n

n

nThe Great Mage Returns after 4000 Years – Chapter 42 – The 3rd Magic Tower (4)

nTranslator: Seven

nEditor: Ana_Banana

n“You are a strange human. You use magic, move like a magic warrior and you even know how to speak Elvish.”

n“From my perspective, Elves learning to use magic is also quite strange.”

n“Mm? That’s exactly what an old person would say.”

nAfter all, it was a very conservative statement.

nShe couldn’t imagine those words coming out of the mouth of a human who was less that 100 years old.

nFrey was silent because there was nothing he could say.

nHe felt Camille giving him a curious gaze.

n

n

n“Liamson will become the next leader of our tribe. If it’s fine with you, why don’t you fight him?”

n“A good spar.”

nJust as Liamson constantly observed Frey, Frey had also watched a few of Liamson’s battles so he knew that his skills were substantial.

nThere were five main stages for Magic Warriors.

nApprentice, Third-class, Second-class, First-class.

nAnd finally, Warrior King.

nLiamson was at least a Second-class Magic Warrior from what Frey had seen.

nThis kind of fight against a strong warrior was a good way to increase experience.

nAlso, after doing nothing but training for a month, Frey felt a bit sick of it.

n“Let’s get on with it.”

nThey then stepped to the center of the room and faced each other.

nAll of the people who had been in the training centre stopped moving and instead turned to watch their fight.

nIt was Liamson who made the first move.

nSwish.

nAt that moment his figure seemed to become a blur.

nThe first thing that Frey noticed was his unique gait. It reminded him of fireflies swaying in the dark.

nSmack.

nHe felt a heavy feeling on his wrist.

nFrey’s right hand had reached behind him and accurately blocked Liamson’s attack.

nA look of surprise flashed past Liamson’s face.

n‘This easy?’

nIt had been a month since he had entered the magic tower.

nIn that time, he had fought many magic warriors but he felt that they were all trash.

nTo put it bluntly, they couldn’t even withstand his first attack.

nBut Frey had managed to do it.

nWhat was more important was how easy the action seemed to be for him.

nFrey gave him the same feeling he felt whenever he fought his teacher.

n“How did you know?”

n“Because this is a bright and open location. It would have been many times more difficult if we were fighting in the dark.”

n“…”

nThat was true.

nShadow Attack was an incredibly terrifying skill when used in the dark.

nLiamson narrowed his eyes and looked down at his hand.

nFor a moment he recalled the wrist which felt a bit weak.

n“Kuku…good. This will be fun.”

nLiamson let out a laugh and rushed forward again, only this time, Frey also made his move.

nHis eyes were fixed to Liamson’s feet.

n‘The key is in his foot movements.’

nAs long as he did not miss his foot movements then he would be able to roughly guess what kind of move Liamson would make next.

nPahpahpah.

nThe fight went back and forth.

nAs they continue, Frey felt that Liamson was not used to fighting barehanded.

nIt seemed that his main focus wasn’t his fists, but some kind of weapon.

nThanks to this, Frey was able to block all of his attacks while landing counterattacks.

nLiamson was visibly puzzled.

n‘This is hard.’

nDark Elves’ movements usually didn’t leave any sound. Even another Dark Elf would not be able to hear Liamson’s footsteps.

nThat was why the most effective means of reading their movements was to use your eyes.

nLiamson had realised something.

nThe eyes of the man in front of him were sharp enough to transcend common sense.

n‘Does he have experience fighting against Dark Elves?’

nLiamson moved faster, hiding his innermost thoughts.

nHe could see it after fighting him for real.

nThis man was not a Magic Warrior.

nThere was no way that a magic warrior would have such a weak body.

nHe was certain that he only needed a chance to land one hit to secure his victory.

nBut it seemed like that one chance was incredibly rare.

n‘This guy has a lot of fighting experience. But from what I can tell, this human should only be about 20 years old.’

nLiamson was 74 years old.

nIt had been 30 years since he had become a warrior and in that time he had fought tens of thousands of times.

nHe was confident that his experience was second to no one and never in his life had he met someone like this human who was able to read all of his moves.

nHe felt restless.

nThis was turning out to be more fun that he had initially expected.

nA smile appeared on Liamson’s face.

n* * *

n“…this doesn’t make sense.”

n“…”

nNikita and the other people who were training in the hall couldn’t help but open their mouths as they witnessed the fight unfolding before them.

nEven if the levels were different, they were too different.

nThey realised that this was how a real battle between the strong looked and that they were simply frogs in the well all along.

n‘How on earth can you react to such movements?’

nThey were not the only ones surprised.

nThe Dark Elves were quite shocked as well.

nNo, their surprise was even more than that of the humans.

n“This is impossible.”

n“He can hold out like that against Liamson, who is being groomed to become the next tribe leader.”

n“Other than the teacher, we couldn’t hold out for a few…”

n“Is he really human?”

nAmong the Dark Elves, Liamson’s skills were particularly prominent.

nExcept for Camille, the current chief’s sister and the training instructor, no one could last more than a minute against Liamson.

nThis was why they could not believe it when the human, who had been doing strange movements in the corner of the training centre from time to time, continued to fight equally against him.

nCamille narrowed her eyes.

n‘His physical ability is poor.’

nShe was certain.

nThis man, Frey’s body, did not have the suitable musculature for such a fight.

nIn the beginning, he had said that he was a wizard and not a magic warrior, and from what she could see, Camille knew that he was telling the truth.

nBut even when that was true, he was still able to fight on equal footing with Liamson.

n‘Unbelievably precise mana distribution and experience.’

nEven if he could do the former because of natural talent and senses, what about the experience?

nThe average human lifespan was 100 years and no matter how old he was, he would not have surpassed 30 years.

n‘Who the hell is he?’

nCamille’s curious gaze never left Frey.

n* * *

nLiamson attacked endlessly while Frey blocked or avoided them.

nIt seemed to be a simple, boring battle but both men were soaked in sweat as though they both had just taken a shower.

n‘This couldn’t be decided by a spar.’

nIn terms of physical ability, he knew that he had an advantage.

nMaybe in another 10 minutes or so, Frey would be too exhausted to continue and he would naturally win. But Liamson didn’t want such a victory.

nLiamson stopped attacking.

nThen Frey naturally stopped moving as well.

nFor a moment, they did not say anything and simply maintained eye contact.

nIt was Liamson who broke the silence.

n“How long will you stay at the tower?”

n“About 5 months.”

n“Will you keep coming to the training centre?”

n“Maybe.”

n“Good.”

nWith those words, Liamson turned and climbed up the stairs.

nWhile the Dark Elves chattered among themselves, Camille approached him.

n“You have a tremendous amount of skill. I didn’t know that you were on par with Liamson.”

nCamille didn’t look down on humans. It was simply that there were few among them who were capable of fighting toe to toe with Liamson.

nCamille was purely expressing her admiration for the man in front of her.

n“Can you occasionally spar with him in the future?”

n“It doesn’t matter. I was getting tired of my normal exercise anyway.”

n“Thank you for taking care of us.”

nFrey nodded and turned around.

nAt that moment, his fluttering earrings caught Camille’s eyes.

n“Ah…”

nHer mouth opened but then closed just as fast.

nFrey returned to his room and sat onto his bed while thinking.

n‘It was an unexpected harvest to get the chance to fight against Dark Elves.’

nAny opportunity to increase his actual combat experience was always welcome, especially because Liamson’s fighting prowess was excellent.

nIf you wanted to claim that you were a warrior then you needed to have at least that level of skill.

nThis was the level of skill that Frey had hoped to find from the nobles in the Westroad Academy in the past.

nOf course, he knew now that his expectations in the academy students were too high.

nOther than that, there was some more good news.

nSsss-

nFrey closed his eyes and inspected his mana room.

nThat was when he realised.

nThe freezing air of the Frozen River had been completely melted.

nHis hair had started turning gray again about two weeks ago so there had been signs.

nThanks to that, his hair had become a strange mixture of gray and white.

n“Then now…”

nHe had to eat Torkunta’s heart.

nFrey took the glass bottle from his pocket before looking at it.

nHe had read many books in the tower in hopes of finding some way to refine it into an elixir with no luck.

nOf course, his desire for knowledge had been satisfied, but it still wasn’t enough.

nFrey left his room and headed for the library once again.

nWhen he got there, he went to look for the librarian in charge.

n“Are all the books that the 3rd Magic Tower possesses stored in this library?”

n“Of course not. The only books that can be found in the library are Rank 3 books.”

n“Rank 3?”

n“Yes. Books in the magic tower are separated into three levels. Rank 3 can be easily obtained in the market and can be read by the general public without repercussions. Rank 2 can only be read by wizards who have made contributions. And Rank 1 can only be read by those who are approved by the 3rd Magic Tower.”

nThen he added.

n“Rank 1 books are commonly called Grimoires.”

n“What should I do if I want to read a Grimoire?”

n“In the tower there is the Tower Master and 10 Floor Masters. To read a Rank 1 Grimoire you must be approved by three Floor Masters or by a Deputy Tower Master or the Tower Master.”

nThen he looked at a calendar before he continued talking.

n“A test is held every two months. Five Floor Masters are the judges. You just need to get their approval…The next exam is just around the corner. Only three days away.”

nHe turned to look at Frey’s eyes.

n“Would you like to participate?”

nFrey nodded.

n* * *

nThree days passed.

nThe test was set to be held in the basement of the tower.

nThis was the first time that Frey learned that the tower had a basement.

nQuite a few wizards gathered in the basement. Each of them forming their own small groups of two or three.

nIn the tower Frey usually stayed by himself without interacting with others.

nNik from the front desk was one of few wizards that he had spoken to, most of them out of necessity.

nOf course, the other wizards were of course not that interested in Frey.

nBut now he knew that they would pay more attention to him.

n“Is that him? The guy who fought hand to hand with a Dark Elf?”

n“He doesn’t seem like much from first glance…”

n“Don’t say anything. He was moving so fast that he did not even seem like a human being.”

n“Then why is a magic warrior taking the test?”

nIt seemed that they had mistaken Frey to be a magic warrior.

nBut Frey had no reason to clear up the misunderstanding so he simply stood silently in a corner.

nThen someone approached him.

nHe looked up and found that it was Camille and Liamson.

n“You guys are here to take the test?”

n“There’s a Grimoire that I want to see.”

n“What about the guy beside you?”

nCamille let out a laugh and poke Liamson in the side.

n“I just brought him because I was bored to come alone.”

nThen a group of people entered the basement.

nFrey glanced over at them.

nThey were all wearing clean white robes and all seemed to be past their middle ages.

nFrey realised that they were the Tower Masters that the librarian had told him about just a few days before.

n“There are a lot more here for the test than I expected.”

n“It doesn’t matter since the group will be thinned out pretty quickly.”

n“Right. There’s no need for me to explain so let’s just start the test right away. First of all we need to set the minimum qualifications. Everyone cast Energy Ball.”

nAs he said those words, energy balls began appearing here and there.

nFrey also created an energy ball.

nThe eyes of the wizards once again turned to the Floor Masters. One of them spoke in a calm voice.

n

n

n“Now compress them.”

nSomeone made a rude noise.

nCould it be that these tests were actually so simple?

nMaybe it was because it was the first test, so it was quite relaxing. This was the thought that most of the wizards had.

nThen one of the Floor Masters took a small bead from his pocket. The bead was smaller than a knuckle.

nThose in the group couldn’t help but look at the bead with confused expressions. Those who were quick witted looked suspicious instead.

n“The minimum requirement is to make it smaller than this bead. All of those who do not succeed, please go back up.”

nThe faces of the wizards hardened collectively.

nThey shared a thought.

nThe difficulty of the first test was incredibly high.

n