Ch.5151 – The Nature-Loving Professor

<51 – Nature-Loving Professor>

There are many eccentric professors at Gift Academy.

It’s an academy overseen by a principal who seriously dreams of world domination with actual potential to achieve it.

A dreamland repository where one can receive passionate support or conduct forbidden experiments that would be unimaginable at academies affiliated with specific countries or organizations.

While many professors coveted such support and experiments, the Wizard Professor from the Magic Department who taught the Monday third period class <Basics and Understanding of Mana Usage> had slightly different aspirations.

Her goal was to spread the excellence of Dryads, tree fairies, to as many people and as widely as possible!

Gift Academy was the world’s premier academy where she could most broadly unfold her ideals.

‘Hehe. I made the right choice becoming a professor at Gift Academy.’

From the first freshman lecture, her classroom was packed.

It was filled with students eager to learn about the greatness of nature magic.

‘Wow, look at the professor’s outfit.’

‘My goodness, how can she walk around looking so provocative?’

‘I’ve decided. From today, I’m going to become a druid.’

Professor Wizard wore vines and leaves draped around her body instead of clothes.

This wasn’t because she was an exhibitionist, but because she was a Dryad, a fairy originating from nature.

Fairies fundamentally have no reservations about showing their naturally born figures.

There were quite a few students, regardless of gender, who sat in the classroom as if entranced by her beauty, but here was one admirable student showing enthusiasm in a different direction.

‘It’s only natural for a forest keeper to attend a Dryad’s lecture!’

Among the corrupted students who registered for the class based solely on appearance, she was one of the few intellectuals.

The spirited apprentice forest keeper Dorothy.

Like Oknodie, she listened attentively to the lecture with sparkling eyes from the front row.

She believed the professor had allowed her to sit in the front row because she recognized her high learning enthusiasm, but Oknodie sitting next to her didn’t think so.

‘She said short people should sit in the very front row because they can’t see otherwise. This means I can’t slack off.’

Unlike in the game where she could always choose the back row thanks to being the tallest in class at 230cm, sitting at the very front at 133cm in reality was humiliating.

Whenever lectures got boring, it had been quite entertaining to watch the startled reactions of students sitting in front when she emanated killing intent toward them!

“Mana is a puzzle. Even if you don’t memorize or recognize the entire puzzle, if you familiarize yourself with just one small puzzle piece, you can identify it as mana through that piece.”

“It’s extremely difficult for ordinary magicians to find that piece, but nature magicians are different. They can find nature attribute mana puzzle pieces much more easily and with much higher frequency than other magicians.”

“This means they can find puzzles at a significantly faster rate than other magicians.”

A student raised their hand.

It was a B-group Imperial student with an arrogant face that might as well have had “I’m so great” written on it.

“I’m Rozini, an apprentice magician from the Red Tower. May I ask a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“Isn’t what you described a characteristic of attribute mana? Couldn’t flame sorcerers or frost sorcerers also find fire attribute or ice attribute mana puzzles, not just nature attribute users?”

Filthy fire-user.

Professor Wizard was somewhat irritated by the words of this first-year student with an attribute opposing nature.

“Well, somewhat? To some extent? Something similar to nature attribute? They might be able to imitate it, but other attributes have limitations. They’re simply not as common in nature.”

Professor Wizard eloquently spoke with a powerful tone.

“Have you ever thought about why you’re able to survive? The ground you stand on originates from nature. The food you eat every day is enjoying nature’s grace.”

“So we should always be grateful to nature, right?”

Dorothy said with a bright smile.

Professor Wizard answered with a wicked smile.

“Yes. Always be grateful. You’re able to go about your daily lives because the earth doesn’t split open and devour all beings on the surface.”

“……”

“Nature could always devour all living creatures on earth in one bite, but it’s being generous.”

What’s with this professor? She’s scary.

“The power of nature magic lies in its versatility—it can be used anytime, anywhere. Today, we’ll confirm this fact right here in this classroom.”

“That concludes the basic overview. Next, we’ll practice actually feeling nature attribute mana puzzle pieces. Everyone, put on the monocles I’ve distributed.”

Unlike her peculiar praise of nature with hints of madness, Professor Wizard was not stingy in preparing tools to help students keep up with the lesson.

This meant that while the person was dangerous, the difficulty of following the lecture was relatively easy.

“Now, you need to find nature attribute mana puzzles in 10 different objects in this classroom. For the student who finds all 10 first…”

“Will you give us points?”

“Or an advantage for earning credits?”

“I’ll give you the opportunity to become my teaching assistant.”

But she also had the drawback of ‘naturally’ dragging students into the abyss of evil as easily as breathing.

Students who didn’t know how difficult it would be to become a teaching assistant with their busy academic schedules excitedly put on their monocles and looked around, thinking they would also get bonus points.

Dorothy was also enthusiastically looking around when she noticed one student whose reaction was different from the others.

“Oknodie, what’s wrong? You need to search hard to become a teaching assistant!”

“Let those who want it do it.”

While students from Groups A and B were competing with each other saying they couldn’t lose, Oknodie, the most outstanding talent in Group A, clicked her tongue like a sage who had seen through the world.

“Dorothy, we have to take two common mandatory courses for all departments, three department courses, and choose two liberal arts courses. That’s seven courses in one semester.”

“So?”

“Each lecture is 2 hours, and with 7 courses usually held twice a week, that’s 28 hours of lectures per week, right?”

“Yes. It’s so great that we can learn a little and become much smarter!”

“Do you think the professors don’t know this fact?”

“Huh?”

“There are 168 hours in a week, and lectures only take 28 hours, leaving 140 hours. So they can throw about 20 hours worth of assignments at us, right?”

“Wha-?”

“Get it? Professors are time assassins. If you become a teaching assistant on top of that, you won’t even have enough time for assignments.”

Dorothy muttered in shock, “Then when do we sleep?” but Oknodie, who had spread the harsh truth about the academy, just turned her head with an indifferent face.

‘It’s not particularly difficult for an old-timer like me.’

Since she had absolutely no desire to become a teaching assistant, she deliberately slowed her pace of pressing the monocle button, pretending not to know.

Stealthily.

Seeing the vines growing along the walls blocking the classroom door, it was clear this person was no less of a character-ruined individual than Professor Bronze.

A confinement play that physically prevents students from escaping the classroom until the lecture ends, without them knowing!

‘Why are they struggling so much to find these? It’s not that hard.’

Unlike her worries about not being able to sense mana in reality compared to the game, she had been using wand magic just fine.

It was the same during practice with Jona, and with the added effect of the monocle’s <Mana Detection Assistance> function, she was invincible.

‘I can see everything.’

The wood of the wooden desk.

The dirt floor of the classroom.

A portable mirror ball toy some idiot brought.

A thief squirrel scurrying under desks picking students’ pockets.

A beetle stuck to a female student’s trouser hem, probably mistaking her fragrance for tree sap, and so on.

Objects containing nature mana puzzle pieces were scattered everywhere.

‘Can’t someone just find all 10 quickly and end this?’

She had already found over 50 puzzle pieces just by looking around out of boredom.

“Hehe. I’ve already found seven!”

While forest keeper Dorothy was excitedly pressing the monocle button like a fish in water collecting puzzle pieces, a student from Group B also stood out.

“Is this supposed to be difficult? Everyone can see them, right? You’re not pretending not to see them, are you?”

“……”

“I want to hit that guy.”

“Hold back. He’s in Group B too.”

“Magicians are always so annoying.”

Sandcooker, an apprentice magician from the Yellow Tower with earth sorcerer talent.

This talented individual, who was destined to grow robustly as Professor Wizard’s disciple in the original work, had already started showing off.

“Professor, I’ve found all ten.”

“First-year Sandcooker. Excellent. I grant you the position of teaching assistant to help with my lectures from now on.”

“It’s an honor to be of help to you, Professor.”

“Ah, I found them all too!”

Dorothy, who had found all 10 slightly later, stamped her feet in disappointment.

Professor Wizard’s eyes sparkled as she spoke.

“This year we have many students talented in nature magic.”

“Professor, wasn’t the teaching assistant position limited to the first person only?”

Sandcooker glared at Dorothy with watchful eyes.

Professor Wizard nodded.

“The position of teaching assistant is an honor. A privilege granted only to the most outstanding talents.”

“I knew it!”

“When today’s lecture ends, I’d like Sandcooker to place all 100 monocles back in their cases, stack them neatly in the box, and carry them to my research lab.”

“…Perhaps the honor of becoming a teaching assistant is something I should share with a friend rather than enjoy alone? Please make her a teaching assistant too!”

“Cooperation and coexistence. That’s not a bad way of thinking, naturally. If Sandcooker insists so much, I’ll make Dorothy a teaching assistant as well.”

“P-Professor? I don’t really need to be a teaching—”

Crack.

The podium collapsed following Professor Wizard’s hand gesture.

“What did you just say?”

“…I meant I wanted to do it even if it takes up my time! Really, truly!”

“I’m very pleased to see such enthusiastic students. I’ll be counting on you both after the lecture ends.”

Poor Dorothy.

Despite all the hints, she tried too hard.

Oknodie mercilessly ignored Dorothy’s pleading gaze asking for help.

* *

After the lecture.

Professor Wizard was reviewing the visual data uploaded from the monocles linked to the magic clock.

While checking the students’ achievements, something unusual caught her eye.

“What is this student?”

She hadn’t told the students, but the monocles had an ‘auto-capture’ function.

During the lecture, she said that puzzle pieces would only be counted if they pressed the button, but in reality, the monocles automatically captured what the eyes recognized.

This was a rescue device designed to identify diamonds in the rough—those who unconsciously detected mana but didn’t recognize it as a mana puzzle piece.

But an incredible record had been uploaded to this rescue device.

<Nature Mana Puzzle Pieces Discovered: 122>

<Time to Discover 10 Pieces: 7 seconds>

<Nature Mana Puzzle Pieces Captured: 10>

<Time to Capture 10 Pieces: 30 minutes>

10 pieces in 30 minutes.

A fairly decent level of talent at Gift Academy, which was full of talented individuals.

However, in terms of potential, it far surpassed the records of apprentice earth sorcerer Sandcooker and apprentice forest keeper Dorothy whom she had chosen as teaching assistants.

“What kind of background does this student have?”

Could she be a secret disciple raised by the Yellow Tower Master?

Or perhaps a wild girl raised directly by the forest master?

Professor Wizard couldn’t contain her curiosity and accessed Oknodie’s academy life record.

<Special Notes>

-Has a hobby of collecting stones.

-Received reports from guardian that she occasionally eats stones, but this has not been confirmed yet.

“…She eats stones? Is she a stone golem?”

Does feeding children stones increase their nature affinity?

Curiosity sparkled in Professor Wizard’s eyes.

“I should experiment on the seniors.”