Chapter 593: Form Change (1)
He would rescue Dean Saiolus Garteanon and entrust the task of dealing with the leader of the Ghost God Palace to others.
This was the best way to minimize the risk to Evan’s safety while maintaining his position as an assistant professor at the university.
No matter what conclusion this crisis reached, the changes coming to Rebatenon University were inevitable.
However, since he was on-site, shouldn’t he try to control the direction of that change as much as possible according to his own will?
“If the sorcerers didn’t take the dean hostage, but rather see him as an offering for their ritual, it might already be too late.”
Milla said.
“You said the dean realized something was wrong a few days ago, right? Even if the situation changed rapidly overnight, it means they’ve already finished their preparations.”
“They said they would perform human sacrifices sequentially for the Spirit Growth Promotion Ritual, starting from lower-tier mages.”
Lennok replied, manipulating the dashboard to increase the train’s speed.
“Since the dean is an Archmage who has reached Level 7, there’s a high probability he’ll survive until the latter half of the ritual.”
“Couldn’t they change the order of offerings?”
“No. The very act of starting the ritual with lower-tier individuals is a process to sequentially increase the capacity limits of the ritual circle.”
Lennok shook his head at Milla’s question.
“Considering they need to keep the offerings intact until just before the ritual, the dean’s health condition probably isn’t that serious.”
“I see…”
“Of course, we must rescue the dean when he is in full health. If not, we will have to find a way to restore him.”
“There’s a university hospital wing behind the main campus building. If there are usable healing artifacts or a living doctor, they might be able to help the dean recover.”
“Wait, even if that’s true, we don’t even know where the dean is being held…”
Milla trailed off, her words stopping slowly like a broken machine.
She realized, a beat too late, that another voice had interjected between Lennok and herself.
Priscilla, who had appeared from behind the driver’s seat, holding a map and deep in thought.
Milla’s jaw dropped so wide it looked like it might hit the floor upon seeing her sister’s face.
“Scilla? What are you doing here?”
“Of course, I was waiting at the terminal to help the assistant professor.”
Priscilla replied without even a blink.
She then approached Lennok, showing him the map, and began to meticulously point out the direction the train should go.
“The western district, where the restaurants are located, doesn’t have spaces large enough to confine someone. Most buildings are wide open. We can exclude this area as a candidate.”
“What about the southern district, where the dormitories are?”
“There are many small warehouses or rooms, but conversely, there wouldn’t be a space wide enough to conduct a ritual.”
“Then we should focus our search on the eastern district, where the main campus building is, and the northern district, where the libraries are concentrated.”
“Agreed.”
“Wait, wait!!”
Milla, who had been watching Lennok and Priscilla rapidly exchange opinions, suddenly jumped up and waved her arms.
“No, Professor!! Why is my sister here right now?!”
“I’m not quite sure myself.”
Lennok replied calmly, turning the question back to Priscilla.
“Why are you here?”
“Well, the assistant professor isn’t familiar with the internal structure of the school, are you?”
Priscilla answered just as casually.
“And my sister, of course, knows nothing about the facilities inside Rebatenon University, so shouldn’t someone guide you two?”
Of course, Lennok hadn’t been unaware that Priscilla had secretly boarded the train.
He simply thought it would be better to take her along rather than waste time arguing and trying to force her off.
“…”
Milla, speechless and staring blankly at Priscilla, finally slumped down and leaned her head back blankly.
“I don’t care. Just know that when the operation starts, I’m going to knock you out and hide you.”
“Sister!”
“I also don’t wish for Priscilla to be in danger on the field.”
Lennok replied.
“Still, it’s safest for us to move together for now, so let’s handle this without her directly intervening in combat.”
“Phew… Professor. My sister has absolutely no talent for fighting.”
Milla sighed, shaking her head.
“It’s true her mind works better than mine, but honestly, in a fight, she’d only be a hindrance.”
“Sister, I’m almost a third-year now.”
Priscilla replied with a calm expression.
“I even completed my Combat Magic practicals a semester early. I know how to fight.”
“You know how to fight?”
Milla precisely repeated Priscilla’s words and spun her head around.
“Wrong, Scilla. How many times have I told you? It’s not about fighting; it’s about killing.”
“…”
“To fight and win. To win without getting hurt. To subdue without killing. Do you know how preposterous these promises are for a combat mage fighting on the field?”
Milla pointed sharply at Lennok with her finger.
“Unless you’re a genius with talent like him, you shouldn’t say such things carelessly. And why is that?”
Priscilla flinched, unnerved by Milla’s chilling gaze.
“Because the comrades who believe those words and act with you will end up dying with you.”
“…”
Clearly, this wasn’t some ghost story she’d heard from others, but Milla’s own reality.
There was no need to explain how much real combat she had experienced to become an Antares Mercenary Group member, with her shock-based superpowers, shotgun skills, and intuitive magical power.
It was natural for Milla to see Priscilla’s reckless attempt to join the combat as premature.
But Lennok stepped in to de-escalate the sisters’ argument before it could intensify.
He simply picked up Davi, who had been curled up dozing on Lennok’s head, and placed her on Milla’s face.
“Mph-mph-mph!!”
[…!!!]
Lennok shook his head, watching Milla and Davi both jump in surprise.
“I appreciate the praise, but I don’t have anything special to offer even if you gild me.”
“Ha…”
“I’ll help you with career counseling later, but for now, let’s focus on the current situation.”
With Lennok’s words, the train compartment emerged from the underground tunnel, flooded by sunlight.
As it crossed five stations within the university, railway tracks were laid not only underground but also above ground.
“We just passed the western district where the dormitories are located. Three minutes until the northern district where the Central Library is…!!”
Seeing Priscilla quickly regain her composure and unfold the map, Milla sighed and stood up.
“Professor, that promise you made to help my sister with career counseling. You’d better keep it.”
“Of course.”
Lennok smiled faintly and nodded at Milla’s unusually serious expression.
“I am still an assistant professor at Rebatenon University, after all.”
“…Still?”
The moment Milla and Priscilla echoed that significant answer simultaneously.
Suddenly, the sky darkened, and a thick shadow fell directly in front of the train window.
Crraaaash!!!
Something unknown absorbed the train’s impact head-on in the middle of the tracks.
But unlike the spider spirit whose body had burst from the force, this opponent held its ground, stopping the train head-on.
Screeeeech!!!
Sparks flew from between the wheels, and the train compartment shook wildly.
Black fur and a muscular torso filled the vision of the three, who swayed even while holding onto supports.
C-R-A-C-K!!
The train compartment ceiling was ripped open, and the shadow that had stopped the train seemed to be looking down at them.
Milla, her gaze lifted blankly, muttered in disbelief.
“…A gorilla?”
[Hooosh!!]
A giant gorilla snorted fiercely from its wide nostrils, its face veined with blood, looming closer.
Its massive size surpassed that of an average car, rivaling two or three train compartments that Lennok’s group was riding in.
“Leopard, Monkey, Elephant, Pig…”
A cold male voice came from atop the gorilla’s shoulder.
A brawny sorcerer, wearing what looked like a living gorilla suit, stood with his arms crossed, looking down at the group.
“All dead. Right?”
“Maybe?”
The sorcerer paid no mind to Milla’s sarcastic remark, instead inspecting the train they had arrived on.
“Coming by train means you dealt with the spider that sealed the terminal… Hmph, so five are already dead.”
He chuckled, mocking the deaths of his fellow sorcerers.
“I heard the students from the Elemental Magic Department have decent talent. If they died despite being quality offerings, it’s purely due to their own incompetence.”
“…”
“But the Elephant and the Spider had received some benefits from the promotion ritual… If you killed those two, you must be quite skilled yourselves.”
The sorcerer’s gaze swept across the ripped-open driver’s seat of the train, then finally settled on the very back.
“Is it you?”
Lennok stood up, casually finishing the remaining coffee in his cup and wiping his mouth.
The sorcerer’s sharp gaze gleamed at Lennok, who didn’t even glance at the house-sized gorilla or himself.
“I smell a spirit user. A very sweet and fragrant scent…”
“Do I smell?”
“No!!”
Priscilla shook her head, startled by Lennok’s question.
The sorcerer merely grinned, unbothered by her reaction.
“It means you control a spirit of unique and high-grade essence, rather than just a powerful spectral entity. It’s precisely the culmination we’ve been seeking through this ritual.”
Veins bulged on the gorilla spirit’s neck as it grasped the train with both hands, slowly lifting it.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!
Overwhelming strength, not only stopping the train with its sheer might but also lifting it.
If one were to engage in a head-on power struggle with such a monster, not even a single bone would remain intact; they’d be flattened into jerky.
But Lennok, knowing this, turned to Milla, who still looked sullen inside the swaying train.
“Milla. Can you enter the library first and check the way?”
Lennok asked with a smile.
“There’s something I want to confirm with that sorcerer.”
“Alright, but are you going to be okay alone?”
Milla glanced at the growling gorilla.
“Scilla won’t be much help in this kind of fight.”
“Don’t worry about the fight.”
Lennok said with a smile.
“It’ll probably be over quickly.”
“…That answer just now. It sounds exactly like a terrifying mage I know.”
Milla muttered with a slightly exasperated expression, then, without hesitation, kicked open the train door, shotgun in hand.
Bang!!
Milla vanished instantly through the gap in the door between the gorilla’s fingers.
She swiftly bypassed the sorcerer and the spirit, heading towards the massive Central Library building behind the gorilla.
[Hooosh?!]
“Don’t mind her. Focus on this spirit user.”
The gorilla snorted, turning its head in apparent surprise, but the sorcerer calmly ignored Milla.
His attitude suggested nothing was more important than facing Lennok right now.
Lennok observed the sorcerer’s reaction closely, slowly gathering his mana.
Priscilla, gripping the swaying train compartment tightly, asked.
“…Can we win?”
“Look at his reaction. He doesn’t seem very interested in guarding the library, does he?”
Lennok said, gesturing towards the sorcerer.
“There are two possibilities. Either he’s already achieved his minimum objective, or the person we’re looking for isn’t in the library.”
Lennok took Davi, who was dozing in his arms, and lifted her with both hands, smiling.
“The former seems more likely, but the latter is difficult to ascertain without confirming it directly. That’s why I sent Milla ahead to check the library.”
[Mmm… Master? Is it time to work already?]
Davi, held in Lennok’s hands, rubbed her eyes with her front paws, woke up, and yawned.
The fox spirit stretched, her mouth wide open.
The sorcerer stared intently at Davi’s form, looking very intrigued.
“On the surface, it looks no different from other spirits… What makes your scent so special?”
[What’s that organic creature muttering about smelling me?]
Davi grumbled quietly to Lennok so Priscilla wouldn’t hear.
“Good. I’ll just catch you and feed you to my spirit, then I’ll know…!!”
[Wild gorillas look smellier, you know!]
Rumble, rumble!!
The gorilla spirit released its grip, having forcefully lifted the train, and the compartment floated momentarily in mid-air.
Then, the gorilla clenched its fist, swung its shoulder, and slammed the train compartment down.
K-W-A-A-A-A-N-G!!!
A devastating punch that crumpled the steel plate and warped and melted the rails in the middle of the tracks from the impact.
But no bodies of Lennok or Priscilla were visible inside the shattered train.
Lennok, who had melted through the train floor to escape, turned to Priscilla, whose face had gone pale, and said.
“That sorcerer has already completed the Spirit Growth Promotion Ritual and greatly enhanced his spirit’s power. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be acting with such composure.”
“P-Professor… I don’t think this is the time for a conversation…!!”
At that moment, the gorilla’s fist, sliding across the rail ground, struck Lennok’s back.
Immediately after, dozens of sharp lightning stakes rose from beneath Lennok’s feet, intertwining to form a thunderous wall that blocked the punch.
Crackle, crackle!!
The pain of its entire fist melting from the destructive power of a common lightning-attribute spell.
The gorilla spirit shrieked, its shoulder hunching as it couldn’t withstand the force and intensity.
[Ughhh!!]
“As far as I know, there’s no such thing as being able to smell spirits. I suspect in his case, his synesthesia might be abnormally heightened…”
Davi, now perched on Lennok’s shoulder, flicked her tongue, radiating dazzling lightning from her entire body.
Lennok, drawing out foxfire rapidly in response to Davi’s will, nodded, enveloped in shimmering electricity.
“If so, we should probably pinpoint where the source of that ability and the ritual is located, right here.”
“Your deductions have been quite sharp for a while now.”
The sorcerer atop the gorilla’s shoulder had a faint smile in his voice.
“But how long can you maintain that composed attitude?”
C-R-A-C-K!!
The house-sized gorilla spirit tore off another train compartment with its remaining hand, gripping it.
The surreal sight of a train compartment, large enough to hold dozens of people, being wielded like a club.
The moment the gorilla lifted it high into the sky, its muscular body coiling.
Lennok spoke, seeing Priscilla’s pale face.
“Since the timing is opportune, let’s get a head start on studying practical applications of elemental magic, which third-years learn today.”
“I mean, I don’t think this is the time for that kind of talk…!!”
K-W-A-A-A-A-N-G!!!
The moment the gorilla slammed the train compartment down, the barrier made of lightning stakes shattered, sweeping over where Lennok had stood.
Train fragments scattered indiscriminately in all directions.
But the fragments that were about to engulf Lennok and Priscilla stopped dead in their tracks, as if time itself had frozen.
Whoosh!!
A chilling cold that prickled the skin.
The gorilla paused, stopping its arm, at the distinct breath of frost that froze the air.
The moment Priscilla, gaping blankly, realized that Davi, who had been glowing with a deep blue light, had softly landed in front of the gorilla, transforming from an active electrical entity into a sharp ice fox.
Lennok snapped his fingers and nodded.
“Shall we start with the simplest attribute transformation?”
[Spirit Hierarchy Common Magic: Attribute Transformation]
[Icicle Form]