The guys who had returned as ghouls the previous evening appeared the next morning, jumping around like fish in water.
“Caaaaaain!!!”
Ed, who spotted Cain, rushed toward him at full speed with the brightest smile imaginable.
“Thank you, Cain!”
Ed ran over with his arms spread wide, trying to embrace Cain with all his might.
Swish.
But Cain stepped back at the perfect timing to avoid him.
“Thank! You! Cain! But! Why! Do! You! Keep! Dodging?”
As Cain continued to dodge nimbly, Ed finally gave up and caught his breath.
“It seems to have been effective.”
At Cain’s words, Ed’s head shot up.
“Yeah. And tremendously so!”
Fon and Bolio, who were behind him, couldn’t hide their excitement in their expressions either.
“Ah, when I woke up this morning, magic really… became completely simple! I could even clearly feel that it was stronger than usual!”
For Fon, this was quite a lengthy comment.
Bolio immediately raised his hand and summoned a small fire ball to show them.
The fire ball was emitting a vivid yet unrestrained energy.
“I really realized thanks to you how stupidly I’d been using magic all this time, Cain. It feels like I was running while carrying a lump of iron and finally put it down. My body feels lighter, and magic comes easier too!”
Cain immediately refuted two things.
“You’re still using it stupidly enough. And your body hasn’t gotten lighter either.”
“No, that’s just a figure of speech! You think my body would actually get lighter in just one day?”
After yesterday’s difficult training, Bolio had already devoured the snacks he’d been saving to replenish his energy.
“You should at least try to get lighter. A heavy body acts as a considerable disadvantage in actual combat. You should have realized that after going to the snowy mountains.”
“……”
Bolio sighed.
“Phew. Yeah, you’re right. Anyway, the training effect was definitely there. Sorry for doubting you. Please take care of us today too.”
As Bolio bowed his head slightly, Cain chuckled.
“Right. If you’re ready, let’s start running immediately.”
The location was the same as yesterday—a small clearing on one side of the west wing.
Initially, he had thought of doing it in the east wing, but considering they’d have to wash up and go back for education after breaking a sweat anyway, it seemed better to be closer to their quarters even if the space was a bit cramped.
Perhaps because they’d seen immediate results, all three were extremely motivated.
“Huff, huff… Gasp…”
“Gasp…”
“Damn it, I thought I’d gotten a little used to it yesterday!”
Of course, after being pushed to their limits several times in a row, their motivated appearance quickly disappeared.
“Fon, that’s enough.”
Thud.
This time, he controlled each individual’s limits with a bit more precision.
One might think there wouldn’t be much difference since their stamina levels were similar, but this was actually a meaningful increase in difficulty.
Yesterday, they could at least endure by waiting for someone else to reach their limit, but now they had to fight a battle purely with themselves.
“Bolio, that’s enough.”
Thud.
As soon as his name was called, Bolio collapsed.
“Ed, that’s enough.”
Ed, who had held out the longest, soon fell as well.
In a state where they had pushed themselves to the extreme, they each put all their strength into implementing and maintaining magic with minimal mental power.
‘For a change that happened in just one day, this is quite good.’
The number of failures had decreased significantly, and the quality of the magic they maintained had also improved.
As with all things, skill improvement in the early stages is easy, but as you progress, it becomes increasingly difficult while the rate of improvement decreases.
Even taking that into account, it was a decent result.
After several consecutive training sessions, the three finally got a break.
“Phew… Hey, Cain. But why do you only run and not do this with us? You said we need to get used to doing it when our stamina and mental power are depleted.”
Bolio, with sweat about to drip from his eyelids like tears, spoke with a somewhat aggrieved tone.
Instead of answering, Cain demonstrated by casting a fire ball.
Whoosh!
“Wow…”
“Ca, Cain can do that after running like that…?”
Ed and Fon’s eyes widened.
Although Cain’s magic was small in size, it was superior to what Bolio had cast in a completely fresh state in terms of mana density, purity, activity, and stability.
Even someone who didn’t know much about magic could clearly feel the difference in quality.
“Crazy… It’s even crazier seeing it up close.”
Even Bolio, who had been complaining, stared at it in a daze for a moment.
As Cain moved the fire ball around in the air, six pairs of eyes moved in unison like cats chasing a ball.
“As you can see, I’m already familiar enough that I don’t need to do training like this.”
And though he didn’t say it, Cain’s mental power hadn’t even come close to depletion.
He had simply shown them how to use clean magic with very little mental power.
There was no way the mental power of someone who had been an archmage in his previous life would be depleted by merely overworking his body to this extent.
‘Rather, the gap between my body and mind is so large that it’s frustrating right now.’
Both his collapse in the cave in the snowy mountains and his collapse yesterday when he tried to train more—his mental power was fine, but his physical condition was terrible in comparison.
‘I need to quickly start strength training as well as stamina training.’
Especially when using mana to strengthen the body in actual combat, muscle strength is more important than stamina.
No matter how high the purity of mana, if the muscles receiving it can’t support it, not only can’t you perform properly, but overexertion can cause side effects like what happened in the snowy mountains.
Cain extinguished the fire ball and said:
“If you can match the density of your fire ball to something similar to mine, I’ll immediately exempt you too. The standard for ‘similar’ is….
“I’ll just take it as you telling me to get on with it without the chatter.”
Bolio obediently gave up.
After the break ended, Ed, Fon, and Bolio returned to training, while Cain did more stamina and strength training instead.
“What are they doing?”
“They’re sweating profusely.”
“That Cain guy is holding a rock the size of a head.”
“Why is Bolio sweating so much just casting one fire ball in place?”
As class time approached, disciples leaving the west wing for the east wing passed by, discovered the training scene, and tilted their heads in confusion.
Among them, disciples from the same floor called out to Bolio, who was closest.
“Hey, Bolio. What are you doing?”
“Ugh… Damn it! You broke my concentration!”
Bolio, who had extinguished his fire ball at the sound of his name being called, snapped at them.
“How is that our fault? If your concentration breaks just from someone calling your name, you shouldn’t be using magic at all.”
“Right. He can’t do it himself and he’s just taking it out on us.”
“Forget it, let’s go. Yawn, I need to lie down and sleep a bit before the instructor comes.”
When the others retorted, Bolio was about to say something more but closed his mouth.
He knew that to other people, it just looked like Bolio was struggling and unable to properly cast a single fire ball.
‘Even I thought “why am I failing?” when I first tried this. Damn it.’
Just wait a little. I’ll grit my teeth and train to show you I can grow much faster than you guys.
‘Since yesterday, I’ve really seen hope.’
Honestly, until yesterday’s training, Bolio had been pretending to be fine and confident on the outside, but inside he was half-resigned about his magical talent and future.
‘I lost to Cain in the duel, and even when I risked my life following Cain to the snowy mountains to somehow build up my skills, in the end only Cain reached the 3rd circle.’
His one advantage had been his naturally abundant mana capacity, but seeing Hayden Bederman, who had consumed various elixirs, even that source of pride was crushed.
‘My skill in handling magic isn’t good, and my mana capacity could be surpassed in an instant by a direct descendant with elixir support. I wondered if this was my limit as an entry-level disciple.’
But after training under Cain’s guidance yesterday, Bolio finally felt like he had found a breakthrough.
It was like walking precariously in the dark relying on a single candle, then suddenly having his vision become bright and clear.
‘And now that I think about it, Cain was out of the ordinary from the beginning. Even these twin guys are direct descendants and honestly seem talented, but they were far from keeping up with Cain.’
Bolio glanced toward Ed and Fon.
‘Right. Let me at least not fall behind these guys—no, let me try to get ahead of them.’
Since Cain had set the direction, it now depended on how hard he worked.
With that thought, Bolio cast fire ball again with all his might.
“Fire ball!”
And he failed.
Ah. This is really damn difficult.
“Let’s stop here too. We need to wash up and attend class on time.”
Since there were many eyes watching and the three’s magic success rate was rapidly declining, Cain stopped the training.
“Right. Let’s try again this evening.”
“It was really hard…”
At Cain’s words, Ed, Fon, and Bolio nodded.
Cain also stopped appropriately this time without straining his body, and after parting with the three, he returned to his quarters, washed up, and headed to the east wing.
“Oh, it’s Cain.”
“Look at him going straight up to the 3rd floor without even looking back.”
“I’m jealous…”
“How long has it been since he went up to the 2nd floor…”
As when he went up to the 2nd floor last time, Cain received everyone’s attention both while going up to the 3rd floor and after arriving there.
“But it’s understandable. We saw him duel with Hayden.”
“Right. Considering what he showed then…”
“If I were the family head, I would have sent him up right away too.”
But unlike last time, most of the disciples didn’t put him down or approach him to pick fights.
Rather, there were people who approached him with goodwill, asking how he had grown so quickly.
It was such a peaceful start that he thought he should thank Hayden, who had suggested the duel.
Oh, of course, he had no intention of actually thanking Hayden.
“Quiet. I’ll take attendance and start immediately.”
While Instructor Curtis, who had a long scar on his face, called attendance and conducted the lesson, a girl called Anyas sitting next to him glanced at Cain several times, but he didn’t particularly mind.
“…The 3rd circle Flame Spear and 2nd circle Fire Arrow are similar in that they’re both linear projectile magic, but they differ greatly not only in size but decisively in the structure of mana woven inside and the resulting physical force. The calculation formula that determines this structural difference in other magic…”
Curtis had a considerably rigid style unlike Rowen.
He didn’t test Cain with difficult questions or anything like that, but taught as if Cain had been an existing student all along, and when today’s content ended, he closed his book sharply.
“We’ll finish here today. I have to step away for other business now, so if you have questions, come find me separately in the afternoon.”
Education in the main building varies in form and schedule depending on the floor and instructor.
Generally, as you go up floors, the time instructors directly teach decreases, and you get time to freely read magic-related books appropriate to your level and study or have personal training time.
‘There are often days without theory education, and instructors sometimes select appropriate missions and give them to disciples to perform.’
Now that Cain had reached the 3rd floor, there was a possibility that Curtis would give him an appropriate mission soon.
‘I hope it’s a mission that would let me go down to the area below the snowy mountains.’
That way, it would be good for directly understanding the current situation of the territory’s people and how the political situation within the empire was developing after 200 years.
Anyway, since today’s 3rd floor schedule was just a brief theory lesson in the morning, Cain could have free time immediately.
He had arranged to eat lunch with Ed and Fon, but since there was still some time before lunch, Cain headed straight to the records room.
Click.
As he entered the records room, the musty smell of paper greeted Cain.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this records room was why Cain, who values procedure, didn’t object to the family head’s offer to send him to the 3rd floor without an exam.
‘There’s definitely quite a bit of useful material from the 3rd floor up.’
There wasn’t much about the Bederman family as expected, but he could find several records about what major requests or incidents the Sears family had resolved or been involved in in the past.
Most of these would be incidents that occurred in various places outside the family, so looking at the records should indirectly reveal what had happened on the continent during that time.
Cain began to unfold and read the selected materials one by one.
‘It makes sense, but there’s nothing written about the Great War or immediately after.’
It was such an old story, and above all, everyone would have been too busy at the time.
They wouldn’t have had the leisure to keep records, and even if they had, the possibility of preservation until now would be low.
‘Even looking at the records… it seems they moved through several places before coming to Gharil Snowy Mountains.’
They probably filled the empty positions of families that had been destroyed in the Great War.
That would make it even more likely that past records had been lost.
‘Still, there are many relatively recent records remaining. Not bad.’
Cain continued reading through the records.
‘Participated as the 3rd Magic Support Family in subjugating the monster Kevarsh… Oh ho. So Kevarsh appeared at that time.’
Like a market woman randomly stuffing items being sold cheaply into her basket, Cain was methodically filing information into his head as he read, when he raised his eyebrows slightly.
‘This is relatively recent too. 8 years ago.’
It was almost the most recent record among those that had appeared so far.
From the title, it didn’t seem like a particularly important incident.
After all, recent incidents compared to old ones tend to include relatively trivial matters…
“…!”
Cain’s hand, which had been about to turn the page with that thought, froze in place.
Cain’s pupils, which had never wavered even once until now, trembled minutely.
At the very bottom corner of the page.
Cain slowly opened his mouth and spoke the name written there.
“Desmond.”
