LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 922
<922 – Titosso's Test (3)>
Titosso peeked through the transparent cloak with wide eyes, but couldn’t see anything.
As Oknodie flared up mana in his eyes to cover them, Titosso quickly activated his spying ability.
“?!”
Only then did Titosso’s eyes catch sight of another intruder—a professor with a mana barrier and a throng of monsters behind them.
As they left, Titosso felt even creepier.
The sounds he had heard on the way in were completely absent now.
From the very start, the intruders had pretended to leave while making no noise, intending to detect others or trap them.
[Not a sound was made.]
[This is a sound spell only audible to those below!]
[What kind of professor is that thorough? Professor Bronze didn’t seem like that!]
Oknodie trembled as if recalling a painful memory, replying through telepathy.
[The Monster Studies Professor Buzhaar. The most dangerous professor at the Academy!]
Titosso was taken aback.
Oknodie had never said anyone was the most dangerous professor, not even Professor Sadako or Professor Weird.
The thought that the worst professor in the Academy was lurking around an empty house made Titosso want to turn back already.
[Can’t we just go back?]
[Then you won’t be able to quell Titosso’s rampage!]
[Oknodie, are you really willing to take such risks for me…? I’m so touched!]
[If the light stand gets any brighter, it will pierce through the walls, and we won’t be able to sleep at night!]
[Waaah! Don’t say such scary things!]
After some twists and turns, the Catacomb burglary resumed.
[Can I speak now?]
[Let’s keep it telepathic because I’m anxious!]
[Yeah. Even if we are conducting a burglary, what are we going to do? They went down before us.]
At Jiang’s remark, Oknodie proudly pointed to a secret passage.
[The catacombs have staff-only paths, remember? The instructors used them!]
[…!]
A shortcut accessible only to experienced catacomb explorers.
Jiang chuckled as he recalled the past, surrounded by the light stand.
[Shouldn’t we go down slowly?]
[Let’s just keep going!]
[You’re not teasing me, are you?]
[…No!]
Jiang stared at Oknodie suspiciously.
Jiang’s fist made contact with Oknodie’s back of the head.
“Both arms and legs are getting involved, you fool.”
“Ugh. That’s frustrating…”
The trio of the Goo Trio continued their expedition in the catacombs.
*
Professor Buzhaar felt disappointment.
“Sadako was aware of me and set traps. What a waste of time.”
Buzhaar’s [Mana Wave Manipulation] was one of the top skills in mana control.
It spreads sound in his awareness range, detects actions taken by those startled by the noise, and catches the opponent off guard at unexpected timings.
It’s a technique that shows those trying to sneak like a rat that life isn’t that easy.
This time, his technique was turned against him.
There had indeed been a presence.
He had made sounds to scare them and even pretended to leave twice.
Yet, there was no mana response at all.
As if there had never been anything there from the start.
He felt as if he were possessed by a ghost.
Given that it was Professor Sadako’s hideout, it might actually be a real ghost.
That would have been better.
It would make more sense than having a teaching assistant, who wasn’t even a student anymore, using someone else’s mana wave manipulation to erase his presence.
“Well, it’s a pity. I heard Sadako’s apprentice is sharp, and there’s fun in teaching these days. I was finally trying to have a new apprentice after 50 years.”
“Isn’t it a bit shameless for you to be looking for an apprentice, Professor?”
“Deputy. You’ve grown quite a bit. You can talk like that in front of me now.”
“To be honest, you were a bit too much back then. You said Elves had long lifespans, so patience is okay, but you made me work as a graduate student for 40 years. No wonder the poor kid gave up on the appointment review and ran away!”
“So what? Thanks to that, he returned to his hometown and now runs the Elf tribe despite not being a High Elf, and as we speak, he’s the head of some Elf assassination squad or something.”
The deputy scratched his head.
It was a good thing that Professor Buzhaar had excellent skills, coupled with his cruel temper; otherwise, a commoner would’ve gotten stabbed and killed by a subordinate a long time ago.
He always carried shadows with him, dragging along the much darker shadows of life, enjoying tormenting his apprentices.
Due to his infamous reputation after his Elven apprentice’s escape, he hadn’t been able to secure a decent apprentice for a while, but time had allowed him to show his ambitions again.
– At this point, the young people probably wouldn’t know who I am anymore, right?
Professor Buzhaar’s strategy was effective.
He’d wait until the tales of his infamy faded and until those infamous short-lived beings expired, then jump back into the game!
As time passed, Buzhaar’s notoriety dimmed, and alongside it, the smaller malicious professors got cycled out. By this time, there was a growing sentiment that all remaining professors must be kind, wasn’t there?
The deputy could think that because he was oblivious to the fact that those supposedly nice professors were bypassing class and wreaking havoc on construction sites.
Anyway, this infamous professor had recently found a talented student even by his high standards, but there was disappointment, for he had too many mentors.
The Destroyer.
Sadako.
Bronze.
Such a remarkable student with three mentors.
But then came the series of good news.
The previous hero vanished without a trace, be it death or retirement, and Sadako ascended to God.
Only Professor Bronze remained.
A Rogue?
The continent’s top ten rogues?
He had been somewhat famous, but such professors had existed in countless numbers since ancient times.
“There’s nothing more gratifying than being called a thief by a thief!”
Had Oknodie come to the catacombs, Buzhaar would have just kidnapped him to be his apprentice.
Unfortunately, all that remained were Sadako’s traps, wasting his time, or the annoying protective walls that activated in response to a strong invasion of Professor Class.
[Transformation]
[Concealment]
[Collapse]
[Infiltration]
Professor Buzhaar could tear through the barriers with brute force; however, he unnecessarily took the cumbersome route, solving spell puzzles and dismantling traps as he entered.
Given Sadako’s personality, it was highly likely she set traps to explode all the treasures inside if she thought someone was stealing from her.
“Still, I thought I’d surely claim first place, but this is pretty good.”
“Isn’t the treasure still intact?”
The deputy was still as clueless as ever.
“There’s nothing worth getting.”
Someone had gotten ahead of him.
After a few periods of turmoil that marked the end of long peace, he had thought that all the usable folks were either dead or retired , yet someone got to Sadako’s legacy before him.
“Here lie the corpses of professors, as well as the corpses of great evils and ruler-class monsters. What could be more valuable than the Undead Queen’s grave?”
“It’s easy to misunderstand, but Sadako’s strength lies not in the [Undead Queen] being the one who commands the undead; if that were the case, she wouldn’t have surpassed the God of Death.”
Buzhaar pointed to a small freezer in a corner with the most severe locking mechanism.
A freezer far too small to store bodies; it could only hold blood.
“Vampire Queen!”
Indeed.
The true treasure of Sadako, who once had enough power to be called the Vampire Queen, was the extensive collection of strong blood she possessed.
“Someone took Professor Sadako’s [Blood Collection].”
“Isn’t that a big issue? If consumed, the effects will show immediately.”
“So we just have to wait. Someone will soon arise who cannot resist the power of that blood and will rampage.”
Professor Buzhaar and his deputy began to keep an eye on the campus.
*
There are many valuable treasures in Professor Sadako’s catacombs.
Corpses of professors, great evils, and giant monsters raised as undead to become immediate power.
Treasures that they possessed in life but were entombed along with their corpses.
However, having outrun the professors who breached the catacombs through the secret passage for staff only, I chose the case of blood stored in the small freezer.
“Let’s go!”
“Can we really just take this?”
“There’s a pursuer! If we take something big, the treasure’s mana will attract them. Besides, what we need most for Titosso’s training is this blood ampoule!”
Jiang looked at the ampoule filled with blood with suspicious eyes, while Titosso gazed at it with curiosity.
Even though they had expertly navigated back from the path they took without the professor noticing, everyone merely regarded the blood ampoule as a fascinating spectacle, unaware of its true value.
After all, experiencing it directly is the only way to understand!
“Tito. Try drinking this!”
I replicated the blood from the ampoule to fill a cup.
Titosso smiled brightly and replied.
“No way! It smells like blood.”
“I’ll add honey!”
“Then I’m good!”
Titosso held the mug with both hands and gulped down the replicated blood drink.
“Now, try to catch the light stand!”
“Huh? Uh, uhhh? Uh, uhhhhhh?”
Both Titosso and Jiang were startled.
The light stand wasn’t shining at all.
“What is the identity of that blood?”
“It’s the blood of giants!”
“Blood of giants?! Uh-oh, I don’t want to become a giant!”
Fearing suddenly growing taller, Titosso whined, but fortunately, the blood of giants had no such effect.
“If drinking blood made you grow taller, giants would have exploded themselves to death long ago! The effect of giant’s blood isn’t growth; it’s enhancement!”
“Enhancement?”
“Think about it. Giants are big, right?”
“Super huge, right?”
“To maintain that body, the amount of oxygen, carbon dioxide, hormones, and essential nutrients carried by the blood must be much greater than that of an ordinary human, right?”
“That makes sense…? Yeah. It sounds right!”
“A giant’s heart beats more fiercely than a human’s to carry the blood far, but that alone can’t sustain its body!”
“Then what do they do?”
“The blood consumes mana and enhances its own performance—more, faster, more efficiently!”
Titosso began feeling anxious.
“What does that have to do with the light stand not shining…?”
“The overflowing mana from Titosso is being entirely absorbed by the blood instead of the light stand, so now Titosso can’t make the light stand shine!”
“What?!”
“By raising mana control, if you don’t absorb the blood, you will live strong and healthy like a giant for your whole life. And… you’ll have to switch to the ‘Knight Department!’”
“Me? In the Knight Department?”
Titosso’s curiosity as an Adventure Department student showed.
However, that curiosity was misguided.
“Of course, Titosso, you’ll have heightened blood flow and recovery speed, so no matter how hard you exert yourself, you won’t tire and maintain your athletic ability, so the professors there will really, really like you!”
“If the professors from that department like me, what will happen?”
“You won’t sleep at night and will be training the body all day long. By next year, you might even become a superhuman who can defeat Son Ohchun with one hand!”
“Waaah, I don’t want hellish training!”
Only now did Titosso realize what he had just consumed, bursting into tears.
As Jiang instinctively tried to cover his ears, he hesitated.
“Even when I heard Titosso’s crying, my head doesn’t hurt…? Oknodie. What’s going on?”
“It’s because the overflowing mana isn’t getting released with the crying sound!”
There’s no light, and the crying doesn’t give him a headache either.
Can we still call this Titosso?
Such confusion was evident on Jiang’s face.
Well, if he succeeds in training mana control, he’ll regain that level.
On the contrary, he would be even more magically powerful.
But frankly, it wouldn’t matter if he failed.
He’d just become that much healthier.
The only downside would be getting caught by Professor Ferguson, who teaches “Enhancement Enhancement Enhancement”!
Giant’s blood can also serve as an enhancement catalyst.
With a rapid recovery rate and blood regeneration, he’d regularly show up with a blood collection tube!
“Still, you’ll earn plenty of points!”
“I don’t waaaaaant it! I hate shots!”
“Then control the mana being absorbed by the blood to reclaim it. In that case, the giant’s blood won’t be able to sustain itself and will return to a normal human body!”
In summary, Titosso stood at the crossroads of becoming a magic knight versus a body knight!
‘Better infinite blood collection than an artificial sun!’
The parties involved might not appreciate it, but it was a service filled with consideration from a veteran player.