Chapter 301: Dark Demon’s Ever-Present Shadow (4k)
After Dak handed over some textbooks to Professor Lily for photocopying, he casually brewed some tea and took the opportunity to relax.
Not long after, Professor Lily finished photocopying and grumbled while holding the textbooks, “Creating exercises is so exhausting!”
Dak couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “Shall we switch then?”
Professor Lily: “Tonight, and tomorrow morning, we’ll switch back?”
Dak: “Just stay right there and don’t move. I’ll buy some peaches.”
With that, he took the textbooks and left, never to return.
…
February 13th, Tuesday.
Only one day remained until Valentine’s Day.
The festive atmosphere made the entire academy slightly more agitated.
The fake professors ignored it.
The real professors had ways to control the students.
“BEEP BEEP BEEP!”
Dak pulled out his Selection Card and indeed saw a notification from Professor Jones.
He injected mana into it and opened the notification.
“Is today’s Duel Class in Arena ②?”
Dak put down the newspaper and took a sip of milk.
Since the start of the second semester, Duel Classes had been rarely practiced.
Even when held in the arena, they were merely for demonstration purposes.
According to Professor Jones, this semester would have one more in-class duel besides the final exam, but not now.
Dak didn’t pay much attention to the class change notice.
He stroked the fox-eared grass plant by his feet and looked up at the sky.
The sky was clear, with no clouds.
It was hard to imagine that there would be heavy snowfall the next day.
But true prophets never make hasty judgments; whatever they say, whether it comes from divination or not, usually comes true.
After all, those who make their living from predictions value success rates!
If the prediction’s success rate was low, they wouldn’t get any jobs.
No jobs meant no performance metrics.
No performance metrics meant no income.
No income meant starvation.
And if they starved, they wouldn’t be “true prophets.”
This logic made Dak smirk.
“Every profession is tough!”
…
At eight o’clock…
All first-year students from the four colleges gathered on time at Arena ②.
Professor Jones said nothing after starting the class, just stood there with her arms crossed, smiling and pointing to the edge of the arena.
The students understood and, after warming up, began running laps.
After a whole semester of training, even the most delicate girls could barely complete the lap task.
However, after giving the students about five minutes of rest, Professor Jones assigned the next task: run laps with the golem!
When the young magi heard this, they stared at Professor Jones as if she were a demon.
But Professor Jones didn’t feel “guilty” about it. She talked passionately about the importance of working with golems, fully justifying the task.
The young magi, forced to accept it, summoned their golems and started their second round of laps…
Dak never expected Professor Jones to assign such a task, but luckily, he carried a Mana Card Deck.
Except for “Meow” and “Paradise,” most of his magic cards were in the deck.
He picked out the Magus Card of 【Magical Beast: Eevee】 and summoned it, bringing Eevee from the dormitory directly to Arena ②!
“Eevee?”
The sudden environment change made Eevee uncomfortable.
After Dak left the dormitory, it sneaked back into the bed, never expecting to be summoned outside.
The comfortable warmth was gone.
Here was the cold and deadly arena!
…
Dak ran along the edge of the arena with Eevee.
Running with a golem required constant attention to its steps and adjusting one’s speed according to the golem’s pace.
This helped in building默契 (intimacy) between the mage and the golem, which was somewhat beneficial.
Overall, it was aimed at practical combat rather than dueling competitions.
Mages and golems worked together, using agile maneuvers to avoid danger, staying within the protection range of the golem.
— These were basic skills every mage needed in real combat!
However, theory alone couldn’t match practical experience.
Only when truly needed did the young mages realize the importance of current training.
…
In short, the young mages were mostly complaining.
Dragging their tired legs and golems with stiff movements, they ran laps around the arena.
As students dropped out one by one, the few still leading at the front stood out.
From being in the middle of the pack last semester, Dak·Demon moved to the front this semester, progressing subtly without drawing attention.
Robert suddenly turned around, realizing today that even in his proudest project, he no longer had an absolute advantage.
…
By the time the “running with golems” part ended, most students were exhausted.
Professor Jones watched contentedly, pleased with the results.
Students should act like students.
Always being lovey-dovey was annoying!
Ultimately, it was the professors’ fault for giving them too much time for romance!
But better late than never.
…
After about five minutes of rest…
Professor Jones seized the moment to have Dak·Demon demonstrate an auxiliary technique called “Shadow Following.”
She mainly talked about a technique involving precise positioning and coordination with the golem to hide oneself within the larger golem’s shadow, achieving invisibility!
Though it seemed simple, it was actually a highly advanced technique requiring high proficiency from both mage and golem.
For example, Dak and Lil’Eevee didn’t meet the requirements.
Lil’Eevee’s size couldn’t shield Dak at all.
But for auxiliary teaching, it was manageable.
…
Towards the end of the class, Professor Jones summoned a giant brown bear to simulate a battle with Dak, leaving a deep impression!
From the start of the simulation, Dak lost sight of Professor Jones completely!
It was like she had vanished, impossible to track.
Third-party observers couldn’t comprehend the shock of his perspective.
“If I mastered this technique, I would have been harder to target in my battle with Vlad.”
Dak absorbed knowledge like a sponge, eager to learn.
…
RING RING RING!
When the first class ended, only Dak felt unsatisfied.
Most students celebrated the end of the duel class, eager to sit or lie down and rest!
Thus, when the second class—Arithmetic—began, Professor Lily noticed the whole classroom of students looking listless.
She raised an eyebrow, looking at Dak in the last row, who seemed relatively energetic, so she didn’t worry much.
Professor Lily’s teaching method remained unchanged, still “reading from the textbook.”
With textbooks, she layered her explanations from easy to difficult, providing examples that made the content easier to understand.
Still, some understood while others didn’t.
A whole lesson passed, and the young mages’ physical energy recovered slightly, but their spirits were crushed!
The dual blow to body and mind made the morning particularly difficult.
Arithmetic homework was the lingering effect of the duel class…
At two o’clock in the afternoon.
First-year students, who hadn’t slept well, arrived at the History of Magic classroom looking dejected.
“History class is still better! No running laps, no problem-solving, just listen.”
Students inexplicably developed an unexpected fondness for History class.
The bell rang.
Professor Ryan Hux entered confidently through the front door.
He walked with purpose, exuding confidence, and boasted, “Students, have you noticed your Professor Hux is different now?”
Students perked up to look.
Someone gasped.
Professor Ryan Hux had changed significantly since arriving at the academy.
If students hadn’t anticipated these changes, they might have found it harder to accept that it was the same person!
Even Dak, sitting by the window, felt surprised.
Ryan Hux, the gun hero who retired due to injuries, lost a leg, hand, and eye in the war.
Post-war hardships had dulled his edge and taken his health.
Time cruelly stole his hair, leaving wrinkles on his face.
Dak remembered his initial disheveled appearance.
But now, after less than a month living in the castle, Ryan Hux regained some of his former sharpness.
His hair grew back under experimental hair growth treatment, his beard was carefully trimmed, and his wrinkles smoothed out as his muscles filled out.
The black eye patch on his right eye was replaced with a realistic prosthetic made by Professor Kazel and Sister Carrian.
The prosthetic eye was almost indistinguishable from his left eye.
Perhaps Professor Kazel added some extraordinary functions.
His left hand and right foot were also fitted with prosthetics.
Professor Kazel’s skill made the prosthetics blend seamlessly, making movement almost imperceptible.
Despite costing a month’s salary—still considered a bargain—the kingdom probably couldn’t find a better magic tool craftsman than Professor Kazel.
Even Ryan Hux himself was shocked by how well the prosthetics fit.
Looking at himself in a full-length mirror, touching the lifelike skin of the prosthetics, he almost believed he wasn’t disabled!
At this moment, he finally looked like the “gun hero” he was meant to be!
…
Excited, Ryan Hux suddenly started talking about his personal romantic history in the History class.
“History!”
“History is formed by collisions of emotions.”
“If I were to compile my personal experiences, it could pass for modern history.”
“Whether it’s the violet princess of the Greenfield Dwarves, the chief’s daughter of the Boar Beastmen, or the pearl of the Black Goblin Ore Tribe…”
“If you connect all the outstanding women attracted by my youth and strength, it forms a natural historical scroll.”
…
“Professor! Given how many outstanding women loved you, why were you so destitute before coming to Saint Maryan?”
…
Professor Ryan Hux selectively ignored the discordant voices and continued telling his story of meeting and parting with these “red beauties.”
As the saying goes, lovers will eventually separate, hearts breaking at the Blue Bridge…
Given that Ryan Hux remains single, it says a lot.
Thus, the students gradually realized he wasn’t talking about love stories.
He was recounting a grand tale of heartbreaks!
In the war, he met and parted from excellent women.
Each separation had different reasons.
Beyond racial barriers, differences in appearance, opposing stances… countless reasons, some heartfelt, some bizarre!
The woman with the deepest connection to Ryan Hux was the daughter of a human lord.
They even reached the point of exchanging their first kisses (?!).
Hux still remembered her—gentle and beautiful, with white hair like snow, and the fragrance of lavender on her lips.
They pledged their lives in a garden of blooming flowers, dreaming of a future filled with descendants under the moonlight.
But their relationship never bore fruit.
Her father, the lord, had only her as a daughter and insisted on taking in a son-in-law.
How could the gun hero—Ryan Hux—stoop to becoming a son-in-law?
Therefore, the next day after pledging their lives, the fiercely independent Ryan Hux argued with the lord and was expelled from the territory.
He and the lord’s daughter were forced to part ways.
“I vaguely remember it was Valentine’s night, a perfect night…”
