"Why is thinking not enough?"
Nothing could ever be consistent, could it? Now I was staring over the trenches into the battlefield, looking oddly out of place. While contemplating my life decisions, an ashen grey-haired girl dropped into the trench beside me, sliding through the mud with trained efficiency. Her staff shimmered with pale blue light, frost trailing along its length. She looked my age, or roughly around the same age, with a cool and calm demeanour plastered on her face.
'Well someone is a bit too calm for this. Nothing screams warfare like young soldiers.'
"First battlefield?" she shouted.
"Is it that obvious…? I didn't expect so much chaos."
She gave me a look that said you're kidding, right?
But how would she understand that she was basically a reconstruction made of tower magic while I had come from a relatively comfortable, non-war lifestyle? Oh well, there was no point thinking about it. The girl lifted her staff, sending a light ice blizzard to slow down the enemy troops, before creating small crystalline ice shards to rip through them like bullets. My eyes sat fascinated by the scene. She looked back at my mesmerised stare with a bit of confusion.
"If you're here, you passed the Magic Academy Graduation Test, right? I know warfare can be scary, but remember what you have been taught. Breathe! Feel the mana!"
"Feel it where?!"
"In you! Around you, through your Magus core! How do you not know this? That's the basics of being a mage."
Why did I feel like I was in school again? For the first time, the neutral-faced ice wizard made a twitch of irritation. It seemed my sheer incompetence had irked her. As my thoughts swayed, another soldier went down behind us, dragged into the trench by clawing hands. The girl slammed her staff down again. This time ice erupted forward from the ground, freezing three creatures mid-lunge.
"Shape the technique!" she yelled. "Don't just think it!"
'Okay, drill sergeant.'
The air tasted like smoke and iron, making it hard to concentrate, but I tried perceiving the loose mana in the environment. Mana was everywhere. Thick, violent, and churning. This battlefield wasn't just physical—it was saturated with magic, which wasn't too surprising. The mana in the surroundings was so dense that one would think a ritual was being carried out here.
I reached inward. My core flared as I tried to condense the spare mana in the environment and shape it into something similar to the image videos I had seen for the skill description. Wrath's Thunder. I didn't just think of the name. I pictured the storm that the dark figure had created. The image of the sky splitting and lightning answering the beckoning of the wizard like an ancient god. Its fluid and unyielding state. The sharpness and venom of the bolt as it struck the land.
Eventually the image started snapping into place as the mana roared through me. The clouds above cracked open as a bolt of lightning descended like a pillar. It struck the battlefield beyond the trench. Creatures vaporised instantly.
The ground split. Shockwaves tore outward. The trench shook violently.
"…I'm doing it," I breathed.
Though my control was far from proficient, the lightning seemed to have a mind of its own, as if I were not the caster, causing the recoil to hit. The amplified current didn't dissipate cleanly but rebounded. My body faced the backlash as pain tore through my nerves. It seemed there was still some idea missing in my approach, causing the spell to work to some degree but not properly. I felt like I'd swallowed a live wire.
The explosion of force launched me backward into the trench wall. Mud and wood shattered. I hit hard, stars bursting across my vision.
"I think," I wheezed, "I overdid it."
Soldiers surged forward, taking advantage of the gap I'd created, hopping above the wall like groups of fanatics. Swords flashed as a man in white robes raised his hands skyward.
"Oh Prima Lux," he cried, voice shaking. "The road is yet long! Hear our call! Bless us in divinity!"
A shining radiant light fell from above. Beams of holy brilliance speared into the battlefield, burning through plague creatures like sunlight through fog.
'Prima Lux. That name again.'
A horn blared as a massive voice thundered across the field.
"Advance to the Church! Regroup at the Church of Prima Lux! Do not break formation!"
Church. There was a church on this field? I pushed myself up, dizziness rolling through me. The girl beside me grabbed my sleeve.
"You overchanneled," she said sharply. "Control it, mage! How did someone like you land here on the battlefield?"
"Do you not think that I notic—"
Before the final word could leave my mouth, something hit me. A dark black energy ball struck my chest, causing a black sigil flared across my skin as cold spread through my veins.
Rotting.
My arm spasmed as black veins crawled toward my shoulder. The plague, or whatever it was—I had been infected by it through a projectile curse. I stumbled back.
"…That's not good."
My vision doubled as the battlefield tilted sideways. The noise distorted as the girl's voice sounded distant. Now a truly panicked expression showed on her face. Oddly, she looked quite endearing now that she actually showed a hint of emotion. Perhaps she felt partly guilty about my ending. Not that she had to. I would just respawn anyway. But how would she know that?
"MAGE! Cleanse! Someone cleanse—"
Darkness swallowed me as my eyes slowly shut. When they opened again, mud filled my mouth.
"MOVE!"
I gasped, taking in a deep breath of air. The replicated state of not existing and then existing again was not something I could get used to. The explosions in the trenches could be heard again from afar. The same soldier shoved past me as last time, with the creature vaulting over the trench wall in the same position. It seemed like everything looped back to the beginning when I died.
'Great. Groundhog zombie days.'
My heart pounded as I stared at the timer.
02:59:58
Everything reset. Not rewinding slowly—snapping back to the start.
The only exception was me, who now had the knowledge of the previous run.
'Well, I did ask for a practice ground.'
From my right, the same creatures that the flame mage was about to destroy lunged toward me. This time I moved before anyone else could. The quicker I could get this experience done, the better. Electric Aura Manipulation. I pictured the second image. Lightning coating my skin in a controlled fashion. Every time it got too thick and seemed like it would explode, I concentrated on reeling the image in, imagining it cladding my skin tightly.
I imagined the threads wrapping muscle and bone as my body pulled the mana inward, shaping it like a sculptor. A thin layer of electricity crawled across my arms and my legs. The air around me buzzing faintly. The creature's claws tried to strike my forearm, but I had already shaped it into a blade. When it made contact, the creature hissed and recoiled slightly. The shape of my mana started shaking and losing form.
The robed man appeared beside me and blinked.
"Your mana is unstable."
"I know," I said quickly. "Working on it."
The plague creature lunged again. This time I stepped aside, concentrating on refining my mana into a sharp, concentrated point. My body felt the backlash as my arm started shaking violently. I was still doing something wrong, but for now it would be enough.
The creature flared on impact. The mana blade cut through its chest, frying it until it was nothing but a charred corpse. My first victory in this tutorial had finally come. All it took was one death and a whole load of pain, but a win was a win. Wrath's Thunder pulsed in my mind again, the storm image waiting in the background. That attack was much harder to control, not to mention the backlash I had gotten from using it.
Even now the electric manipulation was not steady, losing form constantly and needing to be readjusted. But I had time on my side. The ability of infinite retries. I was still very confused about how this tutorial was supposed to test me, its purpose, and how this would help outside the instance of the tutorial. I probably wasn't going to get any answers soon.
The horn sounded again.
"Hold the line!"
Mud splashed and steel clashed. And I stood in the middle of it, heart hammering, electricity crawling across my skin like a second heartbeat.
"…Okay," I muttered.
"If this is the tutorial, I'd hate to see the final exam. But as a former test cheeser, I won't give up easily. Everytime I get an answer wrong I'll just retry. This level will be aced with an S score!" The timer ticked down.
02:59:41
This wasn't just about surviving. It was about learning fast and adapting.
And right now?
I was still very much a mosquito among giants.