The Magic Academy's Physicist-Chapter 119: Dungeon Exploration (3)

Chapter 119: Dungeon Exploration (3)

Rosemary had given Fenrir instructions in advance.

─ The moment you see Aether, run over and put your head down. Okay?

Fenrir diligently followed Rosemary’s orders. It came up to Aether and whined, drawing everyone’s attention.

Heerelin and the other classmates made stunned faces at the act of submission uncharacteristic of a Calamity.

“... What’s that thing doing?”

“I once heard from my brother that Fenrirs immediately tuck their tails in front of a strong opponent....”

“What? Then does that mean Aether’s stronger than that Beast?”

They must not be that nervous seeing how they were chattering away even with a Calamity in front of them.

Well, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like they’d win by being nervous, anyway.

Anyway....

So they’re just sitting around watching instead of helping a friend exposed to a Beast.

Really, it was so ridiculous that it had her scoffing in a different sense.

“Hey, stupid! Don’t just stand there!”

“Hurry and get over here!”

Of course, it seemed that they weren’t all like that.

A girl with shoulder-length hair and a short Youko brat–these two girls were the first to gesture towards Aether and alert her of the danger.

... What were their names again? They were eyesores. She’d have to do something about them before they became big obstacles. Narrowing her eyes, Rosemary committed their faces to memory.

“Aether! I’ll make a wall so keep yourself covered and come back!”

Meanwhile, Professor Heerlein cast multiple spells and built a giant dirt wall in front of Fenrir. But it didn’t hold for long. The hastily-constructed wall fell with one kick from the Calamity.

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But the Youko girl raised the crumbling wall right back up. She had rebuilt it without a transmutation circle or prior chanting. Aether was able to take that opportunity and move a few steps back.

It’s useless, though.

Aether had already seen how a Calamity tucked its tail in front of her.

If she had no memories, then this should help her remember slightly. Her identity, that is.

And it was also going to make her classmates suspicious as to why a Calamity had instantly submitted to her.

There was going to be an opening somewhere, and she would target that opening and gently coax big sis. Then one day, she’d come back to the Demon Army.

Above all, the plan to use Prince Klion fell through so she had no choice but to risk her life on this.

Alright, sis. It’s the strategy that I worked hard on just to corner you. Now go pet the puppy or turn around with a dumbstruck look, anything!

Rosemary hid the smile that was trying to form behind the fan, looking forward to what would happen next.

And then Aether jammed Flare between Fenrir’s brows.

“... Huh?”

**I reached deep into my hipsack. A scratchy texture. I fell into thought as I felt the two scrolls.

... What to do about this.

I had already realized Rosemary’s intentions. The only problem remaining was gathering mana.

There were two Flares I had to use, but with the mana I could draw from the hardcover, I could only fire one of them.

Of course, Flare was made with the intention of destroying Cataclysms so it was possible to oneshot a Calamity. Even if I missed, it’d still be a critical blow for this guy.

[But you can’t fire it at this distance.]

That hardcover was right.

I was way too close to Fenrir. Firing Flare from here was... yeah, like shooting a 155 mm field artillery inside an escape room.

So I decided to take two shots.

[What, are you insane?]

Stop with the insults and see if I can shoot another one.

[If that’s what you’re going to do, then smoke mana grass!]

There was no time for that. It would take at least thirty seconds to light it and ready the mana no matter how fast.

... Hmm. Couldn’t I use the mana around me?

[Mana? If a dungeon teeming with Beasts has an abundance of magic elements, that’d be a playground for Elementals, not a Beast’s habitat.... Huh.]

The hardcover’s protests gradually died down.

There were plenty of elements around me, unlike what I’d learned in the textbook.

I’d had a hunch that that would be the case, and it seemed that my hypothesis was correct. I knew it.

[... How did you know?]

The light.

[The light?]

If there were no particular obstacles, a light’s intensity was inversely proportional the square of the distance. Take the radiation pressure of a lantern, for example. According to the calculation based on a few assumptions, there should’ve been at least a few meters of visibility as we traveled through the dungeon. In reality, we could only see a meter ahead.

[So that’s what you meant when you said that something was in the middle.]

Uh.... it had definitely been hard to verify, because I couldn’t really sense mana with this body.

But it didn’t seem like the elements here were one of the Four Elements, either. If that had been the case, then someone with good sensitivity would’ve already noticed and said something.

It didn’t matter. What mattered now was whether it could be used or not.

Could I use it?

[It won’t be as efficient but this much won’t violate the law of conservation.]

Good, it’s been a while so do some work.

[Then you can’t lock me in the desk drawer anymore. You have to stay with me all the time. Okay?]

Even while grumbling, it still did everything it needed to. The hardcover gathered the elements in the area and began packing an enormous amount of mana into the two Flare scrolls.

The distance between the two scrolls was 4.180 cm, a value determined by estimating where my position and the Beast’s were.

And it only took seconds to think this far.

Booom!!

The high-power lasers shot into the thing’s forehead one after the other, and Fenrir went flying without even a final cry. When I closed my eyes and opened them again, it was buried in the wall.

“Ahhh....”

The quivering voice of a girl.... No, the master of this dungeon.

Breathing heavily, I glared straight ahead.

A one-shot kill.

“Hey! You alright?”

Then as I was checking myself right after, Freyr and Lotte came running towards me. I turned around. The expressions of my classmates varied, but most of them were clouded with an indescribable fear.

This was going to need an explanation.

“I brought Flare just in case. The.... you know, right?”

Most of them nodded in understanding.

“I see.... That was why Fenrir ducked its head right away.”

“So that was it.”

“But man, Flare is really powerful! I’ve never seen it in action before.”

I nodded to their questions asking if I was okay. Just then, something dropped onto my head.

I let out an ‘ugh’ and grabbed my head. It didn’t hurt, I was just a little surprised. When I turned around, Miss Heerlein sighed heavily with her old wooden staff in hand.

“That was dangerous. What if you had gotten hurt?”

“I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“Fenrir’s one thing, but firing Flare at point-blank?”

Heerlein kept huffing, running a hand down her chest as she looked around.

And the lady who had been watching from the sidelines until now finally stepped forth. Rosemary casually slipped herself into our conversation and picked up where Miss Heerlein left off.

“That’s right. If you use a magic like that at that distance, it’d cause quite the damage to the caster as well. You must’ve known this as the inventor.... Huh?”

She scanned every inch of me, then opened her eyes wide.

“Why is there no injury...?”

“I got lucky.”

With a sly smile, I shrugged. For a very brief moment, Rosemary scrunched her face.

Now we’re tied. If you resent it, then go learn some electromagnetism.

“Rather, you seem like you wanted me to get hurt?”

“No? Why? Why would I think that? Really, can you please not twist my words into something strange?”

“I mean, you sounded like you were looking forward to something.”

“That’s how I normally sound!”

It was fun to get back at her. Ahh, so it was this, this was why she had been cornering me. It was addictive.

“This is the end of today’s class, everyone. I’ll take responsibility for what happened this time and report to the board so if you have anything you want to say, tell me now!”

With the boss defeated, this dungeon was now a dead one. No Beasts were going to show up for a few days, at least.

The students who were exhausted grouped together first and left. The few interested in Fenrir’s corpse stayed behind with me.

Spinning my staff, I approached Fenrir.

“Since I was the one who killed it, can I open it up?”

“Oh, yes. That’s right. Do you know how to dismantle it?”

“Of course; I’ve done it for over three years.”

Heerlein couldn’t say anything. Lotte tilted her head in question but then let out a short cry in realization. Freyr was just Freyr.

“Wait, sis!”

Just hearing her voice had me sighing, now.

“And what’s the matter this time, Lady Blanton?”

“Take a look over here! There’s an impressive full-length mirror!”

“That’s great. You can take it and decorate your room with it.”

“No, I mean.... This mirror seems a bit special!”

Wow, check these out. All the mana stones were high-quality because they came from a Calamity. They were all going to be helpful for my research.

“Aetheeeer!”

“Alright, alright.”

I left the rest to the others and walked over to Rosemary who was whining. Like she’d said,  there was a full-length mirror nearly two meters tall on one side of the boss room.

Illuminating the mirror with a lantern, Rosemary’s voice grew louder as her eyes glimmered.

“This mirror looks very clean. How about it, would you like to take one more spoil with you?”

“I can just use the restroom mirror.”

“Are you a boy? A lady needs to have one of these in her room.”

“I’ll just stay a boy.”

Come to think of it, Rosemary didn’t even know that I was a transmigrator. She was definitely thinking that I’d forgotten about her being a Cataclysm because I’d lost my memories.

“Try looking into it. See, your hair’s a mess! Do you at least brush it?”

Rosemary tugged on my wrist and dragged me in front of the mirror. Wondering why she was acting like this, I glanced at the mirror.

“...... What the.”

As expected, the girl reflected in the mirror was definitely ‘me’.

... Except for the white hair.