Chapter 292: A Good Choice Is Already Right In Front of You Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As soon as Baiyi explained the real details of his mission to the concerned bystanders, the consensus finally united in their desire to choke the admin’s irresponsible tongue out. Of course, the admin had probably predicted that the crowd would feel this way, so he had managed to slip away amidst the chaos…
Later that evening, a news article titled “SHOCKING! Association’s HEAVYWEIGHT VICE PRESIDENT preparing to COMPLETELY DESTROY FAMOUS SOUL ARMATURE FOR REASONS that will SHOCK YOU!” started to circulate within the inner circle of the Sorcerers’ Association. It attracted the attention of many, who all felt an urge to wallop the anonymous writer, as soon as they finished reading the article.
Nevertheless, the news of this ‘educational duel’ between Baiyi and VP Grant spread wildly, like a summer wildfire in a Californian forest, due to the article’s clickbait of a title. However, the anonymous writer had done what the VP originally intended him to do, which was to spread the news about the duel to as many interested individuals as possible. Most sorcerers, representatives from other associations, and the interested public had marked the duel’s date, which was three days later, on their calendars, for it was an event they would not miss. Afterward, betting pools were formed, and money began to pour in.
Meanwhile, Baiyi was sitting in his room, wondering how in the world he was going to handle the fight. He had already designated his teaching duty to Aya and the hammerhead shark plushie, which contained the Soul Armature Practitioner Walker.
Baiyi knew that the fight was not going to be an easy one — even if it was just for the visuals. Although Baiyi knew that he need not worry about losing his life, he understood that he ran the risk of losing something even more important than life — his face. Furthermore, this was happening when his reputation was one of his biggest assets!
His opponent was a Holy-level fighter, who had received the rank a long time ago and had the corresponding experience for one with such caliber! Even though Baiyi could give VP Grant a run of his money in a fight involving experience, the Fifth Voidwalker still had a limit to his mana output.
The key constraint here was also the publicity of this duel. He simply could not go up there and deploy his Void Energy; hell, he could not even use any martial art or assassination techniques. His pool of techniques would have to be restricted to those that sorcerers use, despite fighting against a Holy-level powerhouse. This made the upcoming battle even more challenging than Baiyi would have liked to admit. Besides, apart from Baiyi’s armor and his Saint Quartz Staff, he was practically vulnerable. Even if armor did not matter in a high-level fight, Baiyi could not fight in his birthday suit, right?
‘So let’s see what we have here: insufficient mana output, lackluster gear, no home base advantage…’ The only advantage Baiyi had was his limitless mana reserve, which would prove useless in a high-level battle, anyway! Therefore, nothing worked in his favor. Baiyi did not even have the opportunity to overwhelm his opponent with a wide array of techniques.
In battles like these, both opponents would go all out, and that would greatly accentuate Baiyi’s low mana output problem.
This was nothing like the fight between Mia and Vidomina back then, where they both took turns to attack and defend. As a matter of fact, sorcerers would hardly stay on the ground for the entire duration of their battle, so except for when they have to draw formations, the duel between Baiyi and VP Grant would be held in the air.
When that happened, the two sorcerers would have to execute a variety of almost-impossible aerial maneuvers, like modern fighter jets, bombarding each other with colorful magic. The fight would be even more exciting than fights between magical girls; it may even resemble a certain old-school, bullet-hell shoot’em up 1 .
Battles like these were not fought on land because land-based fights were lame. They were fought in the air because, in battles involving of two incredibly powerful opponents, the impact of their clashes would be fatal. No high-level sorcerer would opt to tank the full impact of their opponent’s magic. This was because most normal energy shields would only be able to protect their user from one or two attacks. In a battle where multiple magic attacks were cast with lightning speed, the opponent who chose to tank the attacks with their energy shield might as well be wearing an eggshell.
Mana shields, which are constructed from a sorcerer’s own power, are no good in high-level battles, either. They expend too much mana and require the caster to focus on defense, which makes it difficult for them to make headway in battle. Elemental shields are another form of defense that advanced sorcerers could use in battle. These shields are formed with the element that the sorcerer is proficient with.
Whenever sorcerers are faced with elemental attacks, they deploy elemental shields which have elements that directly contradict the element in the attacks; for example, water shields counter fire attacks. However, sorcerers had long since learned to infuse additional elements into their elemental attacks so that it cannot be stopped with elemental shields having only one element.
Debuffs, such as Silence, Sluggard, Bling, etc., can also be sneakily inserted into elemental spells, along with additional elements, and fired off an opponent.
Hence, in high-level battles, sorcerers have only two options to choose from when faced with attacks: they could choose to evade the attacks, or they could change the trajectory of the opponent’s magical attack with a magical attack of their own. They could also disturb their opponent’s spells when it is being conjured, and wipe out the bit of psychic energy that their opponent uses to track their every move. No matter how one chose to defend, the most vital factor would be their ability to move at high speeds, and one could attain a faster speed by flying, rather than running on the ground. Flying would also allow the sorcerers to avoid tactics that involve hiding attacks underground, which would only trigger when the target is standing right about them.
A battle between sorcerers was, therefore, very exciting but risky. It was similar to playing Contra; one misstep was no different from a lethal mistake. Hence, sorcerers choose to move in a team of five or higher.
After all, these were sorcerers, not wizards. Even with two ice-rayguns in each hand, they still would not be able to shoot every other class to death… except for shamans, of course.
“Argh, this is so bothersome,” Baiyi cried out in the Void. He turned to the Archmage and asked, “Okay, may I know where the Book of Servitude is? I think I’m gonna have to borrow it for a while.”
“If I knew where it was, I would not shut up about it! I have always desired to pass my possessions to you,” the Archmage replied, feeling helpless at his beloved apprentice’s new predicament. He was unable to come up with any solutions — a situation that Baiyi also found himself in.
“Hey, what about my skills? You could use them; they are more reliable than the skills of normal sorcerers’,” the Sorcerer Walker suggested.
“It’s already a hand I plan to deal, but it alone will not be enough,” Baiyi replied. “This time, it isn’t about how exhilarating the visuals are. I want to win this, badly — for the benefit of my future plans.”
“If I may? I propose that you use my Great Sage’s Staff to your benefit. My staff must still reside within the Doors of Conundrum. I understand that it may be in the hands of a new possessor, but your membership should suffice in granting you temporary ownership,” the Scholar added helpfully.
“The Great Sage’s Staff is meant to quickly replenish mana reserves, and it has some passive effects that work wonders when forming battle strategies; thus, this means it’s just not suitable for my case this time,” Baiyi sighed. The Scholar’s old weapon was really not the best complementary tool for him on this occasion.
“How about demons?! Ahh, enslave some demons!” the Devil suggested. “There are a special few of them that are natural predators to sorcerers. If we snare one of them, your problem would be taken care of!”
‘Huh. That’s surprisingly helpful— except the part about demons! However, I could summon some sort of animal or plant spirits to aid me… The Soul Armature Practitioner is the best man to ask for professional opinions.’
The Voidwalker in question was still teaching the students. Baiyi began to wonder if the classes were going well. He believed that they should be going well, considering how professional this Walker has always been.
Baiyi left his room and headed for the classroom; he was curious to know their current progress. As he got closer to the class, he heard the neutral, mechanical voice of the hammerhead shark plushie. “Mia, answer this: What is the evolved form of Butterfree 2 ?”
“Um…” A sweet voice replied. “Um… Metapod 3 ?”
‘How does a butterfly evolve into a cocoon? That’s a regression! …And wasn’t the class supposed to be about Deep Meditation? How does this question even fit that curriculum?’
“Wrong! Butterfree is the final form of its evolution! That was a trick question!” The hammerhead shark plushie replied in a coy voice. “Next! What would Beedrill 4 evolve into? Nota, your turn. ”
“Huh?… Um, Queenbee… drill?” Nota’s weak voice rang out hesitantly.
“Nuh-uh! The correct answer is Mega Beedrill 5 !”
‘That’s not even evolution in the actual sense! Also, what the hell are you teaching them? Even if you call this class ‘zoology’, those critters still don’t exist here! I-is this your professionalism? Grooming my adorable students into compulsive animal-hoarding trainers?’
Unable to contain himself, Baiyi stormed into the class and grabbed the plushie, and the Soul Armature Practitioner’s consciousness was immediately yanked back into the Void. Then, Baiyi lambasted the man to no end.
“Why won’t there be critters like these in this universe?! There are so many realms here, and humans have only explored a fraction of them! Who’s to say that there won’t be these magnificent creatures in uncharted realms, huh?” The Soul Armature Practitioner retorted indignantly.
“Besides, I already finished your Deep Meditation class. What you saw was the result of our Special Subject Voting Gauntlet,” he added.
The aforementioned Deep Meditation was actually a trance that could be used as a substitute for sleep; it would help the kids improve their mana reservoir. Unlike normal meditation — which was really just a strange way to sleep — Deep Meditation was truly meant to be a substitute to sleep. This was because, in this state, the practitioner would be able to analyze and dissect knowledge they already possess in order to understand them even more deeply. This is the same as being able to meditate and improve one’s of skills. It was a technique that could only be used after learning a significant amount of theories 6 .
If one did not possess enough knowledge, Deep Meditation would only become deep lullaby because the practitioner would sleep after some thinking. This was one of the reasons why Baiyi kept feeding his students these theories.
After all, in this world, and to its sorcerer, knowledge was mana, and mana was power. Even combat-type sorcerers like the Sorcerer Walker possessed an impressive amount of knowledge.
After handing out some simple exercises to the students, Baiyi returned to his room and continued discussing his battle plans with the Soul Armature Practitioner. “So, do you have any good ideas?”
“If you are allowed to summon a being to aid you, I do have some suggestions that could help boost defense or mana,” the Soul Armature Practitioner replied after some thinking.
“Bring up bizarre names again, and so help me I’ll silence you for one full day,” the Fifth Walker hissed.
“Me? Do that? Am I that unprofessional! To be honest, your student, Nota, is already a great choice for a summoned being. Fairies have always been highly complementary partners to sorcerers, you see. They can boost your mana and help you execute magic,” the Soul Armature Practitioner replied. “You know what? Just bring the lady with you. Saves you the entire ‘summoning’ thing.”
“Are you out of your mind? Nota may be a small creature, but she’s still as large as a human child! Do you think people would not notice her when I bring her along with me?” Baiyi remarked in resignation.