Darkness-
Okay no! We are not doing this again!
Ahem…
Giono Rakhsa, born to a merchant lord from the Middle Eastern Trade Empires, came and enrolled here to train his [SS-Rank Supreme Geomancer] to perfection, right now he pursues after some Talentless hack, and comes across Maurice's fallen body, unconscious.
Anthony and He came to an agreement that should they have this nerd serve them, they'd end up as influential forces, but it appears they'll have to take matters into their own hands, Giono could leave that's for sure right now.
Anthony's face is riddled in fluorescent glass shards, eyes punctured pretty well that even if he somehow survived the close range blast Anthony would become a crippled, and they were not treated kindly in this world.
As for Maurice, the fool in-front of him and unconscious with the signs of purple bruises suggesting a thorough beating has Giono concerned, Maurice's [Defense Index] is C-rank, meaning strong hits to him from a D-rank or lower wouldn't do this much damage, at most 1 or 2 HP, but for it to drop from 90 to 0 has him on guard.
Clearly this nerd wasn't just some shameless coat rider, this was a cunning bastard that was hanging them like puppets on a string…
Something caught his attention in Maurice's mouth, a combination of what looks to be a colorful assortment of herbs and the familiar fuzziness of nettles.
Nettles were a dangerous Alchemist's favorite for short term but effective paralysis but once the paralysis wore off it inflicted a dangerous irritation that destroys focus, absolutely devastating to Spellcasters who needed concentration.
To anyone else however, and especially, normal folks, it can be a devastating inconvenience that follows you day to day.
Giono was most familiar with it, his father and mother both were extremely valuable targets, and pillows embedded with small inserted of condensed nettles were dangerous, and his specialty, smirking thinking that this is some trickster who thinks using poisons would stop a man like him, whose body was harder than steel both in and out.
Giono crashes straight through shelves while his [Full Body Adaptation] is concentrating, easily bursting through dangerous amounts of glass and splinters, almost catching Gideon, but he jumps and ducks between Giono's legs and before he could catch him, Gideon tosses a spur of… nettles.
'What is the fool thinking?' Grabbing a few off their stone skin, and realized too late the true purpose of tossing nettles into his face… It was a distraction.
"You impudent piece of shi-"
…
"Calm down, think…"
Gideon recites to himself, and gets to problem solving whilst running along the Mega Garden's riverbank, still heading for the synthesized waterfall.
"I'm going up against a cheat-grade Supreme Geomancer, quick, what do you know about them that you can use against them in all of those extra classes…"
Gideon isn't Rank #278 on the semester exams without reason, despite never actually getting to implement the knowledge of how to manipulate various types of classes, magic and even sword skills, he still is knowledgeable of how they are done, performed, and most importantly.
The strains and limitations.
Obviously, going up against a reincarnator with a Cheat version of the ability is going to be nigh impossible, but if there was one thing he relies upon so far when it came to Maurice… and a Great Hero from another Kingdom, is that Reincarnators seemingly have this… sense of arrogance and invincibility in their high numbers, that they think that bigger number always wins.
Racing to the Manga and Web novel stock knowledge, there was a dark fantasy series before that explained a wonderful concept.
Rapidly heating up boulders then cooling them with water causes a thermic reaction that cracks the boulder's internal mass, putting Saltpeter on top of it causes the boulder to crack on the surface, and shatter at the slightest hit from any strong blunt object.
'Now to worry about the next part… where the hell am I supposed to even find Saltpeter in this place…' Gideon thinks, the cogs in his head grinding along.
A literal lightbulb flashes over their head, and Gideon smirks, looking by and finding a warehouse full of equipment, it'll be a while before encountering Giono's slow ass.
Fortunately, it was a non-magical warehouse with a basic locked door, in which Gideon uses an Apprentice-Tier Spell [Magic Hand] to insert it underneath the door to unlock it from inside.
Gideon looks around, and finds just what he needs.
A small bottle of lamp oil, a pouch of sulfuric smelling fertilizer, and best of all… a sledgehammer.
"Sledgehammer, oil & close enough to saltpeter, ooh I'm going to love this~"
…
Giono finds himself out of that blinding place, the downpour from the rain clouds turning the rainfall into a heavy and wet mist from outside's cold and snowy weather. There by the artificial waterfall he sees a man, resting upon a white plastic chair.
'Wait… how did…'
Giono shakes their head.
"So you've defeated Maurice and Anthony, congratulations, I must applaud you for your tenacity to be able to outwit and trick your way into victory, but you know all too damn well… that it'd only last for so long."
From Giono's left arm, erupts a pure-black sword made out of steel, something that took him a long time for [Full Body Adaptation] to get right.
"Status."
Name: [Giono Rakhsa]
Age: [16]
Class: [SS-Rank Supreme Geomancer]
HP: [112/112]
Defense Index: [B-Rank]
"Do you know what a Defense Index is, Gideon Grimsley?" Giono confronts Gideon, a non-chalant reply.
"It is a sum of one's Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Willpower, Wisdom, Intellect, and Charisma. It is a general summation of one's abilities to survive in high-intensity situations."
"Wrong, It's-"
"It's a Divine calculation that estimates your stats across all of those 7 and more, and determines how much the damage of an attack coming your way is reduced by a value~" Gideon's wicked grin flashes across his face.
"...In other words, the Divine magic weighs in your statistics of your general being, and reduces the value so low that the Divine magic could resist the damage down to… insignificant."
Giono was at guard, covering their face with a jagged steel helmet created by a skill.
[Full Body Adaptation - Transmute Technique: Creation]
Gideon puts into a shepherd's sling the bottle of Lamp Oil, and Giono stays on guard.
'A bottle? It looks thick and murky black, might be oil… hmph even if it is, it won't be enough… The adaptation's steel is inches thick and the heat cannot reach my insides because I can circulate the rapid temperature changes around the body… what a foolish oversight.' Giono raises their arms out and goes
"Go right ahead, hit me, your oil and flame won't be able to reach my body anyways… I might as well give you the dubious honor of letting you have a turn~"