Chapter 30
30 Power-Leveling
The power-leveling of Rena, Pauline, and Maevis the extra progressed swimmingly.
Even though Mile only taught them that “For this particular spell, an image like this is most efficient”, not telling them about the deeper aspects, Rena and Pauline gradually improved.
During training in the Training School they kept it to the level of “They improved” instead of the leaps and bounds they had actually achieved… at least that was the plan. Even if they managed to fool their classmates, Mile wasn’t confident that their instructors hadn’t seen through their ruse.
Since training would be pointless if she held back, Maevis gave it her best without hiding anything, but because those were only the fruits of Maevis, a normal human’s, hard labor, there was no problem showing it off. Even though her sparring partner was abnormally fast, causing her eyes, followed by her body, to slowly get used to high speeds, her abilities were still inside the realm of a “prodigal student who is passionate about training”.
Her progress, the rise in her reaction speed in particular, had surprised Elbert, but since it had nothing to do with her, Mile wasn’t worried.
Contrary to Mile’s worries, Elbert hadn’t pestered her since their first lesson.
Students all have their own circumstances, and it even if he had forced her to learn swordplay, she probably would have only done it halfheartedly. And obviously, an instructor couldn’t just force a profession on a student.
And in Mile’s case, her ability with a sword was limited to speed and brute strength, lacking any insight in things like reading your opponent, feinting, or luring your opponent in. Teaching her probably wouldn’t be worth his time nor would it be enjoyable for Elbert. Since she only had high specs but not an ounce of talent as a swordsman.
And since her talent for magic on the other hand was enormous, letting her delve into that was something he could accept. He could easily imagine the two magic instructors protesting him destroying someone of her prospects in the field of the arcane.
Even if he was the principal and head instructor, he was still only hired. If they were to report such a thing to their employer, he’d be in trouble.
「Spill the beans, Mile.」
One evening, Mile was being questioned.
「Eh, about what?」
「Don’t try to play dumb! I have thoroughly investigated it and found that you are doing something with a boy everyday after dinner!」
「Urgh…..」
Mile stammered since she had a good idea what Rena was talking about.
「You aren’t going out with him or have given him any strange promises, right….」
「No! He’s just my scapegoat…. Ah, upps…」
「What’s that supposed to mean? Now cough it up!」
…. she was made to spill it all.
「What the hell! You turned him into a target to take the attention off of you?
I’m speechless…」
Rena was speechless from the bottom of her heart.
((That boy probably has a thing for Mile…))
Meanwhile Meavis and Pauline wished him happiness in the next world.
「Well, you’d be in danger if your someone from your country got wind of you being here, so it’s not like I can’t understand your worries. And we also learned a lot from you, so any complaints from us would be hypocritical.
Just try to hold back a little.」
「Yeees~……」
Vail, the orphaned boy, rapidly improved his magic skills under Mile’s tutelage.
Since Mile had noticed that Vail’s magic power wasn’t that big nor was he good at repeatedly using complicated incantations, she taught him two easy spells consisting only of one construction step.
One was the Air Bullet.
Since with this even someone with as little magic power as Vail could use it to hunt on his own.
I was a simple to use magic suited to hunting, using something that is always there without the need to something as complex as gathering water, freezing and forming it, or making or summoning rocks as ammunition.
It was only compressing air and hurling it at the target, but for small animals it would be enough to kill them or at least make them pass out. He could also reach birds with it.
In fights between humans on the other hand, it could be used to break an opponent’s stance or to push them away. Not a one-hit-kill, but it had the potential to decide the fight in his favor. Either way, since it’s chant was short and uncomplicated it was to use.
In this world the the concept of causing wind was frequently used in magic, but since they lacked the understanding of such things as air pressure difference, thermal expansion, updrafts, and coriolis force, there was a limit to the power they could call upon. The concept of “compressing air and shooting it” was alien to them and should prove quite useful.
The other spell was a certain-kill skill for anit-person battles and large monsters, the Magic Blade.
Avoiding the problem of magic power drain and taking a step back from what would usually be seen as a “certain-kill” move, this skill consisted of coating the sword with magic just before a slash.
By wrapping the sword in magic power, an extremely thin layer forms in front of the blade which achieves the combination swordsmen dream of: strong, hard, and sharp. With this skill even a scrap sword will cut finest steel like butter!
Both are easy to construct, so even clumsy person could to it since they only require focusing on one concept.
In addition, since the time the skills stayed active was small, the magic power consumption, or rather the strain on a part of the brain due to thought emissions, is really small.
Furthermore since the underlying concepts were easy to grasp, the incantation time was also short. Using them will being engaged in a swordfight was more than feasible.
A combined usage of sword and magic. As well as a sword wrapped in magic.
That truly was the essence of a 『Magic Swordsman』.
Mile hammered it into Vail’s head multiple times to never ever teach those skills to anyone or the Organization would erase him and anybody he taught them.
She kept silent though on the Organization’s name and origin. Because thinking up a setting was too much work.
Well, the Air Bullet would probably be seen through soon, but the Magic Blade would take more than a glance to understand.
And she would feel bad if her teachings would spread and people would start killing each other with them on a global scale, but if her name didn’t fall she didn’t mind if it spread a little. In particular non-violent stuff like Healing Magic or things like the Air Bullet that can be used for peaceful purposes too…
And since God apparently didn’t mind her having an influence on this world after abandoning it, it shouldn’t be a problem.
In the evenings Vail listened to Mile’s lectures, applied them on the next free day, and gave a report on their next meeting. Repeating that circle he continually improved, though not as much as her party members.
After Rena and the others had found out about Vail, he joined Mile and Maevis with their training inside the school. The new training companion and the addition of different sparring partner filled Maevis with joy, helping Mile by reducing the time her friend spent sulking.
「Hmm, I just noticed. Don’t Mile and Vail sound kinda similar? Is there a connection?」
「Eh? Now that you mention it… No, it’s just a coincidence. Three letter names are all kind of similar. I mean, even you would be confused when somebody suddenly asked what your relation to our classmate Nina-san was, right Rena-san?」
「Well, I guess you have a point there…」
Rena had asked her out of the blue, but any resemblance was purely coincidental.
(Ah, I could use this sometime to hand him over as 『My brother I was separated from at birth』… No, no, no, I mustn’t think like that, I mustn’t)
Mile shook her head to get rid of her thoughts.
Mile’s days of class on weekdays, fundraising and magic training of free days, and a dash of sword training with Mavis and Vail inbetween continued.
She lives a fulfilled school life while growing closer to not only her three roommates but also another student.
The harsh days that would decide the future for the other students were an enjoyable school life to her. Although these days would also soon come to an end as the date of their graduation came closer.
「…a school excursion?」
「It’s field practice! What’s that 『eksukurshion』 supposed to be…」
「Ah, camping!」
「What language do these words keep coming from!」
With graduation around the corner, a notice about field training was issued.
They didn’t say anything ridiculous like “go out there and fight an Ogre”. Since there were people without experience as a Hunter this trip was meant for them to fight against a Goblin or another humanoid enemy to experience 『killing something human-shaped』. If they didn’t do that, the death rate for those who didn’t join a party with experienced Hunters would rise a little.
Of course this was also to show them what camping out in the wilderness was like.
One day later, the students of the Training School were standing in a forest half a day’s travel from the capital. They were supposed to meet up here.
They should originally complete the training in their groups, but since the female teams were unbalanced, they parties were mixed up.
The restructuring was left entirely to the students. It was meant to serve as a lesson for large scale mission for several parties.
Since completely mixing everything up would ruin the teamwork they had finally build, the boys decided to split up the girls and assign them to the male groups.
And the boys went on to recruit the girls like men possessed.
「M-Mile-chan, how about joining our group?」
「No, come to us!」
「No, of course she’ll join us! We’ll take good care of all 4 of you!」
「SHU~~T UUUP! Mile can serve as a vanguard as well, so there is no need for any boys!」
「Eh, but isn’t Mile-chan supposed to be a magician? And isn’t four girls just too few people?」
Rena thought about the persistent boy’s words for a moment before calling out to a male student.
「Vail! You’re joining us! Your group can get a replacement swordsman from group B.
You fine with that group B?」
「「「「Yeah~」」」」
The girls of group B were miffed that the groups 1 to 3 passed them wordlessly for Mile’s group C, so the four girls of group B instantly agreed to join the groups 4 and 6 who hadn’t moved yet, as well as Vail’s group 5 which, incidentally, contained good looking boys.
「Ok, Vail, you’re free to go!」
Instead of grasping after the far away Mile, the boys of group 5 chose the 4 girls the had a realistic chance with.
「Then we’ll split up between groups 4 and 6!」
「「「Eh……….」」」
At the words of the remaining five girls of group A, the boys of group 1 through 3 froze.
Group 1 5 Boys
Group 2 5 Boys
Group 3 5 Boys
Group 4 4 Boys 2 Girls
Group 5 3 Boys 4 Girls
Group 6 4 Boys 3 Girls
Group C 1 Boy 4 Girls
「「「WHY~~~~~!!」」」
The boys of groups 1-3 release a blood-curling scream.
They might have dug their own graves this time, but Vail would suffer reproachful looks from half of the male students until graduation.
「Huh, so it turned into 7 teams? I thought the female groups would scatter into the male teams so we’d have 6 parties. I only hired two additional Hunters to help out…」
Elbert looked troubled.
The four instructors, including Elbert, and the two Hunters certainly were short by one person.
「…well, I guess this is fine too. Meavis, you guys are strong so you’re fine without help, right?」
「Y-Yes…」
Usually the would be called 『Rena’s team』 or group C, but as expected of an instructor, he recognized Maevis as the leader.
Not that that really mattered anyway.
「We’re fine with that.」
「Please leave it to us!」
Since this would make it easier Mile and Rena readily agreed.
「Then I’ll count on your word.」
Elbert showed not the slightest sign of worry…
Inside the forest, away from the basecamp.
「From today on I’ll allow you to use the magic I taught you in front of other people. We’ll soon graduate and since it’s magic to use when working as a Hunter I thought it was about time.
Since suddenly pulling out the skills after graduation would seem unnatural it would be good if you could gradually start using them and sell them as your efforts in training paying off. After all you’ll need to show them at the graduation exam.
But! Showing the magic is fine, But! Never! Ever! Tell anyone how to use them or that I taught them to you!
Make it into an ultimate secrete you learned after climbing to the summit of your arduous training. Was I clear enough!」
The other four nodded obediently when faced with Mile’s unusually stern expression.
Shaa!
Bushu!
「Me now! It’s my turn now!!」
「You guys…..」
Vail was appalled by the way Rena and Pauline were happily hunting Goblins.
Rena he could still understand. He didn’t really want to though.
But Pauline had always been viewed as a timid support and healer among their classmates. In an environment where most girls were strong and rough, she and Mile were precious healing spots… Or that’s how it was supposed to be. Yet in reality…
「Dance, oh boiling Water, urya! DIEEE!」
Mile had to support herself against a fallen tree.
Meanwhile Maevis’ souls was about to slip out through her mouth.
When their group returned to the basecamp, the other parties were already back and had started dinner preparations. Of course they were preparing the stuff they had hunted or gathered. Getting something from another group was forbidden. Those who don’t catch anything need to sleep with an empty stomach. Such was a Hunter’s common sense.
The students had problems as they were not used to cooking.
「Heave-ho!」
Next to the other groups which were preparing a simple meal with a Horn Rabbit and some fruits they painstakingly gathered while hunting for Goblins, Mile took out an Orc from her Storage Magic.
Subabababa!
Meavis chopped the meat at an incredible speed.
Gou!
Rena grilled the meat with fire magic.
「The soup is ready~」
4 bowls were filled with conjured water, herbs they gathered, chopped orc meat and leafy greens which Pauline heated up.
「What about my portion….」
「Ah, sorry, I was just doing it as usual…」
Upon hearing Vail’s pitiful voice, Paulin hurriedly prepared another bowls for him.
「Urya!」
Gutsugutsu…
Seeing that, Elbert murmured to himself.
「……You guys sure have a convenient skillset….」
And like this, the curtain was about to fall on Mile’s fun school life.