R-S Chapter 13

I was getting close to being able to cycle instinctively. It didn’t take much effort to get back into cycling but I was constantly slipping out of it when I became inattentive. Soon though I could do it instinctively and I thought about bumping up the rate I was cycling up to the base ten mana capacity that most mages use.

Not only that but the kneading of my mana threads allowed me to lift very light objects now. It wasn’t anything as impressive as someone who had been doing it for decades and I was far off of being able to use my own threads to lift my body off the ground but every bit helped. I levitated a pencil in front of me as I did the homework Mr. Smithe gave me as he kept looking over at my usage of my threads.

I had a three-month headstart on the other people in this class and it showed that I was the furthest ahead. Cycling made sense for mages to practice, it had many uses outside of fighting, being faster, stronger, and able to accomplish more with less energy would always be helpful. Kneading mana wasn’t deemed as practical or useful as it seemed to mages. Which, in my opinion, was a mistake.

Being naturally stronger was obviously helpful but all three methods for using magic had their places. It was three different tools, each with their own use, and while you could wield a Warhammer to solve most of your problems, sometimes a dagger or bow and arrow were just more useful to you at that time… Plus, kneading allowed you to float.

Kneading magic could be seen as more magical than casting magic. You could float, form a shield, levitate nearby items, quickly form the elements you had an affinity with, and much more. It was the most versatile form of magic, it wasn’t exactly strong but it was quick and versatile. That’s what made them so dangerous to mages. It only took a second of tossing a sword they could guide right into the mage's heart, pull the oxygen out from around their face, or create a bomb right next to the mage.

That is why mages needed to learn to knead because it was the easiest way to counter an infiltrator's own mana threads. A battle between magical warriors was straightforward with both beating the other with big weapons until one of them stopped moving. Mages don’t duel persay, more whoever destroys the area the other mage is in first is the victor.

A fight between two infiltrators could look extremely different depending on which infiltrators were fighting. An earth affinity infiltrator could wield swords around himself telepathically and also because earth affinity people find it easier to lift metallic items than other people without high earth affinity. A water affinity person could wield a corrosive ball of liquid as his weapon or turn the ball into a snake to coil around themselves letting them use it both offensively or defensively. 

The main takeaway is that infiltrators had vastly different fighting styles even between two of the same affinity infiltrators. I just found that type of magic more interesting than learning spells. Being a mage was more tedious, I only wanted to be a mage because it was the fastest way to living a life of luxury, now that I was locked in for decades of these next three months. I wasn’t going to slam my head against the wall trying to learn magic but becoming a well-rounded person able to do almost anything I put my mind to.

That was how most mages ended up dead. They didn’t train their bodies or their ability to knead. A mage who trained in kneading could shut down an infiltrator by entangling their mana threads. It would cause both people pain but it would give them a much better chance at surviving assassination attempts. It was arrogance, most mages assumed they wouldn’t need the skills so didn’t work on them becoming rusty or staying at the same level as someone who just graduated because they only worked on their spell usage.

It was exactly what happened during the cross-class event. Any one of those mages could have done far more if they bothered doing more than the minimum that was required from them. They only saw everything as a target for the bows they wielded instead of using their entire toolset. Even I was caught off-guard, if I had focused more on cycling then I would have been able to outrun them, but I didn’t so I was easily caught.

It was another wake-up call. I wasn’t going to just be a mage in the future, I was going to be the hero who stopped the magic academy from being destroyed. I needed to use all the resources to my advantage and that might require me to steal them. I knew about ambrosia and it was easy enough to get, but I also had to look into other ways to improve my strength, mana capacity, or magical affinities.

Figuring out ways to improve my own power was something absolutely necessary, but I also needed to figure out the entire plan and ways to hobble it. The difference between having the school prepared over it being a complete surprise could be the difference in us winning or losing the fight. If I were to let's say, reverse any of the changes to the shields so that they would show up and not be able to cast any of their spells then it would turn the situation completely against them.

All I needed to do was learn how the shields work, then hope I could make the alterations myself. I really needed to start writing down everything that happened in the first three months and the changes I wanted to make for the school invasion. Getting the zell from the lottery was one part, but I also needed to figure out what to do with that money.

It was a week later when I read the newspaper that there was an attack on the city bank. At first, I didn’t think it had anything to do with the school attack but I thought about it more. The bank that was attacked was on the opposite end of the city, if more guards were stationed there after the attack then fewer guards would be around the school when the surprise attack happened.

I wasn’t thinking big enough. Mages were valuable, the nobles were able to fight on par with the king because they had more mages than him. I could offer to apprentice under a mage and learn their specialty magic, not only that but also find valuable items to steal from them in the process. To save the world I was willing to be more underhanded than I would outside of the time loops.

I was willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill to make sure they didn’t unleash the demon lord which would doom the planet. Not everyone would die, but the continent I lived on would be doomed but humanity was far more fractured than when the demon king ruled before. It would cost millions of lives before the other countries started to take him seriously.

My curiosity got the best of me so I asked Mr. Rights. “What are all the ways a person could improve themselves? Even if the process is painful or expensive, even if the method comes with a detriment, are there any ways I can improve my magical abilities or strengthen my body?”

He smiled as if he was waiting for me to ask that question. “We’ll talk more about this after class is over.”