Reincarnated In A World Of Mana As A Mechanic-Chapter 45: Monica Ross

"H-how?"

The silver haired girl couldn’t stop herself from asking. Who could blame her, Ezekiel always came across as a normal person, not to mention that he had revealed himself to be a weird sort of forger.

He didn’t possess the mana perception of either a Mage or Seer to see through the mana pathways, nor the physique or Talent of a Brawler to break through the sharp wind. The girl couldn’t even begin to fathom how he had possibly beat her to passing the whirlwind. Not to mention that he had done so without much scratches to his uniform.

Ezekiel coughed lightly as he averted his eyes before commenting lightly. "You should probably fix your uniform first."

The girl paused, before glancing down at her uniform only to realize that it was in tatters with practically no single area of her clothing spared, leaving her—thankfully untouched—underwear in the open.

A red color spread across the girl’s face as she quickly infused her clothes with mana, activating the uniform’s formation and its added function, which was to fix itself.

Pieces of the uniform still within the whirlwind, flew unimpeded by the powerful storm of wind and clung onto her body before morphing and sowing itself, restoring the attire back to its original state.

She then stood silently, embarrassed at the event that had just perspired. As for asking Ezekiel about his method of maneuvering past the whirlwind, she was too embarrassed to even talk. So how would she do that?

Ezekiel kept quiet as well, unwilling to call her out. He wouldn’t want to make an enemy out of such a formidable girl after all.

He could tell from Laura’s body that her body was strong. In fact, her physical body was too strong for an Awakened Brawler at the E rank. Yet that was what her mana readings clearly showed.

The mechanic couldn’t tell what kind of method the young lady had been practicing from a young age to achieve such a powerful and defensive body, but he bet it wasn’t cheap. Which meant she definitely had a background even more comparable to that of Edward Parker. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

More importantly, he could feel Professor Kane’s curious gaze on his neck. Obviously he had been surprised by the ease at which Ezekiel had passed through the whirlwind. It was as though the student knew every weak point of the spell created by the facility’s mana formations.

Feeling this strong sense of curiosity, the mechanic could only smile weakly, inwardly cursing himself for moving so fast all because he was scared someone else would beat him to the 20 institute points.

He had been able to so easily bypass the spell because, unlike the mana of an Awakened—which would be hidden and almost always untraceable—, the mana emitted from the mana formations carved onto the ground beneath them was clear as day to anybody with a powerful mana perception aka the MCR on his back aka Laura.

This allowed Ezekiel, with his system evolved body, to easily pass through only the weak points of the whirlwind. Of course this wasn’t easy as well, since those weak points in the mana pathways, constantly moved with it. This was where his enhanced body came in, the upgraded agility boosted his dexterity and reaction speed, allowing him to keep up with the ever changing safe regions of the whirlwind.

Of course other powerfully perceptive Seers could also do this. But they’d have to possess a very calculative mind that could keep up with the changes as well as an agile body that would allow them to quickly move through the whirlwind.

Simply put, Ezekiel basically cheated his way into first place. ’Well, I wouldn’t say I cheated. These are my gadgets in the end.’

With that smug thought, the mechanic looked on as his points increased by 20 points by the end of the lesson. After that, he didn’t bother staying in the wilderness class any longer than a second, unwilling to remain beneath the professor’s curious glare any longer.

***

The Combat Training Complex was the location of his Combat technique class. Like the forgers’ hall, the space was open, with other instructors of other years teaching within the same building but not on the same floor.

The large hall was also practically the same as the Wilderness Survival class location, with the only difference being a higher amount of mana formations.

"Fresh meat!" Came a cheerful voice that managed to sound both welcoming and vaguely threatening.

Ezekiel immediately recognized her the moment she walked in. She was the same hot-blooded professor with the ice element that had welcomed the students after they were teleported to the Administration building. And, thanks to the dossier, he also knew her name and a bit of her background.

Monica Ross, an ice affinity Mage.

Her family, the Ross’, was a powerful family with a Duke as its head and had produced a long line of water or ice related Mages. Only a small amount within the family line would sometimes awaken a water based Talent as a Brawler but this was only possible when the Ross bloodline had thinned and only ever occurred within the branch families. The rest of the main family were always Mages.

Professor Ross wasn’t famous due to her family though. Not even close.

She had first risen to fame when it was discovered that every spell she learnt or formulated herself were close range battle spells. She, a prodigy from the Ross family’s main line, had actually taken inspiration from Valdris Dane—the man who had gained a terrifying close ranged battle prowess even while having awakened a Seer Class.

What had made people focus even more on Monica Ross was that she had succeeded. She had managed to shed off the universal weakness of the Mage class, acquiring a wide array of spells that allowed her go toe to toe with Brawlers of her rank and even come out victorious.

This valiant method of battle, despite her nature as a Mage, had earned her multiple nicknames, the most popular being the Ice Valkyrie.

Professor Monica Ross stood in the center of the arena, and as Ezekiel observed, he was struck again by the contradiction she presented. Dressed in form-fitting black training gear that accentuated her athletic build, she possessed the kind of beauty that would make any man risk anything just to caress her—that is, if they could weren’t withstand the aura of barely contained violence that surrounded her like a personal weather system.

Her ice-blue eyes swept over the assembled students with predatory interest, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees just from her presence. Ezekiel paused his probing when he felt a chill that sought to seep into his skin, unwilling to risk angering the battle loving wild woman before him.

"Welcome to the Combat Techniques Class." She announced, her voice carrying easily across the arena with mana amplification. "I am Professor Ross, and I will be teaching you the essence of combat and how to apply precision and skill into actual combat situations. I hope you all have the capability to properly follow my class. Otherwise..." A glint flashed in her eyes while she stared at the students with ill-concealed amusement. "...It’d be too bad. Because you’re all stuck with me regardless."

The professor didn’t care about the shiver that attacked all the students due to her words and simply began introducing her class. "This class is not meant to suddenly make you a god on the battlefield. Awakened or not, your magical powers are all useless if you don’t possess the mental capacity or the right experience to use it right.

"Us Awakened run on mana, it’s our lifeblood. If you dry up your mana core in the middle of a battle, you’re practically dead if it’s against a Brawler, if it’s a fellow Mage, then it’s basically fifty-fifty. This is because after your mana is exhausted, it all falls down to your physique and your basic technique. The former can’t be helped with through my guidance, only physical training can be executed, while I have no need to teach the latter."

A wave of surprise arose from the students. One of the more confident students raised his hands to pose a question. "Professor, are you saying that we’re going to gloss over basic techniques while moving to advance combat applications?"

Upon hearing his question, Monica Ross’ lips curved, revealing a smile that was sharp enough to cut glass. "Basic techniques are what you should have learned before coming to this Institute. If you can’t swing a sword or throw a punch without falling over, you shouldn’t be here.

"As you’ve read on the dossier, I’m one of the two professors in charge of this course, the second will take over for the Mage’s combat application lessons. What you’ll be learning from her will be focused around timing.

"As a Mage, your greatest strength should be your precise control of Mana and timing. Even an E rank spell launched at the right time during a C rank battle is enough to turn the tides. You’ll be learning all about this from my co-worker.

"I will be in charge of monitoring your physical training and guiding the non-Mage Awakened so let’s get started." With a sadistic smile that almost seemed to blind Ezekiel’s eyes, she spoke once more, her words filling every student with dread. "You all are now going to run till you collapse. And trust me, I’ll know who is actually tired. Welcome to my little hell, kiddos."