Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Crimson Beast
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“You’re here, Dean.”
Veronica appeared, stomping the ground as if in a foul mood, and immediately questioned Delphine.
“What’s this nonsense about the pocket space closing?”
“It’s exactly as it sounds.”
Delphine added while manipulating the magic circle connected to the pocket space.
“The connections to the brooches given to the students have all been severed, and the pocket space itself has shut down.”
“…How long to reopen it?”
“It’ll take at least a full day.”
Veronica rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought for a moment, then lifted her head and spoke.
“…Delphine.”
“Yes.”
“In your opinion, who’s behind this?”
“…If they went ahead knowing you’d step in… it’s probably the Witch’s House.”
“The Witch’s House…”
If it was that place where disasters lurked, it was entirely possible.
“…But you’re wrong. It’s too deliberate to be the spirits’ doing.”
Veronica tried to force the pocket space open by tampering with the magic circle, but…
“What kind of lunatic…”
It wouldn’t budge.
Even the ‘Dragon’ Veronica couldn’t interfere; it was perfectly sealed off.
“Of all times… Kaus is in the Empire right now.”
“Then…”
“But I can’t step in myself either. If I do, the Cradle will be completely defenseless.”
The enemy could be outside or inside; no one knew.
If both the dean and vice-dean left at the same time, someone was bound to exploit the opening.
“…Who are the strong ones left inside?”
“…Top freshman Adel and student council president Carnel…”
“Ah, that should be enough.”
“…Pardon?”
“With those two, they’ll… hold out just fine on their own.”
“But Dean, if…”
“Delphine.”
“…Yes.”
“If we don’t trust our students, who will?”
Delphine could say nothing more in the face of those resolute, conviction-filled words.
“…Understood.”
***
“Ugh… I’m so sleepy.”
“…”
Klaus’s words made Carnel flinch for no reason.
[You’re so weak, Klaus.]
A true protagonist should be able to skip sleep for a week without batting an eye.
“Adel… you should get some rest.”
[I’ll sleep at the dorm after this ends.]
“Ugh… what is this… like lightning from a clear sky.”
“…”
Carnel flinched again.
For the record, Klaus had no idea Carnel was the one who burned down the temporary camp.
It was Carnel’s last shred of pride, perhaps.
“Right, Adel? The sky’s perfectly clear, so why the lightning?”
“…”
Thud.
An arrow lodged into Carnel’s chest.
“And that too, right in front of me while I was sleeping…”
Thud. Thud.
Two or three more arrows followed in quick succession.
“…”
Carnel hung her head low.
She looked ready to face-plant into the ground.
“Anyway… aren’t there too few magical beasts?”
“…”
[It does seem that way.]
They’d hunted a total of four magical beasts so far.
One more to reach their goal of five, but it was nowhere in sight.
‘No way… is the disaster already moving?’
Just as that thought crossed his mind.
- Shoooo…
“…!”
“…”
At some point, a magical beast revealed itself.
“…Half-Spirit.”
Another blue magical beast.
But.
“This is gonna be tough…”
No attacks worked on it at all—only light attribute ones were effective.
‘No… what the hell, releasing something like that.’
Half-Spirits were rare even in ‘Aka Calamity.’
To deal with one…
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Klaus ]
Attribute
: 「Light」
Unique Skills
: 【 】
: 【…】
Unique Traits
: 【Growth-Type Protagonist】
: 【…】
Stats
: Stamina : 18 (C)
: Strength : 17 (C)
: Intellect : 16 (C)
: Mental Fortitude : 11 (D)
: Mana : 10 (E)
Talents
: 【…】
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Klaus, with his light attribute, had to take the lead.
Of course… Carnel could use the light attribute too.
But…
“…”
Carnel was still reeling from the shock of having burned the entire temporary camp.
[Can you handle it alone, Klaus?]
“What…? Me alone?”
[Yeah.]
“What about the record?”
[President’s mentally out of it right now, so no records.]
Swish. Swish.
I waved my hand in front of Carnel’s eyes.
…Her dazed pupils stared blankly; her mind was half-gone.
“I can’t even use magic well.”
[Just channel mana into your sword and swing.]
But… even if the Cradle treated blue magical beasts as basic, could Klaus take down that Half-Spirit solo?
‘Hmm… I'm not confident.’
There is no choice.
[I’ll back you up from behind.]
Half-Spirits were immune to attacks, but they weren’t immune to defending against its attacks.
If I blocked those, I could create openings for Klaus to strike.
“Ugh… fine.”
Klaus cautiously drew his sword.
And… sneaked up behind the Half-Spirit.
- Keehihak?
“Uh…”
The Half-Spirit whipped its head around, locking eyes with Klaus.
“Uh, hi?”
Klaus gave an awkward greeting.
- Keehiiihak!!!
…The Half-Spirit replied with a savage screech.
Thick fog erupted at the same time, instantly freezing the surroundings.
“Gah! Adel, what do I do!!”
…Why ask me?
- Crackle.
I was busy dodging myself.
‘Huh.’
My feet were frozen.
- Shoooo.
The Half-Spirit turned its translucent body into fog, slowly approaching me.
- Crackle.
A scythe of ice swung down…
- Thud!
I barely dodged by stabbing mana threads into my body.
A tree behind me shattered instead.
‘No, wait…’
Why’s it only coming after me?
- Swish!
This beast kept targeting just me.
With its intelligence, it was picking off the weakest first.
[Klaus hurry save―]
“Uh… uh! Coming!”
Klaus channeled mana into his sword.
As radiant light enveloped the blade.
- Keehiiihak!!
The Half-Spirit writhed in agonized cries.
- Crackle!!
It swung sharp icy claws at Klaus, but.
- Swish.
‘Thanks.’
A Half-Spirit’s body was ethereal by default—immune to all attacks except from the light attribute.
But the moment it cloaked itself in ice, it changed.
That ice had substance.
It could exert physical force directly.
- Kahak!!
The Half-Spirit’s arms bent backward.
- Swish!!
Klaus’s light-infused sword cleaved straight through its torso.
“Adel! Are you okay?!”
[Yeah.]
I'm still alive. Good.
‘Whew… what an ordeal.’
I calmly picked up the orb that fell from the Half-Spirit.
[ ! ]
[ Achievement ‘Group Project Master’ unlocked! ]
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Group Project Master】
You’ve slain a whopping 5 magical beasts!
: Stamina stat increases by 1.
Such is the way of the Group Project Master!
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
‘Got an achievement too…’
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Adel ]
Limit Break : ★☆☆☆☆
Achievements
: 【King of the Abyss】
: 【Slime Slayer】
: 【Class A】
: 【Tenacity】
: 【Group Project Master】
: 【…】
Stats
: Stamina : 12 (D)
: Strength : 2 (F)
: Intellect : 27 (B)
: Mental Fortitude : 30 (A)
: Mana : ■ ()
Talents
: 【All talents fixed at ‘Lowest’ due to 「Stigma」.】
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Now, to just handle the randomly appearing crimson beast, and this group project episode is done.
And…
“Hey~ Top Student~”
A familiar voice. Turning around, I saw Serros and Lev.
‘What?’
Were inter-team groups allowed?
“Top Student. Is your brooch working okay?”
“…”
At those words, I swallowed hard and pressed my brooch.
“…”
10 seconds.
20 seconds.
30 seconds.
“Ah… yeah, not working huh?”
“Uh… what’s going on?”
“Huh? You are?”
“Oh, I’m Klaus.”
“Yeah, I’m Serros von Spade.”
…This wasn’t the time for casual chit-chat.
‘What?’
Since when? Had it already started?
‘In the game for sure…’
In ‘Aka Calamity,’ when the crimson beast appeared due to the 「Spatial Mage,」 a system alert popped up.
A message like ‘The pocket space’s flow has changed,’ warning the player.
‘But why…’
There was no alert, no signs.
We hadn’t noticed a thing, and it had already begun.
‘Ah…’
…Don’t forget.
This world… isn’t a game.
“…!!”
It's reality.
…That realization flashed through my mind like lightning.
《Star / Advanced Magic》
Carnel’s eyes widened as she reflexively grabbed my arm.
「Curtain of the Star Realm」
In the blink of an eye, a curtain of starlight unfurled.
- KABOOM!!!
Right after, blood-tipped thorns smashed straight into the curtain. A massive explosion rang out, and the curtain barely repelled the impact.
…Just one hit.
But that single blow froze the air around us.
“…”
“…”
Everyone swallowed hard.
Even without understanding, the instinctive threat.
The tension it created silenced us all.
- Grrrrrowl…
The moment its form registered in our eyes, our bodies turned ice-cold.
Crimson. A beast that could wipe out a village without effort.
And of all things…
‘A Blood Reversal Beast…’
The worst. Literally the worst enemy imaginable.
Blood Reversal Beast.
A beast that reflected all magic. Not mere resistance or absorption—reflection.
‘…Against mine and Carnel’s affinities, it’s hopeless.’
Carnel and I relied almost entirely on magic for everything.
‘Magic doesn’t work?’
That meant helplessness.
And the Blood Reversal Beast didn’t just reflect magic.
Its regeneration was near-infinite.
‘…Ah.’
Our dean.
She wouldn’t just pop in out of nowhere, would she?
- Step.
…Footsteps.
- Step.
More footsteps.
…Klaus and Carnel stepped forward, toward the crimson beast.
‘…’
Carnel made sense.
She was the strongest among us.
‘But…’
Klaus.
His combat power was honestly on par with mine, or lower.
Yet Klaus now held his sword with a calm face.
‘Ha…’
I almost laughed.
‘Whatever.’
No point overthinking now.
We lacked means, and there was no distance or time to run anyway.
‘Let's beat that thing first.’
The Blood Reversal Beast countered magic but wasn’t as strong against physical.
So… there was a chance.
‘Let’s do it…’
I’m a player.
Even sensing death, even with failure predestined, I’ll push forward.
‘As fast as possible.’
As sly as possible.
Use every trick, dirty or not, bluff if needed, minimize consumption for maximum efficiency.
‘It’s fine. Actually, perfect.’
You know what?
The Blood Reversal Beast is the worst and strongest beast in the group project episode.
But topple it, and the reward is guaranteed.
‘A unique skill, no less.’
A Top-tier one too.
It was undeniably the best early-game fortune.
‘Pass on this? Idiot move.’
So I hypnotize myself.
That’s not a scary crimson beast.
Just a slightly disgustingly bloody golden goblin leaking red fluid.
‘Exactly.’
…Yeah.
You’re a golden goblin.