Martial Arts Class
Class A finally arrived at the site of their lesson.
Past a thicket of towering trees, a wide open field spread out in the heart of the mountain. The sun hung in the middle of the forest as if welcoming them all, and birdsong and the hum of insects flowed together like the music of a concert hall.
It was a place of unmatched beauty, and yet…
"Hah… hah… fuck…"
"Ugh… haaah…"
Most of the people looking at it were in no condition to appreciate the scenery.
The students lay sprawled across the field, every last one of them drained. The hippos had already gone back down the mountainside, and the teaching assistants were holding out water canteens to the students face-down in the dirt.
The students took the canteens and drank. The drink had a peculiar flavor—sweet, with a faintly spicy aftertaste—and as they swallowed it, their thirst faded and their fatigue began to lift.
Of course, for Ainz, who had nothing whatsoever to do with thirst or fatigue, the only thing he registered was that peculiar taste.
Then white birds came flying over the students' heads. Everyone blinked and watched the sight unfold.
"Welcome to my class, everyone!"
The students turned. Beyond the oncoming birds, a tall woman was walking toward them with both arms spread wide.
She had a healthy, sun-browned complexion and a solid, muscular build, her hair twisted into several thick braids bound with cord—an unusual style.
The students scrambled to their feet.
Hongpeng Tun Sokum Marlat.
A native of the druid tribes of the Mekria Grasslands within the Dark Coalition, she was the woman who had single-handedly faced the colossal undead monster known as the Kundar Hydra—a creature that had laid waste to four territories—and over five days had broken a hundred of its necks to claim a dramatic victory.
Scouted by Kizen on the strength of that feat, Hongpeng had been teaching Martial Arts to the students ever since.
Hongpeng herself was quite the eccentric, and the Kizen elders had pushed back when she was first appointed, but when it came to raw ability, there was no room for argument.
Birds flew down and settled on her outstretched fingers.
"Then, everyone stand up, please."
She spoke with a slightly clumsy accent that sat just a touch off from the Continental Common Tongue.
"Form up in four-column file, please."
"…?"
When the students just stood there blankly, not understanding, the teaching assistants stepped in as if they were used to this.
"Form up in four columns, single file."
"Move it, move it."
Looking thoroughly bewildered, the students lined up. Hongpeng took the lead, with the teaching assistants flanking the ranks on either side.
"Then, we go."
Hongpeng broke into a run. The students at the front scrambled after her, and before long the entire class was running—an abrupt, unannounced jog that had come out of nowhere.
"Healthy body hold healthy spirit! Martial Arts need strong stamina as foundation!"
Her speech was clumsy, as if she had only recently learned the Continental Common Tongue, but what she meant was perfectly clear.
As she gradually picked up speed, the students at the front struggled to match her.
"Hah! Hah!"
"Hoooh! Hoo!"
While everyone else was running themselves ragged, Hongpeng eased her pace just enough to continue the lesson.
The fundamentals of Martial Arts. Its spirit. Its meaning.
In short, Martial Arts was a class for learning combat techniques that wrapped the body in jet-black to push physical enhancement to the extreme, then used that power to fight.
Originally it had been Magic Swordsmanship, focused primarily on swordplay—but necromancers found even carrying a staff a hassle, let alone a sword, and holding a blade made casting magic inconvenient. So the curriculum had been consolidated into bare-handed Martial Arts.
Once a practitioner reached a certain level, silk-like jet-black would flow from the body and form into garments—the Black Robes, a signature technique of battle necromancers.
Plenty of male students romanticized that technique, and more than a few chose Martial Arts as their major just for the Black Robes.
And because it had grown out of Magic Swordsmanship, from the second year onward Kizen also taught every kind of weapon technique under the same discipline.
"Many trees. Careful, please!"
The run continued even through dense undergrowth and thick-leaved trees. The four-column formation fell apart as everyone started dodging trunks and following Hongpeng however they could.
Most of them crashed through the brush in a panic, but a few climbed up and ran along the branches instead.
Every one of those was a Martial Arts hopeful, and they were showing off their specialties as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.
One of the teaching assistants leapt up into the trees and gave them a thumbs-up. The hopefuls' faces lit up at once.
"Man, I envy those Martial Arts kids. Tch!"
Dick grumbled, having just taken a tree trunk full in the face.
"Ugh! Hey, Simon! You okay?"
Dick's face was bright red. Simon answered without much thought.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"Hah! Hah! What kind of stamina do you even—! Cough, cough!"
"Doesn't everyone do this much running?"
Les Hill, where Simon's family home stood in the Kingdom of Baldwin, sat right in the middle of a brutal mountain range.
To Simon, who treated those mountains like a neighborhood walking path, this level of running was barely a warm-up.
Ainz, too, was mixed in among the students and running as if it were nothing at all.
Ainz had the body of a pure mage, but in the novel Overlord, even a pure mage at level 100 received roughly one-third of the strength correction relative to their level. That was enough to smash mid-tier monsters like ogres or cyclopes to pieces with nothing but a staff—or even bare hands.
And though Ainz had been born human this time, his body itself was closer to undead, so fatigue and exhaustion simply did not apply.
Even the teaching assistants—former Martial Arts majors—had beads of sweat forming on their foreheads, yet Simon and Ainz both looked perfectly at ease.
Simon did not notice, but Hongpeng's eyes were gleaming as she watched both him and Ainz.
Up and down the steep mid-mountain slopes, the run stretched past thirty minutes.
Class A was still racing after Hongpeng in a daze when, all at once, the path simply ended.
Ahead of them, two cliffs came into view, and between them a mountain stream churned white with foam.
"That gorge ahead—you cross by leaping with jet-black."
At Hongpeng's words, a few students went pale with fear.
"Y-you want us to jump that?"
"Is fine. Just need little technique. Like raising jet-black under sole of foot—this time, you shoot it from bottom of foot."
Hongpeng leapt into the air as a demonstration. Black smoke exploded beneath her feet, and she showed off double and even triple jumps midair. Gasps of admiration burst out from all sides.
She tumbled down to the ground and said,
"No need even for midair jump. In the instant your stepping foot plant, you spray jet-black from foot like explode it. Feeling of stamping jet-black and springing up."
Hongpeng, still at the front, sprinted past the students, planted her foot, and leapt—soaring several meters before landing lightly on the far side of the gorge.
"Come, please!"
She waved her arms and grinned.
The students following her found their thoughts growing complicated. The water in the gorge was not particularly deep, but nobody wanted to fall in and become a laughingstock this early in the semester.
Those who needed more resolve quietly slowed down, while the confident ones shouted and charged forward.
"Hyaaaaaah!"
Five of them jumped first. Faint black smoke could be seen flowing under each of their feet.
Three of the five landed cleanly. One tumbled on impact but still made it across. The last one lacked the leap power and only just managed to stretch out an arm and catch the cliff edge—but at least he avoided becoming the gorge's first punchline.
"Well done!"
Hongpeng came over and pulled him up by the hand. The student climbed the slope with an awkward smile.
"Timing of release jet-black little late. Next time, faster!"
"Thank you, Professor!"
Other students followed, planting their feet and launching themselves. Nobody had enrolled at Kizen just for the image, and of the roughly twenty who had tried so far, not a single one had fallen into the gorge.
"I'm going first, Simon!"
Simon looked lost in thought, and Dick waved a finger at him before taking his turn.
Dick planted his feet, pressed his knees together, and launched himself powerfully into the air.
Ainz watched at a leisurely pace. After seeing Meilin just barely make it, he stepped forward next in line after Dick.
Ainz hopped up with a light little bounce from a standing start. There was no need to make a spectacle of it.
"Waaaah!"
Meanwhile, the girls let out cheers looking at Ainz—and at someone above him. It was not Dick. That side of things was receiving a pitifully total lack of attention.
Hector spun his body high in the air, then planted both feet on the dirt and slid to a stop. The landing was perfect. Ainz touched down lightly and walked forward with complete calm.
"…"
Hector glanced sideways at Ainz. It was the same look he had worn back when he was keeping tabs on Simon.
Jumping high and landing with a flourish might look like better performance, but landing stably after a low, light hop was actually harder. And Ainz had covered a greater distance besides.
Of course, Ainz had no interest in Hector and ignored him. The only annoyance was the girls staring at both Hector and Ainz himself with flushed faces.
It was not particularly strange. Hector was a masculine, handsome man with strong features and a solid build, while Ainz was a handsome man with a languid air, a slender frame, and a decent height.
"Well done!"
Hongpeng beamed at both of them and gave a thumbs-up. Hector returned the thumbs-up, then finished with a crisp bow from the waist.
"Nice, Hector!"
"As expected!"
He high-fived the faction members who had already crossed.
Ainz offered only a light nod and found a spot for himself. Dick, who had failed his landing and planted his face in the dirt, muttered while staring at Hector.
"I just can't warm up to that guy."
"Just admit you're jealous."
"…Screw you."
Dick shot Ainz a sidelong look, then watched the whispering girls and pursed his lips with an expression of pure disgust at the world.
Then a second round of cheers went up. Everyone turned to look—Simon was jumping.
Simon's body came to a perfect stop right in front of a nearby boulder, and sure enough, Hector's face crumpled.
"Very well done!"
Simon bowed to Hongpeng, then came back to the students and high-fived Dick.
"Now, other students jump too!"
Unlike their earlier hesitation, most of the students succeeded. Only two people in the whole class failed—and even then, teaching assistants waiting discreetly below the gorge caught them, so nobody got thoroughly soaked.
"Hmm…"
Dick had opened a notebook and was writing something. Curious, Simon asked,
"What are you doing?"
"Recruitment list for group classes. They start next week, so I should get ready."
The notebook was packed with names of students worth watching, the subjects they excelled at, the majors they were aiming for, their personalities, and more.
Ainz had done some thinking of his own. Aside from Toxicology and Hemomancy, he was confident in everything, so as long as he did not pick up freeloading landmines he would be fine. Landing an ace in either Toxicology or Hemomancy would be even better.
"How's it looking from what you've checked so far?"
"Our class is strong overall. Everyone's good, but…"
Dick closed the notebook as he answered Simon's question and shrugged.
"That one seems kind of mediocre. Once the protection period ends, she might drop out pretty fast."
Simon looked in the direction Dick was watching. The girl Ainz had pushed up onto a hippo earlier was being carried up in a teaching assistant's arms. She had failed to climb by stepping on jet-black.
"Everyone here? Then we go next area!"
The moment every student was up, Hongpeng started running again without so much as a breath of rest. The students startled and took off after her.
After twenty more minutes of running, they broke out of the forest into an open hillside. The gentle slope made it easy to build speed.
And just as everyone was following Hongpeng, the exact same situation from only a few hours earlier began to play out again.
The very same herd of hippos that had brought the students here was climbing the mountainside from the opposite direction.
"Huh? Uh…?"
"They're coming this way! Professor!"
But Hongpeng and the other teaching assistants had already vanished.
The students stopped in a panic, but the approaching hippos showed no intention of slowing down.
Still, this was Kizen—the students' crisis-escape abilities were fairly solid.
One girl cast a curse of exhaustion to drop the lead hippos in front of her and form a wall. A boy used black magic to dig into the ground and lie down, waiting for the herd to pass.
Some students climbed onto the hippos and shouted with leisurely abandon. Others shaped jet-black into ropes and evacuated up into the trees.
As the hippos charged, Ainz casually activated a skill.
Aura of Despair II
(Panic)
It was an aura that inflicted penalties through fear effects. Each tier was divided into Stage 1 Fear, Stage 2 Panic, Stage 3 Confusion, Stage 4 Insanity, and Stage 5 Instant Death.
Fear was a status ailment that made the target afraid and imposed penalties on every action. Panic was a status that forced the target to flee from the one who inflicted it, rendering all combat actions impossible against that person. Confusion did exactly what it said—plunging the target into confusion for a set time unless cured. Insanity was a thoroughly annoying permanent bad status that would not heal without a third party's recovery methods. Instant Death needed no explanation.
Ainz activated Stage 2. Having no intention of throwing the surroundings into chaos, he kept it active for only 0.2 seconds—and the hippos flinched, parting to either side and clearing a path for him.
Everyone was escaping the crisis in their own way, and the hippos themselves were being properly controlled. The ones that had fallen were avoided by the herd on their own.
Simon had somehow dodged the hippos and made it to the far side. Dick, who had climbed up using a pole of jet-black, was over there too.
Then teaching assistants descended from the sky, clapping their hands and shouting.
"All right, all right—no time to sit around sprawled out! Get up!"
"The hippos will turn around and come back down soon! Everyone on your feet!"
At the word hippos, the students leapt up in terror. A teaching assistant gestured down the slope.
"The professor is already waiting below! We leave immediately."
Another full-speed sprint began. After they passed through a dense stand of trees, Hongpeng was waving from a flat stretch of ground blooming with colorful flowers.
"No more obstacles! Full speed to the professor!"
"Waaaaah!"
The students roared and charged down the flower-covered hill.
"Good work! Now rest!"
Hongpeng shouted. The students dropped to the ground as if they had been waiting for exactly that, and the teaching assistants—who had somehow prepared them in advance—started handing out drinks.
As the tension broke, noisy laughter erupted all around.
"Huh? Look over there!"
"Food!"
In the middle of their rest, Kizen servants arrived pulling a meal cart. Everyone's eyes went wide.
"Normally you eat after whole class finish, but I think students' stamina almost gone, so I contact Kizen already. Is okay?"
"Kyaaa!"
"You're the best, Professor!"
The menu was a high-protein spread built around meat.
Kizen's food was famous for its quality, and the portions were generous. There were even options for special diets—soy meat for vegetarians, and so on.
Everyone took their food and sat on the scenic grass, enjoying the meal while looking out over the mountains and the lake.
Simon and Dick settled in the shade of a tree.
"Man, there's really no professor like this."
At some point Dick, like the other students, had fallen under the spell of Martial Arts class and was laying on the praise.
"Using her own class time to feed the students? That would never happen with those sticklers at Kizen."
Simon nodded in agreement, but…
"That's a little different from what I heard, though."
"What is?"
"I heard Professor Hongpeng is actually very much a typical Kizen professor."
Dick made a face that said he had no idea what that meant.
"That pure child-of-nature, spring-water-clean Professor Hongpeng? Come on, I don't know where you got that info, but it's garbage. Total garbage."
Simon blinked. He had heard it directly from Lorraine, Nephthys's daughter—that was why.
In truth, even the pure image Hongpeng projected, even the clumsy pronunciation of the Continental Common Tongue, was a kind of persona.
At Kizen, the competition for survival among professors was fierce. Professors with poor results got cut the same way students got expelled. That was why they all tried to earn good reputations from as many students as possible, pad their own achievements, and take talented students as their direct disciples.
Hongpeng was that type as well. The persona was a social strategy—being seen as "the minority-tribe professor with an unusual accent because she's not used to the Continental Common Tongue, and a pure personality"—so that people would lower their guard around her.
You could tell just by looking at the skill with which she had been driving the students until a moment ago.
Then Hongpeng clapped her hands and drew every student's attention.
"Students! Finish up, please. We leave again in ten minutes."
At that, the teaching assistants shot to their feet and shouted.
"We leave in ten minutes!"
"Finish your meals and get ready!"
The teaching assistants moved around spreading Hongpeng's words. The students who had been lounging at ease finally started clearing their trays and loosening up.
"We're doing more?"
"I thought we were just going to rest and ride the hippos back…"
The students murmured as they gathered. The teaching assistants bustled about, and the moment the students had all lined up, they approached.
The teaching assistants personally fastened plain, crude white bracelets onto their arms. They were heavier than they looked.
"Channel jet-black into bracelet, please."
At Hongpeng's words, the students sent jet-black into the bracelets without much suspicion—and then…
"Hah!"
"Wh-what the—?"
Their bodies suddenly buckled downward.
"Everyone know Exhaust Curse, yes?"
Hongpeng put her hands on her hips and smiled.
"Next course is there."
She pointed at the very steep hill they had just come down. At the top of the hill, a teaching assistant was waving with a flag planted in the ground.
"You go to top of hill while carrying Exhaust Curse."
Every student's face went white, but none of them dared protest to a Kizen professor.
"Prepare now, please. I check who fall behind."
Only then did the students finish processing the situation, and they took their places on the starting line with rigid faces.
Ainz looked troubled. He had complete immunity to curses in the first place, so the Exhaust Curse had not taken hold on him at all.
"Good. Then—start!"
At Hongpeng's shout, every student in Class A charged forward in a rush.
At first, even with the curse weighing them down, they all walked upright for the sake of dignity—but from the midsection onward, as the slope grew steeper, there was no mercy. Commoner and noble alike had to crawl forward on their bellies through the dirt.
Painful breathing and groans broke out everywhere. Their whole bodies were filthy with soil, but with Hongpeng and the teaching assistants watching, they had no choice but to keep going.
Simon and Hector were at the very front—and even those two were crawling.
Ainz walked along in the middle of the pack with his posture only moderately lowered. He saw no need to roll around in the dirt just for the performance.
Then Ainz looked at Meilin. She was climbing by computing a resistance formula and canceling the curse on her own.
Not happening, Meilin. Your stamina is weak, so build some of it here.
Ainz temporarily overloaded Meilin's brain and drastically reduced the output of her resistance formula.
Meilin visibly staggered and dropped her posture lower. She had no way of knowing who had reduced the output of her resistance formula, and with an expression she would never, ever show Ainz, she climbed the rest of the way while cursing furiously inside her head.
Ainz maintained a moderate ranking and climbed while keeping an eye on Meilin from behind.
Time passed, and the students came up one by one. Even those who had been struggling with the hill from sheer lack of stamina started to make it as the curse's effect gradually weakened.
"I… I'm gonna die."
Dick had come up with a fairly high ranking, but a moment later he joined the group of students vomiting in the distance. Simon went over with him and patted his back.
Aside from a few who had fallen behind with exhaustion symptoms, everyone made it to the top—but the fatigue piled up from this class was enormous.
Every student lay there unable to so much as twitch a finger. If they had to ride the hippos back as well, roughly half of Class A would drop out.
Fortunately, Hongpeng had contacted Kizen and received permission to use a temporary teleportation magic circle.
"Waaaaah!"
A magic circle unfurled at the class site. Simply stepping on it would take them to Kizen. The servants who had brought the meal had arrived the same way.
The students sighed in deep relief and stepped onto the magic circle bound for Kizen.
Radiance poured from the circle and wrapped around their bodies. With the sensation of both legs lifting free, the transfer began.
Ainz felt that someone had set a mid-coordinate to react to a specific jet-black signature—and that someone else had laid a countermeasure against it. After everyone arrived, Simon and Dick were nowhere to be seen.
Dick had been diverted by someone's interference to the place Simon was originally supposed to go, and Simon had been sent to coordinates designated by the other party who had set the countermeasure.
And so every student of Class A arrived at Kizen.