Chapter 48: Eyelids (20)
Thump! Thump!
It’s heavy. It’s so damn heavy. Pulling it out was one thing, but carrying it was an entirely different story.
Every time Professor took a step forward, the purple aura emitting from the void stone crystal turned off the magic lights that lit up the streets, engulfing his pathway in darkness.
‘I need to hurry….. There’s no way that they didn’t notice, just look at all of the attention I’m getting….’
It wasn’t his strength that was the problem. If it was just strength, he could have been running with this thing, but his joints were the problem.
So Professor, while carrying a large structure-like thing that was over 6 meters tall and was as heavy as steel, was walking carefully so that his knees wouldn’t take the pressure.
Whoosh! Woosh!
He could feel multiple danger signals from all around him. When he lifted his head, he could see several pools of water starting to form from the tower windows.
“Darn, I knew I attracted too much attention.”
The time it took him to get here was only a little later than what they had planned, but he was way too visible. Even a blind person could feel something dangerous in the air, with a large, ominous purple crystal approaching the city’s center and all.
Swishhhh!
The small pools of water that he saw quickly expanded in size. The first pool of water that approached him split into seven streams and shot toward Professor’s vital points and….
Splosh!
The streams became normal water as they hit the purple aura.
“Heheheheh….. Roman, you are a genius….”
The person who first discovered the value of void stones wasn’t a player. He was a mage who studied what all mages avoided. He sacrificed the mana he collected for years as he believed that void stones would be a new boost to magic studies, so he studied the stone, carved it, and turned it into a mana stone charger using the mana forcefield. He even turned it into a device that compresses the mana beyond its limit to shoot it out like a laser.
In just a few years, Roman Gachia Manson would become the pioneer of void stone studies.
‘It’s because he does all those studies about new materials by himself that makes him so prone to accidents. Look at Marie Curie. She died studying radioactivity.’
Splash, sploosh!
Endless streams of magic shot towards him, but as soon as they came within the vicinity of the void stone crystal, all of them fell harmlessly. He wasn’t blocking them. He was dissipating the mana that created the spell itself.
‘One of the jackpot inventions that Roman made included the Despell Machine. This could be considered the primitive version of it, I guess?’
Thump!
Professor quickly found himself so near the Tower of Mages that he had to raise his head in order to see it. This distance should be enough.
“Hahhh!”
Looking at the faces of the mages through the window, he could remember the painful days he spent at Mandalius’s castle. He was helplessly immobilized, treated like livestock, and gave away parts of his body daily.
Now, it was time for revenge.
“Heheheh…. Let’s see if you guys are so high and mighty even without that magic of yours!”
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
Professor slowly started to increase his speed. He held back his urge to hurry and protected his knees up until now. Even if his knees did regenerate, he wouldn’t have been able to move the void stone while it was regenerating.
‘But if the target is right in front of me… I don’t need to worry about that anymore!’
All the magic bulbs turned off and spread the place into darkness at the speed that Professor was approaching the tower. As the darkness slowly got closer to the Tower of Mages and the end hit the edges of the tower….
Bam!
Professor used all of his strength to kick the ground. He and the void stone pillar created an arc as he flew through the air.
As he got closer to the wall of the tower, he could see the mages staring at him with gaping mouths. He wanted to see this. He wanted to see those oh-so-superior mages make that expression!
Professor firmly grasped the void stone pillar and yelled out in pure glee.
“Fucking bastard incoming! Open- the door you motherfuckersssssss!!!!!!!!!”
Klabam!
With that one jump, Professor was able to jump up several dozen meters into the air and pierce the Tower of Mages with the void stone crystal.
The Sleepless City, The City of Mages, Tobrune. Even within the city, the one that shone the brightest light, the Reedflow Tower of Mages, was submerged in darkness.
The eight streams of water surrounding the tower were still flowing, but any mage could see that their energy was not the same as before.
Infiltrating the tower using the hole the void stone pillar made, he checked his broken body as he scanned the area.
‘Legs….. and my hip broke too. Three, no, four minutes until regeneration….’
He’s been injured so much that he didn’t need to see the status page to know how long regeneration would take.
Four minutes. In a situation like this, that was an unbelievably long time, and there were dozens of mages surrounding him, but he didn’t worry one bit.
“Aah, how could this happen—?”
“Why! Why can’t I use magic?!”
“N-No! Come back! Please! Mana! My mana!!!!”
“Urrrp! Ugrrrf! Blrrrrrgh!”
Because all of the mages in the tower were in this state.
Just then, a nice scent of tea passed by Professor, who was crawling on the ground.
“….Rakshasha.”
“Did the meaning of ‘secretly’ change without any notice? And what’s that weird mask?”
“Ah, well, things happened. This is my homeland’s tradition. We always wore a mask with three holes like this when doing a big deed. Here, take this. I knew you would want one, so I made one for you, miss.”
After squirming around to take the mask out of his pants, Professor looked down in disappointment as he saw the mask filled with blood.
“Well, that’s a shame. Do you want mine instead?”
Looking at Professor, who was making jokes while gritting through the excruciating pain, made Rakshasha laugh out loud, even knowing that this was an inappropriate time to do so.
“Professor…. you are…. such an unpredictable man.”
“Heheh. Isn’t that my charm, miss?”
“Hahahah. That’s quite cheeky, but I can’t deny it.”
After Rakshahsa helped Professor lean against the wall, she leaned her head right in front of Professor’s nose with sparkling eyes.
“Anyways, the plan became much more complicated, so I think I may need compensation.”
“Oh, please. Can’t we do that after this is all over?”
“It’s okay. I’ll take it right now.”
Smack!
Rakshasha raised Professor’s mask, then slightly pecked his mangled lips. Like a greeting on the western side of the world, but with a definite innuendo.
-Holli: Kyaaa!!!
-Noru_is_druig: Yes please!!!! PleasE!!!! AghaHAAEHF! AGsdfhAHS!
-takealook: They say that the treasure is always in the most dangerous of seas! Professor has gone through countless dangers and has discovered the true treasure!!!!
-Soygaybar: Best Career Path of the Century! Best Career Path of the Century!
-Guns_N_Blood: Ahem! So, how do you do that thing called a screenshot?
—
Professor fell into a daze. What? What was that? Something soft? A flower? What?
[[@)&Rakshasha*(!!#kishadu!)(!&([email protected])(*!#)
“Wuh…uhhhhhh…”
“Aw, please don’t look at me with that expression. It’s too cute.”
“W-What… is….”
“Hm, I’ll call this a sort of down payment.”
“….Down payment?”
“Yep! I’m thinking of getting a much better reward, but this place and time are a little, you know?”
Rakshasha covered her mouth with her hand and shot him through the chest with her waning crescent eyes.
“You stay there and rest. We’ll talk about this after the job, okay?”
After putting Professor in a perpetual state of shock, Rakshasha vanished like the wind.
A few minutes later.
Stare.
-Soygaybar: Prof, your legs almost healed.
Staaarrree.
-Soygaybar: Hey pro-of, your legs healed. Hren’t you gonna work? You’re not done yet, yknow?
“Oh…..yeah….right…..work….”
-Jokasss: This is the problem with cherry boys. Hey! Professor! Don’t think and just lean your head out of the window!
“Oh, ohk….”
Professor followed the viewer’s orders and leaned his head out the window.
Splashhh!
The stream of water that ran down the tower circled the entire place, crawling across the walls. The cold feeling of the water shot Professor back to his senses.
“Sppht! Ugh, oh! Sorry! I was knocked out for a moment there!”
-Jokasss: Well that worked.
-takealook: “knocked out” my ass LMAO you cherry boy.
The viewers were all teasing him, but Professor didn’t have any rebuttals this time. Darn. His first kiss got stolen by a video game character. But that feeling was basically real. That warm and soft feeling and scent, her hot breath, and…..
. . . . .
Splashhh!
“Pppptf! Aghhh! I! Can’t! Concentrate!”
-Guns_N_Blood: Sorry to break it to you sonny, but that moment will stay with you until you die.
-Jokasss: Mhm mhm. A man’s first love and first kiss stay with them forever.
Professor only completely came back to his senses after sticking his head in the water three times.
“Ughh, let’s work, please. I need to do something right now.”
The first thing he saw as he stood up were the mages that were tied up like sausages. Rakshasha must have tied up the panicked mages while she passed by.
“It’s about time the troops in the south took care of the situation. I should start to prepare for my negotiations now….”
As Professor was lurking around the stairs that headed up the tower…
Shhhlack!
Kgrack!
He heard sounds that he should not have been hearing. Professor knew just by hearing it. He didn’t know the details, but it was definitely water magic.
If there was magic, it meant that there was a mage that was strong enough to beat the powerful magic forcefield in the tower. And if it was up there, it meant….
“Darn, Rakshasha!”
Kragk!
In a rush, Professor decided to climb up the tower outside instead of using the stairs. At the very top level, Professor could feel the aura of magic through the wall, so he firmly grabbed the wall with his right hand and swung his left hand towards the wall.
Craclkm!
The tower, without its protective spells, was just an old building. As the wall Professor hit crumbled away, he could see a panting Rakshasha, the Mandalious Count, and his disciples.
Cra-a-a-ck!
The second Professor pushed his face through the hole, a blue whip snapped through the air toward him.
K-chk!
“Argh!”
Ignoring the law of inertia, the whip changed directions in midair and sliced through Professor’s mangled left arm before slipping back to its owner.
Professor lost his balance and almost fell off, but something caught him and dragged him in. There was a thin silver string wrapped around his body.
It was a string from an elder spider. He didn’t need to question who the owner was.
“Well, that, hah, was quick?”
Looking at Rakshasha’s dark expression, there must have been a fierce battle in that short period of time.
“My only strength is my dumbfoundingly strong muscles. The situation?”
“Hm, it’s very bad. All of the small fry downstairs were taken down, but the biggest threat’s up and well over here.”
While still staying alert against the mages, Professor scanned Rakshasha’s condition. She didn’t seem to have any big open wounds, but he could see blood spots on her arms and legs.
“So you must be that infamous red mute.”
From the crowd of mages that were casting spells, Isaac spoke as he walked out. There wasn’t even a hint of alarm in his expression.
“I had two thoughts when I heard the rumors about a talking mute. One, that’s a shame. Two, I don’t believe it. I can’t believe that there’s a mute with actual intelligence. And it was a big disappointment that I couldn’t see it for myself.”
Looking at Professor, who was standing next to Rakshasha with one arm short, Isaac’s cold expression broke into a wide smile.
“But you, you just walked in by yourself.”
Snap! Sna-a-p!
Dozens of thin streams of water appeared from behind the count’s back. The whip that cut off his arm the second he tried to set foot on the floor, was not just one, there were actually dozens of them floating behind Isaac’s back.