Oknodie, mastering both binding techniques and the art of spatial explosion, demonstrated unparalleled stability.
The students felt pity rather than envy.
How much must one have endured to already be skilled in a technique they themselves were just beginning to learn at that age?
“But does that even make sense? Even if she received early education, her achievements at such a young age are just too fast,” one student remarked.
“That’s true. What on earth would one have to do to accelerate their growth rate like that?”
One of the students came up with a plausible theory regarding this unprecedented growth rate.
“You remember that Soul Oath Ishtar used earlier? Perhaps Oknodie made an oath too?”
“Oh?”
“But instead of a deity, she swore to an outsider. Then maybe her unreasonable strength makes a bit more sense, right?”
The power granted by the deities varied in type and magnitude based on the nature of the soul oaths. Even if one received strength as compensation proportionate to the period of maintaining purity, the burdens endured by someone beautiful and someone disheveled were different. The constraints faced by those in love compared to those without were also distinct. Some gods were extremely strict to the point where merely holding hands could invoke condemnation, while some evil gods had such broken purity sensors that they thought as long as you didn’t bear children, you were all good!
Naturally, the stricter the deity, the greater the power granted, while those with lenient standards offered lesser strength.
“What kind of oath do you think Oknodie made?”
“She must have sworn to a deity with a great affinity to her.”
“Was there a god of pranks?”
“Never heard of one.”
“Must be an outsider.”
“Looks like it… but what kind of power could an outsider grant?”
They couldn’t tell. Oknodie was a veritable jack-of-all-trades, and outsiders were unknown entities. Moreover, this wasn’t the time to be worrying about other people.
“In one hour, your training session will end.”
“Ugh, what the hell, professors! How can anyone who hasn’t even grasped the basics manage in just one hour?!”
“This is murder, pure murder!”
The students trembled with the terror that their lives could end in just an hour. The strongly individualistic fourth years feigned ignorance, but the head of class 980, Mandela Castera, was different.
“Everyone, let’s gather together for now!”
Class 980 was filled with influential figures from various organizations and noble families vying to establish their authority before the princess’s enrollment.
Even the competent Foundation Scholarship Student Cruel and the sinister figure from the previous class, Sadi Chocolate, played significant roles in a batch that was laughably strong compared to the current Four Kings.
The secret to Mandela Castera and the current Four Kings’ survival amidst the brutal internecine conflict was their harmony as a collective centered around Mandela Castera.
“Students skilled in the techniques will manage the external binding, while those less proficient will connect the insides. The spatial explosion user will establish the barrier at the outermost edge!”
The proficient students would protect the less skilled, and the less skilled would compensate for the lacking mana consumption. Survival rates rose as everyone collaborated.
Seeing this, the students of Class 981 dashed over to Oknodie.
“Oniodi, let’s do that as well!”
Titosso pointed to the light stand of Class 980’s binding spatial explosion formation.
“Should we?”
Fortunately, Oknodie had a disposition similar to Mandela Castera, caring for her friends. The anxious 981st cohort sighed with relief, worried they might be abandoned after a year of advancement in the 980th class.
“Exactly! The academy must look after those in the same year!”
“Thanks, Oknodie!”
“So how should we line up? The skilled ones could stand at the edges, like Irene, Kasia, Ishtar, and Oknodie… and the rest can fit inside, right?”
“Huh? No, not quite.”
However, Oknodie’s formation was a bit different.
“Everyone, get in here and sit down!”
Oknodie used magic to carve out seats from the magically exploded terrain. As they sat down in order, a safety bar was revealed that could be manually pulled down.
“Everyone, lower the safety bar and hold on tight! I’ve secured the skeletal supports with rare metals, so it won’t break!”
“Safety bar…? Is it unsafe if we don’t hold it?”
“Yep!”
Titosso felt uneasy at Oknodie’s firm affirmation.
“Then how do I hold my light stand while sitting?”
“I’ll cast a sticking spell on it!”
“Wow! Hehe. Look at this. The light stand sticks to my palm without me having to grip it!”
Titosso was blissfully unaware of the implications, but Rosgini felt uneasy.
“Do we not have to do anything?”
“If you hold the safety bar and cast a binding spell, you’ll be more securely suspended in your seat! It’s not necessary to cast it, but if you want to, you can!”
“What a unique formation. What’s our formation called?”
Oknodie answered with a beaming smile.
“Drop Tower!”
The students of Class 981, unfamiliar with the name of the amusement ride, merely wondered, “Is it a coffee drop? If so, what do you pour where?”
*
An hour passed.
The professor, glancing at his pocket watch, snapped shut the watch’s cover.
“Everyone has safely mastered the binding techniques and spatial explosions. Congratulations. You’ve now learned the basic stage one.”
“Basic, now?!”
“The technique you learned is to endure the typhoon of the Deadly Realm without being swept away. If you intend to simply sit there and get beaten for a thousand years, then fine, but you’d be at a level where you can’t even return to the Middle Realm, effectively dying in place.”
“Ugh.”
“Is it that we can’t even take our first steps…?”
The students agreed.
Training or not, shouldn’t one be able to return home?!
“Stage two is mobility. It’s the technique to maintain the techniques you’ve deployed while navigating challenging nature. The Foundation refers to this as forward technique. It’s a skill to cut through various disasters and hostile environments. Those who do not master the forward technique will not survive alone in the external dimension of the Middle Realm.”
You had to step up to stage two to avoid being stuck at a ‘one-person level’ hindrance.
They felt newfound reverence for the Foundation.
To think they had been quietly conducting such dangerous and arduous tasks away from public eye! No one to express gratitude to either. They had received nothing but complaints and were denied even the dream of compliments.
Yet the Foundation’s masters silently fulfilled their responsibilities at their designated posts.
“Seems a little more impressive now.”
“The Foundation also has varying dispositions based on factions, it seems.”
“So this is the Oknodie faction, huh.”
As motivation swelled, the desire to master the forward technique bubbled up among the students.
“The core of the forward technique is to disperse external energy through [Rotation], [Receiving], and [Flowing], allowing one to push back against greater forces with lesser power. This can be naturally grasped through Maid or Butler techniques, but it’s also possible to follow even without the Foundation technique.”
Professor Ryventrop centered a [Binding] formation around himself and pushed the entire land forward as he demonstrated.
The harsh winds of the Deadly Realm struggled to uproot the land, which had withstood its disasters year-round; instead, they utilized the resources of the Deadly Realm to resist the attacks of the Deadly Realm.
Next, he extracted the earth’s energy to unleash immense energy and dashed through the typhoon with a burst of speed.
When the energy began to waver, Professor Ryventrop’s feet sank deep into the ground.
Finally, instead of resisting the oncoming headwind, he redirected the earth’s energy to overpower it, turning it into a tailwind driving him forward.
The professor’s new model stood firm like a stake as it surged forward at a terrifying speed, empowered by the earth’s energy.
“The first is [Domain Movement]. It involves pushing away the Deadly Realm’s domain with your domain while moving through it. This requires significant strength but is used during large-scale operations when many resources or injured individuals must be protected.”
“The second is [Domain Ejection]. Like loading techniques into weapons or memory circuits and using them at the desired moment, it stores the domain of the Deadly Realm and releases it to maximize impact at a moment’s notice—this is a small-scale high-speed forward technique.”
“The third is [Domain Transition]. It transforms the characteristics of one domain into another, using two domains as one’s weapons in a medium-sized mid-speed forward technique.”
While each technique had its own principles and methods for use, it was clear that binding and spatial explosions were all starting points.
It was akin to chanting a spell or charging energy to execute interdimensional techniques.
“Any method you choose is fine. If you can cover 10 kilometers in any way, I’ll give you the opportunity to leave the lecture dimension.”
Naturally, Mandela Castera opted for the large-scale low-speed forward technique. It was slow, but it was the surest way to move forward alongside everyone.
The fourth years chose the small-scale high-speed forward technique. It was dangerous but allowed for rapid solo advancement.
The 981st students sighed in relief.
It was now time for Oknodie to choose the medium-scale mid-speed forward technique. Finally, the prospect of returning to the Middle Realm seemed within reach.
“Professor!”
“Yes, my lady?”
“If we go more than 10 kilometers, what’s there?”
“You’ll receive extra credit.”
Oknodie’s eyes sparkled.
“How much extra credit can be earned?”
“The further you go, the more you receive.”
Titosso was the first to express foreboding.
“Oniodi, please tell me that’s not—”
It was clear her intuition was kicking in, making her act like a victim of Oknodie’s antics. But once the safety bars were down and the students were seated in the drop tower, there was nothing they could do.
BAM!
Oknodie’s drop tower plummeted horizontally.
The speed of the unlimited-level horizontal drop tower was sheer terror.
There was nothing but the effort to cling on using binding and spatial explosions to avoid falling off.
“AAAHHH!!”
“I’m SPINNING!!”
“THE GROUND, THE GROUND!!!”
The circular structure of the spatial explosion rolled along the ground like a massive wheel, racing down with the storm, flipping the world upside down countless times in seconds, rendering the division of life and death meaningless.
Thunder struck relentlessly, and the massive thunderclaps alongside the heavy downpour drove the passengers to the brink of unconsciousness.
Luckily, there was the fusion being Kasia in Class 981, who diligently acted as a human lightning rod.
“Arrival!”
Oknodie, after making a large circle, parked the drop tower gently on the ground.
The state of her cohort, who had just suffered through the extreme high-speed round drop lightning show, was nearly comatose.
“Anyone want to earn more extra credit?”
“I’d rather die…”
The students raised their safety bars and crawled out of the device, collapsing in a safe area.
It was a small downside left over from the Foundation’s advanced educational methods.
“Hoh. Is this an area introduction technique that could likely be used by hostile organisms? Rather than slowing down, it involves increasing speed to quickly traverse long distances and launch surprise attacks. Truly impressive. Jonnas has raised her well.”
“Hehe. Isn’t it?”
“Next lecture, let’s aim for the other students to accomplish this alone.”
Once they stepped into the gate back to the Middle Realm, they would never again dally in the Deadly Realm.
With firm resolve, the students of Class 981 could hear the professor’s voice in their ears as they stood in front of the gate.
“Then, I’ll keep the gate open for the first 10 people.”
“What?!”
“This is cheating!!”
“You never said anything about this!”
“Oh, no!”
As Class 981, drained of strength, squirmed on the ground trying to stand, the fourth years grimly followed Oknodie’s method and shot themselves into the gate.
“The garden is now full. The next escape gate will open in 5 hours.”
“…”
The Foundation’s lectures would continue for another 50 hours.
