༺ The Good, the Crazy and the Bizarre (2) ༻
The rules of this prac lesson were as follows.
Defeat peers or seniors to steal their armbands. The stolen armbands can be then changed to points which get determined by the Grade of the opponent, and those points can be consumed at the shed to purchase items.
It was a battle royale of students; one that naturally forced them to forge groups to fight against stronger foes, while also motivating them with the fact that those points can be exchanged for items.
Whichever item the students were after, it was clear that this shed was their final destination.
“…What?”
“Ren… That shouldn’t be on fire, is it?”
“No…”
“Then why is it on fire?”
“…Don’t ask me.”
Their final destination was on fire. In the midst of everyone’s confusion, Ren and Ron found an enormous structure behind the shed. Actually, ‘found’ might not be the right way to put it, because it was literally right behind the shed.
“…That’s big.”
It was big.
Very big.
The building that couldn’t be described by any other word than ‘big’ was standing tall and proud in the middle of the forest. It was made by weaving rocks and trees, and was as big as a stadium.
『Come this way if you want the rewards~』
There was a pamphlet there, which obviously meant that this was the replacement of the shed, and that meant that the 2nd year students had set the shed on fire but…
“When did they even build this?”
It was only possible thanks to the combined strength of a druid, who was loved by the forest, and a genius Golem Mage who knew everything from the creation to application of a golem core.
“Ren. Look at that…”
Ron said while pointing at three massive holes that were as big as the front gates of a mansion. They were so obvious that anyone could find them.
“…Entrances.”
They were so obvious that Ren even wondered whether it was a trap or not. She was also disinclined to go with the ‘correct’ method.
“I think the top of that building… is where you buy items.”
On top of the mysterious fortress, Mr. Harris the forest keeper was waving his hand with a bright smile on his face.
His shed was on fire, so how could he have such a bright smile on his face? The freshmen students had no way of knowing about the shed reconstruction contract that was going on behind their backs.
In any case, it meant that they wouldn’t be getting anything out of this prac lesson if they failed to reach that far up.
“Let’s climb the wall,” suggested Ren.
“Hnn? Can we?”
“No one said we can’t.”
Ren started off by morphing her body into that of a werewolf, and quickly began climbing the wall.
– Kung!
Kicking off the ground, she jumped onto the outer wall and used her sharp claws to climb it.
– Kugung!
“Uaht?”
Suddenly, a stone fist shot out of the outer wall and pounced on Ren who was trying to climb the wall.
“Uhht…!”
With superhuman reflex skills, Ren quickly dodged the fist but there were more – several more stone fists and branches popped out of the outer wall to attack her.
– Slam!
In the end, Ren couldn’t dodge all the attacks and fell down.
“Ren! Are you okay?!”
“Ugh… They suddenly turned weak in the middle so I’m fine.”
That was a warning – a warning from the owner of the fortress that they will not allow any petty tricks to take place.
“Hmm~. Interesting. Except for the smell of beast fur, that is.”
A sarcastic voice echoed from behind. Ren and Ron both recognized who that was.
“Princess… Miruam.”
“You mean Your Highness?”
“Y, Your Highness…”
Her crimson eyes cold-heartedly pierced through them and pressed down on them from above.
Meanwhile, more and more freshmen peers showed up behind Princess Miruam, and all of them were befuddled by the absurd and out-of-place fortress.
“Your Highness. What should we do?”
Behind the venomous serpent were freshmen students with wagging tails. It had only been a week, but the Princess already had a bunch of followers.
“It will be hard to meddle with it from outside. This was made by a druid in the middle of a forest and will therefore repair itself when broken.”
“Then do we need to… go through the entrances?”
“That seems to be the only option.”
Leaving those words behind, Miruam unhesitatingly walked towards the entrance. It didn’t matter if it was a trap or not – no one could stop her confident strides.
“What are you doing! We will follow after Her Highness!”
A bunch of followers went after the Princess. One of them was Germain Luther, who was titled a Grade 2 Knight in the grading test.
“Hmm… What should we do?” asked Ron.
“I am not going into the same place as that woman.”
Naturally, Ren and Ron walked into the entrance opposite to the one the Princess and her group went into. Slowly and surely, the freshmen students entered the fortress.
There was no telling what was happening inside it.
****
“Uah… What are we supposed to do?”
“How do I know?”
The new students along with the wolf siblings who entered the fortress using one of the three paths gazed at Dorron, who was sitting in the middle of a wide room.
They had 40 on their side against 1 single person. Despite that, Dorron Warsky was overpowering them in terms of spirit.
– Swing!
Fifteen magic swords were letting out sharp cries while rotating around him. Five of those had attributes and were excellent at AOE skills whereas the rest of them were purely physical.
There were two attributed magic swords to Dorron’s left; two to the right and one in the front. Unexpectedly, it was safe to say that the middle was the safest when attacking as a group.
“You guys.”
Ren declared to the peers that were with them.
“We siblings will march through the front. You guys attack from different directions all at once.”
“W, who do you think you are to…”
“Say it if you have a better plan in mind! We are taking the brunt of the risk, okay?”
‘Hooh,’ thought Dorron. He was impressed. The mercenary with a lot of experience noticed that Ren was playing with them using preconceptions.
“Ugh… That’s the future captain of Warsky Mercenaries though.”
“We don’t need to defeat him. All we need to do is go past him and continue going up.”
There were 40 on their end, and the wolf beastmen had volunteered to take the front, which seemed to be the most dangerous. Left with fewer concerns, the freshmen prepared themselves for a charge.
“Let’s go!”
After beastifying themselves, Ren and Ron marched forward.
Ren’s plan was simple. There was only one attributed magic sword in front of them.
There were 20 to his left and 20 to his right, with only 2 people in the front. Logically speaking, it was very clear where Dorron would be focusing his attacks on.
“Ron! We’re not going to fight him! We will jump over him!”
“H, huh? Is that okay?”
“Yeah!”
“…”
In the middle of her dash forward, Ren and Dorron looked at each other, and following that…
“Huh?”
“Hnn?”
Suddenly, more attributed magic swords were allocated to the center. Magic swords of lightning and flames fell at the wolf siblings.
“Uahk!”
“Hottt…!”
The two of them tried their best to dodge the attacks but they were soon attacked by even more magic swords that slashed through the place they were at.
“Eeek…! Why!?”
Her gaze appeared to be asking the question, ‘Why just us?!’ In response, Dorron returned a businesslike reply.
“My employer told me to mercilessly bash the two of you up if you ever decide to trick your way through.”
“W, what!?”
There was no way that Dorron Warsky the cheapskate would ever do something so tedious for free. He was adamant that he would not let the siblings go even if he had to let everyone else leave, and that intention of his was reflected by the bright magic swords.
“Ah! Seriously!”
Her shout was in vain.
****
The structure of the fortress was very simple.
3 entrances, and 3 gatekeepers; Alicia, Dorron, and Yuel. The roads merged once they were past them, which connected to 2 more gatekeepers.
In the second level were two rooms which were being protected by Kranel Luden with dozens of golems and the almighty Heavenly Yaksha, Hua Ran.
There was no need to defeat them. All the freshmen students had to do was pass the rooms, and those that passed the first floor should be aware of that already.
And after passing through the 2nd floor, they would finally reach the 3rd floor, where the culprit behind all this, Korin Lork, was waiting for them.
The original rule was for the students to be tested on their decision-making and adaptation skills, but there was one new student who was not bound by the constraints of those rules.
‘Hmm… This should be the last one.’
Korin Lork was heaving a sigh while nonchalantly waiting for a visitor to arrive on the 3rd floor.
He was the final boss of this fortress, so to speak, but Rashid, who was currently in ‘stealth mode’ had no plans of fighting against him.
Rashid was the master of stealth, and had arrived at the final floor while hiding from the eyes of Alicia and Hua Ran.
A little further down to the south from the headquarters of the renowned Arden Family was a desert, and living in that desert were the masters of assassination.
Rashid’s household had the unique characteristic of being able to erase their presence and become one with the background. It was because of this ability that they had become infamous in the society of assassins.
Although Rashid had escaped from the family because he did not like those teachings, he still had the best talent as an assassin out of everyone in his family.
There was no way that these so-called ‘heroes’ who peacefully killed monsters would ever be able to notice his stealth—
“Looks like I finally have myself a visitor.”
‘…!’
The man who had been standing there nonchalantly was resting the spear on his shoulder by the time he noticed it. He still looked like he was going on a stroll in the town, but Rashid, who had gone through countless life-and-death situations, saw through it.
That was the posture of a warrior preparing for a battle. It was the instinctive posture of an expert vigilantly looking around after noticing the presence of an assassin.
“There’s no way you passed me already… But I gotta say, that is quite the skill you have in stealth.”
He was clearly talking to him, but Rashid did not reply to him. Even though Korin had sensed his approach, he had yet to notice his exact location.
Rashid quickly restructured his plan. He would crawl behind him and take the armband…
– Zaaaaa…!
It was then. Korin’s spear started emanating a dark mist of mana.
“Uht…!”
The moment his body came in contact with that mist, Rashid felt like his soul was being muddied. He could stay there if he wanted to, but realized that nothing good will come out of staying there.
He was quick at making the decision but the silver spear was right in front of his face before he could even put that into action.
– Bang!
The silver spear crushed apart the ceiling that Rashid was hanging off of. It wasn’t that hard to dodge the spear, but with this, the opponent was now fully aware of his location.
“Rashid Ad Din Mustali. A notable Grade 2 Knight this year, right?”
“…It feels strange being called a knight.”
“I guess a knight is not the best way to refer to a master of assassination.”
He was shocked upon hearing the opponent reveal his background. The family of assassins did their best to hide their names and identities. Only a few of the people in the underworld would barely know about their names so how was a 2nd year student of the Academy aware of his upbringing?
“You… should not have said that just then.”
Now that he was aware of his identity, the only option was to make him into a speechless corpse but Rashid did not want to take it that far. The reason he ran away from his family in the first place was because he did not like the predestined path of assassins. His plan was to bash Korin up and threaten him, hoping that he would not share his background with others.
Rashid immediately kicked off the ground. He was a master of stealth, but wasn’t necessarily weaker than knights when it came to his potential as a warrior.
Besides, he didn’t even have to use any of his last-resort assassination tools this far into the prac lesson.
He was fully prepared. In addition to his preparedness, what gave him confidence was the fact that even an exceptional knight would show some gaps when fighting against sudden and unexpected surprise attacks.
Rashid swung his arm and released the thing he was holding onto.
Assassination Tool Number 13. Paralyzing Flower of Death.
He scattered the paralysis powder made by grinding the tails of venomous scorpions. Unlike him, who had resistance to it, normal knights who mainly hunted demonic beasts had absolutely no resistance to such poison. Korin’s body was bound to stop moving the moment he sniffed even 1 gram of it.
– Slam!
“Huhp?!”
However, the sharp spear came flying forward, threatening to penetrate through him. Rashid only managed to barely dodge it thanks to his innate reflex skills.
“Nice moves.”
A fierce kick immediately followed the spear as if he had anticipated the path of his escape. It crushed through his ribs and flung him away.
Pabak! Rashid rolled across the floor but it didn’t take long for him to restabilize his body. He then quickly manipulated his steel wires.
The flexible wires of metal that were powerful enough to crush apart the armors of a knight were swung like whips.
Those wires were colored in black and were therefore incredibly difficult to see but Korin tilted his head slightly back to dodge them with ease. It was a remarkable sense of distance and control.
“That’s a lot of interesting items you have.”
After dodging the flexible metal wires, Korin trampled on the ground and kicked the pebbles.
– Kwagagak!
Instinctively, Rashid dodged the pebbles that were flying his way but the moment he escaped to somewhere else, he realized that Korin’s spear was already right above his head.
‘I have to block it…!’
Rashid took out a scimitar to block the spear. With a loud thud, the ground caved in and his legs wobbled from the pressure.
‘Uhhk… W, what kind of…!’
The horrendous brute force of Korin was threatening to rip his arm to pieces. Rashid noticed that he would be pressed down into the ground at this rate, and quickly took out a sphere from his pocket.
“Don’t tell me that’s a bomb.”
“…!”
Korin immediately saw through him, but it was already too late for Rashid to back down from his plans. Despite the high chance of his own injury, he exploded the bomb right there and then.
– Kwaaang!
It was a bomb made by mixing special stones with charcoal, and was strong enough to cause burns on most knights.
“Kuhk…!”
Naturally, Rashid was too close and couldn’t escape unscathed from the explosion either. His clothes as well as his skin were torn apart and scorched. Even that was only because he managed to protect himself with aura in time.
‘He shouldn’t have had time to gather aura. It should have caused a lot of damage!’
His hopes, however, were soon betrayed.
“Kehk…! I don’t like this.”
“What…?!”
His opponent had not a single wound on his body. Even though the bomb had exploded right in front of him, there weren’t any burns or injuries, and the only leftover trace of an explosion was the black ashes on his body.
“I’m sorry, but flames and heat don’t work on me.”
『ᚲ』 — Kenaz.
Korin drew a letter in the air with his finger. It was a Rune letter meaning fire, and was at the level of an elementary-grade spell at best, but Korin’s Rune Magic was different.
– Hwaruruk!
Soaring flames pounced at him. Rashid quickly rolled sideways and dodged it, and saw the flames burn down the walls of the building while showing no signs of dying down.
‘What was that just then? A… medium-grade spell?’
He wasn’t even a mage so how could he use such a powerful spell in such a short period of time? Rashid gazed at Korin with disbelief in his eyes.
“Feels good to use now that it finally does something. Anyway, if you want to attack me, don’t use flames or heat.”
“…”
Complete resistance to flames and heat. Paralyzing poison didn’t work on him either, and yet he could shoot out medium-grade spells with one gesture of his fingers.
‘How unfair…’
“You are a bit special, so… maybe I should be a bit serious.”
Thud! It happened immediately after Korin tapped the floor with the silver spear.
『ᚲ』 — Kenaz.
『ᛞ』 — Dagaz.
『ᛊ』 — Sowilo.
Lights of Rune suddenly lit up the entire room. Rashid was befuddled by the mana that was being emitted by each of those letters.
‘Every one of these is at the level of medium-grade spells? Wasn’t he a knight?!’
It was an overwhelming display of power, and Rashid was appalled by that sight.
“I was going to save it for Princess Miru and the siblings but… You’re my first customer so all this will be on the house.”
“C, can I turn it down?”
“Don’t say that. Think of this as your senior showing you some love.”
– Kwaaaaaaang!!
Rune Spells from all around the room simultaneously pounced at Rashid.
………
……
…
“Haak… Haak…!”
Rashid heavily gasped for breath. His entire body was aching and screaming in pain and it was only thanks to his education as an assassin that he was able to keep himself conscious.
“Not bad.”
In spite of carrying out such an intense fight and using an array of Rune Spells, the opponent didn’t seem to even break a sweat.
What was even more shocking was that that probably wasn’t everything in his opponent’s arsenal. A ferocious wave of spearmanship and Rune Letters hidden throughout the room; a mysterious power to neutralize heat and flames as well as a mist of mana that interfered with everything nearby.
It was a ridiculous set of abilities but what unsettled Rashid the most was that there might be even more in his kit that Rashid hadn’t been able to force out of him.
“Huhp…!”
He was strong.
‘This is the power of a 2nd year student,’ Rashid thought before quickly getting rid of that trail of thought. There was no way every 2nd year students would be the same – that senior was just a monster of its own.
“Good job. You can go.”
“Sorry?”
Rashid was confused by Korin opening up a path all too easily, after bashing him up like crazy.
“You worked hard and deserve some rewards. Go up and get your items.”
“…It would have been much better if you just did that from the start.”
“Ah, and by the way.”
After seemingly remembering something, Korin opened his mouth while tapping him on the shoulder with the shaft of his spear.
“Since you are here anyway, aim to become a knight. Rather than a sword that kills, go for a sword that protects. That’s all knights are. If you do that, you’ll be a solid knight yourself.”
“…Alright.”
That was the most senior-like thing he saw from Korin that day.
But of course, Rashid wasn’t stupid enough to voice that out loud.
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