The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 451: The Academys Weapon Replicator

Chapter 451: The Academys Weapon Replicator

The three arrived at the Combined Use Of Magic And Combat classroom.

Of course, Basileo, unaware of the situation, was carefully observing the two.

The duo, who had been bickering with each other at every step inside the academy, fell silent like magic as soon as they stepped outside the building. They even radiated a strangely amicable atmosphere.

For Basileo, who had been anxious about when they would explode, it was a perplexing scene.

“Okay, stand over there.”

Frondier directed Basileo to the center of the training ground. Then, he joined Elodie a short distance away and observed him.

“Shall we begin now?”

“……Begin what?”

Basileo had no idea what was going on.

“This is the bonus question, the last one on the final exam I gave you.”

“……!”

At that moment, Basileo thought,

‘Here it comes!’

As expected, he must have been furious about the absurd answer Basileo wrote!

‘But to think Professor Elodie is involved too!’*

Did he write something that outrageous?

What was this, a new type of bullying? Teacher against student?

“Um, I didn’t write that answer as a joke,”

“Show me.”

“Excuse me?”

Frondier, still smiling, held out his hand.

“Show me the ‘answer’ you’re thinking of right here. You couldn’t have actually constructed the formula during the exam, right?”

“……Ah, yes?”

Basileo still couldn’t quite grasp the situation.

Elodie spoke up.

“That last problem required a thorough understanding of the relevant theories and knowledge, and on top of that, the absolute intellect of a mage: intuition.”

“……Ah, I, is that so?”

“So, show us here. The answer you came up with for that problem. The process of solving it.”

Basileo blinked.

Show the process of solving it. Did that mean his answer was somewhat close to the correct one?

‘But why are they suddenly being so kind and refreshed? Weren’t they fighting just a moment ago?’

Something felt eerie.

Basileo scratched his head for a moment before pulling something out of his pocket. It was a crumpled piece of paper. He unfolded it and stared at it with a frown.

Seeing this, Frondier and Elodie let out soft chuckles.

Basileo glanced at them and asked,

“Um, can I talk while I do it?”

“Of course. That would be even better.”

At Frondier’s cheerful permission, Basileo nodded.

“Well, um, first of all, that formula doesn’t manifest magic.”

“Why is that?”

“The reason is, that, well…”

Basileo looked around and spotted a suitably long twig. He then began to draw a formula on the ground. Of course, he was also comparing it with the paper he had taken out to see if he was drawing it correctly.

“To understand the reason, we first need to understand the theory of formula construction.”

“Because the formula that appeared in the problem was constructed incorrectly?”

Basileo shook his head at Frondier’s question.

“Even though it’s constructed correctly, it doesn’t manifest, which is why we need the theory. To see if the theory is wrong, or if the interpretation of the theory is wrong. We need to know where it went wrong.”

Basileo gradually calmed down. As he spoke, conviction settled in his eyes.

“formulas are a magical language. If a flame had a will and could tell us that it was burning something, or if a wave could tell us what shape it would take next, or if rain could tell us when and how it would fall. That would be the language they use, and we would be able to interpret and borrow that language to create a similar semblance.”

“But we are neither flames, nor waves, nor rain.”

Elodie interjected. Basileo nodded.

“That’s right. That’s why our language is a borrowed one. Because we’re not becoming those beings to speak, it can’t become them completely. That’s why magic is temporary and doesn’t persist. It’s a phenomenon, not a substance.”

Both Frondier and Elodie nodded at Basileo’s words.

“Then what’s wrong with the formula that appeared in the last problem?”

“The problem isn’t with the formula itself. It’s with the way the formula was transcribed.”

Basileo pointed to two points where the lines intersected in the formula he had drawn on the ground.

“Now, these two parts are where three formulas meet when they are combined. There’s no problem with this in itself. There are many cases where formulas overlap. This formula also appears to have been assembled in that way.”

“It ‘appears’ that way, meaning it’s not actually like that?”

“……”

Basileo’s words trailed off.

He pursed his lips and spoke in a smaller voice than before.

“….Maybe?”

“What kind of answer is that?”

“From here on out, I’m also lost…”

Frondier gave a relaxed smile.

“Then think about how you’re lost, and why you wrote that answer in the process of being lost.”

“How I’m lost…”

Basileo muttered softly and blinked a few times.

He bent down low and squatted. He traced his fingers over the formula he had drawn.

“It’s clear that this formula is connected according to theory. But it’s also true that it has a different shape from ordinary formulas. And these formulas are already known to students. If you combine them by the book, it’ll definitely become a ‘Floating Flame’. Similar to a Wisp, but you can feel the heat without touching it, and the caster can move it. It’s an offensive magic. But even though it’s the same formula, the shape of the combination is different. Then what’s the difference? No, why is it that ‘formulas combined in different shapes also don’t deviate from the theory?'”

Basileo then drew the three formulas side by side.

“Most manifestation failures occur due to collisions in the formula circuit. Just because they overlap doesn’t mean a collision will occur. If the Mana directions are flowing in opposite directions, or if the Mana corresponding to one circuit is too high, then yes, but this formula is neither.”

As Basileo spoke, his eyes became slightly unfocused. He looked just like he did in the classroom.

Frondier thought,

‘He’s concentrating. He’s not even explaining it to us anymore. He’s reciting it to allow his own thoughts to progress.’

Of course, Frondier had induced this. That was why he had brought Basileo here to explain.

Basileo was undoubtedly in the middle of some kind of realization. He just didn’t know it himself.

It would be difficult to think you’re on the verge of enlightenment while inside the familiar Atlas, in the classroom, surrounded by students excited about the upcoming vacation.

But enlightenment does not occur in any remarkable place or time. It can happen suddenly, without any warning, in just a moment of everyday life.

To go beyond reason and prediction, to reach it first. That is what intuition is.

To a mage, intuition is like a lifeline.

“So what came to mind was three-dimensional. At first, I thought one of the formulas should originally be ‘standing’.”

Basileo stood up.

He directly drew the formulas, following his magic.

“But if it’s done this way, the vertically drawn formulas won’t even fit on the paper, and the collisions will be even more severe. If you can’t figure out why the collisions are happening from the beginning…”

Frondier silently observed Basileo.

He had already given enough hints.

Bringing Basileo here to explain was already the ultimate hint.

“What Basileo lacked was certainty. Since he couldn’t know if his answer was right or not, he couldn’t easily move forward based on others’ stories.”

But Frondier was speaking to Basileo now.

‘Here’ is the correct answer.

*So don’t turn back, just one more step.*

“…Maybe, it’s not that kind of three-dimension…?”

Basileo muttered.

At his appearance, Frondier looked at Elodie.

He spoke with his lips.

‘It seems like I won?’

Elodie’s lips formed the words,

‘I don’t know yet.’

Basileo carefully examined the dots and lines he had spread out, as if tearing them apart.

“A collision is when flows in opposite directions collide. But the formulas, when viewed on a plane, were moving in the same direction. Yet, it didn’t manifest. That means there are opposing flows not visible on the plane.”

Could it be that it’s visible three-dimensionally?

And soon, Basileo started doing something strange.

Beyond just separating the three formulas, he began to shuffle the dots and lines contained within a single formula.

Elodie gasped as soon as she saw it.

‘The Mana lines that make up the formulas are maintaining their positions even though they’re scattered.’

The Mana circuits that most mages maintain with formulas are very momentary. It’s a framework for magic, there’s no reason to maintain it.

For a mage, constructing a formula is like doing mental arithmetic. In other words, once it evaporates from their mind, it naturally disappears.

But Basileo wasn’t like that.

For example, it was similar to remembering the ‘first’ equation even after deriving an answer from repeated calculations.

Frondier’s eyes also widened at the sight.

‘If that’s possible, then three-dimensional blueprints would be a joke to Basileo.’

He might not even understand them. If he could keep his thoughts from evaporating and let them linger, it would be like having the exact same function as a three-dimensional blueprint.

“……I understand.”

At that moment, Basileo raised his head and looked at Frondier.

Frondier said,

“Show me.”

Basileo nodded, gathered the formulas again, and raised the formulas he had been looking down at to his eye level. At that point, Elodie let out a chuckle.

‘This child, he’s a genius.’

It was an endorsement from none other than Elodie.

Basileo said,

“The reason why collisions in opposite directions aren’t visible on a plane, it’s simple once you know. The most basic of basic formulas we know, the ‘Stop’ formula…”

Basileo spread out the formulas he had raised to his eye level and drew another dot and line below them.

“Actually, it has one more circuit. A formula in the exact same location, but at a different height.”

With those words, the formula was complete. The entire formula now had a height difference. The circuits were separated by height so they wouldn’t collide, and by adding a new circuit, a Mana bypass was created.

In other words, the truth of the formula written on the last problem Frondier had given…

“If you look at this formula from ‘above,’ it becomes the same shape that you drew on the test paper, Professor!”

“──Correct.”

Frondier nodded with a satisfied smile.

The ‘Stop’ formula actually had one more circuit. A circuit in the exact same location, but at a different height, invisible when drawn on a plane.

When a formula is drawn entirely on a plane and the ‘Stop’ formula is used, the circuits overlap. So there’s no need to draw another one, the formula takes effect.

However, when viewed three-dimensionally, that circuit at a different height creates an unexpected hindrance when combined with other formulas.

Magic that incorporated the ‘Stop’ formula passed down from the past was created by avoiding that location. But no one knew the reason for the collision.

No matter how much you looked at it on a plane, you couldn’t find the answer. But since the formula activates as long as you avoid that location, no one questioned it further.

“Then, do you want to try manifesting that?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve solved the error in the formula and reconstructed it three-dimensionally. What kind of magic do you think it will be?”

“Huh? Well, it’ll be a ‘Floating Flame,’ right?”

“Then try it.”

Basileo tilted his head at Frondier’s words, but he poured Mana into the formula anyway.

And then,

“Uh, ugh…!”

A chunk of his Mana was sucked away. Even that expression wasn’t enough. Almost all of his total Mana was sucked into a single formula.

“Wh-What the…!”

Fwoosh!

And a flame appeared before his eyes.

As Basileo had just said, it looked similar to a ‘Floating Flame’.

But the eerie heat, the menacing color that warned against approaching it. It was a ferocious flame, so fierce that even Basileo himself, the caster, felt intimidated. It was as if it even had a will of its own, as if it would devour anything in its path.

“Wh-What is this…?”

Basileo was about to ask, but then he looked at the flame again.

He had seen it somewhere before. He felt like he had. It wasn’t like a ‘Floating Flame’ at all. This was on a whole other level, one of the magical aspirations he had dreamed of.

“That’s right.”

Frondier was about to tell him, but then he tilted his head.

“Elodie, what was that called again?”

At those words, Elodie let out a sigh.

While Basileo was surprised to see Frondier speaking casually to Elodie,

“Hellfire.”

Elodie explained.

“It’s one of the two magics combined in my original, ‘Vermilion Bird’s Ascent’.”