Nick was satisfied with how he handled the last simulation.
(Everything seemed so real, even when I stabbed that goblin in the neck.)
Nick thought back to the moment he stabbed one of the goblins, leaving it on the ground drowning in blood. Nick had never killed a living being before but considering that it was a simulation, he still hadn't but although the scenario was a simulation, it felt extremely real. The feel of the dagger, the heat from the goblins body, the goreish scene of the goblin struggling for breath with blood flowing from its mouth and neck. All of that felt real but Nick didn't feel much from the event of killing the goblin, he felt excitement from using his spell but all in all, what he felt from killing those goblins felt the opposite.
"Indifference."
Nick knew no other way to describe the feeling.
(Is it because I knew that it was a simulation?)
Nick shook his head and removed those questions from his mind.
(Whether it was a simulation or not doesn't matter. I had an objective and I did what it took to accomplish it. Nothing else matters other than that.)
Nick didn't realize, but as he internalized that thought, there was an eerie glow in his eyes. Nick left the simulation room and spoke to the clerk again.
"This time, I would like multiple adult sized targets in an open area. Could the targets be Apprentice Magicians?"
The clerk looked at Nick with a weird expression but still spoke politely:
"Yes, the targets can be made to be other Apprentice Magicians but..."
Nick felt annoyed with the way the clerk's expression was, as if the clerk was silently judging him.
"But what?"
The clerk changed his expression quickly into a plain one and spoke:
"This is the first time since I was placed in this building that someone has asked to fight other Apprentice Magicians instead of monsters, well, considering that only first years and second years use this building. Your request is understood, please reenter your room to begin the simulation."
Nick turned around to walk back to his room, thinking about what the clerk said.
(Hmmm...I'm not surprised with what the clerk said. I've read in some books that Apprentice Magicians are trained by mostly fighting monsters in various realms controlled by their schools and other than school spars that don't usually end up in fatalities, Apprentice Magicians in Europe and most western countries do not have the opportunity to battle other humans seriously until after graduation like how police officers being trained in the academy would never have the opportunity to man handle criminals. Most of the first and second years probably don't have the mentality of wanting to fight humans, at least not when the simulation can produce monsters like in video games.)
Nick honestly didn't care what the reason was for the preference of the students, he and the clerk were probably overthinking things anyway.
"Who cares about their reasons?"
Nick entered the simulation room, closing the door behind him and looked around. He was now standing in a grassy field that spread into the distance in each direction.
"This is a grassy plain, not a bad terrain for a magical battle, not that it suits me very well, but where are my enemies?"
Suddenly, a bright white light shone from the left of Nick's vision. Nick couldn't see what the source of the white light was but he could feel magic energy flowing to that spot.
"Are the enemies here?"
Nick stood at his position waiting to see what would happen next. In the next second a blinding ray of white light covered his vision.
"Huh?"
Nick felt his body being hit but the pain from the impact didn't set in until he was thrown into the air and fell back to the ground, moving about eight meters from his original position. He did not receive a wound from the attack so there was no blood but Nick was now in a tremendous amount of pain. He slowly picked himself up off of the ground from the small pit that was created from his body's impact against the ground when he was thrown over here by the ray of light. Nick stood shakily, looking at four other people that stood in the that position that the ray of light originated from. They all stood side by side wearing dark red robes.
(These guys are clearly responsible for the earlier attack. They didn't show themselves before they began preparing their attack. I said that I wanted Apprentice Magicians and I got them. These scheming bastards.)
Seeing Nick stand up none of them spoke but they all raised their hands in unison causing a set of laws glowing in white light to appear above their position. The laws then morphed into a ball of light, shining so brightly that Nick had to squint his eyes when looking at it. In the next moment the ray of light appeared, reaching Nick's position in a few seconds but Nick had already prepared to jump out of the way and when he did so he fell on the ground harshly pulling up dirt and grass. Nick lied on his belly amidst all the dirt thinking about how pathetic he must look at this moment.
Nick turned his head to look at the spot that was hit by the ray of light and saw only a meter deep pit that was formed from the impact of the attack.
(Fuck!)
While Nick was internally cursing, the four Magicians cast their spell again and more quickly than before. Nick didn't even have time to stand up so in order to dodge the attack he rolled to the side until he felt the impact of the spell hitting the ground. Nick became fed up with this state of events and quickly got to his feet charging at the group in a zigzag pattern.
(Oh man, I don't have anything that I can use to throw at them that I can activate my spell on. That just leaves getting in close and trying to deform their bodies with my magic.)
Nick was now about 20 meters from the group of Magicians and to get to them he had to run over a lot of almost slippery grass trying to dodge a fast and accurate spell without any sort of cover to hide behind. The situation seemed dismal but instead of feeling dejected, Nick's blood felt like it was boiling.
(Now this is exciting. This is ten times better than sitting in my room all day. I just have to get in close and deal with at least one of them since it looks like all four of them are needed to cast their spell.)
The magicians cast the spell again and the ray of light missed Nick by only a small margin as he zigged and the next moment he zagged. Nick did those kinds of movements for 10 minutes straight, sometimes having to jump to the ground in order to dodge the ray of light but he eventually managed to get to the male Magician farthest to the left. The Magician did not seem to panic at Nick's close proximity but instead clenched his right fist and threw a heavy punch aiming at Nick's face. Due to Nick's constant dodging and haphazard movements, he was already exhausted when he reached the Magician and so could barely moved his head aside to dodge the fist. The wind he felt on his cheek from the Magician's punch sent a chill down his spine.
(So these guys aren't physically weak. I have to finish this quickly in order to win.)
Nick dodged another attempt by the male Magician to punch him by side stepping him and then Nick used all his strength to rush him in order to tackle the Magician to the ground, disorienting the Magician. Nick took the chance to use his developed upper body strength to keep the Magician on the ground and grabbed the sides of his head with both arms and activated his spell.
(Big.)
The Magician did not lye on the ground quietly while Nick used his magic; he punched Nick's chest with both arms trying to get Nick off of him but he was ultimately unable to. With bated breath Nick poured an excessive amount of magic into his spell's activation and in the next moment the Magician's head enlarged by about five times, killing him.
(Yes, I did it!)
The interaction between Nick and the Magician took twenty seconds at most and seeing as how the three other Magician's did not react in order to help their companion, Nick thought that they might have been shocked by his tenacity and did not want to get involved.
(Wait...can simulated enemies feel panic or shock?)
This question popped into Nicks mind like a bolt of lightning and in the next moment he got his answer. As soon as Nick lifted himself up from the ground, a dagger was plunged into his chest, the area of impact felt like it was burning as if bathed with fire. Nick slowly looked up at the smiling face of the male Magician that did him in and thought:
(They didn't give a damn about their companion. This fucker was just waiting until I finished making my move in order to strike the winning blow...not bad.)
SIMULATION ENDED. YOU'VE RECEIVED WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A FATAL INJURY.
Those neon words appeared in front of Nick as the simulation ended.
Nick looked at his chest and saw that the dagger was no longer there and felt relieved.
"So Magician enemies have better attack patterns and can strategize just like real people but unlike real people they don't seem to be inhibited by negative emotions or fatigue."
"I should assume that all my enemies are of this standard and act in a more strategic and controlled manner, making proper use of my energy seeing as how I was pretty much drained when I got stabbed. Even If I didn't get stabbed, with my depleted energy I would never have been able to defeat all three of those other Magicians."
"Before, I thought that the Magician's needed each other in order to attack but now I think that kind of thinking was naive and it figuratively cost me my life. Also, because of the grassy terrain I had nothing to use my spell on that I could launch at my enemies. I need weapons that I can use strategically with my magic spell to both surprise and cripple my enemies when given the chance to. I need more practice too."
Nick left the room, exiting the building and heading to the nearby convenience store and he bought several snacks and and an orange juice. Nick sat on the side walk for twenty minutes eating and thinking about weapons that would suit his purposes. After thinking a little Nick took out his phone and started up the academy's mobile app which had a map function.
(There it is, a weapons store.)
Using the map Nick spent thirty minutes finding the academy's weapons store. he went inside and looked around. The store was clean and well stocked containing items from sling shots to swords. Nick walked around eventually going to the blade section where he stopped at a rack that caught his eye.
The rack was labeled, "Throwing Knives". Nick looked at the knives displayed with an uncharacteristically wide smile and whispered:
"These should be my weapons."