[370] Special Training (5)
Plu rummaged through the supply box again and pulled out a heavy drone with both hands.
Because it flew using the training hall's synchronized magnetic field, its trajectory shifted wildly—ideal for a guidance experiment.
"Let's start with Level 1. Get used to the sensation."
Shirone aimed a laser pointer at the drone. When Plu flipped the switch, the drone vibrated, slipped from his grip, and rose into the air.
The laser pointer tracked the drone's path. Then, at a certain moment, all eight beams sprang to life.
Slower than a standard photon cannon, yet photon-class magic still moved at an impressive speed.
Shirone watched the homing photon cannons anxiously.
As the drone skimmed past a wall and slipped through a gap, the eight photon cannons curved in unison and struck the target.
A series of booms rocked the hall, and the drone popped out of the smoke, bounced across the floor, and rolled to a stop.
"It worked! Success!"
He could hardly believe it—he had cast the magic himself.
Light bending.
When the photon cannons made that abrupt curve in front of the wall, a thrill ran down his spine.
Plu thought it wasn't bad at all.
"Good start. But this isn't combat level yet. A Level 1 drone can be hit with photon cannons alone. Let's set that as the pass mark. Use the homing photon cannons only on drones that are hard to hit with regular photon cannons."
"Yes! I'll make sure it succeeds!"
Shirone's heart swelled more than it ever had after the first test succeeded.
The difficulty climbed steadily by stages, and finally the day before leaving the Magic Association had arrived.
Shirone's progress toward the final evaluation was accelerating faster than ever.
Plu, holding the next drone and waiting, wore a tense expression that matched how much effort he'd put in.
"You ready? This is Stage 7 mode. Maximum trajectory limit: 27 degrees. This is pro-level mage movement."
"Yes. You have to be at that level to use it in the field. I'm ready."
Shirone launched the homing photon cannons with more skill than before. As expected, eight laser pointers locked onto the drone.
The algorithm was now precise enough that the aim points focused into a single dot.
"Begin."
Plu pressed the switch, let go of the drone, and stepped back.
The chunk of metal that had caused tremors before now flew through the air lightly and flexibly.
A trajectory governed by magnetic fields felt foreign to eyes used to gravity. Still, the homing photon cannons humming around Shirone never stopped—their red "eyes" tracking the drone to the last moment.
"Let's finish this here!"
The eight homing photon cannons that had left Shirone's side chased the drone. When the drone abruptly pivoted as if sliding backward, the cannons cut hard and raced in the opposite direction.
Nine flying objects streaked across the wide training hall in all directions, but Shirone kept his gaze fixed straight ahead.
A chase and counter-chase unfolded for three seconds.
Photon cannons had the edge in speed, but the drone used sharp drifts to shorten its path and avoid capture.
Still, the seekers never lost the drone, and gradually the distance began to close.
When the lead photon cannon struck the drone, it pinged off the floor with a hollow sound.
The remaining seven photon cannons dove to the ground and relentlessly bombarded the rolling drone.
KRAK! KRAK-THUD!
Plu's eyes widened as he shouted, "Whoa! That's insane… no, that's incredible!"
The precision that pursued even the drone knocked clear by the impact—plus power enough to dent solid metal.
This wasn't just effective in training; in the field, an unprepared target would be pulverized.
Shirone himself could hardly believe the result.
"Magic… really is endless."
At last understanding the reality of it, Shirone turned to Plu with tearful gratitude.
Their eyes met briefly, and without thinking they ran to each other, hugged, and jumped up and down.
"We did it! We did it, senior!"
"Good job! If we'd failed, that would've been rough! I'm finally free too!"
Their shouts, lost to excitement, echoed through the training hall. Only the dented drone watched them with a pathetic air of disdain.
* * *
The last night at the Magic Association had come.
Shirone responded to Plu's summons and headed to the first-floor waiting room.
The empty corridor felt lonely compared to the bustling atmosphere of midday.
"Why the waiting room? You could've done this at the dorm."
At the end of the corridor behind the first-floor lobby, light leaked from beneath a door. Darkness was silent, and no voices came from inside.
"Hello?"
Shirone pushed the door open and peeked in. A paper popper exploded with a sharp crack.
Startled, he stepped back, and the door swung open to reveal four smiling faces.
"Congratulations, Shirone!"
"Huh, what?"
A cake sat in the center of the waiting room, and Plu, Gando, Isabel, and Gangnan stood around the table.
Plu snapped his fingers to light the candles and beckoned him in with a wave.
"What are you doing? Come on, blow them out."
Shirone walked forward as if bewitched.
"Um, what day is it today?"
"It's a day. The day you finish your tour at the Magic Association. Come on, hurry up."
When Shirone blew out the candles, everyone applauded.
A certificate for completing a tour at the Magic Association sounded grander than it felt, and the more he thought about it the more embarrassed he became.
"Thank you. But it's really nothing special, just a tour."
Isabel brushed her hair behind her ear as she spoke.
He'd only ever seen her composed at work; her hair down made her seem much more alluring.
"Still, you can't just let the Association's longest-serving trainee go without something. I heard you finished the training well. Plu said you were impressive. Congratulations."
Plu added, "And you turned nineteen too. Think of it as a birthday present."
"Oh—right!"
He'd been so absorbed in training that he hadn't even noticed the year changed. Last year's events compressed into one huge block of feeling—bigger than anything he'd ever experienced.
Gangnan, standing a little apart, produced a small box from behind Isabel's shoulder.
"Congratulations, Shirone. This is a gift prepared by the Association."
"Oh, thank you. What is it?"
He had his own ties to the people here, but the Association had no reason to fuss over a trainee. Sensing Gaold's presence behind the gesture, Shirone was cautious, wondering if some plot was hidden.
"It's just a present. Open it."
He untied the box. Inside lay a silver, gleaming seal ring. About three centimeters wide, it had an engraved magic circle in its center.
"Huh? This is a Cubric, isn't it?" Plu's remark made Shirone look up.
"A Cubric?"
"A two-dimensional ring. All Association staff have one. You know what a two-dimensional ring is, right?"
"No, I don't."
Shirone had grown fast and knew little about magic items.
"A ring that stores things by scale magic. Alchemist shops sell them too, but they're pricey. The ones from the Association have more precise encryption than commercial Cubrics, so they're pretty decent."
A ring that stores items in an extradimensional space would naturally be expensive.
But what pleased Shirone most was the Tormia Magic Association seal engraved on the inside of the ring.
No matter how costly a Cubric was, the Association's seal wasn't something you could buy.
Isabel took the ring and slipped it onto Shirone's ring finger.
"The principle is the same as other magical tools. It reacts to the Spirit Zone. Plu, disable the mana control for this room…"
Plu went out into the corridor and disabled the mana control devices only for the waiting room they were in.
The head of the magic library had asked him to do it, the chief of security had permitted it, and the chief secretary had turned a blind eye—so there would be no trouble.
When Plu returned, Shirone entered the Spirit Zone.
A peculiar magic sensation, one he had never felt before, reached him through synesthesia. When he focused, letters appeared before his eyes.
"User registration? Yes, No?"
Shirone glanced around as if asking someone to look with him. Everyone tried to hide their smiles.
"Um, this…"
Plu puffed his cheeks and grinned. "You see letters? Only you can see those. It projects onto your retina through your brainwaves."
Shirone thought of the drone Tess had gifted him in Elysion.
It must use similar tech that displays a view from above directly onto the retina.
After registration, a circle divided into seven pie-like slots appeared. The slots were equal in size, and the rim of the top slot glowed red.
Even though others couldn't see it, Shirone pointed to the slot.
"Is this where items are stored?"
Isabel explained, "Right. Based on the gravity here, it can carry up to forty-five kilograms in total. If you fill one slot with forty-five kilograms, the remaining six slots can't hold anything."
"Wow, forty-five kilograms?"
It could hold a whole set of military gear. For long journeys it would drastically reduce the weight of your supplies—an incredibly convenient tool.
"Let's practice. Pick something to store first."
"Okay, then this…"
Shirone took the Armand he wore at his waist.
As a commoner, wearing a sword felt awkward, and as a mage, having metal on him was inconvenient too.
"Good. I'll teach you how. Don't be nervous. It's very simple, like the four-directional method."
He snorted at the claim it was simple, but assumed it was because Isabel was a Grade-3 archmage and let it go.
"The Cubric distinguishes objects by cognition. That's the core concept of the two-dimensional system. Because the ring recognizes the sword in your hand as a completed item, the Cubric separates the sword from the world. You can't store only part of the sword."
"Because I don't recognize it as complete?"
"Correct. Next is the loading and unloading method. Simple: touch the ring to the item and think. Thought changes subtly shift the Spirit Zone, and the Cubric senses those shifts and activates. That's also why living things can't be stored. Even a tiny creature alters the Spirit Zone. To a Cubric, that's foreign matter."
Shirone nodded repeatedly, impressed by the Cubric's sensitivity.
"All right, I'll try."
He gripped Armand and thought of storing it. Like magic, the sword vanished.
He could see Armand, flattened of depth, stored in one of the Cubric slots.
"Now to retrieve."
When Armand reappeared in front of his palm, he reflexively grabbed the hilt.
Enjoying the novelty, Shirone repeated the function a dozen times. Once he became familiar, he could tell exactly what each stored item felt like.
Plu added, "If you go to a fairly large alchemy shop in the city you can upgrade the weight capacity. Up to a hundred kilograms costs around two hundred gold per kilogram. Beyond that the price per kilo rises sharply, and past four hundred kilograms the cost jumps into millions."
"Wow, that's huge."
Not only the price, but the maximum weight was staggering. Four hundred kilograms meant you could, with a bit of exaggeration, carry your entire household on your finger.
"That means a lot of demand. Technically it's also hard to augment. The current upper limit is roughly eight hundred kilograms. An item like that would be rare in the kingdom."
Shirone smiled. Whether eight hundred kilograms or whatever, the ring on his finger pleased him most.
It bore the Association's seal.
Gando said, "No matter how convenient, don't store important items unless you're traveling."
"Why? Will things disappear or—?"
Gangnan shook his head. "No. They could be stolen. Association-made Cubrics have complex encryption, so extraction risk is low. But anyone can chop off a finger and take it."
Shirone instinctively clutched the ring.
"Okay, I'll guard it with my life."
"No need to be that dramatic. In a dangerous situation, just throw it away or hand it over. A Cubric isn't an artifact—there are plenty for sale."
Such advice could only come from Gangnan, the Association's number two.
"Anyway, it's that kind of thing. If you want to be a proper mage, you should be able to handle this."
In Gangnan's last words, Shirone heard Gaold's voice.
If he ever went to Elysion, a Cubric would be essential. It was a silent pressure: prepare everything, from the important to the trivial.
"All right. I'll become a mage, no matter what."
Shirone raised the hand wearing the Cubric. Between his fingers, everyone smiled.