In My Second Life, I Rule from the Shadows

Chapter 85: Midterm Exams (2)

“In truth, this is my second life. Thanks to that, it wasn’t hard for me to take the top spot in theory. I thought I’d hidden it well, but it seems I’ve been found out.”

Carl shrugged his shoulders.

Seeing him speaking in such a playful tone, Yuria, who had been watching him with a serious expression, suddenly let out a chuckle.

“For an excuse, your acting is terrible. Carl, don’t go telling lies anywhere.”

“This is the first time anyone’s said that to me, Miss Yuria.”

Carl made an awkward expression.

Sometimes, speaking the truth was the best solution.

As expected, Yuria merely laughed as if she thought he was joking.

‘Well, who would believe it?’

That he had actually come from a place called the Central Plains, and that he was living his second life under the name Karl Leipzig.

Even if he told the whole truth, most people would react like Yuria did.

“Alright. I won’t dig too deep into it. We’re not that close yet, are we?”

“I do hope to get closer to you, Miss Yuria.”

“…Don’t say weird things. I’m not interested in that sort of thing. For me, there’s only magic.”

“I meant as friends.”

“…”

Yuria frowned.

Carl sometimes suddenly closed the distance with his words or actions.

Whether he did it unconsciously or was deliberately teasing her, she couldn’t tell.

She stared at him intently to read his true intentions, but Carl only tilted his head with a smile, as if asking what was wrong.

“Anyway, enough with the idle talk.”

Yuria steered the conversation back.

“I just said it, didn’t I? I think that if you can get your aim right, you’ll grow quickly. It’s not that you lack sense or intellect. You just haven’t gotten the feel for it yet.”

“Is that so?”

Carl was intrigued by her repeated praise.

Truthfully, if he wished, he could delve deeper into magic.

At the time, he had been wholly devoted to the Primordial Unity Divine Art, and he had stopped practicing magic because he thought it might interfere with his martial training.

But circumstances had changed.

‘Magic could be a good stimulus.’

Right now, his Primordial Unity Divine Art was stuck before reaching 3 Stars, blocked by a wall.

He only needed to take one more step forward, yet he couldn’t break past it.

Whenever he had time, he searched for anything that could inspire him, and magic might be just such a stimulus.

“And there’s one thing about you that stands out.”

“What is it?”

“It’s what they usually call the interval—the time it takes when using magic consecutively. Carl, your interval seems much shorter than that of ordinary people, even though you haven’t had proper training yet.”

“Is that important?”

“Of course. Among a mage’s innate talents, the highest are mana affinity and sensitivity. Those are set from birth and can’t be changed. Interval ranks slightly lower than those two, but it’s still an important factor.”

Yuria tapped her temple.

“It’s related to mental processing. Sure, you can shorten it through training, but you can’t compare to someone who’s naturally gifted.”

“I see.”

“The magic you’ve just used and the next one you cast influence each other depending on what they are. If they use the same circuit, you can do it faster. But differences in nature, attribute, firepower, and speed make it vary greatly. The faster you can process that, the sharper your thinking, which is why the Magic Tower considers it an important metric for evaluating a mage’s ability. Now, try using Phantom Bullet—two shots in a row.”

“Understood.”

Carl raised his hand at her instruction.

He pointed his fingers at empty air and fired two consecutive shots.

Bang! Bang!

Yuria also fired Phantom Bullets almost simultaneously with Carl.

The first shot was a bit slower in timing, but the speed of Yuria’s second Phantom Bullet was overwhelmingly faster.

“See? Now you get what I mean, right?”

“…Indeed. The difference is obvious.”

“Exactly. Since the speed changes with each spell, it’s important to build up experience and data for each one. That way, you can use the right magic in urgent situations.”

Carl roughly understood her point.

If an opponent needed 0.3 seconds to stab his heart, but he used a spell with a 0.5-second interval, the spell would either fail or activate after his heart was already pierced.

“So, magic is also about tactical timing.”

“It’s even more important in magic, actually. Carl, are you good at chess? Think of it as similar to that.”

“I’m confident in chess.”

“…Really? Then let’s play sometime.”

Carl nodded.

Truthfully, he wasn’t lacking in confidence.

Losing—he had no confidence in that.

While he was still weaker than Yuria in magic, when it came to using his head, he was confident he could overwhelm even two of her.

“Well, that was just a side note. Shall we get into the real lesson now?”

“That was just a side note?”

“Of course. There’s so much to pay attention to in magic. Wilderness mages and Magic Tower mages differ in standards right from their training curriculum. I’m not belittling them, but the mages you’ve met so far were wanderers who couldn’t get into the Magic Tower, roaming to gain experience and fame. Honestly, it’s not even fair to compare them. Be careful when you speak with a Magic Tower mage in the future. They usually have sky-high pride.”

“Are you like that too, Miss Yuria?”

“Me?”

Yuria snorted.

“Among them, I’m at the very top. Needless to say.”

“Haha.”

Carl chuckled quietly.

Well, if she was outstanding enough to be designated as the successor to the Gray Magic Tower, she had the right to be that arrogant.

Though her practical skills could still use a bit more honing.

“Anyway. The training method I’m going to teach you now is the Gray Magic Tower’s method, so you can’t tell anyone, alright?”

“Is it alright to share the Gray Magic Tower’s curriculum with an outsider like me?”

“I don’t mind. The successor title is handy in times like this. I can ignore most rules. My master would actually like it—discovering a talented rough gem.”

“The Gray Sage…”

Carl murmured the name.

At present, he was one of the most renowned archmages in the Ribera Empire—

The Gray Magic Tower Lord, and Yuria’s master, the Gray Sage.

‘This is why I insisted on the academy.’

Ordinarily, someone like him would be almost impossible to approach.

To catch his eye, Carl would either have to become the mastermind controlling the empire from the shadows, or surpass the limits of his current self to reach the realm of a superhuman.

But through places like the academy, he could easily build ties via the master’s disciples or family.

This is why, even in the Central Plains, there was a saying that if one wished to gain information and connections, they should target the junior members.

Carl had diligently applied that principle even after coming to Artenia, which brought him to where he was now.

“Today, why don’t we start with a light taste of the most basic training method?”

“Sounds good.”

Carl nodded readily.

Yuria had just finished an experiment, she said.

She also looked tired, so it wouldn’t be good to take up too much of her time.

The time he spent building rapport with Yuria was what mattered; the magic training itself was secondary.

If he truly needed it, he could always ask Seven for advice.

‘Even if she’s closer to an alchemist than a battle mage, her basic magical knowledge is outstanding.’

Among NOX’s executives, Seven could easily be counted among the top three in terms of unique personality.

She spent nearly every day shut up in her workshop, crafting artifacts and equipment.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that every weapon and tool used by NOX’s members had passed through her hands at least once.

‘Though I didn’t expect her to be able to reproduce even Godok.’

In particular, Seven had been a great help in recreating knowledge from the Central Plains.

Even if she couldn’t explain the exact working principles, she would hole herself up for a few days and then emerge with something that, while not perfect, was similar enough.

Godok was the same.

She had captured insects that parasitized the tropical rainforests of the southern regions and crafted something similar to Godok.

Amazingly, its performance was far superior and more stable than that of the Sichuan Tang Clan or the Demonic Cult.

‘If she’d been born in the Central Plains, she might have become even more famous than me.’

Perhaps she would have been called the “Universal Artisan.”

If she had pursued medicine, she would have been a Medical Immortal.

If she had studied poisons, she would have been a Poison Demon.

Whatever she touched, she displayed a master-level skill—truly a versatile genius.

The only problem was her laziness and her complete disinterest in anything that didn’t catch her fancy.

Still, she listened to him well and showed interest in knowledge from the Central Plains, so there hadn’t been any major issues so far.

Although, at times, her curiosity went too far and caused trouble, she was nonetheless a valuable asset to NOX.

“Alright, let’s get started. First, stand in front of me and divide the space ahead of you into four sections.”

“How exactly?”

“Just roughly divide it in your mind into this size.”

Yuria spread her arms to mark the area.

Pointing to the space in front of her upper body, she split it into four quadrants again.

“Now, I’ll be firing Phantom Bullets toward the upper side. You’ll need to create a Barrier to block them. Once a Barrier has blocked an attack, you must immediately erase it and create a new one to block the next. You know the game where you bounce a ball? Like that.”

“Hm.”

Carl nodded.

He didn’t quite know what ball-bouncing was, but he could grasp the principle.

Since it was a type of training he’d never tried before, he found it rather interesting.

“Alright, here I go. No complaining if you get hit. You learn by taking hits—that’s how I learned, too.”

Bang! Bang!

Yuria fired Phantom Bullets at regular intervals.

Carl, though slightly awkward at first, created Barriers to block the incoming shots, then erased them again.

‘Hmm, not bad.’

Seeing Carl keep up with her pace without much trouble, Yuria gave a brief nod.

Although he stumbled a bit in the beginning, for a first attempt, he was doing well.

While it looked like a simple exercise, there were many small details to pay attention to.

Also, the distribution of Phantom Bullets was important, so the caster’s skill played no small part.

In this training method, at least, Yuria was confident she could guide Carl properly.

“Shall we increase the difficulty a bit?”

“I welcome it.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yuria increased the firing speed of the Phantom Bullets.

Gradually, very gradually.

But Carl blocked them far better than she expected, which made her a bit competitive.

She had intended to at least land one shot.

‘In that case…’

She added some variation.

Acceleration, deceleration, deceleration, acceleration, deceleration.

Five fake-outs in total.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Thwack—!

‘…Thwack?’

Yuria flinched and lifted her head.

Carl had narrowly blocked the first four, but he missed the fifth Phantom Bullet.

Even if it hit, the impact wasn’t that strong.

At worst, it would feel like a slightly too-hard flick to the forehead.

But the problem was where it hit.

Drip.

Bright red blood dripped down.

Wiping the blood from his nose with an expressionless face, Carl looked at Yuria and spoke.

“When do we switch offense and defense?”