<889 – The Unqualified (12)>
Magicians usually carry a weak image.
“Just meditating raises my mana—where’s the time for strength training?”
“If you strength train, you can use magic longer!”
“What’s the point of using magic longer? If I practice spell image imagination during jogging, my casting speed will be faster than my enemies, letting me land a one-hit kill!”
“Is that a thing?!”
A pure intelligence build where strength and speed are all that’s needed.
In an era of war where wizard battles frequently took place, rapid casting was all the rage.
Instead of training the body to run longer and cast multiple spells, it became a speed contest; it was all about who could land magic on their opponent first!
“Guuh. I was definitely faster…”
“Ah, this is called [Passive Magic]. It’s a defensive magic that constantly activates to protect the body.”
In a world where a speed contest was fought for mere 0.1 seconds, the constant activation of defensive magic required stronger spells capable of breaking through defenses.
The age of rapid casting was fading, giving way to the era where the power of magic became paramount.
“This is multi-defense magic. Even if a spell has great power, if its penetrating ability is low, it can be absorbed and blocked!”
“This is an attribute barrier magic. Not only does it prevent specific attribute spells, but it also absorbs them and charges power!”
“This is a counter-magic style. It leads the flow of magic in a specific way while extending the activation timing, allowing one to seize control and turn it back on the attacker!”
Wizards made all sorts of counter-magic to keep up with the evolving era.
With more variables to consider, wizards’ methods of response and tech trees also transformed.
“Absorbing attribute magic? Then it can make predictions impossible. I can master all types of magic!”
“If I incorporate unknown primitive and mysterious attributes, who can stop my magic?”
“What if the attributes you assumed suddenly change completely? Your barrier will tear like paper!”
Some dared to challenge the path of the all-master who could handle all attributes of magic.
Some succeeded in developing rare attributes that couldn’t be countered.
Some specialized in using ambush and counter-formulas, skillfully tearing apart attribute barriers while dunking their opponents in counter spells.
An age filled with diversity, unpredictability, and transformations.
The meta of magic expanded with originality that reigned supreme among all this diversity, shrouded in secrecy.
That many branches formed schools, became the Multicolor Magic Tower, and turned into distinct mystical schools with their own customs.
“That’s a great evil of the past, which even I, a professor, dread to handle.”
The magic department professor, a near-ultimate versatile wizard who honed their knowledge of various magic and responses, felt despair upon seeing the power-magic undead lich, Himbeopsa Richi, wielding all the magical knowledge he’d painstakingly built up.
“Great Witch! Your progeny are being massacred. Can we not intervene?”
Thus, they sought help from the Great Witch wandering the campus.
The witch eschewed the path of versatility to instead seek the arcane and ancient knowledge, honing her uniquely original magic.
The Great Witch stands as the pinnacle of such witches—a leader of a faction of wizards known as the Mystic School or Witch School.
“A witch is one who keeps the tradition of lone victory. Unlike the mass-produced wizards from the Magic Tower, she is skilled in improvisation. A student of the principal will not become my offspring.”
“How can you be so humble when so many have learned from the wisdom you left in the Academy? Even if we can’t delve deeply into the mysteries, magic is an undeniable universal mystery.”
The Grand Witch Kalizahar, as the disciple of the principal, held the coldness of a dragon, yet she felt her heart soften at the requests of a current magic department professor.
“Don’t pressure me. This crisis can resolve itself perfectly without my intervention.”
Wherever Kalizahar gazed, there was the child, Oknodie, who caught the principal’s attention.
“Are you not curious? Can the Dark Princess surpass the madness of the physical magician, who has achieved a creativity equivalent to mystery through sheer physical force?”
“According to the Grand Witch’s magic type theory, what kind does Oknodie fall into?”
Oknodie was an unpredictable child.
Sometimes flaunting a wealth of versatile knowledge, other times unleashing tech-like spells using pure dark mana.
She could be seen as an all-powerful wizard, or a rare-type wizard whose mastery of dark magic poses immense risks.
At the same time, her great mana control shows traits of a control-type wizard.
Her summoning skill displayed in the Foundation Workshop Battle reverberated with the power of a summoner.
“A multi-element magician, dark sorcerer, controller, summoner… the potential is vast, but the essence of that child is none of these. To begin with, none of these can even be called a magician.”
“If Oknodie isn’t a magician, then how many can be called magicians at this Academy? What should we even call her?”
Kalizahar noticed that Oknodie had effortlessly crossed one of the walls of expertise.
“A being with knowledge and talent no single human could possess. A being with the potential to reach transcendence as a Demon King. If that qualifies as her ‘stolen talent,’ everything makes sense.”
“So you’re saying it’s not her own skill?”
“The achievement is hers. But what if she’s peeking at the path to reach it? Can we truly call that a magician?”
Always looking at the answer sheet.
A child who could just reliably pick correct answers instead of pondering and researching for herself.
“We can’t call that a magician. She doesn’t ponder or explore.”
“Indeed. That’s why she is not a magician but a magic thief—a being who steals all the mysteries and laws of magic.”
“!!”
A magic thief.
Such an idea had never crossed their mind.
A thief who steals mysteries and laws, magic!
“If she’s a thief, she must be stealing from someone, right? Then from whom does Oknodie steal all that mystery and knowledge…”
“Some questions lead one to ponder and come up with their answers. Did you figure it out?”
“From… the God?”
In this world, there’s a being close to omniscience, if not omnipotence.
The God who grants power for knowledge sacrificed—the being that taught Oknodie to understand all the magic of spellcraft after having watched the 157th session of [Strength All-In Pattern Recognition is Good, Warrior] on a direct YouTube link.
Oknodie faced the God of Knowledge.
“Shh… Even if they aren’t omnipotent, they can pay attention to the causal connections linked to them. Don’t carelessly invite a God.”
The magic department professor felt breathless.
The professor, known as Rogue Professor Bronze, couldn’t steal the magical knowledge from the God of Knowledge, yet Oknodie had apparently managed to.
There’s a limit to how far a student can outshine a teacher, and what a born thief she was!
[Enhancement Magic Comprehensive Set]
“Ugh!”
Oknodie caught the debris hurled by Himbeopsa Richi with a large circular motion and, stunned by the shock, retaliated by throwing the debris back at Himbeopsa Richi.
Upon realizing that Oknodie had stolen strength-enhancement magic on the spot, the magic department professor became convinced.
Great Witch Kalizahar was indeed right.
There’s no need for a magician to know that many strength-enhancement spells.
With dark magic, resonance magic, illusion magic, space magic, and summoning magic woven together, that child had already displayed professor-level potential across many fields.
“‘She is peeking at and stealing all the magic from the God of Knowledge’s repository, so there’s no magic she can’t handle!’”
Himbeopsa Richi, feeling a sense of pride, swung a pillar from a building as if it were a club, but Oknodie, having hurriedly escaped, retaliated with a pillar she had picked up somewhere, showcasing her powerful pillar wielding techniques.
Those students who recognized that the pillar had dramatically smashed the pillar of a certain lecture building turned a blind eye, saying, “We don’t know anything about that!”
“Not bad.”
“Same to you!”
After the pillar techniques, they unleashed the shard-throwing technique, scattering the broken glass like rain.
The crash of powers clashing and the debris giving way to dust and fragments resonated throughout.
Oknodie displayed impressively high levels of strength-enhancement magic, which made Himbeopsa Richi unable to hide his enjoyment.
“I feel like this is the first time my strength magician faction, which hasn’t been recognized in my lifetime, is finally getting acknowledged posthumously. Tell me, human! Does a strength magician faction exist in this Academy?”
“Uh… um, there are a few people doing it!”
“Is that so? And how far has their prowess reached?”
“Uh… right beneath the principal…?”
“Good job.”
Himbeopsa Richi nodded with satisfaction.
With a child so young showcasing near-equal skills to a less mainstream magic school, his satisfaction reached its peak.
Every undead felt the gradual fulfillment of life’s regrets and unmet desires!
Ssssss.
As he slowly faded from his toes, transitioning from earthly regrets to transcendence, Oknodie urgently cried out.
“That’s a lie! The strength magician faction has a huge flaw! No one besides me does this!”
“Haha. You already have skills equal to mine. Considering your age, you likely have potential exceeding mine. No need to be humble. The future of the strength magician faction rests with you.”
Oknodie still had business to attend to before Himbeopsa Richi could ascend.
“Skeleton Uncle still doesn’t know the true potential of strength magicians! If you ascend like that, you’ll regret it!”
“The true potential of strength magicians?”
The scattered bones of the skeleton withered back together.
“Taming can be done through affinity, but there’s also strength. There are creatures and monsters in this world that listen when you beat them up!”
“Ooo…?”
“If the strongest strength magician were to stomp through the world, beating monsters left and right to form summoning contracts, just how incredible a summoner could they become?”
Himbeopsa Richi’s joints began to repair themselves up to his toes.
“If you’re curious, you must try it yourself to feel satisfied.”
“That’s exactly it! Please go smash tons of monsters in the Death Zone, tame them, and show us! I’ll evaluate how abundant your strength magician power is based on the summoned creatures brought back!”
“You need to gather way more than the animals you have on that ark to demonstrate your strength magician prowess.”
That evil ploy to collect animals without lifting a finger!
[Himbeopsa Richi has successfully advanced to a multi-class as a Beast Summoner!]
[You’re quite wicked, tricking Himbeopsa Richi to automatically collect animals, aren’t you?]
[Deceit Experience +30]
[Scary Child Experience +3]
The gamble of claiming that if no Beast Summoner existed, you could modify any regular lich into one proved successful.
What the magic department professor didn’t know was that there existed a Noah’s Ark quest, and to him, Oknodie’s efforts to recover anything the lich had caused to the magic department seemed commendable.
“I never knew such deep affection and concern for the department existed. By the second semester, we must ensure Oknodie can attend the fourth-year lectures in the magic department.”
The whimsical build that had made him so excited returned to a harsh second-semester schedule of academic rigor he had unwittingly created for himself.
