What kind of confidence is this, anyway?
The students attending Magic Duel Practice range from 9th grade Freshman to 12th grade Senior, a variety of ages.
In terms of Korea, it’s like 3rd year middle school to 3rd year high school.
No matter how much age matters among wizards, there’s a world of difference between those who have experienced real combat and those who haven’t.
‘But I do like that fighting spirit!’
Maybe it’s the cultural difference, but the students here in America seemed to have a strong tendency to participate actively in everything.
“Haha, we’re the punching bags? If you guys don’t step up after hearing this, then you’re not real men. I’m going in!”
“Woo-hoo! Show us what you got, Evans!”
A hulking blonde young man rolled up his sleeves and clapped above his head, calling for enthusiastic responses from the students.
He acted like he was the main character of a high school drama or something, grinning so wide you could see his white teeth.
He’s about 190 cm tall and weighs at least 120 kg.
You really get a sense of what it means for a person’s build to be different.
Is he even a minor?
But the body isn’t exactly suited for Magic Duels.
I asked, just to be sure.
“Do you play football often?”
“Oh! How did you know? I’m an offensive tackle. That’s my position. We’re having a game this weekend, wanna come check it out?”
I smirked.
There’s no way Magic Duels can lose to something like football.
Sadly, our chatter didn’t last long.
The bald professor explained how to use the Barrier Crystal Sphere and shoved us right into the middle of the grass.
“Professor, what are the victory conditions?”
“What are you asking? Obviously, until one side surrenders.”
“Oh ho?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the barrier created by the crystal sphere was filling up indefinitely.
I realized today’s class topic was an Aura Stamina test.
I thought it was a perfect topic for a first-time Magic Duel class.
There’s one fact many people overlook in dueling.
Just because you keep supplying the barrier, doesn’t mean you can fight forever.
Sadly, the ones fighting are humans, and humans get tired from fighting.
If you recklessly squeeze out your Aura Heart without a thought, you’ll eventually feel extreme fatigue.
I raised my guard, determined to fulfill my role as a teaching assistant.
“Let the match begin!”
The first punching bag held their ground.
Is this a sign of sportsmanship?
It’s annoying, but my body can’t help but accept it.
[Unique Magic: Adela]
I drew a one-circle magic circle in front of me and aimed it at the young man.
“Aren’t you going to dodge?”
“Hah, that’s nothing.”
“You’ll regret it.”
[Creation: Titanium]
[Cast: Forging]
I pulled out a mini one-handed sword and thrust it into the magic circle with a crack.
The gear in the center sliced through the air and struck Evans.
Without delay, I hurled my body forward.
In an instant, I closed the space of about ten meters and swung the sword horizontally with my right hand.
Swish—
“Starting off with real swords? That’s savage!”
“It’s a duel, after all.”
Evans hurriedly pulled his body back.
Without giving him a chance to react, I plunged right into his area again.
The overwhelmed young man finally lashed out with a punch, and I didn’t miss the fleeting moment of his exposed body.
[Unique Magic: Adela – 10 Strikes]
Ten concentrated physical hits landed on the back of Evans’ head.
Thud—!
The hulking figure stumbled.
At the same time, I struck his knee and ankle with my sword one after another, and the young man fell forward, face-first into the grass.
His head was pitifully buried in the lawn.
“Ugh…”
Evans, who was claiming “ladies first,” gritted his teeth and glared at me with menacing eyes.
The grass was damp from the melted snow.
“You better brace yourself, kid.”
He spat out some lines that sounded like they were straight out of a second-rate villain’s script, brushing off the grass and mud from his cheek.
I willingly let go of the initiative.
A massive amount of aura exploded from Evans’ body.
The moisture on his clothes evaporated in an instant, and his eyes gleamed white.
“Huuaaa!”
Thump, thump, thump, thump—!
He charged at me at a speed many times faster than average people.
A fist the size of my head whizzed past in front of me.
Boom—!
The strike targeted my temple perfectly.
I failed to follow the speed of the attack, leaving an aura trail behind.
Thick red lines came crashing down mercilessly, intersecting and shredding through the air.
One red line, two, five, and then dozens.
An abstract image, meaningless, filled the somewhat mundane space densely.
But in the end, it didn’t hit.
Only my hair was ruined.
I remained vigilant, responding gradually to his attacks.
Blind attacks aren’t even worth dodging.
I let the glancing strikes slide and diminished the power of the punches aimed straight at me.
“This is crazy, just one hit…!”
“If you take it, it’s different!”
Clang—!
His fully extended punch was simply blocked by my tiny hand.
My sword-wielding right hand remained behind my back.
A shockwave passed, and Evans’s eyebrows twitched in astonishment.
It’s always the greatest shock when a finishing blow is blocked.
“Can you keep using your aura?”
“Huh? Ugh, uhhh!”
The young man suddenly clutched his stomach and fell sideways.
The fatigue felt by the Aura Heart is unlike that of muscles.
While muscles feel continuous fatigue, the Aura Heart, upon surpassing its threshold, experiences an unbearable pain that cannot be compared to a cramp.
However, just withdrawing the aura makes that pain vanish as if it never existed.
Such is the mystery of the human body.
“Gah… haah…”
Evans stood up as if he was unfazed.
“Do you submit?”
“Ha, you think I’m going to surrender as a man? No way!”
“How are you going to fight without aura… well, whatever.”
This guy is steeped in macho culture.
It was time to unleash my secret weapon from the East.
[Cast: Adjust Friction Coefficient]
“Uwaaahh, oooh!”
Thud—
Even with all the athletic skills, there’s no fighting against zero friction.
A child could end up with a concussion from using magic they don’t understand, so you have to be careful.
I should’ve been falling forward, but I fell backward instead.
“Do a half turn. Oh, don’t get up.”
Thwack—
I struck the back of the struggling young man’s head.
“What are you trying to do to me?”
“Oops!”
I grabbed his arm and struggled to turn him halfway around.
I neatly slipped off my white sneakers onto the grass and stood on his back in my socks.
‘How did the principal use the aura back then…?’
Right, the key is resonance.
I flattened the aura on the soles of my feet and generated whirlpools in various spots to maintain a specific frequency.
[Cast: Induce Static Electricity]
I also made sure to generate a ton of free charges on my soles.
Crackle—
Then, I pressed my whole foot down on the center of his back.
Ding—
A pleasant chime rang out…
“Gaaahhh!”
Evans trembled as if he got electrocuted and screamed in agony.
His yell echoed across the sports field.
Oh no, say goodbye to his vocal cords.
The students watching our duel gasped and murmured in surprise.
“It’s not weird. Just a good Korean massage, okay?”
The students nodded uncontrollably up and down.
Phew, that was close; I almost got misunderstood.
I relaxed and continued my back massage.
Press—
Press— Press— Press—
“How is it, feel good?”
“Gaaah! Surrender… ggrrrr!”
“You’ll get used to it; it won’t hurt so much.”
“…”
“Yeah?”
My massage must have been that good; the young man fainted.
I’m not sure about its effectiveness, but he’ll probably feel refreshed when he wakes up.
Suddenly, the professor rushed over and checked Evans’ carotid artery.
“He’s just sleeping…”
“Oh heavens, this is a big problem.”
“Really, it’s not weird at all!”
I said, filled with indignation.
It’s a massage that has been passed down since the time of Principal Gu On-yu’s grandmother’s grandmother!
“It’s not that; the school police are here.”
“Excuse me?”
I whipped my head around to see the source of the sound.
Whoop, whoop—
The sound of a police car grew louder from the other side of the sports field.
“Hmm, seems someone reported after hearing the screams. I’d think a murder happened on campus too.”
“Uh… what should we do?”
“What should we do? The parties involved need to explain the situation well.”
“Yeah?”
“NoName student, I’ll leave it to you. Everyone gather! We’re starting class again! As you could see from the duel, aura stamina is emphasized over and over in dueling. Who can explain what NoName did well?”
I squatted next to the young man and waited for the police to arrive.
It really does look like a murder scene.
Soon, two fully armed police officers stepped forward, striding toward me.
I waved my hands to the police, signaling that there wasn’t a problem.
I explained how Evans had fainted from my massage attack during the duel in great detail.
The police, looking down at my petite figure, doubled over with laughter and started taking pictures of the scene.
The incident from Magic Duel Practice appeared on the front page of the school newspaper, The Phillipian, the next day.
*
[The Phillipian – Phillips Academy’s daily student newspaper]
[Special Report on NoName]
[Unidentified scream on the first day of school turned out to belong to a student attacked by NoName’s massage.]
[NoName’s choices: What are Advanced Theoretical Aura Studies, Magic Duel Practice, and Open World Engineering classes?]
[Theoretical Magic Studies professor Christopher Zaeder collaborates with NoName in research on 8th Circle Dimension Descent magic.]
Flap—
I folded the gray newspaper that stirred nostalgia and apologized to Evans.
“I’m really sorry about yesterday. But I’ll definitely come cheer for you at this week’s football game. We’re playing against Cheshire Academy, right?”
“Cough, cough. Don’t take it to heart too much. It helped me feel refreshed. Accidents like this happen often during duels, right?”
“Then, would you partner with me again next time?”
“No, no, no! My main job is still football, right? I only have twelve weeks, so I have to let the other guys experience this ridiculousness.”
“Ridiculousness?”
“… Just don’t worry about it! I’ll start class! By the way, I heard the professor for Open World Engineering has changed this year; I wonder if it’ll be okay?”
“Isn’t it bad if the professor changes?”
“You never know if you hit the jackpot or if you strike out. It doesn’t concern me, anyway.”
The next day, Evans kindly dropped me off at the science building where the Open World Engineering class was held.
It’s a crazy world when a high school student has their own car.
Anyway, I secured a convenient mode of transportation and was able to arrive at class on time.
If the first two classes had some quirky aspects, Open World Engineering was a typical lecture-style class you’d often find in Korea.
We learned how to generate open worlds, the principles of virtual reality, ASI commands, and so on in a structured manner.
Sometimes, they would even recite exactly what was in the textbook, but overall, I evaluated the lecture as not bad.
The lecture was simple and easy to understand.
The first week at Philips Academy flew by, and then, the long-awaited first assignment was given.
Actually, the final assignment was already handed out.
[Final Assignment]
[Hello students.
The final assignment for the Winter semester of 2053’s “Open World Engineering” course is as follows.
Create an open-world game based on Resonance.
Theme: Freedom]
We’re just starting to crawl, and now they want us to run a marathon.
