episode_0026

The old instructor dragged his feet into the noisy auditorium.

Frederick didn’t like his job. Many people worried that their work and workplace weren’t suited to them, but he was truly sick of this job.

Entering the room, he saw giggling students before his eyes.

Idiots with no seriousness or will to learn. Did they even know how much their parents had poured into getting them in here?

‘What happens to these punks who just came for a diploma is none of my business.’

He suppressed his irritation inwardly and stood up.

The prosthetic on his left arm creaked.

Back then, it was a combat-grade product he’d paid good money to have installed, but after retiring as a hunter, he’d rarely used it. Now, it was just a burden, serving only to balance his body weight.

‘It’s about time for maintenance.’

After retiring with severe injuries from the field, he had been assigned here through an acquaintance’s introduction.

He wasn’t naturally inclined to teach, but he did his best. He always studied and learned by visiting sites to keep up with real-world situations, then imparted that knowledge to his students.

‘Thank you, Instructor-nim! Thanks to you, my skills have improved incomparably!’

‘Look at this! I think I’m about to reach B-rank!’

Watching students grow from a blank slate and draw their own pictures was a small joy that made his busy life as an instructor worthwhile. The sight of his former students expressing gratitude was still vivid in his mind.

He had worked there for nearly 15 years, but at some point, the academy began to fall apart.

‘Damn it, I’ve endured it for over five years, that’s enough. It’s time to submit my resignation.’

He imbued his scabbard with magic and slammed it against the floor. One by one, the chattering students looked up at him.

Where did it all go wrong? At some point, as the number of new students increased, their quality declined, and even the decent teachers gradually left.

On the first day of class, he instructed them, as always, to pick up their training weapons.

But he saw some brats who came to class empty-handed, without even weapons. A weapon was a hunter’s life, a part of their body…

When he asked why, their answer was absurd.

“Our seniors told us not to carry them…”

Frederick sighed.

That again, freshman hazing.

The school’s quality declined as it filled with riffraff who flocked there just to get an academy diploma. Tradition and order had been clumsily twisted into a means of self-display for pigs who only had brute strength.

However, it seemed the higher-ups were not only condoning it but subtly encouraging it.

“…At best, retired hunters who only fleece money from students’ noses? A private academy whose entire experience is shallow? I know more than those instructor rascals!”

‘…In the end, aren’t I also one of those instructor rascals?’

He sneered inwardly.

He blamed the students and the school’s situation, but wasn’t he himself just a pig mechanically doing his job and gorging on the salary the board of directors threw at him, instead of trying to change anything?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

His wrinkles deepened with annoyance as he instructed the students. They had all copied a lot from somewhere, but their fundamentals were weak. That darn SNS.

As he went around guiding the students, he encountered a blond female student with striking red eyes. She was the brat he’d punched before class began. Violet Ruzilin, he thought.

She was swinging her sword diligently, shouting “Hyah! Hyah!” with effort.

It was a mess.

“…It’s that disrespectful brat from earlier! Anyone would think she was the conductor!…”

He guided her with irritation.

However, she diligently began to follow his instructions in her own way. Before long, the trajectory of the female student’s sword returned to normal.

She saw her small achievement and giggled.

‘She learns faster than I thought.’

After some time passed, Frederick checked her again while assessing the students’ aura blade emission levels.

That idiot, seemingly unable to control her unique ability, created what looked like a clone and knocked down another student.

When he asked her, she said she didn’t know how to generate an aura blade. He was dumbfounded and asked how she got in.

“…Special admission.”

Frederick felt stifled inside.

So the school’s standards had fallen this far in five years. As he turned away with a heavy heart, the youngster snapped back at him.

“But this is an academy!”

“What did you say?”

“I came here to learn because I don’t know, so what’s the problem?”

He turned back, indignant, to give her a piece of his mind. He met her eyes. It wasn’t a defiant gaze.

‘Did she truly come in knowing nothing?’

Suddenly, Frederick felt ashamed.

‘I’m an instructor. Why didn’t I try to teach her?’

He guided her once more. When she didn’t seem to understand, he scolded her and personally showed her.

Before long, aura blade bloomed from the youngster’s sword like a red flower. Frederick’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.

‘What on earth is this? She can use her unique ability and manipulate Aether…? Why couldn’t she control an aura blade until now?’

The female student jumped around happily at her success.

“I did it! Hehehe…”

Yes, he liked that attitude. When was the last time he saw a student so joyful about such a simple learning?

The old instructor found something he wanted to confirm. It was curiosity about this freshman who absorbed what she learned like a blank slate.

“Don’t play around this weekend; practice that instead. Got it? I’ll be checking!”

“Yeeeeees…”

Violet Ruzilin, he thought. Frederick watched the student leave the gym.

His gaze, now slightly softer than before, followed her.

***

Without even time to celebrate victory, we fought battle after battle in the forest from Saturday morning until noon.

“Number 2! Number 1! Shields up!”

“Number 5 to the rear, Number 3, attack!”

“Generate aura blade! Stab!”

“Meeow!”

“Die! You ugly cat!”

-Whoosh!

“Meeow…”

After learning how to generate an aura blade, combat became quite a bit easier. We no longer had to specifically strike the back of their heads, and our attacks clearly landed on the magical beasts.

“That instructor named Frederick! He’s a bit strict, but he definitely seems skilled!”

“Yeah, especially with the swordsmanship and aura blade skills we gained!”

Before mastering aura blade generation, the exchange ratio between Pelynot and the Violet squad was over 0:3, but in battles fought after mastering aura blade, it rose to a whopping 1:1. Very satisfying growth!

Of course, sacrifices were unavoidable. Even now, Number 4, while stabbing with a spear, had her leg half severed by the beast’s claws.

The Pelynot died, but we whimpered on the ground for a while.

“Uwaaah…! My leg!”

“Ugh… this won’t do! Let’s reverse-generate and summon again!”

“Ugh… but the reverse-generation speed is a bit slow?”

“It hurts too much! Do something!”

We looked at each other and nodded.

“Aah… the reverse-generation speed is slow! It’s better to just get your head chopped off or die instantly so you don’t feel the pain. When Number 5 had her head chopped off, the pain was less.”

“Ugh.. wait, should we try that?”

“It hurts, so just do anything…! What? Wait! Don’t hit me! Ack!”

Number 2 brought her warhammer down on the back of Number 4’s head, who was in the process of dissolving into dust.

-CRACK!

“Ack!”

“Ugh!”

“My head hurts… but the pain from my severed arm is gone!”

Number 4 immediately became a corpse and disappeared.

Immediately, Number 4 was regenerated. Number 4, whose head had been accidentally smashed, fumed wildly before looking at her leg, bewildered.

“Hey! Why did you suddenly hit me…? Oh, the pain in my leg is gone!”

“This can’t be…!”

We discovered a groundbreaking truth, as revolutionary as Pasteur’s vaccine or Fleming’s penicillin. It was that when necessary, it was more convenient to quickly eliminate the source of pain than to reverse-generate.

“This way, we won’t have to worry about injuries, right? No need to cling to getting healing potions.”

“Still, our mana isn’t infinite. Let’s reverse-generate if we can.”

“Should we try to get guns or grenades later? That would be faster.”

“That’s a good idea!”

After discovering an easy solution for injuries, our adventures became even more aggressive.

The exploration, which saw an exchange of three Pelynot, six Skullkit packs, and four Violets, quickly reached its climax. We didn’t even count the insignificant mutated magical beasts that died in the process.

“Found it!”

After exploring all morning and afternoon, we found all the crystal flowers. The sun had already dipped low in the sky.

“Achieved! Mana 8000!”

“Let’s summon them all!”

Excluding Number 7, who was waiting in the dormitory, and Number 8, who was collecting data, the forest vicinity swarmed with 14 Violets.

“Whoa! Whoa!”

“We’re everywhere!”

Number 1, standing in the center with hands on her hips, declared:

“With this many, we can definitely conquer the dungeon. Tomorrow morning, we’re taking the bus to ‘that dungeon’ in the southwest!”

“Let’s gooo!!”

Everyone cheered loudly.

“Um…”

One of the Violets raised her arm and asked a question. It was Number 12.

“…Question, what about weapons?”

“Well, the main force will be armed with 3-star weapons, and the rest will fight with daggers or tools.”

Immediately, shouts of protest echoed from all directions.

“What? No! Number 1, are you showing off just because you’re the first clone?”

“We want to fight comfortably with proper weapons too!”

Number 9 calmed the other Violets.

“Now, now! Calm down. If we look around in the dungeon, we might even find something better than Polaris student weapons.”

Another Violet suggested a new idea.

“What if we could copy weapons?”

Everyone’s gaze focused on her.

“Copy? What are you talking about?”

“Well, think about it. Right now, we’re all wearing the same uniform, hood, and hat.”

We nodded. It was common knowledge since the lab that the clothes we wore were copied.

“Come to think of it, weren’t outfits also items in *Crimson Scholar*? Why are these being copied?”

“Huh? That’s right!”

We had forgotten a crucial point. That outfits weren’t just simple decorations but legitimate equipment.

“Why didn’t we think to check the clothes in the status window?”

Number 1 immediately checked her status window.

**[Polaris Student Uniform ★★★]** Student uniform of Polaris Comprehensive Academy. Though it appears to be an ordinary student uniform at first glance, it is mixed with special synthetic materials harvested from magical beasts and other dimensions, ensuring a certain level of blade-proof and bullet-proof performance. The freshness of youth is enveloped in protection. …

“It’s real?”

“Everyone, check it out. All the clones can bring up their status windows.”

We all checked our status windows and confirmed that everyone was wearing a [Polaris Student Freshman Uniform ★★★].

“If uniforms are copied, then maybe the equipment we’re holding can be too…”

“Let’s try it right now! Number 2, take out a 3-star one-handed sword!”

Number 4 took out a 3-star one-handed sword and concentrated. The target was Number 10 standing over there.

Mana drained violently, and glowing droplets of red Aether intertwined and began to extend over Number 10’s hand.

A moment later, a long one-handed sword appeared in Number 10’s hand.

“It worked!”

“This is possible?”

“Check the status window!”

We gathered around the status window that Number 10 had brought up.

Clearly written, ‘Polaris Training One-Handed Sword (Arming Sword) ★★★)’ was visible.

“Good. While copying weapons consumes some mana, it seems like our armament problem is solved with this.”

“The era of fighting with tools is over!”

As everyone rejoiced, Number 2 frantically urged Number 7, who was in the dormitory.

“-Number 7! Wallet! Give me the wallet!-”

“-Huh? What’s going on?-”

“-That…! We’ve been caught!-”

“No way…!”

“Everyone, pay attention! Look closely! There’s something even more important. If objects can be copied, couldn’t we do other things too?”

Number 2, who had suddenly received the wallet, pulled out a single 100 credit bill. The red eyes of all those sharing her thoughts sparkled with greed and curiosity.

“Good! Try it!”

Number 2 began to furiously copy and scatter bills.

“Money can be copied!!”

“Hoorayyyy!”

We excitedly picked up the money.

However, Number 12 pointed to a corner of a bill.

“Uh… but everyone, look at this.”

Upon inspection, the serial numbers were all identical. All the money we were holding looked exactly the same.

“Darn… so we can’t play at counterfeiting.”

“Plus, there’s that problem too.”

Number 7 pointed to the bills scattered on the ground.

Some of the bills flew away on the wind. The green bills, flying in the sunset light, disintegrated after a moment, emitting the unique glow of Aether.

“…If they get too far from us, do they just disappear?”

We threw a one-handed sword on the ground and collectively moved far away. The sword instantly disintegrated into sparkling dust and vanished.

“Darn, we can’t pull off any scams.”

“Yeah, I was hoping to print a bunch of money and get 5-star equipment…”

Number 2 encouraged everyone.

“Still, the fact that 3-star equipment can be copied is a definite advantage. Though it’s questionable whether 4-star or 5-star equipment can be copied as well later on.”

“The problem that’s been bothering us has been solved this easily. Mana can be secured by getting other herbs or equipment, and our level will grow. So what’s left is…”

“The inventory problem. We can’t just live with weapons piled up in the dormitory.”

Everyone vehemently agreed.

While it would be great to carry everything we needed at all times, the transport capacity allowed to one Violet was the same as what a typical teenage girl could carry, regardless of the seniors’ ban on carrying weapons.

Transferring weapons one by one was also cumbersome.

What was needed there was an inventory.

An inventory is a magical tool in games that allows a single person to carry a mountain of luggage the size of a moving company. This concept is usually left as ‘gameplay concession,’ like ‘guns go off in my universe,’ but some games explain the inventory concept as an in-game setting.

*Crimson Scholar* was one such game.

“We’ll secure that item that the ‘Scholar’ will get five years from now.”

The Violets nodded.

My goal was the .

It was an item that gave inventory functionality, obtained by the game’s protagonist, ‘The Scholar,’ in the early tutorial. A bound item with no rank displayed.

“Based on this, we’ll plunder tons of dungeons and leave this school in one year.”

“Living a life of comfort and abundance.”

That was our long-term goal.

The impromptu meeting ended there. We descended through the setting sunlit forest and returned to the dormitory.

As we descended for a while, Number 7 relayed an urgent call.

“-Hey! Guys. Big trouble! Buy cup noodles!-”

“-Huh? What’s going on?-”

“-That…! We’ve been caught!-”

“No way…!”

“…Ms. Ruzilin, why did you take my snacks without saying anything?”

I had to face an exasperated Daphne in the dormitory.

“I’m sorry!”