Chapter 554:
The Bear Cheers Shia On
Part 1
WHILE WE WERE TALKING about Noa’s birthday, the target contest continued on. It wasn’t all wind blades, though, some students used air shot spells in order to hit the targets too. That was probably because each person’s imagination varied when they envisioned the spells.
Competitors needed to imagine that the blade of wind was sharp in order to slice through the target. If it wasn’t a blade, then the wind would just whip right past the target, leaving the door open for their opponents to take the lead.
The boy who was up next let loose an air shot that had been building around his hand. The air shot was an invaluable technique that allowed you to defeat an opponent without slicing them up.
At this point, the target practice continued without any differentiation between the male and female students. Men and women both had the same aptitude when it came to magic, the only difference was in their imagination. Since muscles didn’t factor in, girls could win against the boys.
You built your magic up into spells by imagining yourself collecting mana. To put it another way though, if you didn’t have enough mana in the first place, you couldn’t use magic. That was the only catch.
“There aren’t a lot of people using wands or staffs.”
Some people had them, and some didn’t. If you had something like that, it was easier to gather and use magic. Even though mages tended to set up behind the other adventurers in battle, many of them carried wands or staffs in order to ensure they could protect themselves. Some of them even chose a lighter accessory, like a knife or a ring.
Of course, these students could use magic without a medium. The only thing it would help with was to gather mana.
“It looks like many of them are using rings, bracelets, and pendants.”
I could barely make them out, but I did see some students wore accessories. I even saw some of them hold their pendants as they cast their spells.
By the way, I did try to use magic once without my bear gear using a wand, and I learned I couldn’t. I flapped the mouths of my bear puppets open and shut.
“Oh, there’s Lady Seleiyu.”
Noa pointed at Seleiyu, who had stood up to try the target practice. The moment she appeared, the crowd went wild. Apparently, she was popular. She was the daughter of the local lord, after all. Sure, she was a busybody, but she wasn’t unpleasant, and she didn’t bully anyone either. She wasn’t the type of noble to abuse her power. Maybe that was why she was so popular.
She was pretty too, unlike me. Seleiyu had a great figure. She had curves where it mattered. I wonder... I was the one describing her that way, so why was the whole thing depressing me?
Seleiyu waved lightly to the audience, and they cheered in response.
“Lady Seleiyu is very popular. I’m sure Shia would be just as popular in the capital, though.”
Shia was the daughter of a noble too, of course. She probably would be popular if the competition had been held in the capital. When I remembered Teilia at the academy festival though, I had a suspicion that she would take the cake. Teilia was very popular.
Seleiyu turned to the targets, looking utterly no-nonsense. She gathered her mana in the bracelet she was wearing and sliced through the target with precision. She had said she’d practiced, after all. The other students had been too, of course.
Seleiyu, who was the last person up for the wind magic portion, ended up getting the highest score.
That part of the competition ended, and they moved on to fire target practice.
“That’s it? What about the students who haven’t participated? Shia didn’t even get to try.”
Each school only had five or six people participating in the wind trial.
“Apparently, they split the students between wind, fire, water, and earth. Shia is most skilled with fire and earth magic, so I think she should be in one of those groups.”
I thought back to when I had first met Shia. I guess she had used fire magic, then.
“I knew she was good with fire, but I had no idea she was good with earth magic too.”
“You worked the flowerbed with Surilina, didn’t you? Shia helps there too. She even pitches in with maintenance. She told me in her letter that all that helped her become better at earth magic.”
Makes sense. The more magic you used, the better you would become at using it. After I started to use my bear magic, I’d gotten good at imagining bears too. If you didn’t put things into practice, you couldn’t get better. If she got better at earth magic by making flowerbeds, that was killing two birds with one stone.
“Is there any magic you can’t use, Yuna?”
No, I was good with all types of magic. Though I was probably the best at using bear magic.
“I can use all four types of magic. I don’t think I’m better or worse at using any of them.”
There was lightning and ice magic, too. Ice magic was an advanced version of water magic.
“Wow, Yuna. I’d like to be able to use lots of types of magic too.”
“It’s not a bad idea to focus on perfecting one type of magic the best you can.”
Average magical abilities spread across disciplines would always be inferior to one magic type that had been strengthened into its ultimate form. The advanced forms of a single magical type had been useful in my game too. If you were in PVP against someone who used flame magic, then the strongest form of water magic would counter it. On the other hand, wind magic wouldn’t be a good match, and it would be hard to get a win. Either way, using magic that was honed to its full potential was always more useful than half-baked magic.