Chapter 20

EP.20 Class Assignment Exam (4)

The essence of sorcery lies in the transaction.

By offering a price, one triggers a corresponding phenomenon. This is the foundation of sorcery, the Offering.

In this sense, sorcery shares a common thread with transactions with the stars. However, to be more precise, sorcery is closer to mimicking transactions with the stars.

Incantations, the core of the ritual is based on the Balance.

Unable to handle the stars, sorcerers who admired them created their own scales by imitating the Balance.

Sorcery, the Offering.

The process is simpler compared to the Balance. There's no need for complex calculations. It doesn't require high skill. Instead, it allows only one method of payment.

The body.

The method of payment for the Offering is the flesh of a living being. However, no one knows which part or how much will be lost.

Controlling this is called talent in the world of sorcery. In that sense, Belnoa had talent in sorcery.

Crack, crack.

Belnoa's finger, which was offered, began to bend.

"..."

Belnoa remained silent. His expression showed no change. Of course, he felt pain, but it wasn't unbearable.

Repeated Offerings.

The pain had become familiar through the process.

Belnoa calmly counted them.

'Five.'

The fingers offered were five. From experience, Belnoa instinctively understood what this amount of offering could achieve. Eventually, Belnoa was confident.

'This should be enough.'

Intuition born from experience.

Following his intuition, Belnoa moved.

"…!"

Lak, who was charging at Belnoa, flinched and stopped. A superhuman, almost animalistic instinct warned him to retreat.

Thud.

However, Lak did not retreat. Instead, he took another step forward and raised his shoulder. The axe in his hand was enchanted.

Haste.

The axe was aimed at Belnoa's neck.

'Real barbarians are a different breed.'

Seeing this, Belnoa clicked his tongue.

'I didn't expect to come out unscathed, but this is a bit much.'

He braced himself to lose at least one arm. Eventually, the transaction came to an end.

Snap!

Belnoa's finger completely bent, and the shadow he wore exploded. The offering of five fingers. The stars responded to this offering.

The exploding shadow headed for Lak's neck. The accelerated axe, on the other hand, aimed for Belnoa's neck.

And then.

"Stop."

Restriction.

Click.

With a sound like something being filled, everything stopped.

"That's enough."

With a cold voice, the axe stopped. The shadow was held in mid-air. In the artificially created stillness, the sound of someone's footsteps could be heard.

Clack, clack.

Belnoa tried to turn his head to look at the source of the sound. However, his body wouldn't move. The sorcery was the same. The shadow didn't budge either.

'What is this...'

With a fixed field of vision, Belnoa looked at Lak. Lak was sweating profusely. His eyes were shaking. At the end of his gaze stood a woman.

Ashen hair, blue eyes.

Belnoa remembered her name.

'Lania von Trias.'

The assistant professor he had seen on the podium. She had separated Lak from Belnoa and stood directly in front of him.

"This."

The shadow gathered in front of Belnoa.

Pointing at it, she spoke.

"Didn't I warn you that excessive competitive behavior would result in the exam being stopped?"

Her voice was as cold as her eyes.

She extended her hand and grabbed the shadow. Despite its sharp edges, it didn't leave a single scratch on her hand.

Crack.

Eventually, the shadow collapsed. It didn't just collapse; when she gestured, a scale appeared in the air. Belnoa immediately recognized what it was.

'Balance...?'

The shadow was placed on one side of the scale.

On the other side, Belnoa's right hand moved on its own. The scale, which had tilted a few times, eventually balanced.

Crack, crack.

Like time rewinding, broken bones reconnected. Belnoa watched this as if under a spell.

'...Intercepted the transaction?'

The flesh 'paid' through the Offering.

She returned it by placing the shadow on the Balance.

'...Is that possible?'

It was a method he had never heard of or seen. Belnoa blinked his eyes in a daze. However, the reconnected finger remained unchanged, clean.

Click.

Eventually, whatever was binding them dispersed. Belnoa, who had collapsed on the ground, lifted his head. He met the eyes of the woman looking down at him.

Cold eyes.

Hostile eyes.

* * *

Sorcery mediated by shadows.

'Shadow Weaving.'

The guy using this sorcery suddenly came to mind. Although the wound was now gone, his neck still tingled.

'...There's still someone using this.'

For now, he decided not to think too deeply about it. I was about to shake my head and speak when—

"I lost."

Lak spoke before I could. He continued, looking at Belnoa.

"I couldn't dodge. I had that certainty. So I pressed forward. I thought if I tore off the arm controlling the shadow, the shadow would stop."

"..."

"However, it seems I was wrong. Even if I tore off the arm, the shadow would have remained. Am I right?"

"Yes."

Belnoa readily admitted it.

"Offering... Once the price is paid, it always hits. No matter what happens to me."

"I should have stopped it."

"Even if I tried to stop it, it wouldn't have been stopped, but it was the right choice."

"Hmm," Lak nodded.

"Then, I did indeed lose. Impressive. I admit my defeat."

Lak then looked at me. His expression seemed quite relieved.

"I think I lost, supervisor."

"Hmm..."

Since he admitted it, there wasn't much to add, but something felt off. Belnoa also didn't look entirely satisfied.

'Why did they pair these two together in the first place?'

Was Alphia's level so high that one of them had to be dropped to make room for the advanced class? It was certainly high, but I don't remember it being that high.

'The advanced class, they seem ready to handle the battlefield right away.'

It would be a waste to drop one of them. Lak's intuition aside... though I'm not particularly fond of it, the shadow sorcery Belnoa used was a tricky one, even for Kyle.

'With a little tweaking, they could match the level of a hundred-man commander...'

The class I was assigned to was the advanced class. There was no need to force these two into it. They would rise to the top no matter where they were placed. However, I felt a bit greedy.

I wanted to teach these two myself.

I don't know why, but they seemed to handle mana in a way similar to me. In other words, I could see it clearly.

How to improve it.

How to handle mana more efficiently.

It felt like looking at a piece of grit in a finely crafted machine. A little tweaking could make it perfect. So, I wanted to keep them close and observe...

'But, that would be unfair.'

A plausible reason was needed.

I thought for a moment. The assistant professors had clearly stated the purpose of the exam was to test 'control of mana.'

Control of mana, control...

"Ah."

A thought suddenly crossed my mind. Upon reflection, there was no better way to test control of mana.

"Follow me."

I led the way.

Not out of the forest, but to its center.

3.

"Here...?"

Belnoa blinked.

He had felt something was off since entering the forest's center. He had dismissed the possibility, thinking it couldn't be that extreme.

However.

"Isn't this... a mana spring?"

Words failed him. Belnoa alternated his gaze between the supervisor and the boundary line in front of him.

A gift left by the ancient dragon's mage.

A mana spring.

The boundary line marking the area affected by its power.

"Can't you see?"

Lania pointed beyond the boundary line.

"Go in for one minute."

"Excuse me?"

"Survive for one minute, and I'll overlook that sorcery."

What did she mean by that?

"...I've heard that approaching a mana spring causes mana in the blood to surge, leading to the disintegration of limbs."

"Hah."

She laughed.

"That's only if you immerse your body in the spring at the center. This is far from the spring. Besides, your limbs won't disintegrate. Just some blood vessels will burst."

Her tone suggested she had experienced it herself.

"Lak?"

"Yes, yes."

"The same goes for you. If you survive for one minute, I'll speak to Professor Roselle about placing you in the advanced class."

Lak swallowed hard and slowly turned to look at Belnoa.

"What."

"...Are you going in?"

"...I don't know."

Belnoa was at a loss.

The feeling he had when training in the slums, with a knife to his neck, 'If you don't kill, you'll be killed...'—that's exactly how he felt now.

'Is this person really a professor?'

He squinted at Lania, but only received a cold stare in return.

"...Are you really going to make it as if nothing happened?"

"On the name of Ash... no, Trias, I swear. It's not hard to adjust the report to a draw."

"..."

"So, are you going to do it or not?"

Belnoa