As the baby Kraken cried, the parent Kraken suppressed its fury and slowly lowered its massive legs.
Realizing that he was forcing down hostility with that action, Professor Red Mountain recalled his talisman.
Gugugugu.
Just approaching the ship caused the protective barrier to buckle as if it would burst at any moment, making even the face of El Draco Professor’s deputy go pale.
The professor, mindful of appearances, merely glared at the legs, twisting his face in internal sweat.
‘Damn, it’s ridiculously strong. If that many legs come crashing down at once, how do we hold on?’
The Kraken wrapped its tentacles around the baby and began descending back into the summoning circle from which it was called.
He was alive.
His mind, previously focused, loosened as he belatedly realized the cold sweat soaking his clothes.
Cugugugugu.
The gigantic legs started disappearing beyond the summoning circle.
However, the baby Kraken hanging onto the parent Kraken continued to wriggle and squirm incessantly, making little noises with its small tentacles.
‘Is it chilly…?’
The [Crisis Awareness] honed in real combat sounded an alarm.
The descending legs began to slow their descent.
Eventually, the tips of the tentacles thrashed wildly, furious like an angry octopus.
Even without expressing it in human language, it was clear what it intended to convey.
Anyone who dreamt of commanding the great deep-sea beast as a famous pirate would have studied the Kraken’s language at least once.
[You’re not just deceiving my child, but trying to turn it into food. I won’t let you go!]
“Attack! Maximize the defensive barrier…!”
Before the words could finish, a massive whirlpool erupted from the seabed.
As the ship tilted and was pulled down by the [Deep-Sea Maelstrom], it was engulfed by a single tentacle’s might.
Of course, compared to the power the Kraken itself could wield, this was a mere fraction.
However, this was shallow waters close to the coast for an emergency test.
The distances to the seabed and nearby reefs were excessively close.
Immediately after the bounty of the great pirate and the teachings of the Duchess of the Deep enveloped the ship, an immense shock battered the dual-layered shield.
The Kraken’s legs had completely vanished beyond the summoning circle, but this was no good news for the ship being dragged down to the seabed in the maelstrom.
As the water that had been displaced surged back, waves pounded the vessel from every direction.
Wujiwujizik!
A great crack appeared throughout the ship.
This was unsustainable.
Without hesitation, both professors immediately deactivated the large barrier surrounding the ship and simultaneously spread out smaller barriers to shield all the students.
By the time the students, tossed around in the orbs, came to their senses, they found themselves washed ashore, propelled by the currents onto the sandy beach.
“Ugh, I feel so sorry, Captain. I fainted halfway and got rescued along the way.”
“I’ll hear excuses later. More importantly, students. We cannot afford to lose any students. Count them immediately!”
Even if the cost fell on Professor Red Mountain, El Draco Professor could not allow any of his students to die.
If the rumors spread that he had killed a first-year student, how could upperclassmen attend his lectures, and without students, how could he meet his ‘quota’ to be freed from the Academy?
‘Please don’t let me hear that even one person is dead!’
Facing the instructors who were counting, El Draco Professor silently prayed.
“The count is complete.”
“…What’s the result?”
“There are more than twice the number of people confirmed than before.”
“What? How could the number increase instead of decrease?”
“Well… it might be because of the Merso Pirate Group?”
“Filter them out!”
After a moment, one of the instructors returned, scratching his head with a dazed expression.
“I counted excluding the Merso Pirate Group, but there’s still a larger number.”
How could the number not only not decrease but actually increase?
“Oh. Such a foolish one. Second-years and third-years barged in! Exclude them and count again!”
The instructor scratched his head and counted a third time. Then he rubbed his cheek and counted it a fourth time.
Confirming the results and checking the attendance roster with the magic watch, check, check, he…
“Say it! What’s the problem now?”
“I only counted first-years, and there are still more students than before?”
It was enough to make a ghost cry.
Before the bewildered professor, the instructor lifted the neck of an unfamiliar first-year student.
“For now, these are first-years not on the list. Not just this one, but others as well. However, strangely, a significant number of them are from the Upper Class for First-Year.”
“Why in the midst of a busy weekend with assignments are these lunatics wandering the coast only to be swept away and pop out? I’m going crazy. What about injuries?”
“Paralyzed with fear, they were swept away by the waves crashing onto the shore, looking utterly pitiful.”
“Ugh… ugh…”
“Really pushing it. They ate water and are floundering. Tsk. Save those who aren’t on the list first.”
As they healed the nearly dying students, some regained their senses and coughed up water, struggling to get up.
“What are you guys? What were you doing here?”
“We…”
The extra students introduced themselves and their purpose.
They were the members mobilized by Jezel, who had set out to confront Dobi at the same time Orknodie stirred up trouble.
*
“Is this a trap?”
“Yeah. It’s a trap.”
The time Orknodie was scheduled to take the test.
At the same time, in another location, Jezel had leaked information that Orknodie needed your help.
The trap caught Dobi, who appeared right in the midst of Upper Class students.
“I see some familiar faces from the previous library expedition. I apologize for the trouble back then.”
“Apologize by putting the name of Orknodie on your suspicious actions. That would be more fitting.”
Irene glared at Dobi with cold eyes.
Creating more opportunities for further bad rumors about the already ill-reputed Orknodie was a sufficient reason to be in deep trouble.
“My actions are all just a step away from the moment of doom. I have no reason to apologize to anyone.”
“You’ve gotten quite cocky, haven’t you? Just like your ominous aura.”
“Will you now let me go?”
“That cannot happen. If you won’t bend easily, then I will correct you with force.”
Encouraged by Irene’s confident statement, others began to reveal themselves, bolstering their spirits.
Among them were the Eastern Swordsman Sing and mob, who had previously lost to Dobi.
“I wonder if you’ll even make it to my turn.”
By the time Jiang casually sat on a signpost by the coastline, twirling a shuriken, only boredom beyond leisure was visible.
It couldn’t be helped, remembering the line-up of Jezel, Isabel, Son Ohchun, Hestia, Dorothy, Rockbell, and the others.
This power tier appeared excessively overwhelming.
Nevertheless, Dobi did not back down.
Was it that he was so frightened he lost his mind?
“I say, if you dare to separate me from Orknodie, you will be my, nay, the world’s enemy. I cannot forgive a harbinger of doom who hastens the end!!”
An uproarious shout.
Jiang’s eyes widened as he idly leaned back, treating it like someone else’s business.
This was a different level.
As an assassin, there were times he used this functionality to suppress a target’s escape, a tool for convenience.
For Jiang, Fear Inducement had always been that type of existence.
But Dobi was different.
The moment he wielded this ability, Jiang felt an ominous and ghastly type of fear creeping up on his skin.
This was a horror he had never even experienced from his gruesome mentor, the Life Stealer Rung Nosa.
If it had to be compared, only one person could instill such fear into an assassin’s heart—the living nightmare, Professor Sadako.
‘What kind of deed could create such frightening fear?’
Even she, who made it her profession to kill, could only dream of inducing such fear.
Had he made a pact with the demonic clan and stole a soul?
No, even that would be insufficient.
Roe, the Demonic Contractor seen on the cruise ship.
Even Roe couldn’t induce this level of panic.
This was a fear permitted only to someone who could take something heavier than thousands of lives.
“The power that brings forth despair to break one’s heart. It doesn’t work twice.”
Even Jiang, frozen in place, watched as a student who was panting and struggling to rise while kneeling among the frozen, overwhelmed students stood up, gritting their teeth.
The Eastern Swordsman Sing.
The blood trickling from the corner of his mouth was a sign of pain forcibly waking his body from terror.
In stark contrast to the assassin’s numbness, warriors had a technique, [Body Awakening], which forcibly revitalized senses to nullify status ailments!
“This monstrous presence… I won’t leave without subduing it first.”
Northern Grand Duchess Irene exuded an icy chill like a blade and forced her collapsing body to rise with transcendent mental power using the magicians’ spell [Mental Awakening].
“Wisdom is realized before one experiences, while a fool knows nothing until experiencing it. You are no different from other fools.”
Casting synchronizing magic, she displayed the moment of doom.
It was a bit unsettling to show this memory to someone who had died by self-detonation at that very moment of doom, but Dobi had no choice.
Just as if he was chosen as a new Chapter Boss, it was the moment for Dobi to display his power against many strong foes.
‘The resonance of Synchronization is broken!?’
A colossal mana wave forcibly destroyed all magical effects.
Though not as powerful as the moment of doom, the sheer force contained was enough to evoke memories from then.
The source of that power was the Kraken.
Gugugugu!
As the giant legs surged out from beneath the surface, a wave of terror struck every student’s body.
Dobi’s fear inducement.
The Kraken’s wide-area fear.
With this double-layered terror, even Sing and Irene, who had activated Body Awakening and Mental Awakening, and Jiang, who managed to move despite wiping out his fears, were all paralyzed again.
Unlike Dobi’s ability, which could be shaken off with effort, the mana’s [Pressure] was a type of widespread fear that couldn’t be resisted.
Before they could even overcome such power, the legs vanished beneath the waves, and from the shore, a gigantic whirlpool began to form.
Ships were swept away, tilting, sinking, and bouncing in the midst of the chaos.
With a tremendous noise, the ship broke apart, sending high waves crashing onto the shore.
Bang!
It goes without saying that all the students facing Dobi were swept away by the waves.
Ultimately, all students on the coastline collapsed.
Cough, cough…
Amid the calamity, Jiang trembled with disappointment and confusion, rising with a heavy heart.
In her blurry vision was a new figure.
Beyond the coastline, a small child with remarkably fast steps dashed toward the prohibited area.
“Orknodie…?”
Her pace was unwavering, filled with neither hesitation nor wavering.
As if she had foreseen all the ensuing chaos.
As if everything had unfolded as planned.
‘Could it be that the earlier one was the baby of the deep-sea giant, Kraken, kept inside that box for Cooking Handbook collection…?’
Confusion quickly shifted to unrest, and unrest led to horror.
Whatever the scheme was, this was a dangerously reckless act.
It would be natural for the Academy to take disciplinary actions to follow.
What place was worth such a magnitude of chaos, and what awaited inside?
If she couldn’t see that, the mundane routine so far would continue.
However, she had a strong premonition that if she remained complacent, Orknodie would suddenly disappear from her side.
Ugh…
Jiang, her body frozen with fear, was smashed by a wave as hard as rock, forcing herself to turn away from her wounds, stood up.
Her small steps were on a path chasing after Orknodie.
