The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 115

[ Magic Skills Details

Grade: Proficient Magician

Specialized Field: Elements

Common Magic:

Fire Element Magic:

Wind Element Magic:

Spirit-type Magic:

Spiritual Resonance Lvl 13

Spiritual Understanding Lvl 13

Spirit Manifestation Lvl 4

Resonance Level: 3

Spiritual Efficiency: Good

Innate Skills:

Resonance Level: 1

Spiritual Efficiency: Average

Innate Skills:

Resonance Level: 1

Spiritual Efficiency: Very Bad

Innate Skills:

(New!) Beginner Celestial Magic can now be learned!

Celestial Magic:

[Ohh!]

The next day, as the spirits went around while carrying the materials needed for building the cabin behind me, I sat down at the campfire and tried to manifest red magic power. Merilda, who had been manifested, sat next to the campfire and waved her feet in the air while exclaiming in wonder.

Unlike normal magic, the feeling of it in my body was much heavier. A small amount of celestial magic power, which was much more difficult to handle, began to float around the tip of my finger.

Celestial magic was considered to be the most difficult of all fields in magic, and there was not much research behind it.

Simply put, as it specialized in the twisting and breaking of the provinces and laws of the world, it mainly dealt with time and spatial-related magic… It was said to even be possible to use it as a means to forcibly distort or deceive another person’s perception.

If you could use advanced Celestial magic, you could control other’s minds or even travel large distances with spatial movement… There were all sorts of incredible types of magic available, which would make one wonder how it was even possible.

Saying it like that sounded amazing, but… the penalty for using it was just as strong. First of all, Celestial magic power wasn’t very efficient to use. Because the level of research into it was small, it was inevitable that one would have to go through much trial and error to become accustomed to it. Not only that, but I’d also heard it put quite a strain on one’s body.

In the first place, Celestial Magic wasn’t even considered a usable skill in . It was used as an exclusive skill by enemies or other named NPCs.

[Just looking at it, it seems quite difficult to handle~ Can you control the flow of the magic power?]

“I’m not sure… I’ll have to try it first.”

I sat down next to the campfire, carefully looking through Glockt’s posthumous work, ‘Introduction to Celestial Magic.’

After looking through the book, Beginner Celestial Magic was unlocked.

“……”

I’d heard a lot about all sorts of hidden growth factors within the game, but I had never even thought that there would actually be a way for a player to learn Celestial Magic.

It was impossible to imagine that such a method was hidden in Glockt’s tomb on the West Coast.

The western coast of Acken Island held barely any meaning within the storyline. In fact, the small gap in the cliffside where it was hidden was barely noticeable even from up close. Without Lucy, no one would have ever imagined that such a place existed.

“It’s more important to realize the principles than repeatedly practicing it. Magic is a science where theory and senses coexist, but… Celestial Magic feels a bit more focused on the theoretical aspect.”

As I was sitting cross-legged on a tree stump as I read through the book, Lucy suddenly appeared, sitting down in my lap as if it was all too natural.

Buried in my lap, munching on her jerky, she began to express Celestial magic power in her own hands.

Even though she didn’t put much effort into expressing it, what seemed to be a decent amount of Celestial magic power began to float in the air.

Paat!

As Lucy clenched her first, all sorts of junk, various hunting tools, materials used for traps, and construction materials that had been scattered all around began to gather at the center of the magic power.

Forced Collectiontwisted the flow of space to move an enemy’s position at will. Among all the Celestial-type magics, it was one of the most difficult ones to use.

“Of course, the feeling of expressing Celestial magic power itself also requires much repeated practice.”

“Lucy, it seems you have also gone through quite a bit of repetitive training.”

“I… I just did it a couple times and it worked.”

Of course.

I ended up trying to express Celestial Magic a few more times.

It was obviously a type of magic that would need to be mastered over a long period of time, but it was difficult to even make any sort of immediate progress.

After all, wasn’t Celestial Magic a field that still had many unexplained aspects?

Even just having a student able to use Celestial Magic was enough to make the faculty members loll their tongue out in awe. If I were lucky, I could even get specific teachings from a professor that took interest in me.

Lucy was the type that used magic through her talent and senses, so it wouldn’t be easy for me to learn by watching her. It would be better to get help from a professor that had already taught many students. There was no particular correlation with having talent in magic and having the ability to teach it.

Suddenly remembering Professor Glast, who had left the world, I started to feel sad in multiple ways. After all, there wasn’t anyone better than him when it came to teaching Celestial Magic.

“First, I should start by taking in this entire book.”

Reading through Glockt’s introductory book, I was completely blown away. It was certainly an incredible book that showed an extraordinary understanding of Celestial Magic. It was also quite digestible.

That wasn’t to say that it wasn’t complicated. But as long as I clenched my teeth and turned the gears in my head to the max, at the very least I would gain something from it.

However, in my experience, no matter how complicated the contents of the book might be, as long as I continued to read it over ten or twenty times, I was bound to become proficient in it to some extent.

Similar to when you first read a university textbook or a law book, you might not understand much. But the more you pushed through and read through it, the more you would begin to understand.

Since it was a case where theory was more important than senses… for the time being, after I finished all my work I’d focus on reading the book before bed.

I definitely couldn’t waste such a precious source of the power known as Celestial Magic.

“Yaaaaaawmmnn~”

Suddenly, Lucy began to get tired as she uttered a loud yawn and looked at me.

Buried in my lap, she began to twist her body, curling up into a ball as she swallowed her saliva.

I continued to flip through the pages of the book with one hand as I stroked Lucy’s head with the other. At that point, it was all too natural.

However, as if Lucy were surprised by something, she would needlessly move her body around and look up at me once in a while, her eyes wide. She would then curl back up into my chest, only to wake up again.

“What’s wrong?”

Asking Lucy that, her face suddenly started to blush as our faces were quite close together. She suddenly shook her head.

As if she were saying it was nothing, she began to bury herself in my arms again. She continued to curl up in a ball as she tried to find the most comfortable position she could.

[This is… an issue. Sigh…]

Merilda, who sat down next to me, swept her hair off to the side.

***

“And… There’s another girl…”

It was a long-awaited weekend.

I had enough food built up and no immediate maintenance to take care of, so I spent most of my time until late in the night reading through the Celestial Magic Book.

Ziggs showed up at my camp with a large bag.Looking at Merilda, who sat next to me looking through books on art, his complexion started to turn pale.

“Oh, Ziggs. What’s wrong?”

“Uhm, Ed. I can’t help but think it’s rather cocky of you, but… Would it be fine if I say my piece bluntly…? This is all just… I mean, the desires and aspirations of a male are good, but… Shouldn’t you also be thinking about being able to handle it all? Isn’t this too much already…?! At this rate, it’s impossible to predict just what kind of hell will unfold…?”

“……”

I glared daggers at Ziggs as I then cut off the magic power that was being used to manifest Merilda.

In an instant, Merilda’s body began to become translucent as she turned into the wind, disappearing.

[Uh-Huh?! I was still in the middle of reading an interesting section…!]

Merilda then completely disappeared as the book she had been reading sadly rolled on the floor.

“…I’m sorry. I didn’t realize she was a spirit. I… I jumped to conclusions hastily on my own… I’m really sorry. These days… It seems that it’s become a habit for me to think of things that way…”

Ziggs had already seen Merilda the last time we dueled. However, it seemed that he randomly spoke what was on his mind, since he was caught off guard and overwhelmed by what he was seeing. I guess that could happen.

Currently, Merilda’s manifested form minimized the usage of magic power as much as possible. However, it also seemed to have a significant effect on her appearance. Still, even doing just that much puts a heavy burden on my magic power.

Still, as long as I constantly practiced manifesting her, it would train my spiritual resonance and also raise my understanding with Merilda. Though, it was obviously still a bit inconvenient to do in my daily life.

It was the same as wearing sandbags on your body when training. However, I had to be able to handle at least that much to be able to effectively use Merilda in a real battle.

After not doing anything for a moment, magic energy suddenly began to erupt in the air again as a strong gale blew.

Fwooosh!

And from the middle of it, Merilda popped up in the form of a human. This time, she had manifested not from my own magic power, but rather through Lucy’s, which was like an infinite spring.

Lucy and Yennekar’s resonance levels were on a completely different scale when compared to regular people. I didn’t know about her complete form as a massive wolf, but at least in the form of a human, they could manifest her with the utmost magic power efficiency—as if they were only breathing. Lucy, who was sleeping in my arms, didn’t even react at all.

Of course, in that form her combat ability was a lot weaker. But since Merilda’s goal was to just read her books, that wasn’t an issue.

[Seriously… If you are going to release me, at least give me a warning….!]

Merilda then angrily picked up her book as she continued to flip through the pages she was reading.

Ziggs looked over at her as he quietly shook his head. Before I even realized it, the entirety of my camp had started to become quite noisy. Though, that level of commotion wasn’t a big deal.

“Anyway, Ed… Here are the monster ecology books I’ve been holding onto. I’ve also got some discarded books that Elka asked me to bring. She said you can use them as you like.”

“Oh, thanks. I’ll organize them later, so for now you can just toss them in my cabin.”

“Actually, they’ve already been organized. Maybe because Elka is a librarian through and through, she couldn’t sit still upon seeing all the books sprawled around. So, she already went through and organized them by subject.”

Ziggs had brought over five or six bundles of books. They seemed to have been grouped up and divided by their topics.

Books that had been kept in the student library for a long time, or ones that were frequently borrowed, tended to wear down or get damaged.

If that happened, they ordered new books to replace them. And the old books that were difficult to keep any longer were discarded. Many of them were missing some pages or the covers were damaged.

When I had asked her if she could gather those books and give them to me, Elka quickly agreed and nodded her head. I was quite thankful to her.

Since I only borrowed books because it was a waste of money to go and buy them, it was a great harvest.

“That looks quite heavy, so thanks for bringing them all the way here.”

“Don’t worry about it. Even if I didn’t have to bring these books, I would have run over here carrying something else anyway. These days it seems that simply jogging isn’t enough to be considered exercise for me.”

Ziggs quickly threw the piles of books into the cabin as he wiped off his sweat, sitting across from me at the campfire.

The first thing he did was look over at Lucy, who was sleeping in my lap. She gently exhaled as she occasionally rubbed her cheeks against my body. I was quite impressed to see that the entire time, she was still holding onto her witch hat and making sure it didn’t fall off.

“Actually, besides coming to deliver the books, I came because there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“…Did you know that I joined the student council?”

The hand that was flipping through the book suddenly stopped. Maybe he was already expecting what I would say from my reaction, but Ziggs continued to speak.

“Did you know that both the second years and third years look quite favorably upon the cabinet that is being led by Tanya Rothstaylor? Even though I’m already busy taking classes, still…”

“Alright. There’s not any particular force that is opposing Tanya, and I’ve also heard she’s doing a good job wielding the immense power that comes with the student council.”

“I’m already at my wits end, but… Tanya… No, the student council president seems to trust me quite a bit.”

That couldn’t be helped. Ziggs Eiffelstein was the only one that had trusted his instincts and stood by Tanya’s side when the entire world turned against her.

Those that helped you in a crisis were the ones you needed to keep close. As Tanya was slowly starting to wield more and more power as the student council president, she was also starting to carefully choose the people around her that she could trust and entrust work to.

In , there wasn’t a storyline where Ziggs joined the Student Council. He didn’t really belong in a particular place until the moment he left the storyline, and the motive for pretty much all his actions was his lover, Elka.

It seemed the trajectory of the storyline was beginning to deviate little by little.

“So, she gave me orders. With things becoming like this, she thought it would be good for you to also take a seat on the Student Council. So, she had asked me to come and hear your thoughts.”

“Is it really okay for her to fill the seats of her cabinet like this?”

“She’s not just half-assing it. It seems that right now, Student Council President Tanya has the most trust in you, Ed. At this point, she would probably agree to anything that you say. I’m not joking.”

Since Tanya had a certain degree of freedom when it came to picking members of her cabinet, it was likely that she was just choosing people based on her preferences. In the process, it seemed that my name had come up.

“The members of the student council are already quite distinguished. The student council president is a first year student, which is a first in Silvenia’s history. But there are still quite a lot of upperclassmen that are members of the student council. The head secretary is the current third year, Kurell. And the top executive committee member is the top student among all the fourth years, Daike Elpelan.”

Ziggs shook his hand in the air a few times before putting more pieces of wood into the campfire, continuing to speak.

“The famous teacher’s assistant in the third year, Anise, is also being recruited. And the top student in the first year’s magic department, Joseph Whitefeld, who’s also a researcher at Togg Magic Power Society, is about to be accepted as well. His sibling, fourth year student Dorothy Whitefeld, has already been accepted. So, one could say that with the Whitefeld siblings joining, quite an elite cabinet is being made.”

The appointment of members could be predicted to some extent.

Anise Haylan would probably turn down the offer because she wouldn’t be able to lose her position as a teacher’s assistant because of tuition issues. Joseph was also more interested in money than the credit and preferential treatment that came with being a student council member. So, he would probably decline as well.

Regardless, the fact that the members of the student council were much more distinguished than I had originally thought was something I couldn’t deny.

Even the fact that the leader of them all was Tanya Rothstaylor… It was all a strange reality to me.

“The student council president was unable to leave her office in Obel Hall due to her busy schedule. That’s why I had come to ask you, as a member of the student council.”

“You’re going through quite a lot, Ziggs.”

“Doing this much is nothing. So, are you going to reject the offer after all?”

Ziggs already knew my answer when he asked the question.

I was already living a life where I had to divide the day into hours just to get by. Even though it wasn’t as much as before, I was still quite busy.

To train my production skills, I kept up with my camp life. I made sure to go to all my classes, I visited Assistant Professor Cleoh’s lab to work as a scholarship student, and I even had my own personal training to do.

After Elementalism and Magic Engineering, my next goal was to train in Celestial Magic… Taking on the position of a student council member would have been too much of a burden for me to handle.

“I think the student council president will be quite disappointed to hear that. Well, I already knew you weren’t a person who could be acquired so easily.”

“By the way, are you talking politely to Tanya?”

“Yeah, well… Everyone does that. It’s a bit awkward since it’s the first time the student council president is a first year, but you still have to acknowledge her power and ranking.”

Ziggs lit the campfire using the poker as he continued to casually speak.

“Anyway, your sister’s authority is increasing day by day. Since you’re her family, you must be quite proud of her. Though… I don’t know why, but it seems so strange.”

“Strange? What’s so strange?”

“Just… It felt like this entire situation was set up by someone. The current student council president seems to be doing quite a good job at keeping up the momentum, but I still have a gut feeling that there is something going on behind the scenes…”

Ziggs was a boy that was born with an incredible intuition.

It was to the point that his intuition was so terrifyingly accurate, he would prioritize it before any circumstantial evidence.

After hearing him talk, I was unable to think of anything else besides another girl.

Commercial District, Elte Company’s Silvenia Branch. A girl sitting alone in her private office, writing with her quill. Her soft gaze seemed to be engraved in my mind again.

Only she knew the size of the picture she was drawing.

“Well, even though I have a gut feeling, it’s not like I can do anything about it.”

Ziggs then roughly tossed a stick into the campfire.

“Anyway, for the time being I’ve become quite busy. According to the academic calendar, it’s nearly time for the joint combat practice. Also, the Holy Father from the Holy City is supposed to visit Silvenia sometime this week. He’s supposedly coming to baptize a few representative students and give a speech… It seems things are going to get quite busy.”

What Ziggs was saying were clues. It gave me a rough idea of just how far along we’d progressed in the storyline.

Though, with the storyline starting to go awry, the future knowledge I held was starting to differ from reality little by little.

Still, the overall flow was still there, so it was possible to guess what would happen in the future to some extent.

Joint Combat Practice.

An annual event and practical class where the first years competed against the second, and the third years competed against the fourth.

The protagonist’s party was in the second year. That meant they would be facing off against first year students.

“Because the battle practice this time isn’t a random duel, but instead through a means of challenging another… Me, Taylee, and even Clevius have been receiving quite a lot of challenges. Well, we only have to bite off as much as we can chew, but still… Since it’s the first time I’ve had underclassmen, I felt strangely motivated and ended up accepting them all.”

“I guess you also have that side of you.”

“I’m also the type to lend a shoulder, you know. I’ve heard that there weren’t any students that were assigned Class A this time, so there is a competition to see who can enter Class A first… They must think that the easiest means to do so would be defeating me, who is a second year Class A student.”

That was not a particularly good method. Ziggs Eiffelstein was probably one of the strongest and most experienced students in the second year’s Class A.

If it weren’t for Lucy Mayreel, who was considered a league of her own, he would most likely have been considered the top student of the magic department. Going up to him and challenging him wasn’t a smart move… Well, I still couldn’t help but acknowledge the bravado that came with their youth.

If he continued to fight everyone until the very end, even though it was Ziggs, he would still become exhausted. However… that was not going to happen.

Act 3, Chapter 5. The second Joint Combat Practice. The last large-scale event before the final battle of Act 3, ‘Lucy Subjugation.’

An event that the protagonist generation would take on as newfound upperclassmen… the ending of it wasn’t great.

The top student of the first-year alchemy department, Claude, would ultimately lose in the final duel. Desperate and unable to overcome his pride, he drank the forbidden potion ‘The Evil God’s Blood’… and thus, another massive incident would take place.

That was the history that I knew. However, with the way things had become, there was no way that it would be exactly the same. At that point, I wasn’t even going to expect it to be similar. Even though the major flow of the storyline was still similar, there were clearly divergences taking place here and there.

Since the flow had already been twisted so much, I’d just have to wait and see what happened.

Whether things were going in the way that I knew, or a completely different direction… Either way, it was out of my hands.

The flow of history was slowly turning its direction into unknown territory.

***

“Whoooa…”

Early the next morning, Yennekar had rushed out of Dex Hall and ran straight to Ed’s camp. She couldn’t help but marvel at the cleanly built cabin.

It was opposite Ed’s cabin, with the campfire between them.

Originally, it was expected to take two weeks to finish construction. However, the spirits did their best to finish it within a week.

It was already filled with Yennekar’s personal belongings, and even simple furniture. At that point, she could go ahead and apply to leave Dex Hall.

[This worthless Mugg… Worthless… Worthless Mugg… Worth… Less…]

However, the scene taking place near the cabin could be called horrific.

Dozens of low-ranking spirits were lying on the floor with dying expressions. Only when they saw the sun start to rise little by little in the eastern sky, alongside the damp early morning air, did they realize that they had stayed up working all night long.

“E-Everyone… I didn’t know you would work so hard on it… I told you to take it easy…!”

Lying on the floor with several other spirits around him, Mugg spoke in a bright voice.

[No, in the first place, Mr. Takan… No, nevermind… We have just… reached enlightenment… Please… enjoy… a happy life in the camp… If you can just do that… then… that will be enough.]

One by one, the spirits began to cancel their manifestation as they disappeared.

Even though it was only their manifestation being temporarily canceled, seeing it overlap with the rising sunlight made it look like they were leaving for Heaven.

Yennekar held on tightly to her oak wand as she held her tears back, saying farewell to them.

“Everyone… Thanks… Really, thank you so much…!!”

To an outsider, this looked like a final farewell.

After that brief farewell, Yennekar sat by the campfire in the center of the camp as she clenched her fists.

It was the long-awaited weekend. A good day to spend the entire day at the camp.

She was planning to look at the finished cabin and move some other small pieces of luggage inside… But before doing that, she first thought of making breakfast.

She was already excited, hoping to see Ed’s face when he woke up and stepped outside to a nice bowl of stew.

“…Living together…”

Yennekar sat on a tree stump that was covered in the morning dew… She suddenly said such a phrase.

Even though those words had already left her mouth, she began to kick the dirt floor and swing her oak wand in the air, extremely embarrassed.

It wasn’t time to completely move in yet, so it was just a regular weekend they were spending together. Still, for some reason it felt like a dream to her as her face turned red.

She then said it again. ‘Living together, living together.’ As she continued to say those words, she repeatedly punched the air for quite some time.

Then, the moment she thought,Let’s not just stay like this, let’s do something.

Ed’s cabin door swung open.

Did Ed come out? Surprised, Yennekar ruffled her skirt as she turned towards the noise. Lucy was standing there with a blank expression on her face.

“……”

Her wrinkled clothes, the drool marks around her lips, and the bed hair that stuck out randomly here and there.

After making eye contact for a moment, Lucy stood still while keeping her blank expression…before suddenly putting both hands on her waist with a wide grin on her face.

Lucy then slammed the door shut, stretched rather cutely, before flying away from the camp.

Yennekar sat there alone… She sat there next to the campfire, frozen like a rock, with her mouth wide open.

She couldn’t say anything. So, for a long time, she sat there with a blank expression on her face.