Genius Wizard Hides His Sword Skills [EN]: Chapter 9

9. Liu’s Test

Each family has secret techniques that have been passed down for hundreds of years, or even longer.

Insights left by masters proficient in swordsmanship and magic. These mystical techniques are passed down through generations, constantly evolving and developing.

Thus, it was common for a 5-star knight who had learned a family’s secret technique to defeat a 6-star knight.

Family techniques possessed powers that defied common sense. These secret arts were what allowed prestigious families to maintain their lineage.

Naturally, as someone from a commoner background, there was no way I could have learned such things.

‘It was always a struggle fighting those noble families.’

It was unfair. To be born into wealth was already a blessing! Just because they were born into good families, their strength was also inherited. The structure was so frustrating.

[That’s why your hobby was pilfering family techniques, wasn’t it?]

So I stole them. I fought and sparred with people from other families, expanding my understanding on my own. By feeling their movements and breathing, I felt like I could understand their subtle principles, even if only a little.

‘Well, that’s probably how I reached 9-star, huh.’

[Being a jack-of-all-trades is your greatest strength. You accepted everything without discrimination.]

‘Well, I was always hungry for learning.’

The epithet “Sword Emperor” was given to me because of that eagerness.

[After becoming a 9-star, you started creating your own techniques, didn’t you? Those weren’t bad either.]

‘That’s right. If I had refined them a bit more, a masterpiece would have been born. If it weren’t for those Ominous Star bastards…….’

The reminiscence was brief. There wasn’t much time to indulge in old memories. Before I knew it, I was standing face to face with Liu Delema.

“Alloy, you may return now. I will send the children back to the dormitory soon, so don’t worry.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Alloy bowed and turned away.

“It is a pleasure to see you, Liu.”

“Ha. I told you to just call me Uncle. This kid is such an old soul.”

A hand stroking my head.

Liu Delema.

He was a bit different from the other adults in the family. After I chose the card with black magic on it during my first birthday, everyone else called me a cursed child.

“So, how is academy life these days?”

He was always kind and treated me without discrimination. I couldn’t help but be fond of him.

As if he didn’t like seeing us like that, McDuff quickly stepped in.

“Uncle! Why did you call us here? Are you finally going to teach us the family’s secret techniques?”

His eyes shone brightly. I didn’t show it, but I was also looking forward to it.

“Delema’s secret techniques…….”

Liu chuckled and then flicked McDuff’s forehead.

“You rascal. It’s still 100 years too early for that. You can only learn that after graduating from the Magic Tower or becoming a 5-star or higher. Don’t be greedy for such things now, and solidify your basics.”

“Huh? Then why did you call us here?”

“To give you homework.”

The corners of his mouth quirked up strangely as he looked down at us.

‘This feels ominous.’

[Indeed. What is he planning to make us do?]

Liu rummaged through his pockets and took out two objects.

He held out the round objects in his left and right hands, one towards me and one towards McDuff.

They were glass marbles about the size of a fist.

“What are these?”

I asked, and McDuff sneered.

“Can’t you tell? They’re marbles!”

This guy really has a talent for irritating people.

‘Does he think I don’t know that? You little brat.’

There was no way Liu was just giving us marbles to play with. I was asking about his intentions, but he was talking nonsense.

[You have to be patient. What can you do?]

I couldn’t scold him in front of Liu, so I just accepted the glass marble without saying anything.

“That’s the homework I’m giving you.”

“This?”

Liu continued to explain to McDuff, who had a blank expression.

“That’s a marble that can store ambient mana. It’s usually used as a tool for practicing mana control. I’ll give you a week to fill it with mana.”

I was puzzled. With this size, I could fill it right away, not in a week.

‘This is too easy, isn’t it?’

McDuff, also confident, started pouring mana into the marble as soon as he received it.

Squeak!

However, the mana accumulating inside the marble hardly increased.

Whoosh…….

This was because mana kept leaking out through a hole in one part of the marble. The amount leaking out was greater than the rate of accumulation.

“This is strange!”

He was soon breathing heavily.

“I cast a special magic on it.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a magic that makes mana keep leaking out. See that hole? Think of it like a hole in a water bottle.”

I couldn’t quite understand. He gave us homework to fill it with mana, but he cast a spell to prevent us from filling it.

[Is this like saying you rode a horse after drinking, but you didn’t do drunk riding?]

Liu smiled as he looked at us tilting our heads.

“Don’t forget that magicians are inherently creators. At some point, most magicians only train and cast spells in predetermined ways. You shouldn’t do that. Magicians must be able to think in diverse ways. Only then can you avoid being trapped in a frame and create.”

The corners of his eyes, which had always been smiling, momentarily hardened. Clearly, there was a message he wanted to convey through this homework.

“Give it your best shot. And I’ll grant a wish to the person who succeeds in the homework. Then, let’s meet here again in a week. You little ones.”

Liu left just like that.

McDuff grumbled at his retreating figure, saying that instead of teaching us magic, he was giving us strange homework.

‘You idiot.’

It was clearly part of an effort to educate us. Perhaps it was a test of our aptitude. He certainly didn’t come all the way here just to torment us.

[Well, what can you do? He’s still a kid.]

Still, being an idiot was being an idiot.

* * *

“Hah……. Hah…….”

Drew was still sweating in my room.

“But, what are you holding onto?”

He looked at the marble in my hand.

“Ah, I just have something personal to do.”

I had been wrestling with the crystal marble for hours. The marble was still empty.

‘This is difficult.’

I was confident in attracting and condensing mana.

Woo-oong!

However, no matter how hard I tried, mana wouldn’t accumulate inside the marble.

[Hmm. Is your mana sensitivity still lacking?]

‘I don’t know. Liu probably knows our level and gave us the homework.’

I couldn’t find a way to fill the marble with a hole in it.

‘But I don’t feel bad.’

Learning something new is always thrilling. It means that if I solve this problem, I can grow another step.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter if I can’t solve it.’

After all, he will tell me the answer.

“Ian! I finished everything today!”

Drew had already finished today’s workout.

“Good job. Did you feel that energy I told you about today too?”

“Yeah! It feels strange, but I can feel the energy.”

As expected. The blood of a martial arts family couldn’t be hidden. What he was feeling must be Aura. He was quite a talented guy.

“By the way, where will we go for tomorrow’s practical training?”

Drew asked as he got up. Tomorrow’s class was supposed to be replaced with outdoor practical training.

“I don’t know. I’m curious too.”

Alloy’s teaching style was unpredictable. As always, there was no choice but to face it head-on.

* * *

“Okay, today’s field practice will be conducted in groups. Everyone, pair up in teams of three!”

Alloy divided the children gathered outside the auditorium into groups of three.

“Ian! We’re doing it together, right?”

Of course, the clingy Drew was sticking by my side.

“Um…… can I join too?”

A girl named Bella also decided to join us. She was a girl with decent magical talent.

“Then, everyone, follow me!”

The children headed outside following Alloy’s lead.

“Hoo……. There was a place like this?”

Drew looked around with wide eyes. The place we arrived at was a remote forest near the Delema family.

“Ian, do you know this place?”

“No. This is my first time here too.”

I had never been outside the family grounds while growing up, so it was an unfamiliar space for me too. However, the space of the forest was so familiar.

‘It’s been a while since I smelled such a strong scent of grass.’

As a knight, I especially liked the forest. Thanks to the abundant energy, it was good for feeling Aura [a life energy in martial arts], and my mind felt at ease when I smelled the grass.

“Okay! Everyone, pay attention!”

Alloy clapped his hands to draw the children’s attention.

“Today, we will be doing outdoor practice here. You will be working with the team members you were divided into earlier.”

Gamp, who usually had the most questions, raised his hand.

“Gamp. What’s the question this time?”

“Alloy Instructor! What are we doing as a team?”

He would have explained it anyway, but he was quite impatient.

“There are many magic stones found in this forest. You will conduct a search yourself and find the magic stones in various places.”

“Search? We haven’t learned search magic yet.”

“You don’t need to use magic. Magic stones always emit mana around them. You can all feel mana, so you should be able to find them easily enough.”

Gamp nodded. Alloy added a word.

“Ah! And the team that finds the most wins. The winning team gets all the magic stones! You all know that magic stones are very good for magic practice, right?”

He was an instructor who liked competition quite a bit.

[Is it okay to do this to kids?]

‘How would I know…….’

One way or another, the instructor’s words were like the sky [absolute authority] in the academy.

“Ew!”

“Let’s go quickly!”

“U, us too!”

The children scrambled into the forest.

* * *

Drew beamed as he looked at the transparent stone he picked up from the ground, a stone with a subtle blue glow.

“Wow, Ian! You’re really amazing.”

Bella was also shaking her head.

“How did you find five already? Delema is different. You just close your eyes and open them, and you find them right away.”

That was because feeling mana was my specialty. I couldn’t help but be far superior to the other children.

‘How are Ariel and McDuff doing?’

Those two were the only children to be wary of. I put the magic stone I picked up away and looked around.

Swish!

A stream of water from Ariel’s fingertips headed somewhere.

‘As expected, she has tremendous talent.’

She had been using water to dig up the places where the magic stones were since earlier. It was a significantly different application method from her classmates.

[Didn’t you say she was from an ordinary family?]

‘Yeah. I’m curious about her too.’

Even though she wasn’t from a magical family, she was the daughter of the Moon family. I was curious about the source of her talent.

“Wow!”

“That’s really cool!”

Exclamations flowed from the children. In the land where Ariel’s stream of water was directed, a magic stone popped up without fail.

The problem occurred when Ariel’s teammates rushed to collect it.

“Cool, what’s so cool about it!”

A flame flared around the magic stone.

Chi-iii!

Turning the stream of water Ariel created into steam.

As the stream of water supporting the magic stone disappeared, the magic stone fell to the ground helplessly.

[That cocky bastard. He’s starting again.]

It was McDuff. The flame he created nullified Ariel’s magic.

“What are you doing?”

Ariel’s cold gaze was fixed on him.

“What am I doing? Picking up a magic stone?”

McDuff picked up the magic stone that had fallen to the ground.

“I found that.”

“What are you talking about? I just found something floating in the air and picked it up.”

Arrogant and unruly. That was the best way to describe McDuff.

“Give it back. While I’m asking nicely.”

Ariel didn’t back down easily either.

[Oh! Is there finally going to be a fight today?]

The two had frequent friction even on normal days. Ariel’s talent was top-notch even within this class. There was no way someone like McDuff would leave Ariel alone.

‘She usually puts up with it. It looks a bit different today.’

It was always Ariel who backed down. It couldn’t be helped. Even though she was young, the name of Delema couldn’t be ignored.

“Nice words? What if I don’t say it with words?”

However, what McDuff did today seemed to have exceeded the patience of the young girl.

Swish!

Water droplets formed around McDuff’s body. It was created by Ariel.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to attack me? Dare to attack a Delema?”

At the word Delema, Ariel’s fingertips paused. Accordingly, the water droplets heading towards McDuff also stopped.

“Don’t mess with me. You moron from a trash family.”

The flame that McDuff created evaporated the water droplets. Then, McDuff approached Ariel.

Slap!

McDuff’s right hand ended up slapping Ariel’s cheek.

‘Huh. Look at that bad guy.’

Whether she didn’t expect the action, Ariel was frozen in a daze.

McDuff eventually took the magic stone and left. The guys who were on McDuff’s team made sure to say a word to Ariel before disappearing.

“That’s what happens when you mess with someone.”

“Be careful in the future.”

Ariel slumped down in that spot with a blank expression. Her two fists were trembling.

‘Ha. He’s really a bad person.’

His actions were so unlike those of an eleven-year-old that my feet moved on their own.

“Ariel.”

Ariel raised her head towards me. Her red cheek was slightly swollen.

“Why? Did you come to ignore me too?”

Eyes full of animosity turned towards me. But, I definitely didn’t mean that.

“No. I’ll help you get revenge on him. I also realized something thanks to you.”

I held out my hand to Ariel.