Chapter 637

Chapter 637

Kyle’s plan of action was incredibly straightforward.

“This is a guerrilla campaign. The geography here is absolutely ideal for it.”

A massive woodland.

This single factor provided Kyle with an immense environmental benefit.

“To begin with, there are countless spots to retreat to or conceal oneself.”

It was essentially a landscape packed with natural blockades, making evading and disappearing an effortless task.

“Furthermore, the incoming first-years possess zero data regarding this territory, which hands me yet another clear upper hand.”

Every single isle situated within Lake Rumeria served a purpose for the undergraduates’ practical examinations.

Kyle himself had set foot on this specific Island No. 1 an innumerable number of times.

Because of this, he understood the layout as if it were the palm of his own hand.

Reaching into his sub-dimension, Kyle double-checked the vials tucked inside his coat.

Alongside standard restorative mixtures, it was packed with a wide assortment of offensive and protective elixirs that Kyle had brewed himself.

These were concoctions Kyle had personally upgraded after burying himself in the study of Dweno’s alchemy manual.

“I suppose I should prioritize my initial preparations first, shouldn’t I?”

Kyle equipped the vials across his gear so he could pull and shatter them without a moment’s delay.

‘First up, the exact midpoint of the isle.’

Kyle darted across the terrain with frantic energy, beginning to plant hidden hazards in ideal locations.

‘It will take a significant amount of time for the newcomers to clear their path all the way to this sector.’

Thud-thud-!

Utilizing a spade pulled straight from his sub-dimension, Kyle excavated a crater and buried a proximity mana charge within it.

In an alternate pathway, he strung up a hidden snare using a taut strand of metal thread.

An incredibly tedious chore by any metric.

Even so, devoid of these elaborate arrangements, Kyle stood no chance of surviving against a horde of 500 individuals.

On the surface, it appeared to be a completely lopsided engagement, yet Professor Rumerin had undeniably left Kyle a fighting chance.

That chance lay entirely within this window of preparation.

Whether he would be foolishly cornered by the incoming freshmen or survive depended solely on how efficiently he maximized these precious moments.

Kyle, having laid down not just his custom elixirs but an array of proximity runes, retreated toward an isolated cavern in the distance, pulled out a specific liquid blend, downed it in one go, and dabbed his lips dry.

“That takes care of establishing a temporary stronghold.”

Within the cave’s recesses, Kyle neatly structured the vials he intended to utilize once combat initiated.

An hour had already slipped by.

Barring total incompetence, the freshmen would undoubtedly advance with extreme vigilance.

Regardless of anyone’s personal opinion, Kyle was a recorded champion whose achievements were etched directly into the Hero Record.

Assaulting such a figure while counting purely on numerical superiority was typically a one-way ticket to a slaughter.

‘It works out in my favor. Frankly, if they just stampeded forward without a single thought, it would create all sorts of logistical headaches!’

“Excellent, now that the groundwork is fully laid out.”

Kyle stepped past the threshold of the cavern.

“Shall we initiate the greeting with our dear freshmen?”

A caster’s prowess reaches its absolute zenith when anchored to their personal stronghold.

Yet Kyle possessed zero desire to simply sit idly by and wait for the horde of first-years to stumble upon his lair.

‘In any case, this place is nothing more than a hastily thrown-together shelter. And if all 500 of them breach this space simultaneously, there’s absolutely no way out.’

Consequently, Kyle made the conscious choice to flaunt his presence to the newcomers first.

Dash! Rustle-rustle-!

Sprinting through the thickets at a breakneck pace, Kyle abruptly threw his back against a massive trunk, detecting the nearby presence of first-years just ahead.

In that direction, dozens of incoming freshmen had split into coordinated squads to scour the immediate vicinity.

‘The surrounding squads must be stationed just a short distance away, right?’

With that calculation in mind, Kyle began intoning a specific incantation.

“Fireball.”

The definitive spell representing the element of flame.

True to its elemental nature, it was an incredibly ostentatious spell possessing immense destructive capabilities.

Having manifested a swirling orb of heat directly above his palm, Kyle launched the orb high into the sky.

“Mana signature detected up ahead!”

“Screeech-!”

In that exact instant, an undergraduate from the spellcasting division bellowed a warning, and a piercing whistle echoed through the trees.

Kyle bolted from his position, instantly chanting a follow-up spell.

“Fireball!”

“Aqua Wall.”

Splashhh-!

The blazing projectile discharging from Kyle’s palm soared directly toward the cluster of freshmen.

Yet right before impact, Kyle’s offensive spell was intercepted and neutralized by a defensive countermeasure.

Observing the interception, Kyle clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“They’ve got a problematic individual embedded in that group.”

Vito Ingteum, a product of the Eastern Continent’s Magic Tower.

He hailed from an incredibly prestigious and historic lineage of casters rooted deep within the Eastern Continent.

‘Word around campus was that he used to be direct rivals with Betty—the runner-up student of the sophomore spellcasting department—during their tenure at the Eastern Magic Tower, wasn’t it?’

To put it plainly, if one isolated nothing but raw spellcasting talent, he reigned supreme among the entire freshman class.

‘He also happens to be the top-ranked scholar within the spellcasting department itself.’

The undergraduates from the martial knight department immediately sprinted in pursuit of Kyle.

Boom-!

However, the moment they crossed the threshold where Kyle had previously sought cover, a concealed flame spell Kyle had left behind detonated violently, swallowing them in fire.

“Gah!”

“We’ve walked into a snare!”

Agonized shouts filled the air.

“You lot really ought to have exercised greater vigilance,”

Kyle muttered with a light chuckle.

Suddenly, moisture droplets commenced gathering right before his eyes, rapidly condensing into a massive volume of water before solidifying into the distinct silhouette of a freshman.

It was none other than Vito.

“Well now. Is that a personal signature spell?”

Kyle halted his retreat, offering a genuine look of appreciation.

“It stands as a true privilege to match wits with you, Senior Kyle, an esteemed figure who has achieved a place among the legends.”

Vito offered an incredibly dramatic, theatrical bow to Kyle by way of introduction before unsheathing his personal channeling staff.

“I genuinely anticipate whether I can outmaneuver Senior Kyle’s renowned stratagems and battlefield maneuvers.”

Vito’s gaze grew intensely focused and icy.

Fixing his eyes on Vito, Kyle clicked his tongue internally.

‘Good grief. The boy is bringing his absolute best effort right from the opening bell.’

The version of Vito reflecting in Kyle’s vision was leagues apart from the standard run-of-the-mill newcomer.

‘This particular student. He has undeniably completed a thorough background analysis on my combat patterns.’

In a vacuum consisting of a pure exchange of spellcraft, Vito would likely hold the definitive advantage.

Even with that reality, Kyle refused to let his focus waver.

‘He explicitly noted that he was keeping a watchful eye on my stratagems and battlefield maneuvers, didn’t he?’

Kyle immediately summoned a torrential downpour of physical armaments out from his sub-dimension.

He then invoked an Enchant spell.

It remained one of Kyle’s absolute hallmark techniques.

Gleaming edges of steel swiveled to point directly at Vito’s position.

Witnessing Kyle’s unfolding spellcraft, Vito churned his internal pool of mana.

Whoosh-!

Myriads of liquid bindings manifested, lashing outward to ensnare the magically augmented armaments.

Crack-! Thud-!

A massive battleaxe tore cleanly through the aqueous restraints.

Liquid splashed wildly, thoroughly saturating the soil beneath them.

Yet the sheer volume of the liquid bindings appeared utterly limitless.

Vito watched with an expression of profound respect as Kyle stood fixed in position, dispersing his mana reserves while continuously projecting incantations.

‘Without a doubt, it is a magnificent display of spellcraft.’

It made perfect sense why Kyle confidently referred to it as his signature bread and butter.

The execution of the Enchant spell was remarkable enough to elicit genuine praise from someone of Vito’s caliber.

‘Regardless of whether the rumors label him the least formidable among the juniors, a junior remains a junior. I absolutely cannot permit myself to grow careless. If I launch an uncalculated offensive, I will be the one leaving this field injured.’

With that logic guiding him, Vito doubled down on an even more ironclad defensive posture.

Observing Vito’s shift, Kyle could only shake his head in resignation.

‘Despite the fact that his internal metrics likely give him an excellent shot at besting me in a straightforward slugfest, he chooses to fortify his defenses instead?’

Far beyond mere cautiousness, Vito’s tactical calculation was brutally pragmatic.

In any scenario, the ticking clock favored Vito.

The moment the rest of the freshmen converged on this location, Kyle’s run would reach its end.

‘Had this been any ordinary freshman, they would have recklessly lunged forward just to make a name for themselves.’

Kyle slipped his hand into his vest and extracted a specific vial.

‘This is exactly why an individual with rigid determination can sometimes be far simpler to manipulate than a foe who keeps second-guessing their strategy! The intelligence gathered on him was spot on!’

Pop-!

Kyle unsealed the glass container.

As Vito raised his guard, warily monitoring the container in Kyle’s grip, Kyle flashed a wide grin and drained the contents in a single gulp.

Just as Vito had conducted a meticulous investigation regarding Kyle.

Kyle had performed an identical inquiry regarding Vito.

Truth be told, it hadn’t required an immense amount of digging.

The prior year, during the organizational phase for the Hero’s Festival.

Kyle had simultaneously overseen the logistical setups for the incoming freshmen’s admissions testing.

Through that process, he had involuntarily memorized the entirety of the dossiers regarding this specific batch of newcomers.

Consequently, Kyle had deduced long ago that if a confrontation with Vito materialized, the youth would inevitably deploy a stalling blueprint against him.

True to form, Vito was displaying nothing but reactive, defensive maneuvers against Kyle.

Even as Kyle gathered his mana and molded his incantations, Vito remained under the impression that Kyle was merely sustaining the Enchant spell.

He had no reason to suspect otherwise.

Because whatever data Vito possessed regarding Kyle certainly wouldn’t contain any references to high-tier, devastating spellcraft.

He calculated that his personal defensive repertoire would be more than sufficient to withstand Kyle’s magical output.

Hummmmm-!

An astonishing, overwhelming volume of mana commenced radiating outward from Kyle’s frame.

Witnessing the sudden surge, Vito staggered back in shock.

“Impossible! A reservoir of mana of this magnitude?!”

“It is entirely accurate that I lack the intrinsic capacity to manifest high-tier spells using nothing but my natural reserves. However, an alternative path known as performance enhancement exists, you see?”

Kyle remarked, giving the drained glass vial a casual waggle.

“This is a custom potion engineered to compress and purify my internal mana. It grants a momentary, massive amplification to my output. Granted, once the duration expires, my ability to cast will be completely disabled for a period, and I’ll be forced to endure agonizing muscle spasms for a solid week, but…”

Kyle’s smile stretched from ear to ear.

“Even so, it provides me precisely enough juice to discharge a single, catastrophic spell!”

The specific incantation Kyle had been quietly weaving all along was the ‘Fire Explosion’ spell.

It was a tier of magic that normally would fail to trigger even upon a flawless recitation, simply due to his natural mana pool falling short of the threshold.

But at this exact juncture, with his internal energies artificially amplified to their absolute limit.

He possessed the necessary power to seal the spell.

“Fire Explosion!”

A cataclysmic eruption of incinerating heat completely swallowed Vito’s position.

Boom-boom-boom-! Crackle-!

The immediate environment was violently hollowed out, leaving Vito collapsing heavily onto his knees.

Even so, the magical system did not register him as entirely incapacitated just yet.

“Kh-hk! It’s not over… not just yet! If your spellcraft is sealed at this moment, then the ultimate triumph belongs to me….”

“Who said anything about me being unable to cast?”

“What? Just a second ago, you explicitly confessed that your magic would be disabled…”

“Did you not pay a visit to our academy grounds during the prior year’s Hero’s Festival, only to receive a sound thrashing from the sophomores?”

Vito’s expression hardened considerably as the memory resurfaced of him being thoroughly battered by the freshman spellcasters of that period, all because he had attempted to smooth-talk Chloe.

“For what possible reason are you digging up that event now…”

“Didn’t those exact individuals employ body-reinforcement spellcraft during that scrap?”

Kyle accelerated to maximum velocity, charging directly at Vito.

His entire muscular structure was screaming in protest from the early onset of the potion’s backlash, yet if he lacked the fortitude to push past a baseline level of physical agony, he had no business trying to survive within the walls of Rumerin.

Vito let out a desperate shout, staring up at Kyle who was launching himself into an incredibly dramatic airborne leap toward him.

“Why must every single caster in this institution resort to such primitive, unrefined physical violence!”

“Try enrolling in Rumerin yourself, boy. Do you honestly believe a caster can make it through this curriculum without learning how to throw their weight around! Physical Magic! Magical Dropkick!”

Whack-!

As Kyle connected with a textbook flying dropkick—the exact maneuver Chelsea frequently unleashed on his ribs whenever she was bored—directly against Vito’s cheek, the system instantly registered Vito as completely eliminated, warping his form off the field.

“Over in this direction! A massive detonation occurred right here!”

“Yikes!”

Kyle swiftly threw his concealment cloak over his shoulders and pressed his body flat against the dirt.

“…Astonishing. To think he possessed such destructive capability.”

“Could it be that the widespread rumors claiming Senior Kyle is incapable of executing high-tier spellcraft were entirely fabricated?”

A group of freshmen hurried past his position, their expressions laced with intense gravity.

The moment the tail end of the student group cleared the path, Kyle pulled away the concealment fabric and hauled himself up.

He then fished a compact hand-crossbow out from his pocket, aligning the sights directly at an exposed, unsuspecting caster.

“Aha! Regrettably, carelessness is an absolute sin on the battlefield!”

“Huh?”

Thwack-!

“Gah?!”

“You really ought to have secured your rear flank!”

An undergraduate from the spellcasting division, caught completely off guard, was instantly flagged as eliminated and vanished in a flash of warp light.

“Look! He’s right there!”

“He hasn’t escaped!”

Dash-!

Kyle immediately broke into a hard sprint.

Suddenly, an undergraduate possessing a massive, towering physique cut off Kyle’s escape route.

The student, bearing all the distinct traits of the martial knight department, coiled his fist tight and launched a heavy swing straight at Kyle.

Smash-!

“Urgh?!”

Kyle’s frame was propelled violently upward into the sky.

Soaring past the highest branches of a nearby tree, Kyle clamped his jaws together against the pain.

‘Son of a gun, that packs a serious wallop!’

The individual responsible for sending Kyle airborne was none other than Grants.

He was a close-quarters combat specialist from the martial knight division who relied entirely on bare-fisted brawling.

His academic standing placed him squarely as the runner-up within the martial knight department.

Having been propelled high into the upper atmosphere, Kyle began his inevitable descent courtesy of the laws of gravitational pull.

Right at that split second.

His gaze locked onto an undergraduate perched comfortably upon the topmost branch of a neighboring tree, monitoring his trajectory through a brass spyglass.

‘Oh? Is that girl seriously smirking at my misfortune?’

That particular female scholar was Millia Rolla, the individual who had outpaced Grants—the very runner-up who had just swatted Kyle into the air—to claim the absolute top rank within the martial knight department.

‘Primary threat matrix target number one.’

The sole heiress to the massive economic empire of the South, the Rolla Merchant Guild—a student Kyle had specifically flagged as an incredibly dangerous element—was currently observing his plight with a distorted, unsettling grin.

‘Tch, arrogant little high-rollers.’

Kyle clicked his tongue in irritation, slamming hard into the forest floor while executing a flawless tumbling breakfall to disperse the momentum.

Without a single moment of hesitation, he scrambled to his feet and began running at absolute top speed.

The expressions of the nearby freshmen, who had been tracking Kyle’s movements with bated breath and tense postures, instantly dissolved into utter confusion.

“If he truly wields a caliber of spellcraft that potent, he shouldn’t have any logical reason to flee on foot, right?”

“Why on earth is he sprinting away like that?”

The first-years traded perplexed glances.

“Could it mean… that his mana reserves are entirely depleted?”

The moment that hypothesis crystallized in their minds, an intense wave of ambition flared within the eyes of the newcomers.

Should they manage to successfully wrest a token key away from Kyle’s possession, it would instantly guarantee them immense prestige across the academy.

The instant that realization took hold, the freshmen began pursuing Kyle with the unbridled fury of wild, untamed beasts.

And so…

Boom-boom-boom-!

“It’s a hidden charge!!”

“Aaaaargh!”

They proceeded to be thoroughly, systematically dismantled by Kyle’s prepared defenses.

“Haha-ha! Too simple! Way too simple!”

Kyle erupted into a bout of mocking laughter, continuously leading them in circles through the dense foliage.

“Brainless imbeciles.”

Millia, peering down upon the chaotic antics of her fellow freshmen from her lofty vantage point, let out a disdainful snort.

Even taking into account the possibility that his magic was locked down, the sight of her peers throwing themselves recklessly at a validated hero was nothing short of pathetic.

“Be that as it may.”

Millia adjusted her spyglass, redirecting her focus back toward Kyle’s fleeing figure.

Catching sight of Kyle pulling the strings of the first-years with a completely tranquil, unbothered demeanor, Millia’s lips contorted into that strange expression once more.

A moment later, Millia pulled her gaze away from the lens, gently cupping her blushing cheeks as a soft murmur escaped her lips.

“Haa… Senior Kyle… he is simply magnificent…”

Her previously contorted lips had by now expanded into a completely dazed, infatuated grin.

Sensing her own lapse in composure, Millia gasped softly and slapped both hands over her mouth.

Drawing in a sharp, stabilizing breath, Millia plummeted down from the high branch and commenced her own pursuit of Kyle.

Her advance ground to a sudden halt the moment she stepped into the clearing where Kyle had previously brought down Vito.

Dropping abruptly onto her knees, her eyes scanned the immediate terrain with frantic intensity, actively hunting for something specific.

A mere moment later, Millia’s fingers locked onto the discarded, empty glass elixir container resting amid the dirt, quickly slipping it securely into her coat pocket.

“Just wait a little longer, I am on my way to properly introduce myself to you now.”

With those words, she broke into a swift sprint, tracing the exact path Kyle had taken.