“Wh-whoaaa! Did you hear that just now? He said signature technique!”
Zerotil Hall's common lounge.
Students gathered in threes and fours were watching the entrance ceremony subjugation match on a panel mounted on the wall.
“Insane. A first-year with a signature technique?”
“Dean Marel isn't a man to make a fuss over that sort of thing. Wow...”
“I haven't even completed a signature yet.”
Talent outside the specification!
It was a situation where all you could do was gape.
“Hmm...”
Among them, one watching the screen from furthest back.
A solidly built male student with brown hair and green eyes rubbed his chin.
“Perhaps I should specially recruit a first-year to the regulars for this Sanctuary Contest.”
“??!”
“!!!”
At those words, the eyes of the children fixed on the screen swung to him.
He was Beheram Solin, captain of Zerotil's inter-dormitory match team.
A single word from him could rearrange the selected lineup.
“Seriously?”
“Mm.”
“He hasn't been verified yet.”
“Isn't the verification already finished by that?”
On the screen, Lian's face was showing as he finished an Elite Three-Horn Stag in one blow and grinned.
“You know a subjugation match and a duel match are different things.”
“Do you think that fellow couldn't manage a duel match?”
The student objecting could not bring himself to answer.
Because there was no chance someone who put on a performance like that in a subjugation match would fail to show in a duel match.
“He'll be a definite key player.”
At present Zerotil was in a state of severe shortage of strength.
Back when the game called the Sanctuary Contest first came into being at Osten Academy.
Zerotil was the inaugural winning team.
And now?
'We barely scrape a lineup together to compete.'
Talented children were all taken by the other halls.
They were carrying on the games with barely a full roster.
He had applied intending one day to revive this Zerotil, this Inquisition Bureau, but even now as captain he had never played a proper match.
“We need new players.”
Zerotil was even short of reserve players!
Fortunately this year's first-years had many children overflowing with talent.
Gulp. They all fell silent and swallowed.
[“Shall we take a look at the other dormitories' situations?”]
The host's voice came through the screen just then.
The children slowly turned their eyes back to the screen.
Anticipating that this Sanctuary Contest would see tremendous upheaval.
***
“Belladen has now entered floor six!”
“They are flustered by the Three-Horn Stag.”
Since Lian displayed his ability, the subjugation-match pace had begun to differ enormously.
But the hosts are bound to broadcast fairly!
Daniel quickly checked Belladen's screen first and continued.
“Belladen has Miss Hoshana Rinu, who placed fourth at the Baptism Rite!”
“Yes. She is currently Belladen's first strength.”
Had Lionel Rondoa gone in, she would have been rated the second strength.
But her swordwork was as sharp as Lionel's.
“She's leading completely. She holds the center well, so the children's panic was settled quickly.”
“As expected! Belladen's overall level is high!”
Plainly different from Zerotil's children milling about in confusion.
Next, Delucel.
“Delucel has also just stepped into floor six!”
A slight pace difference from Belladen, but much the same.
This hall mixes children who applied for ordinary administrative posts with battle priests and holy magic priests.
It includes children with no interest in combat.
But it is also the place where the most varied talents are mixed together.
Children continuing attack and defense from their own positions!
Unlike Belladen, precarious for being all attack, they were stable.
“They handle the Three-Horn Stag stably too.”
“The reactions differ, but the composition looks similar to Zerotil's. Is that right?”
“It is. Only, Delucel's average ability is higher.”
The children in Delucel sit in the middle band overall.
Whereas Zerotil, excluding a few in the upper ranks, sits almost at the very bottom!
That they run at the very front was almost bewildering.
“Witis is... only entering floor four now?!”
Slowest in progress was Witis Hall, made up solely of healing priests.
“Witis is normally slow in subjugation matches.”
“There's more than a twofold gap with Zerotil right now?!”
“Even so, Witis is frightening. Because they don't go down.”
Their means of attack fall far short of the other halls' children, but their strength is a zombie-like, tenacious vitality!
On screen, the Witis children were continuing the fight with front and rear clearly divided.
The instant anyone takes even a slight injury, green holy power settles onto that spot immediately.
They're still new students, so their healing ability isn't strong.
But that every single member of the hall can heal is the most frightening point!
“If healing ability is a little short, several people heal together.”
“Does a strategy that simple work?”
“Of course. The monstrosities that appear in the Infinite Descent Match held at the entrance ceremony are on the low side for intelligence.”
Daniel watched Witis's movements and nodded.
“Once one round of combat ends they swap the front and rear line?”
“Yes. Everyone is unpracticed at attacking anyway.”
“Put that way, Witis really is threatening!”
Slow but solid. A tortoise's strategy.
Just then the broadcast screen switched automatically to Zerotil.
This is a signal that a showing worth watching has occurred at Zerotil!
But.
“Huh? Wh-what is that!”
A white dust cloud filling the screen!
Something out of the ordinary was happening.
***
'For letting off one clean shot, nothing beats a bomb.'
In my Seo Utak days I quite enjoyed using bombs for ranged attacks.
How do you throw a bomb in the Republic of Korea, where you can't even get a firearms licence, you ask?
'Because I have Explosion Talismans.'
Explosion Talismans.
Quite literally, talismans that explode.
Talisman arts were one of the specialties I am proudest of.
With Elly right beside me, how could I not put this to use in this life?
So I tried making one.
'Gaining a stage while preparing it. That was luck.'
Who could have known?
That making a talisman would land me a realization out of nowhere.
I put my hand into my robes.
***
'Son. You still only have the first holy power crystal, don't you?'
'Yes. The second is in the middle of forming.'
'How far along is it?'
'I think it will finish as soon as I get a realization.'
At that point my second crystal was still incomplete.
'Then let me teach you this technique. Practicing it should help you gain your realization.'
The technique Mother taught was the knack of compressing force effectively when strengthening through holy power attribute conversion.
I had no technique yet for making use of the holy power crystal, so Mother's words became blood and flesh.
And I could move the holy power I had been using on instinct far more efficiently by using the crystal.
'This is a kind of throwing technique.'
Do priests have techniques for throwing things?
The question flickered past for a moment.
Either way the instruction was excellent.
Because throwing was not among the techniques I had.
Mother put a mini axe in my hand.
'Gather the holy power purely filtered by the first crystal at your fingertips.'
'Then convert that holy power's attribute and load it with the force of Enhancement.'
'Load that force onto the blade alone.'
'Wrap the whole and its durability strengthens; wrap only the blade and you can strengthen its cutting power.'
Which is to say. In the end, using Enhancement properly comes down to fine control.
'Hold on... couldn't this be used in another direction too?'
***
Up to here it had only been an idea stage.
I had been thinking I would have to make talismans eventually anyway.
Having learned a decent technique, I meant to put it to work in using talismans.
'So first I tried making an Explosion Talisman.'
What came out of my robes was a single smooth stone like a pebble.
A holy stone.
And one with a character I had carved, engraved into it.
'An Explosion Talisman made from a low-grade holy stone.'
I made it by carving the character for 'burst' into the holy stone.
'You load the force of Enhancement onto the character alone and throw it.'
Controlling the force of Enhancement finely I practiced enough with the axe, so I can do it.
The character being complex does raise the difficulty, admittedly.
But fine work has always rather been my specialty.
“A low-grade holy stone? What's that for?”
“Wait and see. It'll be tremendous.”
There had been nowhere to use it, so I couldn't test it.
By theory, the exploding force should be strengthened.
Wrap the whole holy stone in the force of Enhancement and it would simply become a hard pebble.
But I loaded the force onto the character alone.
'Roughly twice as strong, perhaps?'
Heh heh heh heh.
I have never shown it even to my parents, so this is the Explosion Talisman's first outing!
'I hope it comes out well on the live broadcast.'
I am thoroughly excited.
“Yuuuuuu—!”
Right on cue, an Elite Three-Horn Stag snorting and charging straight at us!
At the same time, imitating a baseball form, I threw the holy stone Explosion Talisman.
Whooosh—!
Having practiced throwing, it flew rather fiercely.
KRAKA-BOOOOOM—!
It exploded, throwing up a dust cloud.
“Eh?”
Uh... this rather exceeds expectations...?
The blast scale is far too large.
At minimum three times over.
The dust cleared.
The Elite Three-Horn Stag hadn't even left remains.
'Huh?'
-It just got blown to bits.
Gulp.
'That's insanely sick...?'
Absolutely killed it.
“Art is... an explosion!”
Holy stone Explosion Talismans are the best!
***
“Whaaaat?!!!”
Dean Marel Eustas could not restrain himself and shot to his feet.
A reaction unimaginable from a man usually composed!
That is how shocking the scene before his eyes was.
“Th-that, what on earth is that!”
An explosion on an absurd scale!
And that Elite Three-Horn Stag was blown apart without a trace remaining.
Most new students cannot avoid struggling at this stage.
It is a monstrosity that can be brought down if everyone gathers and combines their strength, but once they have brought this Elite Three-Horn Stag down, the majority escape.
The monstrosities that come afterward will be stronger still, and they judge it unmanageable.
But the monstrosities appearing on floor eleven, though their grade rises, are ordinary monstrosities!
Far more feasible than facing the single monstrosity positioned at the end of floor ten.
'This is the stage where groups drop out en masse.'
And that stage had been deleted in an instant, at Zerotil alone!
“Bringing in a holy magic tool like that should be prohibited!”
He had thrown it so fast it was hard to see well, but what Lian used looked unmistakably like a magic tool.
So he lodged a protest.
“Calm yourself, Dean Marel. Word has just come in. That bomb-like thing is apparently one of young Lian's weapons.”
“A weapon...?”
“Yes. Apparently he made it himself!”
Made it himself...?
'A child barely a year or so past being baptized?'
He made a single-use exploding throwing weapon?
Dean Marel's common sense was collapsing.
'I knew it was talent outside the specification. But to this degree?'
If he made it himself, then it is his own ability and his own technique!
Lian Ludersk already effectively had two signature techniques!
But the shock did not end there.
“And apparently, while making that weapon, he forged his second holy power crystal! Young Lian is truly remarkable!”
“I beg your pardon?”
Marel's thinking stopped.
'A new student who has only just enrolled has already reached the stage of two crystals?'
It soared far beyond the bounds of comprehension.
Is that a reasonable amount of talent?
'Hold on. Surely he isn't going all the way?'
This was awkward.
The match may be named the Infinite Descent.
But naturally, they could not make every floor infinite.
Because the number of monstrosities to be procured is a problem too.
'The entrance ceremony match is designed with floor twenty as the end.'
Cold sweat prickled up on Dean Marel's forehead.
'He'll stop before floor twenty, won't he?'
He absolutely must!!
Marel prayed inwardly.