The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 58

[ Newly Acquired Magic Engineering Combinations

Reinforced Claw Fingers (Common)Magic tool that has the ability to instantly pull objects or enemies a short distance closer. Disposable.

Craigle Magic Ink (Common)Special ink needed to implement certain magics. Disposable.

Permeating Photosphere (Common)A magic tool that shines acting as lighting for a certain period of time. Disposable.

Onia’s Hellfire (Rare)A fire attributed trap installation tool. Not available for indoor use and other certain terrains.

Telos’ Frosted Blessing (Rare)Temporarily exponentially increases physical-type defense. Beware of the side effects that lead to exhaustion.

Thousand-year-old wooden wand struck by lightning (Very Rare)Exponentially increases the resonance level of spirits of all attributes. Spirit-type magic power efficiency exponentially increases.

Glockt’s Eyes (Legendary)Temporary surge in all resonance-related skill’s proficiency. Terrible efficiency with Curse-type magic. Defensive magic becomes unavailable. Become immune to all elemental-type magics.

Dell Heim’s Sandglass (Legendary)Return physical status to a few seconds prior removing all damage and injuries. Disposable.

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By nature, Magic Engineering proficiency was very difficult to train. Though, if you were able to produce even one rare-grade item, your proficiency could skyrocket. From the higher grades onwards, each and every single item was a useful tool to the very end.

Before clearing the storyline of , if you were able to produce a couple of Legendary-grade magically engineered items, that meant you would have trained quite diligently.

As such, getting my hands on a legendary-grade magically engineered item was extremely important. Because obtaining every single needed material was extremely difficult, and the fact it took a massive amount of labor, others that had tried doing it before had given up investing any further in their magic engineering skill.

“With this much, this is quite a successful haul I’ve gotten…!”

I stuffed away as many various scrolls as I could while I ran towards the lab’s exit, all while holding Lucy.

Once passing through the Soul Library, everything else would be easy. The enemies guarding the path to the underground waterways exit were usually nothing more than the level of easy monsters. And since I wasn’t even a subject of their research, even after escaping the researchers wouldn’t try to chase and catch me.

Either way, I’d trained enough to the point that my vitality could defeat the few of them that stood in my way. With Lucy on my back, I ran past all the monsters, sending all the other enemies blocking my path away with Elemental Magic.

Bo-Boom!

I ran across the marble hallway and through the countless junctures, heading straight for the exit without any hesitation.

Kyaaaak!

There were vampire bats that were hanging high up, to the point that you couldn’t see them at the ends of the ceiling. They spread their wings as they came flying straight down.

Looking at me, they screamed in joy as if they had found their new prey. They relentlessly flew at me, trying to sink their teeth into my skin to drink my blood.

Fwoosh.

Needless to say, I burned every single one of them to the ground.

The grotesque-looking experiments, the escaped gremlins, and other such monsters were all no match for me.

Compared to the start of the first semester, where I couldn’t even properly handle beginner magic, near the end of the second semester all of those low-ranking monsters were no match for me. By maintaining my completely ridiculous lifestyle, I was able to train myself to that point.

[ Elemental Magic’s Proficiency has Increased.Magic Power Resonance’s Proficiency has Increased. ]

Should I say that experience was the true flavor when it comes to hunting? Packages of experience, unique to monsters, kept pouring out.

I’m sorry Taylee…! I’ll just take a bit…!

Still, while doing my best to avoid dealing with any other monsters, I had nearly reached the exit.

As I frantically spurt down, a massive iron door came into view.

Looking at it from inside, it was a magnificently large iron gate. But from the outside, it would only look like a regular stone wall. That was because they would have hidden it using camouflage magic.

Opening the door and going outside would lead to the underground waterways. Of course, you couldn’t simply open it. The door could only be opened using the decryption magic sharedonlyby those that knew the existence of the lab.

If you couldn’t decipher it, then you would just have to destroy the whole thing.

Taylee could break through the entire door by using his Swordmaster’s Skill to cut through it, but I didn’t have the talent to do such a thing.

Originally, I was going to hide in the area and wait until Taylee entered, then sneak out of the open exit. However, I didn’t think I could afford to do that right then.

But it didn’t matter, because now I had the master key. I pinched and pulled Lucy’s cheek, the girl sleeping peacefully and breathing lightly on my back.

Her squishy cheeks started to droop down as Lucy woke up.

***

Is she preparing to fight…?

An enormous amount of mana began to flow and spread out through the waterways.

Lortel Kehelland realized that Yennekar must have gotten into some type of incident. She wondered if maybe she had met a magic golem that was roaming in the underground waterways. But she wouldn’t need to gather this much magic power to attack against a mere low-ranking golem.

Lortel herself had also run into some of the magic golems while walking through the underground waterways. Though they are tricky enemies, against which direct magic power wouldn’t work effectively, they still weren’t extremely difficult to fight by any means. Using magic to at least break down their inner wall, then switching to using external physical force against them, she could easily win.

Lortel Kehelland had once even faced a fully-powered Yennekar back during the Joint Combat Practice.

No matter how many upperclassmen members would attack her, there were only a few that would actually be able to defeat her. That was because Yennekar had fighting power that exceeded even some of the faculty’s.

And if she was against only the first years, it wasn’t even worth discussing.

However, for some reason time seemed to have stalled out for her. She didn’t know what was happening, but if something were to go wrong with her and hindered her search for Ed… Then it was a chance for Lortel.

In fact, Lortel had found a clue while walking around to the secret laboratory.

Somewhere around here they’re using concealing magic.

In terms of her magic power resonance, even Professor Glast had recognized her talent, assigning her to Class A.

Within a few meter radius, no matter how small her response to magic power might be, she would never miss it. Yennekar, who specialized in spirit-type magic senses, was bound to be a little worse in that field.

Somewhere nearby there was probably an entrance to an even more secretly hidden facility.

Otherwise, the winding structure wouldn’t make sense. No matter how hard you tried to find your way, the structure of the place would always make you end up right where you were before. In the first place, it wasn’t even possible for such a structure to function properly as a waterway.

They called it an underground waterway, but it was clearly just trying to imitate one. Instead, it definitely had to have a different purpose as a facility.

“Alright… I shouldn’t let my guard down in this situation.”

Suddenly, Lortel looked down at herself in the reflection of the water.

Her hair was neatly combed to make it look as glossy as possible. Her reddish-brown hair color, which was rather pleasant to look at, emphasized the beauty of her pale skin tone. The blue rose-shaped hairpin and the semi-robe, which had gilded edges all around it, had been added to make her stand out a bit more… She really was a girl that dressed like she was going out on a date.

On a positive note, she was a girl that had fallen in love. However, it was kind of inappropriate seeing her do such a thing in a place like that.

Lortel sighed deeply as she took out the hairpin, untying her hair. She took a string from her school uniform pocket and tied her hair to one side like usual. Just in case her hair got messy, she once again put on the robe hood that she hadn’t been using and took off all her expressive ornaments, stuffing them into her pocket.

She appeared a bit pleasingly simplistic, but it was as if she had returned to her regular appearance. Lortel nodded her head as she pinched herself.

She wanted to look good, but this was still a plain as day crisis situation.

Though she didn’t want to lose to her rival, she couldn’t risk the life of the one she loved for it.

She’s been weighing the values of everyone else her entire life, but she was sure that there were definitely things she should never have to weigh.

As for what that may be, she should never doubt the value of that person’s life.

After thinking that far, Lortel started to get really worried for Ed.

Ed Rothstaylor was a mysterious person that felt like he would somehow manage to overcome whatever crisis came his way. Even the actual sense of it being a crisis had been somewhat lessened due to Ed’s heavy and reliable image.

However, she couldn’t just solely depend on that ‘feeling’ and forget about the severity of the situation.

Professor Glast was an extremely meticulous person.

If you were to get kidnapped by someone like that, even Ed wouldn’t be in a great situation.

She was sure that he was stuck somewhere, in some sort of trouble.

Panic, confusion, difficulty, crisis. Even if he was a person that was able to build up a wall to distance himself from such words, given the depth of the situation there was a high chance that he still wanted help.

Regardless of causing Ed to owe her a favor, this was a situation where, if she really did care for Ed, she had to lend him a helping hand.

Having lived the life of a merchant that had always replaced human relationships with debt, she had forgotten that completely obvious fact.

Suddenly, Lortel had become self-aware. Now she was the one who wanted to help someone else, purely with good intentions.

She had lived her entire life on a road of commerce, where she could only judge another person’s values through gold coins… It felt as if now she was seeing a new light.

In the end, her heart started to fill with the prospect of a new relationship that she couldn’t use money to get her hands on.

“Okay…”

Lortel had decided.

“Ed… He’s in a crisis situation right now, one where he needs help. Right now, Ed is…”

Boom!

At that moment, about five steps behind her a wall exploded, bursting open.

Being heavily coated in Intermediate Concealment and Sealing magic… It was an ironclad type of security, but in front of advanced explosion magic it was just a piece of paper.

Bo-Boom! Poooom!

Cra-ack.

That plate of iron, which was solid enough to bounce off any attack, was now burning hot and flowing down the waterways with steam coming off of it.

It was an advanced magic that even the teaching staff would have to fully concentrate just to channel, but still would have trouble properly casting it.

Being carried on Ed’s back, swinging one hand in the air, a girl cast that magic and revealed the secrets of the secret laboratory to the world without mercy.

“……”

Ed Rothstaylor popped out of the smoke.

Lortel was scared out of her wits, to the point that she had forgotten how to breathe for a moment.

“E-Ed?”

“Oh, Lortel. You were here?”

There were a few scratches on his relaxed face, but overall, he looked completely fine.

The first feeling that came up inside of her was relief. The fact that Ed, who had been kidnapped, was alive and well was such a great comfort to her.

And the emotions that came following where… bafflement… so-called dumbfoundedness.

“That… Ed…? What…?”

“I was kidnapped.”

“I-I know that, but…”

Ed moved his arms to reposition Lucy, who was on his back. Between his arms, all the way to his inner pockets, he had completely filled them with all sorts of parchment scrolls.

“It’s great that I met you here, Lortel. Here, take some of this from me. It’s hard for me to carry it all by myself.”

“Wh-What?”

Ed strode towards Lortel as he poured out all sorts of parchment scrolls in front of Lortel.

“Wh-What is all of this…? These are all advanced production formulas…?”

Lortel had eyes that could convert any type of object into monetary value.

All the production formulas that Ed had poured out, as if they were nothing, were items that were not easily obtainable. There was even a legendary-grade magically engineered item production formula mixed in with them… she wanted to ask just where in the world he managed to get all of it.

No, before that, she wanted to ask… Why was he completely fine?

“Ed… W-Weren’t you caught up in a major crisis…?”

“Yeah, that’s right. But it all worked out somehow.”

Only then did her eyes turn to Lucy, who was on Ed’s back.

Lucy Mayreel.

The ridiculously strong top first year student that had taken the initiative.

No matter how talented of a magician one may be, in front of Lucy they were nothing more than a child. In the first place, it wasn’t a competition that she could win.

At that moment, Lortel’s intuition started ringing its alarm.

Her heart, which was always calm and composed in the face of a crisis, had suddenly reminded her of the existence of a newfound rival.

Lucy, who was riding on Ed’s back peacefully sleeping, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

No matter how she looked at it, Lucy doesn’t have any romantic feelings towards Ed Rothstaylor. In the first place, she wasn’t someone that she could consider a rival in love.

However, it wasn’t all that simple. Lucy was always hanging around Ed, to a strange extent.

She was also the one that had run towards Ed faster than anyone else to save him when he was pushed into a corner. Lucy, the one that—for some reason avoided—other people’s touch, was sleeping soundly on Ed’s back. She was even drooling.

She had no idea whatsoever just what level of closeness Lucy had with Ed.

Currently, it might have been just the level of a colleague that she was the most comfortable with, but if things start to develop in another direction… That feeling of distance between them would start to come together at an unbelievably fast rate.

That was dangerous.

That was really dangerous…!

She’s a ticking time bomb! If I don’t nip the seeds of trouble in advance, I will surely end up regretting it!

And… the promise…!

“……”

The extremely shy and passive Yennekar Palerover was a coward that couldn’t convey the feelings in her heart.

On the other hand, what was Lortel herself like?

No matter what anyone said, Lortel herself was definitely the most aggressive when it came to making progress.

First, she had grabbed him by his collar, stealing a kiss from him—even confessing her love and doing all sorts of things for him without trying to hide her ill desires.

Who doesn’t know how to feel embarrassed?!

The first time she stole a kiss from him back at the camp, on her way home she kept losing her breath and nearly ended up setting fire to the entire forest.

On a day she is meant to meet with Ed, she would wake up early in the morning in a hurry, making sure she could dress nicely.

She was playing hard to get with a foxlike appearance, scratching at her opponent’s heart. But above all else, it ended up being her own heart that was being scratched at because she was embarrassed.

Well, at that point… wouldn’t it make sense for him to be swayed…??

At the very least, he must have been at least aware of it.

At least in front of her, shouldn’t he avoid making skinship with other girls or showing such a friendly appearance with them…?

Lortel had strengthened her heart.

At that point, she had to get stronger. At the rate things were going, at any given moment she would just end up becoming a real pushover.

Apparently, Ed’s body didn’t have any injuries, and the major problem seemed to be settled.

Lortel was a merchant.

The basics of business were give and take.

If she didn’t push hard there… and wasn’t able to take the initiative and win Ed over…

She’d really head up majorly regretting it.

“Then, Ed…”

“Hold onto a few of those parchment scrolls for me. By chance, if there is any material in the store, it would be great if you could look through it and prepare it for me. Next time I stop by the Elte Store I’ll pick them up. Also, let me know if there is anything you want to buy. Besides the Legendary-Grade scrolls, I’m okay selling any of the others. Since you’ve helped me so much already, it’s fine if you want to buy it a little cheaper.”

“What? R-Really? But this is…”

“Please. Who else can I trust besides you? Just who?!”

Lortel quickly lifted up her head.

“I-Is that so?”

“In the first place, there aren’t even many people I know. Plus, you should know that they aren’t very reliable. You’re the only smart one I know, so it only makes sense that I would do this.”

You’re the only one I can trust – The only one – You –

It’s not a line that has a great meaning to it, but it still echoed throughout Lortel’s heart.

“R-Really?”

“Is there even a reason for me to lie…?”

Lortel snorted. No matter how you looked at it, that was crossing the line.

Up until now, just how much has he done for her after she had given him her heart? But now he’s already asking for that kind of request, which was completely ridiculous and over-the-top. There was a limit to how much you could treat a person as a pushover. Growing up in an extremely cold-hearted world revolving around business, she had become a person that wasn’t used to the excitement that stemmed from love, but she could at least still distinguish between public and private matters. That was why she was a professional merchant.

Lortel looked straight at Ed, holding in her breath and straightening her spine. Then, speaking up to him confidently, in the most composed tone that she possibly could manage. Ed, I think you are crossing the line.

“…Do you need a receipt for it, too?”

She’s a pushover…!!!

“I have a report!”

It was around the time that Lortel was sighing with a blank face, as if she had just put down a lot of baggage.

While she and Ed were talking about the parchment scrolls, a man had suddenly jumped out from one side of the waterways.

A man with absolutely no combat abilities had come running directly though the dangerous underground waterways. Seeing him run through the water, making those splashes, it looked as if it was absolutely urgent.

***

It was bright. But there wasn’t anything like a source of light in the underground waterways.

Looking at the source of the light, there were all kinds of elemental spirits in all sorts of forms.

Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Grass, Ice.

Eagle, Rabbit, Lion, Wolf, Sparrow, Lizard.

There were so many different types of elements and animals that it was impossible to list them all one by one. However, you could define them as a single colony. They were the spirit army of Yennekar Palerover.

A one-person army.

The number of spirits that had formed solely from Yennekar Palerover’s resonance level… You couldn’t count them all even if you were to use your fingers, going through each hand multiples times over.

One high-rank spirit, four mid-rank spirits, hundreds of low-rank spirits.

Between all of those spirits, there was a girl that was tidying her skirt as she held onto her oak wand.

She was standing around as if nothing was happening, her collar fluttering upwards, though she was clearly being protected by numerous spirits. It was probably impossible to even get any closer to her.

At that point, she wasn’t an opponent that Taylee could beat.

That fact dawned on him over and over again. Eventually, he had no choice but to admit it.

If there wasn’t a reason to fight, then Taylee would have conceded his defeat and backed down on his own.

However, there is a reason to fight. He had to save Ayla.

And to save Ayla, his one and only life partner, he would be willing to risk his life hundreds of times over.

“Wh-What is going on? What’s wrong with the atmosphere?”

Ziggs looked back and forth between Yennekar and Taylee’s party with a puzzled expression.

Taylee and Elvira were already ingrained with fear of Yennekar Palerover. The moment Elvira had seen her face, she was already preparing for combat.

Dorothy, who had passed out, and the magic golems that had been destroyed… There was even Assistant Professor Cleoh, who had fallen unconscious. Given all sorts of circumstantial evidence, it seemed clear that Yennekar was doing something destructive.

Here in a closed environment, with no witnesses. Thinking that maybe it was a reasonable decision to treat her with hostility, Ziggs and Adele nodded their heads.

Yennekar had a stronger image of being an innocent girl, loved by everyone in the academy.

It was obvious that they wouldn’t understand why Taylee and Elvira would be shaking in fear.

“What, what’s wrong Taylee? Calm down!”

In the first place, she wasn’t an opponent that they could defeat if they fought.

They couldn’t be fooled by her petite body, cute appearance, and dilly-dally kind personality.

Ziggs, who had fought alongside Yennekar during the Occupation of Ophelis Hall, knew well just how much of a relief it was to have her as an ally.

Now that all the first year members were running at her together, there was no guarantee that they would be able to defeat Yennekar. It wasn’t a good idea to unnecessarily lose some of their power.

If you could resolve a situation with words, it was the better action to take.

In the first place, the reason that Yennekar Palerover had manifested all of those spirits and was taking that stance was probably in response to Taylee’s party initially being hostile.

There was a high possibility that Yennekar had no intention to fight at all.

Right at that moment, Ziggs, who had thought it was right to mediate between the two, tried to raise his voice.

Suddenly—

“Stop arguing.”

A familiar voice came from along the passageway on the west side of the waterways.

Taylee’s party and Yennekar all looked in that direction

A blond-haired boy, who was carrying a small magician girl on his back, appeared through the darkness down the passageway. His clothes were a little worn out, and there are quite a number of scratches across his body.

“Ed Rothstaylor…!”

The boy’s name was called out twice.

Yennekar called out his name with an expression on her face as if the flower were in full bloom.

As for Taylee… he called out his name in a low, echoing voice.

Elvira looked towards Ed with a rather cold look before quickly grasping the situation.

The person that had appeared behind him was one of the three first year Class A students and the real power behind Elte Company, Lortel Kehelland.

And the girl on his back was an extremely rare genius magician that no one else could even catch up to, Lucy Mayreel.

“Ed! Ed! Are you okay?! You’re not hurt, are you?!”

Ed nodded his head toward Yennekar, who was jumping around calling out his name, to tell her that he was okay and thank her for her concern.

Ed, who walked right into the middle of the hall, stood next to Yennekar and looked directly at Taylee’s party.

Taylee, Ziggs, Elvira, Clevius, Adele.

In the war of the stars amongst the first year students, each and every member of Taylee’s team was recognized as an ace.

But Taylee still didn’t have a choice but to swallow his spit. He was starting to grip his sword even harder.

Looking at the group of people that were standing around Ed… he was so nervous that he could barely manage to breathe.

Ed, Yennekar, Lortel, and Lucy.

No matter how powerful Taylee’s party might be, there was too much of a difference in power between the two groups.

If by chance they were hostile… if it really is a situation where they had to go into combat, then did they really have to go and charge against that ridiculous wall?

“Taylee.”

Elvira called out Taylee’s name in a low voice. The implied meaning was as follows.

We need to retreat.

Elyira was already completely fed up with Ed’s fighting style.

Ed fought more like a schemer than a proper magician.

He already had a record of blocking three of them despite their wide gap in specs compared to him. That was when he could only barely handle beginner magic and just a bit of archery.

Now that he had three other colleagues helping him at that level of power… Even if they had time to arrive first and control the battlefield… Still, their chance of winning would always be zero. They could never win.

No matter how precious Ayla might be to him, it wasn’t a smart idea to attack an enemy they had no chance of winning against.

If Ed ended up saying that he was going to block their path, then he would never be able to break through.s

“Go, Taylee.”

It was Ed who broke the tense silence first.

Calling Taylee’s name out quietly, Ed was relieved inside. He barely made it in time.

He was going backwards from the furthest part of the secret laboratory, and now he had come to the crossing point with Taylee, who was moving forwards through it.

From now on, it was a baton pass. Unfortunately, Ed still had work to take care of.

The Occupation of Ophelis Hall and the Battle for the Sage’s Seal.

As the previous storyline progressed, there was a variable that had not yet been fully dealt with.

Now he had to completely remove him from the stage, to the point that he could no longer intervene and get in the way… There was no need to measure at all how to treat them, as they were just an existence that simply needed to be eliminated.

“Ayla is waiting for you.”

In a quiet voice, Ed spoke.

It was time to finish up the meeting at the crossing point, as both parties had to go and do what they needed to take care of.

The one that needed to capture Glast, Taylee.

The one that needed to capture Elte, Ed.