Ch. 304 - The Exchange Student (2)
I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic AcademyThis chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
This chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
Once a dark mage’s spatial domination began, there was virtually no theoretical countermeasure.
The same was true in ‘Aether World Online,’ which was why dark mages, covered in debuffs, were not the players’ favorite type of boss.
It’s one thing to face a stronger enemy, but fighting an opponent that weakens you is rarely enjoyable.
‘What am I supposed to do?’
The answer is that there is no answer.
After giving such an impossible problem, Scarlet was now asking him to respond. Baek Yu-Seol couldn’t figure out her intent.
“I’m not moving a single step from here. If Cadet Baek Yu-Seol can get past my interference and reach me, just touching me will end the exercise!”
“So, I just have to reach you?”
“If you succeed, I won’t assign any homework today~!”
At that, students let out excited cheers. At any other academy, the promise of no homework might have seemed trivial, but here, at an elite academy, it held real merit.
While the students were passionate about learning, they weren’t thrilled about doing assignments. Scarlet’s offer ignited their spirits.
“Go, Baek Yu-Seol! You got this!”
“Yeah. You can do it!”
Surprised by the sudden outburst of support, Baek Yu-Seol felt a bit thrown off.
‘Were they really that stressed about homework?’
Since he often skipped assignments or copied essentials from Eisel or used the Sentient Spec to finish quickly, he didn’t fully understand.
“Alright. I’ll give you five minutes before we begin. Think carefully about how you might escape the effects of spatial domination.”
“Five minutes?”
“It’s now four minutes and 58 seconds~”
Baek Yu-Seol was surprised when Scarlet gave him preparation time.
Whether he had five minutes or five centuries, there was no way to escape dark spatial domination. So why was she giving him these five minutes out of nowhere?
Even if there was a way to escape, it was suspicious that she’d give him time to prepare. Scarlet wasn’t usually this accommodating.
‘No. it doesn’t matter.’
Thinking it was a good opportunity, Baek Yu-Seol immediately began the Tae-Ryeong's Godly Technique. He had become so accustomed to it that he could activate it instantly without any preparation.
By now, he could easily slice through most class 4 spells thanks to his vastly improved mana circulation.
[Hyper Focus has been activated.]
Using all five minutes to concentrate, ‘Hyper Focus’ naturally activated, allowing his breathing to flow even more smoothly.
When he opened his eyes calmly, he saw that Scarlet’s spells were already surging from all directions.
Yet, he felt no sense of danger. Though his movements were slowed by the effects of the spatial domination spell, ‘Cloud of Dawn,’ it didn’t matter.
Scarlet’s magic looked even slower to him.
‘So this is what it feels like…’
The derived skill from ‘Pink Spring Moon’, ‘Hyper Focus’, improved in duration and effectiveness the more he used it. It had the drawback of exhausting his mental energy, meaning he had to make every use count, but it was incredibly useful in crucial moments.
‘It’s not quite like that time…’
When he had fought Chelven, Baek Yu-Seol had activated ‘Hyper Focus’ without any preparation, experiencing a supernatural sensation as if time itself had stopped.
In contrast, now everything was still in motion, and it had taken him the full five minutes to activate.
Whoosh!
A black whip lashed toward his cheek. In ‘Cloud of Dawn’, lower-class dark magic could be cast without much preparation, but such things no longer hindered Baek Yu-Seol.
Slash!
Effortlessly slicing through the whip, Baek Yu-Seok used Flash to teleport 10 meters forward. The spot where he had just stood was bombarded by a barrage of dark arrows and shattered the ground.
While the power of these spells might seem excessive for a student, as long as he avoided them, it didn’t matter.
Moreover, his school uniform had been specially upgraded by Alterisha, granting him resistance to most dark magic, so he wouldn’t suffer any serious injuries.
It felt a bit like he was the only one using an illegal, jailbreak mod while others stuck to the standard. Still, since he was applying his own skills to his uniform, the academy didn’t interfere.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As Baek Yu-Seol moved forward without stopping to counter the magic, Scarlet’s spells couldn’t keep up and only managed to chase after his afterimage.
However, he still wasn’t satisfied. He was merely evading low-level spells with high reflexes instead of fully countering the spatial domination itself.
Just as he thought he was close to reaching Scarlet, a black curtain suddenly appeared in front of him, forcing him to leap back.
Flutter!
Dozens of black hands emerged from the curtain, rushing toward him. He sprinted sideways to dodge, but hands also sprouted from the ground, making it impossible to completely avoid them.
Although he could cut through the hands with his sword, it was just a temporary solution—it didn’t really solve the problem.
At this moment, he was only getting farther from Scarlet.
‘Damn! How do I get through this?’
Baek Yu-Seol, a flash mage and the only swordsman who could make distance irrelevant, found even that ability useless within a dominated space.
If his opponent controlled the space to the point of building walls and launching attacks that made even approaching her impossible, there was no clear solution.
‘How do I… break through?’
No matter how many hands he cut down, Scarlet could continue summoning them infinitely.
This wasn’t unique to her; most mages who dominated space could perform such feats.
So, how was he supposed to counter this? Was fleeing the only option?
‘Even if I take some damage, I have to break through!’
Though it appeared that a massive black curtain blocked his way, it was merely an illusion that he could cut through with a single powerful strike.
The issue was… The curtain spanned over five meters in both height and width, making it impossible to slice through in one go.
‘Impossible? Really?’
A thought struck him.
Right now, Scarlet was holding back. Even this dark curtain was only at the level of a Class 5 spell, making sense for a practice session.
But what about spells beyond Class 6—those at class 7 or 8? Certainly, there existed even larger, tougher spells than this one.
‘How did Ha Tae-Ryeong handle it?‘
The legendary swordsman who hunted mages centuries ago…
Though his name had long been forgotten, erased from history, his deeds were still vouched for by Leafanel, who was practically a living history.
‘He was said to have even challenged the Progenitor Mage.’
How did he manage to confront such a powerful mage, who could effortlessly wield even class 9 magic?
How did he, with a sword barely two meters long, cut down falling meteors and bolts of lightning from the sky?
‘... Huh?’
In that moment, something strange caught Baek Yu-Seol’s eye. Within the dark curtain, a mass of mana was pulsating.
It was something he was very familiar with. Until now, he had disrupted spells by slicing through their seams, but this mass… It looked like the very heart of the spell, the core that held it together.
A chill ran down his spine.
Growth in skill shouldn’t come this easily. His mastery of ‘Hyper Focus’ had been steadily improving, but he didn’t believe he’d suddenly reached a point where he could see the core of a spell he hadn’t even known existed.
Yet, there was no time for hesitation.
Whips and arrows were flying at him from all directions, forcing him into a corner.
Slash!
He sliced forward with all his strength, creating a brief opening.
‘... Now or never.’
The reckless idea of charging directly at the curtain crossed his mind. He didn’t know if cutting through the core would actually cancel the spell, making this a high-stakes gamble. But Baek Yu-Seol braced himself and dashed forward.
After all, this was just a training exercise. Scarlet wouldn’t actually try to kill him.
“Oh…!”
Scarlet’s eyes lit up as Baek Yu-Seol charged toward the curtain.
The blue-tinged blade of his sword, imbued with ice, swung slowly upward.
Shraaak!
He sliced a small gap in the black curtain. It was a minor cut, barely a scratch in the grand scheme.
While the other students questioned his decision—
Slash!
A clean cut appeared, as if the curtain had been sliced from top to bottom, splitting it precisely in two.
“H-How…?”
“He actually cut through that?”
The stunned voices of the students rang out, but Baek Yu-Seol stayed focused on Scarlet.
[Cloud of Dawn has been dispelled.]
Sure enough, the core he had struck wasn’t just sustaining the curtain—it was the very heart that maintained the ‘Cloud of Dawn’.
As the dark space began to dissolve and disappear, Baek Yu-Seol realized what he had done.
If it were any other mage, they would have prepared another spell in response. But Scarlet didn’t. She simply watched him approach with a smile.
Yes. This was the feeling.
Memories from that day slowly resurfaced. Ha Tae-Ryeong sliced through the absolute class 9 spatial control spell, ‘Bridge of the Galaxy’, and rushed towards her. It overlapped with Baek Yu-Seol in her mind.
Although the spell she cast today was only a class 5 ‘Cloud of Dawn’, it didn’t matter. She had glimpsed potential in him.
And so, Scarlet did not stop Baek Yu-Seol as he closed in on her. She smiled widely.
At last, he reached her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Congratulations, you passed!”
With that declaration, Scarlet dispelled the dark space that had filled the lecture hall like the cosmos.
“Everyone! No homework today~!”
As she announced this, cheers erupted from all around.
“Baek Yu-Seol! Baek Yu-Seol!”
“Thanks! Now I only have eleven assignments left for today!”
“Ohh. I can finally get three hours of sleep tonight…”
While everyone chanted his name and celebrated, Baek Yu-Seol stood in a daze, hand still resting on Scarlet’s shoulder, unable to move. He couldn’t believe what he had just done.
Watching him, Scarlet leaned in and whispered softly into his ear as she passed by.
“Did you learn something valuable?”
He turned, wanting to ask what she meant by that…
But Scarlet had already disappeared from the lecture hall.
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