The Genius Magician Hides His Swordsmanship - Chapter 15

Chapter 15. Raxon Delemar (2)

It was exactly five minutes later.

“Wow! That’s amazing!”

“What the hell happened?”

Cheers erupted in the auditorium. The duel between Drew and Galson had gotten the kids excited.

[What a plot twist.]

Drew, the least magically gifted of the two, had defeated Galson in a spectacular fashion. No wonder the children were surprised.

‘As expected, you can’t fake Gibson blood.’
[Yeah, his timing was amazing.]

Despite my worries, Drew was much calmer in person. His calm eyes were like those of a skilled swordsman.
He’d seen through Galson’s magic, piercing through it, and embodying the attributes that gave him the edge every time.

“Drew Gibson.”

Raxon sounded mildly surprised.

“Good job.”

His praise, which even McDuff did not receive, was directed at Drew.

“You can go back now, thank you!”

Drew bowed his head nervously again.

“Pass.”

It was only for a moment but a strange look stood around Raxon’s eyes.

“This is the last round.”

His indifferent eyes returned to me and Ariel.

“Ian Delemar and Ariel Alton, forward.”

It was finally my turn.

[How do you plan on dealing with her?]
‘No matter how good she is, she’s still a kid.’

If I deal with her the same way as Drew did in his match, I’d be able to end it easily.

‘My combat experience is of the veteran level.’
[Yes, not to mention there’s a limit to what she can use.]

In the end, no matter how fast Ariel was growing, she was still at most at the level 3-4 stars. Compared to the mages I’ve faced, she was just a drop in the bucket.

‘Ariel’s magic is known to me.’

I know all my opponents cards. To me, who had gone through a lot of battles, that meant victory.
But what Raxon wanted wasn’t just victory.

‘I’ll let her have the first two moves.’
[That would be better. Just in case she falls out in one shot.]

This is a situation in which three attributes must be used to pass the examination anyway.

‘At the third attack, I’ll counterattack and finish it.’

In order to satisfy Raxon, I had to show off my various abilities.

“Okay, begin.”

As soon as Raxon spoke.
Whoosh!
The wind blew in front of Ariel.

‘Her first attack is of the wind attribute.’

I couldn’t see it, but I could definitely feel it. A blade made of wind was approaching me.
I immediately raised some magic.
Keuk!
It was an earthen wall, a low-level magic, rising above the platform. Mainly used for camping or when cover is needed.

‘This should be enough.’

Although, it wasn’t defensive magic.
Kuuuuu…
I had no trouble blocking Ariel’s wind blade. Unless it was the water attribute. Ariel’s attainment of the wind attribute was still in its infancy.

[That’s an appropriate response.]

When I glanced over at Raxon’s eyes, his eyes flinched slightly.

‘The first strategy seems to have worked well…’

I had deliberately used a flimsy earthen wall to demonstrate my achievements to Raxon.

[Because you showed that you accurately grasp the other person’s level.]

I showed the ability to see through the opponent and defend with minimal magic.

‘With Raxon’s ability, there’s no way he wouldn’t recognize that.’

Ariel’s brows furrowed at the rising dust. She must be angry that her own attack was blocked by her mud, which was not even a defense type magic.
Chak!
That anger was soon reflected in her magic, so a water ball the size of a watermelon swayed. In the end, Ariel brought out her special skill.

‘No way.’

However, wind had already started to blow in my hand.

[Oh, isn’t that Arens magic?!]

The book of the Arens family was written in the ancient language. The ritual of the family was called god of the wind.
Woosh!
Now, after a thousand years, it reappeared in the world.

‘Even so, I can’t even imitate it now.’

However, even that much would be enough to deal with Ariel’s waterball.
A gust of wind rushed out.
Shwoo!
The flying water ball splits into two. Even so, the water ball did not stop its momentum.

‘Is this because the water ball is at the level of 4 stars?’

My hand also continued to move. The Arens family said that the scary thing about magic was its continuity.
Whoo!
Following my touch, the wind persistently harassed the water ball. From two to four, from four to eight, the water ball continued to multiply into smaller parts.
Tuduk- Tuduk-
By the time it touched me, it was just a weak drop of water.

[Game over.]

Now that I’ve blocked Ariel’s specialty, the water ball, there’s nothing left to see.

‘What’s next?’

I wasn’t worried. No matter what it was it must be at an infancy stage just like her wind attribute.

“Ian…”

As expected, Ariel stood frowning. The furrow in her brows deepened.

‘I’m sorry you got stuck with me.’

Aside from Drew, she was my favorite.

‘I have to pass Raxon’s test, too.’

I couldn’t help it. But it didn’t take long for a look of disbelief to cross my face.
She had turned the tables on me.
Pow!
An electric current emanated from her left hand.

‘Hmm, I see she’s picked up the electricity attribute.’

Ariel had been hiding the fact that she had electric properties.

‘That’s okay, I’ll just have to block it again… huh?’

I was about to cast my magic against her.
Crack!
A strange sound came from up ahead.

‘…Simultaneous chanting?’

A water ball had bloomed from Ariel’s right hand. The energy of the water that was about to shoot at me was being overlaid with an electric current.

‘So she was still hiding her skills, huh?’

It was embarrassing. All of a sudden, she started simultaneously chanting. Just a year ago, Ariel had asked me about simultaneously chanting.

[Looks like she was inspired by you.]

However, the current Ariel is beyond chanting and is even mixing the two magic spells at the same time.

‘It’s a magic combination…’

In an instant, several numbers popped into my mind. It was an ingrained habit of mine to judge the situation in an instant and simulate a multiple number of cases, since it was inevitable for a swordsman.

[What are you going to do?]

It wasn’t impossible to avoid or block, either way. However, I had already defended twice.

‘I can’t just keep defending…’

If I keep defending, it’d be impossible for me to get Raxon’s recognition.

‘I’ll have to try a frontal breakthrough.’

Moreover, seeing Ariel’s magic, I had something I wanted to try. The magic combination that Ariel was trying to show off, stimulated a phrase engraved in my head.

– Applied magic that combines electricity and water.

It was a book I saw in the Delemar’s library. At first, I wondered why there was such a geek.

‘His name is Kane Gurf.’

He was an electricity and water crazes scholar. He wrote a 10,000 page book full of explanations of electricity and water.
There were even two such books.
It was divided into upper and lower parts. At first, I hated reading them. Not only was the book uncomfortably thick, but the content was boring.

‘Still, there is no way this book would be in the Delemar library for nothing.’

I started reading it and got hooked. It was more basic and in depth than an elementary book on the elements. He was not a madman, but rather someone who had fallen in love with both elements.

‘If he’d seen Ariel’s magic, he’d have told me to beat her right away.’

Compared to the descriptions in the book, Ariel’s magical concoctions were haphazard. Trying to mix electricity and water is a good approach, but it doesn’t work that way.

‘That’s why most mages don’t use combinations.’

If they use this they might not even get up to the power of one element. It would also be extremely mana consuming.

‘You should be grateful, Ariel. I’ll show you the basics of magic combination I learned from Kane Gurf.’

[Oh, you’re going to use that?]

Mana currents swirled around my body.

‘Yes, I am. Since her graduation from the academy will be delayed because of me, I might as well give her a gift.’

A genius of Ariel’s caliber should be able to see and feel something from this.

‘You should learn from this.’

You can’t combine spells after they’ve been cast, or they’ll collide and halve their power.

‘You have to put them together before you can manifest the magic.’

That’s how they were made in the first place. The first time you manipulate mana, you must attempt to control it.
The mana floating around me took shape.
Pow!
Sparks flew.
Chark!
Zap!
There was a shower of water droplets.
Before long, it appeared in front of me.
It was a thundercloud. It’s only the size of my upper body, but ferocious sparks ran through the thick dark clouds. This was my weapon against Ariel’s magic.
Towards the shooting electric water ball.
Quar!
Lightning shot out between the dark clouds.

‘Let’s go for it.’

Wow!
Imperfect magic is easily destroyed. Ariel’s electric water ball was shabby compared to its appearance.
Pzzz!
The lightning, still full of power, continued to move toward Ariel. The power of the lightning that contained the water of the thundercloud was enough for that.

‘This…!’

Could it be because I was engrossed in implementing the magic I saw in the book? Or was it because Ariel’s magic was weaker than I thought?

[…Isn’t that too strong?]

The momentum of the lightning was too fierce. Ariel, who had already lost her means of attack, lostall chances of defending, and it was obvious that she would be seriously injured.
I hurriedly tried to control my magic.
Rarreung!
It was not easy to control an energy that I was not familiar with. I managed to get rid of the thundercloud, but the lightning that had already been released was about to reach Ariel.
Faaaa!
At that moment, a transparent curtain blocked Ariel’s way.

‘…!’

The lightning that collided with the curtain was scattered powerlessly into nature.

“There.”

It was Raxon’s voice. He had stretched out his hand and created a shield.

‘Haa…’

As I wiped the sweat from my forehead, a sense of relief set in. In the midst of that silence, Raxon’s voice was heard again.

“Explain how you did that.”

Raxon’s eyes were on me.

“The magic you just did was at most a 3 star level of power, but the way the magic was implemented contained tricks that a wizard of at least 6 stars would be able to realize. How did you know that?”

It was natural for him to be puzzled by that.

[You have proven your skills properly.]

All that was left was to prove my geniusness.

“I just got inspired by seeing Ariel mix her lightning and water. Since she was implementing magic, I wondered if it would work better if I mixed it. It was pure coincidence.”
“Coincidence…”

Raxon looked at me silently for a moment, but didn’t say anything.

All I could do at that point was to keep my eyes from shaking. I was able to maintain my composure not because I was 9 years old, but because of the spirit of Adonis, who had gone through countless hardships.
Fortunately, Raxon nods his head.

“…I understand.”

Then he opened his mouth to Aloy.

“I apologize, Aloy. I think I underestimated the level of these children.”

Aloy bowed his head and said nothing. Raxon got up and looked over to the children.

“The children of this class gained achievements very early on, so I wanted to come and see them. When there are such outstanding children, the atmosphere in the class would also be lifted. Now I can understand your achievements.”

After saying that, Raxon headed for the exit of the auditorium. Of course, he didn’t forget the last verdict.

“Ian Delemar, pass.”

The children cheered at the words he spat out without looking back.

“Wow!”
“Ian! Cool!”
“Thundercloud! I’ve never heard of it!”

Not even such fervent cries reached my ears. The word passed for me was a little different from what it was for the other children.

[I guess that means it’s a pass on the library incident, right?]
‘I guess so.’

This test was supposed to prove my achievements, and this must have meant I’ve passed.

* * * 

“…He’s not an ordinary guy.”

Leaving the auditorium, Raxon walked outside the academy alone.

“I should’ve paid more attention.”

Raxon was obviously alone, but another voice jumped out.

“He’s still just a sprout.”

It was a voice coming from the bush next to him. As if he knew of its existence from the beginning, he treated it indifferently.

“Not yet, but I’m afraid you’re going to get yourself into trouble.”
“Even so, I wouldn’t dare go against mr.Raxon’s cause.”

Raxon’s voice lowered.

“No, my father’s necklace is also hanging around his neck. My father is also interested in him.”

Raxon paused for a moment and looked towards the grass and muttered.

“I’ll send you to the Mage Tower. From now on, you have to keep an eye on that child. Watching will be enough for now.”
“Okay, but are you going to bury things like they didn’t really exist?”

Raxon paused for a moment. He smiled faintly and nodded his head.

“Yes, no matter how much of a genius he is, he won’t be able to read the ancient language. As an uncle, I’ll treat that as a present.”
“Yes sir.”