Chapter 48

Chapter 48

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 48And so, after successfully holding Familia's first gathering.

Only after everyone had left did the three of them head toward the sparring arena, and the tension on their faces was obvious enough to see.

The kids entered the sparring room while pulling out their weapons one by one, while I stepped inside wearing nothing but gloves.

And outside the sparring room, Ji Su-hyeon was smiling as though she couldn't wait.[I didn't expect you to start preparing for an all-out war already... If only the other kids worked half as hard as you do.]

Ji Su-hyeon's voice came through the speakers.[You said you wanted a forest field... so consider the moment the trees rise to be the start. Everyone, get ready.]

I could see the kids in the distance ahead.‘Still, since the field is a forest, shouldn't we have a decent chance? We've got two mages and an assassin here. Boss isn't even using a gun.’Before the spar began, apparently recalling his experience fighting in a forest, Jin-woo had told the others they had a chance.‘The field favors us. Since we're doing this anyway, it'd be nice to beat Boss once too, right?’Of course, I was looking forward to it just as much.

The field was practically far more advantageous for the kids.

Two mages and an assassin. As the frontline fighter, it seemed like it would be an extremely troublesome battle for me.

But.[Start!]

For some reason, I couldn't stop smiling. The techniques Young-je and Se-ah had shown during their sparring, and the mental strength Jin-woo had shown during his own spar.

How would those things unfold against me?

A dense forest formed before my eyes as the field began to change.

Birdsong and the chirping of insects filled the surroundings.

It was my first time experiencing a forest field, so even though I knew it was a sparring arena, I couldn't help admiring how realistic it was.

“The sparring arena must have expanded considerably too.”

Whenever most fields changed like this, their size changed as well.

According to the game's setting, it was technology created using spatial magic, but I couldn't really tell how much larger it had become.

“First, secure high ground.”

Given their characteristics, there was no way they would stay in one place, so I decided the priority was to get somewhere high and pinpoint their positions.

I kicked off the ground, used tree branches as footholds, and climbed to the tallest tree nearby.

“Ha... is this also one of the sparring arena's functions?”

A forest spread broadly in every direction. No matter how I looked at it, the area had become absurdly large compared to the size of the sparring arena.

It was so large that I couldn't help thinking Ji Su-hyeon's personal tastes had been involved.

If that was the case, then when it came to searching, the kids with Se-ah, a spatial mage, would have the advantage.

Good, then...

I abandoned my original plan, climbed back down from the tree, and closed my eyes.

The smell of earth rising from my landing, the sound of fallen leaves already on the ground crumbling underfoot.

I could even sense the wind rushing over the leaves while carrying the scent of grass.

Just as I concentrated enough to feel every single hair on my body and tried to estimate their positions.──────!!!

“...

As expected!”

Hearing the sound of something slicing through the wind behind me, I swung my fist, and the musical note that struck my knuckles shattered into pieces.

I immediately guarded my rear, but couldn't sense anyone there.

“So that's it.”

I began to understand the situation immediately.

Young-je, an excellent mage capable of using a variety of magic, and Kim Se-ah, who freely wielded spatial magic.

That last attack had clearly been a collaboration between the two.

“Young-je casts the spell, and Se-ah alters its trajectory. Right, if you attack like this, naturally it'll be difficult to determine the caster's location.”

It was an extremely useful attack method on a field with this many obstacles.

So because I'd decided not to use weapons, they were going to fight me this way?

“Interesting.”

At that moment, arrows of light flew at me simultaneously from the left and right directly ahead.

I shattered them with my fists again.

Tap─I ran toward where they seemed likely to be, but no one was there anymore.

At this rate, for someone like me who couldn't use magic, finding the kids' location would be almost impossible...

That was probably what they thought.──!!

In the distance, the fake birds placed to match the field's background suddenly took flight.

A few seconds later, magic surged toward me from behind once again.

This time I tried to block it, but it grazed my cheek.

“Ugh!”

But there was no wound.──!!

More birds suddenly flew up beside the spot where the previous flock had risen.

Then magic was fired again. I threw another punch this time, but instead of breaking, the spell was merely knocked aside.

“Well, look at that.”

The magic was stronger than before.

Judging by how its strength was gradually increasing, it seemed they were testing what level of magic I could block.

But this little game ended here.

“──Found you.”

The instant another flock of birds took flight, I sprinted toward that location with all my strength.

At the same time, through the [Smart Lens]

an indicator appeared before my eyes showing that [Trait: Baby Boss]

had activated.

It meant there was someone nearby who felt fear toward me.

There were only four people in this forest including myself, so who else could possibly be afraid of me?

Naturally, it had to be the kids whose location had just been discovered.

“How the hell did you figure it out?!”

A massive shield made of ice spread out before me, blocking my path.

“Fire the magic first, then use Kim Se-ah's magic to bend its trajectory and hide your location. It was a good plan. But──”

No matter what they did, there was still one fact they couldn't hide.

“Magic always has a starting point.”

The disturbance created when magic formed must have felt extremely unnatural to the birds nearby.

That was why they flew into the sky the moment they detected movement in the mana.

“Next time, it'd be better to account for the living creatures in the environment too.”

My fist collided with the shield, and the ice barrier shattered instantly.

There was no way a spell hastily formed like that could stop my punch.

“Jin-woo Vivald!”

The moment Young-je shouted, Jin-woo, who had been hiding behind me, charged toward my neck.

It was a good attempt.

If only he hadn't been afraid of me.

I took advantage of the instant he hesitated and kicked backward.

-Baang!

A sound erupted that was hard to believe had come from a human body.

“Ghk!”

Jin-woo crossed the daggers he barely managed to pull back and was sent flying backward.

If the kick had landed cleanly, it probably would have broken two or three ribs, but thanks to the excellent reflexes he occasionally showed, he seemed to have barely blocked it.

The current Jin-woo was an assassin, but he was also the warrior responsible for holding the team's front line.

Naturally, I intended to ignore him and target Young-je, the mage, first, but as though he had already forgotten the pain from just now, Jin-woo immediately regained his stance and charged at me.

“As long as you don't have a gun, even I can fight you, Boss!”

“You think so?”

I read the path of the dagger he swung.

Fortunately, I had fought plenty of armed opponents during the showdown with the Blunte Family, so dealing with Jin-woo's attacks wasn't particularly difficult.

I checked the weapon's reach and included it in my calculations whenever I evaded.

Of course, Jin-woo wasn't stupid either and mixed in irregular attacks from time to time, but whenever he did, I simply raised my hand and blocked them.

“What kind of gloves are that tough?!”

To the eye, Midas's Gloves looked like ordinary leather gloves, but Jin-woo had no way of knowing they possessed the effect of never tearing or being destroyed.

“Maybe you should've taken better care of your weapons.”

Saying that, I caught the dagger Jin-woo thrust toward my abdomen and pulled it toward myself.

“Huh?!”

Apparently never imagining his blade would be caught, Jin-woo was dragged straight toward me.

I drove my fist into his solar plexus with all my strength.

“One down.”

“Why is it me agaaaaain!!”

“fine!”‘Fine.’ A musical term indicating the end.

The moment Young-je's voice came from behind, the ice shield I had seen earlier appeared and blocked Jin-woo's body.

So this had also been what stopped my first attack.

Taking advantage of the opening, Jin-woo ducked down and retreated toward Young-je.

I turned to keep him from escaping, but at that moment Young-je's voice rang out once again.

“forte!(Strong!)”

With a boom! an invisible wave slammed into me from the front.

I quickly spread my palm and blocked the attack, but I couldn't prevent the recoil from pushing my body backward.

Still, at this distance, I judged I could catch up with a single leap and prepared to kick off the ground.

“Kim Se-ah!”

Kim Se-ah, who had remained hidden until now, appeared.

“Everything's ready! I'm going to mix it!”

Hm? Mix what, exactly...

The moment she finished speaking, a strange phenomenon began.

The terrain around us started moving as though someone were assembling a jigsaw puzzle.

“Ha! Hahahahaha!”

So this was what she'd been preparing while I wondered where she was and what she was doing all this time?

It was beyond anything I'd imagined.

The reason Kim Se-ah had remained hidden and watching until now was because she had been preparing to hack control of the field forming the sparring arena.

Normally, it would have been impossible. The Academy's sparring arena system wasn't something that easy to interfere with.

But what about right now? Wasn't this a field excessively enlarged by Ji Su-hyeon, a spatial mage of the same type as Kim Se-ah, personally pouring her own power into it?

The more Ji Su-hyeon's power had been added, the more openings there must have been in the sparring arena's system. Kim Se-ah had been aiming for exactly that.

The surrounding space continued rapidly shifting.

I had probably been moved extremely far away from where I'd initially been standing.

Thanks to that, I had once again lost the location of the kids I'd worked so hard to find.

Since I'd already told them with my own mouth that I'd found them thanks to the birds, they would attack me in a different way from before.

Had they been watching me fight from beside me all this time and discussing things among themselves?

Even though I'd fallen into their trap, I couldn't help feeling proud of them.

But.

“That's that, and this is this.”

I could no longer search using the birds, and before long, Kim Se-ah would probably lock onto my coordinates and leave me defenseless against their attacks.

“Look at this.”

The moment I spotted the ground bulging upward, I stomped my foot, and a white beam of light shot into the sky in front of me.

“They've already started.”

Magic erupted from the ground with fierce momentum, as though determined to pierce straight through me.

For now, I still had some leeway, but if I kept doing nothing but dodging magic, my stamina would gradually drop.

Now, what should I do?

Should I break through the spells while searching for the kids?

No, that wasn't really my style.

Then...

A good idea came to mind.

“If the forest is in the way, I can just erase it.”

I immediately punched the tree in front of me.────!!

The tree toppled helplessly from my punch.

-Thud!

-Thud!

-Thud!

-Creeeak, thud!

Then dozens of trees behind it fell one after another like dominoes, creating a small path directly along the direction of my punch.

And.

-RustleSince they were fake trees created as part of the field, they slowly disappeared the moment they touched the ground.

In this situation, that was actually convenient.

“This might work.”

I threw another punch, and another tree immediately fell.

As expected, they're softer than I thought.

After confirming that the trees weren't nearly as sturdy as expected, I smiled and prepared my next punch.

“Time to get moving.”

What I had to do from here was simple.

I was going to turn this forest-covered field into open ground.