How to Survive as the Second Son of a Mage Family - Chapter 327

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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 (327)

 

We are playing a ping-pong game with Mimesis Pleroma.

 

It’s easy to predict that Treptower Park—and this surrounding area—is advantageous to them. Pleroma deliberately created a situation we could suspect, and as we can see here, they knew the ‘proposition’ as Mecklenburg mentioned. Well, they would have to find an uncontaminated location first to take prisoners anyway, so they must have thought we would figure that out. They expected us to narrow down the zero-star clean zones and deliberately contaminated the previously clean lake.

 

Where our calculations differ slightly from theirs is that they might have first determined the portal’s location and then performed diversionary tactics in a place far from the portal. In other words… our calculations were excessive. However, they might have selected the portal location and diversionary location hoping our calculations would become excessive from the start. It’s better not to underestimate the enemy, so this is more reasonable.

 

The conclusion is this.

 

From our perspective, Treptower appears to be quite a reasonable place for Pleroma to choose, but precisely because of that, when considered from Pleroma’s actual standpoint, locations other than Treptower appear as better options to them.

 

Now the options increase. We need to narrow down areas that initially had no stars or one star. About nine of these come up.

 

But then, why did I have to come to Treptower instead of going to search those places…

 

Crash—!!

 

I shook off Leo’s hand and burst my mana. With an ear-splitting roar, I felt the person in front of me leap to another location. As if he had anticipated my move from the moment he grabbed my collar, plant stems rushed at me from all directions before I could even get up. I pushed mana into every part of my body touching the ground and gripped my staff.

 

[Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble—]

 

Boom— Crash—!!

 

[And he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.]

 

The grass that had been rushing at me stopped and sank to the ground in an instant. When I stomped the ground with my foot, the grass quietly settled down from there.

 

I, who had been lying down, now stood on both legs again, and Leo, who had been nearby, disappeared. I heard the sound of Leo landing in a place less affected by my mana from far away. Leo showed no dissatisfaction on his face. He simply maintained his usual coolness while wielding his wand. His calm voice reached me.

 

[For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.]

 

Clang—! Screech—

 

I gritted my teeth while blocking his sword from below. The speed at which he changed his wand to a sword and rushed at me was admirable. Leo looked straight into my eyes beyond the two lights bouncing off the sword and continued chanting.

 

[So that people are without excuse.]

 

For a moment, I hesitated seeing the nature rushing at me from all directions. Leo’s mana dissolved in the plants and the mana floating in midair finally came into view. Everything flowed slowly as if time had been stretched. The sight of sunlight filtering through the Vitriol darkening the midday sky and cool mana harmonizing looked just like standing in a garden at dawn. The fierce movement of the grass didn’t feel like an attack.

 

It was exactly as he had cast. I was momentarily captivated by the plants that had only felt bothersome. And such moments were always the signal before a change of fate.

 

Crash—…

 

[My people have been lost sheep.]

 

How could I not know that. Who did I learn from. The moment I quietly opened my mouth, the strike that burst from my sword pushed Leo’s sword away. He leaped back with skilled movement. His sword, pushed to the upper right, would now move left to block my sword rushing toward his chest. If that happened, it would be another standoff.

 

Bang!

 

Before that.

 

I had to utilize the moment. I spread a barrier in midair, leaped, and landed on his opposite side. The sword I held changed to a staff, and the green leaves wrapped around the sword tip fell powerlessly. A red light incompatible with this nature spread from under my stomping foot to the edge of my vision.

 

[Their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.]

 

I feel the ground writhing. Leo continues trying to activate his unique ability, but the spell I continue chanting blocks it. If I get caught by Leo’s grass, there’s nothing I can do. Even though I’m still shocking his core, whether he’s enduring the pain or not, he repeatedly retreated without wavering and swung his sword at me.

 

‘Enemies on all sides…’

 

Every plant looks like a blade. In that situation, the magic he used earlier was quite a successful strategy. As soon as he cast that magic, the plants reaching for me felt nothing but harmonious. Whether he interfered with my mind faintly with ordinary mana or used mana to distort my vision to feel fantastic, I don’t know. Now, before the suppression spell I’ve been layering expires, I must deal with him. Instead of striking down with my staff, I stopped quietly and looked at everything in my sight. The mana flowing through my legs seemed to resonate with all the mana in this land. I exhaled according to my increasingly rapid heartbeat from the exhilaration and raised my staff to the sky.

 

[The Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.]

 

Boom— Crash—!!

 

[Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night!]

 

The world turned red. Whether looking at the sky or the ground, everything had changed color as if a red film covered my vision. The grass blades looked black. The pale blue mana flashing like electricity in the distance suggested Leo’s location, but soon flames swallowed it with an explosion.

 

Whoosh—

 

[…Brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…]

 

Something like Leo’s voice was heard from afar, then that voice became clear.

 

[Consider it pure joy.]

 

Crash—! Whoosh—

 

“…!”

 

He dismantled my magic. His mana, surrounding my mana manifested as fire in arrowhead shapes, flew at me from all directions. Though not spoken as a spell, it had guided magic formulas. I was confident enough that my blood vessels wouldn’t be intact if hit, and I couldn’t lay barriers here as Leo had taught me and I had taught Leonard.

 

Crash— Bang—!

 

I changed my staff to a wand and ran while deflecting dozens of attacks flying at me from all sides. One of them lodged in my forearm, but this wasn’t the time to worry about one or two.

 

The difficult thing about facing Leo is, first, that he welcomes my attacks.

 

I’m not unaware that he breaks my attacks and observes every fragment of light that emerges without missing any, that he doesn’t fear it but actively utilizes it. While Leo satisfies his academic curiosity, I’ve been diligently beaten by his mana for the past few months, so I’m irritated enough to know it well.

 

Second, he already knows me too well.

 

Crash—

 

“…”

 

Damn… I tried to smile but gritted my teeth instead.

 

I feel weight on my back. Even while pressing down on my back, Leo spoke in a strangely disapproving tone rather than being pleased.

 

“If you had the skill to handle such attacks without any effort, you’d be able to detect third attacks too.”

 

Where I was knocked down was around the central warp point of this park. Warp point. I immediately understood how this happened.

 

Crack—

 

He removed and broke the communication artifact hanging along my ear.

 

When others hear it, it would sound like Leo is scratching at me for lacking skill… Actually, it’s not that, but him scolding with a teacher mindset.

 

And I had already detected that Leo disappeared from far away. I just couldn’t defend in the 0.1-second difference when he warped over. It’s always a hair’s breadth that’s the problem, and just that prevents me from surpassing the teacher’s wall. Securing that ‘just that’ is also skill, and since it’s achieved through decades of effort, I have no intention of complaining.

 

I feel grass pressing against my wrist veins. Whether to avoid repeating the third test’s mistake, he was now properly blocking even my leg’s mana passages. I looked at the white gloves that didn’t feel like my hands. A burning sensation in my blood vessels continued, then became numb.

 

“At this rate, my blood vessels will burst.”

 

“They won’t.”

 

“What do you mean they won’t. Have you tried having your wrists wrapped in grass?”

 

Perhaps worried that I might absorb it if he used mana to crush me, he didn’t move from his position. I tried to kick off the ground to get up, but Leo pressed down on my legs with his weight.

 

“…”

 

Leo’s expression when I turned my head to check was cold. I could clearly feel his intention not to let me escape until I answered. More than that, I was dumbfounded by another aspect. Though I’d been beaten many times during training by mana or unique abilities, he had rarely pressed me down directly to hinder my movement. At least after becoming an adult, I’d never been physically overpowered by anyone, but experiencing this after coming to this world is absurd.

 

‘…Is this also… strategy… No.’

 

If I had drained Leo’s mental strength, so be it, but my mental strength shouldn’t be drained here. I intended to continue using the method I used when draining Mecklenburg’s mental strength storage.

 

So I will make a negotiation I wouldn’t normally make in my current situation.

 

“Let me go.”

 

* * *

 

“…”

 

Mecklenburg ran like crazy. The annoying junior was a junior, and the test was a test.

 

[I need to knock on stone bridges too, and… I have more to do, so I’ll move to Treptower Park. Instead, Senior, you should move directly to another place, not Treptower Park. There’s the most likely area, so please try looking for it.]

 

This was what Ascanien had said.

 

How annoying. More annoying than his brother.

 

However, he had no intention of saying anything. He had no justification for it, and he didn’t want to do useless things during the test. Since they started 2 minutes late from the beginning, we had exactly 5 minutes left. If the two weren’t dividing parts to search for space magic, 5 minutes alone was insufficient. Even with warping.

 

So ultimately, the first round strategy meeting that had been wrongly buttoned from the start had no choice but to completely yield to Ascanien.

 

‘Damn…’

 

Crash—

 

Mecklenburg quickly flipped through the coordinate book while feeling his mana being pushed to invisible distances. Since nothing was caught, he had to warp to the next coordinates to check if space magic was laid.

 

‘…I shouldn’t have been swept up in that Ascanien’s nonsense.’

 

At that moment, he didn’t know how many emotions swirled. That human called Ascanien’s brother is not someone who says he respects others. He is someone who receives respect. But with a face like his brother, he says he respects me?

 

Ridiculous. How could it not be ridiculous. But what shocked me most was that I felt indescribable sentiment from these few trivial words, and also…

 

“…”

 

The anxiety that I shouldn’t make mistakes since an opportunity had come struck me. If only he hadn’t verbosely expressed those words of respect with such an expression, no, if it had been another junior, I wouldn’t have cared about such words at all, but what exactly was the problem.

 

‘As expected…’

 

I don’t like it. No matter how I look at it, there was no corner to grow attached to.

 

Nevertheless, I became impatient. Though everything was ruined, the desire to prove that Ascanien’s judgment wasn’t wrong surged up. Most of all, I couldn’t stand that point. That I, no one else but I…

 

‘Why should I.’

 

Mecklenburg’s staff touching the ground had slightly more force. This time too, there was no space magic caught.

 

Why should I be recognized by such a child. Though I knew with my head it made no sense, my heart didn’t flow as intended. It seemed like the sensation of dealing with my friend Ascanien was reviving.

 

‘…Something’s wrong.’

 

This first round was swayed by Ascanien, but I can make up for it from next time. I can do that. Regaining composure was something I’d always done. Even if memories of being pushed back countless times by other Ascaniens suddenly popped up in my head, I wouldn’t be pushed back by his younger brother too. No matter what.

 

Crash—

 

To do that, first, regardless of what happened, matching breath with Ascanien to beat the opposing team was essential. Mecklenburg reviewed his words.

 

[Here are nine places that showed 0 and 1-star contamination levels at 10 o’clock. Going around all these places is realistically impossible. We have no choice but to point out the most likely place and stake everything on it.]

 

He said while simply making check marks on the 10 o’clock status chart.

 

[ Tiergarten ★☆☆ / Alexanderplatz Bahnhof ★☆☆ / Gethsemane Church ★☆☆ / Berlin Cathedral ★☆☆ / Berlin Havel River Southwest ★☆☆ / Lange See-Mügelsee ☆☆☆ / Blankenfeld ☆☆☆ / Tegeler See ☆☆☆ / Karow Pond ☆☆☆ ]

 

And at 12 o’clock.

 

[ Tiergarten ★☆☆ / Alexanderplatz Bahnhof ★☆☆ / Gethsemane Church ★☆☆ / Berlin Cathedral ★☆☆ / Berlin Havel River Southwest ★★☆ / Lange See-Mügelsee ★★★ / Blankenfeld ☆☆☆ / Tegeler See ★☆☆ / Karow Pond ☆☆☆ ]

 

Of the 9, the 4 from Tiergarten to Berlin Cathedral are strongholds in old Berlin, constantly purified evacuation warp points. And the remaining 5 are places on Berlin’s outskirts. Tegeler See and Havel River Southwest are located in the upper and lower west of Berlin respectively. In other words, they use the central Spree River as upstream. The contamination level that increased by one level each is due to the Spree River.

 

More importantly, there were spots that immediately caught my eye. There were actually two places that weren’t contaminated at all at either 10 o’clock or 12 o’clock. Blankenfelde and Karolinensiel Pond. The reason was probably because they were located in the northern outskirts of Berlin, far from the river.

 

Ascanien urged me before even 10 seconds had passed since he finished speaking.

 

[You must have found it.]

 

How unlucky.

 

Unlucky as it was, his speed in calculating the most rational choice the opponent could make was impressively fast. He was definitely not inferior to Mecklenburg himself. The words that would follow would be completely identical to the answer Mecklenburg himself had thought of.

 

[Senior, you need to go straight down from Tegeler See to the southwest of the Havel River. Within 5 minutes.]

 

* * *

 

“Let me go?”

 

He repeated my words in a cold tone. Was he being standoffish considering it would be shown on screen? No, that wasn’t it. Leo was always serious about any given test. I widened my eyes and answered.

 

“Yeah. Go do what you need to do. I’m saying this for your sake.”

 

“….”

 

“Don’t you see I’m giving you a chance right now? Where do you have time to hold me back here?”

 

“You’re right, I don’t. Every second is precious in this situation.”

 

Leo shrugged his shoulders and muttered sarcastically. I wonder where he learned to mock so calmly. I turned my head, trying to look at him as I answered.

 

“You don’t seem to trust me. When have I ever just deceived you?”

 

“No. What you’re saying now looks true to me too. But there’s less than a minute and 30 seconds left.”

 

Leo stood up from his spot with a faint smile. Then, plants began covering his entire body beyond just his hands and feet. I frowned briefly at his unexpected words, then stared at him intently. Leo spoke with an unsurprised expression.

 

“So what you’re saying, to put it simply, is this. You came here knowing this wasn’t the answer.”

 

“….”

 

“Seeing that you expected me to be here, it seems we reached the same conclusion. You tried to confuse me by showing me that you were here, right? So… you’re hoping I’ll continue confronting you and having a leisurely conversation. You mocked me about whether I should go around looking for you, but actually… You really went around looking for me on purpose. To make this place seem like the right answer and hold me back. Am I wrong?”

 

Leo continued in a dry tone while stroking his chin.

 

“So from your perspective, I’d have to keep playing with you. That way you could prevent me from joining my team member.”

 

“Ha…”

 

Hahaha. I burst into light laughter.

 

‘He saw right through this.’

 

Everything was correct. I had come to hold him back, and the reason I hadn’t run away and fought him until now was to prevent the Representative Mage of Class 91 from getting reconnaissance personnel. Not because Treptower was the right answer.

 

Surprisingly yet unsurprisingly, he already knew how I would act and came here to use the same strategy as me. I had never underestimated Leo, but really… The best colleague is indeed the worst as an enemy.

 

Now I couldn’t lift my knees even slightly because of the grass tangled all over my body. I could vividly feel the plants climbing up my skin and clothes. Surely plants shouldn’t be able to move—grow—this quickly, but seeing such a thing wasn’t enough, and having it directly cross over me gave me chills. Personal impressions aside, I already knew well what he was trying to derive from this.

 

Leo looked around and then looked down at me. The exemplary smile he wore as class president appeared on his face, backlit by the pale sunlight.

 

“Sorry, but I need to go. Sometimes lying down and resting in a grass field isn’t bad, right?”

 

He planned to tie my feet here and leave alone. Right, there’s no time to hold each other back. Leo also knew that working with the Representative Mage of Class 91 to check areas with 0 to 1 stars was the right answer.

 

If we confronted each other, both our feet would be tied. So he would leave me here, or more precisely, leave me to the plants and go do his own work.

 

At least until Leo broke my artifact, I hadn’t heard Mecklenburg meet anyone else. The destination was definitely set, and Mecklenburg had passed through warp checkpoints at tremendous speed to offset his delay, but had never met the Representative Mage of Class 91. Yet there was no announcement that the Representative Mage of Class 91 had won either. With this time difference, the Representative Mage of Class 91 should have found it already.

 

That meant our thinking and approach matched up to Treptower Park, but showed differences after that. Of course, at this point, that difference wasn’t significant. It was so slight that victory or defeat could be decided by just a few seconds.

 

So…

 

I spoke to Leo, who was reciting coordinates to warp somewhere.

 

“It would be better not to go.”

 

The moment Leo turned to look at me, pure white light burst in the sky and letters were carved. A voice that was never unpleasant to hear came through.

 

Beep—

 

[Round 1, Team B Albert Mecklenburg-Lucas Ascanien has won.]

 

“…!”

 

It was over. As he hurriedly turned his gaze from looking up at the sky to look at me, I smiled and said.

 

“I was a bit faster.”

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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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