SRS 73

“Ah…”

“…Damn it.”

“I can’t believe this is only the first day of evaluation week.”

The students, finally hit by reality, left the classroom looking drained of life. Yohan sighed as he adjusted his messy clothes.

Even though it had been brief, being swarmed by classmates like a pack of hungry beasts had left him shaken. While he wiped away cold sweat, Suhyeok scratched his head.

“Sorry. I raised my voice without thinking. I didn’t expect it to blow up like that… Guess everyone found the test harder than they thought.”

“…Maybe. But you don’t have anything to apologize for. I’m more curious about how many questions you solved?”

Yohan asked carefully, his eyes full of interest. They had studied together, so it was natural for him to wonder. Suhyeok glanced around, lowered his voice, and whispered,

“Seventy-seven. …Nothing compared to you though.”

“You solved up to seventy-seven?”

“Yes.”

“No skipped ones?”

“None.”

“That’s impressive.”

Yohan blinked and spoke with genuine admiration. Compared to what the others had managed, Suhyeok’s score was remarkable.

Hearing such pure praise made Suhyeok awkward.

“It feels weird getting that kind of compliment from you. It’s thanks to you, Yohan. The written test had a lot of application questions, just like you said. If we hadn’t changed how we studied halfway through, I’d have done terribly.”

“I only made up the questions, that’s all.”

Yohan looked embarrassed too. Suhyeok smiled, slung an arm around his shoulder, and started walking forward.

“Anyway, it’s mostly thanks to you. Come on, we should catch up before we fall behind.”

Since they’d left late, they hurried to catch up with the first group and reached the back mountain. Once everyone was gathered, Professor Will explained how the practical evaluation would work.

“The task is simple. Within the given time, find herbs in this mountain and create the best potion you can make. You’ll be graded on the potion’s quality and the difficulty of its creation. There isn’t much time, so let’s begin.”

Click.

As soon as Will finished speaking, he pressed the timer just like during the written test. The students immediately ran into the mountain.

Yohan quickly joined them.

What should he make to get the highest score?

As he went over his options, one potion came to mind. He immediately made his choice and turned his eyes around the area and began searching for the materials.

“Everyone, watch out for traps. Who knows what the professor might have set up here.”

Even while moving ahead, he didn’t forget to warn the others. Since Will was known for doing insane things like releasing monsters in the forest to test teamwork, it wasn’t impossible that he’d done the same for this test.

When Yohan warned them, the others grimaced.

“Damn it! You’re right, that’s exactly something he’d do!”

“Stay alert for monsters!”

“There might be traps underfoot!”

“Keep an eye on the sky too! Who knows, that giant bird might show up again and carry Melek off like last time!”

It had been a month since they’d lost their trainee status and become full students. By now, none of them doubted that their professor was capable of something cruel.

Yohan suddenly wondered if he was being unfair by assuming the worst about Will.

But that thought vanished fifteen minutes after the practical began.

“It’s a mutated Nephel flower!”

“Be careful! This must be a mutation zone! The plants are moving!”

Deep in the forest, the atmosphere shifted. Trees moved, flowers opened their jaws to swallow students, and leaves sharpened like blades, attacking everything nearby.

“Are you kidding me?! That crazy elf must’ve used mutation potions instead of monsters this time!”

The students, having lost all respect for their professor, froze in disbelief at the nightmarish sight.

“What do we do, Suhyeok? Should we turn back?”

“Yohan! Do you have any ideas?”

“Wait, Kitty! Don’t rush in like that!”

“Hah? We can just slash our way through with claws…ah!”

“Kitty!”

Some students turned to Yohan and Suhyeok for help, while others tried to fight their way through on their own.

Kitty, a wildcat beastman, was one of the latter. He extended his sharp claws to cut down the attacking plants but got caught instead, tangled in a mass of vines.

Melissa, the girl who always looked after Kitty, screamed and grabbed his arm, casting a spell. It was a cutting spell, but the vines, now alive and toughened, didn’t break easily.

As Kitty was captured, the plants began to attack the students in earnest.

“Ahhh!”

“Ugh!”

“My leg!”

Some students were dragged away by the plants, some were cut and bleeding from razor-sharp leaves, and others screamed as their legs were trapped by flowers and couldn’t move.

“This damn school!”

“Help me!”

“Wait, I’ll cast a spell…”

“Not fire magic! We’re in a forest!”

It was complete chaos. But for the students of Fantasiademia, even this was nothing new. Yohan remained calm, gathered the students who were still unharmed, and spread a barrier.

“Don’t spread out too far. The shield doesn’t cover a wide area. And it can’t block attacks from under your feet, so be careful.”

“Let’s form a rescue team first. …Melek? You’re still fine? Good. Take charge of the mages.”

“No one’s thinking of retreating, right? Fine. Then we’ll make a path. If you can handle a sword, follow me. If magic doesn’t work, we’ll just have to cut our way through.”

The students divided roles quickly and began to move in formation. The rescue team paired every two members with a priest or healer, then went outside the barrier to save those who had been caught. The sword team took priests and buffers with them, cutting through the forest under divine protection while receiving reinforcement spells.

The rest stayed within Yohan’s barrier, supporting others from inside or waiting for a path to open.

“Yohan, catch!”

“Yes.”

Yohan caught the students that Suhyeok pulled free, wrapped them in divine light, healed them immediately, and set them down.

“Thank you, Yohan.”

“It’s fine. Just be careful next time.”

“Yes…!”

Once healed, they joined the rescue or sword teams, or stayed to rest. As the number of rescued students grew, their strength increased, and the rescue team began working faster and faster.

Yohan unleashed more divine power in response. Once everyone was finally out of danger, he called the rescue team back under the barrier.

“Why do these things recover so fast?”

“Even when we burn them, they just regenerate again since we have to limit the power and range of fire spells…!”

The sword team was still struggling, as the plants healed and closed the path every time they cut it open. Even with help from the mages, they couldn’t keep up. Whatever potion Will had used to enhance the plants made them nearly impossible to destroy.

“…Should we fall back?”

Suhyeok murmured. Yohan was feeling frustrated. No. He couldn’t.

The ingredients for the potion he planned to make were somewhere beyond this monster forest.

“So they recover even when cut or burned, right? Then…”

Yohan recalled what the others had said about the mutated plants and looked back. He caught sight of several priest classmates but shook his head.

The control he needed over divine power was too difficult to ask from them. Even he wasn’t sure he could do it. Asking others to try would only undermine their confidence.

So Yohan stepped out of the barrier alone.

“I’ll help. Melek, can you and the other mages use gravity magic? If we can’t kill them or cut through, then let’s crush them. If we lay a barrier on top of that, we can use it as a temporary path.”

“…Crush them? There are trees out there too.”

Melek looked at him like he’d heard something absurd, but Yohan watched the writhing trees that continued reaching for his classmates and nodded.

“Yes. It’s not impossible. This is Fantasiademia.”

If there was any place where the impossible could become possible, it was here. He spoke with certainty, and the mages exchanged glances before channeling their mana.

“…You wouldn’t say that without a reason, right? We’ll try.”

Isaac was the first to step forward, casting gravity magic. The others followed, combining their spells.

A surge of mana pinned down the enemies. Smaller plants were flattened instantly, while the larger ones and tree-like growths squirmed violently, resisting the weight.

“This is the best we can manage,” one of the mages said, straining. The mid-sized plants were barely held down. They couldn’t keep it up for long.

“It’s enough.”

Yohan replied. He’d sounded confident earlier to convince them, but he knew flattening whole trees was nearly impossible.

But what about pushing them aside?

It wasn’t cutting, nor pressing them down from above. It was just tilting to one side for a moment.

Thinking he could do it, Yohan placed his hands on the ground. Then, he unleashed a quarter of his divine power, generating a powerful wave of energy and sending a gust of wind through the air.

His pale blue hair fluttered wildly, mingling with the leaves. Yohan shaped the divine power released before him into a pillar and toppled it over.

Boom!

Then, a loud noise rang out, as if an object with actual mass had fallen, crushing the plants. The trees tilted sideways, pushed by a pillar of light.

“…It worked.”

The first step was done, but it wasn’t over. Yohan shaped the fallen pillar into a hollow rectangular corridor in his mind. The divine power responded, spreading across the ground as a shield and sealing the sides while leaving the center open.

The passage he had envisioned was complete. It was rough, but safe enough for a short while.

Yohan wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned around.

“Thanks for the help. It won’t last long, just like you said, so let’s move quickly.”

He spoke very quickly and stepped into the passage first, both to test its stability and to lead the way.

“……?”

The mages watched him go, looking doubtful.

“…Was that really something to thank us for? He did everything by himself.”

“…Pretty much.”

The students’ exchanged looks. A rumor was spreading among the first graders, and it was gaining momentum.