363 Swordcasters (1/2)
”Four Elemental Swordcasters? They're just second-rate magical swordsmen who rely on equipment. Mages require natural talent and are impossible to mass produce. Even if they can somewhat use magic because of their equipment, just how far can they go with no talent in magic? When even their source of mana relies on equipment, how can they possibly understand the truth of magic? They're just a bunch of novices who'll take forever to improve in power level. Rather than wasting so many resources on them, it would be much better to spend resources on raising some young mages. Producing a single archmage will have far better results.”
Despite their astonishing feats at Red Maple Castle's defense line, no praise awaited the Four Elemental Swordcasters. Lack of ability to cast spells continuously without their own mana, lack of high-level spells, and difficulty in improving power levels were all weaknesses that other people noticed. This helped reassure the other countries that this job class wasn't a threat to them, and also made them uninterested in importing this job class for themselves.
Other countries were highly interested in the products of magical engineering. However, this new job class was surprisingly unpopular.
Most people would be suspicious of the usefulness of any newly-born job class. The attitude of the archmages in the Cloud Tower was the best evidence of the problem with people's attitudes. After all, the Cloud Tower's archmages were the predominant authority about all magic-using job classes.
Indeed, while this new job class allowed ordinary people to cast magic, they would find it difficult to continue developing their power levels in magic as they lacked ability to sense mana or the elements. Not only that, it would be impossible for even ten low-ranked Four Elemental Swordcasters to defeat a single high-level individual. A job class like this one seemed to lack development potential and would naturally be unpopular.
”…Perhaps Brother Roland feels that it's strategically important to have many magic users in our army.”
Even though Reyne adulated Roland, she could only understand this job class and try to defend him in such a method.
”Talent? Can that be eaten?”
Roland always replied in such a matter to anyone that doubted him. And he indeed possessed what it took to be proud of himself. After all, he was a mage student back at the academy who broke all the records in how many classes he failed. Not only that, several dozen of his magic teachers had called him an ”idiot in all things regarding magic,” denying the possibility that he would ever advance far in the path of magical knowledge. Yet he managed to reach the realm of becoming an Emblem of Endless Truth archmage in two different fields of magic. When Roland said that talent was useless, it would indeed sound more convincing.
However, special exceptions would always be difficult to imitate. Even Roland himself had to admit that him being able to reach his power level was basically a miracle. Would a second person like Roland be able to appear from the few hundred Four Elemental Swordcasters? The answer was evidently no.
Actually, over the past two years, less than ten Four Elemental Swordcasters had managed to progress to Silver rank. And, the few that did were the ones who had a minor amount of talent in magic to begin with. Even most of the Four Elemental Swordcaster's supporters lost hope in this job class.
Since resources were limited, East Mist had an internal council meeting regarding the topic of whether or not to continue expanding the Four Elemental Swordcasters. East Mist was no rich country with plenty of money to spare like a mega empire. Investing in a long-term investment with no foreseeable returns seemed to be utmost idiocy.
Obviously, continuing to forcefully push my plans through everyone's disagreement would be infeasible. That was why, only then, at that internal council, did I tell others about my true understanding of this job class.
”All of you are still too inexperienced. You think that tremendous magical power is everything? Simply looking at pure power would make us no different from wild gorillas.”
Perhaps at that council, Timlad was the only one who even slightly understood my way of thinking. But after today, everyone who thought negatively of this new job class would have to reassess their opinions.
War would always be the best litmus test of any job class's usefulness. Excellent combat achievements would be all that was needed to stem the negative reviews.
The Borealis activated all its engines. This airship hidden in the clouds began to awaken, illuminating the surrounding sky with its lights. The next moment, its cargo doors opened and the Aurora Knights rode the aurora through the sky. Several hundred Swordcasters dropped straight down towards the ground. Only when they could see the ground rushing towards them did they activate the magic devices on their backs.
Bright orange flames flickered brightly as various trails of light streaked across the sky. The Swordcasters were flying towards their chosen targets.
These Swordcasters hadn't landed by themselves. They were wearing heavy bags on their backs, so ordinary gliding magic was incapable of handling their weight.
Unlike previous gliding magic, which was slow and unable to be maintained for long periods of times, these magical jetpacks that spat out magical flames were both swift and highly maneuverable. But any ordinary person who tried to use one of these jetpacks would end up no different from an unlucky individual who rode on a goblin rocket. Once he started flying, he would need to consider how to land back down on the ground, alive.
But the Swordcasters had undergone magic training so they were able to accurately control the power of the jetpack's magical flames. They could also control the winds to send them in any desired direction. And to fine-tune the control process even more, their magic swords were currently inserted into the jetpack's control panel and automatically made decisions for them.
”First squadron, clear out the fish type enemies above water that are currently harassing the Auland fleet. Second squadron, go underwater and assassinate high-threat targets. Third squadron, continue to support from the air and provide explosive covering fire.”
After Reyne gave them their orders, each squadron tore open their giant bags to expose equipment that was already pre-equipped on them.
The first squadron was equipped with small, miniature boats named the ”Dolphin #1.” These were flexible metal shells powered by an engine, with a single place to stand on. The rider would be standing in a swift miniature boat that was less than two meters wide. Also, the rider needed to be chained within it. Otherwise, there would be an enormous risk of being tossed out of the boat.
The powerful engine allowed these boats to travel at high speed on top of the water, far faster than any fish! They circled around the large battleships and chose to eradicate smaller targets.
Meanwhile, their weapons were insanely powerful. All the Dolphin #1s were equipped with machine guns—all the Swordcasters and Magic Archers needed to do was insert their magic swords into the boat's control panel and enchant the bullets with armor penetration, haste, explosion magic, and other such support abilities before simply spraying bullets in a general direction.
At this moment, the swift boats and heavy firepower machine guns all became extensions of the Swordcasters' bodies. This new job class, which had been assessed as worthless in the long run, showed off its own unique combat style.
Three swift boats dashed past a Sea Giant like a howling gale. The roaring machine guns left several hundred holes in its body, and a powerful Gold-ranked Sea Giant perished just like that.
The second squadron, the underwater squadron, was equipped with oxygen canisters and diving gear along with specialized ”Otter” jetpacks, which functioned in both water and air. The fire propulsion magic would automatically be transformed into water propulsion magic when underwater, allowing the Swordcasters to become more agile than even the Sea Tribe.
Their specialized harpoons were only their backup weapons. Simply using instant cast ice pillars would be more than enough to kill the Sea Tribe members, who weren't equipped with any armor. Their main target was to assassinate any Sea Tribe mages hidden underwater and remove the few enemies capable of threatening the Auland battleships.
”Impossible!”
To their astonishment, the Sea Tribe found that these humans were even faster and dexterous underwater than they were. A Naga archmage who was currently in the middle of casting a spell was instantly pierced to death by a harpoon. And her Legendary power level was far above the Swordcasters'—this was the best proof that there was no such thing as absolute safety on a battlefield. She had believed herself to be completely safe, deep underwater, and hadn't made any defensive preparations whatsoever. That was why she was assassinated without even having a chance to resist—the second squadron had slain the first major target since the battle started.