There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different spells, and users often modify them slightly to suit their own preferences.
Because of that, identifying a spell at a glance isn’t easy, even for fellow mages.
For members of other classes, it would be even more confusing.
On top of that, [Pulverize Zone] is extremely obscure. Naturally, that’s because almost nobody uses it.
Not only does it activate with a delay, but it also openly marks its location, meaning it absolutely has to be combined with crowd-control techniques if you want it to hit.
Most people would rather choose a different spell than go through all that trouble.
As expected, the other participants didn’t seem to recognize the blue circle for what it was.
They exchanged a few words in serious tones.
“Doesn’t seem like there’s any benefit in leaving it alone.”
“It’s probably some kind of buff skill.”
“The fact that he went out of his way to declare it a sacred ground says enough.”
It seemed they assumed it was a Geas-type skill.
The reason they thought so was because I had gone on about “declaring sacred ground”, making it sound like some kind of restriction.
Skills of that type maximize their effects in exchange for openly revealing their conditions to the enemy. The late Blood Sword Commander was a good example.
I deliberately led them to that conclusion.
The dramatic presentation, as if I were deploying a domain, combined with my solemn tone, made it more convincing.
After all, images associated with paladins and priests don’t exactly go well with lying.
Soon, Orange, Purple, and Black gradually closed the distance between us.
Then they stopped just in front of the mana circle and asked,
“What will you do if we enter?”
“You will taste bitterness.”
I answered while maintaining my serious and dignified persona.
Of course, these were future hero candidates who had spent a year gaining experience at Dragon Slayer Academy.
There was no way they would back down because of a few words.
This was a duel, after all. Their lives weren’t on the line.
“Being told not to do it only makes me want to do it more.”
“That choice is yours to make. But you will have to pay the price.”
“You think you can stop all three of us by yourself?”
“That is not something you need concern yourselves with.”
“……”
At my arrogant reply, Orange glared at me for a moment before clenching his fists and raising his guard like a boxer.
Purple and Black also lowered their longswords into ready stances.
And the moment Orange stepped into the blue circle—
Boom!
Compressed air exploded and blasted him backward.
Then I added one more comment.
“That was your final warning.”
“…We’ll see whether you can protect this sacred ground to the very end.”
The moment Orange kicked off the ground, the two swordsmen also swung their blades at me.
Swoooosh!
As I dodged, I silently counted in my head.
31, 32, 33…
[Pulverize Zone] requires the caster to set both its area and duration when casting it.
So I had set the area large enough for four people to engage in close-quarters combat and the duration to one minute.
More than half of that time had already passed during our little battle of nerves.
Boom! Bang!
Each time Wind Force detonated, one of the three was blasted out of the circle in turn.
Yet they immediately charged back in and resumed their attacks.
Since I continued to avoid taking any meaningful hits despite being outnumbered three to one, a gleam appeared in Orange’s eyes.
“So you do have the skill to back up all that talk. But how long can you keep this up?”
“…Shut up!”
I put on the performance of my life, pretending to be gradually running out of steam.
Whether it worked or not, the three became even more confident.
They began mocking me one by one.
“Well? We already violated your sacred ground.”
“Aren’t you supposed to push us out?”
“Is that really all you’ve got?”
Pretending to barely evade the barrage of punches and sword strikes, I let out a frustrated groan.
“Grrgh…!”
Of course, inwardly I was still counting.
56, 57, 58…
And the moment I counted 59, I cast Blink and teleported far away from the blue circle.
Orange, Purple, and Black all froze at once.
“…….!”
“…….!”
They looked around in confusion before spotting me in the distance.
Hadn’t I been going on and on about protecting sacred ground? Then why was I standing all the way over there?
I dropped the serious, dignified act entirely and flashed a wicked grin.
“You bunch of Han So-mi-level idiots.”
Did you really believe that?
The next moment, an invisible force descended upon the heads of the Han So-mi like Trio.
Booooooooooooom—!
When it was over, all that remained was an arena floor crushed down as though a giant seal had been stamped into it.
All three had been ruled incapable of continuing the fight and were automatically removed.
If this had been a real battle, there would have been three human pancakes lying there.
Soon, the scoreboard displayed the match results.
[Blue 1st]
[Orange 4th]
[Purple 4th]
[Black 4th]
Since they had all gone down simultaneously, they ended up with the same placement.
Apparently, the system doesn’t split rankings based on a microscopic difference of 0.01 seconds.
The reason they were all ranked 4th instead of sharing 2nd place seemed to be related to how the placement test scores were calculated.
A 2nd-place finish grants a substantial amount of duel battle points, whereas 4th place grants nothing at all.
After leaving the arena, I checked the notification messages.
[Side Quest: 1st Week Placement Test] (In Progress…)
▷ Skills/Traits Disabled: Amplification, Distortion, Retro Recovery
▷ Objective 1: Place 1st in a match (2/3)
▷ Objective 2: Eliminate opponents (6/3)
▷ Reward: Varies based on achievement level
Just one match left.
The difficulty would depend on who my final opponents were, but regardless, I intended to finish in first place again.
And even though I had already exceeded the second objective, I planned to push it even further by taking down three more opponents.
Before long, the next match was scheduled, and I stepped into the circular arena.
Looking down at myself, I thought,
Green this time.
Gray, Yellow, and Red silhouettes appeared one after another around the arena.
[Green 100%]
vs
[Gray 100%]
vs
[Red 100%]
vs
[Yellow 100%]
However, the atmosphere in the arena was completely different from my previous two matches.
All three silhouettes were staring directly at me.
Gray was the first to speak.
The tone was extremely familiar and packed with dissatisfaction.
“…Bad Kim Ho.”
At that, Yellow and Red also flinched before adding their own comments.
“So it really was you.”
“How… did we all end up together…?”
To be honest, I was just as dumbfounded.
Our post-soft-reset scores had been fairly similar, but could the matchmaking really line up like this?
“And why are you all so good at figuring things out?”
If everyone can identify each other this easily, what’s the point of the Anonymous rule?
Even the scoreboard looked different now.
[Kim Ho 100%]
vs
[Seo Ye-in 100%]
vs
[Hong Yeon-hwa 100%]
vs
[Song Cheon-hye 100%]
Soon, Song Cheon-hye slipped on a pair of gauntlets and said,
“Honestly, this works out better. You forfeited last year’s placement test, remember? Think of this as a continuation and a chance to show me how much you’ve improved.”
“By that logic, shouldn’t you be fighting her instead?”
I asked, pointing at Seo Ye-in.
The last time those two had faced each other one-on-one was during last year’s placement test.
It was about time they checked how much each of them had grown since then.
The thought seemed to cross Song Cheon-hye’s mind as well. She glanced briefly at Seo Ye-in, but soon fixed her gaze back on me.
“Maybe later. Right now, I’d rather fight you some more.”
“I see. And what does young miss think?”
Seo Ye-in answered my question by pointing her pot at me.
“…Bad Kim Ho.”
“Because I sent you away for adoption?”
“I’m angry…”
“I told you, I can’t change half of it.”
“Full of complaints…”
Apparently, understanding the reason and being angry about it were two different things.
Which was why she had formed a temporary alliance with Song Cheon-hye to teach me a lesson.
Finally, I looked over at Hong Yeon-hwa.
“How about a two-on-two? The numbers work out perfectly.”
“…….!”
Hong Yeon-hwa looked tempted.
But then, after glancing back and forth between the gray and yellow silhouettes, she seemed to reconsider and spoke cautiously.
“I… want to fight together too.”
“You’re betraying me as well?”
“Just… this time…?”
“Well, would you look at these ungrateful brats.”
After everything I’d done for them, they wanted to gang up on me three against one.
There’s an old saying that you shouldn’t take in black-haired beasts.
Not a word of it was wrong.
Though, in this case, I was the only one with black hair.
At last, I slowly nodded.
“Very well. Looks like it’s time for a little discipline session.”
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Start!]
The moment the match began, Seo Ye-in leveled her mana gun at me.
Blue flames burst continuously from the barrel.
Ratatatatatatatatata!
Song Cheon-hye wrapped her entire body in crackling electricity and kicked off the ground.
In response, I used Feather Step several times to evade the incoming mana bullets before casting [Blink].
The place I reappeared was directly behind Hong Yeon-hwa.
“…….!”
Hong Yeon-hwa stopped mid-incantation and spun around with a startled flinch, but by then, a streak of icy energy had already shot from my index finger.
[Activated ‘Diamond Freeze’.]
[Duration: 00:00:19]
[Cooldown: 00:07:59]
[Frozen Spirit Shot]
[Activated ‘Chain Explosion’.]
[Cooldown: 00:04:59]
Boom!
It was the same combo I’d used against Cha Hyeon-joo in the first match.
Hong Yeon-hwa’s legs were instantly frozen solid.
Then a blue circle began to form beneath her feet.
“[Pulverize Zone]……!”
She’d watched the entire process of me learning it from right beside her.
There was no way she wouldn’t recognize it.
And before long, it would be dropping right on top of her head.
The color gradually drained from Hong Yeon-hwa’s face.
She desperately tried to get out of the blue circle, but with her legs immobilized, all she could do was struggle in place.
I casually added a comment.
“For the record, I set it to twenty seconds. Now then, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen—”
“……!”
Since the area had been set so narrowly, even twenty seconds would produce power that couldn’t be ignored.
Hong Yeon-hwa must have reached the same conclusion, because her face turned even paler.
She hurriedly cast a fire spell, but—
Fwoooosh!
Even amid the blazing flames, her legs remained frozen solid.
She also possessed [Aqua Flame], so most ordinary ice would melt away just from being near her.
But now that [Diamond Freeze] was in effect, it was completely unaffected.
‘The unremovable effect lasts for twenty seconds.’
By the time it wore off, [Pulverize Zone] would already be coming down.
I’d timed it that way on purpose.
Tududududu!
Fzzzzzzzzt!
Magic bullets and bolts of lightning came flying in as if to keep me in check, but I casually dodged them, and every now and then I even used Hong Yeon-hwa as a shield.
Then I urged her on in an exceedingly frantic tone.
“There’s no time, no time! Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock—”
“……!”
Hong Yeon-hwa kept glancing upward, trembling all the while.
Soon, she tried to steady herself and began chanting a spell.
It was obvious what she had in mind.
Trying to escape with Blink, huh.
But did she really think I was going to let her go that easily?
I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her vigorously.
“Where do you think you’re going?! Where do you think you’re going?!”
“S-Stop shaking meee……!”
Spatial magic was already difficult enough to cast as it was, and with someone actively interfering, there was no way she could maintain her concentration.
Naturally, Blink was canceled, and Hong Yeon-hwa lost her last chance.
Looking half on the verge of tears, she slowly raised her gaze.
“No—”
The next moment, Pulverize came crashing down like a giant flick to the forehead.
Booom!
“Gaah.”
With a short scream, Hong Yeon-hwa collapsed onto the ground and was immediately eliminated.
Giving her a brief glance, I turned toward the remaining two.
“Next.”
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