LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 7 - Entrance Ceremony (5)
✦ Chapter 7 – Entrance Ceremony (5) ✦
「Translator – Creator」
𒋝𒋝𒋝𒋝𒋝
My ability to weave through the crowd of students earlier, dodging monsters with ease… it was all thanks to 「Shadow Step」.
It was a mobility skill I’d brought over from my original character, paired with the mythic-grade [Subspace]. In Croaka, it was considered one of the most powerful rogue skills. Unfortunately, my main character was a spearman, so I’d never actually used it.
Unlike Subspace, which I’d been able to use immediately after arriving in Croaka, 「Shadow Step」required a bit more effort. The item I’d brought wasn’t the skill itself, but rather… a skill book.
‘They actually gave it to me as a real book.’
In the game, you could simply click and learn, but reality had no such convenience. Therefore, to use the skill, I had no choice but to open the book and teach myself, which left me in disbelief.
[Feint left, move right. But you must also exist on the left.]
That single, cryptic sentence was all it contained. Hundreds of pages… for a single sentence. I thought it was some kind of joke.
But there was nothing else in the book. So, I tried to follow its instructions. I darted left, then right, trying to maintain a presence on both sides. It felt… impossible.
‘Ironically, I succeeded out of frustration.’
In my annoyance, I made a feint left, moved right, and created an illusion on the left—and it worked. Even after succeeding, I found it absurd.
After that first success, I no longer needed to create an illusion to activate Shadow Step. It had become… instinct.
“I never thought I’d have to use illusions for [Shadow Step] again.”
*WHAM! WHAM!*
The golems were flailing wildly, their massive fists smashing into the ground where my illusions had been a second earlier. But they couldn’t land a single hit.
“How is he moving like that?!”
“There’s no one in the Isar tribe who can move like that!”
“I’ve never witnessed such agility, even in the East.”
“With ten of him moving like that… it’s no wonder the golems can’t touch him.”
What I was doing… It sounded simple enough when I explained it.
Nine illusions, including myself, all using [Shadow Step] simultaneously.
Easy to describe… excruciatingly difficult to execute. For two reasons.
First, the mana drain was insane. Maintaining nine illusions was depleting my mana reserves at an alarming rate.
The second reason is that it was mind-numbingly painful.
‘I feel like my head’s going to explode!’
I had to consciously control every single movement of my nine illusions. If the golems realized they were fakes, the plan would fall apart. So, I made them move naturally, seamlessly blending into the chaos. Controlling all nine of them, while simultaneously dodging the golems myself… It was enough to give me a migraine.
Nonetheless, I spoke to the golems, even though they were inanimate. I discovered early on that I could even create sound illusions.
““Which one of us is the real Loki, Mr. Golem?””
*WHAM! CRASH!*
We circled the golems, a dizzying dance of feints and dodges.
If even one of my illusions was hit, the jig would be up. So, I moved with a precision I’d honed through countless hours of gaming, my reflexes sharp, my senses on high alert.
“I’m the real one!”
“No, I’m the real Loki!”
“What are you talking about? Obviously, I’m the real one!”
“I’m not real.”
“I’m… who am I?”
If I were a beautiful woman surrounded by ten handsome men vying for my attention, I’d probably be enjoying this. But the golems, unfortunately, were immune to my charms.
*WHAM!*
“No reaction to my handsome face? Guess you’re not a lady, huh?”
Whenever the golems left an opening, I’d dart forward, jabbing at them with my staff.
“I’m the real Loki!”
And then I’d melt back into the crowd of illusions. It was a cheap tactic, even by my standards.
“The one who just stabbed is me.”
“What are you talking about? I can still feel the impact on my staff!”
“Handsome sirs over there, it was I who attacked the golem.”
But even as I kept up a steady stream of chatter, my mind was racing, constantly calculating distances. My distance from the golems, the golems’ distance from Lucas and Clara…
If I got too close, I’d be crushed. If I stayed too far away, the golems might ignore me and turn on my allies.
Therefore, I maintained a delicate distance as I circled around the golem. The two golems kept swinging their fists, but neither I nor the illusions were slow enough to get hit by them.
“Did you really think you could hit me with that?”
“Handsome sir, you dodge as well as you lie.”
“Thank you! You’re quite handsome yourself!”
“I’m—“
To conserve mana, I reduced the number of illusions to five. It made it harder to dodge, forcing me to concentrate even more fiercely.
*WHAM!*
Maybe because my concentration wavered for a split second, one of my illusions was obliterated by a massive fist.
If that wasn’t an illusion and had been me, it would’ve been the end. Now, three illusions remained; three precarious but sufficient.
“Looks like some of the handsome ones have disappeared,” I said casually, as the remaining three illusions charged the golems. I used the distraction to make my move, dashing towards my predetermined destination.
The golems obliterated the last of my illusions, but I didn’t care. I’d reached my target. The golems, having destroyed the illusions, now turned their gaze toward me, their eyes glowing with malevolent intent.
“Haha. It seems I’ve been found out; I am the real one,” I said.
They lumbered towards me, but I was faster. I reached out, my fingers grasping something invisible in the air.
The golems rushed towards me, but I was faster in pulling something suspended in the air before they could reach me; translucent threads, almost invisible even up close, were wrapped around my fingers.
As I had been running around the golems, I had been laying these threads on the ground. When I pulled the threads connected to my fingers, they tightened around the golems’ bodies.
The threads were made from the spider beast Kezard and had been processed with my special ability, [The Creator’s Touch]. The golems struggled against their invisible bonds, trying to tear free, but the threads held firm.
“You won’t be able to free yourselves from those that easily.”
I’d been carrying the threads in my Subspace, which had further enhanced their durability and invisibility.
That was Subspace’s primary ability—item enhancement.
I would have loved to finish them off myself, but I lacked the firepower, and the threads wouldn’t hold them forever.
“Unfortunately, gentlemen, I’m not the main character of this stage,” I said, turning to look where Lucas and Clara were.
Clara had finished her incantation. An aura of raw, unbridled mana crackled around her staff, making the air itself hum with power. Lucas, too, was ready. His spear pulsed with a holy golden light, a beacon of righteous fury.
“You were incredible, Loki.”
“I might not have understood your… motivational tactics, but you saved us.”
And with that, Clara unleashed the power she’d been gathering, a torrent of pure mana aimed directly at the golems. Lucas followed suit, hurling his spear with the force of a thunderbolt.
Bound by my threads, the golems had nowhere to escape.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!*
The world exploded in a blinding flash of light and a deafening roar. When the dust settled, the golems were gone. Not even their cores remained.
.
.
.
In the Academy’s monitoring room, the professors were in a frenzy.
“They actually defeated them!”
“Is this class truly exceptional? Or are those three just… prodigies?”
“Did you see the spell Clara used? Is that from the Tower Master’s personal grimoire?”
“And Lucas’s spear throw! That golden aura… it must be that power unique to the Imperial family!”
The professors had unconsciously shifted from calling them “students” to addressing them by name, a subtle sign of their growing respect.
“And what about Loki? Could he be… a Unique Magic user?”
The room fell silent. Everyone knew the significance, the mystery, surrounding Unique Magic. Unlike ordinary magic, it couldn’t be taught or learned.
Unique Magic was a gift, an innate ability. Much about it remained unknown. Some forms were completely useless, while others held the potential to shift the tides of war.
It was a subject ripe for research, and the professors weren’t about to let this opportunity slip through their fingers. Professor Idra, who’d had her eyes on Loki from the start, was particularly possessive.
“Everyone, hands off my student. Loki is my student!”
“Now, now, Professor Idra. He’s not ‘yours.’ He belongs to all of us… for now.”
“You only call me ‘Professor’ when it suits you!”
The club representatives, too, were eager to claim Loki for their respective groups, but they knew they couldn’t compete with the Student Council President and the Disciplinary Committee Head.
Johanna Freya and Jorden Adellian glared at each other, their rivalry as intense as ever.
“Well, I must excuse myself. Important matters to attend to.”
The Headmaster left the monitoring room and returned to his office. He retrieved a communication device from his desk drawer and activated it.
*Beep—beep—*
It took a while for the recipient to answer, considering who it was.
“Glory to the Empire, Your Majesty. It’s me, the Headmaster.”
[Well, well. If it isn’t the Headmaster himself.]
A man with the same golden hair and eyes as Lucas appeared on the screen. But the aura of authority emanating from him… it dwarfed Lucas’s presence.
“Please, Your Majesty, there’s no need for formalities.”
[After all the scoldings I received from you when I was a student, I wouldn’t dream of it.]
“Those were good times.”
[What brings you to contact me, Headmaster?]
“I know your time is valuable, so I’ll get straight to the point, Your Majesty. A student named Loki… is he… by any chance… your disciple?”
— End of Chapter —
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