Vol 5. Chapter 35: The Root Problem

“Um, Vinny?”

After that, although Shicodale did manage to call Vinny awake, on the way home, Shicodale tried several more times to call out to him, and Vinny still remained in an exceedingly mysterious state of mental wandering.

What was going on with Vinny?

Shicodale did not understand. Before going onto the field, Shicodale remembered seeing Vinny face Aesphyra. The two of them had fought to a standstill, and while Shicodale was watching, a name was called, and it was Shicodale’s turn to go up. After that, there had been no way to keep paying attention to Vinny’s side.

Had something happened after that?

Could Vinny have been defeated by Miss Aesphyra, taking a blow to his confidence??

Shicodale felt that was most likely the case, but intuition said that somehow, that did not seem to be it either.

“Vinny, in your previous match with Miss Aesphyra, did you not win?” Shicodale tried asking.

“Huh? Match? Aesphyra?” While Vinny was lost in thought, he suddenly heard Shicodale ask him that, and unconsciously ignored exactly which match Shicodale was talking about.

“Ah! This young master didn’t lose! Could that even be called losing??” As though some passive had been triggered, Vinny instantly unleashed a loud roar, badly startling Shicodale, who had asked the question.

“Uh, um, I spoke too much. I’m sorry, Vinny.” Shicodale had clearly been startled by Vinny, thinking the question had touched on something that should not have been asked, and shrank in slightly like a quail.

“Ah, no, no, it’s my fault. Sorry, Dale. I overreacted just now.” Only then did Vinny realize that he had been thinking too deeply, and that the person standing beside him was Shicodale, who knew nothing about what had happened.

“Dale, you won your match just now, right? And you won very easily too. Impressive.” Vinny skipped over the topic.

Although he had spent most of the time in a daze earlier, he had still watched Shicodale’s match. Once he saw Shicodale gain complete control, he had known the match would be won in an utterly crushing fashion.

“Eh? Really?”

“Yep. Your progress is really obvious, Dale. Compared to last semester, you’ve practically advanced by leaps and bounds.”

Vinny felt that Shicodale’s greatest change was no longer accepting everything submissively like back when Shicodale had first stepped into Carillian Academy. At least now, Shicodale was gradually beginning to understand that everything had to be fought for personally, not given away by others, and was beginning to understand what it meant to resist.

Vinny remembered that when Shicodale had first arrived, those tribespeople had made trouble. With Shicodale’s strength, it was not as though Shicodale could not have wrestled with those tribespeople for a bit. But at that time, Shicodale had already been beaten down until there was no spirit or will to fight left.

“You performed wonderfully too, Vinny.”

“What was wonderful about me? Don’t flatter me. You won your match easily. I only fought to a draw. No, saying it was a draw is wrong. In reality, I was being suppressed the whole time,” Vinny joked.

“But Vinny, your opponent was Miss Aesphyra.” Although Shicodale had never directly fought Aesphyra, Shicodale could tell that Aesphyra was very strong. Not only that, hers was a transcendent kind of strength, a kind of strength that made people completely unable to even think of comparing themselves to her.

“What about Aesphyra? When it comes to courage, this young master doesn’t lose to her, okay? But, true. I have to admit, she really is strong. Absurdly strong. Excessively strong.” Only when Aesphyra was not present would Vinny speak so frankly.

Aesphyra’s strength was something one could only form a concrete understanding of after truly clashing with her.

Unlike those straightforward kinds of power, Aesphyra not only possessed extremely straightforward strength; what truly made people look up at her in dread was that she resembled an iceberg. The part that had surfaced, the part visible to others, might not even reach five percent.

Vinny had taken an initial glimpse at just how vast the area beneath that iceberg was, and that was why he sighed with such feeling.

Of course he knew Aesphyra was terrifyingly strong, but as expected, only after witnessing that strength with his own eyes did he understand exactly how great the gap was.

Ah, fine, fine. Stop thinking about all this negative stuff. Think about something positive.

The fact that he could fight Aesphyra for that long without awakening his bloodline was something that, one year ago, he would not even have dared imagine. Back then, he probably would have been instantly killed the moment they met, like some bandit NPC casually run over as a speed bump by the protagonist passing by.

“Uh, um, yes.” Shicodale did not know how to respond to Vinny’s words, and could only nod honestly in agreement.

Whatever Vinny said, Shicodale believed.

“Miss Aesphyra really is strong. If only I were as strong as her,” Shicodale said, slightly dazed.

“Dale, people still need to have a little dream. Don’t envy her. Your aptitude isn’t any worse than Aesphyra’s, you know. As long as you work hard, who can say for sure what the future will be like? Right?” Vinny encouraged Shicodale.

“And watch closely. In the Chosen One Granted by God Tournament, she and I will both go all out. And I will personally defeat her,” Vinny said in a low voice.

“Eh?” Shicodale’s large eyes widened slightly.

“What, you don’t believe me?”

“No. I believe you. If it’s you, Vinny, then you can definitely do it.” Shicodale nodded with a somewhat simple-minded look.

“Mm. Not bad. Dale, you have already begun to acquire the specialty known as ‘judgment.’ All right, all right, enough bragging. Let’s hurry home and eat. We fought for almost the entire morning. I’m about to starve flat.”

“Mm-hm!”

After returning to the dorm, Vinny opened his Virtue panel and glanced at the total amount of Virtue he had accumulated by now.

[Current Virtue: 12399.]

Since the last time, he had accumulated another twelve thousand Virtue. These shares could not have grown without the support of every fate heroine. Of course, among them, special thanks had to go to Aesphyra and to his number-one big sister on the rankings, Mirexia, whose support had once again let Vinny gorge himself on over ten thousand Virtue.

As for why Vinny had been hoarding Virtue and not using it, the reason was that he had already deeply realized the underlying logic of Tyrelis Continent. Or rather, the underlying logic of any magical world.

Stats.

As long as your stats were high enough, your margin for error was higher. As long as your left fist had high damage and your right fist had high damage, who cared about mechanics or whatever? Wherever something lit up, you pressed it. Then you would see enemies get run over like speed bumps.

Sure enough, stats were the most important thing no matter where one went. Only when one’s stats were insufficient did people keep talking about skills and technique.

And so, Vinny opened the Virtue panel and, without the slightest hesitation, clicked to raise his realm.

Last time, raising himself to Intermediate Magus had cost him ten thousand Virtue. Now, advancing to high-tier Magus required twelve thousand Virtue. The amount of Virtue he had was just right.

[Virtue -12000.]

[Successfully advanced to “high-tier Magus.”]

“Awooo, awooo, awooo!!!” One moment, Vinny had been lying lifelessly on the sofa waiting for food like a dead fish. The next, he sprang up from the sofa and struck a pose showing off his muscles.

This feeling of surging power and swelling mana made him feel incomparably delighted and refreshed!

Along with the rise in realm, he understood. He understood!

As for what he had understood, even he did not know. In any case, he had understood.

Otherwise, wouldn’t this realm increase have increased absolutely nothing??

High-tier Magus. It could be said that even if he now lay around doing nothing, eating and waiting for death for three years, he would still graduate smoothly from Carillian Academy.

The current him dared say that without activating his bloodline, he could steadily sit in third place in the year.

Speaking of it, it was somewhat laughable. If he had been a Carillian Academy student in any other year and had not run into Isatia and Aesphyra, he definitely would already be able to sit firmly in first place in the year.

But he had been born at the wrong time. He just had to run into them, and he just had to be in the same year as these fate heroines.

In that case, there was nothing he could do. He could only be steadily pressed down by them.

As for Shicodale in the kitchen, upon hearing the commotion from the living room, Shicodale merely smiled softly and continued busying away.

Shicodale had already gotten used to Vinny lying on the sofa every few months, then suddenly pulling something like this.

Shicodale did not know what had happened, but seeing the person Shicodale liked happy made Shicodale happy too.

However, this was still far from enough!

Vinny continued looking through the Virtue panel to see whether there were any spells suited to him.

After fighting Aesphyra once, he could be considered to have understood what he lacked before activating his bloodline.

He was starved for moves. He was simply far too starved for moves.

Thinking about it now, in his male-body state, the spells he knew could {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} be counted on two hands, and they were almost all ice-element spells. There was not the slightest flexibility. Once an expert watched him for a couple of glances, they would see that he was starved for moves and know that he only knew ice-element spells. Then they would repeatedly use fire spells that countered ice magic to clash head-on with him.

And unfortunately, what Aesphyra was best at was fire magic.

In this regard, Aesphyra also countered him to death.

It was like playing a game. As your rank rose, some problems that were not obvious in low ranks would gradually surface and become your greatest shortcomings.

That was exactly Vinny’s current state. To fight in low ranks, his male body was enough. He could smurf and stomp to his heart’s content. In ultra-high ranks, Vanessa could go on the field. But when he had to fight high ranks and could not use Vanessa, his problems emerged.

Although he had now advanced to high-tier Magus, and Vanessa’s strength would also rise greatly, the male body’s problem of being starved for moves still had to be solved. This was a massive improvement point.

What method could keep him from being starved for moves?

Vinny thought it over and over, then finally came to a sudden realization.

He discovered that the root of the problem was not that he had failed to spend time polishing his spell pool. Rather, it was that he fundamentally could not learn more kinds of spells.

His male body’s Spirit Soul, [Armor Fortress], had already locked his upper limit in place.

Users of [Armor Fortress] practically could not learn magic. The reason he could still learn a few spells was entirely because his affinity with the ice element was high enough to reach the compatibility threshold for many ice spells.

But what about other kinds and elements of magic? Even if he wanted to learn them, he could not. The only earth-element [Annihilating Heavy Stomp] had been gifted to him by [Armor Fortress] after he reached one-hundred-percent compatibility with [Armor Fortress] and advanced his realm.

He himself was someone who could not learn spells of any other element. Whenever he released spells of other elements, it was either through enchanted tools or because they came built in.

Moreover, even when speaking only of the ice element, it was not as though he could learn every ice-element spell either. Many spells required one’s Spirit Soul to be of the [Mage] type before they could be learned, and many other spells required one’s Spirit Soul to be of the [Magic Swordsman] type before they could be learned.

[Armor Fortress] pleased neither side. It could not learn [Mage] magic, nor could it learn [Magic Swordsman] magic.

No wonder it was a one-star Spirit Soul.

As his strength rose, Vinny became more and more aware of [Armor Fortress]’s limitations, and of why it only had one star.

A one-star Spirit Soul could barely learn magic. That was written into the game setting. It was only that in the early stages, he had no other choice, and back then everyone had been very weak, so naturally it had not shown much.

Now, it could be said to be killing him.

If not for his sufficiently excellent affinity with the ice element, he was afraid he would not have been able to learn a single spell.

In summary, Vinny discovered that his move-starvation problem lay at the root. And this root could no longer be cut away. Besides, with his one-star magical aptitude, it was impossible for him to choose a better Spirit Soul than [Armor Fortress]. Back then, he had spent an entire afternoon choosing in the royal collection and still had not found anything good.

He could not really choose that whatever-it-was [Fishing for Ten Thousand Ages], could he??

Someone like Aesphyra would never have this kind of problem at all. She had dual Spirit Souls, and both Spirit Souls were high-star Spirit Souls. One of those Spirit Souls was even [Hero]. She could learn both [Mage]-type magic and [Magic Swordsman]-type magic. As long as her learning ability was strong enough, she could learn them all. There was absolutely no compatibility issue.

So when Aesphyra truly opened fire at full force, if her opponent’s observation was a little more meticulous, that opponent would discover that in the rain of magic pouring down on them, every single “raindrop” had a different element and type.

She could spend the whole match casting spells, and there might not even be a repeat.

How could that gap not be huge??

Vinny let out a long sigh.

How was he supposed to solve his move-starvation problem? He could not just hand every situation over to Vanessa, could he?

The [Saint’s Envoy] Spirit Soul was not starved for moves, but the Vanessa state could not be maintained forever, could it?

At least right now, it was not time yet.

What was he supposed to do?

Vinny thought for a long time and felt that his magic was simply too easy to read. After someone fought him a few times, then fought him again, all his actions would probably be completely read through, because he really only knew those few spells.

If he wanted to approach an enemy offensively or dodge, he used [Congealed-Ice Shackles]. If he truly could not dodge and was about to take a hit, he used [Ice Skin] to block it. If he wanted to clash with magic or destroy an attack, he used [Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame]. As for [Rimefrost Full-Moon Slash], he could string it in and use it anytime. If he really could not win, then it was [Icefang’s Roar].

That was the summary of his tactics. There was nothing else. He had no other moves.

His tactics and magic both lacked variation too badly. They were too easy for people familiar with him to guess.

Vinny thought about this problem for an entire afternoon and still had no idea how to solve it. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

At night, after returning to the dorm, he went back to his room after eating.

He would stop thinking about this problem for now.

Because now, he had to think about something else.

Namely, which outfit to wear today.

Vinny stared at his wardrobe and fell into a daze, lost in thought.

Always wearing that women’s uniform feels a little too monotonous. Will she think I’m being too perfunctory?

Vinny stood before the mirror and fell into another daze. Only after a long while did he frown and realize something was wrong.

Wait. Why does what I’m doing right now feel like I’m about to go out on a date with someone??

And all this hesitation back and forth is only over a few pieces of clothing. It even feels a little unlike a boy before going out on a date, and more like—

Agh! What the hell is his brain thinking about?!