A Regressor's Guide to Hunting in the Academy

Chapter 52

Chapter 52

The moment Henrik grabbed the old curtain, Whoosh! The curtain wrapped around Henrik's arm and flowed down his body.

It wound around his entire body, becoming a single wide cloth draped like a cloak.

'Phantom Scythe.'

This was the very artifact Henrik used in his previous life.

The cloak draping Henrik's body slowly began to change its form to fit him.

Was it because the image of the woman he saw in the illusion earlier came to mind?

Having adjusted its length and refined its shape, it transformed into a cloak reminiscent of black wings. The cloak, trailing long like a wing, took on a specific wing shape.

A black left wing.

Looking at the cloak that fitted him asymmetrically, Henrik thought of the woman with black wings. On her back, only a right wing was attached.

If so, what Henrik possessed was her left wing. Whether the cloak reacted to this or not, it transformed into a form very similar to it.

When Henrik slightly pulled the Sephirum hammer from his waist, the cloak Swish! began to wrap around his hammer as well.

'Right, what I need right now is not a cloak to protect my body. I need a means to hide the hammer.'

Henrik, who already knew well how to handle this artifact through his experience in his previous life, nodded as if satisfied.

The cloak went Whoosh! It flowed over Henrik's body and wrapped around the hammer. Then, the pure white Sephirum hammer was dyed black.

Henrik examined the hammer this way and that.

The effects of this artifact are precisely Stealth and Haste. Thanks to these effects, Henrik in his previous life was able to survive without being noticed by demons.

The stealth effect blocked presence and mana, hiding his figure. Moreover, this artifact also exerted influence on weapons, possessing excellent performance in concealing them.

Next is Haste. This serves the role of assisting the wearer's movements to be faster. It makes the body light like the wind, allowing one to achieve even faster speeds than now.

One can sufficiently increase the body's speed using potions, but eventually, that too hits a limit. Unlike artifacts, potions have a duration, and excessive consumption often leads to significant side effects like last time.

Now that he had obtained the Sephirum hammer, he intended to switch from constantly taking potions to using them as a tool for delivering a single strike.

Henrik walked, Thud, thud, and immediately left the armory.

He had no lingering regrets.

Because he knew it was all illusions and traps.

When he opened the exit, a small voice came from the armory.

[I acknowledge you, who knows how to see the true value without overlooking a single small thing.]

—Rumble.

As the stone door of the armory closed, Henrik went up to the ground.

Phantom Scythe changed its form to match Henrik whenever he changed his clothes.

When armed, it took the form of a cloak.

When wearing a suit for class, it took the form of a tie.

It changed freely and tried not to separate from Henrik.

And two days had passed since Henrik obtained the artifact.

The students auditing Henrik's lecture began to listen to his class very seriously, unlike before.

Having experienced the fear and strength of the demons they witnessed with their own eyes, the students seemed to think they needed to prepare.

This was a very good sign. Because there were always not enough people to deal with demons.

Today, without fail, Henrik's demonology class began.

Amecitia and Grimory were sitting in the middle row where the podium was most visible, and Carmine was sitting in the corner window seat in the back row where he always sat.

After checking the students, Henrik did not call roll separately.

There were only three students officially taking this course; the rest were auditing students, so there was no need to call roll.

"Then, let's start the lecture."

As Henrik opened his mouth, Amecitia spoke with her eyes shining sharply.

"Professor! You changed your tie? It suits you perfectly."

"Everyone, open your textbooks. Today I will lecture on the content of page 252."

Henrik lightly ignored Amecitia's words and proceeded with the lecture.

At that, the students giggled looking at Amecitia.

Whether she had become competitive with other students or not, lately she was making an effort to receive praise while watching Henrik closely.

"In this period, we will learn about the 'Manticore'. It is a magic beast with the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the face of a human. Grimory, can you explain the Manticore's abilities?"

"Yes, Professor."

At Henrik's question, Grimory rose from her seat and spoke.

During the lecture, Henrik threw many questions at Grimory. It was to check if she was preparing well.

"The Manticore is a high-rank magic beast possessing a hard body and powerful bite force. And the deadly poison spewed from its scorpion tail is said to be lethal enough to instantly kill 20 people."

"Correct. Sit down."

When Henrik nodded, Grimory smiled brightly and sat down. The students sitting around her briefly applauded Grimory.

"What you faced in the previous incident were mass-produced low-rank magic beasts, but in the future, you will frequently encounter individual magic beasts with distinct characteristics. So memorize this properly."

"Yes!"

The students answered energetically at Henrik's words. Unexpectedly, the class he taught was quite easy to understand and was a feast of new knowledge, so his reputation among the students was very good.

It was evidence that Henrik's reputation at the Academy was improving little by little.

"Then I will give you a simple problem. Let's assume a situation."

Henrik picked up a piece of chalk and Tak, tak, began to draw a picture on the blackboard.

"You have encountered 2 Manticores in a forest with a dense mana concentration. Allies are three people including yourself. Two vanguards and one rear guard. The vanguards' armament is swords, the rear guard's armament is mid-rank magic. Write down how to survive in this situation."

He then took out a small clock and placed it on the podium.

"I will give you 5 minutes. Start."

With Henrik's words, the students moved their pencils Scratch, scratch, busily. They began to write down tactics fitting the situation and the most ideal combat methods they thought of in their respective notebooks.

Henrik came down from the podium and glanced at what the surrounding students were writing.

First, Amecitia.

Amecitia was a practical type of student who showed strong prominence in practical skills. Perhaps because of that, she had a tendency to always narrowly avoid a failing grade in theory.

He leaned his head in and looked at her answer.

[First, throw the first punch. Then with my special move...]

"..."

Let's stop looking.

She seemed to be immersing herself in the situation and substituting herself for one of the vanguards. No, is she trying to defeat them alone?

Shaking his head, he turned his gaze to the front seat.

Next is Grimory.

Contrary to Amecitia, she is a student strong in theory but weak in practice.

[Since it is difficult to gauge the level of the vanguard, avoid combat if possible. Slowly retreat to the rear. The highest possibility is that for the rear guard mage, a forest with dense mana concentration is a favorable environment for a mage. The best plan is for the mage to use defensive magic to retreat and wait for support.]

A not bad answer, just like Grimory.

She pointed out well the point of not describing the vanguard specifically.

Then how did Carmine write?

Henrik looked around at the surrounding students and glanced at Carmine's answer.

[The composition of the Manticore's venom consists of 30% paralytic agents, 50% blood coagulation agents, and 20% hallucinogenic agents, and the antidote for this venom is—]

"..."

He told him to write tactics, but he was writing a detailed recipe for the poison.

—Riiing!

At that moment, the clock placed on the podium rang loudly.

Henrik quickly went to the podium, turned off the clock's alarm, looked at the students, and said.

"That's it. Students sitting at the left end of the rows, collect the answers."

At Henrik's words, the students in the end rows stood up and began to collect the answers one by one. The students who submitted their answers immediately began to debate with their classmates in the next seats about how they wrote and what indeed was a good tactic.

The Department of Knighthood students also nodded and held a heated debate.

"It's difficult. We learned a lot of tactics for war or against people in the Department of Knighthood, but tactics against demons or magic beasts... my head hurts."

"Still, it wasn't bad. Hey, think simply. You just think that one freaking strong knight on the battlefield has the same abilities as the magic beast."

"That's a not bad approach!"

Henrik, who received all the answers, Thud, placed them on the podium and looked through them one by one.

Seeing Amecitia's completed answer, a chuckle escaped him. When he glanced at her, she was grinning broadly and looking at Henrik.

'Still a long way to go.'

Henrik put the answer sheets he finished viewing on the desk.

Most wrote not bad answers.

While there were students who wrote according to the tactical manual, there were also students who creatively mixed magic and skills they knew to cope with the situation.

However, most of them submitted without completing it, perhaps because time was insufficient.

Still, since there were many students, the classroom was lively.

It was an awkward sight for Henrik, but he didn't feel bad.

It was just as he was about to continue the lecture.

—Knock, knock.

A knocking sound came from the classroom door.

—Slide.

As the door opened, Ted quietly entered the classroom.

"Ted... Dean. What is the matter?"

"Henrik, that... well. Can we talk for a moment?"

Henrik nodded and looked at the students.

"I will talk with the Dean for a moment and come back. In the meantime, I will give you another problem. This time, write how you would cope when encountering 1 Manticore while acting alone. As soon as the talk is over, I will collect the answers and have a time to announce them together with the previous answers."

When Henrik followed Ted out of the classroom, the students gathered Chatter, chatter, and began to talk noisily.

—Click.

As the door closed, the hallway became quiet.

"So, what is the matter?"

When Henrik asked, Ted walked down the hallway.

"First, follow me."

The place they arrived at following Ted was the training yard where the Department of Knighthood students were in the middle of a class. Numerous students were standing holding training wooden swords, looking at one person.

It was Isaac.

Henrik recalled old memories upon seeing his appearance.

Is he perhaps spouting similar words even now?

As expected!

"Why is this like this? How can you not see this? You don't know this? Why?"

Isaac, who was teaching, tilted his head while looking at the students.

When Ted stopped walking, Henrik stood next to him and watched Isaac's lecture.

"Um... Sword Emperor, the explanation is difficult to understand. If you could explain it a little more easily..."

It seemed there was a problem somewhere in his lecture. The students' expressions all looked full of dissatisfaction.

It was natural since it was the unkindest lecture in the world.

"What is difficult to understand?"

"Um... the method of dealing with a knight you just mentioned. I mean, if we encounter enemies from the front..."

"Yeah, then you just go Swish! like this. Got it?"

Isaac thrust his sword forward. In an instant, a sword wind rose and soared into the air. The students' hair fluttered mercilessly.

"Wow..."

Exclamations burst out without anyone prompting.

It was a concise and disciplined single flash.

"Uh... I mean, how do we do that..."

"You can't do this? You just have to swing it."

Isaac asked back with a face that said he genuinely didn't understand.

"..."

"..."

Watching him lecture, Ted sighed.

"Hmm... then wait a moment."

Isaac picked up a liquor bottle and Gulp, gulp, drank the liquor. Then he opened his eyes wide, looked at the liquor bottle, and shouted.

"Kuh... As expected, aged is best! Hey! You there, student. Throw all those training wooden boards at once."

"Yes?!"

"I'll show you, so throw them all."

The student hesitated and threw the wooden boards into the air.

A total of 10 wooden boards floated into the air.

At that moment,

—Chwajajajak!

Isaac's sword shone and split the wooden boards in half in an instant.

As he cut the wooden boards in the blink of an eye, the boards that had momentarily paused in the air fell to the floor with a Thud.

"See, easy right? You just swing and cut as you see it. Easy, right?"

"W-We are not as skilled as the Sword Emperor!"

"......?"

Isaac tilted his head.

The students also tilted their heads.

"How is it, disastrous right?"

"Geniuses are usually like that."

Before they knew it, frustration was embedded in the students' faces.

If left like this, it seemed the students' self-esteem would plummet vertically.

"Hah... why did I call that guy."

Ted lamented looking up at the sky.

"Why did you call me here?"

Ted abruptly grabbed Henrik's shoulder.

"Of course, I brought you because I have a favor to ask. A lecture, a lecture."

"I am busy doing my own lectures."

"Don't say that, just teach Isaac the method of lecturing. You don't need to stick by his side continuously, just teach him the knack of how to teach students well."

"There must be many professors other than me."

"You have a good reputation lately. You realized something and your lectures are easy to understand too. Plus... this is a request with friendship on the line."

"..."

Since he had received things, it was hard to refuse when friendship was brought up.

As Henrik sighed and nodded, Isaac saw Henrik and ran over in a single bound.

"Hunter, I heard you went through some trouble last time? Want a drink? It's a whopping 100-year-old Rishar Enessia."

When Isaac offered liquor to Henrik, Henrik answered politely.

"I will decline."

"That's disappointing, even though we are comrades who fought together... Ah, speak comfortably. Being formal here and there doesn't fit my temper."

"I won't decline that."

"Cool, I like it."

Isaac laughed refreshingly.

The face of the old Sword Emperor came to mind on his young face.

Memories of his past life spent with the Sword Emperor came back to life.

Practical sparring where he clashed and rolled with Isaac ceaselessly.

The memories of that time were like a nightmare to Henrik.

[You can't do this? Really? A Grade 5 Hunter? Are you really Grade 5?]

The words Isaac asked him came to mind.

Of course, he certainly learned combat sense through countless defeats while sparring with him, but this guy was very clumsy at teaching.

No, if he taught, only the opponent would go crazy.

To learn the Sword Emperor's swordsmanship, there was no choice but to learn while getting beaten with one's body.

Henrik was one of the few figures who embodied that.

What would happen if he made the students do the same thing?

'They would all run away.'

These are young students who couldn't even endure Henrik's weight training. Sparring with the Sword Emperor is even more out of the question.

What to do with this guy.

A sigh flowed out naturally.