CH 44.1

YoukaiRaz12-15 minutes 17.05.2021

How did this happen? First it was Irene, and now Alexia is openly hostile and prepared for battle.

“Wait, Lady Alexia! I don’t want to fight you!”

“Silence! Do not use that voice for your prattle! Do not use that face to deceive me!”

I’m not getting through to her at all. Seriously, how did this happen?!

I guess our conversation from earlier didn’t go well after all. But how should I have responded?

The staff that I used during the open beta test when I was in a party with Alexia and Irene was deleted along with the rest of my items when the open beta test ended, so I can’t get it back. But I can’t give that explanation to Alexia.

It’s the same for my eye color. At first, I didn’t know what Alexia was talking about. But not that she mentions it, during the open beta test, I messed around with my character’s appearance. I meant to put everything back to normal, but I might have forgotten to switch my eye color back.

I didn’t want to lie to Alexia, either. But she seems to have gotten suspicious since I was hiding the truth.

“Chain Bind.”

As soon as Alexia casts the spell, I jump out of the way. Missing their target, the chains circle around in mid-air for a while and then disappear.

“Wait a second!”

“The time for talk is over! Mana Bolt!”

“Roseline, get back!”

Just as I warn Roseline, purple lightning grazes my cheek. I bent my body and just barely managed to avoid it. It’s no use, no matter how much I try to stop Alexia, her anger is showing no signs of subsiding. Luckily, she seems to be ignoring Roseline as if I’m the only one her eyes can perceive, but I have no choice but to try calming her down again.

“Chain Bind!”

The magic chains are unable to capture Alexia. Unlike me, she doesn’t jump away in a panic, but gracefully evades it simply by taking a few steps forward. Alexia has long since mastered this spell, so she is well aware of its effect range and activation time. I’ve also seen how Alexia uses this spell, so I was able to master it to some extent through learning by imitation, but sure enough, it seems that Alexia, who’s had much more practice with it, comes out on top.

I can’t do this in a single shot. I don’t have support from Havoc and the others. Unless I figure out a way to use several spells in sequence like a chess problem to deliver the final blow on my own, this battle won’t end.

“I knew it, you’re not Teacher,” Alexia mutters.

“What’s your basis for that?”

“Nearly all of the spells Teacher uses are attack spells. There’s a limit to the spells one can learn, so he did not learn any status ailment spells such as Chain Bind. That’s why it was standard practice in our party for me to use status ailment spells to stop the enemies’ movements while Teacher finished them off. However, you used a status ailment spell. Teacher should not be able to use such a spell!”

When Alexia and I were in a party together, she asked me what sort of spells I was taking, so I told her my skill composition. It’s true that I never learned Chain Bind back then. I obtained this spell for the first time in order to avoid injuring my opponents. The paid item that allows you to reset your skills didn’t exist back then, so there was no way to change your skills once you acquired them. I guess I told her that there’s a limit to the spells she can learn so she should choose them carefully.

Since my skill composition is different from before, I can’t use most of my attack spells anymore due to my skill point allocation. The only spells I have are the ones I needed to acquire to reach the status ailment spells on the skill tree. On top of that, I don’t have a spare Certificate of Skill Restoration, so I can’t put my skill composition back to how it was before. Although, hurting her by using attack spells on her is a choice that I absolutely cannot take.

“Mana Bolt!”

“Attack magic! So you’re revealing your true nature?!”

I approach Alexia while rapid-firing Mana Bolt. It’s contradictory behavior, saying I won’t hurt Alexia as I use attack spells.

“Where are you aiming?! Can you not use spells properly?!”

Although, none of them were aimed at Alexia. It’s the least powerful out of all my attack spells and can be fired in quick succession, so it was the only spell that fit the plan I came up with. I rapid fire while getting closer to Alexia, limiting her actions.

“Sleep Cloud!”

A white fog appears in the space between me and Alexia. It’s not the spell’s original effect, Sleep, that I’m hoping for. With my vision obstructed inside this hazy white fog, I stop. The fog is so thick that all you can see is your opponent’s silhouette. With this, there’s no need to worry about being seen by your opponent no matter what action you take.

“Delay Spell. Skill Sealing.”

Alexia will definitely prepare to attack immediately after the fog clears. While she’s preparing, I’ll cast spells before her. I cast Spell Sealing, but it isn’t activating.

Delay Spell. It’s a spell that delays the activation of a spell. But it only delays it, so the timing of the activation is automatic and cannot be chosen. It’s not that long of a delay, either. However, you can cast other spells during that delay. It’s a strategic spell that can be used to stack powerful spells to activate simultaneously. Since the timing is automatic, the spell is difficult to use. I didn’t use it in the battle with Irene because there was a high chance the timing would miss if I used it against the agile Irene.

This way, Skill Sealing will have a delayed activation, and after I get close to Alexia, I can use another spell as a diversion while Skill Sealing makes her unable to use magic. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking of either capturing her or stealing her staff. After all, I can’t use magic without a staff either, and I’ve never seen Alexia use magic without one. Then, I just need to charge at Alexia the moment the Sleep Cloud clears.

“Wind Wall!”

The wind blows the fog away. Apparently, Alexia couldn’t wait for the fog to clear. When did she learn Wind Wall? It’s a spell that forcibly causes people to get blown away. It would be dangerous if she used that while I was approaching her.

I have a bad feeling about this, but time’s almost up for the Delay Spell, so I approach Alexia while using Mana Bolt as a diversion.

She’s within range of Skill Sealing. I have to block off her escape route. I rapid-fire Mana Bolt in Alexia’s vicinity to ensure that Skill Sealing will make a direct hit.

The time remaining is 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Alexia starts casting. But if I’m this close, then even if I’m attacked, Alexia will receive a direct hit from Skill Sealing.

“Chaos!” Roseline screams. I slam against the wall. As the time runs out and Skill Sealing activates, it’s unable to find a target and disperses. What the heck just…?

Upon discovering that I was pushed back even further away than I was before the fight with Alexia started, I realize what happened.

“Wind Wall…?! But how?”

Alexia just used that spell to clear away the fog. Normally, she shouldn’t be able to use it because of the recasting delay. Delay Spell, maybe? No, I saw her casting just as I was blown away. If it was Delay Spell, then she should have already been done casting.

“Double Spell?!”

It isn’t only Wizards who can use Double Spell. Sages can also use it. In other words, while the fog was there, she activated Double Spell, cleared the fog, and made me think she wouldn’t be able to use Wind Wall.

“Yes. I anticipated that you would seal my magic with Skill Sealing.”

“Huh?”

“You used Chain Bind. Chain Bind is one of the spells that a mage must learn several types of spells in order to learn. There is an order to learning spells. One cannot suddenly learn Chain Bind alone. Because of this, if you learned Chain Bind, it would be easier to learn Skill Sealing than other attack spells.”

Skill selection is like a tree diagram. Therefore, to obtain Chain Bind, you must also obtain skills lower down on the tree. That means that the skills you can acquire are limited to some extent. Considering this, learning Skill Sealing, which is lower down on the skill path to learning Chain Bind, would cost fewer skill points than other spells, so learning it would be easier and would make more sense.

“Considering that you have not used any of the more useful Rank 2 spells, you are not Rank 2. And if you’re getting close despite being a mage, that narrows down the spell you’re using. Considering the size of your Mana Bolt, your Intelligence seems quite high, so it would be more advantageous to fight from a distance rather than deliberately approaching. It was clear to me that you did not just happen to be using the spell from close by, but that you needed to be close in order to use it. Therefore, I predicted that the spell you had in mind was Skill Sealing.”

She inferred that much just from that?

“I learned about magic from Teacher. I will never forget his teachings. Teacher would have acted under the expectation that I would infer at least that much.”

‘You’re way overestimating me,’ I think from the bottom of my heart.

It’s true that I taught Alexia about all kinds of spells. I doubt there’s much difference in spell knowledge between me and Alexia. But Alexia’s the only one who can analyze her opponent’s actions in such detail, anticipate which skill they’ll use, and incorporate it into her strategy. Also, when Alexia and I were in a party together, she hadn’t learned Wind Wall or Double Spell yet. I thought it was hard to level up in this world, but it seems that she’s the exception.

She’s become much stronger than she was back then. I can tell that it’s due to her efforts. She’s knowledgeable in magic and can predict my next move. For Irene, who was a bad matchup for me, it just so happened that I was able to take advantage of her lack of knowledge on magic, but I don’t have that advantage with Alexia, so this is difficult in an entirely different way than our stat and class matchup.

“Mana Bolt.”

This time Alexia is the one attacking. It’s somewhat less powerful than the Mana Bolts I fired.

“Poison Mist.”

Alexia produces a clearly harmful poisonous mist in the spot I’m dodging to. It doesn’t immediately make it impossible to act, but if I run away into the mist, the DoT will be a pain to deal with. Making a split-second judgment, I choose to get hit with the Mana Bolt. I’d need an antidote to recover from poison. And when I’m using the item, Alexia wouldn’t overlook that opening.

Since Alexia is a Wisdom-type, her Mana Bolt isn’t very powerful. On top of that, mages and clerics have high magic defense. Taking one or two hits won’t make the HP gauge go down much. However, I’m a bit hesitant to get hit. If she rapid-fires it, that gap will become much larger.

Seeing an opportunity, Alexia starts casting.

“Flame Jail.”

A cage of fire surrounds me. It’s a troublesome cage that burns you when you get close. She’s blocking off more and more of my escape routes.

Alexia is a Sage, a Rank 2 class. Since her level is high, the number of spells Alexia knows is way higher than me, and she knows a wide variety of them. Even though I have to wait for the cooldown time of a small number of skills, Alexia can keep fighting by using other spells. It’s inevitable that there will be a difference in strength between me and her.

“S**t!”

At a loss, I decide to escape from the cage. If I stay in there, that’d be just like asking Alexia to keep shooting spells at me. I tumble out of the cage and put some distance between myself and Alexia, but the decrease in my HP makes me want to click my tongue.

Naturally, I can’t allow myself to be damaged any more than this, so I take out a potion and heal myself. I keep an eye on Alexia, who is preparing to pursue. She’s in the middle of casting.

I try to stop her by casting Sleep Cloud, but she hasn’t stopped paying attention to me. Quickly dodging it, she activates her spell.

“Slow Move.”

C**p, a debuff! The sluggish water released by Alexia’s staff surrounds me. I try to evade, but I’ve never seen this before, so the range is wider than I expected, and it clings to my body and won’t come off.

In addition to support spells that raise their allies’ abilities, Sages also learn support spells that lower their enemies’ abilities. Just as the name suggests, Slow Move is a spell that inflicts the Slow status effect which decreases your movement speed. The highly viscous liquid is as heavy as lead, causing you to move extremely slowly. Even though I’m trying to run, I can only manage to go about as fast as a walking speed. Unlike Spider Net, the effect time of this debuff is relatively long.

At this rate, she’ll be able to hit me as much as she wants. I continue attacking Alexia to prevent her from using magic. However, Alexia is focused on dodging, so the spells definitely won’t hit.

Then… I wave my staff, but the spell doesn’t activate.