CHAPTER 110: BARRIERS

The first phase is completely over and now we’re moving on to the second one, I’ll have a sequence of duels until we reach a specific number, so I may only have 1 duel or I may end up having 10 duels, I didn’t quite understand that part.

Apparently it has to do with the choice using magic to randomly select the students, so the winner of a duel can still go again until in the end only 5 winners remain.

"I wonder how I can use Violet’s human form..." After our dinner she went back to my hand and fell...asleep...but she asked me to get materials with a lot of mana so later on she won’t have to sleep as much.

"I feel like something important happened...well...never mind" it’s not like I know, so it’s not my problem, I’ll just wait for my turn.

I grab some books to read while I wait for them to come call me.

’I still have to go to the academy library...I need to steal books from them for my castle...but the director’s barrier is a problem, I need some way to circumvent it.’

I haven’t visited the library yet but I know it’s divided into 3 sections, the first is for students in general to study for activities, exams and tests, this section has general knowledge.

The second section has more advanced books with complex subjects that don’t usually come up in classes, these are books for self-study that students with a high amount of credits can read.

And we have the third section, this is the forbidden section and only students with permission from the director can enter, and no books from the forbidden section can be taken out, so you can only read them there.

’Maybe I can steal the entire library structure? But can my shadows teleport something so big?’ Teleportation by shadow is different depending on what I’m carrying.

Even taking 5 people with me is already difficult, imagine taking an entire giant library structure, it’s simply impossible for me.

’And who is my alchemist? They always deliver incredible items but I’ve never even seen who they are’ it’s strange that when the great demon alchemist is mentioned, they sometimes call them him and sometimes her, indicating that even the demons don’t know for sure about the alchemist we have.

All I can say is that they’re talented...and very greedy, the prices they charge are exorbitant.

’Well as long as they do their job well, I don’t need to know who they are’ I open the book I’m holding at the moment.

It’s a book about barriers, they’re very important and I falter a lot in this area, I need to learn how to break and create stronger barriers.

’Maybe I should ask Lilith to teach me?’ Lilith is an expert at breaking barriers using the corrupted Sacred element, so I think she must know a lot about barriers in general.

’I also have to deal with the saint...the change in her body is very slow, at this rate it will take 3 to 5 years, I need to make those insects work faster somehow.’

Furthermore, there are also problems with my kingdom that keep arising, and I need to resolve them through letters, and the demi-humans are preparing to declare war on me.

Maybe in a few more months I’ll have to fight my first war against a large tribe of demi-humans, and I clearly must participate, not only for the experience but because I am the Demon King, it would be ridiculous for me not to be in the war that was made for me.

’I should read books on military strategy, command, and sound magic so that my voice can spread across the battlefield...’ there’s a lot to prepare in a short time.

Soon I stop getting distracted and turn my attention back to the book.

Barriers in general are the physical manifestation of a defensive element, barriers can be made of any element, and elemental barriers have weaknesses based on which element they were made of.

However, in compensation, they will have an advantage in defending against attacks of certain elements, like for example a fire barrier is weak against water attacks but stronger against plant attacks.

But each element has a maximum magical variation it can reach.

’Elements have a maximum variation? How does that work supposedly?’ I start reading more focused on the subject.

From the fire element we have recorded the maximum ability [Ignis Caelestis], the maximum ability of an element is not a specific magic but rather a state that the element reaches when refined to the apex.

[Ignis Caelestis] are the celestial flames, attacks generated by these flames have no weakness to any element, while these flames have the ability to burn any other element, even conceptual elements can still be burned by these flames.

The temperature of the [Ignis Caelestis] flames has fundamentally infinite temperature as it increases according to what it is burning at the moment, the more resistant what it is burning, the hotter it gets.

Spells made using these flames have the ability to overcome any common magic, requiring very powerful elements to defeat or another element that is also at the apex.

Currently we have recorded 3 people who have been able to use these flames, being Mikael Calamitas, Akari Hoshizuki and Grinn Aliart.

’Wow...this seems incredible, and what would the maximum of elements like Chaos and Time be? If the common Fire element can have all this power, imagine how powerful the stronger elements could be.’

"Mikael can...as expected of the man I love" I murmur with barely contained pride, Mikael is so incredible that he is even mentioned in the textbooks.

’The director can too...well she is still the strongest human mage, I guess it was expected...’ This shows that the director is more dangerous than she appears.

’A barrier made of [Ignis Caelestis] must be incredible’ It would essentially be a barrier capable of burning away the spells cast against it.

"Let’s continue..." the subject won’t read itself, so I turn my attention back.

Barriers have weak points in certain areas, at a specific point of the barrier there is always a weak point where the barrier receives less mana.

Unlike spells, barriers do not receive mana uniformly, so they are extremely resistant at one specific point and from that point the mana spreads, leaving the areas farther from this part weaker.

So the best point to attack a barrier is at this specific point where the mana concentration is lower, and to solve this problem the barrier needs to have a mana concentration of 6 points.

Which requires 6 times more mana, the normal use would be to make the barrier creation points in each area, being one point at the center of the top of the barrier, one point at the center of the barrier floor, and one point for each coordinate of the barrier.

Being one point in the north, one point in the south, one point in the east and one point in the west, so with these 6 points the barriers have a perfect mana distribution at the cost of 6 times greater expenditure.

’So all my barriers always have a weak point, good to know that...’ for most people it wouldn’t be viable to have such an expensive cost, so I’m sure most don’t create 6 mana distribution points.

’And how do I find the weak point?’ I look for this part in the book and soon find the section that talks about it.

When you see the mana of a barrier, it’s difficult to notice that it’s different in certain areas because the entire barrier is composed of mana, so it’s hard to see exactly, but for those with high mana recognition abilities, you can notice that in certain areas there is less mana.

The part of the barrier with the least mana is naturally the weak point of the barrier, attacks on this area are easier to break the barrier.

But you can also forcibly create a weak point, by using an element that has an advantage and high mana control, it is possible to invade someone’s barrier and create a weak point in the magic system of the barrier.

This makes a part of the barrier fragile for attacks or invasions, as well as disabling some barrier functions.

’Making this seems difficult...’ Invading other people’s magic is an extremely complex process and a slow one, so it’s completely useless in a fight.

’Wait...what if it’s to invade a barrier I have time for?’ This immediately makes me think of the academy barrier, if I invade it I can deactivate the security and steal books.

’But I have to be discreet, or the director will quickly notice the flaw in the barrier’ This seems like a great idea, I’ll have to study a lot about barriers to do this, as soon as I manage to do it, I’ll steal everything I can get my hands on.

I’ll "clean out" the library books, I know there’s a lot of valuable stuff there, a lot of the same things, especially in the forbidden section.

Knock knock knock

Someone knocks on the door while I’m reading, I put the book aside and go to answer, as I open the door I see one of the event administrators.

"Pandora, it’s your turn, your duel will start in 15 minutes, could you please come with me?" He speaks in a calm tone, I immediately follow him on the path that will lead me to where I will be teleported to the arena.