Chapter 262: α (11)
So, they want me to go find the quirky magic scholar who changes his skin every day and indulges in strange antics.
But it’s true, in situations like this, there’s no one better with knowledge to address the crisis.
By the way, do you know where that ■▒ mentioned in the earlier conversation was found?
– No, you little rascal!
The scholar in question was caught by the enemy while trying to escape alone without defending this area…
To be precise, he successfully ran away just past the collapsed barrier, only to be caught by a magic tower member who was wandering nearby and ended up losing all four of his tendrils.
The members of the Academic Hall banded together to rescue the oppressed ■▒. However, the mood was grim.
– This is absurd!
– How can you be so shameless to just run away in the midst of this chaos?
– Come on now. Instead of analyzing the brain of a dead enemy, why not just crack open that idiot’s head?
– You lunatic!
Who would have guessed that a proud researcher from the Academic Hall would put himself in danger for such a ridiculous reason?
Grumbles erupted.
It was still a time when society hadn’t forgotten morals or duties since the Great War was fought not long ago, so the gathered scholars all reprimanded him at once.
Even the runaway felt embarrassed in this situation.
■▒ was a descendant of the mid-level nobility and had been part of this Academic Hall for generations.
Unlike his ancestors who risked their lives to halt the advance of Beta Fortress, he had fled just to save himself, and now he was getting flak for it.
– Eeeh.
Naturally, it was hard to maintain dignity in this matter.
But it wasn’t like he could just sit there and take the insults without feeling somewhat wronged.
– What’s with the harsh criticism over something like this? I’m technically not on your side; I’ve dedicated my life to the country!
Today, a mysterious scholar clad in opaque black leather shouted loudly.
– I only joined the Academic Hall because they provide experimentation equipment. I’m actually serving our country’s leader, so it’s only natural for me to prioritize self-preservation. If I die, who will lead the nation, and who will care for the citizens?
Flap flap.
The scholar, who was just beginning to regrow his freshly severed tendrils after being attacked by the magic tower, received no attention from anyone in this room.
Given the emergency situation, no one had time to care about a mere expression of emotion, and frankly, dealing with such a coward was fundamentally unpleasant.
– ‘That he has such injuries, and yet the number of enemies he shot down is approaching zero.’
And in that moment, the Green War Hero simply thought of the opponent.
– ‘If I had known this would happen, I shouldn’t have listened to that Orange Mana Deity’s words.’
His innate mana and the magical properties he could handle, in addition to all the accomplishments of his opponent who had developed a healing potion to restore severed tendrils using knowledge passed down through generations, all seemed trivial in his eyes.
A clear line was drawn.
As he thought several times over, it seemed unlikely that such a weak eccentric could defeat a hero.
To be honest, it wasn’t just that eccentric; most of the Alphauri he had encountered throughout his life felt like that.
He had an unfounded confidence in his own strength since childhood, yet whenever he met any kindred, he never felt like he would lose, and when he squared off against someone, reality didn’t prove otherwise.
– ‘Weak~ It’s one thing to lack strength, but the moment the battle began, he fled. There’s not even a hint of courage there.’
The mage, who couldn’t even make a name for himself during the Great War when opportunities for glory were laid out like the tendrils reaching out, might as well have won his current position through games or tag.
Thus, the Green Mage had completely dismissed the sorcerer before him due to this incident.
However, the stars may be merciful, as one could benefit from even the thickest of fools if one looked hard enough.
– Anyway. Since you’re currently recovering those tendrils, there’s probably not much you can do. Please, spend some of that abundant time talking with me, ■▒.
– A conversation?
– Unfortunately, there’s a bit of help I could use from you.
The Green Mage quickly gathered his thoughts and got to the main point.
However, the subsequent flow of the conversation was rather unexpected.
– Ah, so you mean you want to extract usable information from the brains of these enemy soldiers…?
He showed up in such a shabby state that it was hard to expect much.
Yet, as expected from a member of the Academic Hall, he had some mastery in his area.
– Of course, it’s possible.
– What?
– I possess the technique to read memories from a corpse’s head due to my research in my field. It will be very, very fragmentary, though.
– Oh.
– It doesn’t matter if I dissect the brain a thousand times over. The issue is that the magic I possess is half-finished. To ensure stable application, I’ll need about 800 additional experiments.
The strange, leather-clad advisor spoke.
– But, well, our Academic Hall happens to have the third most magically talented individual in the country. Is that a concern?
– Hmmm.
– If you want information, please help me with my experiments. Just pour magic into the drawn magic circle about 800 times.
– Wait a minute, that means I’ll get to see your magic circle’s design?
– Well… Honestly, I’m not too keen on sharing the techniques that condense my family’s wisdom with others. But for you, it’s okay.
– ?
– Just drag along the enemy corpses. If they’re in good condition, I might be able to extract over eight phases of their living memories.
Oh dear.
Can scholars of magical studies really be so willing to share their achievements?
Everyone in the room was taken aback by the eccentric’s statement.
Some even asked if they could join in to take a look at the magic circle if it was going to be shown so easily.
But the response was cold as ever.
– Get lost. Do you really think I’ll share my information with you? I’m just allowing observation of all the processes because that green compatriot is a war hero.
– ….
– A genius like that might absorb my knowledge and achieve even better results later on.
The eccentric scholar, who had never spoken a word until now, finally expressed himself towards the Deep Sea Person.
It was quite a show of respectable camaraderie.
– This is partly my personal favor, so don’t expect the same treatment from everyone.
– What a long speech!
– You fled like a coward earlier!
– Coward!
– Th-that was a mistake! Please forgive me this time…
With that, there was no point in prolonging discussions further.
■▒ and ▒▒.
Eventually, the two scholars of the Academic Hall embarked on their collaboration.
As long as they had a functioning brain, they could extract information just like the magic tower did.
At first, the members of the Academic Hall didn’t believe the eccentric’s words.
But soon after witnessing the results, everyone fell silent.
– Everyone, bring the clamps. The sounds are plentifully stored. Hurry!
The eccentric scholar, previously renowned for his skin-changing, chanted a few spells of obscure magic before truly extracting the memories of the deceased.
What that eccentric had been hiding was the technique to randomly project the various sounds remembered by another’s brain into the air.
A chaotic clamoring noise spread through the sea.
– Aside from screams, it looks like various things are mixed together, so it might take some time to sift through the useful information…
– Where the hell is this?
Through this process, the Academic Hall obtained numerous pieces of information.
1) The locations of their dispersed hideouts.
2) The types of barriers used by the enemy’s magic tower’s main building.
That’s solid intel.
At this point, having gathered such secrets, there was no longer a need to suck on tendrils within the confines of the Academic Hall.
Do you know what actions the Green Mage took afterward?
*
A few days later.
In the middle sea of a neighboring country.
…To be honest, if you were to break it down, the ensuing circumstances were all simply repetitive victories.
Therefore, there’s no need to complicate the explanation of the events that took place in this new sea area.
First of all, the magic tower collapsed.
This magic tower, established in the enemy territory, was an enormous structure linking both the upper and middle sea layers with kilometer-high towers.
One day, it violently shattered.
Literally, a side burst open, collapsing spectacularly.
And of course, infamous for his concise name, the Green War Hero was involved in this massive incident.
– Ugh!
– You! How dare you enter this barrier without an invitation!
After receiving help from the quirky compatriot specializing in biological technology, it took three days to extract information from the attackers.
Then, it took about four more days to analyze the escape patterns of the magic tower members who had stolen from the Academic Hall and turned those findings into new experimental subjects discovered in a nearby underground cave.
– Please, spare us!
– Do you think we’d let scoundrels like you go free?
The future Great Mage captured a few of the Alphauri that had fled during the process of apprehending the magic tower members.
It had been observed that scoundrels from another nation had additionally abducted children from impoverished families in their homeland like they were merely hunting animals.
Poor and uneducated.
And on top of that, helpless children were taken away so recklessly?
– This will make me go mad.
The Green Scholar’s blood momentarily turned dark.
He was truly enraged.
– You should have at least sought permission before using the corpses of our kin! And shouldn’t you fulfill even one of the ethical responsibilities when dealing with the dead?
– Hiiik!
– That is the absolute bare minimum we should uphold, right? Huh?
Had an extraterrestrial seen this scene, they might have thought his point of anger was a bit odd.
– Those volunteering for biological research are usually those who would sell their own flesh and bone just to feed their families.
Regardless, he was unusually annoyed.
– If this continues, where no proper compensation is given and they keep abducting the helpless, all scholars will gradually lose trust. Eventually, I will suffer the fallout too! Can you take responsibility for that? Damn it! On top of it, I’m running low on samples for my golem research!
– W-What are you saying? You crazy… Ghhhaaa!
What followed was a merciless amount of violence.
But since they started it, such revenge was probably justified.
– You lowly scoundrels in the neighboring sea shall never dream of repeating such unethical experiments, I swear!
For these reasons, the Green Mage ventured directly to the magic tower main building across the border a few days later.
If he didn’t cut down the source of the incident, he believed that such a fundamentally unscrupulous organization could cause similar problems at any time.
With no warning, the war god forcefully barged into the territory of the tower.
Before long, he went about destroying all the weaponry in the facility, including magic books, clamps, and magic crystals.
– No! My carefully compiled data…
– Agh!
– My expensive tools I saved for thirty years!
All the incompetent enemy personnel trying to block his path were immediately slain.
The enemy’s secret magic of brainwashing was hastily and utterly dismissed by one mere glance from a master sorcerer.
– G-get off! My skin…!
– Why am I suffocating…?
– My magic isn’t working!
As the nurturing facilities taught, battles among mages were often likened to the relationship between living organisms and disease.
Magic battles generally resemble the development of a vaccine.
When one side churns out robust magic, the opponent struggles to analyze it.
Once a specific spell’s unique threat subsides, a new weapon would typically spring forth.
It usually takes several months of this back-and-forth process.
However, in this instance, the Green Mage utterly dominated everything.
The newly improved form of [Mana Burst] that the Deep Sea Person developed was intricate enough that even after seeing it multiple times, it was incredibly challenging to imitate.
As such, the previous era’s ▒▒ was not an existence that could simply be stopped by force.
To summarize.
– Hey! Have the person in charge come out!
The translucent mage cried.
The Alphauri from the west was extraordinarily powerful.
Regardless of how many magic tower members rushed at him, he trampled the building while laughing, and that’s how the mage cried out.
– Ugh! Let’s run away!
Thus, the enemy was rendered utterly helpless…
