Reader Mage 91-Are You Running From A Fight?

The first trap rin brought up was a rather simple one. It was made of a combination of twigs and seed shells concealed by leaves and spread out over the area so as to ensure any sneak ups would be unsuccessful.

In all honesty, it was not much of a trap as compared to a warning alarm. But the essence of every trap was to increase the defense of a base. If they were caught by surprise, then there was no reason for what they were doing.

“I’m done setting up that area,” said Park Yuri as she approached rlin who was gently throwing leaves upon a spread out bundle of twigs. He scrunched his face at the result of his actions. He didn’t like how it looked.

And he wasn’t the only one.

“I can see that practicality is vastly different from theorizing, thanks to you,” Park Yuri noted.

rlin glanced at her over his shoulder. “That’s rude.”

“I was joking.” She leaned forward. “Move. Let take over.”

rlin sighed and stood up. “Thank you.”

He would have loved to keep going, but now was not the ti to be hellbent on learning how to set up basic defensive traps. It would just eat into their ti. And, sure enough, Park Yuri was able to set the leaves over the twigs so that they were in no way noticeable, and the trap blended in with the environnt itself.

She stood up.

“What next?”

rlin rubbed his chin. He was trying his best not to think up harmful traps, even though Dr. Elias had not said anything about them holding back. But rlin couldn’t assu that the whole Open field acted in the sa way as the simulation room and training areas. The Open field was a wide space, after all. The power it would take to power a simulation on such a scale would be substantial.

Of course, an Academy like Prestige Academy should be able to do it, but, again, he couldn’t assu.

And it was so hard for him to think up harmless traps because Kieran had been a hunter. Most of his traps had been to kill, not repel. However, there was no one who could take his place, so he had to think of sothing himself.

“Let’s see…” rlin flayed his eyes over the scenery, the rest of the mbers of their party working diligently to set up the twig traps. At that mont a loud boom resounded through the scenery from at least sixty kiloters away. Smoke rose to the air, and rlin’s brows narrowed at the sight. “So aren’t taking it any easy, are they?”

“I can’t help but feel like you are,” Kim Yiseo said from behind; rlin turned his attention to her. “These twig traps won’t protect the flag. We need sothing better. Or don’t you have any?” She folded her arms and tilted her head slightly.

Well, he did have a whole lot of sickening ideas, but he was not of the mind to send soone so close to death just because they wanted to pass a test. However, it seed he was the only one who shared that thought. Because Kim Yiseo’s words drew everyone’s attention his way, and their gazes were not ones that supported his decision to hold back.

In that case, then he could take things up a notch. At least to the extent where it’s risky enough to make their opponents bat an eye, but not to the extent where one might lose their life.

And besides… He looked up to the sky. He was having a nagging feeling at the back of his head.

rlin sighed. “Fine. I agree with you. We’ve been taking things too softly.”

“I’m overjoyed,” said Kim Yiseo.

rlin didn’t reply to those words of hers. He faced the rest of the team. “Does anyone have any ability to fall trees?” Instead of a reply, rlin got murmurs, which was surprising to him. He thought they wanted a bit more oomph to the traps? “No one?” he asked.

“I do…” A girl with long black hair and drab eyes stepped forward. rlin recalled her introducing herself as Chen—Chen ilin. He was more interested as to how her Hex worked to produce sothing so sharp that it could cut trees, so he imdiately focused on that instead.

“How, if you don’t mind asking?” said rlin.

“My Hex is Silver,” Chen explained. “I can construct the fine particles of silver in the atmosphere into any shape I want, which includes sothing as sharp as a saw.”

rlin’s brows jumped up. Oh, that was fascinating. Silver was another Hex that he had not co across in Singularity Mage. But there was only so much diversity one could co across in a single POV novel focused on a main character that was, most of the ti, basically a hermit.

He wondered how the process functioned, imagining it to be sowhat similar to the way Kim Minji linked her mana to the molecules of water in the atmosphere to take control of them, in addition to how Chima also produced and reshaped fire with a similar process. Since they were all Construction Mages, the process shouldn’t be that much different from each other.

However, magic was a funny thing. It was not an aspect that could be understood through assumptions alone. Those assumptions had to be proven right, because the percentage of them being incorrect was quite high.

Now was not the ti to be focused on the intricacies of another’s magical abilities, though. So rlin refocused on the task at hand.

“Alright,” he began. “Then let’s get to work. We only need to cut down a single tree. We’ll split it in half after that.”

“Are you going to tell us about this trap you need a whole tree for?” Kim Yiseo asked, her expression filled with genuine curiosity.

rlin turned to her and smiled. “We’re going to be making a ballista.”

The brows of everyone fell.

“A ballista?” they mumbled. “Are you serious? That’s dangerous.”

The terrain shivered from another explosion in the distance and rlin nodded.

“You all said I was taking it too easy, and I agree,” he said. “The rumbles are coming from the traps others have set. Compared to their’s, our’s is a bit juvenile.”

And, yes, he did know a ballista seed too much, but it was way down on the list of atrocious traps he had co up with. This was the most moderate one he could think of that was neither too dangerous nor too ta. If only the dieval warriors thought the sa.

“We don’t have the ti for this,” rlin continued. “We have to get to work now if we want to get it done quickly. It’s a massive trap. It’ll eat up most of our ti and we probably won’t be able to set up any other traps.”

“Then shouldn’t we focus on other traps instead of this massive one?” asked Park Yuri. “There’s the possibility we won’t even be able to complete it. Have you ever made a ballista before? You couldn’t even place leaves over twigs well.”

rlin’s eyes twitched. Did she have to ntion that? And, besides, that was different from this. rlin had never been good at sneaking. He’d always been a more ‘attack head-on’ person. And the ballista and the twigs represented that.

Also…

“Have you heard the phrase: ‘fear the man who practices one kick ten thousand tis over the man who practices ten thousand kicks…” He paused. Park Yuri blinked. “I’m not sure about the rest, but you get the idea. The ballista will do more harm than any other trap. And it will also make our opponents more wary.” That was considering they weren’t smart enough to realize that the ballista would have taken too long to make.

“I agree with rlin,” said Kim Yiseo. “Let’s make the ballista.”

Park Yuri glanced at her roommate and sighed. “I see… Okay.”

rlin was glad Kim Yiseo had supported him, after all, she was going to be the main worker in the production of the ballista. She just didn’t know that yet.

rlin prayed in his heart that they wouldn’t be sanctioned for cutting down a tree as he and Chen picked out a sturdy one. Then he leaned back and watched the young girl of chinese origin channel her mana from her finger tips and into the atmosphere. He sighed at the sight, exasperated that the details of how a spell occurred wasn’t inscribed in a spell circle as the Mage cast their spell. It would have been a quick way for him to understand how the whole spell was cast.

He glanced at her dark-brown Grimoire, a wild thought in his head.

No. He couldn’t peep. That was an invasion of privacy. He would just have to wait until the ti was right and ask her how her magic worked. Which was most likely until their victory during the test was assured.

A second later, dusts of light grayish white, sparkling in the sun that breathed down from above, gathered around Chen’s hands. They spun like threads, and in the blink of an eye a rough imitation of a heavy duty chainsaw appeared. Chen dropped it imdiately, however, its existence only remained because her mana was still serving as a link between the spell and herself.

rlin frowned. “What happened?”

She turned to him with a distraught look. “I thought we would at least need sothing this big to be able to cut down a tree, but… It’s too heavy.”

rlin blinked owlishly and exhaled. He then stepped forward. “Will it be possible for to make use of it instead, you know, without the spell disappearing?”

Chen glanced at the saw and back at him. “I’m not sure. I’ve never heard about another taking control of soone else’s magic.”

“Right?” rlin clicked his tongue. “If it was a creation spell, like Kim Yiseo’s, I would have been sure of its possibility.” rlin also recalled the Dungeon raid exam and how Nora had channeled her mana into Minji’s spells so that they could be launched. His brows arched. That could work. “How about this?” he proposed. “It’s going to be tough, since you’ll be channeling your mana in two different places in real ti, but I need you to channel your mana onto my hands, like gloves; that way I should be able to take control of your spell.”

Chen blinked. “Ah. That could work, yes. But won’t your anti-magic affect it?”

rlin smiled. “It doesn’t work that way. Can you do it?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

Chen closed her eyes and focused, and then she grabbed rlin’s hands. Warm energy flowed from her to him, and in a second his hands were covered in gloves of blue mana with traces of white impurities within them.

“Go on,” said Chen, nudging her head in the saw’s direction.

rlin nodded and reached for the saw. His Strength was at Level 12, which had been more than enough for him to lift a human while battered and even run, so he had no problems lifting a heavy duty machinery. In fact, the thing was so light in his hands he almost forgot he had picked sothing up.

“So? How does it function?” he asked.

“I’ll kickstart it. You cut,” Chen answered.

rlin bobbed his head and positioned himself in front of their chosen tree. “Ready when you are.”

“You should have told ,” Kim Yiseo grumbled as she produced another thick strand of web. “Why have you turned into a slave?”

rlin didn’t want to reply to that, but he couldn’t help but chuckle.

“It’s really not funny,” Kim Yiseo added.

“My bad,” rlin apologized, his lips pursed as he watched her spun webs together around a split half of the trunk of the tree he and Chen had cut down. They were currently on their second ballista, and were more than thirty minutes into the test already. As he had expected, the production of the traps had really eaten into their ti.

“Are you sure this will work?” Park Yuri asked, standing a step away “It looks—”

“Shabby,” rlin completed her words for her. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The second ballista was completed at that mont, a rough amalgam of webs and wood, where the latter was interwoven to make a projectile track and tray, and the wood, which would serve as the ammunition, rested on it.

A single strand of inconspicuous web stretched from its location, hidden between a cluster of trees, towards the other ballista on the other side of the base. It was the trigger. Once it snapped, the ballistas would fire. The only problem was that the ballistas had ranges. If their opponents weren’t in the range of the attack, they obviously wouldn’t be getting hit. And that range was…

“I still don’t understand why the ballista is facing the sky,” said Kim Yiseo. “But there’s no point in crying over spilled milk now. The traps are set. What next? We’re running out of ti.”

rlin nodded and signalled for the rest of the party to co closer. “We’ll now select those who will head to our opponent’s camp. We have no idea who we’ll be facing, so I think it only makes sense that we consider the worst. As such, we should send our best fighters.” They all nodded in agreent. “In that regard, I nominate Park Yuri, Kim Yiseo, and… Whoever wants to join.” Brows fell as everyone stared at him. “What?” He shrugged.

“You should co with us,” Park Yuri added.

rlin jerked his head back slightly. “Why? I’ll only hold you guys back.” And he truly believed it. He had been overwheld by Park Yuri, and Kim Yiseo was an S-Class Mage that had defeated another S-Class Mage. There was no space for him in their team.

Kim Yiseo frowned. “Stop that nonsense,” she growled. “Let’s go.”

rlin glanced at everyone, and it seed they were all in support of him being the third mber of the team. He sighed and shook his head.

“Even if you think I’m strong enough to join you guys, then wouldn’t it make sense for one of us to stay back and defend the camp?” he asked. “We don’t know the course of action of the other team, maybe they have sent their strongest this way already. I have working knowledge on the traps; I should stay back.”

Kim Yiseo raised a brow. “Are you running from a fight?”

rlin snorted. “Absurd. I have never run away from a fight. I’m just being rational here.”

Kim Yiseo nodded. “Fine. Then I’ll take Man-Shik on the way. His lightning Hex seems like it’ll be very useful.”

“If you say so,” rlin nodded. “Send Sofia back, please.”

“No problem.”

Kim Yiseo and Park Yuri turned around then, a glance at their smartwatches showing them the location of their opponent’s camp. However, before they took a step in its direction, two dark clouds appeared, an anomaly in the clear sky above, and followed by a gentle rumbling was a streak of lightning.

rlin froze. Man-Shik’s signal.

“Prepare for attack!” he ordered, and everyone moved after a brief second of clenching their jaws. “They really ca all the way over here.”

rlin pulled his eyes from the sky and glanced over the surroundings, making certain that everything was intact—that the traps were discreet. And then a cold chill crawled down his neck, which was only made worse by the words he heard next.

“Hello, brother,” a familiar voice called with a mocking tone, and rlin turned around to see his twin hovering in the sky above, twirls of air beneath her feet.

He clicked his tongue. “Nora…”

It was already bad enough that she was his opponent in this drill, but then her accomplice appeared, he, too, floating in the sky. It was Lee Jaehyun.

rlin took a deep breath and exhaled. “Really?”