Reader Mage 157-Be Prepared To Bleed For It

…Or a Mineral Mage? rlin wasn’t sure anymore if tal Mage was the right title to hand to Dr. Eleanor.

He had tried searching for details on what her magic entailed, as well as that of the Russian instructor, just to get an idea of what they could do. Know the competition. But all he had co across were surface level descriptions that didn’t go into details about anything. He understood that the confidentiality, even on the portals of the academies, was as a ans of protecting the abilities of Mages from the prying eyes of the villains of the world, which was why he had no choice but to rely on Reader Mage to boost his understanding.

And it turned out his guess was right.

The reason why Dr. Eleanor was always taking supplents was as a ans to replenish her body’s minerals as she constantly cast spells.

His brows furrowed.

But she hadn’t been casting any spell back in the auditorium, and yet she had been twitching and taking the pills regardless. He tilted his head. No way. Had she beco addicted to the feeling of the twitches and the supplents, her body no longer recognizing them as sothing unnatural? Or was it that she could no longer replenish the minerals she had lost, and would forever be mineral deficient?

rlin gulped. All of a sudden, he felt sorry for her.

But that was not the reason why he decided to cancel Reader Mage. That was due to the warning of the System. There was a difference between risking using his Perk against young, inexperienced Mages who were no higher than the Novice class. An experienced Mage, who was not only an instructor but an A-Class Mage of the Advanced class was a no-go area. Risking it would definitely put him out of commission, his Resilience be damned. It did not save him from taking on things way above his level. He was not yet at the point where pain and injuries were a distant mory. Weird, considering he could stand cold and poison at this point, but the repercussions that ca with going against the System weren’t bound by logic.

He hadn’t listened once during his brief squabble against Choi Sangook and almost lost his life. He wouldn’t dare it this ti.

Also, if he was to be completely honest, he was scared of making an error and incapacitating or killing Dr. Eleanor in the process.

Murphy’s law. Whatever could go wrong, would go wrong.

rlin stood up, and Hakyun noticed. The boulder around him crumbled to the ground, and rlin ran back to his roommate.

“Change of plans,” he said. “Nullifying her magic will be a bad idea.”

Hakyun’s brows twitched, and his expression changed. He tensed.

“If you can’t nullify her magic, then we’re cooked.” He pointed at Dr. Eleanor. She looked relaxed, despite dancing around, evading Sangook’s consistent barrage of ice magic. Then his finger shifted to Choi Sangook. His face was a wrinkled ss of frustration and annoyance. And his latex suit was riddled with more tears and holes than it had had before. “How do we defeat that?”

rlin had a few ideas. He wasn’t just certain which one he should go ahead with.

There was using [Special Editor] to boost Choi Sangook’s spells to enable it to cause more damage to Dr. Eleanor. But the boy was very uncooperative. And to edit a spell, rlin had to understand the inherent laws behind it. He knew the basics of ice magic, but the basics could only take one so far. And even if he said “fuck it” and went ahead, Choi Sangook would definitely notice that he had done sothing. Which would be the sa with Dr. Eleanor, regardless of if he decided to take Sangook out of the equation and rely on Hakyun instead.

He was not ready to expose to the whole world, including those watching, that he had more than just the ability to nullify magic in his arsenal. His mates in the Tower of Xeros hadn’t known, because the conversation where he had agreed to bolster Zauberer’s magic with [Special Editor] was blocked out due to the language barrier. And thankfully, he hadn’t had to explain anything after leaving the Tower due to the unforeseen circumstances. Of course, it had changed a few minutes later, but that was besides the point.

The point was, using every tool at his disposal was risky. He had to tread carefully, or he really would end up in a lab after the tournant—or during it.

That left only one option.

“Adapt,” he said.

“Huh?” Hakyun raised a brow.

“We adapt,” he repeated. “The only way we can fight Dr. Eleanor is in close-range. Of course, you don’t have that trouble since you can just fire off rocks like projectiles. But you've seen the way she’s moving. You’ll never be able to hit her.”

Hakyun cleared his throat and sighed. “So you’re going to close in on her and see if you can steal the key? Because you know there’s no way we’re knocking her out.”

rlin nodded. “I know.”

“And Sangook?”

“That’s why I’ll adapt. I’ll try my best not to get in his way, while still scoring points against Dr. Eleanor. That’s the only way.”

Hakyun pursed his lips. Then he groaned. “Goodness. If only that boy listened for once. Fine. Do what you have to do. I’ll support you. Even if I can’t hit her, I can at least disrupt her.”

rlin bobbed his head at his roommate. “Let’s do this.”

Hakyun replied with a nod of his own. And rlin was off, blurring across the path in a flash as he appeared behind Dr. Eleanor dancing backwards from a glacier Sangook had shot at her.

“Ah. Finally decided to join the party, rlin? Not scared of bumping into each other anymore?” She giggled as she noticed him.

The mockery wasn’t funny. But rlin had no intention of telling her.

He split his mana into four parts and channeled them to four places on his body. Blue glows appeared over his hands and feet, and for a mont there, Dr. Eleanor smiled. Then the mana settled on their locations, shifting from their erratic nature into sothing more stable. In the next quarter of a second, spikes jutted out of them. The one on his feet dug into the frozen ground, keeping him stable, while the ones around his hands beca gloves of spikes.

Dr. Eleanor spun around to face him, a look of mild astonishnt on her face. “Cheeky thief.”

“I prefer ‘good student’.”

She snorted, and rlin replied with a body blow. Dr. Eleanor, however, wasn’t hit. She shifted backwards, angled her body, and twirled away from the attack.

rlin followed.

He channeled mana to his right side, specifically the area just below his rib cage, and coiled it into a spiral. It was just a very minute version of his [Mana Spring] martial spell, and it very much served the sa purpose as its bigger version. It propelled him to his left, rlin sliding across the frozen ground, and appearing before Dr. Eleanor once again before she could catch her breath.

Surprised, her brows jumped up. But she didn’t remain frozen for even half a second. Spikes of bone made their way out of her body, aiming for rlin’s lower half to rid him of his speed, the sa way she had done to Choi Sangook. But rlin was no fool. The mana around his feet changed forms. They went from spikes to spirals, elevating him from the ground just in ti to avoid the spikes of bones aid at him.

“Hmmm…” Dr. Eleanor humd.

rlin launched a punch at her mid-air. She pranced backwards, covered in protruding bones like a porcupine, escaping rlin’s attack just barely. However, not completely.

The fight ca to a brief halt. rlin landed on the ground, knee-first, and Dr. Eleanor swiped a stream of blood rolling out of a narrow gash on her forehead with a finger.

“Impressive,” she said. “You’re very fast, rlin Tyrrell. And sharp on your feet. You elongated your mana at the last mont and managed to draw blood. You’re good.” Then she frowned. “But…how co you are able to use your mana in such a way? Mana, 99.99% of the ti, requires a dium to do anything magical. Of course, simple things like creating a sheathe with the mana or a foothold can be done, but a weapon? That is impossible for even S-Class Mages. So how co, you, a Deficient Mage, with even less mana pool than a D-Class Mage, can do such a thing?”

rlin had been expecting the question, so his answer was already dancing at the tip of his tongue.

“Deficient Mages have not been completely figured out,” he said. “That’s what a classmate of mine told . The daughter of the guildmaster of Korea’s Consortium Guild. I guess this is one of the things we Deficient Mages can do to make up for being unable to use magic like the rest of you.”

Dr. Eleanor’s eyes narrowed. She took a few more pills of supplents, and the wound rlin had opened on her forehead closed up.

“I see,” she said, disbelief in her tone. “Then I guess I’ll have to take things up a notch to see what else Deficient Mages can do. This is the perfect mont for to learn more about your kind, isn’t it?”

rlin felt a chill crawl down his spine. Those words were ominous.

“Hey!” Sangook voiced, finally getting a mont to join in on the conversation. “Don’t push to the curb!”

He didn’t give Dr. Eleanor the chance to reply. His palms imdiately glowed blue, and the air in front of him warped as the energy was zapped out of it quickly. In the next second, an icicle was floating in the air, and it shot towards Dr. Eleanor with a blistering pace.

But, once again, Choi Sangook’s attacks were futile.

Dr. Eleanor turned her ankle sideways, moving her body out of the icicle’s path. Then she caught it just before it could zoom past, turned on her feet, and launched it back at Sangook.

rlin’s breath hitched at the sight.

Sangook froze where he stood, dazed for so reason, but the icicle didn’t stop. It headed towards him, straight for his stomach. If it hit, there was no way he wouldn’t be ending up in the infirmary.

“Get out of the way, dimwit!” rlin shouted.

But before Sangook could move, the ground before him split open, and a wall rose out of it. The icicle hit the wall, shattering into pieces, and freezing the construct almost completely.

Hakyun heaved out a deep exhale.

“What the fuck, miss?!” the boy cursed. “Were you trying to kill him?”

Dr. Eleanor turned to Hakyun and showed him her hand. It was pale blue and stiff, like she had dipped it into a frozen sea.

“What? I don’t deserve so sympathy?” she asked.

rlin stood up, frowning.

“You said this wasn’t a life or death battle, but you’re trying to kill a student?”

Dr. Eleanor clicked her tongue. “Not once did I try to kill a student,” she said, then jerked a thumb at Sangook. “He could have evaded the attack if he wanted to. He got cold feet. That’s not my fault.”

“But…”

“Shut up, kid,” she growled. “We instructors aren’t here to baby you lot. If you’re going to beco Mages, then you should act like one. And if you want to take your academy to the top, then you better be prepared to bleed for it.”

rlin couldn’t find the words to argue against her point, and neither could Hakyun nor Sangook, who was seen gritting his teeth in frustration with himself as Hakyun’s wall ca crumbling down.

The heavy silence was broken by their smartwatches beeping at that mont, and Dr. Eleanor sprouted a smile as she glanced at hers.

“Speaking of the top,” she said. “Seems like my students have taken hold of their castle.”

rlin’s nose twitched. He hurriedly glanced at Hakyun, who nodded with a solemn expression, then at his watch where words that made his pulse race stared back at him.

[Crown Academy has taken their castle.]

[Instructor faced: Professor Sergei Ivanov.]

[Ti: 30:26]