Ch.204204 – Living as an Instructor

# 204 – Living as an Instructor

It would take more time for Sing and Zhang to arrive.

But I didn’t want to keep losing rankings endlessly either.

Friendship and grades.

The way to catch both rabbits at once was simple.

Just prevent others from getting grades!

“Isn’t that the finish line?”

“How vicious.”

“Not even human.”

“How can a child who’s not even a junior show such character?”

“Haven’t you heard? The first-years are saying her class is Dark Princess.”

“What kind of class is that?”

“Princess of the Demon King?”

“That’s crazy.”

“Looking at how the Mamoqs are rising, it seems accurate.”

The Imperial first-year advanced class students and second-year lower class seniors were gossiping about me, but I paid them no attention.

Rather, I was concerned that I might be conducting the exam too leniently and compassionately.

Right?

I hadn’t eliminated Imperial students by force.

I hadn’t taken their badges.

I was even allowing students on the other side to remain undisturbed to secure 100 people to cross the river.

‘If I were a junior, I would have knocked them all down first and thought later, since who knows what mischief such a large number could cause.’

Compared to that, letting them complain freely without hitting them—how merciful is that!

Still, as the test drags on, I’m starting to get tired.

I wish they would come quickly.

As I leaned against a rock near the riverbank, having nothing better to do, I heard thumping sounds approaching.

The ground was shaking and screams could be heard, which surely meant…

‘Has Sing arrived?’

I jumped up and turned around to find a golem standing there.

The golem showed an expression of “I found my master on my own, aren’t I good?” as it approached.

It lowered its huge head for me to pat, but it was so large it blocked my entire view.

“Oh my. You should consider your size. Do you think you’re one of those baby golems Hestia carries around?”

“Kigugung.”

The sulky sound was so cute that I gave it a pat.

“If you’re bored, just drink some water!”

The golem gulped down water to cool its core while I, its master, sprawled on the rock to pass time.

Hmm… I’m getting sleepy.

Maybe I’ll take a short nap.

As my head bobbed up and down drowsily and I swallowed my saliva, I noticed the gazes of students across the river following my movements.

“Daddy’s not sleeping!”

When I shouted with my eyes wide open, the sighs from across the river grew louder.

“She’s toying with people.”

“Ah. She might be a little cute.”

“Get a grip. Would you be happy if all your grades were taken away?”

As I continued tormenting numerous students by holding their grades hostage, I heard thumping sounds again.

Must be another golem.

Perhaps Hestia’s golem searching for the finish line? Or a wild golem that hadn’t found a master?

I glanced around and noticed students across the river panicking and rushing into the river.

It wasn’t because they had collectively lost their minds.

Nor was it because a golden fish or jewel fish had appeared—rare catches with appearance rates even lower than the 0.1% rare fish.

“Aaaaah! A crazy murderer has appeared!!”

“How much blood is he covered in!?”

“Q-quick, attack! Let’s take him down with ranged magic!!”

Like gunfire spreading in a circular pattern, blue mana residue bloomed consecutively around the magic casters.

The smoke rose violently like a fireworks display, with various magical booms cutting through the air.

Instead of the screams that should have been heard from the target, there were distinct sounds of something being cut and split.

Crushing, splitting, cleaving, shattering.

Even as an experienced player, my mouth fell open when I realized what this intense display of effects meant.

‘Consecutive parrying? Magic destruction?’

Consecutive parrying—deflecting magic attacks one after another like deflecting an enemy’s attack with a sword.

And between those parries, canceling attacks that couldn’t be deflected by cutting the formula that forms the axis of magical power, canceling the magic manifestation itself.

This is definitely not a skill a freshman would show.

It’s a technique taught with significant emphasis even in the Knight Department.

A few weeks at minimum.

A few months at most.

It’s a skill used in actual combat only after considerable practice and refinement.

Parrying physical attacks versus magical attacks requires reduced effective parrying range and high insight into the workings and understanding of magical forces.

It’s a skill for either talented prodigies or veterans because the training required for skill activation is ridiculously high.

‘Magic destruction would still cause damage when broken!’

Just as cutting a bullet doesn’t make the projectile disappear, magic also has inertial energy.

Magic that has already been fully manifested and fired from a distance will still cause a certain amount of damage to the surrounding space due to its aftermath, even if the formula is canceled.

With that much accumulated cancellation damage, it would cause significant harm.

Stiffness.

Dizziness.

Reduced vision.

Despite suffering from various side effects and gradually becoming less responsive—in a situation where he should rightfully collapse after taking a magic carpet bombing—Sing didn’t stop.

He finally closed the gap and began slashing the second-years, sweeping away seniors from the front lines.

“R-run away!!”

“This is beyond what we can handle!”

“Deflecting magic with a sword, where did such a madman come from?!”

“Is he a junior?! Are we being played by a junior disguised as a freshman?!”

“You might be able to avoid Mamoqs if you’re lucky. But that guy isn’t someone you can deal with by chance. To the river, we need to escape to the river!”

The instructors, who had put down their popcorn and tensed up for fear of failing to rescue students, watched anxiously.

The chaos ended with over 100 seniors being caught by Mamoqs, fainting, and being rescued by instructors, while almost as many students collapsed after being cut by the sword.

“Enjoying the show?”

“Huh! Zhang. When did you arrive?”

“With him. Working together wasn’t bad.”

Zhang’s smiling cheek had someone’s blood splattered on it.

When I raised my hand to wipe it off, Zhang startled and stepped back.

This kid, really.

Why be embarrassed with something like this on your cheek?

I closed the gap and wiped the blood off her cheek with my hand.

“Now you’re clean!”

“You get too close too easily.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. So what about the exam? You were just watching here?”

“I was waiting for you two to arrive!”

“For us?”

Zhang looked puzzled.

Sing, who had fearlessly attacked even the Mamoqs, cutting off all their branches and using their remaining core bodies as boats to cross the river, now pointed his sword at them.

When I explained why I had waited for them, they gave me incredulous looks.

“You’re saying you’ll send 100 people starting with friends because that’s the requirement? Aren’t you taking the exam too lightly? The professor must have prepared hard for this.”

“Hmm… I don’t think you’re one to talk, Zhang!”

“Is that so? Well, I was just collecting badges like collectibles on my way here.”

A handful of blood-stained badges came out of her chest pocket.

“Wow! With those, all the frontier students would pass!”

“Want me to return them to the kids who lost them?”

“Yes!”

“Hmm… is that what Oknodie wants?”

“Yes, yes!”

“Why should I give them back? Aren’t you curious too, Oknodie? What penalty they get for losing their badges. What happens to those who reach the goal without their badges.”

Zhang, who would want to step on an ant if she saw one passing by, or tear off a dragonfly’s wings if she saw one flying—she had the evil instinct of wanting to trample and tear apart weak classmates.

It was truly the wicked nature befitting a 0.1% unlucky evil character.

“Then we can test it on Imperial students.”

“True. But I don’t want to give them back for free.”

“Then return them for points!”

“Even if we make a deal, how would we meet them? The exam is still ongoing.”

“I think that’ll be fine. The finish line is right here, isn’t it?”

Zhang giggled and tapped the finish line with her foot.

“Everyone’s so stupid. Wandering far away when it’s so close.”

“Shouldn’t you go too, Zhang?”

“Why should I?”

“Because I destroyed the mount storage!”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Zhang took out something like a small flute from her bosom and blew into it.

At the sound that stimulated an ultrahigh frequency range reminiscent of bat ultrasound inaudible to human ears, Zhang’s mount came running from afar!

“Wow!”

“I trained it hard. What do you think?”

“Amazing!”

Zhang, who had struggled so much trying to put a leash on the giant hostile cat that raised its claws, had finally succeeded in taming it using a flute.

As a veteran, I felt a bit reflective.

To summon a pet without using physical or magical violence, just by blowing a flute—truly, the world of taming is deep and profound.

“I’ll teach you this if you teach me that finish line switching technique later? I think it could be useful for assassination techniques where you replace valuables entrusted to a target with a bomb.”

“Sure!”

The instructor’s face filled with terror as he witnessed this exchange of assassination techniques.

“Ah, Instructor. Perfect timing. Can we use these unconscious seniors?”

“Killing people results in disqualification.”

“What? Of course. Why would we kill people in a freshman midterm?”

“…Indirectly killing people by teleporting them also results in disqualification.”

“Who would do such a terrible thing? We just want to place them across the river and fulfill the contract with the Saint.”

The instructor nodded with an exhausted face.

“I apologize. Perhaps I thought too wickedly of you. That much doesn’t violate the rules.”

“Oknodie, what about the Imperial students who aren’t unconscious?”

“We can just knock them out.”

“You know, you’re secretly quite mean.”

“I don’t think you’re one to talk about that either, Zhang!”

The instructor’s complexion darkened further as he hovered nearby, prepared for any unfortunate incidents.

“They say eating candy helps when you’re feeling bad. Would you like one?”

“…No thanks. I ate enough popcorn earlier.”

“You must be very upset. Your expression got even darker!”

“Eating that would make it even darker.”

“Because you’d feel worse?”

“…Yes.”

Fear filled the instructor’s eyes.

Is eating something when you’re upset really that painful?

“Would you like me to pat your back?”

“Please just leave me alone…”