[V16C13] A Meaningful Division

Hugo ran through the forest without any aim in particular, until he reached a spot where the trees were fairly dense. He paused and took a moment to catch his breath.

(Hmm, it should be about time for the starting bell…)

They were given five minutes before the start of combat, and this time could be used in various ways.

Some used it purely for movement, positioning themselves in an advantageous location. Others placed magical tools around the arena as traps.

It was also possible to track your foes with reconnaissance magic. However, this was not as convenient as it sounded. Tracking people turned out to be surprisingly difficult.

Reconnaissance magic only had the ability to locate mana responses within a certain range of the caster. In other words, it had trouble detecting people unless they were actively using magic.

This applied to magical tools as well. Most types of magical tools were not detectable before activation.

Once could increase the sensitivity of reconnaissance magic to find weaker mana responses. But then, it would start reacting to false positives, like a wild animal with above average mana, or a lesser spirit that happened to be drifting nearby.

Furthermore, finding them was all it could do. Even if you discovered a mana response, you might have no clue who it belonged to.

One needed to make educated guesses like, “This mana response is moving really fast, so it must be Glenn using flight magic”.

(And, of course, the biggest problem… Reconnaissance magic is still a form of magic. Using it reveals my position to someone else using reconnaissance magic.)

With all that in mind, Hugo began chanting. He already knew the best way to start off a magical battle.

(A hemispherical barrier right at the start! Yeah! This is the answer!)

Clang. The sound of a bell rang to signal the start of the match.

Simultaneously, Hugo deployed a hemispherical defensive barrier protecting him from all directions. This way, he could defend himself even if he got blasted with spells right at the beginning.

That said, his strategy had one fatal flaw.

…He looked incredibly lame if no one actually attacked him.

Hugo maintained the barrier and glanced around for a few seconds. There was no sign of enemy spells.

He seemed like a coward who wasted mana on a barrier for no reason.

Trying to save face, Hugo scoffed as though he didn’t care. He performed a grandiose gesture of flicking his bangs.

“Good grief, guess I got too cautious for once…”

Right as his hair bounced back to its original position, a whoosh sound came from behind. As though something had been sent flying at him.

Hugo turned around to see ten arrows made of sand slamming into his barrier.

“Wha…!?”

Hugo was pretty confident in the durability of his barriers, but this spell was strong enough to leave a crack.

He frantically poured additional mana into the barrier.

(This sand has insane mana density…! Why are you going all out from the start…!?)

The sand forming the arrows did not simply fall to the ground. They remained in the air as a cloud of dust, with the grains of sand pushing their way into the barrier’s cracks.

(Crap, crap, crap…!)

Hugo deactivated the barrier and dove behind a tree. But just before he could make it, the sand turned into a whip that struck his butt.

“Ow…!!”

Hugo toppled onto the ground, rolling several times from the momentum, and tumbled into the shadow of the trees.

He rubbed the painful area on his butt. The hit had sapped a good portion of his mana as well.

The attacker was a mage who could manipulate sand. There was only one such person among the participants.

A composed, middle-aged man with black hair stepped out from behind the trees. He was Clarence Hall, the Astronomy Mage. In his hands was an open leather pouch.

“Starting off with a defensive barrier… I should have expected as much from the Guardian of the Artillery Mage. You are a very cautious man.”

(Guardian of the Artillery Mage? Whoa, that sounds pretty cool! Is that what people call me? I want to hear more about that… er, now’s not the time!)

Hugo crouched behind the tree holding his butt, as the cloud of dust drifted back into Clarence’s leather pouch.

Once the pouch was full, it emitted a faint glow. Clarence must have recharged the sand with his mana. Seeing the efficiency of his actions gave Hugo a bad feeling in his stomach.

“Clarence-san… How much combat experience do you have?”

“Not much,” Clarence voiced a calm denial as he turned the mouth of the sand pouch toward Hugo. “I have simply prepared myself so that I may protect my master, the Starseer Witch, in any scenario.”

“Aren’t you a bit too prepared??”

While acting as a liaison during the Gluttonous Zoe incident, Hugo had spoken with Clarence on several occasions.

Researcher-type mages tended to struggle with interpersonal interactions, but Clarence was sociable and easy to talk to.

Clarence maintained that same friendly atmosphere as he chanted and placed his hand on a second pouch.

The sand spilled out from the pouches and transformed into arrows… over thirty of them. Hugo grimaced.

“I heard that she would be observing this match…” Clarence said with a smile. “Perhaps I got a little carried away when I stuffed my pouches.”

His warm smile made for a fatal mismatch with the bloodlust of the sand arrows pointed at Hugo.

Hugo held back a “Yikes…” and chanted a defensive barrier as fast as possible.

＊　＊　＊

A butterfly fluttering through the forest suddenly stopped in mid-air.

If you squinted your eyes, you might notice that the butterfly landed on an extremely thin thread stretched between the trees. However, no one here was paying that much attention.

The butterfly took off with a flap of its wings, swaying the thread slightly.

This thread was not from a spider. Nor was it made from cotton or silk. It was spun by a mage using water magic.

The threads of water stretched throughout the forest, and if you tracked them down to the source, you would realize that all of them were connected to fingers of a single man.

A tall man wearing a black robe and carrying a hunting rifle… the disciple of the Silent Witch, Isaac Walker. He gazed down at the threads wound around his fingers.

“With this,” Isaac muttered. “I’ve covered all the key points.”

“But Master,” Wildianu said from under the collar of his robe. “Won’t your opponents discover the threads if they use detection or reconnaissance magic?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve reduced the mana in the threads to the bare minimum. They won’t find them with reconnaissance magic unless they drastically increase the sensitivity.”

If someone did cast reconnaissance magic at high sensitivity, then they would quickly notice the web of ultra-thin threads throughout the forest.

However, few would go to such extremes in the middle of a magical battle.

In addition, higher sensitivity came with the risk of picking up false positives. Those with experience in reconnaissance magic knew this all too well.

“Even if they manage to find my threads, it’s no big deal. Who’d ever consider a tiny bit of water as a threat?”

These water threads were as thin and fragile as the strands of a spider web. The slightest touch would cause them to snap.

In addition, Isaac was unable to freely manipulate them. He could move them to some extent, but only the ones in his proximity.

Deploying the threads over a wide area required him to run around a lot. Naturally, that took time. This was why he wanted to use the spell at the beginning.

“Let’s begin.”

While maintaining the water threads, Isaac closed his eyes and began chanting a second spell.

This was the incantation for reconnaissance magic, but not the standard version. It was the underwater reconnaissance magic that he invented.

Underwater reconnaissance magic, as the name suggested, was designed to locate enemies within a body of water. It was powerless on dry land.

That said, underwater reconnaissance magic made for an interesting combination with the water threads spread across the forest.

(Underwater reconnaissance magic, activate.)

The pattern of the thread network appeared on the back of his eyelids, with dots of light in between.

＊　＊　＊

Silas Page placed a hand over his mouth to prevent his voice from reaching the transmitter as he whispered to the adjacent Monica.

“Hey, Nee-san… isn’t that underwater reconnaissance magic?”

Monica covered her mouth with both hands and replied in a whisper.

“That’s right. The one Ike developed.”

“Using underwater reconnaissance over threads of water is a neat idea… But wouldn’t normal reconnaissance magic be enough?”

Silas raised a good question.

Normal reconnaissance magic did not require the groundwork of laying threads everywhere. It functioned perfectly fine on its own.

However, these threads of water were very important to Isaac’s strategy.

“Conventional reconnaissance magic can only identify mana reactions,” Monica explained. “While Ike’s underwater reconnaissance magic is incredibly precise. He can even get a rough idea of the target’s size.”

Isaac developed underwater reconnaissance magic for the difficult task of locating water dragons. The way it worked was fundamentally different from standard reconnaissance magic.

When used in combination with the water threads, Isaac could get accurate information about anything in contact with the threads.

“Right now, Ike knows where the other three are, what spells they’re using, how much mana they have left… Everything.”

Monica had always believed that Isaac’s greatest weapons were his ability to gather information and the intellect to make use of it.

The combination of water threads and underwater reconnaissance magic was perfectly in line with Isaac’s style. It gave him precise data on everything in the battlefield.

After Monica’s whispered explanation, Raul, who was sitting on the sofa behind her, rested his chin on the backrest and joined the conversation.

“But are you okay with it, Monica? He’s using two spells to accomplish the goal of one. That’s pretty much formula division, and I thought you hated that.”

Indeed, Isaac was using one spell to maintain the water threads and another for reconnaissance.

This meant he could not cast a third spell at the same time. It seemed like a very inefficient use of resources.

However, Monica did not seem to think that way. She expelled a puff of air from her nose as she beckoned Silas and Raul closer, whispering confidently into their ears.

“This formula division has a purpose. You’ll see soon enough.”

＊　＊　＊

Isaac used the underwater reconnaissance magic to gather information on anyone touching the water threads.

This was an absolutely massive amount of data, but he had always been good at data analysis.

From this, he learned that Clarence and Hugo were currently engaged in battle. He had already researched the abilities of both in advance.

Advanced Mage, Clarence Hall. Mana capacity: 160. Affinity: Earth. Fights using mana-imbued sand. Excels at mid-to-close-range combat.

Intermediate Mage, Hugo Galletti. Mana capacity: 200. Affinity: Fire, but is capable of using all elements. Better at defensive barriers than offensive spells.

Clarence appeared to have the upper hand. His mana-imbued sand was slowly but surely pushing Hugo into a corner.

(This situation is not exactly great…)

On his own, Isaac did not have the means to deplete Glenn’s massive reserves of mana.

If he wanted to win, then he needed to wear Glenn down by pitting him against Clarence and Hugo. Having either of them drop out this early would throw a wrench into his plans.

(I’ll have to gather them in one place, then push them into targeting Dudley-kun.)

Perhaps due to his fatigue, Glenn was simply standing still. He did not notice the encounter between Hugo and Clarence.

Glenn going on a full offensive would be bad for Isaac, but him staying passive was inconvenient too.

If Glenn avoided combat and stalled until the time limit, then he would win easily due to his overwhelming mana capacity.

(…Sorry about this, Dudley-kun.)

Isaac deactivated the underwater reconnaissance magic, but he left the water threads in place. Then, he transferred all of the threads on his right hand to his left.

He would be using these threads later, so it was better to keep them up. That way, he didn’t have to go through the trouble of placing them again.

“Wil.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s go mess with Dudley-kun a little.”

Isaac reached for his rifle and ran in the direction of Glenn’s last confirmed position.

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