Damn Academy chapter 92

92 – Shadow (15)

Zverev headed north.

He joined a nomadic tribe in the northern Tentakel region and for a time learned their lifestyle and alchemical traditions.

They were Flanders. It was an ordinary tribe that maintained primitive traditions by eating fish and horse milk as staple food. What is unusual, however, is that they have perfectly adapted to the capricious and frigid northern climate for hundreds of years.

There is one secret that has allowed them to adapt and thrive in an unforgiving climate where some days there is hail and other days blizzards. It was the power of the ‘spiritual medium’.

Surprisingly, 10% of the population of the Flanders tribe were psychics, and they responded to nature and predicted the rapidly changing weather, leading the tribe to evacuate in advance.

From our point of view, psychics were ‘spiritualists’.

There was no exact explanation of what the ‘Tebris’ factor Zverev was looking for was, but he mentioned the connection of the ‘Tebris’ factor with the Flanders tribe.

Zverev believed that the unknown factor played a key role in manifesting the ability of a ‘psychic’.

The area of activity of the Flanders tribe bordered on the ‘Land of the Dead’ located in the northernmost part of the continent.

So when he tried to move further north for research, all the sub-herds stopped him.

And I hear a strange story from the chief of the tribe.

The tribesmen saw Zverev’s magical knowledge and believed that he also had the talent of a ‘medium’, and warned that ‘those who have the power of a medium must never go to the land of death’.

Then they showed Zverev something.

It was a young man imprisoned in a coffin with his limbs bound with chains. The young man was constantly muttering something.

When I asked what the land of death had to do with a young man imprisoned in a coffin, they answered.

It is said that there is a large pit in the land of the dead. It is said to be so deep that it is immeasurable, and within it the energy of demons and chaos wriggles like an active volcano.

They called it the ‘Devil’s Pit’.

A darkness engulfed the light. This is not a metaphor, but in fact, it was said that torches and magic stones that emit light lose their power in the vicinity.

And he told an even more bizarre story.

‘All psychics who have been to the land of the dead go crazy.’

The young man imprisoned in a coffin was a psychic who accidentally stepped into the land of the dead.

The symptoms were all the same. The psychics said that in the ‘Devil’s Pit’, hundreds of thousands of thought forms screamed and screamed.

And after I went there, I showed signs of insanity.

At first, I heard hallucinations, then I saw a vision of a black figure. In the end, his mind was controlled by something unknown, and he ran to the ‘Devil’s Pit’ and threw himself.

Because the ‘Devil’s Pit’ pulled their bodies strongly, they had no choice but to bind them with chains and put them in coffins to restrain them.

It was a case that mostly matched Luna’s symptoms.

They asked Zverev for help. He asked them to come up with a way so that the strong warriors of the tribe could fight the black figure that haunted the psychic.

Zverev devised a recipe using the knowledge he gained from the Tornica tribe living in the Maab region.

There are only two ingredients required.

It was the blood of Maladiroot and Doppler.

***

However, this recipe was devised based on Zverev’s hypothesis, not verified in a laboratory, and the back story of the Flanders people and the young man imprisoned in the coffin was not written down, so it was difficult to see it as a definitive solution.

But it was worth a try.

Maladiroot, the first ingredient, was a rare herb that lived in areas where magic power radiated from the earth and strong magic pressure was formed.

The unique thing is that it can grow in any terrain, climate, or even a polluted environment as long as it has strong magic pressure.

The speciality of the herb was to materialize intangible energy and store it in the root.

If they grew up in a forest with many spirits, they would eat the energy left by the spirits, materialize it, and store it in the roots. It has the power to return spiritual energy to the material world.

Moreover, it neutralized toxins and miasma during the reduction process.

And if you inhale the smoke from burning this root, your sensitivity to the energy components contained in it will temporarily increase.

A few tribes also used maladiroot for communication and ancestral rites with the indigenous god who governs the circulatory system.

Zverev predicted that Maladirut who grew up in the land of the dead, or Maladyruth who grew up eating the blood of Doppler, who was revealed to be an alien species, would have better sensitivity to the ‘black form’.

I found a way out, but how to get rare herbs and the blood of monsters from other worlds was another matter.

I immediately set out to find someone I could turn to for advice.

***

Georgia, an advisor to the art department, accepted the bundle of documents handed over by the assistant and asked.

“What is all this?”

“A document related to the art department.”

“Then why are there so many? Why are you demanding so much from a small special talent?”

“Professor, half of them are application forms.”

“… What?”

Georgia immediately took the papers and flipped through them one by one. It really was.

In one semester, only six or seven applicants had swelled to thirty.

In some cases, the history of the theater department and the dance department were recorded. It was very doubtful that he would abandon the place where the competition for entry was fierce and come to the art department. Following that, there were only two male applicants that Georgia had hoped for.

“Be patient.”

Giorgia shook her head in disgust and asked the assistant.

“Honey, do you know what this is? What are the rumors going around the school? Or did the prince suddenly have a hobby for art and suddenly become a trend in the empire?”

The teaching assistant scratched his head and put on an expression that he was embarrassed to say the rumors with his own mouth.

“That… You know the professor very well. The boy who entered the art department this time has a striking appearance….”

Giorgia hit her forehead as if she hadn’t thought of it.

“I will turn around. I will turn around.”

“Professor, I was curious, but can I visit you later….”

“Hey! What if you do this too!”

From noble mtl dot com

“Oh, sorry….”

I have seen many men who applied to see female students, but it was the first time that female applicants flocked to the opposite case.

She sighed. She didn’t like that there were too many applicants. In one way or another, if art was not the intended purpose, it was the same as blurring the atmosphere.

“I’ll have to do a more meticulous screening this time too.”

In the meantime, someone knocked on the professor’s door. Giorgia said, rubbing the back of her neck because of the rich man’s problems.

“Come in.”

A boy opens the door and comes in. Giorgia’s eyes widened when she saw this. Interestingly, that person was Damian, the one who caused the commotion.

“Hello, Professor. No different….”

She cut her off halfway through.

“Oh, he just went well. Come on. Sit here.”

She pointed to her parlor couch and made me sit down. Then she made herbal tea from the kettle and sat down on the sofa across from Damian.

“It came at the right time. Since we just arrived, we need to match our words.”

“Yes?”

“You are leaving the art department now.”

“…… ?”

“No, I didn’t really go out. If anyone asks, just say that until this week. You left the art department.”

“If there is any problem….”

“No, there is nothing wrong with you. Don’t worry. Do you understand?”

If rumors of Damian’s departure spread, those who came for impure purposes would easily be filtered out.

Damien nodded her head in thought.

“Okay.”

“Ah, so, what did you come for?”

“Nothing else. There is an herb that I personally want to research… I came to ask you a few questions about it.”

Giorgia took a sip of her tea and said.

“What is it, our art club member needs help, so you have to listen. What herb are you researching?”

“This is Maladiroot.”

Giorgia’s distracted spirit calmed down for an instant, and her eyelids tightened.

“Hmm…. Maladirutra.”

She leaned back on her armrest for a moment, put her hand on her temple and stared at Damian.

She wanted to ask why, but she held back.

First-year students will soon have a joint class. And many students were preparing fiercely to get the best grades in the class.

Georgia was well aware that it was all for nothing.

Her efforts were insignificant. The important thing was to see the essence. Maladyroot was one of many ways to get to its essence. No one, not even the students of the Ministry of Pensions, came any closer to Maladiroot.

But the nice Combat Club student who doesn’t seem to have any interest in alchemy asks about this… It was very interesting. Of course, you can’t do anything if you only know Maladyroot, so don’t expect too much. It was worth watching.

“Pension… No, it was a combat club, right?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Fun. So what do you want to know about Maladirut?”

***

“Doppler? Why Doppler?”

“This is for research purposes.”

Ella asked, fixing her eyes on her papers. Beside her, she had more paperwork than she had ever seen before. It seemed very busy.

“Where do you see Doppler? Are you going to go out and find it yourself?”

“If I could, I would.”

“The mask has a special enchantment that prevents Doppler from recognizing it. If you wear a mask and grab hold of each person in Rigbed and talk to them, you’ll get caught someday.”

“Is there no other way?”

“That’s the surest way. When research on Doppler wasn’t piled up, Eternia really did that and caught Doppler.”

“….”

“You don’t have to find it yourself. Because Doppler is housed in the Sorcery Lab. I can help if you want, but the problem is… You need to know your uses. Do I have to check the Doppler with my own eyes? Or do you need material from Doppler?”

“The latter.”

“That’s possible. Just promise you won’t touch Doppler’s blood or secretions in your mouth.”

“Is there any particular reason not to do that?”

“Simple. There’s a neurotoxin in it. You should never put it in your mouth.”

“… I will keep that in mind.”

“Yes. Go to the Sorcery Lab in three hours. I’ll tell the magic math researcher to prepare it.”

“Thank you.”

Ella waved her hand and signaled to get out.