Chapter 39: The Marathon and The Gliding

I thought while running.

I estimated that this marathon would take 10 minutes per lap, 500 minutes in 50 laps, about 8 hours. The exam usually began in the morning because of the long duration.

Of course, I would not get tired after running for 8 hours, but it was a good idea to take an endurance test even though I knew that I would not get tired at this level.

I had no choice but to run all the way through. This time, I slowed down and turned the corner so that I would not fall off the scaffolding.

Speaking of which, the sergeant told me to do 50 laps, but he did not tell me to “run” 50 laps.

I felt that it was faster when I flew in the sky without using my legs with the current speed.

…Wait, did that mean that my legs were not running fast enough?

I tried to float in the air and accelerate my pace. I felt my speed gradually increasing.

I reached the next corner immediately. I couldn’t turn it around like I did before, but it was okay, I did not have to fly along the wall.

At some point, I dropped the acceleration process when the altitude increased to avoid personal injury. I was about two and a half meters from the ground.

If I lowered the altitude a little from where I was flying, the acceleration power would return once more. I did not know the reason, but perhaps, magic had the same ground effect of an airplane.

However, this magic did not seem to use wind to its advantage, nor did it seem to use lift.

Anyway. I was accelerating well and was probably going to reach the next corner in less than two minutes. My acceleration process was still going on.

Rather than turning on the next corner without reducing the speed, I used my flight in a semicircle style.

If I looked up at this route with a car navigation system or something, it would look just like a track in an athletics stadium.

Well, if the Guild’s supposed route was as a running track, then it would be like as if I were rushing into the spectators’ seats and then returning to the original course.

I was going faster than before, so it couldn’t be helped. I went to the starting point while speeding up in a straight line. It probably took less than 5 minutes.

I looked at the card and it said “2 laps”.

I felt that the acceleration process was weakening as the speed increased, but it was still accelerating nicely. I didn’t feel any air resistance, so I wondered if this type of magic had something to do with it.

No, actually, if the acceleration was constant, then the kinetic energy that augmented per unit time increased as the speed increased. If the acceleration dropped, could I still accelerate as much as I want?

…I was not motivated about this. But it did not matter that much. Even if it went up or down, I kept it at the speed of the Shinkansen*, or about 300 km / h, about 25 laps per hour. Then, I decided to deploy the magical armor for the time being. At higher speeds, even flying pebbles could become weapons.

Hitting a motionless pebble on the head while flying at 300 km / h was synonymous with punching the head with a pebble flying at 300 km / h.

Not to mention if I hit a tree.

I thought of taking stuff out of the item box. But it would be a bad idea. If I took something at this high speed, even something at a motionless state, it would be suicidal.

I reached the next lap. It was getting a little harder to fly along the longer side of the city. I could not keep up with the turning while accelerating.

I decided to fly in a trajectory that was a little closer to a circular orbit. I ignored the road. Maybe I should fly over the sea.

The ultramarine sea was not calm, but it did not feel like a rough sea. It had no effect on the flight. I hoped the laps counted properly…

Despite feeling anxiety over that matter, the card firmly recorded the third lap. The overall time was probably faster than before. Maybe it did not even take 4 minutes.

From there, I accelerated steadily. It probably took less than 3 minutes around the 6th lap.

Even so, I didn’t slow down the acceleration process, and I thought that I finally completed one lap in about 2 minutes around the 20th lap.

It felt like I was still accelerating. It was dangerous, so I decided to stop.

I wanted to be prepared to kill monsters with magic whenever they appeared. I did not want to use weapons since they were in the item box.

Getting them out of the item box at this speed would be too dangerous for me. And I didn’t feel like slowing down. It would be a waste of time.

Therefore, I used magic instead.

For the time being, I tried to shoot a rock spear at the left end of the tree that was in front of my right side.

When I turned around, I saw that the tree scooped out on the part that I aimed at.

Apparently, the speed of the rock spear was determined not by my relative speed, but by the relative speed from the air.

Anyway, I was grateful that I was flying while invoking magic. I didn’t have to take into account the speed at which I was flying and the shooting magic.

Instead, by the time it landed on the monsters, I was already flying far ahead. Therefore, I only had to kill the monsters with the first shot.

The monsters I saw over here were obviously weaker than those Crabs, but the excess was too much. Well, I had a surplus of magical power anyway.

The magical power circulated around my body and generated about 10 cannonballs. I hit the monsters I saw from one end to the other.

By the time I killed several of these weaker monsters, there were 10 laps left. The card said “40 laps – subjugation point: 1524”.

I didn’t know what the subjugation points were, but when I looked at them after killing the Black Wolf, it increased by 2, so it seemed that the E-rank battle test would be exempted if I killed around 50 animals = 100 points.

I didn’t know how much about D-rank points, but I decided to annihilate the monsters to a full extent without slowing down.

I continued to do what I was doing so far until I could see the goal. I didn’t slow down at all on the last straight line. I kept accelerating to the end. After finishing, I slowed down.

I started decelerating from there, but this required a surprising distance.

I went over the land and stopped probably about two kilometers after I went out to the sea. I thought I had finally stopped, but it launched me upwards.

When I looked down, I saw a fish about 2m in size (?). It seemed that this fish was like a ferocious tuna rushing at me. The teeth were quite sharp.

I saw the mouth open and it tried to eat me, but my magical armor blocked its attack. What an annoying fish.

When I shot about 3 explosive shells, the numb fish floated in the surface of the water. Shall I have it for today’s meal?

I tried to store it in the item box, but it didn’t fit. Was it alive? By the way, there was no hole in the tuna’s head.

I made a cut in the neck with the magic sword. Then, I stored it in the item box and began accelerating again towards the gate. I returned to the city.

…I didn’t accelerate too much when I returned, though the one kilometer long did feel quite short when I thought about it.

「The 50 laps are over. I’ve also defeated some monsters. 」

「…Hmm? You started running in the morning, right? Is it already over? 」

Perhaps, my running time was too fast. Did I do 50 laps in 2 hours? I was not sure since I couldn’t keep up that well.

「Yes. Here is the card. 」

「It’s really over… 2 hours and 7 minutes. It’s the fastest record shortened to nearly one-fifth. What kind of trick did you use?」

I didn’t do any foul play. I didn’t remember being told to run. So, my method was not that wrong.

「I flew around at a height of 2m. It was faster than running. 」

「How much money did you spend? You don’t look like a rich man… 」

Eh? Money? What was he talking about?

「I didn’t spend any money. Why do say that? 」

「Didn’t you pack a large amount of magic tools in your item box? 」

「No, that’s a wrong assumption, you know? I just used magic as I normally do.」

I see. Did people with low magical power did not normally maintain a flight that long? Was that the meaning of having tools to allow such action?

「How about your magical power? 」

「I know it sounds a little ridiculous, but I have a lot of magical power, so that’s why I managed to fly without much complications. My item box also has a large capacity, but I didn’t use any items this time.」

I knew that it sounded 7 times more ridiculous than what ordinary people did.

「Wait a second…! I’ve never heard of such thing even for a Decibator person… Even if you are a Decibator person, this time is abnormal.」

Was it a problem to be fast?

「For the time being, I passed the exam, right? Do I need to do a battle test?」

「Your points are… 15,000!? It’s not a new record, but it’s a level where a C-rank adventurer hunted to its fullest. What did you defeat!?」

「Eh. 」

The points should have been around 1500 the last time I saw them. Why was it 10 times more? …Ah.

「Don’t tell me that what I’ve defeated after completing 50 laps will be added too?」

「Yeah. If it is less than 20 hours after you started running, then any monster you defeat will be added as well.」

A fish with a body length of 5 m or more that did not open a hole on its head even with an explosive cannonball. It ate people, and its skin was hard even if I cut it with a magic sword.

…It was not an ordinary fish no matter how much I thought about it.

「Well, at the end, I went too far, and I flew over the sea. Then, a fish attacked me, and I killed it, but does it have anything to do with it?」

「…No way. What does it look like? Was it like a tuna? Is it close to 4m long?」

Was there a proper noun called tuna in this world? Perhaps not. I understood it because of translation magic.

「No. It’s probably a little over 5m long, and yes, it looks like a tuna. 」

「Was the skin hard and it had sharp teeth? 」

「I think so, yes. 」

「It’s the Boat Killer… It’s certainly a 12,000-point monster, but… Can you prove it? Even if you have the points, I can’t allow you to pass the exam if you prove to be suspicious.」

A Boat Killer, huh. Did it sank the ships? Or destroy them to pieces?

In any case, there was a way to prove it. It was the real deal.

「Yes. 」

I said “Yes” while taking the tuna out of the item box.

It was heavy, so I tried to lift it with acceleration magic from below. I did not want my clothes to have a fishy smell, so I covered myself in magical armor.

A human holding a big tuna was also a surrealistic sight. Was it like a heavy big stone that moved in the elevator?

「So you actually had that big monster in your item box… Okay, I got it. For the time being, you’ve passed the exam, and based on the annihilation power, I can certify your category as C-rank.」

「Ah, sorry but the rank that can be certified with the card is up to D. 」

「For the time being, there is a standard up to C. No one was able to run 50 laps and earn 10,000 points in less than 10 hours, so the certification had to change even if this person was a nameless person, and not a Decibator person.」

Hey, I was right in front of you and I had a name.

「Excuse me. I haven’t measured the capacity of my item box yet. 」

「Yeah, it’s time to measure it. 」

…After this, as expected, it proved “undetermined” when measuring the capacity of my item box because the weight was insufficient. They had to engrave on my transporter card the words “over 275,000 kg” so that people would have an estimate of the things I could carry.

By the way, the fish only had a hard skin, because the body fat seemed to be smooth and delicious.

…Did this fish only have outer skin? Where did the scales go?

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*Shinkansen is the term used to describe bullet trains in Japan and it literally means “new trunk line.” They are operated by Japan Railways (JR) Group companies and feature some of the fastest trains in the world, traveling at up to 320 kilometers per hour.

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