Book 1 Chapter 702
702.
Whoosh-
Rain poured down.
“Of all times, it has to rain.”
Kal clicked his tongue, looking up at the sky.
It was a sudden downpour, but the second and third-year students, accustomed to it, pulled out and put on their raincoats.
“Why is it raining?!”
“Ugh! My socks are all wet!”
However, grumbles erupted among the first-year students.
Students who enter Lumern are born with exceptional talents in various fields from a young age.
As such, most of them are often cherished and doted on in their respective countries and families.
Even students who possess outstanding skills and practical experience in monster subjugation rarely encounter such rapidly changing field situations before admission.
Therefore, it was an annual event for freshmen to complain in such circumstances.
Especially since it was a mountain, the ground was turning into mud.
“Everyone, calm down.”
Luke stepped forward and calmed his juniors.
“But! Luke senior! My uniform will get all dirty!”
First-year female students from the Department of Knights whined to Luke.
Juen stood next to Luke and crossed her arms.
“In Lumern, you experience things like this all the time. Don’t act like a baby!”
The first-year students flinched at Juen’s words.
Seeing this, Illiana chuckled.
“The second-years who looked like they were about to cry when they went into their first practical training last year are now acting like seniors and giving advice?”
“Are you really one to talk, you who got reprimanded by Professor Halind on the first practical training day when it rained?”
“Hey! Kal! That’s!”
“What happened?”
Chloe tilted her head, and Kal chuckled.
“It rained during the first-year combat class practice. As soon as Illiana saw it, she immediately ran to Professor Halind and suggested changing it to an indoor class.”
At that, Chloe looked at Illiana with an incredulous expression.
“When Professor Halind asked why, her answer was a masterpiece!”
“Stop it! Stop it!”
Illiana’s face turned bright red as she covered Kal’s mouth.
Chloe, who had been listening intently to the story, glanced at Leo.
Leo then answered as if it were nothing.
“She had just bought new shoes and said they shouldn’t get dirty.”
“Class President!”
Illiana glared at Leo resentfully, and Chloe burst into laughter, “Ahaha!”
“It’s very Illiana-like, indeed Illiana-like.”
While the sulking Illiana kept poking Leo with her finger, Kal approached the first-year students.
“Well, shall I do you a favor as a senior? Hey, first-years. Line up. I’ll hand out raincoats now.”
At his words, the first-year students quickly lined up in front of Kal.
“See the raincoats they’re wearing? They’re the same as those.”
Kal pointed at Leo and Chloe with his hand.
In fact, besides Leo and Chloe, nearly half of the second and third-year students were wearing the same raincoats.
The raincoats had a logo engraved on them: a sword plunged into an alchemical cauldron with a magic circle.
It was an item Kal had made.
“I’ll lend them to you. You have to return them later, okay?”
“Thank you!”
The first-year students took turns receiving their raincoats.
“Wow! It’s comfortable!”
“It doesn’t feel like I’m getting rained on?”
“As expected of the one who prepares for the start! Your preparedness is thorough!”
The first-year students exclaimed in admiration and moved around.
“Why are you lending them for free for a change?”
“Hmph. It’s a kind of promotional event.”
Kal replied to Leo’s remark as if it were nothing.
“Promotional event?”
“These are quite expensive, you see. If I just told them to buy them, would they? They have to experience the performance like this to say, ‘Ah~’ and buy them.”
“You’re thorough.”
“Hmph. Do you think I worked my butt off for two years for nothing? With the money I earned during those two years, I even bought a building in Lumeria City.”
“A student’s primary duty is to study.”
Chloe, with her arms crossed, narrowed her eyes, and Kal wiggled his finger, saying,
“Business is also a life lesson.”
“Anyway, you’re good with words.”
Kal gave a thumbs-up, watching Chloe shake her head.
After confirming that the first-year students had also put on their raincoats, Leo gathered the participating students.
“The subjugation of the Orc settlement will be divided into three teams. First, Team 1.”
Leo glanced at Kal.
“Team leader is Kal. Team members are first and second-year students.”
“First and second-years. Gather in front of me.”
The first and second-year students quickly lined up in front of Kal.
“Team leader of Team 2 is Hilui.”
A third-year female student from the Department of Summoning nodded her head.
Leo then called out the names of the third-year students included in Team 2.
“Team 3 is Chloe and me.”
“Class President, what about me?”
“Illiana, please stay here and manage the first-year students.”
“Okay. Got it.”
Once the team assignments were announced, the first-year students began to murmur.
“Are Leo senior and Chloe senior moving alone?”
“No matter if it’s Orcs, if a settlement has formed, the numbers must be tremendous.”
“Will they be okay?”
One of the first-year students cautiously approached Illiana and spoke.
“Um… Illiana senior. It seems like the subjugation team is short on members. How about suggesting to the student council president that we draft some first-year students?”
“Short on members? That can’t be.”
Illiana shook her head.
“If anything, we have more than enough members.”
“Huh? But Team 3 is just the student council president and Chloe senior, two people, right?”
Seeing the flustered first-year student, Illiana smiled gently.
“If I were to give you a piece of advice as a senior, if you plan to continue attending Lumern, it’s best to quickly forget the common sense you think you know.”
“Huh?”
“People who have endlessly challenged their limits often lightly transcend common sense. Especially…”
Illiana glanced at Chloe.
“Chloe is special even among them. She’s at a level where it wouldn’t be strange to call her a monster. In fact, Chloe alone could wipe out an Orc settlement.”
The first-year students held their breath at Illiana’s words.
They wondered if it was a joke, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of such a thing on Illiana’s face.
“Is that… possible?”
“Of course. The heroes you aim to be are people who perform miracles. As such, hero candidates should also perform miracles.”
“Then… what about Leo senior?”
He was the youngest student council president and was already considered the strongest in Lumern in his second year.
If even Chloe, a hero candidate, possessed such overwhelming power, then to what extent was Leo, who had already risen to the ranks of heroes?
“Hmm… the class president is…”
Illiana clicked her tongue.
“He’s just the Great Demon Lord, that’s all.”
***
Whoosh-!
They walked through the rainy mountains.
The area assigned to Leo and Chloe was towards the very summit of the mountain.
“The Orc settlement appearing, that must be Tartaros’s doing, right?”
“Probably.”
Mount Ruderua was a fairly large mountain.
The terrain was rugged, and it was a forest area with no resources like magic stones or minerals.
As even mythical beasts and spirits didn’t reside there, it was not a very valuable mountain.
Naturally, it became land neglected by humans.
And in mountains where human footsteps ceased, as is often the case, monsters appeared.
However, Mount Ruderua was located not far from Lumern.
Mount Ruderua was a place where Lumern consistently assigned subjugation requests to students.
The history of the Hero Academy was 3000 years.
Normally, the monster ecosystem would have long since disappeared.
But Mount Ruderua had seen continuous monster appearances for the past 3000 years.
Even after Lumern carried out large-scale subjugations to exterminate the monsters, they still reappeared.
‘The cursed land.’
Leo looked up at Mount Ruderua and muttered to himself.
Regions like Mount Ruderua, where monsters constantly appear, exist all over the world.
The creation of the cursed lands dated back to the Age of Catastrophe.
The cursed lands were places where Erebus was summoned during the Age of Catastrophe.
Erebus was the natural enemy of the gods.
By the unquenchable flames of destruction, the gods vanished from the earth.
But the gods did not allow Erebus to rampage freely on earth.
When Erebus appeared 5000 years ago, the gods placed a disciplinary measure, trapping Erebus at the eastern edge of the world.
It was the final destination of the great heroes and where Leo fought his final battle.
Erebus’s reason for destroying the world using Tartaros was also a preliminary step to expand his range of action.
By burning the lands occupied by Tartaros’s legions and performing Erebus’s summoning ritual, Erebus could move freely within that territory.
The land where Erebus was summoned at that time retained a strong aura of Erebus and has now become known as the cursed land.
‘For now, there’s no way to lift the curse.’
It was fundamentally similar to the Forest of Monsters, Luna’s hometown, which had been cursed by Silatuna for 5000 years.
That place was freed from the curse after Silatuna was subjugated.
The cursed lands would also be freed from their curse if Erebus were completely subjugated.
Normally, cursed lands were not a big problem.
They were merely treated as troublesome lands.
As monster appearances were ceaseless, people did not live around the cursed lands.
Furthermore, nations possessing cursed lands periodically carried out subjugations to destroy the monster ecosystem.
However, sometimes, large-scale monster appearances would occur suddenly like this.
That was when Tartaros intervened.
“But isn’t it a little strange?”
Leo nodded at Chloe’s words.
“It is strange.”
The current world, it was no exaggeration to say, stood at a turning point in history.
The reappearance of the great heroes.
The emergence of a god.
The subjugation of the Erebus fragments.
Like the hands of a clock that had stopped since the dawn of creation began to turn,
astonishing miracles were occurring in succession.
Consequently, Tartaros’s movements became even more covert.
In such a situation, an unusual event occurred in the cursed land: the creation of a large-scale Orc settlement.
Tartaros could not have been unaware that this action would heighten the opponent’s vigilance.
“That’s why we came to investigate.”
Leo stopped walking.
Chloe also stood behind Leo.
A massive Orc settlement was visible in the distance.
At a glance, hundreds of Orcs, easily more, could be seen.
Leo activated his supersenses and surveyed the movements of the settlement.
“Orc Shaman King.”
“There’s a Shaman King?”
Chloe made a surprised expression.
Common Orcs are classified as lower-tier monsters.
However, Orcs are monsters that boast an overwhelming population.
As such, the appearance of powerful mutations is frequent.
Among them are shamans who use dark magic.
Among those Orc shamans, an Orc with powerful dark magic is given the title of Shaman King.
And an Orc Shaman King can exert power more formidable than most high-ranking demons.
For Chloe, it was surprising to hear there was a Shaman King that might appear once every 100 years.
“Prepare your magic.”
Leo said, drawing his sword, and Chloe nodded.
Chloe summoned her staff.
Thud-
Chloe, placing her staff on the ground, closed her eyes.
Goooooo-!
A chill began to sweep through.
Whoosh- Tidididididic-
The rain around Chloe began to freeze, turning into ice pellets that fell to the ground.
And Chloe expanded her domain.
As immense magical power swirled, the Orcs also noticed something strange.
But Chloe completed her magic faster than they could act.
“Fimbulvetr.”
Crraaaaack-
An irresistible chill enveloped the entire area.