23 – Professor??? (2)
The door of the warehouse was opened.
-Kkiik!
“!?”
Ern reflexively lowered her body by bending her waist.
The warehouse was an area where students could not enter without permission. If the professor catches you…
Professor?
‘… Wait, I’m a professor.’
Not even an hour had passed since Erne received the title of professor. On the other hand, she spent hundreds of hours traveling through her academy as a student.
Ern, realizing once again the importance of her habit, tried to raise her head.
“…!”
But she had no choice but to stop when she saw the uninvited guest’s face visible between the stacked boxes.
‘Galen Rayvender….’
He was a professor with a friendly appearance. As he entered middle age, his skin became wrinkled, but even that had the effect of making Galen look benevolent.
His hair was neatly combed, and his beard was neatly trimmed.
Galen, who taught classes in a gentle manner, was a professor with a good reputation among students.
But Ern knew his identity.
Galen Rayvender was a devil worshiper who was twisted from the inside out. His neat exterior was just a shield hiding his rotten inside.
‘Why did you come here?’
Galen entered the warehouse and looked around the inside. Ern’s eyes only briefly glanced at the box where she was hiding her body.
Galen did not notice his presence.
It was partly because Ern held his breath and hid himself properly, but it was also because he thought no one would come to visit the warehouse where only miscellaneous things were piled up during this period.
After determining that no one was around, Galen smiled delicately and headed to the box placed near the entrance.
‘What are you doing?’
He took out some paper from his arms and put it into the box. And after putting the lid back on, Galen quietly retreated.
-Kkiik….
The warehouse was once again immersed in silence. Ern waited until Galen left the warehouse and walked away. And as the sound of Galen’s footsteps faded away, Ern let out his sigh of relief.
Ern got up from his seat and approached the box where Galen had hidden the paper. Then he carefully lifted the box lid and looked inside.
The paper was blank. It was just pure white.
‘What is it?’
If it had been anyone else, he would have tried everything to find the hidden password, but it wasn’t a problem for Ern.
[Black magic medium]
[This is a paper with a faint energy of black magic engraved on it. It is difficult to detect unless you are an experienced warlock. The effect is only revealed to those in despair.]
The texture of the paper was like cold metal, and the sensation conveyed through my fingertips felt like something evil was involved.
‘No way, it was a black magic item.’
Galen hid the paper for a long time, but he did not hide it deeply. The place he originally put it in was the box near the entrance.
He arranged the medium as if he wanted someone to find it.
‘Was this the cause of the student corruption episode?’
It was a cliché for a student to accept the power of the devil. If such an episode didn’t appear in the Academy game, it would have been rather empty.
In the original work, the student who fell for the devil’s trick is the first to run away. The next step was for Galen to reveal his true nature.
‘I already tried to take special care of him, but now I have to search for intermediaries every now and then just in case.’
From No ble mt L dot c om
The character who was unable to overcome jealousy and frustration and fell to the devil was determined.
‘What should I do with this?’
It was impossible to leave the medium alone. Ern thought for a moment and decided to put his paper in his inventory.
It was because I knew that just carrying it around could raise suspicions, and even if I put it in my inventory, it wouldn’t have any effect.
[Personal Quest: Galen Rayvender’s Evil Plan]
[Stop the plot of Galen Rayvender, a professor at Kagon Academy.]
[Reward: 100,000P, circle unlocked]
‘Something big has emerged.’
Galen Rayvender, the devil worshiper within the academy. He was someone who had to be cut out someday.
Ern gently opened the warehouse door and confirmed that there was no one in the hallway. Then he came out of the warehouse and started heading somewhere else.
‘Anyway, it’s a personal quest?’
There were three types of quests.
A general quest that can be solved freely.
A party quest that must be done with a designated named character or must meet the required number of people.
And a personal quest that must be completed solely with one’s own strength.
‘It was difficult to get help from others anyway….’
Ern witnessed Galen hiding this paper in the academy. But it was difficult to do anything with just that.
First of all, there was an issue of trust.
The only witness was Ern. However, the other person was a professor who had worked faithfully at the academy for many years.
Galen had a high reputation among faculty and staff, and was well-known in academic circles.
‘This kind of person being broken and summoning a demon was quite a big twist for the first round of players.’
But there was nothing for Ern. It was a situation where Galen could back out, or conversely, could blame Ern.
Second, it was a matter of physical evidence.
On the surface, the medium was just a blank piece of paper. Moreover, the item description said, ‘It is difficult to detect unless you are an experienced warlock.’
‘No matter how much they claim that this is a medium for black magic, who would believe it?’
It was obvious that he would be suspected of being a warlock.
‘… Even if you bring someone in despair, it won’t work.’
The condition for activating the medium was ‘a person in despair.’ But since this paper was connected to black magic, it was obvious that the devil would do his trick.
Even if you somehow gave the paper to someone who met the conditions, there was a high possibility that the medium would not activate if someone was watching from the side.
Thirdly, it was a problem with the story.
In the original work, Galen goes on a rampage and achieves the ‘incarnation of the devil.’ In other words, it was one of the few opportunities to catch the devil’s true form early in the story.
If we defeat Galen too quickly or if he becomes alert, the opportunity will be lost.
‘It’s difficult to get help even from the tower owner.’
Because he was a close friend’s disciple, he was a grateful person who took care of various things for him, but he could not make unreasonable demands. Even if he went out of his way to say, ‘Please screw with my fellow professor,’ he only undermined Ern’s trust.
She was too big to begin with. If she heard that the Sensia Magic Tower was moving, she couldn’t predict what variables would arise.
Of course, I could have forced others to join me by giving up everything and taking risks, but…
‘100,000 Points…. Plus, circle up….’
It was too much of a reward to ignore.
It seemed like I had no choice.
Ern decided to trust the quest window once again. She definitely had a reason for giving me a personal quest.
‘There’s still time until the event, so we’ll just have to wait and see as the semester progresses.’
***
[Rando’s Ring]
[Mana regeneration increases slightly.]
[Lando’s Earrings]
[Mana amount increases slightly.]
[Lando’s Necklace]
[Magic cooldown is slightly reduced.]
First, I took a ‘Lando set’ suitable for character development.
‘I should give this to the kids.’
These items were of little use to Erne himself.
[Invisibility Potion]
[A failed work by an academy student. It was strangely transformed under the influence of mana from the magic sparring hall. If you drink it differently than intended, it becomes transparent for a while.]
‘This guy… Let’s take care of it.’
Ern kept the potion in his inventory. She was nervous about handing over something like this to a student.
‘It’s going to take longer than expected?’
Income was low compared to the past.
In the original work, all you had to do was click the ‘Investigation’ button in front of the dresser. But here, she had to open and search through each and every drawer herself.
Furthermore, the academy was vast. She wanted to explore everywhere, but physical constraints prevented her from doing so.
Like right now.
‘I really like stairs….’
Ern was climbing the marble stairs of the central library.
The academy’s central library was the heart of this educational institution. It was a center of learning and research that not only contained books, but also collected and preserved various items and artifacts.
Therefore, its scale had to be much larger than other buildings.
There had to be a lot more stairs.
‘We’ve finally arrived.’
The inside of the library was clean. The clean marble floor, without a speck of dust, sparkled under the light reflected from the high ceiling.
Ern skillfully navigated his way through a long hallway filled with bookshelves. She eventually reached the reading room where books on basic magic were placed.
‘… It’s overwhelming.’
What I was looking for was a hidden piece embedded in the book, an item called ‘Lucky Four Leaf Clover’.
I felt like my eyes were going dark at the thought of opening the book one by one, but I couldn’t help it.
In order to maintain the optimal farming route, I had to go through the library.
Ern sighed softly and picked up her book.
[Commentary on Basic Elemental Magic]
‘Hmm…. While I’m at it, shall I read a little bit?’
The memory of the last time I tried to study with my teacher’s magic book but failed came to mind.
‘It might be a little different if it’s a commentary.’
When I turned the page, fortunately, I saw readable text.
[Imitating the mysteries of nature can be said to be the beginning of magic. In this book… ]
And around the time Ern was looking through the book.
“You are a new student entering school this year!”
“…?”
Someone wearing an academy student uniform spoke to me.