How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 149

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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How to Survive as the Second Son of a Magic Family (149)

Everyone except Elias had disappeared.

Elias, left alone at the starting point, looked around and let out a hollow laugh.

Four team members simultaneously moved to the coordinates where the victim was located, and the team leader moved to the adjacent coordinates, splitting the screen into three parts.

‘…They’re warping directly into a forest like this?’

Since we don’t know what state the victim is currently in, we need to warp carefully.

Especially in a natural environment like this that isn’t enclosed like a building.

It wouldn’t be too late to warp one person to the adjacent coordinates for reconnaissance purposes and then move.

‘It seems like that team leader was trying to take on that role.’

The team members clearly didn’t move as they had discussed beforehand.

When the team leader’s flustered scolding came through the public channel, Elias cut him off and spoke calmly.

[Forget it. Just assign positions.]

[Uh, I just warped to the coordinates where the alarm went off? Wait, guys! Set up barriers first and standby! Don’t go out first, just wait!]

The team leader spoke to Elias again.

[It’s in the early stages of rampage right now, and from its movements, it looks like it’s about to flee. I’ll hold it down right now…]

Crash—!

[Hey! Guys!]

The team leader shouted in a voice that seemed to be holding back profanity.

Elias’s sigh flowed into the team leader’s artifact.

‘He’s actually holding back.’

Elias would normally warp immediately and cause chaos at a time like this.

Perhaps knowing that everything visible now would become the team’s weakness, he wasn’t acting emotionally.

Beep—

[Elias, we’re driving it north right now, so calculate the coordinates 300m ahead and warp there. You’ll handle the final processing.]

From the notification sound, it seems the contact went through Elias’s private channel.

At that moment, Elias, who had warped to the location the team leader mentioned, raised his eyebrows as if sensing something strange.

The team leader’s irritated shout could be heard.

[Don’t turn around, drive it north!]

“Huh!”

“What are those guys doing?”

Even though it wasn’t directed at Elias, he twisted his expression as if he had already grasped the situation from that place more than 300m away.

My expression watching the screen probably looked the same.

“Wow…”

Narke sighed from the Team 1 waiting area next to us.

It was understandable.

The 8th Team students immediately changed direction and headed east as soon as the team leader caught up.

Now I realized why Elias had been acting that way for the past few days.

‘They’re excluding him.’

The four from Class 1, excluding the team leader, were blocking Elias from joining in.

I understood why the team leader used the private channel.

Since it was obvious the team members would move while excluding Elias, he delivered the message only to him and planned to personally guide the students north.

But the team members figured out the team leader’s intentions first, ruining everything.

Elias’s urgent voice could be heard.

[Where are you going? I need to know to warp!]

[East! No, now…!]

The team leader had already lost his sense of direction.

Elias ran with an expressionless face, as if he hadn’t expected anything anyway.

At that moment, one of the broadcast screens flashed bright white due to magical power.

Crash—!

Following the explosive sound, the sound of viscous liquid dripping could be heard.

Unlike Elias’s still quiet screen, the screen with the 8th Team members began to regain focus as the light receded.

The 8th Team students who had dealt with the rampaging victim looked at each other with satisfied smiles.

It was a contrasting scene to Elias on the adjacent screen, who was expressionlessly running his hand through his hair with his other hand on his waist.

Meanwhile, I made eye contact with our team students.

“…”

“Wow, damn…”

Even Philip shook his head and laughed.

Everyone had expressions asking if it was okay to act like that.

Cheringen was looking at the screen alone without expression, probably thinking that Team 8 had already been surpassed.

‘This is the worst.’

Is it enough to just reduce time?

Despite deploying six people, they didn’t check residential areas, had to verbally order barrier installation, and didn’t follow instructions.

The team leader’s second instruction to “hold it down” was an accurate judgment.

With no purification specialist on the team, there’s no way to handle it if Vitriol seeps into nature. The ideal approach is to capture the rampaging victim to prevent escape and finish processing on the spot.

But the team members violated instructions to gain control and drove the rampaging victim to flee.

With only two out of six thinking properly, this team will remain in last place and be eliminated at this rate.

[The exam is now concluded.]

The announcement came, and the forest summoned through Mimesis disappeared.

The Vitriol that had splattered on the students’ training uniforms vanished as if washed away.

Completely oblivious to the bewilderment of the watching students, the 8th Team students except the team leader smiled and clapped for each other.

Elias just walked out with an expressionless face. The team leader spotted Elias and followed apologetically.

“Elias…!”

Elias waved his hand dismissively and sat back down in the 8th Team waiting area.

The moderator from the student council looked around nervously before speaking.

[…Next, Team 2.]

* * *

“Four teams have finished their training so far. You all saw the results of Team 8, who were strong candidates for bonus points, right?”

After four out of eight teams finished their training, our team came outside for a strategy meeting. After seeing the other teams’ results, Philip’s friend seemed to gain confidence and snorted.

“Team 8 is nothing special. It’s not easy to mess up that badly even with Elias on the team, right?”

“Exactly. It’s my first time seeing such pathetic bastards.”

Philip replied with a crooked smile.

‘Are these guys really going to try?’

As expected, Cheringen seemed to find it amusing and said with a laugh.

“They certainly seem to lack communication skills, but that’s just speculation—we can’t be certain what strategy they had planned.”

“Well, that’s going too far…”

“Any decent team would have made these calculations before going in. They might have moved that way intentionally to avoid revealing their abilities, so let’s stay vigilant until the end.”

Before Philip and Philip’s friend could add unnecessary retorts, Cheringen continued seriously.

“Only one of the three teams that were in the bonus point acquisition range has finished so far. We’re the very next team. You all know that everyone will be watching us closely, right?”

“So, should we also moderately hold back our abilities now?”

At Ainsiedel from Class 1’s question, Cheringen nodded.

“Right. What kind of field do you think the opposing team will give us?”

“Hmm, I don’t think they’ll give us an easy field… They might throw us a difficult one to see how we solve it.”

“I vote for them giving us the most basic field.”

At Melvin’s words, Ainsiedel spoke matter-of-factly.

Cheringen smiled and leaned forward.

“Whatever field comes up, let’s just remember one thing.”

“What?”

“Don’t use your head, use your body.”

* * *

Crash—!

Something like a pitch-black tree trunk struck the barrier. Even though I had defended with distance, the vibration was transmitted directly to the back of my head.

If I had been even one second late, what it attacked would have been my cervical spine.

I rolled to avoid the vitriol flying toward my head again, then kicked off the ground and leaped.

Right now we had received the residential area field.

As it was the terrain where accidents occurred most frequently, it was familiar ground for me. And Cheringen had instructed me to take on the role of bait.

‘Not much left now.’

Now we escape from this residential area and move to the lowest point.

Since vitriol is heavier than air, it must be dealt with at low places to reduce secondary damage.

No matter how much I try not to use my brain, I have to take care of this much basic knowledge.

When I reached the target point, I turned around.

The black sphere, swaying madly due to the wind, scattered vitriol in all directions. Of course, Cheringen, who was in charge of backup, was covering everything.

Kikikik―

The moment the sphere saw my face, it began making strange sounds.

I saw the sphere starting to pick up speed and turned around to run at full speed.

And the moment my eyes met with Class 1’s Ainsiedel in the distance, I lowered my body.

I say lowered, but it’s more accurate to say I rolled once again.

“Ugh…”

I could hear Philip’s friend making disgusted sounds from far away.

‘Sorry for using someone else’s body so roughly.’

I got scratched, but anyway, whatever injuries I suffer in here will be gone when I get outside, so it’s no problem.

Kwaaaaang―!

The moment I heard the roar, I raised my head.

The roar came from the sphere that had been chasing me at full speed.

It must have collided with the barrier set up by my teammates.

Just as I was getting up to provide support, Cheringen, who came into view, smiled and extended his hand.

“The pain sensation should be the same, but aren’t you using your body a bit too much just because I told you to use it?”

“Who was it that told me to be the bait…”

I smiled back and was saying that when I closed my mouth.

‘Ah, I should look like I’m struggling to keep up.’

Cheringen also seemed to realize his mistake and suppressed his laughter, frowning deeply toward the camera. Though it was probably already caught on camera anyway.

We lightly laughed on the side the camera wasn’t capturing and got up from our positions.

“Hey guys!”

Philip and Melvin sent looks urging us to hurry while maintaining their attacks. Both were pushing forward recklessly with sheer volume.

Such inefficient attacks – this was a method they would never use normally.

Cheringen raised his wand to finish the job.

[You who make us turn back, we shall draw our bowstring toward that face.]

Golden mana swirled aggressively at the tip of his wand, then flew into the vitriol sphere without giving us time to watch.

Kwaaaaang―

The end of the roar was muffled as if swallowed by mud.

The golden attack didn’t get absorbed by the sphere’s soft surface but aggressively burrowed inside it. Finding it difficult to replenish his mana, Cheringen gritted his teeth.

‘Still, not much left now.’

Pueok―

The moment I reinforced the barrier to deal with the vitriol, I heard the sound of the sphere’s core bursting.

Then came the notification sound.

Beep―

[9 minutes 39 seconds.]

[Exam concluded.]

Since it was a 10-minute recommended field, this was decent enough.

Out of 9 minutes, 7 minutes were spent with me running around, but thanks to that, our team’s abilities were hidden, so it wasn’t bad.

Unlike usual, it was the result of really pushing through with pure physicality from start to finish, without any strategic instructions.

‘No, doing it this way was the strategy itself from the beginning.’

Mimesis turned off, and the scratches on my hands and arms disappeared.

“Lucas!”

Cheringen smiled and extended his hand.

I lightly high-fived his hand.

“You really like this.”

“It’s perfect for building resolve.”

“Why don’t you do it with other teammates?”

“Good observation~ One more time?”

The guy spread his hand and waved it.

He’s not answering. Since I know that he’s trying to get close to me whether politically or whatever, I don’t really need to hear the answer.

“What’s the point of doing it again.”

“That’s a shame.”

Cheringen still smiled as if he had no thoughts.

Anyway, we achieved our goal of finishing without incident and left the training ground.

[Thank you for your hard work. Next, Team 3.]

The atmosphere outside was better than expected.

A good atmosphere meant our plan had worked well.

Then students from other teams whispered among themselves.

“That guy just ran around and that was it.”

“I was most curious about him.”

Even when they speak quietly, I can hear everything.

Cheringen’s abilities have been well known to them for 10 years, so there’s no need to hide them.

But I’m different.

Even though I’ve shown my abilities a few times so far, I don’t have as much data accumulated as Julia, Leo, or Elias, making it difficult for opponents to predict my movements.

Although this isn’t an exam where knowing the opponent’s abilities is important, Cheringen decided to hide my abilities today considering their wariness.

When we sat in Team 6’s waiting area, Narke, who sat next to me, leaned over and tapped my shoulder.

―”Leo wants to know if you guys are trying to pull a scam.”

“For something Leo asked, that sounds like your way of speaking.”

―”Haha, so~?”

Obviously…

I answered lightly.

“See for yourself and judge on exam day.”

* * *

They probably all knew anyway when they asked.

Other students might not know, but there’s no way my friends wouldn’t know.

As I was thinking that, Narke used her divine power to speak.

―”Even if you know, humans need to hear it directly to feel satisfied~”

‘Right. That would be the case. What about Elias?’

―”In the classroom.”

I just tried it once, but communication works this way?

When all the joint training time was over, we moved to our class for closing remarks.

The students walking ahead began talking about Elias’s team.

“Hey, what the hell did those guys do?”

“I think they did it on purpose. Since Elias is the best, maybe they want to reveal it on exam day…?”

“Didn’t it not seem like that kind of atmosphere?”

“Ah, it was a bit like that… But still. Who would they be doing that for.”

Same thought here.

I had considered the possibility that they might subtly provoke Elias from Class 2 outside of training, but I didn’t think they would completely exclude him from training like this.

‘Because points are at stake.’

Or I wondered if those guys were really so bad at their skills that Elias was having a hard time.

But that wasn’t it. Their skills were just decent enough.

So in other words, those guys either didn’t care if they failed, or…

‘Are they planning to openly exclude Elias and make him voluntarily drop out of the team?’

If that’s the case, this crazy situation of five people practicing would make sense.

After thinking that far, I shook off my thoughts.

The second hypothesis went a bit too far. Elias isn’t the type to voluntarily drop out.

I went to the classroom and sat down, glancing at Elias who was already surrounded by students.

Seeing their voices getting louder, it seemed like the classmates were getting angry on his behalf.

Elias spotted me and warped to the seat next to me, then buried his head on my shoulder like yesterday.

Thud—

Perhaps sensing something unusual from the sound, a student asked.

“Hey… is your shoulder okay?”

“No.”

“Luuuuuuu…”

“Why do you stop talking mid-sentence?”

“I was thinking, the name Lucas can probably be shortened to exactly two syllables. Luca is four syllables, so it’s too long.”

He stopped talking because he was being lazy, yet he keeps creating nicknames.

Since it’s Elias, I guess I have to accept it.

I changed the subject and brought up the training I saw earlier.

“Elias. Is this why you’ve been having a hard time for days?”

Elias didn’t answer.

Until homeroom ended, Elias didn’t mention a single word about training.

“Alright, you may leave now. Eat lunch and train hard.”

After the professor’s homeroom ended, students got up from their seats in a rush.

Then, a student shouted from outside.

“Huh, what’s this?”

The hallway I glimpsed was completely white on the floor.

White papers were scattered in piles on the floor from far away.

[Please claim your lost items.]

[End of the 2nd Floor Corridor of the Main Building]

I looked up and gazed down the hallway.

Dozens of the same papers were stuck on both the floor and walls.

Since there was no student council stamp, it was an unauthorized posting.

‘This isn’t for lost items purposes, considering this extent.’

Suddenly, I made eye contact with Leo who was standing by the front door.

Leo also seemed to sense that something was strange.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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