“Today is the third day of the camping trip and the results are varied and that’s how it should be! The goal of this camping trip is to have the students experience camping in the outside world even if for a short period of time, and looking at your faces tells me that our objective has been fulfilled!”(Soma)

 

“That’s why I came with the idea of having the Magic Class students do some training by teaching them how to train their Mana Control, but doing only that will be nothing but waste! In the first place, Mana Control training should be done on a daily basis and not something that should be done for the period of one week and expect it to have an effect on one's magic. Some of you might have been able to do a good job at the training, but let me tell you this, what we have done can only be considered as a test to see at what level are you at controlling your mana, and that’s because the stones, water, and sand you have been working on have all been made with mine and Soma’s magic, and that made it very easy for you all to change them, does anyone knows why?”(Milin)

 

“Yes!”(Shiho)

 

“Shiho go ahead”(Milin)

 

“It’s because the stones, water, and sand that were used in the training have only one mana in it, and working through that one mana is the easiest thing when doing mana control training!”(Shiho)

 

“…What do you mean by one mana?”(Magic Student)

 

“It means that those things have only the mana of the one who made them -one of the teachers- and that mana is naturally seeping out of those things as time passes”(Shiho)

 

“That’s impressive! You have quite the knowledge there”(Soma)

 

“I have been reading in the new library a lot after all…”(Shiho)

 

“It’s as Shiho said! Things made with magic retain some of the caster’s mana in them for some time and having only that mana makes them easier to change with the mana of another one. But that depends on the amount of mana that the caster poured into them. And so, the stones, water, and sand you had to change were actually the easiest to deal with. You might ask then what are the proper materials to train with? And the answer to that is, normal natural stones, water, and sand plus other things of course! And as to what might the difference be in using natural things, it’s because natural things have been in the world for thousands of years, and because of that they have the mana of everything that existed around them. And that makes them full of mana from an infinite number of other things alive or not, and to make things harder, the amounts of those things are all over the place without any proper control. And thus affecting such things with your mana alone is extremely hard, but that’s what makes it a proper training”(Milin)

 

“Now going back to our original topic. The mana control training is not obligatory from today onwards, but a thing you all should do on a daily basis when you get home, that’s why starting today we will give you the chance of leveling up! The reason why there were no monster attacks during day time even though we are clearly in monster territory is that most monsters are afraid of the presence of the Two-Headed Salamander basking in the sun over there. Some strong monsters attacked us at nighttime because their instincts are stronger at night and that makes them more violent and daring. And so, to give you all a chance to level up, I’ll have the Two-Headed Salamander go away during day time, and doing that will cause the monsters to come and attack us and during that time we will have you the students fight them! Of course, this is not mandatory but for only those who wish to do it!”(Soma)

 

“And as for the mana control training, those who still wish to do it can do it and of course they will be rewarded for it in the form of credits! Now, all of you have three courses of action you may go with, during the three days we have left, the mana control training and gain some credits, or you can go with fighting the monsters that are about to attack us and gain more levels that way, or you can do nothing and spend your time having fun as long as you are inside the campsite and not getting in the way of others. It’s up to you”(Milin)

 

“…Teacher, will not that give more advantage to the Actual Combat students?”(Mira)

 

“Advantage? What are you talking about? If you mean that they will be able to kill more monsters than you guys, then isn’t that the result of their hard work? As a noble, you might look at it from the perspective of gains and benefits, but the undeniable truth is that they are risking their lives in those fights, and them being stronger or more experienced than you guys is only natural. But here we are giving you a chance to fight with them in hopes of shrinking that distance between you! If you want to become stronger then work hard for it and don’t expect those around you to match your pace when you are parley walking”(Milin)

 

“And finally, starting his moment, stop calling me by ‘Teacher’ especially to the Actual Combat students! Since we are on a battlefield, using my name is faster, easier, and will not cause any confusion”(Soma)

 

After that, Soma approached the Two-Headed Salamander and touched one of the two heads, and right as he did that, a Magic Circle appeared under it, and it disappeared into it. The Magic students were fascinated by what they saw and didn’t notice the Actual Combat students taking out their weapons and heading towards the side of the camp that is facing the deepest part of the forest. Shiho’s group were the first to notice that, and they went after them right away, they didn’t actually intend to level up, they only planned to learn from watching and to provide support only when needed. They didn’t want to use up their mana because they are intending on doing the mana control training in the afternoon, technically they are the only group that is intending on doing both the leveling up and the mana control training.

 

On the other side, Mira’s group were at a loss at what they should be doing. They didn’t have a good result when they tried doing the mana control training, and they are afraid of producing the same results in the leveling up thing, and who was at loss the most was Mira herself. It’s the first time in her life not being able to influence her surrounding in the way she wants, and moreover, she felt a slight hostility from Milin when she answered her question about the advantage the Actual Combat students had over her and her group, and since then she has been looking at her feet. Since she was born, whenever she looked at her “Standing” and the “Standing” of those around her. She would always be at the front and everyone else would be crawling on the ground behind her, a true Queen. But now all she could see behind her are her followers and all of them were averting their eyes from her….no, not from her but from everyone else who are freely passing by her and advancing to higher heights while sending scorn-filled glances her way as if telling her that she is in the way even though they are way ahead of her. That was the most humiliation she felt in her whole life and the cause of it all was that white-haired man, Soma! And that’s why she used the whole three days she had on the camping trip growing her hatred for Soma and spreading it to her followers, and that made them the group who did nothing in the three days they had…

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Right now an emergency meeting in Vitos was called between the king, the princess, the strongest knights, and the most powerful nobles, and all the Heroes. The meeting was called in order to discuss how to deal with The Arms King Genbu that is rampaging at the borders of The North Cardinal Kingdome killing the Holy Knights stationed there along with the knights and soldiers from The North Cardinal Kingdom who are sent to deal with him.

 

“…Is that guy Arms whatever you talked about really that big of a threat?”(Hayato)

 

“That’s right! We are the Heroes! It’s impossible for a mongrel to do anything to us!”(Yui)

 

“True”(Yue)

 

“Just unleash us at him, and we will annihilate him for you!!”(Dai)

 

(Idiots, the lot of them!)(Aiko)

 

(Before you go spouting nonsense about annihilating him, you should think about how someone who should be dead for thousands of years is alive…)(Yume)

 

“….The Arms King was the king of a country that existed roughly ten thousand years ago. That country was one of the countries that turned into what’s known now as the North Cardinal Kingdom. At the time, the Kingdom of Arms was the country with the best weapons among the human nations. They took pride in their craftsmanship, and when Goddess-sama decided to create the Four Cardinal Kingdoms as nations that are to exist for the sole purpose of surrounding and protecting Vitos. The Kingdom Of Arms refused to submit to her and created an alliance with the other countries around it, and they all refused to hand their lands over to her and thus war started between us and that alliance. But over time we were able to make all the countries in the alliance betray the Kingdom of Arms, and they joined us in a joint attack from every direction on the Kingdom of Arms and with that attack, we were able to destroy most of that country, but there was one thing that we didn’t account for…. It was the King’s… Genbu’s strength. He along with some of his warriors were able to persist for a whole year, and he alone was able to bring down three of the five countries that betrayed him, and he even was able to reach Vitos and deal some damage to us, he was a true master of weapons. There was no one who could compete with him in the field of handling weapons, he was a true monster even by our standards. We could capture him only after a battle that continued for 10 days straight, and he fought through those 10 days without eating, drinking, resting, or even stopping. Our plan was to drive him to the brink of exhaustion and that’s why we kept sending more and more soldiers at him, but he kept going for 10 whole days killing thousands of our soldiers fighting by himself. Only after he passed out from exhaustion were we able to capture him, and after cutting his limbs off, Goddess-sama sent him to the Bloody Hole meeting his end there. And now such an existence appeared out of nowhere and is killing our knights. I want to believe that there might be something behind it and that it’s someone posing himself as Genbu…. But from the reports we received, his fighting style, strength, mastery over weapons,  and him actually killing our Holy Knights as if they were mere insects makes me believe that he is indeed the real The Arms King coming back to life…”( Ladorus)

 

“It’s more possible for him coming back to life than for someone else to appear with that strength and skills…”(Sacre)

 

“If one appears then it’s possible for more of them to appear, and that is impossible looking at the world’s condition at the moment…”(Jude)

 

“What’s the use going about how someone was strong in the past?! At the end of the day, he will just die fighting this great me! We The Heroes will go kill him for you!!”(Hayato)

 

“…”(Ladorus)

 

“…”(Sacre)

 

“…”(Jude)

 

“…Right, other than that, what about the other one? The brown-skinned man with pointy ears”(Hisa)

 

“…That man is impossible……. He is a Dark Elf from roughly 9 thousand years ago, his name is Ashen, and he was a dependent of the God of Magic….. it’s just impossible for us to deal with that man. Even in the past, we couldn't do anything against him and in the end, only Goddess-sama was able to beat him using her divinity. And he even managed to injure her during that fight, and after that, she took him to the Bloody Hole in order to uncover the secrets of his abilities, but she was unable to learn anything and after some time he was able to break part of his body free from her restraints and killed himself all in order to prevent her from looking into him anymore….. I remember her being angry and frustrated for three whole years because of it, especially since for the entirety of those three years we kept discovering many parting gifts he left for us….”( Ladorus)

 

“Parting gifts?”(Hisa)

 

“If it’s indeed him that caused the Phantom Forest to disappear then we all will have to deal with them sooner than later. And only then will you understand….”(Ladorus)