BXBX NOVEL Chapter 13 - Answer
Wallace carefully organized his thoughts. He was familiar with all six mana artifacts that the soldier had used and should be able to find an answer.
Each mana artifact had a grade. Grade C being the lowest and Grade A the highest.
The mana artifacts the soldier had used were all Grade C. They were ranked not only according to their capability but also complexity. It had to be said that a Grade A mana artifact had extremely complex magic that would put average magicians in trouble when being used.
Aside from that fact, a standard combat magician was only capable of wielding 2 mana artifacts. Even with the finest brain-boosting magic structure for 4th gen artifact, it could only allow 3 mana artifacts to be wielded by average magicians at best.
The soldier on the recording was wearing the standard uniform of their own country, Zairus. Every soldier in the Magic Corps also had the 2 standard mana artifacts provided by the country. It was the 2 bracers the soldier was wearing, a Grade C artifact that could be used by any combat magicians.
Wallace also noticed the other mana artifacts which were the ring on his left index finger, a necklace, a dagger, and a gun.
He tried remembering the fight that had occurred. The soldier could actually release all the magic skill he had but when it reached about two meters of the cloaked man, the magic disintegrated and formless wave of mana would instead touch the mana shell of the cloaked guy giving no damage at all.
It was the perfected version of Magic Jammer. Apparently, the soldier wasn\'t familiar with it. The cloaked guy did not interrupt the magic casting of the soldier and instead allowed him to waste his mana pool. After the soldier spent a huge chunk of his mana, the cloaked guy used only a weak magic skill to penetrate the mana shell of the soldier.
It could be seen here as well that although the defence of the cloaked guy could be said to be almost perfect, he didn\'t have enough destructive power in his offense. Wallace wasn\'t sure if the cloaked man had spent all his money on the magic jammer and had to purchase a cheap mana artifact in exchange. He even entertained the thought that the cloaked man was using multiple magic jammers.
"Well, if I were the soldier... once I would have noticed that the enemy was using a rare magic jammer, instead of me throwing skills randomly to test how much the cloaked guy could take, I would have utilized the surroundings to attack him. After all, magic jammer can only stop magic skills. Mana shells have limitations, I could have used the dagger imbued with Wind Blade IV to close in for close combat.
That would be for me being highly trained in close quarter combat. But I doubt that it was the answer you were looking for." Wallace answered but was not finished speaking yet.
It was obvious that since a magic jammer could only block skills, you could still fight them on close quarter. But standard magicians mostly relied on their mana shell to defend themselves from close range attacks and had several skills to distance from the enemy.
Wallace thought of all the scenario and could only think of one opportunity to defeat the cloaked man without relying on close quarter combat.
"That was the time when the cloaked guy attacked. That man switching to offense means he cancelled the magic jammer, even the perfected version was not capable of allowing the wielders to be immune to the magic jamming. The man obviously has weak offensive skills and relied on exhausting the soldier\'s mana pool to deal real damage. He may have miscalculated the soldier\'s mana pool and allowed him to escaped. If the soldier did not panic due to low mana pool, he could have used that opportunity to counterattack.
Especially the ring that the soldier was wearing, if I\'m not mistaken, it should be the recently popular Molten Ring that has an instant cast skill called Heat Wave so instead of using the bracer\'s stored mana to escape he could have used it differently." Wallace was done analysing the battle and answered upon the best of his knowledge.
The bracers that soldiers of Zairus were wearing had stored mana that could be used for emergency. He was sure that the soldier could have dealt damage to his enemy as Wallace observed how fast his magic invocation was during the battle. The soldier could\'ve just quickly stabilized his mana shell for defence and simultaneously attacked the cloaked man.
"Haha! You have a good eye Wallace. I won!"
It was Humphrey, the ethics officer who happily voiced out his thoughts. He had a fine build for a 17 year old student. It seemed that he was working well with his close combat skills as Wallace noticed some callouses on his hands too.
"It only means I lack real combat experience. It can\'t be helped." Aaron said as he further explained to Wallace who was confused.
"You can actually be a member of our student council since my cousin highly recommended you. We also know that you topped the recent ranking in your class in forging 5th gen artifact. We just wanted to ask you that as we have varying opinions."
Wallace nodded at this and didn\'t know what to say about their carefree attitude. He was actually expecting a strict and difficult council member to obstruct him from accomplishing his mission.
"Fill this up and just \'submit\' it." Aaron gave a tablet computer to Wallace and saw in the panel display screen the form he had to fill up.
[ Congratulations User! You have completed your second mission!
You are now part of the student council in your Academy. ]
[ You have received x1 Mystery Box. ]
****
Wallace had returned to his rented apartment a few blocks away from the Magic Academy. He would formally start his work as a student council member tomorrow but he was already registered as such. He couldn\'t help being excited and felt like he was opening a birthday present.
[ Mystery Box.
A box containing random rewards.
Would you like to open it? ]
Yes. Wallace answered in his mind.
[ Opening... 3.. 2.. 1..
You have received 1 Body Strengthening Potion (Small) ]