Chapter 434

What kind of confidence is this, I wonder?

The students taking the magic duel practice vary in age from 9th-grade freshmen to 12th-grade seniors.

In terms of Korea, that corresponds to middle school 3rd year to high school 3rd year.

No matter how much the mages claim that age is a strong point, there is a world of difference between those who have experienced real combat and those who haven’t.

‘Still, I do like that spirit.’

Perhaps it’s due to cultural differences, but American students here have a strong tendency to participate actively in everything.

“Haha, are we the sandbags? If you guys don’t step up after hearing this, you’re not real men. I’m going in!”

“Hooww! Evans, show them what you’ve got!”

A large blond young man rolled up his sleeves and clapped above his head, encouraging enthusiastic responses from the students.

He smiled broadly enough to show his white teeth, as if he were a high school drama protagonist.

He was about 190 centimeters tall, weighing at least 120 kilos.

I could genuinely feel what it meant for a person’s physique to be different from mine.

Is that really a minor?

However, that body isn’t particularly suitable for magic dueling.

I asked, just in case.

“Do you play football often?”

“Oh! How did you know? Offensive tackle. That’s my position. We have a game this weekend; want to come watch?”

I smirked.

There was no way I could lose a magic duel to something like football.

Unfortunately, our casual conversation didn’t last long.

The bald professor informed us about the use of barrier crystals and then shoved us onto the grass.

“Professor, what are the winning conditions?”

“What are you asking? Obviously, it’s until one side surrenders.”

“Oh?”

I briefly caught a glimpse of the barrier inside the crystal, which was charging with unlimited power.

I realized today’s class topic was an aura endurance test.

In my opinion, it was a perfect topic for the first magic duel class.

Many people neglect an important fact in dueling.

If barriers are consistently supplied, one could theoretically fight forever, right?

Unfortunately, the subjects fighting are people, and people get tired from fighting.

If you recklessly squeeze out your aura heart without thinking, you’ll inevitably feel severe fatigue at some point.

Determined to faithfully perform my role as an assistant, I raised my guard.

“Begin the match!”

The first sandbag held his ground.

A concession from the player?

It’s annoying, but with my body like this, I had no choice but to accept.

[Unique Magic: Adele]

I drew a 1st circle magic circle directly in front of me and aimed at the young man.

“Aren’t you going to dodge?”

“Hmph, that’s easy.”

“You’ll regret it.”

[Summoning: Titanium]

[Casting: Forging]

I pulled out a mini-size one-handed sword and thrust it into the magic circle.

The gear in the center cut through the air and struck Evans’s body.

Without delay, I threw my body forward.

I quickly closed the distance of about ten steps and swung the sword horizontally with my right hand.

Swoosh—

“Starting with a real blade, how intense!”

“This is a duel.”

Evans quickly pulled his body back.

Not giving him a chance to react, I advanced into his territory again.

Cornered, the young man finally threw a punch, and I seized the moment when his guard was down.

[Unique Magic: Adele – 10 Strikes]

Ten concentrated physical blows hit the back of Evans’s head.

Thud!

The large body staggered.

At the same time, I jabbed his knee and ankle with the sword, causing him to collapse forward.

His head hit the grass pathetically.

“Ugh…”

Evans, who had been proclaiming ‘ladies first,’ gritted his teeth, his eyes glaring at me with hostility.

The grass was damp with the melted snow.

“You’d better brace yourself, kid.”

He delivered a line like a third-rate villain, brushing the grass and mud from his cheek.

I willingly handed over the initiative.

A great amount of aura erupted from Evans’s body.

The moisture on his clothes evaporated instantly, and his eyes gleamed white.

“Huuaaaah!”

Boom-boom-boom-boom—

He charged forward at a speed several times faster than an average person.

A punch the size of my head whizzed past in front of me.

Boom!

An attack aimed directly at my temple.

I couldn’t even catch up with the speed of the aura, which left an afterimage behind.

The crude red lines descended mercilessly, crossing through and crushing the air.

One red line, two, five, and then dozens.

They filled the somewhat dull space with meaningless abstractness.

Yet, they never connected.

Only the innocent strands of my hair were thrown about chaotically.

I did not let my guard down but systematically countered his attacks.

Blind attacks were not worth dodging.

I let the glancing attacks pass and lessened the power of the punches he fully extended.

“What the hell, just one hit…!”

“How would it be different if you got hit?”

Kwaaaang!

His punch, thrown with all his might, was simply blocked by my small hand.

My sword-wielding right hand remained behind my back.

A shockwave passed, and Evans’s eyebrows twitched in shock.

The moment a decisive blow is blocked is often when the impact is greatest.

“Can you keep using aura?”

“Um? Ugh, ugh…”

The young man suddenly doubled over, clutching his stomach and falling to the side.

The fatigue sensed by the aura heart is different from muscular fatigue.

If muscles feel continuous fatigue, the moment the aura heart exceeds its critical point, it follows with extreme pain beyond any cramps.

Instead, if you retract your aura, the pain smoothly disappears, as if it had never existed.

That is the marvel of the human body.

“Huh… huff…”

Evans stood up as if completely unfazed.

“Do you surrender?”

“Hah, you think I’d surrender as a man? No way!”

“But how do you plan to fight without any aura… well, whatever.”

Looks like this young man has been steeped in macho culture.

It was time to bring out the secret weapon from the East.

[Casting: Friction Coefficient Adjustment]

“Ugh, ahhh!”

Thud—

No matter how good your athletic coordination is, there’s no overcoming zero friction.

A child’s magic, if not used carefully, could end up resulting in a head injury.

I had to fall forward, but I ended up falling backward.

“Spin halfway. Ah, but don’t get up.”

Thwack—

I struck the back of the young man’s head.

“What are you trying to do to me?”

“Whoops.”

I grabbed his arms and with some effort managed to turn him halfway.

Carefully placing my white sneakers on the grass, I climbed onto his back in my socks.

‘How did the principal use aura back then…?’

Right, the key is resonance.

I spread my aura flat on my soles and created whirlpools here and there to maintain a specific frequency.

[Casting: Static Electricity Induction]

I also didn’t forget to generate free charges in my soles.

Crackle—

Then, when I pressed down on the center of the young man’s back with my entire foot…

Ding—

With a pleasant bell sound…

“Guuaaaah!”

Evans trembled as if he had been electrocuted, screaming in a voice full of rage.

His shout echoed across the playground.

I might end up with a vocal cord injury.

Students watching our duel murmured in surprise.

“There’s nothing strange about this. It’s just a healthy Korean massage. Okay?”

The students nodded vigorously.

Phew, I almost received a misunderstanding.

I relieved and continued the back massage.

Squeeze—

Squeeze— Squeeze— Squeeze—

“How does it feel? Refreshing, right?”

“Guuaah! Surrender… guurrgh…”

“You won’t feel much pain if you get used to it.”

“…”

“Yes?”

My massage must have been so good that the young man fainted.

I’m not sure how effective it is, but he’ll likely feel refreshed when he wakes up.

Suddenly, the professor rushed over and checked Evans’s carotid artery.

“He’s just sleeping…”

“Oh no, this is serious.”

“Seriously, it’s nothing strange, I tell you!”

I said, filled with indignation.

“This is a massage passed down since the time of Principal Gu Onyu’s great-grandmother.”

“That’s not the issue; the school police are here.”

“Excuse me?”

I quickly turned my head to see where the sound was coming from.

Woo-woo—

The sound of police sirens grew louder from across the field.

“Hmm, someone probably reported hearing the screams. I would have thought a murder was happening on campus too.”

“Uh… what do we do now?”

“What do you mean, the parties involved need to explain the situation properly.”

“Me?”

“Student NoName, then it’s all on you. Everyone, assemble! We will resume class! As you can see from the recent duel, aura endurance in a duel cannot be emphasized enough. Can anyone explain what NoName did well?”

I squatted next to the young man, waiting for the police to arrive.

This feels just like a murder scene.

Eventually, two fully-armed police officers approached confidently.

I waved my hands at them insistently, claiming it was nothing special.

I meticulously explained how Evans fainted from my massage attack during the duel.

The officers, looking down at my small stature, doubled over in laughter, taking pictures of the scene.

The incident that occurred during magic duel practice was featured on the front page of the next day’s school newspaper, “The Phillipian.”

—

* * *

[The Phillipian – Phillips Academy’s daily student newspaper]

[NoName Special]

[Strange screams on the first day of school revealed to be from a student attacked by NoName with a massage.]

[NoName’s choices: Advanced Theory of Aura Class, Magic Duel Practice, Open World Engineering — what are these classes?]

[Theoretical Magic Professor Christopher Zaeder participates in research on 8th Circle Dimensional Descent Magic with NoName.]

—

I folded the gray newspaper evoking nostalgia and conveyed my apologies to Evans.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. Instead, I will definitely support you at this week’s football game. We’re up against Cheshire Academy, right?”

“Ahh, you don’t need to think too hard on it. It actually feels refreshing, thanks to you. Accidents like this happen often during duels, right?”

“Then would you like to pair with me again next time?”

“No way! My main job is still football, you know? We only have 12 weeks left, and I need to let the others experience this unfairness too.”

“Unfairness?”

“… Anyway, don’t worry about it! I’ll start the class; hurry in! By the way, I heard the professor for Open World Engineering has changed this year. Hope it’s okay?”

“If a professor changes, is that bad?”

“You never know if it’ll be good or bad. Not that it concerns me, though.”

—

The next day, Evans kindly drove me to the science building where Open World Engineering class was held.

A high school student owning a car; what an odd world we live in.

In any case, having secured a comfortable means of transport, I was able to arrive at class on time.

If the previous two classes had a somewhat quirky aspect, Open World Engineering was a typical lecture-style education commonly found even in Korea.

We learned about creating open worlds, the principles of virtual reality access, ASI commands, and more systematically.

There were times when the professor recited directly from the book, but overall, I evaluated the lectures as not bad.

The lecture itself was easy and absorbed well.

The first week at Phillips Academy passed in the blink of an eye, and the much-anticipated first assignment was given.

No wait, the final assignment had already been assigned.

[Final Assignment]

[Hello, students.

The final assignment for the winter semester of “Open World Engineering” in 2053 is as follows.

Make a resonance-based open-world game

Theme: Freedom]

—

We were just taking our first steps, yet they were asking us to run a marathon.