Ch.5757 – Goal

<57 – Goal>

Professor Platton is an ego-item.

It means he’s a being who has ceased to be human.

“A healthy mind dwells in a healthy body. So I thought: if I possess the healthiest body and inhabit it, I could have a healthier mind than anyone else!”

“Behold! This is the ultimate healthy rare metal body I created by spending my entire fortune. A body that can regenerate even if pulverized by the Principal’s sincere punch.”

As his body emitted light and sparkled, Zhang muttered, “Titosoga would love to see this.”

“I’d like to awaken the joy of having a healthy body to you freshmen as well, but rare metal is expensive! Even if you bring a million points, it wouldn’t be enough!”

We don’t need it.

Despite the students’ genuine looks of rejection, Professor Platton revealed his lecture theme without concern.

“But there is a way to have a healthy body even with your inferior organic lumps. Develop your physique through intense exercise and increase recovery speed with abundant meals!”

The students’ eyes sparkled.

“Abundant meals?”

“Will we get food?”

“Can I eat two portions?”

Professor Platton answered enthusiastically.

“Of course! Not just two portions, you can drink ten portions if you want.”

“Woooow!”

“Professor Platton is the best!”

“The conscience of the Academy! A living intellect!”

“The greatest professor who ceased to be human! So cool!”

Professor Platton skillfully accepted the flattery pouring from all directions with a smiling face.

He raised his hand and asked.

“Do you want to eat?”

“Yes!”

“Do you want to eat a lot?”

“Yes!!”

“Then run. Run with all your might toward that mountain and return with less than 10% of your stamina remaining before 10 minutes before the end of class. This is your first mission.”

When Professor Platton patted the students’ shoulders, fist-sized muscular statues appeared on their shoulders and stuck like gum.

“Ugh, what is this?”

“Too much muscle. Gross.”

“Is this the professor shrunk to one two-hundredth of his size?”

The identity of this miniature was a kind of avatar corresponding to the professor’s minor copy. Its role was…

“Oknodie’s remaining stamina is 90%.”

“Giselle’s remaining stamina is 82%.”

“Son Ocheon’s remaining stamina is 96%.”

“Isabelle’s remaining stamina is 88%.”

A condition meter.

Or rather, a remaining stamina meter designed to plunge students into despair.

* *

On the way running to Mount Omine.

While friendly students matched pace with each other, some suddenly accelerated and climbed the mountain with all their might.

Most stamina fools fell into that category, and Isabelle was freshly impressed by Oknodie’s surprisingly strong stamina.

“She’s already out of sight.”

“Indeed she is.”

Their momentary disappointment at being left behind quickly gave way to the realization that their thinking was too hasty.

“Giselle’s remaining stamina is 75%.”

“Isabelle’s remaining stamina is 84%.”

Their stamina wasn’t decreasing.

No, it was decreasing, but it was lasting much longer than they expected.

“Is it really possible to lower stamina below 10% in this test?”

“It will be. You need to rapidly deplete your stamina at a considerable speed. Either sprint at full power for over 10 minutes or exhaust all your strength until you can’t move a finger.”

“This is maddening. Isn’t this lecture too advantageous for physical types?”

“No. The more accustomed to training a student is, the more disadvantageous this lecture becomes. Overwhelmingly so.”

“Are you saying this to me while I’m dying here?”

Seeing Giselle sweating profusely, Isabelle showed signs of envy.

“I envy your lazy body.”

“Are you mocking me? Even someone as good-natured as me gets angry at times like this.”

“I’m not mocking you. Your stamina, it went down again in that time.”

The avatar of Professor Platton sitting on Giselle’s shoulder, aware of the gaze, said:

“Giselle’s remaining stamina is 74%.”

“The rate of decrease!”

“That’s what I envy.”

Giselle realized.

Since she rarely exercised, her stamina decreased easily with minimal movement.

But for stamina fools whose daily life was exercise, a lecture focused on pure stamina depletion meant the total amount of stamina to be consumed and the effort required were on completely different levels.

“Then for Son Ocheon and Miss Oknodie…”

“It will be a difficult lecture. More difficult than all the lectures they’ve attended so far combined.”

* *

Dorothy was confident.

Outside the academy, her profession was forest keeper.

Though an apprentice, she was accustomed to moving through dense forests as if they were her home.

While forests and mountains were different terrains, the skills for sprinting through forests could be partially applied to mountains.

‘Hehe. This is somehow fun.’

The feeling of overtaking those who were stronger but falling behind due to lack of technique was truly the best.

She felt especially good when passing nobles who said things like “Impossible, keeping up with mana cultivation body enhancement techniques with just a bare body!” or “That’s not human speed,” or “To lose to a mere provincial weed-picker.”

“Dorothy’s remaining stamina is 45%.”

Considering her starting stamina was 90%, she had consumed exactly half her stamina in one hour.

If she consumed the remaining half on the return journey, she could perfectly deplete all her remaining stamina.

The plan was perfect, but reality was different.

“Huff, huff… too exhausting…!”

The closer stamina gets to 0%, the more difficult it becomes.

Numerically, 45% when close to full and 45% when approaching bottom are completely different in terms of physical burden.

Without superhuman willpower, it was virtually impossible to squeeze out every last drop of stamina to 0%.

‘I came too far!’

She envied the nobles she had proudly passed earlier and began to resent herself.

‘Wait? But aren’t there people I haven’t seen once since the start?’

Dorothy realized.

There were students who had gone faster and farther than her!

‘No matter how badly I do, I’m not last!’

There’s a certain comfort in knowing there are people worse off than yourself.

“Argh! Overtaken again!”

“Why is she so fast?!”

“Please trip!”

Dorothy snickered at the desperate cries of the imperial noble students as she passed them.

“Dorothy’s remaining stamina is 8%.”

After running with all her might, Professor Platton welcomed her with hearty laughter in the clearing.

“Excellent! Overcoming the difficulties of the return journey and arriving with stamina under 10%.”

She realized.

Even faster than when she was climbing the mountain.

That she had grown during the return journey.

“Am I first?”

“Yes, you’re first.”

“I did it!”

Though she wanted to eat a lot after running hard, after sweating so much, she didn’t feel like eating anything at all.

As she caught her breath and watched people arriving at the clearing, she could see the imperial nobles she had passed desperately running in the distance.

But strangely, as they approached, their steps toward the clearing slowed until they couldn’t arrive.

“Eeek!!! What is that?!”

“Didn’t I tell you? You must arrive with less than 10% stamina remaining. Those students have more than 10% stamina, so they’re getting help reducing it.”

The mini avatars of Professor Platton on the shoulders of students who had been lazy and were casually returning from near the starting point suddenly grew in size.

Students who couldn’t move a step, crushed and fallen, were effectively confirmed unable to enter the clearing!

“Oh my, I’m dying.”

“We’re almost there, Miss Giselle. Just walk a little more.”

Students with weak stamina collapsed flat on the clearing ground as soon as they arrived on trembling legs.

“Where were you two running? I don’t remember passing you on the way.”

“We just circled a nearby hill hundreds of times.”

“Such a method…!”

A trick discovered by Isabelle, who had learned cunning from Oknodie’s entrance exam strategy.

Since the condition for returning to the clearing was just having stamina below 10%, they minimized the return distance by using up all their stamina nearby.

“Was Oknodie doing repeat runs too?”

“No. She dashed ahead first in the lead.”

Students who had run ahead began returning one by one, but most were crushed by the growing avatars near the clearing when their stamina exceeded 10%.

“What?! It was definitely 9% before I came!”

“Massgakki’s remaining stamina is 11%.”

“My stamina recovered just because I slowed down a bit?!”

Led by the Second Imperial Princess Massgakki, countless others were desperately trying to deplete their stamina through repeated running or push-ups!

Boom- Boom- Boom-

The heads of sweating students turned toward the rumbling sound from the mountain.

“Think I’ll let you go in first?!”

“Ahhh, a crazy monkey is throwing rocks!”

“Heh. Wasted effort. If it’s about eliminating everyone but myself, I know much better methods.”

“S-sticky trap?! You cowards. Do you really have to go this far?”

“You started it first!”

“Fly up!”

“Ah, that guy used flying magic!!”

The competition among the leading group, who ranked high in stamina even among the upper classes, was on another level.

Flying rocks aimed at those running ahead, sticky traps to bind the feet of those following, and students taking flight to avoid them.

Complete chaos!

“Everyone move. Unless you want to freeze to death.”

Northern Grand Duchess Irene, who didn’t want to get involved in the struggle, created an icy path by touching the ground with one hand, freezing the entire terrain.

“Irene’s remaining stamina is 4%.”

“Just like an uncivilized barbarian from the north. She must have planned her stamina usage and poured it all out here.”

“Ugh, so cold!”

“The ice wall is too big!”

“It’s too slippery to climb over!”

Irene’s ice magic created a slide that allowed her to pass through conveniently while preventing those following from crossing the wall!

The imperial students’ initial attacks aimed at eliminating all provincial upper-class students had escalated into a fight between both sides, but everything fizzled out under Irene’s major offensive.

“I was really lucky… I’m truly glad I came in early.”

Dorothy shuddered at the sight.

No matter how confident she was in running, if there was a crazy woman freezing the mountain as she came down, Dorothy would have just slipped and fallen repeatedly on the ice.

But something seemed strange about Irene sliding down to just in front of the clearing.

“Why are there two avatars on both shoulders?”

The reason became clear when Irene arrived at the clearing.

[You have clung to the Northern Grand Duchess’s shoulder for over 1 minute without being detected.]

[Hiding Experience +10]

[Stealth Experience +3]

There was one student who had stuck close to Irene’s shoulder during the confusion and came down with her.

Just as Irene arrived at the clearing and took a step, a cunning trickster quickly rolled on the ground and threw herself into the clearing – it was Oknodie.

“Ta-da! Arrived!”

“Oknodie’s remaining stamina is 10%.”

Irene turned to look at Oknodie with surprised eyes.

* *

Northern Grand Duchess Irene.

She was a battle-hardened field magician who had traveled through numerous battlefields as a military mage.

Unlike most talents who were admitted based on their “potential,” Irene was already a somewhat trained expert despite being self-taught.

She had been verified in actual combat.

There wasn’t a commoner in the north who didn’t know her name, nor a demon who didn’t fear her.

That’s why she always had to be prepared for the risk of assassination.

<Frosty Ground>

Creates a thin layer of ice on the ground so that footsteps always make a sound.

<Cold-Blooded Space>

Freezes the surrounding air to prevent anyone from daring to approach.

<Battlefield Intuition>

Above all, her trained wild instincts instinctively detect an assassin’s approach.

All three of these trained detection methods had been completely neutralized and penetrated.

By a little girl who was proudly thinking “I did well!” while clinging to the muscle-aching Isabelle, making her suffer, with a nonchalant attitude.

‘Just what kind of harsh infiltration training must one receive to display such skills?’

Irene bit her lip unconsciously as she imagined the unfortunate upbringing of that child.