I Became a Magical Genius After Regression

Chapter 30

Drip.

Cold sweat trickling down Randell’s forehead.

Whether he knew it or not, the soldier asked again.

“Where are you from?”

“From the capital. I’m a mage, and I was researching because the terrain around here is peculiar.”

“Oh, you’re a mage.”

Randell deliberately said it openly, but the soldier just nodded without showing any sign of surprise.

Even though he met a rare mage, and a young boy at that, there was no hint of suspicion in his eyes.

It meant he already knew everything.

‘No, I have to retreat for now.’

Randell concluded inwardly and continued the conversation with a calm demeanor.

“So, did you find anything?”

“No, I’ve been investigating the canyon for about a week, but it just seems like a natural formation. It looks like a huge earthquake split the ground a long time ago.”

“Ah! I think I heard such a story from the village elder when I was young. They said there was a tremendous earthquake in the past.”

“Is that so? I was just about to head back, but I guess I’m lucky. I’ve discovered the secret of this land at the last moment.”

“Is that so? Then please be careful on your way back.”

“You too, finish your patrol safely.”

Randell and the soldiers exchanged pleasantries and parted ways.

And the moment Randell turned his back.

Screech.

A chilling sound sent shivers down Randell’s spine.

Snap!

As soon as Randell heard the sound, he threw himself forward.

At the same time, he felt something sharp slicing through the air right behind his neck.

A soldier who had swung his sword at Randell but missed shouted in frustration.

“Wow! This b*stard dodged it!”

“How could you miss that? You should be ashamed.”

“I didn’t expect that young brat to notice.”

“Still, he’s a mage. Don’t let your guard down.”

“Judging by his age, his circle must be low. Can he even cast properly in fear?”

Despite being underestimated, Randell stood up from where he had thrown himself, and the soldiers continued their banter.

But Randell also underestimated the soldiers.

With a sneer, Randell calmly dusted off the dirt and extended his hand.

And then he uttered one word.

“Lightning.”

Crackle!

A long, yellow snake-like current shot out.

* * *

How can you tell how elite soldiers are?

Weapons?

No. Shields.

Shields are surprisingly more expensive than weapons. Moreover, unlike spears, they are also harder to repair.

Naturally, a lord who considers soldiers as expendable would not provide them with high-quality shields.

In that sense, it was clear that the soldiers facing Randel were definitely cared for by their lord.

How reassuring it must be for the soldiers?

Not thin wooden shields, but shields wrapped in iron.

Which conduct electricity very well.

“Argh!”

A soldier who hastily blocked Randel’s lightning with his shield screamed and collapsed.

Judging by the froth bubbling from his trembling mouth, he had been hit quite properly.

“Die!”

Swish.

A fellow soldier, startled, thrust his spear.

Randel’s response was simple.

“Shield.”

Scrape.

The spearhead scraped across the surface of the shield.

Normally, the shield should withstand this much.

But for some reason, it cracked and shattered.

Crash!

The shield shattered like glass.

Randel’s eyes, visible through the falling fragments, were emotionless.

It was proof that this was all intentional, a result of Randel deliberately adjusting the shield’s strength.

Once activated, the shield magic does not disappear until it is canceled.

But if it is broken just right like this?

“Lightning.”

He can use the next spell immediately without canceling.

Crackle.

“Argh!”

Thud.

The second soldier was also electrocuted and collapsed to the ground like a wooden log.

He wasn’t dead, but seeing him convulse intermittently, it seemed unlikely that he would ever move his limbs properly again.

“You, you b*stard!”

Another soldier charged at him with a sword from the side.

But this time, Randel didn’t use his shield.

He just took a step back after a quick glance.

Swish.

The blade narrowly grazed past Randel’s chest.

Randel reached out his hand and spoke again.

“Lightning.”

“Argh!”

Right in front of him, the soldier who was struck by the lightning before it even fully extended screamed.

White steam rose from his open mouth, and the ends of his hair burned black, emitting a foul smell.

The soldier collapsed again.

But the attack wasn’t over yet.

“Hiya!”

A burly soldier charged head-on.

Judging by the epaulets on his shoulder, he seemed to be a ten-man squad leader.

The brave squad leader discarded his shield and leaped high, bringing down his sword with both hands.

The squad leader had realized that being struck by lightning didn’t kill instantly.

It just caused temporary paralysis.

But what if he jumped up and brought down his sword?

Even if paralyzed, the falling force could slice through the mage!

In the squad leader’s mind, it was a perfect move.

But such convenient thoughts rarely work out in life.

Especially if the opponent is Randel.

“Fire.”

As a basic rule, the power of a spell increases with higher circles.

The fire spell was no exception.

At the first circle, it was as small as a campfire.

But a fire spell cast by a third-circle mage could burn down the entire campfire.

As a result.

Whoosh.

“aaah!”

The flames that appeared in mid-air engulfed the soldier’s upper body.

It wasn’t a continuously burning flame, but it flared up once and then disappeared immediately. Still, fire is fire.

The soldier, who suffered burns on his neck, chin, and eyes, which were not protected by armor, rolled on the ground and screamed.

“The determination to kill me even at the cost of your own life, truly admirable. So, I didn’t hold back and burned you.”

“C-crazy…”

The soldiers looked at Randel, who spoke nonchalantly, with terrified eyes.

Four of them were taken down in an instant.

It was something that couldn’t happen according to their common sense.

They were elite soldiers who received high-intensity training and were educated on how to fight against wizards.

Of course, they knew that low-circle wizards were slow at casting and couldn’t do anything if approached.

But what is this boy in front of them?

Isn’t it supposed to take at least a mage-level to fire magic without casting?

And even a genius mage is supposed to be at least in their mid-thirties, right?

The silence that hung over the wilderness was broken by another decurion.

“D-damn it! Don’t approach! We have bows, don’t we?”

“R-right! Archers, what are you doing!?”

“We still have more than ten men left!”

The decurion’s shout snapped the soldiers back to their senses.

If they ran away like this, they would just become targets for magic in the open wasteland. They had no choice but to kill the wizard.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.

The soldiers, truly well-trained elites, immediately spread out widely.

At the same time, the soldiers in the back began to take out their bows and fumble for arrows in their quivers.

“Lightning— tch.”

Randel, who was casting, clicked his tongue and stepped back.

At the same time, he created a shield instead of lightning.

He was trying to reduce their numbers while they were panicking, but their response was too quick.

Bzzz―

With a small vibration, a translucent shield unfolded before his eyes.

It wasn’t the small, weak shield he had used until now, but the maximum range that Randel could deploy.

A size as large as Randel’s upper body.

Randel immediately curled up and hid behind it.

Tat-tat-tat!

Arrows clashed with the shield, making a sound like a sudden downpour.

But the soldiers didn’t care and kept shooting.

They knew well that the defense power of a wizard’s shield wasn’t infinite.

‘Damn, this is troublesome.’

Randel was in the same predicament.

If he just kept defending like this, the soldiers with swords would come and stab him, leaving him no way out.

But if he released the shield to attack, he’d be skewered by arrows in an instant.

‘It would be nice if I had double casting…’

But that was something you could only learn at the 5th circle.

Even in his previous life, Randel had only heard of such magic.

Randel shook his head inwardly and slowly retreated to a place he had scouted beforehand.

For the past few weeks, Randel had been coming and going around this area.

Thanks to that, he knew the surrounding terrain better than anyone.

“That guy is running away!”

“Keep shooting! We still have plenty of arrows!”

The only fortunate thing was that the frightened soldiers couldn’t easily approach.

If they recklessly attacked, they would either die from Randel’s magic or be hit by their own arrows.

‘That’s very convenient for me.’

Meanwhile, Randel quickly backpedaled and managed to hide behind a rock.

This rock, the only one nearby, was slightly larger than Randel, but it seemed like it could somehow block the arrows.

As Randel hid behind the rock, the soldiers who had lowered their bows began to approach slowly.

“You b*stard! Do you think you can survive by hiding there!?”

“Cowardly b*stard! You look just like a rat.”

“How should we kill you? Should we skin you with a knife?”

The soldiers spewed all sorts of nonsense, whether out of anger or to shake Randel’s resolve.

But Randel, listening to it all, was simply dumbfounded.

‘No, they attacked first…’

Anyone hearing this would think he had used magic to attack soldiers who were just passing by.

Moreover, their words were too crude. Compared to what he had heard during his mercenary days, they were at a child’s level.

Randel wanted to show them what real cursing and provocation were, but he held back.

Now was not the time for that.

It was time to use magic diligently.

“Water, water, water, water…”

Randel kept using magic with his hand on the ground.

Even a 1-circle water spell, when used at the 3-circle level, produced much more water.

What used to generate a bucketful now produced three or four times that amount, so it didn’t take long for the area around Randel to become soaked with water.

Drip.

The overflowing water trickled down the slightly sloped ground.

Meanwhile, the soldiers, seeing no sign of Randel coming out despite waiting for a long time, approached closer.

Clink, clink.

They tried to move stealthily, but the scabbards of their short swords clashed against their armor, making noise.

‘They’ll probably attack from both sides simultaneously.’

In the previous fight, Randel could only use one spell at a time.

So if they had any brains, they’d think, ‘I won’t be the unlucky one,’ and attack from both sides.

‘…’

Randel closed his eyes and focused on the sounds.

The clinking friction noises grew louder.

One step, two steps, three steps…

Splash.

And with the sound of stepping in water echoing simultaneously,

“Yaaah!”

“Die, you b*stard!”

“I’ll cut your head off!”

About a dozen soldiers sprang out from both sides at once.

Soldiers attacking with faces twisted like demons.

Flash.

That was when Randel opened his eyes.

Still in the position of touching the ground to use water magic, he spoke consecutively.

“Lightning, lightning, lightning.”

Crackle!

Bright yellow currents joyfully ran through the water.

At the end of it were the soldiers wearing steel-reinforced shoes, which the lord had invested heavily in.

The soldiers who were charging stopped all at once.

“Ugh…!”

Thud, thud.

They fell with strange groans.

* * *

“Whew.”

Randel stood up with a sigh.

It was unbelievable that a 3-circle mage had defeated 20 soldiers, even elite ones.

But it was an undeniable reality.

‘I have to get used to it now.’

Because he was a great mage with a 1-second casting time!

“Heh.”

Randel, feeling proud, counted the number of soldiers lying on the ground.

Three were missing from the initial count.

They were probably the ones with bows, and he had to deal with them too.

That way, the news of Randel’s presence would reach the soldiers’ territory late.

“Let’s see.”

Outside, he saw three soldiers with bows, frozen stiff.

Their comrades who had charged had all fainted and fallen, and Randel was walking out alone, so it was natural for them to be scared.

They looked pitiful, but he had no intention of letting them go.

Weren’t they the ones who had shot arrows to kill him?

Those who try to kill others deserve to die.

‘And even if struck by lightning, one wouldn’t die.’

Only half of them would die.

If not treated quickly, the other half would die too.

But then it happened.

“Naynooom!”

Suddenly, a shout was heard from the far end.

The shout was so loud that the dust in the wilderness trembled as if an earthquake had occurred.

“What the!?”

Startled, Randel looked towards the direction of the sound.

He saw someone running madly from the other side of the wilderness.

And then.

Zuuung.

That person, while running, suddenly swung a sword in the empty air.

“This is crazy!”

Randel’s hair stood on end at the familiar sound.

Terrified, Randel quickly ducked his head.

At the same time, something sharp and white was generated from the sword swung by the opponent, and it flew towards Randel.

And then.

Slaaash―

The rock Randel was hiding behind was split horizontally.

Thud.

The rock fell diagonally along the cut surface.

Amidst the rising dust…

Randel admitted it cleanly.

“I’m screwed.”