it was declared a draw, and both left the field with decent faces intact.
Then Marcus read out the next pairing.
"Next match: Ryan versus Elijah."
The reaction was immediate.
The arena actually grew quieter for a second before the murmurs erupted even louder than before.
Carlo's expression turned complicated.
"Well… your luck's pretty bad."
Hodell stood up and rolled his shoulders once.
"Why?"
Carlo opened his mouth, then glanced toward the field where Elijah had already stepped into position.
"Just be careful. Don't push too hard."
Eric also looked at him with more seriousness than before.
"Good luck."
Hodell stepped down toward the field while the discussions around him swelled.
"Elijah? The Furnace?"
"That freshman's done for."
"Wait, isn't Ryan that transfer student? The one with the crazy control?"
"He might not lose too badly."
At the edge of the arena, several staff like figures exchanged quiet looks.
"Elijah is fine," one of them muttered. "Even if Ryan loses, it won't be too damaging."
"Observe according to plan. Hopefully he doesn't collapse too quickly."
Professor Marcus kept his gaze on the field, clearly prepared to intervene at any dangerous moment.
Elijah stood with his arms folded, completely relaxed. He looked at Hodell from head to toe, the contempt in his gaze obvious.
"So," Elijah said with a grin, "I heard you're talented. I hope you can at least entertain me."
Hodell stopped ten steps away, calm as still water.
Then he looked him over and answered in a flat tone.
"Same goes to you"
The whole arena froze for a beat.
A system prompt appeared.
[You have triggered the E Level mission [Combat Disguise]. Accept / Decline?]
[Mission Reward: 15,000 EXP]
Then the crowd exploded.
"What the hell? He really said that?"
"This freshman's way too arrogant!"
"Or maybe he really has some confidence?"
Elijah's smile stiffened, then curdled.
He laughed from sheer disbelief.
"I hope your strength is at least half as good as your mouth."
Even Marcus looked faintly surprised, but he did not interfere.
"Begin."
Hodell did not move.
He simply stood there, giving the impression that he was deliberately allowing Elijah the initiative.
Elijah's expression darkened.
Fine. If that was what the freshman wanted, then he would bury him under it.
He barked out a short incantation. A broad wave of fire surged into existence in front of him, rolling toward Hodell like a pack of hunting beasts.
Hodell neither dodged nor retreated.
Mana surged around him.
Just before the fire wave reached his face, a violent gust burst outward and tore the flames apart, scattering them to both sides.
Marcus nodded faintly from the sidelines.
Reasonable choice.
A gust was more efficient there than trying to meet fire with water.
Elijah narrowed his eyes.
Some of the contempt left him, but the anger only rose higher.
"So you do have something. Still not enough."
Hodell looked straight at him.
"Elijah or whatever your name is, if this is all you've got, then maybe you really can't entertain me."
That did it.
The vein at Elijah's temple visibly jumped.
Before he could spit out whatever insult had reached his tongue, Hodell moved.
A brilliant white flash erupted from his palm.
Elijah was startled.
Those words were a distraction.
He reacted quickly, muttering a short defense line and throwing up a pale blue energy shield just in time to block the streaking white attack.
The impact burst against it in a spray of light.
Elijah immediately recalculated.
The power is not that high.
He bared his teeth.
"Cheap tricks."
His contempt came surging back.
With both hands moving in wide, confident arcs, he launched one fireball after another while simultaneously closing the distance. A speed enhancement spell wrapped around him and pushed him forward like a predator pressing down on wounded prey.
Hodell frowned and cast a speed enhancement of his own. It was noticeably less refined than Elijah's.
That was deliberate.
The gap between them narrowed rapidly. Elijah kept up the pressure with increasingly fast fireball chains, forcing Hodell into constant evasive movement. Explosions rippled around the arena, sparks and heat rolling over the field as Hodell was driven backward in a seemingly desperate struggle.
To the audience, it looked bad.
Really bad.
"He's getting overwhelmed."
"That's what happens when you talk too big."
"He was bluffing?"
Hodell countered cleverly whenever he could, but his "casting speed" lagged and his position worsened with every exchange. The more he appeared to struggle, the more Elijah's confidence swelled.
"Ryan!" Elijah barked, laughing openly now. "Why'd you go quiet? Weren't you supposed to entertain me?"
Up in the stands, Lula frowned.
"If you can win, then win. If you can't, then you can't. Why force yourself into this position?"
Celia watched in silence, eyes narrowed in thought.
Then Hodell roared and finally managed to form a spell with some visible effort, detonating a cluster of incoming fireballs and earning himself a narrow breath of space.
Elijah saw exactly what he wanted to see.
Frustration.
Desperation.
A freshman barely holding together.
He smiled.
The time to end it had come.
Flame coated his right fist like a red hot brand. The mana wrapped around it carried terrifying heat as he lunged forward and drove the punch straight toward Hodell's chest.
If it landed cleanly, the fight would be over.
Everyone held their breath.
At that very moment, a hint of a smile flickered deep in Hodell's eyes.
He did not dodge.
He did not retreat.
He simply raised his left hand.
Mana exploded.
No chant.
No large gesture.
No visible buildup beyond raw convergence.
Elijah's mocking grin was still on his face when his pupils shrank to pinpoints.
A massive ice spike had already appeared directly in front of him, filling his entire vision.
And he had no defense up.
Professor Marcus reacted instantly.
A powerful containment field expanded between them, and the ice spike shattered into dispersing mana before it could drill through Elijah's body.
Even so, the impact wave sent Elijah skidding and tumbling backward across the arena. He hit the floor hard and lay there staring upward, stunned.
Impossible.
His mind was still frozen in the previous second.
That last cast had been too fast.
He stared blankly toward the dome above.
Then the noise hit.
The entire arena exploded with shock.
"My god! He was hiding an instant cast ice spike?"
"That casting speed was insane!"
"I get it now. He acted weak on purpose. It was all bait. He wanted Elijah to get close and then finish it in one move!"
"Or maybe he's just absurdly fast with that one spell!"
Professor Marcus dispersed the remaining frost and vapor with a wave of his hand and looked at Hodell in silence.
This boy's background is definitely not ordinary.
Even Marcus was not entirely sure he would have intervened fast enough if he had been even a fraction slower. That last spell had been cast so close to the known speed limit for an ice spike that it was impossible not to assume there was some frightening teacher behind him.
Elijah was still lying there, unable to process the reversal.
Victory had been in his grasp one second ago.
Then it had vanished.
A hand appeared in his field of vision.
Hodell was standing over him.
His expression had already returned to calm.
"Sorry," he said. "You were stronger than I expected, so I had to use a few little tricks."
Elijah stared at him for a second, then grasped the offered hand and let himself be pulled upright.
"No. I lost because I underestimated you and let my emotions lead me. I showed you an opening."
He accepted defeat far more cleanly than Hodell had expected.
That alone raised Hodell's opinion of him.
He's got decent character.
The two released hands, and the crowd, seeing the scene, revised its opinion of Hodell once again.
A dangerous freshman.
A clever fighter.
And apparently not a petty one.
Hodell bowed slightly to Marcus, then to Elijah, and stepped off the field.
Carlo practically launched himself at him.
"Ryan! That was amazing!"
He punched Hodell's shoulder with all the excitement of a child who had just seen a legendary hero in person.
"That last move was insane. You hid it so well!"
Eric followed, the look in his eyes carrying both admiration and a little complexity.
"Excellent tactics," he said. "You let him think he had complete control, then ended it in one strike."
Hodell only smiled and let the praise wash over him.
After this fight, the tone of his final days at the academy had been decided.
From now on, in the eyes of the people around him, he was no longer simply the mysterious transfer student.
He was a genius mage.
The system chimed quietly.
[E Level mission [Combat Disguise] completed.]
[Evaluation: Incredible]
[You have received an Incredible grade bonus reward: Extra 150% EXP [22,500], Special Item x1]
[You have received: Character Summon Card - Elijah]
[Character Summon Card: Allows you to release this character's ability once]
[Character Summon Card - Elijah: [Flame Fist]
Gather fire elements to deal 186 to 203 points of fire damage. Affected by Strength.]
[Uses: 0/3]
Hodell's brows moved slightly.
Not bad at all.
…
In a hidden corner of the academy, the man in the dark gray uniform lowered his head toward a floating crystal sphere.
"The target has passed the combat assessment. Performance evaluation: Excellent. It is now reasonable to confirm use of the medication."
Inside the crystal sphere, Reed's blurred figure slowly smiled.
"Very good."
.....
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