Ch.200200 – Area Control

<200 – Area Control>

Already at odds with the Hero, is she no longer hesitating to reveal her true colors?

Hero Ishtar gritted her teeth at the recoil transmitted through her hand as she cut down the Mamok blocking her path.

<Holy Sword Release – Sacred Slash>

She bisects the Mamok with immense power added to the force that destroys the impure.

Even as the halved Mamok screams in agony and scatters into particles of light along with the dark mana that constituted its existence, the darkness cast over Ishtar’s face did not lift.

“Yufi. You interfered with Oknodie during this exam, didn’t you?”

“Don’t worry. Skola will only make her move in section 3, not section 1, when the mounted battle begins.”

“We need to stop this.”

Black blood from the Mamok splattered onto Yufi’s face as she swung a large guillotine, smashing one of the creatures to pieces.

Common sense dictated that dark mana contained in mere beast blood could never invade the body of someone with the Holy Maiden class.

That was the norm.

The proper order.

It was the fundamental principle that needed to be maintained for the world to function.

That fundamental principle was now challenging the holy protective barrier guarding her skin, emitting ominous black smoke.

Yufi felt an ominous sense that something that should never happen was occurring.

It was like the fear of a wise elder who foresees the approach of nature’s wrath through years of experience.

Something terrible that should never happen was about to unfold here.

These Mamoks were too different from ordinary ones.

This phenomenon shouldn’t originate from mere low-level magical beasts.

She frowned as she blocked the energy trying to dissolve her body and seep inside by drawing out her holy power, then raised her hand to wipe the blood from her face.

Hissss

The grass withers and dies where a single drop of blood hits the ground.

This level of dark mana concentration is only detected in the blood of high-level magical beasts.

Could the professors be behind this?

No, that’s impossible.

Even the professors have limits to their recklessness.

Though their trials might seem unreasonable at first glance, professors never give challenges that students cannot handle.

High-level magical beasts were different.

This was beyond what ordinary students could manage.

If non-combat students were to face a concentrated assault from these creatures, no one could guarantee how many corpses would be found in this forest.

“Even though Skola is the descendant of the Divine Archer?”

Still, Skola isn’t just an ordinary non-combat student.

“Shouldn’t we be worried about the other students rather than Skola?”

“No. The other students will be fine. Skola is the one in danger. Today’s Oknodie is different from usual. One of the chains that bound her, making her pretend to be an ordinary student, has been loosened.”

When facing the usual Oknodie who enjoyed academy life at a leisurely pace while holding back appropriately, challenging her and ambushing her mount would be perfectly acceptable.

That girl would probably find such challenges “fun” and tolerate them.

But what about now?

Would she still find it “fun” and tolerate the challenge?

Or would she think, “You’re annoying, so I’ll crush you”?

Ishtar remembered the confrontation that Monk Myungho had stopped.

The one-on-one duel with real swords.

“Oknodie’s potential… her true hidden ability, if unleashed, cannot be safely contained even by the skills of the top combat specialists in the advanced class.”

“So if Skola somehow offends Oknodie…”

“She might lose her life or suffer permanent disability equivalent to that.”

Their hands moved more urgently to break through the Mamoks.

* * *

“The Hero is amazing.”

Though Lotta spoke, it was an honest impression that Hestia and Zigoku also shared.

“There are so many traces of shattered Mamoks here.”

“That’s a Hero for you.”

“Dirty attribute user. I could do the same if I hoarded enough attribute bullets.”

Oknodie had been holding back the second-year students at the stairs, buying time.

Her rampage ended when the Mamoks were swept away by Hero Ishtar’s advance.

It was only a partial victory, of course.

While Ishtar and her party member Yufi advanced by crushing Mamoks, other Mamoks followed Oknodie’s command and passed through the stairs together.

“Kyaaah!”

“Ahhh! There’s still a Mamok hiding!”

Was it a Mamok that lost Oknodie’s control during the retreat while the Hero was rampaging?

The mouth that had been distorted like a hellish fiend and the branches that had turned sharp and pointed now seemed much tamer, giving off a less threatening impression.

“What kind of trick did she use? Turning ordinary Mamoks into hell creatures fresh out of the abyss.”

Hestia felt uneasy.

Oknodie’s power was too strange.

Logically, the amount of dark mana needed to enhance magical beasts is extraordinary.

Not to mention controlling them.

And she handled so many magical beasts.

This wasn’t something that could be accomplished in just a day or two.

It doesn’t make sense unless she possessed mana quantities beyond human limits or had extreme darkness, death, or necromancy resistance comparable to a Demon Lord, allowing her to possess pure dark mana.

“Waaah, it’s Hestia! I’m alive, I’m alive!”

“Dorothy? You were… Oknodie’s friend, right?”

“Yes, yes! Let’s go together. I thought I was going to die trying to get here after evading the second-years!”

“…I’m sorry. Could we rely on you?”

Dorothy, the apprentice forest keeper who resembled Oknodie with her bright and cheerful demeanor.

Rockpell, the gloomy and unsettling master of hidden blades who always hovered around her.

With the battle lines drawn between first and second-years, there was no reason to refuse the company of fellow first-year skilled students.

“Let’s go together.”

At the top of the stairs, students from the Imperial faction were forming ranks, indiscriminately attacking students trying to pass through the stairs, seemingly trying to replicate what Oknodie had done.

This was why the trio of Hestia, Zigoku, and Lotta had been circling below, hesitant to cross the stairs.

“Can we challenge them with five people?”

“We’ll have to try and see.”

They couldn’t rush into a battlefield that needed to be broken through with gasping breaths and tired bodies.

The hastily joined Dorothy and Rockpell took time to catch their breath and prepare before engaging.

“Mamok? I bet she learned from that thing?”

Surprisingly, Dorothy, who had just joined them, seemed to have some insight about the Mamoks that Hestia had been suspicious of for a while.

“What thing?”

“Professor Sadaco’s cursed pet tree, Poppy. There’s an incredibly crazy tree wandering somewhere in the deep forest of the academy.”

“…You encountered such a thing?”

“Yes. Thinking about it now, Oknodie went to the forest to find that tree from the beginning. Selling blood stones to buy regular carriage tickets, collecting materials in the forest—I think she planned it all to use Mamoks transformed like Poppy in the midterm exam!”

Everyone’s expressions darkened as they heard more detailed stories about Poppy and Professor Sadaco.

There was too much information.

It was beyond the level an ordinary student should possess.

The Foundation’s help was now a foregone conclusion.

This unsettling act of enhancing and controlling Mamoks must also be some kind of directive from the Foundation.

After all, magical beast studies isn’t a field with an easy entry point where you can simply collect some materials and enhance creatures to control them.

Even if you assign matching attributes, incorrect application can disrupt the body’s balance, making it worse than not enhancing at all.

Blood vessels can become blocked, cutting off breath, or the creature might lose control of its violence and attack the sorcerer.

To succeed in magical beast enhancement despite all these risks, and even control multiple creatures simultaneously, would require unimaginable trial and error and specialized teaching.

Early education. The Foundation had done it again.

Another schedule had been added to a dark page in Oknodie’s past.

“I wonder if Oknodie wants to eliminate certain students? If she just wanted to set a record for herself, there’s no reason to keep carrying around so many Mamoks.”

Dorothy’s question was valid.

Magical beasts are strong, true.

But skilled individuals can overcome them somehow.

The Northern Grand Duchess in Group A froze a Mamok whole.

The Hero in Group B crushed them with holy power.

The Lightning Sorcerer in Group C blasted Mamoks apart by striking them with lightning until they exploded, regardless of whether the lightning flowed to the ground.

“Could it be a curse?”

“A curse?”

“Poppy, the tree Oknodie used as material for enhancing the Mamoks, was an ominous tree with lots of cursed waste hanging from it.”

Somehow, the ominous feeling kept growing stronger.

“You cannot pass here!”

“We’ll eliminate everyone who doesn’t pledge loyalty to the Empire right here on these stairs!”

Honer FriedChicken, a member of the Empire’s three great meritorious families, swung his spear shaft threateningly, but Hestia somehow didn’t feel like fighting.

“You guys, this isn’t the time to be doing this. You saw Oknodie taking the Mamoks to the river.”

“Who cares? We’re not scared!”

“The Mamoks might have been infused with the power of curses.”

“…Curses? We didn’t have such lectures in the first semester.”

“She must be using something she learned from the Foundation.”

“Why are you telling us this?”

“Because Oknodie… seems like she’s going to do something really bad. If we can stop her, I want to do it together.”

Dark Princess Oknodie.

The Foundation’s scholarship student.

That dangerous girl is deliberately up to something.

“…Hmph. Just until the next section.”

Unable to contain his inner fear, Honer FriedChicken accepted Hestia’s peace treaty.

When they reached the river, the second section of the triathlon, Honer was sincerely glad he had accepted the proposal.

“What’s everyone doing here?”

“We can’t cross the river.”

Most of the students who had reached the river before them were crouched by the water in their swimsuits, staring blankly at the opposite bank.

“Why?”

“There are whirlpools above like before, so we need to go downstream.”

“Then just go downstream.”

“The Mamoks went into the river downstream.”

“What!?”

“The Mamoks are extending their branches to prevent people from passing.”

“People could die!”

“That’s the problem.”

“Murder is grounds for disqualification!”

The instructor guarding the river delivered shocking news upon receiving Honer’s gaze.

“It’s not disqualification.”

“Why not!”

“Because it’s the Mamoks doing it.”

“Huh? But Oknodie is controlling the Mamoks!”

“You don’t understand. Oknodie has stopped controlling them.”

“What?”

“She released control at the riverbed and set the Mamoks free. That’s what I’m saying.”

“That’s… that’s cheating!”

“There was no rule against controlling Mamoks and releasing them at the riverbed. Besides, Oknodie is actually helping students cross the river.”

“She’s trolling us! How is that helping?”

“Oknodie is currently controlling the Mamoks just enough to prevent them from attacking people passing by.”

The first-year students who arrived late finally understood why the other students were in a state of near-surrender.

Oknodie had blocked the path.

And increased the difficulty.

In a clever way that wouldn’t violate the regulations.

“Honer. Don’t waste your energy and come sit with us.”

“The water is so clear…”

Honer couldn’t hide his dismay seeing the other two scions of the Empire’s three great meritorious families, Cheddar PotatoPizza and Reph CharcoalBBQ, who had arrived earlier.

“Are you guys stuck here too?”

“Not ‘you guys too.’ It’s just us who are stuck.”

“Us?”

“More precisely, the Imperial faction.”

The students finally realized as they looked around at the remaining people.

“These kids… they’re all ones who aren’t friendly with Oknodie.”

From across the river, Oknodie was using her own discretion to select which students would advance to the third section and which would remain trapped in the second.