RATH 15
TL: Eevee
2. What is this. Scary. (8)
#12 Their story: The secret of the future hero’s vitality (2)
None of the trials reactivated once we cleared them.
Because of that, all we had to do was turn around back to the room that had held the trial of magic.
Actually, out of all the doors, the trial of magic’s room was abundant in mana so it was pretty much the best place we could as for to recover mana.
After we recovered, it took us just 10 minutes to clear the trial of fog, and the trial after that was just a few extra traps on top of the fog from the previous trial, so we cleared that room even faster.
But the problem was from the next one.
The black fog from the eighth trial sealed off two out of our five senses, the even thicker fog completely removed our sight, and the one after that.
“…Tastes bland.”
It took away our sense of taste.
Really, as long as it didn’t drain us we basically camped in the trial rooms.
Thankfully unlike the time we first entered, once we cleared a room it didn’t reactivate, and because of that we had no choice but to sleep in the trial rooms.
No matter that our skills had increased and it was easier to clear, but we all instinctively didn’t want to have to clear the first trial again!
Because of that, with the exceptions of major injuries or exhaustion we camped in the trial rooms, and naturally our meals were solved with simple rations.
These simple jerkies were like heaven compared to the war we fought daily for meals, but from the seventh trial onwards it deprived us of our sense of taste so that we could literally taste nothing!
And once No.1000 realised that she immediately broke through the seventh trial.
By grabbing No.17 and my hands and running where we couldn’t even see anything!
“He, hey hold on!
“If a trap activates then we’re all screwed!”
“There are no traps.”
Like No.1000 said there were no traps.
It seemed that getting used to sensory deprivation was the purpose of these trails.
It was the same for the next trial, but in the trial proceeding that one, all five of my senses, no I couldn’t feel the perception of “myself.”
“Are you in front of me?”
“Say something.”
“h.e.l.lo?”
No matter how much I talked I couldn’t hear any response so I gave up.
And I tried to get a grip of my current situation.
Whether I was sitting, standing, lying down, I couldn’t feel anything.
This went way beyond simply being unable to see anything, I could feel nothing at all.
I thought I’d reached out with my hand, but since I can’t see or feel my hand I couldn’t even tell whether I had or not.
And I realised. d.a.m.n it. Then I can’t turn back either?
Do I need to receive No.1000’s help like last time? But even if I did, could I feel it?
The moment I turned back to the previous room the other senses would return so it was possible, but the problem was whether No.1000 would want to return to the room with no sense of taste.
The traps don’t activate but the fog itself remains in the room
From the sixth trial onwards this fog was the difficulty of the trials. The other traps simply made them slightly harder, but in the previous trial there weren’t even any traps.
Because of this there was the choice of returning to the seventh trial if we needed to, but would No.1000 make such a choice?
Wouldn’t she charge forward? But what if the next trial is similar to this one? Would I be stuck struggling in the next trail and always have to rely on No.1000?
“Now that’s not going to happen.”
Didn’t I think of No.1000 as a rival.
Looking pathetically at her back once is more than enough. I can’t be that pathetic any more.
I checked my back by spreading out my mana.
Due to this fog that stuck to my body, surprisingly enough I could definitely confirm the outline of my body.
The moment I tried to use mana to sense my surroundings this black fog stuck to me and prevented it.
Just what how did that blasted instructor expect us to get out from this b.l.o.o.d.y s.p.a.ce! I wanted to yell, but knowing the instructor there was definitely a way to escape.
How much more time pa.s.sed.
Since I was in a s.p.a.ce without any sensation whatsoever I don’t even have a sense of time. Did one minute pa.s.s. Did ten. An hour.
As I circulated mana throughout my entire body, a thought came to me.
‘No sensations whatsoever, if I had to pee…’
This was a thought that would never have come to me under normal circ.u.mstances.
When I’m trying to hold it in, am I tensing my bladder, or is my brain sending signals to hold it in, I don’t know. But what was certain was.
‘At this rate it will leak.’
Big one, small one, without any sensation whatsoever, it will leak. I felt gooseb.u.mps on my skin that could feel no sensations.
The d.a.m.ned a.s.shole instructor. Why does this motherf.u.c.ker keep pushing the limits of human dignity.
Is that a.s.shole actually human?
I poured out all my body’s mana. The longer I take the more dangerous it is.
Not just me, but there are two others as well. Just as I don’t want to leak and make things awkward between us, I don’t want them to leak and cause things to get awkward between us as well.
In this situation, someone has to take the lead and solve it. But how? How? Just how?
“Ah.”
A sudden exclamation came out of my mouth. A moment of clarity.
The black mana in the air right now is artificially made. And because of that, it rejects my mana.
But, since this wasn’t made by a person but tools, No.17 had been very surprised as we had cleared the trials so far.
“Each and every one is practically a pinnacle of magical engineering, even in the Empire. They’re using the surrounding magic to operate with minimal magic output.”
Although she keeps saying things that make me suspicious of her ident.i.ty, I didn’t say anything because I was honestly wasn’t one to talk, but what was certain was that No.17 had extremely high talent and knowledge about magic.
And using the craftsmanship that she so admired as the base, if this is a magic that uses the surrounding magic power you can say it is an artificial, and yet natural magic at the same time.
In that case, where did the magic power in my body come from.
All creatures are born with magic power when they are born. But as they grow up, they store the world’s mana in their bodies, grow and get stronger.
Let alone humans, but all living creatures, and the same with the demons that the creators said were different.
In that case, can’t this magic power be used as well?
I tried to inject my magic power into this sticky mana. Of course it rejects it. But as time goes on, the rejection became lesser.
As if it were the same as me, my magic power became gradually more similar to the surrounding magic power.
And so once I became attuned to the surrounding magic power, I became more aware of the surroundings and I became able to recognize and identify everything in the room.
“Did I lose again.”
No.1000 who was blankly staring at me was almost certainly registering me.
No.17 who was emitting mana in a corner with her eyes closed seemed to be finding her own method to solve her problem
“Was this a doorless room.”
Afterwards, having looked around the surroundings, I noticed a relatively large hole in a corner of the room and felt the instructor’s evil intentions once again. Had there not even been the option of accidentally opening the door to get out.
-What are you doing, let’s go.
As I was reflecting on what we’d done so far and what could come out in future, at some point No.17 had come up to me and tapped me on the shoulder.
Although naturally I couldn’t feel anything, but the voice that echoed in my head was definitely No.17’s.
“How are you speaking?”
-Just can. Try carrying your will into mana and transmitting it to me.
I struggled and tried a few times, but it didn’t work out. This is quite hard. It felt like the connection was getting cut even before the intentions were being sent to her.
-What are you doing, I said let’s go? If the next trial is similar we can just go back to the seventh.
Unfortunately, No.17 is right.
Although I don’t know how much time has pa.s.sed, I’m considerably exhausted. We need to have a look at the next trial to decide whether to rest or press on.
In the end, No.1000 jumped into the hole first, followed by No.17, then me.
Amazingly, once we jumped into the hole, the black fog, no, the lump of black mana didn’t follow us. But how would you put it, the moment the surrounding left us it felt like something had drained away from our bodies.
“It doesn’t look like we’ll have to head back to the seventh trial.”
Although the hole was small, it was plenty for us to make a temporary base.
“Should we make camp first before we enter? I want to rest a bit.”
“What about just unloading our gear and going for a look? If there’s a fog then we can just shut the door and rest.”
“Well, that’s not a bad idea either.”
Ignoring No.1000 who was busy nomming on jerky, No.17 and I shared our opinions.
Hm. What would the tenth trial be. When I opened the door with curiosity.
“h.e.l.lo, my juniors?”
Slam!
“Let’s rest.”
“Sounds good.”
No.17 and I slammed the door shut and trudged back to set up camp for the night.
What I had seen was a wide room and seven people each holding very distinct poses leering at us.
And among them, the one in the very centre with a beautiful smile was smaller than we remembered, but was definitely the Intelligence Agency’s vice-director.
We didn’t know what the next trial was but no matter what it was, it was definitely our hardest trial yet.
As we ate and lay down in our sleeping bags, we fell asleep thinking about what tomorrow would bring. Ah, but a prayer before I sleep.
“Our Lady Sermir who watches over us. Please, let there be a curse on the instructor.”
With the faith that if Sermir truly was a G.o.ddess that looked out for those who did good, then she would definitely fulfill that prayer.
***
“Quite incredible.”
What the h.e.l.l was going on.
Just four months. It took them just four months to get through to the tenth trial.
The ones judged the strongest era of the organization, to me, the worst generation, the previous cohort took eight whole months to get there.
And that was horrifying enough at the time a few years back, and they chunked even that time down to a half!
And to boot the previous cohort had seven people and these kids are three!
Half the bodies, yet also half the time taken.
Logically it doesn’t make any sense?
To think they pa.s.sed the ninth gate like that.
That was trial made to just eliminate all the body’s sensations and just randomly roll around till they dropped into the exit.
I made it thinking ‘I say don’t be fl.u.s.tered under any situation but this is a situation where you will have no choice but to panic!’ but they more or less just brute-forced it.
“These kids are my best work.”
“Your work is as amazing as ever.”
But openly expressing it is only for the small-fry.
I can’t openly show my shocked appearance in front of the one beside me casually observing the monsters named trainees with a magic tool.
“The tenth trial… we had a hard time ourselves. And doesn’t this cohort have a disadvantage in numbers as well?”
“They’re the ones who shortened your eight-month record to four. They could get through it easier than you might think.”
The c.o.c.ky little brat that smiled at my words is, like Sia, none other than my ex-disciple, and the comparatively most normal one of them all, Hawell Rein. Right now he’s under Sia’s wing as part of the Intelligence Agency in a very special place.
As for where that special place is…
“Naturally. Compared to an idiot who became a host and had to flee because of women, these kids are much more useful.”
“Ha, haha… I have nothing to say.”
It was a club. Out of the many minor organizations, the place with the best treatment and surprisingly, the place that got the best intelligence.
And this kid in particular is currently in the middle of an explosion of popularity in the Empire’s most prosperous club with the n.o.ble madams, saying absolutely nothing of his popularity with the young n.o.ble ladies as well!
And this riajuu-like moron is too popular that he got swept up in faction wars and is currently hiding out here.
It’s quite possible that the young ladies are shaking around his acquaintances at by their lapels looking for him at the club he used to work at, but that’s not my problem.
“And why did it have to be you…”
“The organization doesn’t feed their workers to play around. That’s what instructor always told us every time.”
“That’s true.”
And because of that I requested for any one of my ex-disciples from the previous cohort but it had to be this one.
Actually in terms of pure fighting abilities, he’s not one to go around getting a hiding either.
Even if he looks like this he was seventh overall among all the trainees from all instructors in the previous cohort, showing off his one-digit ranked skills they call single numbers, and he got multiple love calls from various fighting groups, but due to his face he was dragged off by the Intelligence Agency.
But on the contrary, that means that among those seven disciples of mine this kid is the weakest.
And he’s also the furthest removed from the front lines.
Compared to him, the current cohort is growing at an immeasurable speed, if I asked him to educate his juniors as a senior, on the contrary I can only imagine HIM being the one educated instead.
“But they are strong. At the very least I needed Rood or Ragnum.”
“I’ve grown quite a lot as well.”
He seems to have flared up a bit, but how the h.e.l.l does a host grow. Did he learn some techniques from some incredible big sisters like a certain number one host I read in a book once?(1)
No, wait, that protagonist. He was weak even though he learnt swordsmanship that could cut straight through steel, wasn’t he? I never actually saw him win himself. The protagonist that shows off the power of connections.
I think he got stronger after he darkened up, but since this kid still hasn’t gotten darker he’s still going to be weak.
“You have grown. But do you really think you could beat these kids with just that?”
“To be honest it is quite fearful. No matter that they’re restricted, they a representation of us just before we graduated.”
The tenth trial. A type of fake clone created by a fusion of doppelgangers, a unique species of devil, and homunculi, a product of alchemy.
But since the combat skills and specialties were all extracted from the people in question themselves just before graduation, their fighting power is significant.
As for their weaknesses, could you say that they could only exert 50% of the strength of the originals, and due to their high cost they had to be reused so their internals are weak.
Because of that, when the door is opened, they are set to appear making a JoXX pose. Because XXJo poses are the pinnacle of pressure and intimidation!
“As if to prove that you are the weakest, your doppelganger is getting beat up the most.”
“Ah, wait! I, I never got creamed like that”
And when we turned back to the magic tool his doppelganger was getting the living daylights beaten out of by No.1000.
As expected of No.1000. She bit down on the weakest first.
“But to think you would get caught by kids who haven’t even trained for a full year. You were always weak.”
“Kuk… That, that was because the others were just too monstrous! And there wasn’t that much difference between me and Maren either!”
“Yeah, sure, there might not be much difference between you and Maren who said the office was heaven and went straight behind a desk, but even a moron who couldn’t beat that Maren would still be better than a bunch of brats who haven’t even trained for a full year yet.”
“Haa…. You’re still the same as ever, instructor.”
The guy who seemed to quiver for a bit before he sighed, stood up with a burning resolve in his eyes.
He’s still as weak to taunts as he was back then. Like the one who always surpa.s.ses one’s expectations when you scratch them a bit, but always the first to get beaten down like the weakest of the demon king’s Four Heavenly Kings.
“My skills, I will show them to you.”
Looking at his face filled with determination, I can only pray he doesn’t get annihilated.