I Won't Die - Episode 19

"this makes no sense." 

Raeli seemed to roughly guess Kumseong's intentions, as she was very upset.

Isn't he saying he'll use others to stand out?

"What doesn't make sense?"

On the contrary, Kumseong shot back as if questioning what was so weird about what he did.

The other examinees, expecting to see Kumseong kill the monster, egged me on to go in quickly.

"You're just going to fail quickly anyway, so isn't it better to fail now?"

"Hurry up and go in and come out quickly, I'm curious how that competent guy will beat up the warlock." 

"With all F grades, won't you just get knocked out with one hit? Pfft."

The influence of the previous stat measurement was tremendous.

If your stats were lower than mine, you're below me. 

If higher, then above me.

And so they divided each other into grades like that.

Among them, I who got all F's was treated as the lowest grade.

On the contrary, it was a good opportunity.

At this moment when all eyes were on me, I could flip this perception.

I accepted Kumseong's suggestion.

"Alright then."

"Hey, you!"

"I told you not to worry."

I showed Raeli the Star Essence hanging around my neck.

Even if Raeli didn't know about the Star Essence, she could at least know I had some powerful move.

Since I guaranteed it, Raeli also believed and endured it.

"You can't get hurt. I have to protect you." 

"Yeah."

I headed inside the barrier.

No one had any expectations of me.

With the extremely few exceptions.

Fran looking at me with sparkling eyes.

Raeli grabbing the sword in her sheath, ready to jump in at any moment if things went bad.

Then I just had to meet those tiny expectations a little.

I pass through the barrier.

As I passed through, the monster that smelled a human raised its head and turned it towards me.

Strictly speaking, it was a low-level warlock.

Yeah, before regression, it was a guy desperately trying to smash my head in.

At least it would have to be mid-level to try and match me.

"Guoooooh!"

As if aggravated from having missed prey just before, the warlock became even more ferocious. 

Seeing the bulging veins on its black skin, it seemed to want to tear me apart this instant.

While my mind was at ease, it didn't look that way to those watching.

"Hey, hey isn't he gonna die like that?"

"What's he doing not coming out!"

The warlock charged at me, but I wasn't doing anything.

To be precise, it was in order to use the Star Essence.

I brought my two hands together over my chest.

"Oh essence."

I begin with those words.

The necklace began releasing powerful mana.

The star at the essence's core spun round and round until it could no longer be seen with the naked eye.

Wheeee-

The morale boosting ability possessed by the Star Essence.

Precisely, mana amplification.

Doubled every 10 seconds, quadrupled, octupled, sixteen-fold.

In just 100 seconds, the original amount of magic power increases by a miraculous 1,024 times.

So if a grand wizard who already has a large mana pool wields this, it's totally broken.

Just amplifying it for around 40 seconds would allow casting a meteor to smash cities.

Following the strands of light spreading out, a magic circle was drawn.

The magic circle gave off a bright blue light.

It was the nature of mana.

"This much I'm not familiar with."

Since I was always drawing black magic circles?

A blue magic circle.

If I could deploy dark magic in my left hand and magic in my right, that spectacle might be quite worth seeing.

One side would have black magic circles, and the other blue ones.

"Guoooooh!"

Anyway, it wasn't important. 

What was more important was killing that lowly warlock in front of me.

My finger moves.

Accordingly, magic pours out.

A bright light engulfed the warlock, and following the very brief screams of the warlock and the sound of burning flesh,

The warlock vanished from that spot.

Tsss-

All that was left was the deeply gouged floor.

A handful of silent stillness covered the vicinity.

**

Fran was in a very bad mood.

The insult towards Argael felt like an insult directed at herself.

"They don't know anything."

Extremes were what all wizards wished for.

Therefore, the point Argael had reached was also the destination Fran was aiming for.

A so-called role model.

If that role model was being insulted and looked down on by others, how upset would she feel?

Physical stats all F?

Is that all it takes to disparage that man?

When the knowledge contained in his head is at a level you all can't even reach the toes of even if you hanged off of it?

"For now, I have to endure it."

She was going to step forward bluntly.

She stood up and tried to take a step, but

Before Fran could do anything, Argael went inside himself and directly began fighting the warlock.

Therefore, Fran was convinced Argael would show something, which soon turned to shock.

Endlessly amplified mana.

Ridiculous magic circle design ability.

Followed by Dimensional Rays.

"Ho, how many different means did he use in just a single spell?"

Dimensional Rays, Void Rays, three dimensional magic circles, magic design, magic acceleration, mana control.

Means that would take years for each to barely utilize, Argael employed them all in just 10 seconds.

The resulting magic perfectly melted the warlock without any failures.

Oowoong-

The loud residual noise following the giant light.

After the brief silence, it became noisy.

Murmur, murmur.

"No way."

"He melted it in one go."

Even for someone ignorant about magic, that was tremendous.

The swiftly deployed magic circle and lightning beam shot in the blink of an eye.

Not a single examinee expected that from Argael.

Instead, what they chose was cognitive dissonance. 

"Hey, just now didn't that guy's pendant shine light?"

"Yeah, so he shot out a strong attack using an artifact right?"

"Then that explains it, how could a guy without any mana use magic like that?"

Fran was flabbergasted.

He just borrowed mana.

Not even the head wizard of our wizard tower could do something so preposterous with just a massive amount of mana!

Sighing at the excessively stupid and blind things, she let out a sigh, but

"That's cheating."

Here, another stupid person took another step forward.

**

I smirk and say,

"What is?"

"The mana flowing from your necklace, using artifacts in the exam isn't your own strength."

Kumseong daringly said,

"So that's cheating."

even though he wasn't the examiner.

His words also found echoes around him.

Since Kumseong with considerable magic power made that analysis, they were going along with it.

"Relying on tools, where's that proper?"

"It's totally cheating."

I slowly contemplated.

Or rather, was there even a need to contemplate?

I endured it once already.

A second time is a bit much for me.

Just as Kumseong was about to continue speaking,

Tic-

A very shallow cut appeared on one of his cheeks.

"Say that one more time."

Kumseong's gaze turned to my dagger that appeared suddenly somehow.

As expected of a swordmaster, he knew I hadn't relied on the artifact just now. 

At the same time, the Star Essence began amplifying mana.

All this overwhelmed Kumseong.

This level of pressure itself was probably the first time for Kumseong.

Let alone demon army executives, he hadn't even met mid-level warlocks.

While expecting him to show a response fitting for facing a dangerous opponent,

Kumseong, who hadn't even bent his knees in front of the demon king in the past,

now bent his waist in front of me from the intense pressure.

...He really was a kid at this time huh.

"....Sorry."

To those watching, Kumseong's sudden apology seemed to confuse them.

Since most hadn't even witnessed what I did.

What was annoying was that Kumseong grasped the situation well.

If it was Changseong, he'd just say okay and get hit in the head, but Kumseong knew to protect himself when facing a dangerous opponent.

"I will apologize for my mistake."

He accepted any humiliation. 

"I looked down on you foolishly, and said your skills were cheating without seeing them properly."

Kumseong bowed his head deeply like that, then turned and went back inside the exam site.

...Even though I hadn't forgiven him yet, he arbitrarily decided I would forgive him after showing that kind of submission.

He's indeed the cocky type as expected.

"Examinee, aren't you going back in?"

Since I wasn't sitting down and was just standing there, the examiner looked at me questioningly and pointed it out.

Anyway, it wouldn't take long for that guy to come out.

Before the examiner could warn me, the ignoring him, Kumseong had caught the warlock.

It hadn't even been 1 minute.

I stood still, then called out to him.

"Reinhardt." 

"...You know my name?"

"How could I not."

Your sword cut off my neck fifteen times.

Yet my dagger didn't even reach your toes.

If I didn't remember an opponent like that, it wouldn't be the immortal Argax, but a brainless undead.

And.

Where do you think you're slipping away to.

Thud!

"Ugh!"

Plop-

I smashed Reinhardt's head with the handle of my dagger.

He takes the hit and collapses just like that.

Now I feel refreshed.

He kept blocking all my dark magic boasting of invincible swordsmanship, so I never got to land a hit on him.

To be able to strike him like this after returning, 

I guess that counts as fulfilling a wish.

Reinhardt immediately stood up and let out an empty laugh.

A laugh as if he couldn't believe he had been taken down by a single blow for a moment.

He went back to his spot wordlessly, and I also returned to my position.

The examinees who had been ridiculing me until just before were now looking at me in surprise, having quiet conversations like this.

"What the, it wasn't visible just before...?"

"So he has more than just the pendant's power?"

Raeli who returned to my side marveled.

At least she seemed to have recognized I used magic to some extent.

"You definitely had a reason to be confident! But Argael, I didn't know you could use magic?"

"No, it's just the power of the necklace."

"Is that so? That necklace is amazing."

I didn't intend to let her know yet that I could use magic.

To her who was my fiance, it would seem strange for me to be able to use magic.

So when I said it was the power of the necklace, she easily accepted it.

She knew I had lived an ordinary life never learning magic, after all.

Therefore, I denied it for now.

Luckily I could make excuses with the necklace.

I could just let her know later.

With the situation settled, the test proceeded again.

Getting an F grade in the fighting warlocks test meant failing.

I would have to immediately pack up and leave this place.

Of course, if I did the written exam well I'd have another chance to enter the integrated class, but among the students taking the practical exam, how many paid attention to the written exam?

Bang!

"Gwaaak!"

"...1 second, damage inflicted on warlock lethal, damage received from warlock none."

Even amidst that, the hero killed the warlock in just 1 second.

...I don't think I can beat the hero with just the Star Essence.

Half of the many examinees flew off.

Among them, Raeli struggled considerably and got a B grade. 

Her skills had improved more than I thought.

In less than a month, the girl who couldn't properly face a goblin with magic power had greatly accomplished being able to fight warlocks.

Did she have some talent I didn't know about?

The examiner gathered the remaining people and began explaining the practical exam.

"The practical will be going to a forest where warlocks are actually hiding."

The examinees shook.

With the extremely few exceptions of those who got S-rank, warlocks were monsters like an insurmountable wall to examinees.

Being told to fight such warlocks without any restrictions?

Who would see that as anything but a suicidal act.

Here, the examiner stated resolutely,

"Those who wish to quit now may quit. Your lives are decided by yourselves. However, I will clearly tell you that the situation in the north is not good, and the kingdom saw the necessity in implementing this curriculum."