Chapter 234: Post Watch
———Wiina———
<12: 47 pm>
The fight concluded in roughly four minutes. Nothing was said during the battle, and despite being at less than her full strength at the start of the fight, she managed to pull through despite the few complicated spells that are harder to break through.
She stood there, looking at the man sliced clean in half after finally running out of gas and losing all of his defensive tools.
“Oh…” Karra looks a bit surprised at the brutality and how sudden the ending was. It’s only to be expected. If she wants to end the fight quickly, then she will go for the killing blow. It’s the most definitive end to a battle. I don’t even think she has the intention of letting that man live anyway, considering what he had done.
She absolutely doesn’t care that she smashed his head in with her giant steel blade then cut him in half in a second and a bit over a quarter.
“It’s best to be uncompromising when dealing with someone who is willing to glass an entire area. Unless you seriously think she should keep him alive.” I said as the footage showed her picking up his insignia. “A Day-ranked mage. Certainly not among the common.”
“That’s… Right in the middle of the seven ranks. Though it’s more like the top forty percent or so, ain’t it?” Karra asked.
“Indeed. It’s rare for anyone to break through Spark, even those with a good deal of accomplishment to them. The threat they pose on the per rank basis is more exponential than linear.” No one ranked Lead or higher was spotted yet. It’s not surprising, the people near the top of that society like to be isolated due to a number of reasons. Secrecy, fear for their safety, all that stuff. All of them want to appease the Grandmaster who always seems out of reach. They will do all sorts of things to their fellow members as much as they do to the common man.
“Makes me wonder what the higher ranked guys are like. Have you ever run into one?” Karra asked.
“No. I don’t really meddle with them since they’re usually so reserved with their experiments and such. If they’re not in my way, then they aren’t in mine. Obviously the previous few incidents hadn’t made me feel like watching it from the sideline, but the line hasn’t been crossed yet.” It’s been getting quite close. One more provocation and I’m gonna lose it.
“...By the way. It had only been half an hour. That was absurd now that I think about it.” She pointed out. Indeed. A conflict on such a scale usually lasts until daybreak.
“It just showed the difference in the new reality we’re in. Admittedly in the ancient times with more capable warriors abound she would have had a lot harder times. Even regular mooks would’ve visibly slowed her down.” The quality of the average fighter is significantly lower even though the top level stayed about the same, or perhaps the better description is that the top level warriors are still here in the present. Their skills certainly hadn’t degraded.
“...I guess that makes sense?” She said skeptically.
“The higher the power level, the faster the battles are going to be. There’s nothing more to it than that. It’s a faster world.” It’s something a lot of people had to adapt to. Even things that take a couple of hours would’ve been seen as inefficient if it’s not done in less than one.
The people don’t quite realize this yet, of course. If they do, I would’ve imagined things would’ve gotten quite heated when the discussion of efficiency came up.
“Hmm… So she should be fine after this, right?” Karra asked, seeing that Lerim is simply hanging around, attacking anyone still resisting.
“Naturally. There isn’t anyone dangerous in the area, the henchmen that are still active are either running away or so below her it doesn't even matter. Unless you suggest an ant could kill a human.” There is simply nothing here that could pose a threat to her. She already killed the one who posed a real threat and the second strongest was almost literally buried.
“Is the disparity that bad?” She asked just to be certain. Even I am not above exaggeration to get a point across. It’s something people do to make things easier to understand, when it’s well meaning.
“Remember that power reading metric the P.E. class use? Most of them don’t even break fifty. Your friend has already hit fifteen-hundred.” No one would say that a thirty times difference isn’t massive.
“...Dang.” She muttered, not really sure what else to say. We can actually read her power from here, though there is a small margin of error. I showed it up on the screen for her to see the more specific number. “How in the world do they even analyze this?”
“More of an extremely detailed guesswork on both mine and the computer’s end, but I had checked in to see her progression, she has indeed hit this number already.” Most humans can’t even reach this point without some serious compromise, though all demi-humans should have a bit of an easier time.
“...Wait you have been what?” She seems taken aback that I was seemingly stalking her.
“Why are you surprised? I can easily go anywhere I want on Earth in less than a second, taking a small peek is barely a waste, and we’re not even talking about splitting myself up.” I have been exploiting this for forever. It’s not something she should forget. “I don’t even have to split into another humanoid figure if I don’t need to, and with teleportation no one could really detect me.”
“I… Nevermind.” How many times had she said that word at this point, after many baffling things I said… That is obviously rhetorical, I can easily recount how many times she has said it. My memory is basically perfect, aside from one hiccup.
The memory from before April 4th of last year is admittedly shoddy. It’s like porting a video on 240p on an ancient computer setup to a new one that can display 4k and above. Its quality is still maxed at 240p, stretching it out won’t fix the imperfection. Any sort of upscaling method would not restore what the footage was meant to capture in its entirety.
“Now that the show is over. I think it’s time for us to leave. You’re still not up for more ranked matches, I take it?” I think we have been here for long enough. No need to stay around inside a dark room with no view to the outside or even decent lighting.
“I’m good, honestly. Besides, we still need to save our strength for whatever Rico is cooking up. Do you know anything about it?” She’s still trying to ask even though I really shouldn’t pry into their schedule? Had to respect her insistence, at least.
“No.” I answered flatly. “Let’s go to the rooftop then, get you some fresh cold air.”
*Snap* *Zoom*
No need to use the teleporter, my own teleporting spell would suffice.
“It’s kinda cloudy right now…” Karra remarked as she looked up. “...Wait, is it just me or are we almost reaching the clouds?”
“They increased the height of the buildings not too long ago. I suppose people don’t really notice that since at some point it became hard to gauge.” We still haven’t reached the students' limit yet. In fact we don’t even really have enough teenagers around unless we also start including college kids and middle schoolers. By the time they’re doing that some of the students in our year would’ve already left, assuming they don’t have a lucrative offering in mind… Considering the bottomless pocket of cash and materials, they can easily just give away free enrollments. Money was never the main concern anyway. It’s all just formality for them.
“How the heck? When?” Karra asked, reasonably confused as to when such an overhaul took place.
“A few days ago. It was done in about an hour.” We could’ve gone way higher, but we all agree that it would compromise the aesthetic of the institute if there are a few really tall buildings that just poke through the clouds, and we haven’t tried to expand outwards for more surface area to put more complimentary buildings. It’d be best if the campus isn’t entirely filled with buildings like it’s a city block, it gives off a much more comforting environment.
“I… Yeah. You guys did renovate the place in a single night.” She finally remembers quite an important context when it comes to the changes to the school. We can easily modify the place whenever we want, be it for a change in floor counts, paint job, and much more, all within at most a single night.
“Perhaps people have begun to forget that power can be used for more than just destruction. Your online friend has the spirit, at least. She mainly wanted the power for simply maintaining her beauty, and the fighting ability and the strength to protect others were secondary at the beginning.” From my own analysis, this translates to a lot of powerful healing and defensive ability, and quick transportation with the ability to fly. Healers are rare not only from the limited number of people talented in such a field, but also the lack of fundamental understanding of how malleable magic can be. Many think that they have a very limited amount of skill points available to spec into their skill trees. Such a limit does exist, but their own belief in the linear and strict path causes a mental block that stops them from knowing that they still have points available. “If you use your magic spells to do more mundane things, it probably would be better for you in the long run.”
“For what? My hobbies aren’t really conducive to it. Unless you want me to cheat a game with magic somehow.” She said while scratching her head.
“It doesn’t even have to be a hobby. If you get something bothering you, and you have an ample supply of mana, then cast a spell away. It’s not as if you could infinitely stockpile mana, after all.” In the first place, using magic to manipulate technology is an extremely delicate process, and you probably would’ve been better off just learning to hack normally instead. “But if you don’t want to try cramming it into every activity, don’t force yourself. It’s simply something I recommend if you don’t want to go the same route as Kenni and Emmie.”
“It always feels like it always comes back to them.” She pointed out. “Remember when we used to say Malk and Qyunda instead when it comes to being an example?”
“That was mainly due to their popularity with other people in the school. We’re talking about strength and magic, and they are fifth and sixth on the leaderboard, not including me, of course.” It would be unfair to ever lump me into the group. “I would still say those two are also the type of people to be caught up in the craze of a battle. They never really cared what kind of physical competition was out there as long as they could compete with each other. There’s less rules to follow in a battle than in a sports match.”
“...Hard to believe when they’re so good at soccer and stuff.” She remarked.
“They’re just naturally good at any physical activity, really. Emmie and Kenni are way less enthusiastic about playing it well, so they rarely ever come into the conversation even though the former has always been the strongest person in class even before the Eclipse.” Skill mattered a lot more in the environment where no one could be many times stronger than the other.
*Rumble*
My phone’s notification went off. It seems like something happened for her to suddenly contact me, even with just text.
“What is it?” Karra asked as I looked through the content of the message. This… is a fair more trivial than I would’ve expected.
“Nothing too important.” It’s something she’s going to find out in an hour or less anyway. No need to elaborate.