Ch.381381 – Dorothy’s Ingenuity

# 381 – Dorothy’s Ingenuity

Dorothy felt the scent of blood and money drawing closer as she answered more questions correctly.

‘Yuie. An outsider who showed us life beyond the restricted zone, a friend who came from outside.’

Dorothy’s feelings toward her were truly complicated.

Yuie was an enemy who tried to take Rockpell away.

A bad woman who tried to take away her home.

But she also showed them a new world.

Without her, they wouldn’t have known about Gift Academy or met Oknodie.

‘If we meet again…’

What a thought. If we meet again?

What would she even do?

Her complicated feelings, which she herself didn’t understand, were clearly resolved the moment she arrived at the next quiz location.

‘Ah. So that’s how it was.’

Yuie with other students, not herself.

The honesty that had once convinced her to leave the forest that had been her entire world.

The guide who had led Dorothy out of the forest was now guiding students again.

That sight.

That scene.

She no longer felt envy or jealousy.

It just seemed indifferent, like someone else’s business.

‘I wanted to confirm it.’

That the kindness Yuie had shown them in the Beast Forest wasn’t eternal.

That while she did offer help, Dorothy wanted to realize she had only been used, seeing the clear ulterior motives in her expression.

That Yuie’s goodwill no longer remained as lingering attachment or hesitation in her heart.

“Dorothy!”

“Yuie.”

“I know this is a shameless request. But please, I need Oknodie’s help.”

“For what?”

“To reach the library.”

Despite her words, the hand signals she made while pressing close conveyed a different intention.

Unbeatable opponent. Dangerous target. 10 o’clock direction, within 25m.

The target indicated by the hand signal was a third-year senior.

The person who carried the most blood scent that had been irritating Dorothy’s nose.

Yuie’s eyes trembled with anxiety.

She was asking for help, but she knew.

How shameless this action was.

The eyes of Hector’s vassals also trembled with anxiety.

Because they knew they were hostile to the organization that played with Oknodie.

Would they readily help upon receiving a request from an enemy?

It would be fortunate if they didn’t attack in return.

Some even regretted that the operation had gone wrong.

Honestly, Dorothy thought the same.

Her first thought was that they were fools.

‘Even in the forest, we’d teach nasty beasts that invaded our territory a lesson!’

Would humans be any different?

She’d even heard that Hector of the Hector Vassal Group had been bullying a girl named Cassia.

But when seeing someone cornered, sometimes she wondered what Oknodie would do.

Oknodie was such a difficult friend to figure out.

A lady who knew everything and excelled at everything.

Someone who appeared cheerful but was also a loner with cruel methods.

Would she have helped or ignored them?

‘Oknodie doesn’t help weak people! Unless they’re interesting. Would Yuie make me have fun?’

No, she wouldn’t.

Yuie had ignored her for her own amusement.

‘Sometimes Oknodie helps people even when it’s not fun. Because they can be useful!’

Could Yuie be useful to me?

That might be possible.

After all, Yuie had plenty of treasures.

‘Give me one treasure. Then I’ll temporarily forget what happened and help you just this once.’

Dorothy pointed at the shoes that made Yuie’s feet lighter.

Yuie bit her lip tightly, then nodded.

Negotiation complete.

For some reason, the third-year senior had become an enemy.

Dorothy pointed at him and said:

“Everyone, we need to defeat that senior to proceed to the next path!”

* * *

“I see. This time it’s that kind of test.”

“A third-year acting as an examiner. Even a third-year can’t handle this many students.”

Morb and Zaku, who had followed Dorothy, advanced with other lower-class students.

Morb didn’t know, but this group included many members of the “Secret Scholarship Society,” a secret organization within the “Playing with Oknodie” group, composed of Wiheomhae Foundation scholarship students.

The reason was, of course, that Zaku was the second-in-command of the Secret Scholarship Society.

Considering that Oknodie was the nominal leader, Zaku was essentially leading them.

As scholarship students rather than ordinary students, they had audacious thoughts even before a third-year senior.

‘If we rush him with numbers, what can he do besides getting hit, even if he’s a third-year?’

‘Does a third-year not bleed when stabbed with a knife?’

‘Let’s just take him down.’

Thoughts too violent for students!

As they all drew their knives and charged, Hector’s vassals urgently shouted:

“No!”

“We need to slowly drain his strength or we’ll be the ones in trouble!”

The scholarship students sneered.

‘Ha. What are they saying?’

‘They asked for our help.’

‘Are they backing out? Defeated dogs.’

We’re different.

We’re members of Oknodie’s organization.

We’re even foundation scholarship students.

“Hahaha!”

In response to their first charge, fueled by such pride, Senior Tetrapos didn’t panic or dodge, but stood in place and burst into laughter.

Something was wrong.

By the time Zaku felt uneasy, the scholarship students’ knives, blinded by the prospect of achievement, had already descended upon the senior.

Simultaneously, a violent sound like hammering metal rang out more than ten times in succession.

“Argh!”

“My hand!!”

“Ugh, it feels like I hammered the ground!”

The scholarship students clutched their hands, making pitiful faces or shedding tears.

Everyone was busy grabbing their hands in pain from the incredibly powerful recoil.

“Ah, this is called <Metal Skin>. It allows you to circulate mana through your body or skin to instantly overlay the defensive power of the strongest metal you understand and can structure, wherever and however much you want.”

This was bad.

Despite receiving so many knife attacks, the senior hadn’t taken any damage.

Instead, only the attacking first-years had been injured.

However, Zaku sensed they couldn’t retreat.

“Keep pressing! If we let him counterattack, we’re finished. If we stop attacking, we’ll be the ones getting hurt!”

“!!”

“Zaku’s right. I don’t think we can withstand an attack from a body with that kind of power.”

As the scholarship students changed their expressions and charged again, Tetrapos nodded, acknowledging they were indeed first-years who had entered their second semester.

He had intended to leave them writhing in pools of blood if they had fled in fear after just one knife attack.

“Still, I can’t play around too much. Having sensed the presence of a student council executive, I can’t let myself get tied down here. Playtime is over.”

“Don’t get caught in the threads! Either dodge or deflect them all!”

Despite Yuie’s shout, threads densely filled the corridor, pouring down like a waterfall from Tetrapos as he spread his hands wide.

“How are we supposed to dodge this?!”

“Aaaaargh!!”

The <Metal Skin> that had deflected their swords with a clang was now applied to all the threads.

This wasn’t something they could simply deflect.

<Charging – Single Point Thrust>

<Begram-style Iron Wall Defense>

<Terrain Modification – Fortification>

Some tried to deflect the enemy’s attack with all their might, some tried to withstand by increasing their defense, and others created trenches using the terrain.

These different forms of resistance seemed to hold against Tetrapos’s strike momentarily, but they were all swept away by the continuous onslaught.

“Ah, it hurts…”

“My, my head…”

“I feel like I’m dying…”

Seeing a few students still standing among those rolling on the ground half-dead, Tetrapos’s eyes showed interest.

“Quite impressive? To withstand that.”

“*cough* It’s a delaying tactic. For some reason, that senior fears wasting time. And he can’t kill us. So forget about dying and just endure at all costs.”

Zaku, with one arm hanging limply, spoke as he stood with blood dripping from his body.

As Hector’s vassals, who had arrived late, rushed to the side of those who had withstood the attack, formed ranks, and began pulling the injured to the back, an immense pressure was felt once again.

“Then, the second strike.”

“He’s using that much output again without any delay!?”

“Tsk. I thought they were reinforcements, but they’re just more baggage.”

Hector, who took the lead with his fluttering cloak, momentarily received mana correction from the dispersing cloak folds, holding power beyond his limit at the tip of his sword.

<Troy Royal Family’s Secret Kingdom Swordsmanship>

<Leading Sword>

A powerful swordsmanship that increases strength according to the number of people standing behind his cloak.

Instantly, mana threads extending from the cloak connected to all students, transferring power to Troy, making it stronger than when defeating a single Poppy root.

“Oh? So there’s even a royal child here?”

“This is the power of a legitimate heir to the throne. Senior, you should have settled this before our numbers increased. You’ll regret allowing us to join.”

“In return for showing me something good, I’ll show you a nice technique too.”

Tetrapos’s numerous threads gathered above his raised index finger, forming a single massive line.

[Overlap][Overlap][Overlap][Overlap][Overlap]

All those threads, each with such terrifying power, were combining into one.

“Techniques that use borrowed power, you know. They aren’t your royal family’s exclusive techniques.”

“You stole royal techniques!!”

“Haha. Don’t misunderstand. Rather, royal families around the world tried to monopolize these techniques from the world. Because they couldn’t allow ‘revolutionaries’ or ‘usurpers’ to wield that power against them.”

“I can’t believe it!”

“It doesn’t matter if you deny it. Even such forgotten techniques can be found in the ‘library.’ No matter how high you build the walls of royalty, Gift Academy grants the power to break down those walls.”

“Even so, there’s no one behind you!”

“It doesn’t matter. I can just take and use it. Besides… I have plenty of power I ‘saved’ from earlier.”

Does he mean when he faced the monster tree?

Hector couldn’t believe it.

Even after using such a powerful strike.

‘Even that was a strike where he conserved power!?’

“I’ll hit you just hard enough not to kill you.”

Hector’s brilliantly shining sword clashed with Tetrapos’s blood-red iron threads.

The tremendous pressure made it feel like his body would float up from the ground and be thrown back.

It was overwhelming.

Even withstanding a single strike, just a moment of that strike.

As his body trembled on the verge of being crushed, energy from behind supported him.

“Morb, if that prince falls, we’re finished too!”

“I know…!”

“Urgh, lend your strength to the prince!”

“This is crazy. The treasure’s energy is depleting so quickly, it’s unbelievable!”

Morb, Zaku, Deiphobus, Yuie.

Despite the combined strength of numerous students, they ultimately couldn’t fully withstand the strike that crushed the light on Prince Hector’s sword, sending him and the students who had been helping him with mana shields flying backward.

When Zaku, who had been writhing on the ground, painfully raised his body, he saw Hector—whose sword had broken but whose body hadn’t yielded—being kicked by Tetrapos’s foot and flying past him.

“Now, juniors. It’s time for a blood donation. After using power, I need to replenish it. Would you lend some strength to an unfortunate senior being chased by the student council?”

Just as despair was setting in at the approach of the senior extending his threads like spider webs, it happened.

“Stop!”

Dorothy, the strongest in the group who hadn’t participated in the chaos, finally raised her voice.

“If you attack us, you’ll end up breaking this too, won’t you?”

What Dorothy had brought were the signposts scattered throughout the final gateway to the library expedition.

They were classified as Academy <property>.

Tetrapos couldn’t hide his bewilderment at the appearance of Dorothy, who had wrapped the signposts around her body like armor.

“Junior. I hate to say this myself, but you don’t seem mentally sound. Shouldn’t you be paying compensation for property damage from the moment you pulled those out?”

“If you hit me, you’ll have to pay points for property damage too, Senior. Try hitting me if you can handle it!”

Thanks to Dorothy’s ingenuity in deploying this unprecedented point-suicide defense technique, the confused Tetrapos stopped his attack.