The weather in the mountain changes quickly. That’s a trivia that everyone’s heard of at least once.
Due to the complex terrain of the many mountains of the mountain range and the cold temperature, the air current often rises and falls, and the abundance of water vapor causes the frequent formation and dissipation of clouds, leading to the frequent changes in weather.
That was true even for the mountains in the fields.
The only difference was that the rapidly changing weather of the mountains in the fields was artificial and controlled.
In one mountain range that was part of the B Rank exam area, a class was tasked to climbed a mountain.
That might come off as strange to a third party, but none of the students were unhappy since this was actually a common topic.
The exams in the fields tested every aspect of a student.
Climbing a mountain with a group while occasionally being attacked by raybeasts wasn’t an easy task even with the support of skills and the simple exoskeletons.
Moreover, the weather in this mountain often changed, and that was not just a mere tendency to change more frequently, it was literally frequently changing.
“Uhyaa, I knew the weather is supposed to keep changing, but it was clear just 3 minutes ago,” a boy said.
Just a moment ago, the expanse above was a clear blue sky, and yet now, drops of rain were fiercely pouring down.
The boy was wearing an exoskeleton, so it wasn’t possible for him to get wet, but he could still feel the rain hitting him.
That sensation reminded him that this truly was a mountain where the weather changed frequently, something tha was further exacerbated by the weather control system.
“…You sure are leisurely, Yousuke,” a classmate said.
It wasn’t that high up, but the path here was precipitous, and the students were right at the middle of that long road.
Visibility was low from the downpour and only the faces right next can be seen.
A green-haired classmate found Yousuke’s attitude too lax and glared at him.
There were other students here too, but because of the rain, none of them heard him.
“Well, we are just waiting here, after all, aren’t we? There’s nothing else to do after preparing our skills but to wait for my sister’s group. Our briefing has ended too.”
So, the least they could do was chat, right? But apparently, this classmate of his couldn’t even relax enough to do that.
That’s when Senba Yousuke remembered this classmate’s quirk.
He had grades in the top ranks of 2 – B, but he was bad with exams.
In other words, he was the type to get nervous during the real thing.
But when Yousuke asked him about it, it turns out he wasn’t actually nervous because of the exam.
“There’s that too, but hey, isn’t your sister like in a really bad mood today? She looked plenty scary before when she’s mad, but she seems especially mad today. There’s a term for that, right? Uhh, hysteria? Wait, no. In Earth, I think the right the term would be… A woman no one wants to marry. Am I right?”
“…”
This was a problem that sometimes occurred when talking with Garestonians, but Yousuke still found himself speechless when it happened.
It tended to happen when the translation software messed up the choice of words.
That and because this classmate of his did not understand how destructive his words were to a woman from Earth.
There was a language barrier too, but it was mainly because of the difference in thinking when it came to marriage.
Although there were differences in the laws and opinions surrounding marriage depending on the person’s role, and marriage was indeed an option for couples in Garesto, unlike in Japan, Garestonians didn’t really fuss over it much.
“…Never say that to her.”
But that was largely irrelevant, as it changes nothing regarding the consequences of saying such a thing to the older Senba.
If he really wanted to court death, he should do it somewhere far away from him, Yousuke thought.
Still, his older sister’s marriage is actually one of the things that has been bugging Yousuke for the longest time now. Was there really a man in the world who would willingly accept his grumpy but
It wasn’t really something you’d often hear a 16-year-old boy worry about, but Yousuke was serious.
He just couldn’t imagine his sister living a married life with a boy.
“Well, hopefully, she finds someone normal and someone who doesn’t toy with women or beat women up, yeah…”
As long as he could meet those criteria, anything should be fine. There was no need to aim for the stars here.
But then again would she really like a guy like that?
“We ended up idly chatting anyway, huh— Whoops, they’re here,” His classmate said.
“Huh? Ah, yeah… Guys! Proceed just as we discussed!” Yousuke said.
After confirming the information on the monitor, Yousuke called out and communicated with the students around him.
The rain was still pouring fiercely, so visibility was poor and it was hard to hear each other, but they were wearing an armor made with otherworldly technology.
Hence, even in this terrible rain, they weren’t handicapped all that much. Their voice could still reach each other through their communication lines.
On his field of view were various sensors that showed information on the surrounding terrain and informed him when his allies and enemies approached.
Below the mountain was a horde of raybeasts chasing after a group of students acting as bait. They were led by none other than the Public Morals Officer.
“Yousuke!” Said the student at the lead of the diversionary group.
“I know! Now! ‘Earth Grave’!” Yousuke said.
“‘Earth Grave’!”
“‘Earth Grave’!”
As a call came from the student at the lead of the diversionary group, Yousuke ordered his group and called out the name of a skill.
The rest of the students followed suit and invoked the same skill.
Although their sight was being obstructed by the rain, the sensors still accurately grasped their positions.
As they aimed their skills at the horde of raybeasts climbing up, spears of earth shot out from the slope of the mountain one after another.
—Earth Grave.
A beginner class skill that manipulated the land to create a spear-shaped weapon and launched it at a target.
They chose this skill specifically because it did not consume much energy and was less prone to being affected by the changes of the weather.
Fire, Wind, and Water-Type skills were much more susceptible to being affected by the weather and thus fail to exhibit their strength.
Every invocation of the Earth Grave skill could only produce a single spear, but with so many students using the skill repeatedly, it did not take long for the entire horde to be skewered dead and disperse.
“Check for survivors! Don’t let even a single one escape!”
“Understood! All units, fire!”
The diversionary group suppressed even the slightest leak. For the meantime, it seemed they would be able to take a breather.
“Check the area and gather the crystals, but keep your eyes out for any survivors! Get those crystals before they’re washed away by the rain!”
Yousuke ordered his group as they moved to swap positions with the diversionary group.
“Good job playing bait. Rest now, while we recover the crystals.”
“I’m fine. It’d be pathetic to get tired just by that!”
Although they had bolstered their physique and were using simple exoskeletons, they still had to run everywhere despite having to use such steep road just to bring the raybeasts here.
She should’ve been really tired, but she just brushed it off as if it were nothing.
It didn’t take being her younger brother to know that she wasn’t in a happy mood.
“Even then, rest,” Yousuke said. “If the top student doesn’t rest, the rest of the class won’t either.”
But when Yousuke pointed that out, she had no words to refute with.
She was the sort of person who would keep on pushing recklessly when alone but considerate of others when in a group.
Although she wasn’t a class officer of 2 – B, as someone who had an exoskeleton of her own, she had been entrusted with the command of the class during group operations.
“Ugh… Fine. But it won’t be easy to rest with the rain this bad.”
She covered her eyes with her hands and gloomily looked up at the sky.
Although the barrier was keeping her from even getting wet, it didn’t feel good to feel the rain hitting her or having her vision obstructed by the incessant downpour.
That’s why she found it mentally difficult to rest.
“Yeah, I thought you’d say that, so we dug out a cave.”
“…A what?”
For a moment, Youko couldn’t understand what this younger brother of hers was saying.
Despite her doubts, she followed the direction he pointed at. When she saw a space in the mountain that had been hollowed out, she couldn’t help but doubt what she was seeing.
“You dug that out while you were waiting?”
“Nah, we made it just now with the skill we used.”
“You made it just now? With what skill? Oh, is that why you used
“That’s right,” Yousuke nodded with a smile, troubling Youko.
To Earthlings, skills were magical powers from fiction.
And of the many types of skills, the Nature Interference Type skills were the closest to those fictional powers.
But despite calling these skills an ‘interference’, the resulting phenomenon was actually the photons themselves.
The only exception would be the Earth-Attribute skills which source most of its power locally.
Skills could transform photons to fire or wind, but it couldn’t transform photons into land.
Presently, the creation of material via skill was still being researched.
Because of that the Earth-Attribute skill is actually a skill to manipulate the land.
Hence, the spears of earth that pierced the raybeasts were actually made by taking a portion of the ground, compressing it, and then hardening it.
In other words…
“While you guys were gone, we discussed among ourselves and decided to source our spears from the same area to create a small place for your group to rest.”
Since Earth-Attribute skills needed to source its material from somewhere, it was possible to make something like a cave when the source was properly chosen and controlled.
“…Recently, you’ve been using your skills in weird ways. Sourcing water from Water-Attribute skills, using Shield to attack…”
“Huh!? Ah, that’s, well… You can do all sorts of things with them, so I figured it was a waste to fuss too much about the original purpose of the skills, ahaha…”
When Youko asked Yousuke about his sudden change, the latter suddenly started acting funny.
He became even more suspicious because he kept laughing as though he was trying to hide something, but he wasn’t wrong anyway, so she just let it slide.
“Hmm, well, whatever, you’ve been a huge help, so I’m not complaining, but you need to be careful since there’s no telling if the teachers will approve of it.”
Whether it was Earth or Garesto, there has never been a shortage of people that fuss too much about what the textbook says.
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