Chapter 136. Test (1)
‘Look at these things.’
Looking at the dozens of clay dolls surrounding him, Riman thought.
‘They aren't ordinary clay dolls, right?’
Clay dolls whose appearances were almost indistinguishable from those excavated from ruins at a glance.
But Riman's keen senses could tell.
The lingering scent of mana seeping into the surface layer of the clay dolls.
This was Sanhae.
The headquarters of Outer Arts.
Outer Arts refers to magic such as summoning, necromancy, and puppetry.
Creating combat dolls in the form of clay dolls in a place like this was far too easy a task.
And those things right there were exactly such combat dolls.
RUMBLE......-
The clay dolls began to move very minutely.
Mana spread throughout the clay dolls' bodies, and the spreading mana beca fuel for the formula and awakened the dolls.
Mana woke the clay dolls to make them move, and simultaneously made them hard.
A clay doll before awakening is just a simple earthenware doll.
Therefore, it boasted absurd durability where it would just break if it fell on a hard floor.
But from the mont it awakens, the story changes.
Because its strength and hardness rise sharply, becoming as hard as steel, and it cos to possess power far exceeding that of an ordinary person.
Riman also knew these characteristics of the clay dolls.
So he had no intention of just watching.
“Co out.”
SHRRRR!
Pitch-black energy flowed out from the ring Riman wore and took on a form like a whip.
“Strike.”
SWISH!
The black whip was ejected.
Towards the clay dolls not yet fully awakened.
CRACK!
The sharp tip of the whip pierced the clay doll's belly.
The pierced clay doll broke and crumbled helplessly like a jar.
That was the beginning.
CRACKLE CRUNCH!
The rushing whip began to smash the clay dolls in succession.
Like a needle and thread threading beads.
The black whip rushed while piercing the clay dolls.
The clay dolls, not yet fully hardened nor with their combat formulas activated, had no choice but to suffer unilaterally.
It was as if they were stabbed by the opponent before they could even draw their swords.
CLANG CLATTER!
The sound of shards tumbling on the floor rang dizzily in the room.
The 88 combat clay dolls beca piles of dirt just like that.
Sothing that happened in the blink of an eye.
It was exactly because of this that the Headmaster's eyes widened while watching this on the monitor from the Headmaster's office.
“...Ho-oh.”
Activation of the embedded formula, completion of hardening, entry into combat stance.
The ti for all this to happen is rely 0.3 seconds.
But Riman had pierced into that fleeting mont of 0.3 seconds.
The Headmaster nodded and said.
“0.3 seconds, the mont the clay doll becos weakest. To pierce exactly into that gap.”
Then he asked the man standing next to him.
“What do you think?”
The man who received the question was the very wizard who brought Riman here.
He organized his evaluation of Riman in his head for a mont.
The conclusion was as follows.
“...He seems to be a wizard with quite good instincts at least.”
“Does that an there are problems in areas other than instincts?”
“Only that there is such a possibility. Because that person is one who acquired magic on the streets, not one formally taught at a Magic Tower.”
There was a strangely patronizing tone underlying his words towards Riman.
Of course, it couldn't be said to be completely wrong words.
Because the gap between a wizard formally taught and one who wasn't was extrely large.
The Headmaster nodded and said.
“A wizard of the fields, huh. In such cases, they usually show one of two patterns.”
“......?”
“Either a genius enough to establish a school by self-study, or ending up as a hodgepodge built randomly without basics. I am curious.”
“Yes?”
“Which side that guy will be on?”
TAP.
The Headmaster placed his index fingertip on the white paper spread on the desk.
With his fingertip touching like that, he drew a round circle on the paper.
Then a pitch-black circle was drawn on the paper following his fingertip.
As if drawn with a brush.
The Headmaster closed the line to complete the circle and muttered.
“Awaken.”
WHIRRR......-
That was a kind of magical signal.
And that signal touched the ceiling of the room where Riman was.
RUMBLE......-
The ceiling of the room where Riman was was considerably high.
A high do-shaped ceiling, its center.
From there, a minutely rattling sound flowed out.
And a mont later.
The ceiling opened and sothing fell.
WHOOSH-
A massive ball made of stone.
A giant sphere reaching 10 ters in diater alone.
It fell exactly on Riman's head.
CRASH!!
A high-weight fall without any on.
A roar and vibration burst out, and dust and debris scattered in all directions.
Seeing that scene on the monitor, the attendant spoke in bewildernt.
“Th... That... Headmaster?”
“No need to worry. Watch closely.”
“......!”
A mont later, the dust cleared and the situation was revealed again.
The stone sphere embedded about one-third into the floor.
And Riman was standing next to it.
Without suffering any damage.
Watching that, the Headmaster muttered.
“...As expected, breaking the clay dolls wasn't a coincidence.”
The Headmaster looked back at the attendant and said.
“You were right. He is indeed a friend with good instincts. However.......”
RUMBLE.......
At that mont, the stone sphere began to unravel slowly.
As if a spool of thread unravels and turns into sothing long, the sphere unraveled and transford into a long snake.
A massive stone snake.
Riman looked up at the snake's head and muttered.
“...The hospitality for a guest is terrible, terrible.”
“KYAAAK!”
The snake spat out a screech and rushed towards Riman.
CRASH!!
The snake bit off the spot itself where Riman was standing.
The stone floor shattered like a cookie and was rolled into the snake's mouth.
A situation where he would have been crushed to death nine out of ten tis if he had been mixed into that debris.
But this ti too, Riman was not swept up in the attack.
Because he was standing far away at so point.
“Grr......!”
“What are you glaring at, you bastard?”
That mont the snake glared its eyes towards Riman.
Riman snapped his fingers with a snap.
BOOM!!
An explosion burst inside the snake's mouth.
Just a mont ago when the snake bit off the ground where Riman was standing along with the foundation.
Riman had already planted a [Fla Seed] beneath his feet.
Because he predicted that that stone snake would bite off the spot itself where he was standing whole.
As predicted, the snake bit off the ground where Riman was, the seed of fire went into its mouth, and just like that, boom.
The explosion bursting like that ended up grinding the inside of the snake's mouth.
“Karak......!”
The inside of the guy's oral cavity was a ss.
It was natural since a bomb exploded inside a tightly closed mouth.
The lower jaw was gone, teeth were broken, and the roof of the mouth was torn off too.
If it were an ordinary living creature, it would have been screaming and creating chaos already.
But this stone snake was an automatic doll controlled by magic.
Therefore, it felt no pain.
What the guy recognized was just the fact that a part of its body was lost.
And only the judgnt that it must repair that lost part.
GRIND GRIND......!
The snake's broken mouth began to recover at a terrifying speed.
The blown-away roof of the mouth and lower jaw, teeth and tongue were all recovered in an instant.
Recovery ability enough to blow away all fighting spirit from the opponent's standpoint.
But Riman's face was nonchalant.
Because he knew the guy would co out like this.
And that ant he also knew the counterasure.
“Karak!”
CRASH CRUNCH!
The snake began to rampage again.
Whether it learned a lesson from the explosion a mont ago, it didn't open its mouth this ti.
Instead, it just started to headbutt.
The heading putting forward that hard body and heavy mass was a killing technique in itself.
The road surface broke, walls shattered, and roars and dust began to burst from all directions.
Simultaneously, the guy swung even its tail like a whip.
The head rushed chasing Riman, and the tail smashed everywhere randomly.
CRASH CRUNCH!!
But even in such midst, Riman eventually found a safe zone.
A space of barely half a pyeong found by ticulously calculating the trajectory and speed of the guy's movent.
Standing at that point, he could avoid the guy's attacks for at least 2 seconds.
2 seconds, it was a short ti.
But it was enough ti to shoot up a fireball.
[Fla Bullet]
FLARE!
A small black fireball blood from Riman's fingertip.
Riman shot it up.
WHOOSH!
“Hm?”
Seeing that scene, the Headmaster felt doubt at three points.
First, that the size of the fireball was too small.
Second, that the fireball was black.
And third, that the direction of the fireball's ejection was strange.
“He shot the fireball... to the ceiling......?”
ZING!
The [Fla Bullet] shot by Riman flew straight towards the ceiling.
The enemy was right in front of his nose, but the attack was shot up above his head.
‘Is it a mistake?’
THUD.
The fireball soon hit the ceiling directly.
A minute strike that couldn't even make a single crack in the ceiling.
The Headmaster couldn't possibly know Riman's intention.
However, imdiately the next mont.
HISS!
Water began to pour down from the ceiling.
The sprinklers had started operating.
SPLASH!
Firefighting water poured down like heavy rain.
What Riman hit with the [Fla Bullet] a mont ago wasn't simply the ceiling.
What Riman aid for was the fire detection device embedded in the ceiling.
It orders sprinklers to spray water when it detects smoke or high heat.
So Riman shot a fireball at that device.
To make it pour out water.
But.......
‘What on earth does he intend to do with that?’
Triggering the fire detection device to make water pour out itself was novel.
Due to this sudden change in situation, the stone snake also stopped moving for a mont.
But that was the end.
The Headmaster couldn't get a sense of what Riman would do with this water baptism.
SPLASH......-
The pouring water baptism soon subsided.
And the snake started moving, squirming towards Riman again.
Eventually, other than the humidity inside the room changing, there seed to be no change in the battle situation.
“Kyahak!”
The snake rushed towards Riman again.
At that mont.
DASH!
Riman disappeared out of the snake's view.
And the place Riman appeared again was next to the snake's flank.
Riman raised his mana while placing his hand on the surface of the snake's body.
[Freeze]
CRACKLE!
The surface of the snake's body began to freeze.
Seeing this, both the Headmaster and the attendant widened their eyes.
“Freeze magic, you say......?”
“Following fire, freeze... how can he use magic of two lineages......?!”
The snake was in a state drenched in water.
Therefore, its whole body began to freeze at a terrifying speed.
Watching the monitor, the attendant muttered.
“To think triggering the fire detection device was a groundwork for freeze magic... He is a person with quite decent sense.”
“How do you think it will turn out?”
“Yes?”
“The victory or defeat of this fight. How do you think it will turn out?”
“It seems like Leman will lose.”
Having praised Leman's action a mont ago, he was making the opposite judgnt.
“Why?”
“Because that level of freezing cannot completely stop the stone snake's movent.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Is... Is it not?”
“Watch closely. In this test, our side lost.”
“Yes?!”
The attendant looked into the monitor in surprise.
And the situation was indeed turning out as the Headmaster said.
CRACK, CRUNCH......!
The epidermis of the stone snake covered in ice was cracking and breaking.
“H, how......!”
“Do you rember the snake's jaw being restored after being blown away earlier?”
“Yes. But why that......”
“Restoration isn't free. To restore the blown-away jaw, it has to bring materials from other parts.”
“Ah......!”
“Do you understand now? Every ti the stone snake restores, it brings restoration materials from its whole body. Because of that, if it restores, minute cracks form on the whole body. Normally, they are cracks that don't pose much threat, but what if water seeps into those cracks? And what if that seeped water is frozen and forcibly expanded?”
“...The cracks would widen and the body would collapse!”
“Exactly that.”
RUMBLE!
At that mont, the stone snake's body completely shattered and crumbled.
Seeing that scene, the Headmaster's eyes sparkled.
The Headmaster said.
“We lost. Let's get up.”
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