Ch.382382 – Footsteps

<382 – Sound of Shoes>

The more you advance in years, the more important points become.

Dorothy’s wit was certainly threatening.

That is, if Tetrapos had been an ordinary junior struggling with insufficient points for promotion.

Rustle.

“Huh?”

“What a shame. Your clever plan didn’t work.”

This couldn’t be right.

Academy students were supposed to be slaves to points.

Thud.

The signs wrapped around Dorothy’s body fell off.

More painful than the cuts on her body from the threads was the opponent’s unexpected response.

“In this academy, those with skill are always showered with points regardless of good or evil. Your position is different from the point beggars you’ve seen.”

“Ugh, this is cheating. If you’re that strong and have no weaknesses, we can’t win!”

“Haha. If strength is cowardice, then is weakness justice? What a convenient excuse. A logic that always justifies your own weakness!”

Senior Tetrapos, who had been laughing loudly, sensed something strange.

Despite her crying, Dorothy’s eyes showed no sign of fear.

“Oh? Are you stalling for time?”

“Of course not. I’m just a forest keeper!”

“Then what are those signs reattaching to your body?”

Dorothy stopped pretending to be cautious and grinned.

“I got such a good shield, it would be a waste to use it just once, right? So I cast a location-specific restoration spell. These signs will be restored as many times as needed!”

She had created armor by utilizing the self-restoring property of the signs?

Tetrapos acknowledged the junior’s impressive handiwork.

“Your talent won’t end as an ordinary freshman. What’s your name?”

“Apprentice Forest Keeper Dorothy!”

“Yes, Forest Keeper Dorothy. Even if I defeat you today, I’ll remember that name. Someday you’ll realize it was worth making your name known to me.”

“What do you do, senior?”

“976th class, Production Department, junior year, Tetrapos. If you enter the Production Department in your sophomore year, you’ll certainly hear my name.”

What a confident senior.

Well, anyone would be confident as a junior.

It’s quite an achievement to make it to junior year in this academy.

“Hmph. But you can’t leave here, senior. I won’t fall easily like the others, and I’ll keep interfering with you.”

“Try if you can.”

<Cruel Blood Manipulation>

<Blood Thread>

The Blood Thread that had sent Prince Hector of Troy flying with a single blow now targeted Dorothy.

Unlike before when everyone had joined forces to create a mana shield and physically supported Hector, Dorothy had no comrades to help her endure and mitigate the damage!

Surely her signs would be swept away in an instant, leaving her bloodied and rolling on the ground.

That’s how it appeared to Zaku, who could barely stand.

“It’s too much. Run away.”

“Too late. Pay the price for your recklessness, junior.”

The overlapping threads formed a thick blood-colored line that engulfed Dorothy.

Signs fell off with a single blow, and Dorothy rolled on the ground.

Contrary to Zaku’s despair, Senior Tetrapos’s face hardened.

“This is… a wooden doll? A doppelganger disguised as a human!”

“It’s the <Doppelganger Creation> function that unlocks when you raise <Decoration> to 200.”

A sign-wrapped Dorothy walked out beside the fallen one and spoke.

“It’s a technique I developed making dolls whenever I encountered deadly enemies in the forest. Pretty convincing, right?”

Behind that Dorothy, another Dorothy appeared, followed by yet another.

The ridiculous outfit of signs worn like armor had concealed all the joint areas of the body.

Thanks to this, even awkward movements didn’t seem strange.

They had been completely fooled by the sign armor, which was designed from the start to deploy doppelgangers.

[Doppelganger Creation][Decoration][Mana Infusion][Remote Control]

Looking at the exposed parts where signs had fallen off the doppelganger, it became even more evident.

Various magical formulas were densely engraved on the wooden boards that replaced flesh.

“Where did a freshman learn such techniques?”

“I learned from watching Oknodie’s paper airplanes! And mastered it by copying his notes!”

“There you are!”

Following the sound, threads flew and shattered the wooden doll hiding in the shadows.

“I learned this from Oknodie too. Casting a voice projection spell and speaking from elsewhere is basic, isn’t it?”

“Ha. I admit you’re talented. But I can simply ignore this nonsense.”

“I can’t let you do that!”

One of the doppelgangers approaching Senior Tetrapos with awkward steps suddenly flashed.

“?”

Flash. Flash. Flash flash. Flash flash.

Flash flash flash flash.

FLASH!

The doppelganger, flashing increasingly rapidly, was enveloped in bright light before exploding with energy right next to Senior Tetrapos.

Tetrapos, who had blocked the explosion by spreading threads into a circular shield, looked at the doppelganger with an incredulous expression.

“You even engraved a formula to make it explode when approaching the target if not depleted of power?”

This couldn’t be simply ignored.

He needed to deliberately shake them off.

‘I should escape along a path with lower risk.’

They were just doppelgangers after all.

Their gait was awkward.

Self-destruction was useless if they couldn’t catch up.

Such tracking formulas usually had limited effective range, so they would likely explode somewhere on their own or cease functioning after passing through several quiz signs.

“Oh no, the senior is running away!”

‘Foolish ones. I’m not running away, I’m sparing you because I can’t kill you.’

Though infuriated by this nonsense that would have earned them a hole in the neck outside the academy, Tetrapos quickly calmed his rising emotions.

If his pace slowed due to such light provocation, it would be impossible to evade the student council.

Let alone survive in the outside world.

‘Farewell, youngsters. See you next year.’

As Tetrapos was about to leave gracefully, a clear footstep sound captured his ears.

—Clack.

The sound of shoes.

A distinct sound as if transmitted directly to his brain from above, without any warning, coming from very close by.

A chilling fear swept through Tetrapos’s body.

He hadn’t detected it at all.

Despite spreading his senses widely and listening carefully, he hadn’t noticed the approach even once.

It was evidence that Student Council member Velvet’s level far exceeded his perception.

He needed to escape.

In a direction where the sound couldn’t be heard.

Right now!

“A junior? Why is he running away so desperately?”

“That person smells strongly of blood.”

Unfortunately, the path he had entered was full of freshmen wearing magic robes.

Tetrapos identified their affiliations from the emblems of tower mages who liked to show off their origins.

Earth mages. Fire mages.

Even freelance apprentice mages who had learned colored tower magic without official recognition.

But the one who caught his eye most was a silver-haired woman who possessed the most dazzling magical power yet wore the shabbiest robe without any emblems.

“That direction is where Dorothy was. Prepare for battle.”

With Northern Archduchess Irene’s declaration, the mages quickly began chanting spells.

Fortunate they’re just freshmen.

Tetrapos knew that thanks to some who were casting time-consuming spells, the firing line wasn’t very dense, and they couldn’t bind his feet with sufficient status effect magic.

<Cruel Blood Manipulation>

<Defense Technique – Blood Scale Armor>

Most mages were greatly flustered by Tetrapos’s charge without a moment’s hesitation, clad in thread armor covering his entire body.

Most spells missed their target points, impossible to even see, and magic that didn’t require aiming was blocked by the Blood Scale Armor, failing to inflict sufficient power and status effects.

‘A powerful fighter with tremendous combat experience!’

‘As expected of a junior?’

However, the earth wall raised by Sandcooker and the flame blast conjured by Rozini took away the left, right, and upper paths of Tetrapos’s intended direction.

The only one Tetrapos had to face, with no choice but to break through straight ahead, was Northern Archduchess Irene.

In terms of firepower, she was a powerhouse comparable to Roo, a member of the sophomore advanced class and White Paladin.

‘The difference between sophomores and juniors is like heaven and earth. But the difference between me in the first semester and second semester is also like heaven and earth.’

Irene had been watching all along.

Oknodie’s journey.

And she had felt it.

The necessity for greater strength.

To recruit someone as powerful as him, goodwill alone wasn’t enough.

She herself needed to be strong enough not to fall behind at Oknodie’s side.

<5th Tier – Frost Bomb>

Following the path created by Sandcooker, frozen ice expanded due to Rozini’s flame blast, scattering frigid ice fragments in all directions.

Freezing of the body that couldn’t be avoided even with threads wrapped around!

<3rd Tier – Rapid Freezing>

Freezing the scattered fragments once more for a double freeze.

<2nd Tier – Ice Binding>

A triple freeze with a targeted spell on the slowed target.

<2nd Tier – Water Bomb>

<3rd Tier – Frost Wind>

<2nd Tier – Strong Wind>

Subsequent spells to enhance the duration and power of the binding, continuously restricting movement.

In that gap, all hesitant mages completed their incantations and launched their spells, causing Tetrapos’s body to be surrounded by a large block of ice, unable to move as he was hit by dozens of consecutive spells.

‘This should be enough to take him down?’

Defying everyone’s expectations, beyond the frozen, shattered, and tattered thread armor appeared an even redder blood armor formed of blood.

“This isn’t worth it. Damn fledglings. I’m starting to use more blood than I’ve extorted.”

The overwhelming pressure emanating from the blood light filling Tetrapos’s eyes froze all the mages, including Irene, making them too afraid to even attempt casting spells.

“Is it this difficult to hold back? In that case, I might as well…”

Kill one of them?

As he formed a round ring of blood in his hand with murderous intent, he heard the sound again in his ear.

—Clack.

Damn shoe sound.

“Consider yourselves lucky, youngsters.”

Tetrapos calmly passed by those who stood frozen like frogs before a snake.

* * *

“This actually works?”

“Juniors have a trauma about shoe sounds!”

Even Zhang, who had been puzzled when Oknodie took shoes out of his backpack and put them on his hands, claiming they were necessary for the library expedition, was now intrigued.

“Do you have another pair of shoes?”

“I do!”

“I want to try too.”

The sound of shoes doubled.