Ch.359359 – Replication

# 359 – Replication

Dorothy felt wronged.

“I worked so hard on it, and I got cut at the entrance from stage 1!?”

She had plowed the ground like a construction site, driven stakes, diligently hung bells on strings, planted foul-smelling fruits inside hollowed-out stakes, and even cast security magic!

“Huh? The ghost isn’t caught in the strings…?”

“It’s not that it didn’t get caught. It got caught but immediately moved away so we can’t see it.”

“Wow. Zaku, you have sharp eyes for someone in the lower class!”

While Dorothy was simply bewildered, Zaku honestly couldn’t understand.

‘When I encountered it, the ghost moved so unpredictably, but why did it get caught so easily in Dorothy’s trap?’

Oknodie had passed through just fine.

“If we wait a bit, won’t it try again?”

As Oknodie predicted, while they were diligently working on their assignment, the jingling sound was heard again from far away.

It had fallen into the trap again.

The ghost would appear every so often to irritate them just when they were starting to concentrate on studying.

Even Zaku, who was initially frightened, now just felt annoyed.

‘Just pass through cleanly already!’

Unable to stand it anymore, Oknodie stood up.

“I’ll show you how it’s done real quick!”

Oknodie began to navigate through the trap again, as if demonstrating to the ghost.

Her movements were as light and ephemeral as dandelion seeds scattered by spring breeze.

Behind her light steps that seemed ready to disperse at any moment, she created a <Mana Shield> in midair with a force as powerful as a thousand pounds, using it as a foothold to jump.

As she completely ignored the trap’s design and leaped over it, Zaku felt an intense gaze from the forest.

Looking closely, he could see a ghost with a long, hook-shaped neck staring intently at Oknodie’s movements through the skeletal branches.

Crack.

A broken branch fell where the ghost had jumped.

That one’s seriously pissed off.

Zaku recalled how futile their resistance had been when the creature went berserk.

“Be careful, Oknodie. It’s an ambush. It might just attack you regardless of skill verification or whatever, it’s gone mad.”

Swish swish.

The wind grew harsher.

Sharp killing intent brushed past their skin from all directions, as if slicing through it.

Jingle jingle jingle!

The bell sound rang without fail again.

But there was no cry of “Another failure!” this time.

This time was different.

Jingle jingle jingle!

Jingle jingle jingle!

Before they could even look, the sound rang again.

From the left.

From the right.

If you couldn’t dodge precisely, it would toy with your line of sight at a possessed speed.

A movement only possible for a being with physical force but a ghost’s speed!

“This thing, does it not even care about sneaking up anymore!?”

“It probably figures since it’s been spotted, it might as well just demonstrate its skills to instill fear!”

The ghost’s strategy of proving its skill by breaking through traps in a frightening way rather than perfectly was typically ghost-like and scary.

“Um, then was my trap unnecessary…?”

Dorothy felt doubtful.

It’s coming in by blatantly triggering the traps, so what was I doing all this time…?

“No. Dorothy’s trap is serving its purpose perfectly!”

“Really?”

“Without this trap, would the hook ghost be this motivated?”

Indeed, though the hook ghost was thrashing around everywhere, it wouldn’t approach the stake where Oknodie stood with her arms crossed.

The hook ghost had developed enough hostility to not flee, while still being wary of her.

Zaku found this scene rather strange.

‘That damn tangsuyuk rice priest was easily touched though?’

Could it be that Oknodie is stronger against ghosts than an active priest who was invited to the academy?

“Aaah, get down!”

Dorothy, who had been spinning like a turret observing the surroundings, grabbed Zaku by the nape and dropped flat to the ground in terror.

Something sharp swooshed over Zaku’s head as he was about to get angry.

“W-what was that just now!”

“It threw a cursed knife, I think!”

Knife throwing that’s scary even without being cursed!

Despite the ghost’s high-intent attack, Oknodie still stood on the stake with a bright smile.

“Hmm. There are patterns I haven’t seen before. I guess Dorothy’s trap map was effective?”

As another knife-wind with real knives swept through, Zaku screamed internally.

Why are you standing there so calmly instead of running away!

‘Huh? Just now, Oknodie’s figure…’

As his focus wavered slightly, Oknodie’s body seemed to disappear for a moment and then reappear.

It was a phenomenon that occurred as she used her exceptional physical abilities enhanced by magic to dodge the knife for just the instant it passed her, then return—an extraordinary feat.

“No matter how angry you are, you shouldn’t throw knives at people recklessly, Mr. Hook!”

After the ghost raised knife-winds several times but Oknodie deflected the attacks unharmed, it passed by her.

Watching the bell-attached strings and stakes being cut down, Zaku realized.

“It’s the basket! The creature is stealing the cursed item!”

Instead of confronting the fearless child, the ghost rushed toward the cursed item.

Oknodie, who was about to chase after it, suddenly turned pale, covered her nose and mouth with cloth, and started coughing violently.

“Cough cough! Blegh!”

“Gasp!! The stench fruit planted in the stakes only trapped Oknodie!”

Dorothy, who had never experienced ghost combat before, hadn’t anticipated a situation where only humans would be unilaterally harmed.

Kekekekeke!

With the ghost’s laughter, the hook ghost escaped Oknodie’s pursuit and ran far away.

Finally, it coiled its body, as long as its head, like a snake on the rock in the center of the clearing where the basket was placed, making Oknodie regretful.

“Ugh. I allowed this because of the smell trap…”

The hook ghost laughed wickedly and grabbed the basket.

As the nail that had been driven into the rock came out with a pop, Dorothy buried her face in the ground, screaming as if she had seen a horror movie too terrible to watch.

Zaku couldn’t bring himself to ask whether she was afraid of the hook ghost or the uselessness of her trap.

“Kekekekeke!”

The ghost laughed wickedly and turned the basket upside down.

Whatever was inside, I’ll replicate it before your eyes.

And if you don’t take it, I’ll kidnap you!

The ghost’s wicked intention was directed at the object that fell from the basket with a thud.

The cursed item that emitted such a tempting smell that it was worth breaking through the terrible trap field.

The ghost’s head naturally straightened into a hook shape, curious about its identity.

“?”

The object that fell from the basket was a notebook.

Moreover, it was a notebook cursed with binding that would bind to the first person who opened it.

━━━

Title: 981st Batch 1st Year Strategy Guide

Author: Oknodie

Warning: Opening this will lead to big trouble!

━━━

The hook ghost couldn’t understand.

Why was this worn notebook, with edges so thumbed through that they were frayed, valued at <Mythic> grade?

How could a binding curse be placed on a mythic-grade item with tremendous inherent curse resistance?

“Ah, Mr. Ghost! You shouldn’t open that!”

It could only understand the meaning of Oknodie’s urgent gesture.

Anxiety. Fear. And faint expectation.

Judging by its value, this must be a book of doom prophecies.

Anyone who opens it would suffer tremendous damage.

I will absolutely not open it.

And I’ll replicate this cursed item recklessly and force them to take it.

[The hook ghost attempts to replicate a high-value material it cannot handle.]

[<Mental Defense> target 500]

[<Curse Resistance> target 350]

[<Mana Control> target 350]

[All targets not met]

[The hook ghost fails to control <Mental Defense>, <Curse Resistance>, and <Mana Control> functions.]

The hook ghost had fallen into Oknodie’s trap.

“Hehe. I told you not to open it. Oh dear, what a disaster. I don’t know anything about this now?”

With the penetration of dark mana with devastating power that first invaded through sight, the vitreous body in the hook ghost’s eyes burst with a pop.

Then, dark mana that infiltrated the brain along the optic nerve stimulated the nerves, twisting the long neck like a pretzel.

Finally, the thin hands tried to strangle their own neck to prevent the brain, which was instructing the body to destroy itself, from killing the body.

“!?”

The hook ghost’s reaction was so creepy that Dorothy and Zaku who were watching became frightened.

They couldn’t understand the principle, nor did they want to.

Only the hook ghost struggled to survive.

Oknodie didn’t allow even that.

The ghost’s two arms were cleanly cut off by Oknodie’s knife.

With no arms to strangle its neck or legs to escape, the hook ghost writhed and died on its own.

Oknodie spoke to the ruined ghost.

“Oh right. There is one way~ If you return the students you kidnapped, I’ll stop it for you!”

The space around the hook ghost distorted, and the appearance of another dimension appeared in the void.

Students who had been huddling together in a desolate forest were thrown out by the hook ghost’s telekinesis.

[Character <Dorothy>’s affection has exceeded 20.]

[You currently possess the first special benefit <Dorothy’s Hunting Time>.]

[The innocent child knows many secrets of the forest. When you go to the forest with Dorothy once a month, item looting probability increases by 500%!]

[5 times more <Captured Hostages> are liberated.]

“Aack!”

“Aaah!”

“A-are we back…?”

“Oknodie! Zaku!”

The three lower class students and Morb.

Along with the return of the four people, a notification appeared.

Tumble tumble.

As a bonus, a skeleton that had lost its body long ago and only had its spirit left, rattling its bones.

Looking closely, its skull was identical to the skeleton instructor that Professor Sadaco controlled.

“Gelgelgel.”

“Why are you coming out of there, Skeleton Instructor? Don’t tell me you infiltrated to help the lower class students yourself if other students couldn’t rescue them from danger?”

“Half correct.”

“Which half is correct?”

“The part about ‘if other students couldn’t rescue the lower class students in danger’ is correct.”

“What were you planning to do after that?”

“Students abandoned in everyone’s indifference anyway, I was going to turn them into skeletons and extract them without anyone knowing. Gelgelgel!”

“Wow…”

“Whether to lose your flesh and be enslaved as ghost nutrients, or discard your flesh and escape as a powerful skeleton. Even a fool would know which to choose, right? Gelgelgel!”

This instructor is truly scary.

Even Oknodie took a step back from the pure skeletal madness.