Conflict (II)

"Adam."

Tonight, after the five fireballs, that name had acquired a unique magic aboard the Mordo Academy. In everyone's hearts, Adam had become synonymous with power. They could ignore Ophelia, but they could not disregard Adam's opinion.

Tom no longer dared to speak. A vile little man like him had his own way of surviving: he could fawn upon the strong, but he would never challenge an opponent who stood on an entirely different level.

Adam had been watching from the side for quite a while. He did not care in the slightest who a mere Magic Beast belonged to. Instead, he found the ugly faces humans revealed whenever their own interests were involved quite fascinating. Whether it was Ophelia, Quentin, or Tom, each face was like a set of symbolic data, constantly filling in the blanks in his understanding of human nature.

After Krystal finished speaking, she ran over to Adam with a clatter of footsteps. She had originally wanted to ask Adam to step forward and uphold justice, but when she saw his expressionless face again, she suddenly did not dare say anything.

An awkward silence fell over the deck.

William hid behind the crowd by himself. He had already made up his mind that, at least aboard this ship, he would not have any conflict with Adam. A stupid lackey like Tom had sought his own death, and William had no interest in saving him. Besides, William believed Adam would not bother with Tom; it would be beneath his status. He only did not know how Adam would deal with Quentin and Randy.

But what happened the very next second exceeded everyone's expectations.

Adam directly threw a fireball at Tom's head, blasting him into Fragments. Then, as naturally as if nothing had happened, he walked forward, picked up the Magic Beast's corpse, and returned to one side of the deck.

The apprentices were all dumbfounded. They stared with eyes wide open, not knowing what expression they should wear in the face of what had just happened. Right before their eyes, one apprentice had simply and without hesitation killed another apprentice.

Adam returned to where he had been and waited for their reactions. There were two reasons he had done this. First, although Adam could not determine whether the Mage Continent was an orderly civilized world or a chaotic primitive one, at least aboard this ship, the four Mages tacitly permitted conflict, even conflict that claimed lives. Second, Adam was truly curious about what humans would do when faced with a predator trampling upon the beliefs they all shared.

Would they submit, or resist?

About a minute later, everyone finally realized what had happened. In an instant, their expressions changed from blankness to terror.

"Murder!"

"How dare you! How dare you do this!"

"We are all Mage apprentices! We have the same status! What gives you the right to kill another apprentice like this? The Mage Masters won't let you get away with it!"

A very strange reaction, Adam thought.

When the Magic Beasts killed their companions, they had been frightened too, but they had never been this angry. It seemed that, in their eyes, Magic Beasts killing people was only natural, while people killing people was unforgivable.

"Adam, you've gone too far," Randy shouted in rebuke.

"You must give the other apprentices an explanation. We cannot tolerate someone among the apprentices who kills companions at will. You must pay for your actions." Quentin stepped forward, staring fixedly at Adam with righteous indignation.

Ophelia and Krystal were stunned as well. Even in her anger, Ophelia had never considered killing Tom—at least not aboard this ship. And Krystal had only sought Adam's help because she wanted some support.

Neither of them had imagined Adam would kill someone.

"No emotions. Not the same kind."

Ophelia recalled Earl Johnson's words once again. Never had that sentence been as clear as it was now, nor had it ever chilled her to the bone like this.

To Adam, this was an experiment. He now had to follow the experimental procedure for it to continue, so he answered, "What explanation do you want?"

Quentin's breath caught. Suddenly, he did not know how to continue. Yes, what explanation did he want? Did he want Adam to pay for Tom's life with his own? That was clearly impossible.

What now?

Cold sweat trickled down Quentin's temple. He felt as though he had done something foolish, placing himself atop a fire to be roasted.

Adam was dissatisfied. The experimental subject was not cooperating—how could the experiment continue? He asked Randy, "How have I gone too far?"

Randy said, "We are on the same ship, and we will study at the same academy in the future. Tom merely offended you somewhat in word and deed. How could you kill him just like that?"

Adam was very dissatisfied. After recovering from their initial shock, these people's thoughts had all turned toward themselves. It was true that a companion had died beside them, but they could not possibly seek revenge against Adam for someone else. Even their words of condemnation were riddled with loopholes and concessions.

Was this cowardice universal, or did it only exist among these people?

Adam shook his head and walked toward the cabin. Sure enough, no one, including Randy and Quentin, dared stand in his way. Adam returned to the cabin without incident. Only after Adam disappeared from the deck did the others dare quietly accuse him of brutality, putting on fearless faces before their companions.

After a while, they seemed to feel that this was meaningless too, so they all fell into awkward silence and began moving the Magic Beast corpses. Only the corpse of that body-tempering Magic Beast remained untouched.

Krystal suddenly felt that both her surroundings and the people beside her were strangers. She had known Adam was cold, but she had never imagined that this boy would disregard life so completely. It overturned everything she believed.

Ophelia, on the other hand, merely sighed, her heart a tangled mess as she did not know what to think.

On the First Floor of the cabin, the feast in the Mages' rooms had never stopped. Fresh food was brought up continuously. Mages did not need such low-level methods of recovery as sleep; judging by the total amount of their Mental Power, so long as they did not use magic, they could remain in peak condition indefinitely.

Eileen Mage seemed to be drunk. She lay lazily across the table, propping up her head with one hand and holding a wineglass in the other. Softly, she said, "I never thought it, never thought the Little Fellow would actually dare kill someone. Did he guess we would not interfere?"

"That isn't the point, is it? He did not seem to kill for resources. Did he do it simply because he wanted to kill? Very dangerous, this apprentice called Adam. If he kills everyone, you'll have to pay my share of the reward," Mage Jerome teased Black Mage.

Black Mage agreed at once. "Of course." Then he added, "It is indeed a strange style. Killing simply to kill? I can't make sense of it. I don't think I've heard of anything like this before. But it should be fine. I don't think he'll kill everyone."

Adam indeed would not do that, because it would be meaningless. Conducting an experiment on a race did not mean every individual in that race had to be an experimental subject. Finding one sample was enough. Tom had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The voyage continued. There were more and more Magic Beasts, and fewer and fewer apprentices. By the latter half of the month, the Mages had completely sealed the cabin. The apprentices had to remain on high alert twenty-four hours a day (Why did another world also have twenty-four hours in a day? Because changing that setting would be too troublesome.) and be ready to face Magic Beasts at any moment.

Only six survived: Adam's group of three, William, Quentin, and Randy.

Mastering the Fireball Spell was the foundation. Those unable to do even that were the first to die. Next came instant-cast fireballs, then instant-casting two fireballs. Under such circumstances, if they did not improve, they died.

Etching the Mental Power Solidification Rune and the spell Rune Array had become instinctive to them. These two tasks continued every moment of every day.

Just as Adam had expected, the closer they came to the Mage Continent, the greater the number and quality of the Magic Beasts became. By now, low-level Magic Beasts had vanished entirely. Every Magic Beast that charged onto the deck could either use magic or possessed Combat Strength far beyond that of a Great Knight.

Yet the most terrifying was an ugly Magic Beast that could use poison gas. It had appeared only once, but that one time had taken half the apprentices' lives. William and the others finally realized that the Weakling Alliance was meaningless in the Mage World, and that childish, boring organization completely fell apart.

Adam's position was somewhat unusual. No one, including Ophelia, wanted to get too close to him. But whenever Magic Beasts attacked, they would instinctively gather around Adam as their center—especially after the time Adam had launched twenty fireballs at once and blasted the poison-type Magic Beast into pulp in an instant.

Adam sat directly opposite the Fireball Spell Rune Array. This month had seemingly brought no changes to him. There were no wounds on his body and no fatigue on his face. Days fraught with danger were no different to him than ordinary days. Instead, the constant repetition of Magic Beasts had left him somewhat dissatisfied.

No matter how ugly these things were, their Carbon-based essence had not changed. In other words, to Adam, only the different magic used by the Magic Beasts held any value for recording. Yet nearly a month had passed, and no new, stronger magic had appeared before him. Adam was getting tired of playing.

No sooner thought than done. Adam instantly activated fifteen fireballs. In groups of five, they bombarded the Rune Array hanging in midair. The Rune Array shattered on impact, dispersing into nothingness amid crisp clinking sounds.

Krystal had just been standing alone at the other end of the deck, gazing into the distance in boredom. Suddenly, she spotted a different color on the faint, faraway sea. She turned and ran back, shouting joyfully, "The Mage Continent! We're almost at the Mage Continent!"

But then she found everyone staring at Adam with ashen faces. Krystal shrank her neck and said nothing more.

Only after Adam picked up the tangible Fragments from the Rune Array did William ask, "Was that the reason the Magic Beasts attacked? Was it this? You knew all along, didn't you?"

The instant Adam's hand touched the Fragments, his Mental Power rapidly began interacting with them on its own, and magic power began gathering at a speed far beyond normal. Adam hastily restrained himself, barely avoiding the absurd end of having his soul burst apart from being overfilled with magic power.

"Yes. That's right. I knew all along."