C43
The next day.
Shirone headed to the training grounds early in the morning. There were an unusual amount of students already there.
'Everyone is thinking the same, I see.'
He was more motivated than ever to start training in preparation for the practical evaluation.
The test subjects varied per class, but the class which Shirone belonged had targeting, a.k.a the evaluation called Speed Gun.
“Ugh! I guess today I'll practice for Speed Gun until I die. It's the subject I'm least confident in. Target types are lucky, they'll have the advantage.”
“Not necessarily. The Target Form works best against a small number of targets, but during the evaluation, there will be a lot of them. Wouldn't it be better to convert to Offensive Form and explode them at random?”
“Then you'll get tired early. Still, it's either Offensive Form or Target Form. No one would ever use the Deviate Form. How would they catch up with all the targets?”
“There are exceptions. I mean, look at Yiruki. Won't he use the Deviate form again?”
“Haha! No way, unless he's an idiot. But aside from that, I'm curious about Shirone. He's strong in actual live practice. Is he going to find a breakthrough using the Defense Form?”
Though they were not top-rankers, Shirone and Yiruki were often mentioned.
The expectation was that they would show an exceptional performance at a decisive moment.
Though, it was also not unreasonable to think that Yiruki would cause a disaster this time around.
On the other hand, Shirone wanted to cry.
Strong in live practice? As if. He hadn't even successfully cast the Photon Output yet.
“Ugh, what do I do? I'm getting antsy.”
At that moment, the other side of the training ground suddenly grew noisy.
The girls were the first to notice the sound of a dog barking. The boys, who belatedly noticed it as well, ran towards the noise.
“What the… How did it get in?”
“Must be a dog from the mountains. But why's it barking like that?”
As people started gathering around it, the dog started getting defensive and growled. It bore its teeth.
Then the students from Class 7 started throwing stones.
“Hey! Get out of here! You're making our days worse!”
The upper class didn't even try to stop them.
They thought that since the dog was hostile to people, it was no different from a wild beast.
Conversely, Shirone, who had been listening carefully to the dog's howling, ran to the dog with a surprised expression.
“Wait a minute! Stop throwing stones!”
Mark moved quickly.
“Hey, HEY! You guys are going too far! Your upperclassman is telling you to stop.”
While the students from Class 7 stood frozen, Shirone strode towards the dog.
Mark followed behind.
“It's dangerous. It's a wild dog.”
“ It doesn't matter if they grew up in the wild, dogs don't typically bite people as an instinct. They actually rather run away than fight.”
“But it's barking like that!”
“That's probably…”
The dog growled, but it couldn't bear to attack, so it backed off.
Capitalizing on this, Shirone looked straight into the dog's eyes and pushed it back into the woods.
As expected, a tiny puppy was lying in the grass.
“It hurt its leg.”
“Huh? You're right. Guys, there's a puppy. A puppy.”
Shirone stopped Mark.
“Don't call them yet. If the dog feels that we might threaten the pup, it will attack. ”
“Oh, I see. Hey! Don't come, don't come!”
“Instead, can you find someone who can use Recovery magic? Someone from Class 5.”
He thought it would be nice if Sharelle could help, but no matter how close he was, he couldn't call an upperclassman.
“Maria knows how to. Give me a minute, I'll bring her.”
After her probation ended, Maria, guided by Thadd, had a much brighter personality.
“Oh my! How did it get hurt like this?”
“It looks like it was bitten because it got caught up in a territorial fight. Can you heal it?”
“Yes, I can. This small of an injury is easy.”
Maria healed the dog and the puppy with Recovery magic. The puppy, which regained its health, ran around in circles. The mother then stopped barking and took her pup back to the mountain.
“That's amazing. How did you know there was a puppy?”
Tags:
Infinite Mage (Novel)
