Zephyr's conjecture was spot on. His single mana node couldn't handle multitasking. It was already hard enough casting Galestrike— it took intense concentration for him to even nail the spell in the first place— now, he also had to cast a layer of mana over his body while doing it.
Yeah, there was just no way. Even the two-node awakened were having trouble multitasking both spells. They'd only just learned Galestrike the previous day, and their proficiency with the spell wasn't high, so a lot of them kept failing.
Mr. Wilson glanced at Zephyr as he tried for the last time before giving up. He'd tried all the man had said— he'd tried casting the mana barrier after Galestrike fully took shape, tried casting the mana barrier first, hell, he'd even tried casting them both at the same time... his mind could keep up with the split focus, albeit with some difficulty, but that wasn't the problem. His core couldn't do it. Period.
He let out a short huff, assessing his options. He'd just focus on the mana barrier spell instead. He was going to attack purely with his strength.
'I should probably look into getting a weapon.' He stared at the rest of his class in thought.
Mr. Wilson walked up to him after watching his last display, patting him on his shoulder.
"Don't fret about it. By your second evolution you'll have the basic requirement to cast spells simultaneously..."
"Low-level spells though..." he finished, trying to reassure Zephyr.
"For now, you can just focus on learning each spell individually to get used to them before that time..."
Zephyr just nodded absent-mindedly, changing the subject entirely. "Sir, where can I get a weapon?"
"A weapon?" Mr. Wilson was taken slightly off guard. Zephyr didn't even seem to be bothered by the fact that his peers were pulling ahead of him and that he was basically going to be playing catch-up for the rest of his life.
The man had thought Zephyr needed some reassurance, but it looked like he didn't. The kid was just dandy, and he wasn't faking it, Mr. Wilson could tell. There was no hint of self-pity in his eyes. In fact, it seemed he was already even planning his future path, thinking of other options.
Mr. Wilson's impression of Zephyr raised slightly. Kids these days rarely had such resilient spirit.
"What do you need a weapon for?" He removed his hand from Zephyr's shoulder.
"You planning on doing it with just raw strength alone, yeah?"
Zephyr nodded.
Mr. Wilson tapped a finger on his chin, studying Zephyr up and down before dropping his hand.
"You can get anything at this camp. As long as you have enough merit points for it."
"Just go to the Central Hall after the class to find out how many merit points it's going to cost you."
Zephyr nodded.
"So, after that, what's next? You ever used a weapon before?"
"No... But I'll figure it out."
Mr. Wilson shook his head. "The end of the week practical test isn't the place to 'figure it out," he air-quoted.
Zephyr wasn't convinced. "Sir, not to be too overconfident, but a regular person could kill a Skarnid as long as they're prepared. Hell, even I could have done it on the first day if I had caught up to that Skarnid quick enough."
Mr. Wilson snorted with derision. "Those were tamed Skarnids..."
"Who ever said anything about killing tamed Skarnids..." He gave Zephyr a knowing look as he walked to another recruit to give guidance.
Zephyr's brow shot up in realization.
'We aren't going up against tamed Skarnids.'
'Wild ones... We're gonna be going in deep into the rift?' Zephyr concluded in slight surprise.
'That's an inside scoop, and I'm the only recruit with this knowledge right now.' He looked around at the others still going at casting both spells simultaneously.
He wondered why Mr. Wilson let that slip. He didn't seem like a loose-lipped person, so why?
He shoved the useless thought to the back of his mind. Figuring out the man's thought process was not useful to him right now.
'The real question is how do I take advantage of this?' He stared at Cedric, who seemed to have gotten a grasp on simultaneous casting. His body glowed slightly with the barrier spell fully covering him. He spread his feet into position, already casting the spell for Galestrike. The air compressed around his arm, building up power before he punched out with a bang.
Any slight hesitation in Zephyr's mind cleared up after seeing that. He wasn't going to feel bad about keeping this small advantage to himself alone. He needed everything he could get.
He immediately tried recalling every bit of information the Magic Theory teacher taught them about Wild Skarnids in particular. Their differences in habits compared to the tamed Skarnids.
Wild Skarnids, because of their flighty nature, had evolved to be more social. They were pack animals, so wherever there was one, another was most likely not far away. Tamed Skarnids had evolved to be more solitary over the years. They still operated in social groups, but not to the extent of Wild Skarnids who were tightly knit.
There were also differences in their anatomy now. Tamed Skarnids could only cast one spell, and that was the chitinous spear spell that almost got Zephyr on the first day. Their wild counterparts could also cast a defensive spell aside from that— a spell that hardened their carapace in sections they were about to get hit. They had more versatility with this spell rather than the attack spell, while the tamed Skarnids had totally lost the natural trait to cast the defensive spell in favor of the attack spell. Therefore, they were better at offense.
Maybe it was because they'd lost the need for defense over the years. They had a certain level of intelligence to understand and cooperate with the humans that assimilated this broken world. Hence, they were protected as part of the unspoken understanding. They had no need to watch their backs against other predators out here in the outer areas. Human soldiers did regular sweeps of the area to put down any other predators trespassing, so the tamed Skarnids naturally became the dominant predator in these parts, differing more and more from their wild counterparts over the years.
'I need to figure out tactics that would work against a pack animal. Maybe something to lure them out one by one for easy picking.'
He was in a squatting position, watching the class absent-mindedly, deep in his own thoughts. 'Huh, Aegis. I thought you said you were an Artificial General Intelligence, right?'
'Affirmative, host.'
A smile began to break out on Zephyr's face, about to ask the next question when he was abruptly cut off.
'Following your train of thought, I can safely tell you—'
'Access Denied! User privilege insufficient!'
"Arrgghh!!!" Zephyr yelled out in exasperation, startling those closest to him, earning him annoyed stares for breaking their concentration.
He gave them an apologetic look as he meekly stood up.
'Fuck! I can't catch a break with you, Aegis. Access denied this. Access denied that.'
'I could really use your help right now but you keep holding out on me. Didn't my Dad assign you to help me or something?'
'...' Aegis was silent for a fair few seconds. Zephyr even began to think his words had somehow gotten through—
'Access denied!'
"Fffff!!!" Zephyr bit his lip to hold himself back from swearing out loud.
'What are you even denying access to this time!!' Zephyr practically yelled in his mind.
'Forget it. I'll figure out a way myself, if not, I'll just leave it up to my ingenuity at the moment.' he concluded.
'Wishing the host good luck.'
'...' Zephyr's eye twitched.
'Is it just me or is Aegis getting sarcastic?'