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TM-Chapter 42
by JammyMessage Transmission Disruption
Among all the participants in this game, which is the weakest team?
Everyone would point to our party.
Izel is a 5th-tier wizard, but Yernil and I are rookies.
Whether we’re Magic University rookies or have advantages attached, it doesn’t matter.
On the other hand, all the other teams are tightly grouped with senior wizards above Izel’s level, and there’s even Meldini’s team that cowardly(?) gathered three 7th-tier professors.
However……
“I think we’re getting close to our destination.”
We were advancing at tremendous speed. Faster than any other team.
Because the three of us had perfect compatibility.
I devise strategies, Izel provides convenience magic for maze exploration like ‘Spurring Steps’, and Yernil serves as the final joker card.
“There’s a fork in the road. Izel. Please give us some Wise Guidance.”
“Left.”
Izel, temporarily setting aside her priest roleplay and returning to being a 5th-tier wizard, points us in the direction.
And while moving, I search for and analyze visible clues. I capture dangers in advance.
“It would have been more fun if we just left pathfinding to roleplay too.”
“We tried that once, but the people got annoyed.”
“Really?”
“They got frustrated because they couldn’t use their available magic. They asked why they couldn’t just pass through mazes quickly and only use their heads for events.”
“………”
Anyway, all wizards are convenience-seekers and efficiency freaks, that’s the problem.
Hmm.
No, wait.
When I think about it again, wasn’t TRPG originally an analog game played sitting at a table with pen and paper?
You don’t actually walk around in the original TRPG, right?
If they introduced the maze concept for a bit of visualization and immersion, then giving convenience for pathfinding might actually be the right approach?
I’m not sure.
Wizards’ TRPG is a bit confusing.
“Everyone stop for a moment.”
I stopped Izel and Yernil.
In the real labyrinth before, Backstab with his keen eyesight helped find traps, but this time I have to do it again.
If we had stepped on it while passing, it would have been processed as an event occurrence and we would have been judged as injured.
Then priest-role Izel would have had to use a lot of recovery magic. Maybe even use two message slips.
But since we didn’t step on it, let’s preemptively attack with a message.
“Yernil, let’s write just one message.”
Yernil took out a slip of paper and pen.
She wrote as I instructed and sent the message.
[Rogue Yernil disarmed the trap.]
The judgment is a great success.
“Let’s go.”
***
Of course, there are times when problems arise with this kind of progression.
Because of Message Transmission disruption.
“Let’s cast priest blessing on the sarcophagus to remove the curse and proceed.”
[Izel used blessing magic on the undead sarcophagus to remove the curse.]
Priest Izel sent the message as I taught her, but the message got lost in the labyrinth.
And the random reply that came back was……
[The blessing fell on yourself! Izel gains advantage on her next message transmission success rate.
Izel was so moved by her own blessing that she began singing hymns and dancing for 3 minutes in front of her party members. Refusing results in a penalty for ignoring inspiration.]
“Sing and dance?”
“Izel?”
“Ahhhhh! Father!”
Izel covered her face and screamed.
“Yernil, come here. I think we’re going to see something interesting.”
“…….”
Izel’s face turned bright red!
“Do I really have to do this?”
“If you don’t, there’s a penalty. Izel.”
“This is really driving me crazy…..!”
Izel covered her face in anguish, then suddenly took a deep breath.
Her expression became resolute. Though still bright red.
And then she suddenly brought her hands forward and began kneeling!
“Ho…..ly Spirit’s grace descend upon me-. Pure body and mind-.”
“……..”
I almost dropped my wand.
What am I watching right now?
It’s like children doing cute performances at a talent show……?
“Eternal love and faith-.”
“……Sniff.”
“Ahhh! Don’t laugh!”
Izel jumped up.
“You’re not very talented at this sort of thing.”
I guess people can’t be perfect at everything.
“Izel. Want to sing together?”
Yernil, after watching, seemed to feel sympathy and began helping Izel. Even clapping.
Thanks to that, it got a bit better. Earlier it sounded like some monk chanting sutras, but now it sounds more like a song.
“3 minutes over!”
Izel trembled with shame. She briefly thanked Yernil, and to me……
“…….Ah, lead the way!”
She snapped at me oddly.
“Don’t feel too embarrassed. It was actually pretty good.”
“Please keep it secret.”
“Think about Professor Meldini doing something like this somewhere in the maze. It’s much better than that. You did well.”
And we set off again, and about 10 minutes later.
Damn.
This time it’s my turn.
[Caleb’s message got lost in the labyrinth!]
[A mischievous nymph full of laughter appeared. If you make the nymph laugh, she will follow the party until the next event and help you. Ignoring her results in a penalty.]
Indeed, karma comes back around.
I should have been nicer to Izel earlier.
“Quickly, tell any joke!”
Izel urged excitedly.
An illusory nymph descended before my eyes, fluttering her wings. I can’t drag this out too long.
Alright. Watch this.
“What’s the favorite song of Edward Berten, head of the Berten family?”
“……?”
“The answer is….. Message ‘Transmission’.”
The nymph full of laughter has now become a nymph drained of all laughter.
“Ah. Ahhhh……”
Yernil’s lament.
“This level….. Not even uncles, even Professor Dalstream wouldn’t laugh……”
Izel, shocked into covering her mouth.
[The nymph is angry!]
“Hey now! Caleb!”
“Damn, let’s kill this nymph!”
Yernil, whose Message Transmission is never disrupted, is a god.
***
“I came up with a brilliant idea.”
Yernil suddenly made a fuss.
“If I just write text on the slip of paper, a judgment box appears right away, right? Even without sending a message.”
“Yes.”
“It appears a bit high above our heads, but I can jump up and put the slip in! The paper!”
“…….”
“If I put it into a Great Success box, wouldn’t that work?”
“No.”
Izel immediately cut off that ridiculous idea.
“Why not?”
But actually, I’m curious too. How exactly are those judgment boxes summoned and operated? There was nothing like that in the game.
“The judgment box automatically scans the surroundings to observe and block cheating. If Yernil jumps with the slip, the judgment box will disappear at that moment.”
“Ah……”
“If you’re curious, try testing it once.”
Izel said.
“We’ve arrived now anyway. We have slips left.”
That’s right.
Finally, we had arrived at the center of the maze. In first place.
“It’s a scroll!”
Yernil pointed to a small altar in the middle of the central area.
An escape scroll was visible on the altar.
“Point your wand at the scroll and use Message Transmission to finish.”
Just as she was about to run excitedly.
“Caleb!”
Something truly amazing happened.
When I turned around at the voice from behind, Meldini had appeared.
The team with the highest probability of winning among this tournament’s participants.
Meldini, Enver, Hailey.
A party formed by three 7th-tier professors joining forces.
“Hello, Professor.”
I greeted calmly, but honestly, it’s a bit flustering.
Did we waste too much time because of messages getting lost in the labyrinth?
Since we pushed through events at full speed, I thought there would be quite a time difference from when other teams arrived, but I guess I was wrong.
Indeed, the wisdom of three professors can’t be ignored?
“We followed you!”
Oh, I see.
“As we chased you, at some point we only encountered events that had already been solved. You must have solved them. So we just kept running! But even so, we couldn’t catch up in the maze and ended up meeting at the escape spot.”
Meldini burst into admiration.
“Really amazing! How are you so fast?”
“But why did you follow us?”
If this was Meldini’s strategy, that would be really awesome, but the possibility is low.
Because most of the senior wizards here would think the professor party has better progression ability than our party.
Actually, our team is the weak team here, even with Yernil’s advantage.
So when Meldini used Wise Guidance at crossroads, using it to track us instead of toward the escape scroll was a very irrational choice.
This, could it be……
“Professor Enver here said this! Since we’re a party of three professors, instead of seriously playing the game, let’s find the students and help them.”
As expected.
Meldini’s party hadn’t aimed for victory from the beginning.
“Here we have a freshman from our Magic University and a graduate who graduated with the highest scores!”
Meldini pointed to us. To me and Izel in turn.
“Even though that Elf lady has an advantage, we thought it wouldn’t be easy for you three to progress, so as educators, we agreed to find our students and help them!”
In other words, they thought we were the worst performers here and chased us to help, but unexpectedly caught the bus.
‘And Enver had no intention of playing the game from the start.’
He probably just entered the maze to find our party, join up with Izel, then watch over me together.
Since the many components appearing in this game are similar to labyrinths, he must have thought he could gauge my possessor knowledge.
“So we were really surprised.”
The Elf professor took over the conversation to praise us.
“We never expected you to arrive in first place.”
Her name is Hailey.
A gentle-natured Elf professor who belongs to the Isilof faction.
Come to think of it, that 3-person team has all three major factions – Isilof faction, Meldini faction, and possessor faction, doesn’t it?
What a funny picture.
And…..
“Certainly impressive.”
Enver clapped dryly, but somehow seemed disappointed.
Was it because he couldn’t directly watch me solve the maze?
“Izel. How was it?”
He dropped his act and asked awkwardly, pretending to be distant from Izel.
“What was it like adventuring with the most famous freshman junior since Izel?”
“He was smart.”
Izel answered neither excessively nor insufficiently, but without specific information.
“His situational analysis and judgment abilities are excellent, so I think he can become a great wizard.”
“That’s right, that’s right!”
Meldini was thrilled.
“I thought so too! As expected, Izel knows how to see things!”
“So now we just need to take the escape scroll and win?”
I tried to casually end things based on the atmosphere, but Meldini slowly shook his head.
“That would be fine too, but Caleb. Since we’ve come this far, how about we have a match with Message Transmission? Hmm?”
“…….”
“Even if we win, we’ll give you the prize money! Haha!”
“Caleb. Don’t feel too wronged.”
Professor Hailey also agreed with Meldini.
“We didn’t tactically chase Caleb for the purpose of winning, so arriving here now is really great luck and coincidence from our perspective.”
“……..”
“But regardless of the prior circumstances, the fact that we came to this place together means we can compete for the scroll with our remaining message slips.”
Very reasonable words.
“Caleb! Give it a try! It’s not even a real magic fight. You might win. Let’s have a match with message slips!”
Right.
My adventure should be like this.
Somehow it was being solved too easily.
“If we lose.”
It’s not a life-or-death labyrinth fight but a game, so I should accept defeat gracefully too.
“The professors take the prize money.”
“Ooh!”
Meldini was very pleased.
“As expected, I judged people correctly.”
“……..”
“Everyone knows the rules, but you can’t directly attack each other. You must fight using Message Transmission between roles.”
Izel said.
“I know.”
“I know.”
And suddenly, silence.
In the tension that filled the room over this.
“Start right away?”
I asked Meldini.
“Let’s start.”
“Yernil! Get the scroll!”
***
As soon as the words ended, Yernil hopped toward the altar.
But at the same time, Hailey shouted.
“Shorthand! Use transcription magic to steal the escape scroll!”
She was the wizard position in that party. Her magic pen scribbled a message on the slip at tremendous speed.
“Message Transmission.”
That slip fell into the success judgment.
Thwack!
When Yernil grabbed the scroll, it was already a blank scroll, not an escape scroll.
Magical text flew through the air. Toward Hailey.
In her hand was a small card. Just like we had obtained ‘Banshee’s Tears‘ or ‘Two-handed Sword’, Hailey also had one item card.
Blank scroll.
Swoooosh!
The moment the escape scroll’s spell moved into the item card, the card transformed into an old parchment scroll.
“It’s been taken!”
Now the escape scroll had fallen into Professor Hailey’s grasp.
“I feel a bit sorry for beating students this way.”
She aimed her wand tip at the scroll.
“But it’s a game and education, so please understand. Message Transmission!”
But her magic didn’t work.
“Huh?”
A judgment box was floating above my head.
[Caleb uses silence magic on Hailey.]
[Great success!]
As soon as I confirmed she was a wizard, I grabbed a slip and scribbled frantically.
“Even if you’re silenced, you can still speak, right? The character is silenced, not me. So magic should work too, shouldn’t it?”
Professor Hailey looked down at her wand in puzzlement, and Meldini shouted.
“Message Transmission is about game rules, so it’s blocked! Give it to me!”
He quickly took the scroll. And……
“Message Transmission!”
The moment he cast magic on the escape scroll.
[Meldini’s message got lost in the labyrinth! The escape scroll will reappear on the altar after 60 seconds.]
“What the?”
A shocking reply comes back.
[Meldini decided to sing and dance cheerfully for 10 seconds to overcome the self-reproach of losing the scroll. If refused, he loses 1 message slip as penalty.]
“……..”
“……..”
“……..”
Silence flowed through the room again.
I never thought I’d actually see Meldini dance.
Izel was at least cute, but I don’t want to see a professor do it…….
“Ahem. Would you like to dance together?”
Meldini extended his hand to Professor Hailey.
“I’ll pass.”
“Izel?”
“Absolutely not!”
Izel, who had already experienced humiliation once, was horrified.
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