Ch.426426 – Vast Disparity

<426 – Overwhelming Gap>

“No way! I absolutely cannot give up Professor Sadaco’s lectures.”

It’s not just because I’m curious about the bare face hidden behind her bangs.

I’m also worried that Zhang and Titosoga, who are taking the class with me, will cry “hiiing-ing-ing” tears, asking how we could escape without them.

Besides, Professor Sadaco decided to stay at the Academy to continue her lectures because I was attending them diligently. If I leave too, there would be no one left to attend.

‘If I run away, Zhang and Titosoga will surely notice and quietly escape too. Then the professor, heartbroken, will put down her teaching materials and retire!’

No matter how I think about it, that would be too cruel.

“That malignant colony appears to be your creation. Are you saying you won’t give up Professor Sadaco’s lectures even if you have to take full responsibility for it?”

“I have no choice. I’ll have to report to Professor Warerd and pay the fine…”

“You’re truly insane. Determined to get noticed by not one, but two of the Academy’s most eccentric professors. What made you like this?”

I answered sincerely.

“Fanboys naturally live at a disadvantage.”

“…What a hopeless, pathetic fellow. It’s lamentable that someone like you is my junior.”

Despite his grumbling, Grimreaper senior pulled out the large scythe strapped to his back.

“Forget about calling for help. I’ll help you just this once.”

“Wow! Grimreaper senior, you’re the best!”

This senior’s personality type is 90% likely to be tsundere, and sure enough, he proved to be a tsundere senior this time too!

* * *

Ishtar detected an unusual fluctuation of mana near the open space.

“Senior. What’s in there?”

“Shoo, shoo. Kids don’t need to know.”

“I am Ishtar the Hero. If you’re in trouble, I can help.”

It wasn’t just a simple act of kindness.

Since realizing how far behind Oknodie she was, Ishtar had never stopped working hard.

-Is Ishtar really a hero?

-Honestly, Oknodie seems more like a hero. Heroes abandon people while Oknodie saves them. How can someone like that be called a hero?

-The one who actually defeated the demon contractor Low was essentially Foundation executive and current professor Jona Wiheomhae along with Oknodie.

Ishtar gritted her teeth inwardly at these ignorant criticisms.

‘That’s just what heroes are like.’

A hero who can save everyone isn’t worthy of being called a hero in the first place.

The monotheistic deity <Sophemia of the Sun> doesn’t recognize as her hero someone who settles for mediocrity, staying in their comfort zone and obsessing over padding their achievements.

Mass-produced heroes selected by other deities might choose such complacent lives to elevate their gods and gather faith, but Ishtar was different.

‘I must never stop challenging myself. Otherwise, I’ll lose the title of hero.’

Therefore, she couldn’t live a life full of dreams and hope where everyone advances together while caring for the weak.

The sun doesn’t move forward with others.

It’s merely an object of reverence, rising most brilliantly above everyone’s heads.

Still, she had realized the necessity of collective power.

That’s why she organized the Hero’s Guard and allocated the minimum necessary time for their training.

‘But it’s not enough. Now I need to focus on my own training, my own challenges.’

She had recently discovered that the <Comprehensive Dungeon Theme Park> facility in the underground cavern was teeming with dungeons and monsters.

She had submitted applications to explore those dungeons, attempting to conquer deeper levels for practical training, but she hit the upper limit of accessible dungeons due to her freshman status.

While the Hero’s Guard might benefit, it wasn’t providing enough training for Ishtar herself.

‘I’ve gritted my teeth through lectures and now I’m starting to adapt to them too. Do I have to settle for just this much this semester…?’

Just as she was reluctantly trying to compromise with reality, she felt that unusual mana fluctuation.

“No way. If a freshman meddles around here, I’ll be the one getting scolded.”

“Then I’ll defeat you, senior.”

“What?”

“If you’re attacked and defeated by someone stronger than you, that won’t be your responsibility anymore.”

“Huh?!”

<Light Cluster>

<Mountain Summit Single Slash>

A name so grandiose it speaks of conquering a mountain peak with a single slash.

Yet this single-strike technique deserves its arrogance.

Jona Wiheomhae, who could subdue massive natural phenomena like hail with a single move.

This technique was developed to overcome the inadequacy she felt watching that man’s back.

To shake off her powerless past.

‘Third year. I have no intention of settling for just that level.’

The third-year senior who had been controlling access to prevent safety accidents collapsed after receiving the hero’s single slash.

‘Wow, she’s really crazy. Better to just collapse right away than resist and get hit more.’

Thanks to the senior who collapsed with good sense, Ishtar, who had unintentionally defeated her senior in one strike, gained even more confidence.

“Yufi. Skola. A perfect practice opponent has appeared.”

“The mana quantity seems manageable.”

“A plant monster? The compatibility isn’t good, but I’ll do my best.”

As Saint Yufi raised her staff, a continuous stream of enhancement light poured down.

<Vision Expansion>

<Breathing Enhancement>

<Reflex Enhancement>

<Double Strike Bestowal>

<Double Charge Bestowal>

<Poison Resistance Bestowal>

<Sleep Resistance Bestowal>

Skola trembled at the buffs that were partially bestowed upon him alongside the hero.

‘What an amazing speed of continuous buffs. With buffs like these, we can accomplish anything.’

Moreover, the hero was receiving three times as many buffs as him.

We’ve won.

Confidence overflowed even before the battle began.

Their mana quantity exceeded the enemy’s.

They had powered up with buffs.

The threatening offensive that poured blade winds in all directions would inevitably be blocked by the hero’s Holy Mirror-108 Directional Formation combo.

<Barrier Bestowal>

With Yufi’s barriers bestowed upon the 108 Holy Mirrors, they didn’t even have to worry about the mirrors breaking.

Victory was essentially confirmed!

Until the early stages of the battle, it seemed the plant colony, which was pouring blade winds from all directions against the hero’s attacking techniques, would soon be destroyed.

“Hero. Haven’t you deployed too many Holy Mirrors? The attack techniques are getting blocked by other Holy Mirrors, disappearing at moments when they should be landing effective hits.”

“That’s not me.”

“What?”

“Those aren’t Holy Mirrors I opened!”

“!!”

No sooner had she finished speaking than a slash poured out from a Holy Mirror that had suddenly opened behind Skola.

As Skola dodged in shock, he finally noticed one Holy Mirror that had been absorbed into a spider plant’s web through its <Pull> ability.

Amazingly, this plant colony had succeeded in absorbing and digesting the hero’s technique as its own.

‘So now we’re fighting a monster that can use the hero’s techniques?!’

“Skola. Destroy the Holy Mirrors without barriers!”

As Saint Yufi said, there was a way to distinguish them.

They just needed to destroy the Holy Mirrors without protective barriers.

But that wasn’t easy.

“I’ve been destroying them! But no matter how many I destroy, new Holy Mirrors keep opening!”

They didn’t know that the royal jelly, which had appeared to be just nutritional gel, was imbued with mana, and that by absorbing spirits, the mana recovery rate had increased as well.

That difference led to a miscalculation of power, ultimately resulting in the hero’s defeat.

“Ugh.”

“Ishtar!”

Thanks to Yufi’s protective barrier, Ishtar avoided serious injury but was thrown to the corner of the open space.

“The attack failed… everyone retreat.”

This can’t be blocked.

We need to run.

But even escape was difficult now.

<Holy Mirror>

<Wind Cutter>

<Earth Splitter>

<Fatal Technique – Tempest Blade>

<Fatal Technique – Seven Vortex>

<Fatal Technique – Horizon Demolisher>

Holy Mirrors formed one after another around Ishtar, Yufi, and Skola.

Blade winds and fatal techniques poured out from Holy Mirrors that opened at close range.

The plant colony, which could mimic all types of techniques using mana, was more formidable than they had imagined.

‘If it opens Holy Mirrors at close range, assuming they’ll be destroyed anyway, does it become this difficult? More importantly, how can a mere plant execute fatal techniques!’

The sturdy body of the barrel plant had durability comparable to the hero’s body, and the spider plant’s enhanced mana control exerted enough control to execute the hero’s fatal techniques.

The most worthless monsters that novice adventurers first encounter when leaving their village.

Goblins.

Slimes.

And plant mobs.

The plant colony, which she had considered merely an extension of such worthless beings, crushed her pride by mimicking even the hero’s techniques.

“I’ll open a path. At least you two escape.”

A special 100-stack fatal technique, which she had amplified by passing it between mirrors without using it for attacks, shattered all the Holy Mirrors surrounding Yufi and Skola.

“Hold on a little longer. I’ll call the instructors!”

“Yufi. You won’t need to go that far.”

Skola stopped Yufi as she hurriedly tried to operate her magic watch.

Where Skola pointed stood Oknodie with a thoroughly displeased expression and a senior who wore an identical expression.

“Is the game over? Then move aside.”

It’s not a game.

We fought seriously.

As Yufi tried to retort, her mouth closed and her feet moved involuntarily against her will.

“?!”

It wasn’t magic.

Yet it manipulated phenomena like magic.

Yufi felt fear as she realized she was already within a <Domain> that projected will onto the surrounding space simply through intention, so naturally it unfolded.

It closes my mouth and pushes my back.

If it hadn’t stopped there, if it had tried to slit my throat and burst my heart.

Could I have resisted?

“The method for eliminating monsters with attack mimicry talent is simple. Blow everything away in one strike so they can’t even mimic.”

Grand magic.

The otherworldly power she had witnessed on the cruise ship during summer vacation erupted from a single scythe.

<Tentative Name, Death God Slash>

The plant colony was erased as if cutting through space itself.

Not even fragments of materials remained as the distorted void pulled up the roots left in the ground.

<Reverse Slash>

With a strike that traced back along the trajectory, all the roots of the plant colony were annihilated.

The formidable enemy that had given the hero’s party such a hard time completely disappeared with just two scythe strikes.

Yufi and Skola could only stare dejectedly at where it had been.

“If you can’t accomplish this much, don’t mess with plant colonies that have attack mimicry. Your half-baked talents will only cause greater disasters, and humans who should be killing each other will be killed by monsters instead, leaving assassination requests unfulfilled.”

After calmly admonishing them, the senior grabbed a few stems floating down from the air and left the open space.

Watching Oknodie’s back as she respectfully bowed to see the senior off, Yufi realized.

‘That must be… a fourth-year from the Foundation. So the Foundation has experts of that caliber even below the executive level…?’

The Wiheomhae Foundation is much stronger than I thought.

Meanwhile, Ishtar has only us by her side.

The Empire’s capable individuals provide only minimal support to the hero who might one day threaten the Emperor’s position.

If she needs power, she must become stronger herself, and if she needs reinforcements, she must recruit them herself.

Meanwhile, Oknodie can easily borrow talent like that through the Foundation’s power.

“This is… a complete defeat.”

“…”

Skola was right.

The gap was beyond imagination.

Her heart felt like it might crumble a little.

Even she, as the hero’s companion, felt this level of helplessness.

The hero herself must feel at least this bad, if not worse.

Yufi’s gaze followed Ishtar’s back as she lay fallen, unable to even lift her head.

Her hand tightly gripping the weeds on the ground.

What expression was Ishtar making right now?

Yufi became afraid to see that face.