Chapter 156: This Kind of Attention is Overwhelming
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 156: This Kind of Attention is Overwhelming
After having a check for 600,000 gold issued at the bank, Yernil clutched the enormous sum to her chest and returned to her lodgings.
The Berten Estate.
She climbed the spiral staircase to the second floor and walked down the hallway to the guest room at the end.
Yernil’s room was right next to Caleb’s.
Knock, knock!
She knocked on his door.
“Caleb. Can I come in for a moment?”
When she stepped inside, she found…
“Aah!”
A golden mass of lightning the size of an adventurer’s pack was floating in mid-air.
Crackle! Sizzle!
It threw off static electricity in every direction.
“Gah!”
Yernil shrieked and activated Sentry Relocation, teleporting onto Caleb’s bed to escape.
“Calm down!”
Caleb hastily dispelled the magic.
“Wh-what was that just now?”
“It’s a binding spell called Ball Lightning.”
Only then did she notice the piles of spellbooks stacked at Caleb’s feet.
“I’m overhauling my Memory Book build.”
“Ah… So what does that do?”
“It increases the variety of spells I can use, though it takes time to swap out the Memory Book slots. But what brings you to my room?”
“Caleb. I’ve made up my mind.”
Yernil took out the check and showed it to him.
“Oh!”
Caleb’s face lit up as he stepped forward.
“I thought you were hesitant because of the cost?”
“I’m done hesitating!”
“Then let’s go to the university together.”
The magic university had a Labyrinth Exploration Support Headquarters.
It was divided into several departments. The first was the Magic Equipment Rental Department, where I had borrowed the torch helmet.
The second was the Appraisal Department, which analyzed the magic items that came out of the Labyrinth.
And then there was another important place—this one.
[Magic Enchanting Department]
This was the department that dismantled magic equipment and tools to extract the magic within and then imbued that magic into other items.
“Ca…”
The moment we walked in, I realized my standing within the magic university had subtly changed.
“It’s Caleb!”
The wizards working in the Enchanting Department suddenly jumped in surprise and started pointing at me.
“Oh my god!”
“I’ve never seen Caleb in person…”
“Caleb?”
People began to swarm around us from all directions.
This was incredibly uncomfortable.
“Caleb, are you here to wreck the Enchanting Department this time?”
The comment, tossed out from the side, was clearly a joke. It wasn’t aggressive, but it still made me wince.
“You’re the first second-year wizard I’ve ever seen take down a 7th-floor boss.”
So that’s how the rumor had spread.
Hmm.
Right.
It made sense.
Wizards who cleared the 8th floor of the Labyrinth or higher became eligible for a professorship at the university. Clearing up to the 10th floor earned them tenure.
What did that mean?
It meant that defeating a special boss on the 7th floor was a feat that put you on the cusp of becoming a professor.
It was a realm reached only by a handful of the most promising students who graduated, went on to graduate school, and underwent immense training.
That was the 7th floor.
So, of course, the university was in an uproar when a second-year undergraduate student came back after defeating a special boss from that very area.
To put it in perspective, it was probably like a second-year creative writing major writing a novel that suddenly got adapted into a Netflix movie and hit the top of the global charts.
“Clorence’s party was a huge help,” I offered as an excuse, but it didn’t work.
“Didn’t Priest Nathaniel’s contribution analysis attribute 99% of the success to Caleb’s party?”
It was all true, so I had nothing to say.
“And I heard you even took down two of the 6th-floor exit bosses!”
No, Clorence’s team was genuinely a huge help with that one.
“Caleb, I heard you bought a ton of spellbooks.”
So that was another reason for this crowd.
“Are you preparing a new binding spell?”
The wizards’ eyes gleamed as they stared at me.
Avison had also taken my Cumulonimbus build and reconfigured his Memory Book.
A paper on a new binding spell gives other wizards inspiration and opens up new possibilities. It allows them to create new builds.
That’s why everyone was waiting with such anticipation.
“Yes, I’ve bound a few.”
“Wooooah!”
The wizards practically jumped for joy.
“At this rate, you could become a professor right after graduation, skipping grad school entirely.”
“How do you manage to bind magic so quickly?”
“Did that fox-spirit possessor teach you?”
“I’ve never seen a wizard like Caleb before.”
I found this atmosphere unfamiliar and burdensome.
When I’d cleared the 4th floor, I was seen as a wizard with immense talent, but I was also cursed at for being a monster who brought disaster wherever he went.
But now, the mood seemed to have changed.
“You’ll write a paper on the new magic build, right?”
“We’ll be waiting.”
“We gave up on the Cumulonimbus build. It didn’t seem like something we could use.”
“Next time you enter the Labyrinth, you’ll be going to clear the 7th floor properly, right?”
I pushed through the barrage of awkward questions and made my way deeper into the department.
“Hello, this is a blowgun from a Blowgun Nymph.”
I handed the weapon over.
“I’d like to have this dismantled to extract the Blowgun’s Breath and Poison Mist Bullet. I want to imbue them into this magic-tipped bow.”
“Hoo…”
The assistant instructor of the Enchanting Department adjusted his glasses, faced with a difficult request.
“It’ll take some time. And it’ll be expensive. Not because of my labor costs… you know, right? Enchanting consumes a lot of magical reagents.”
“Yes, please proceed.”
As the assistant instructor took the bow and blowgun, he glanced at Yernil.
Still a bit startled by the crowd that had mobbed us, Yernil flinched when their eyes met.
“This is for the Elf Ranger, correct?”
“Huh? Ah, yes!”
“Since it’s for a party member of our university’s rising star, I’ll get it done as quickly as possible. Before you head back to the 7th floor.”
“Thank you.”
“The cost will be 600,000 gold.”
We handed over the check, received a receipt, and filled out the necessary forms.
While we did, the assistant instructor added a few words about the current state of the university.
“Caleb, did you know?”
“Know what?”
“The university is about to elect a new dean.”
“Which professor was chosen?”
I had a pretty good idea.
“Professor Meldini.”
Just as I thought.
While Isilof wasn’t inferior to Meldini in terms of reputation, skill, or career, he was younger.
And…
‘Given the current situation.’
If one had to categorize the two professors, they were a hawk and a dove. You could tell just by their attitudes toward possessors.
And look at the university’s current atmosphere.
The murder of a respected Archmage, who had been a symbol of the institution.
The university’s dean revealed to be a monster from the Labyrinth.
And the university officials presumed to be connected to him.
In the process of uncovering the truth, the professor-level wizards had become extremely on edge.
Naturally, they would have wanted a leader who was far more hardline and aggressive than Isilof.
And so, Meldini was elected.
“It’s for the best. Professor Meldini can be a bit eccentric, but his love for this school is second to none,” the assistant instructor said.
“Is that so?”
“You don’t know what Professor Meldini did during the Labyrinth eruption 12 years ago, do you?”
“What did he do?”
“…”
The assistant instructor just smiled faintly.
“If you go to the library, you’ll find plenty of papers written about the battles that took place within the university back then. You should take a look. Since it looks like you’ll become a professor before long, you should know a little about your dean.”
“…is what he said.”
That afternoon, I found myself having a brief tea time with Meldini. It wasn’t my request; naturally, Meldini had summoned me.
“Tch, that fellow talks too much,” Meldini clicked his tongue as he watered the flowerbed.
“It’s a plant called an Isaacberry. Do you know of it?”
Of course, I did.
“Isn’t that what Professor Isilof grows?”
It was a monstrous flower that produced beautiful blossoms and sweet fruit when the soil was rich in nutrients, but if nutrients were scarce, it would emit a fragrance to lure in and devour any animals that approached.
“I got a cutting from Professor Isilof. Now that I’m the dean, I can’t just act on my own whims anymore. I have to listen to, understand, and consolidate the opinions of all the professors.”
“…”
“Which brings me to my point, Caleb,” Meldini said.
“I care for you a great deal, but the statement you made at the Sohen leaders’ meeting has become a bit difficult to apply now.”
The Sohen leaders’ meeting.
There, I had testified that the possessor Henry might not have been the cause of the Labyrinth eruption 12 years ago.
I’d said that the Labyrinth had erupted even though Henry had entered using Lilweed’s simple elevator.
I’d suggested that the White Lion had likely been the one to trigger the eruption 12 years ago.
And that the possessors’ two-week rule might not have even existed in the first place.
“Many people accepted that your opinion was quite reasonable. However, the current consensus is that we still cannot discard the two-week rule.”
Ah.
So that was the conclusion they’d reached.
It was a perfectly understandable argument.
‘The Labyrinth erupted even though Henry followed the two-week rule.’
That fact alone didn’t prove that ‘the Labyrinth won’t erupt even if the two-week rule is broken.’
It was possible that the two-week rule did exist, but because Henry had used the simple elevator, the White Lion hadn’t known and had triggered a manual eruption. That scenario was plausible.
It was also possible that the two-week rule existed and triggered an automatic eruption, but the White Lion had manually triggered it only in Henry’s case. That was another plausible scenario.
“I understand.”
Truthfully, I didn’t know for sure which was correct either.
“Thank you for understanding.”
Did he really call me here just to tell me this?
“Caleb.”
The professor lowered his voice.
“Night of Silence.”
He cast a sound-dampening spell in his office.
“By any chance…”
He asked me in a whisper.
“Do you know about the Assembly?”
While I was struggling, crossing the line between life and death several times between Hyedam’s trio, the Spider Doctor, the beetle, and the Glutton, the leaders of Sohen had made significant progress.
Most of the information had come from Rococo, the former cardinal of Sanfriel.
“The lion cub’s mind was a complete mess.”
That monstrous priest had killed the White Lion 300 times.
The information he had extracted was as follows:
1. Within the magic university, there is a group of possessors called the Assembly.
2. The Assembly’s members include professor-level wizards and graduate students.
3. When they gather, they all wear disguises.
4. Their disguised faces are: Koi Carp, Red Monkey, Blooming Goblin, Old Tree Ghost, Growling Chihuahua, Half-eaten Apple, Broccoli Dipped in Red Chili Paste, Broken Molar, Balding Yeti, and Eyelash Frog. There are twelve members in total.
5. Some of them fought on the White Lion’s side during the recent Labyrinth eruption.
6. Do not try to track them. A cornered rat will bite the cat. They may make their move soon.
7. They might try to rescue the White Lion, possibly led by the Dagger Raptor.
8. How does the Assembly recruit members? There was a possessor dedicated to recruitment. His name was…
“Professor Enver,” Meldini said.
“Professor Enver was a member of the Assembly. And he was a possessor.”
Meldini leaned his head closer to mine.
“This aligns with what Krom testified to at the Public Security Headquarters after he killed Enver. However, Caleb, while Krom explained the circumstances of Enver’s murder…”
Meldini said.
“He didn’t say a single word about you.”
“…”
“You were with Enver until the very end. What did you two talk about? Why did you go looking for Krom together?”