Ch.421421 – Baby, I’m Here

<421 – Baby, I’m Here>

The plant club president Orcatch and his three members had fallen into a terrible trap.

“Even if the spell formula is difficult, we can solve it if we just spend enough time!”

“President. The three of us will help. Let’s not give up! To be honest, you brought us here, so how can you think of giving up!”

“Oknodie must also be tied up dealing with the surprise attack from other seniors.”

The club members hadn’t yet grasped the situation.

Orcatch reminded them of a very sad fact.

“What if the mandrake wakes up while we’re dispelling the formula?”

“Ah.”

“That’s…”

“We can just put it back to sleep!”

“You know that once a status effect is removed, resistance increases for a certain period, right?”

Let’s say we could put it back to sleep once.

But what about twice? Three times?

The effort required to inflict status effects increases exponentially, and the duration decreases.

It meant they couldn’t conveniently keep the mandrake subdued forever.

“Let’s just drown it?”

“Then would Oknodie let us live?”

“…”

“Even before Oknodie, I can’t allow that. How could I kill a mandrake that I captured alive?”

“But we can’t die either. I’m scared of what Oknodie might do to us if we’re caught trapped here, President!”

Dispelling the formula surrounding the private room would take a long time, but if the mandrake woke up during that process, they might all die from the genuinely angry mandrake’s scream.

If they spent more effort keeping the mandrake asleep, they wouldn’t have enough time to dispel the formula.

To make matters worse, another pessimistic outlook emerged.

Twitch.

“What the hell, why is it trying to wake up already?”

Even though the president personally applied so many status effects, it was already trying to wake up.

Orcatch could immediately guess the cause.

“This is insane… its status resistance is fucking high.”

Observing Eye. Pierce Eye.

The advanced technique of insight used to spy on entities hidden by natural mana revealed the mandrake’s cruel specs.

━━━

Burn Resistance 45

Paralysis Resistance 275

Sleep Resistance 280

Freeze Resistance 177

Confusion Resistance 95

Weakness Resistance 111

━━━

Specs that couldn’t naturally exist.

This was clear evidence of training.

* * *

Alice, who had trapped her enemies in the room by pretending the countdown was fake after stunning them with a fake scream, was feeling quite satisfied now.

‘All that effort of playing nanny and applying status effects whenever Baby tried to escape the private room has paid off.’

No matter how much Baby wanted to go outside and play, the academy was too dangerous. A passing senior might snatch it up for a nutritious snack, or a professor might lock it in a laboratory thinking it was an interesting specimen.

That’s why she kept blocking Baby’s escape attempts by applying status effects like <Paralysis>, <Sleep>, and <Freeze> whenever it tried to leave through doors or windows.

‘Thanks to that, it developed the strange habit of trying to escape by digging through walls with its roots… but I guess it’s fortunate since that strengthened its physical power?’

Those walls had magic that automatically restored them over time, so she just left it alone.

When Baby later realized this and tried to escape through windows or doors during Oknodie’s lecture times, she would subdue it again with status effects.

While its resistance grew steadily, Alice’s skill at applying status effects improved just as much.

With both sides growing equally, Baby’s escape attempts were doomed to fail.

Eventually, deciding that the only remaining method was to defeat Oknodie by force and escape, Baby diligently practiced the fighting techniques it learned from Hestia.

‘Your effort is commendable, but at that growth rate, escape is impossible in your lifetime.’

Baby’s efforts were utterly meaningless for its original purpose of escape.

However, they proved remarkably effective for the unexpected situation of fending off the plant club’s attack.

“Waaaaaah!”

When Baby finally broke free from the status effects and started rampaging, the plant club members changed their strategy. Rather than subduing it by force and risking Oknodie’s wrath if the mandrake was injured further, they decided to put up defensive magic and endure until it ran out of energy.

But thanks to its excellent training results, Baby’s roots shattered their vine shields, bark shields, and wood skin magic one after another.

‘It seems the training results are even better when facing a strong opponent.’

Seeing its combat abilities improve dramatically compared to practicing against bare ground or walls, Baby the mandrake became even more excited and extended its roots.

<Consecutive Stab>

<Single Point Stab>

Not only did it immediately use techniques it had learned, but after happily attacking for a while, it seemed to gain some insight and began testing new skills.

<Throw>

<Choke>

“Aaaah, we’re all going to die at this rate!”

“I can’t take it anymore, President!!”

“Whether Oknodie gets angry or not, we need to beat that thing until it can’t rampage anymore or we’ll die first!!”

Unable to endure any longer, the members took out seeds again and rapidly grew plant monsters.

<Rapid Growth – Parasitic Grass>

<Energy Drain>

<Forced Weakness Curse>

<Rapid Growth – Thorn Grass>

<Burrowing>

<Thorn Explosion>

<Rapid Growth – Stomping Grass>

<Kick>

<Trample>

But Baby mandrake was no longer the weak Baby that had been helplessly enduring until now.

<Life Steal>

<Wood Skin>

<Thorn Raising>

“Paraaaa?!”

“Thooorn?!”

“Stommmmp!!”

It stole back energy from the parasitic grass burrowing into its roots, defended against the thorn grass’s thorns by adapting the wood skin magic the club members had used, and even punished the stomping grass that had been trampling it most painfully by raising thorns on its roots!

“This is crazy. Even though mandrakes are super-rare monsters with high aptitude for learning, this is absolutely not normal…?”

Unlike the confused Orcatch, Alice, who had received early education from the Foundation, had an idea.

‘Jona once said that children adopt the temperament and abilities of their parents or guardians.’

Baby mandrake’s parent and guardian was none other than Oknodie.

She was the top scholarship student of the Wiheomhae Foundation and had proudly claimed the top position of the 981st class at Gift Academy, where the world’s greatest talents competed.

Her talent and capabilities were unquestionably unparalleled!

Moreover, she wasn’t a fake hero randomly selected by the 24 deities to be their apostles, but showed growth surpassing even Ishtar, the hero of the era chosen by the one true deity <Sophemia of the Sun>.

With such a guardian’s temperament to learn from, it was inevitable that Baby would turn out extraordinary.

‘That’s why Jona’s teachings were even more special. Enough to create a masterpiece like Oknodie.’

Though it was disheartening to see the stark difference between herself and Oknodie despite having the same guardian.

At least Baby mandrake didn’t seem likely to fall into sadness like she had.

“All our natural mana is being used for defense, so we have no mana left to use…”

“Ugh, the aftermath of removing the magic from our ears and forcibly converting it back to internal mana for combat… our mana isn’t regenerating anymore…”

“Why doesn’t that crazy mandrake ever run out of mana…?”

Having grown vigorously drinking special cultivation fluid every day for months without fail, Baby mandrake surpassed the seniors even in mana quantity, giving it the advantage in a prolonged battle.

“Oof!”

“Urk!”

“Ack!”

Unlike the members who got beaten more severely for resisting, Orcatch, who early on assumed a surrender position with hands raised, was the only one spared from Baby’s violence.

“President, have you no pride?!”

“Are you guys protecting your pride or your bruises?”

“…”

Finally realizing the president’s wisdom, the members also raised their hands to show they had lost the will to resist.

“Waaaaaah!”

Baby mandrake let out a victory cry.

From Alice’s perspective, judging by the increased stiffness and luster of its roots, Baby mandrake’s fighting aptitude seemed to have grown even more from this victory.

It truly was remarkable growth.

“Baby, I’m here!”

As soon as the door burst open and the barrier was released, Baby had developed enough confidence to charge at Oknodie with bulging eyes!

<Body Slam>

<Omnidirectional Stab>

<Thorn Raising>

“Waaaaaah!”

Seeing Baby mandrake’s charge, Oknodie tilted her head and then extended her hand.

“Yap.”

<Spider Web Binding>

<Throw>

She wove mana into threads to create a net, tightened it to grab Baby with one hand, and then swung it violently in all directions, smashing it against the walls.

After colliding with the walls and ceiling about ten times per second, Baby’s eyes went dizzy and it fainted.

Baby’s rebellion ended in just three seconds…

“Why has Baby become so violent? Where did it learn such bad techniques… ah.”

Oknodie discovered the seniors kneeling in the corner of the room with their hands raised, sitting obediently in a row.

“Our Baby learned bad habits from the seniors, didn’t it?”

The plant club members, realizing that the owner was scarier than the pet plant, broke out in cold sweat.