Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 34
>Chapter Title: Beat It Out of Them
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“Hoo.”
I pulled back my fist and took a step backward.
Turning around, I saw Zenbi staring at me with a blank, dazed expression.
“You okay?”
“Y-yeah…….”
He nodded at my question.
But he didn’t look okay at all.
His ankle was swollen up, his whole body drenched in sweat. Worst of all, blood was streaming from his nose.
The cause was probably……
I glanced at the structure jutting up in front of Zenbi.
‘He used magic way beyond his level.’
A spike rising from the ground.
It looked just like a knight’s lance, only the head moved to the tip.
It might sound ridiculous put that way, but this was no laughing matter.
Earth magic’s properties tend to be heavily influenced by the terrain, but if you looked closely at Zenbi’s spell, its surface was a different material from the rocks making up the Corridor of Trials.
‘Which means he didn’t just change the shape—he altered the very quality of it…….’
Magic that transforms both form and substance is pretty advanced.
Way beyond what Zenbi could handle right now.
“Oh, that…… It’s from my master, I guess you’d call him. He left it with me before he went. ‘Spear of the Earth,’ he called it. Pretty grandiose name, huh? ……Haha.”
Was he reading my gaze?
Zenbi explained, almost apologetically.
Spear of the Earth, huh.
“Not that grandiose.”
“Really?”
“Not exactly humble, either.”
“…….”
Zenbi clamped his mouth shut.
I elaborated.
“With magic like this, the name’s worth is proven by the caster. Whether it’s grandiose or not depends on how you wield it.”
“Oh…… Yeah!”
Unlike before, Zenbi answered energetically.
I left him behind and looked up.
‘That aside…….’
The ceiling in my view was utterly ordinary.
A plain artificial cave. No stalactites, no natural fissures or layered strata you’d expect.
But my eyes.
No, my mana sense picked up something bizarre.
Sss……
Twisted, wriggling flows of mana.
It wasn’t any function built into the Corridor of Trials.
Yet, why?
‘It feels familiar. But…… not the Decullan style.’
From the moment I encountered the magic dominating the entire Corridor of Trials, a strange sense of wrongness kept bubbling up from my subconscious.
Like finding an old, dusty diary abandoned in an attic corner.
That’s when I thought up to there.
Zenbi’s voice reached my ear.
“Oh, Aster. Right. Thanks. I should’ve said that first…….”
He expressed his gratitude belatedly.
I replied calmly, watching him.
“If you’re grateful, pay me back later. Not now—become a proper mage with a name, and settle it then.”
“Y-yeah……!”
I wasn’t just saying it to be nice.
I’d love the Spear of the Earth manual as payment, but what would Zenbi have left if I took that from him now?
It was tempting, sure, but I’m not Decullan.
I’m not some greedy goblin snatching everything in sight.
Anyway.
‘What to do with this guy.’
I’d saved him, and he was right here, but I had my own business.
I couldn’t drag him around.
‘But I can’t just leave him like this. Let’s see…….’
I spread my mana sense wide, scanned the surroundings, then pulled parchment from my subspace and sketched a map.
Crackle.
As I touched it with my finger, scorch marks spread across the parchment like a burning fuse.
Soon, a map took shape.
Finally, I marked our position with an ‘X’ and handed it to Zenbi.
“What’s…… this?”
“Map of the Corridor of Trials. See the X? That’s where the students are clustered. We’re here.”
I’d pinpointed it when I spread my mana sense wide earlier—the spot with the most students.
But maybe my attitude seemed off.
Zenbi asked.
“Aster, you…… not going?”
I nodded.
“Got something to do. Oh, and…….”
Crack!
My hand ripped off the bracelet on Zenbi’s wrist.
“W-what? Why the bracelet…….”
He startled, confused.
Before answering, I crushed it and explained.
“The golems’ detection range isn’t that wide. Easy enough to slip out of it.”
“Then, don’t tell me…….”
I nodded.
“This was the bell.”
That’s how golems with a limited range could hunt students.
Both the golems and bracelets were linked to the Corridor of Trials’ control system.
I finished the extra step and turned away.
“You can make it on your own, right? If not, hide somewhere safe.”
“Yeah, got it.”
Sprained ankle. Mana circuits probably messed up from overusing that spell.
Still, Zenbi didn’t ask for help, and I didn’t offer.
Right now, uncovering this wrongness was top priority.
I steadied my unusually rattled mind.
I didn’t know who they were. Or what tricks they’d prepared. But one thing was sure—the golems weren’t the end of it.
Whatever they’d cooked up……
‘Grab ’em and beat it out of them, and I’ll find out.’
My gaze turned toward the depths of the Corridor of Trials. The direction of the final gate.
I couldn’t see it through the walls, but I knew without looking.
The internal control room of the Corridor of Trials.
That’s where they were.
Once I had their necks in a vise and stared them down, this inexplicable disgust would reveal itself too.
* * *
The moment Aster began his real move.
Corridor of Trials internal control room.
Magitech engineer Frizan—one of the intruders—monitored the students’ movements projected on the hologram device.
‘Hmm, as expected…….’
Worthy of Jenion Academy students.
After a brief panic at the sudden crisis, they were now handling the golems adeptly.
Most standout among them……
‘Platinum blond, Blandoga’s young patriarch? They called him a once-in-a-generation talent, and it wasn’t empty hype.’
On the screen, Damian’s exploits were impressive.
He wrapped golems in vine plants to restrict their movements, binding up to three at a time.
Even if they were student test golems with output maxed out, it was……
‘Monstrous talent.’
Impossible at his age.
Anyway, the students gathered around Damian as their center were systematically dismantling the bound golems.
But Damian wasn’t the only one catching the eye.
Frizan shifted to another screen.
‘Dinai Family’s third child. Hmm. Heard she had average talent, but apparently not.’
While Damian led the group against the golems, Dalia handled them solo, off on her own.
She blasted through barriers with raw firepower, then finished the cores with simple spells.
The process was so textbook and clean, even Frizan had to admire it.
Of course, it wasn’t just the two of them.
Didn’t they say crisis breeds growth?
Students who’d been scrambling to flee now grouped in twos and threes, devising their own countermeasures, systematically facing the golems.
‘Hmm.’
Frizan leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.
‘This is……’
Frankly, it was an irritating situation for him.
The better the students coped, the more his plan to seize the Corridor of Trials unraveled.
Yet, why?
‘Good. Heh. Very good.’
Frizan grinned widely at their response.
‘Yeah, shrug off the golems like nothing. Gotta whet the appetite for the main dish, right?’
The golems were just light entertainment.
An appetizer to build hunger before the real feast.
Especially.
Look at the students’ faces on screen.
Faces once filled with despair now bloomed with hope and growing confidence.
Their mindset was obvious without peeking.
‘We can hold out. The professors will come save us. Just till then…… Yeah, keep waiting.’
The professors weren’t coming.
When they realized that, how would those faces change? They’d crash into despair twice as deep—maybe deeper—than their hope.
Frizan mulled that far, then snapped out of it.
Someone beside him was urging him on.
“Frizan, how much longer? One student’s approaching.”
A man with a eerie voice. A masked mage looked down at Frizan.
At that, Frizan checked the screen again.
“A student? What stu— Oh? It’s real.”
His eyes reflected one boy.
A gray-haired boy sprinting through the Corridor of Trials at ferocious speed.
Every golem he met, one strike.
One hit to shatter the core, then straight through the alleys without pause.
It almost looked like the golems were shutting down on their own.
“Who’s that guy? Not in the intel.”
“Jenion Academy. Bound to have a few like him.”
Frizan shrugged at the masked man’s words.
“So what? Still just a kid. Nothing special. You’re not getting cold feet, are you? Heh, the great Bimar Family’s hunting dog.”
The hunting dog’s aura shifted instantly.
“Wanna die? Dare put my house’s name in that filthy mouth?”
Killing intent sharp as a blade.
“Okay, okay, I get it. Charge just finished anyway. Told you, one shot won’t cut it to seize a space this size.”
Frizan flinched and backed down.
‘Big…… deal what house. Decullan’s lapdog brats.’
Bimar House was one of the vassal families under Decullan.
No matter how they boasted of their nobility and greatness, they were just strong slaves at root.
……Though the problem was how excessively strong those slaves were.
Anyway.
Frizan stood without argument.
The Bimar man’s voice came from behind.
“Don’t forget the contract. You sow chaos in Jenion Academy. Bring its prestige crashing down. And in return, we get…….”
“Ongoing test site access and regular funding. Got it? Funding’s already started, so I have to deliver. How many times I gotta say it?”
Not the first time hearing it, Frizan snapped irritably.
Meanwhile, he thought.
‘What lunatics…….’
Not that he could talk, partnering with them, but Bimar were mad.
‘Sacrifice one professor lackey to Decullan? Crash the academy’s rep?’
Bimar House’s plan was simple.
They wanted to offer a professor to Decullan, but the academy and empire protected him.
So, they decided to tank the academy’s prestige.
Boiled down, not a bad plan.
The empire protected a professor—just a mage—for one reason: Jenion Academy’s prestige.
Remove that shield? No need for the empire to lift a finger.
That was the scheme……
‘Utter nonsense.’
Frizan clicked his tongue quietly and shook his head.
Who could pull off tarnishing the academy’s prestige?
Especially now, with Decullan’s blunders tightening security.
Impossible for anyone.
‘Anyone but me…… Heh.’
At the center of the internal control room.
Frizan stopped before a crystal orb about a meter across.
The Corridor of Trials’ core.
But the color was off for what should’ve been transparent.
Like ink swirling in clear water—black currents churned inside.
“How’s the core takeover going?”
“Let’s see…….”
At the hunting dog’s question, Frizan donned a glove.
He placed his hand on the core, infused mana, and checked the status.
“Almost 90%? Five more minutes, tops.”
“Not long now.”
“Yeah, not long. Just wait a bit. Once this is done, you get what you want.”
Frizan glanced at his glove and smirked.
No ordinary glove.
An ancient artifact.
Two functions.
First: spatial severance. Completely isolates an area from the outside, creating an independent space.
Second……
‘Demonic corruption.’
Corrupts the severed space with impure mana—demonic energy—reshaping the environment.
An environment corroded by demonic energy.
The continent had called such spaces this since ancient times.
Demonic Realm.
Frizan activated the artifact with a smile.
Jenion Academy’s Corridor of Trials was his first provided test site.
He planned to manifest a Demonic Realm here.