The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 944: Preparing for Studies

"Mhm."

Just a simple hum, free of any peculiar vocal tics.

"I didn't mean any harm, I just... I just wanted to..." Fudot fidgeted with the crumpled hem of her skirt, unable to continue.

Having finished his meal, Lu Li set down his knife and fork and left without a word.

Fudot's gaze followed Lu Li, her regret and remorse plain to see.

"Even I can tell Lu Li is mad at you," Dogmeat's filthy snout emerged from his bowl.

"If you've got nothing useful to say, then shut your garbage-eating mouth!"

Fudot snapped, venting her pent-up frustration.

"Psst, psst..." Fudot's companion called to her, pushing aside the noodle-like strands of hair from his face before offering a suggestion.

"Lince, you could send the exorcist a gift.""A gift?"

"How about a bucket of pumpkin pies?" Dogmeat mumbled indistinctly.

"He's not you!"

Fudot resisted the urge to rip his disgusting mouth off and began to wonder what Lu Li might actually like.

But pandering to people was a painful ordeal for the youngest daughter of the Lince family. Fortunately, she had another way to smooth things over with Lu Li.

All she had to do was bring him the book he needed.

...

Back in his lounge, Lu Li drew back the curtains and opened the window.

Noon was the only time of day it made sense to open the window.

A pre-dawn gloom shrouded Midnicht, which was as quiet as the dead of night. The spire of the alchemy tower glimmered with a light brighter than any star. Far below, a soft glow spread from the base of the giant tree, and tiny points of light moved slowly along the distant streets.

They looked like a swarm of fireflies gathered beneath the great tree.

The linen shorts hanging on the rack were finally dry. Lu Li summoned the Merchant, Antony, folded the clean shorts, and handed them over.

"Give these to Claire, meow."

"I can't find her."

Aside from their lack of combat abilities, the Merchants were one of the fastest races in the In-Between. A journey of thousands of miles, from the southern tip of the Main Continent to the northernmost point of the Lennon Archipelago, took them less than an hour. There were limitations, of course: they could only reach places where one of their 'eyeballs' was present.

In the Ancient Era, thanks to the cooperation between exorcists and Merchants, these eyeball anchor points were everywhere. Every exorcist carrying an eyeball became a new coordinate...

But now, only the Land of Light, Midnicht, and Vinnelag had a few of these beacons left.

Establishing more coordinates and finding new Merchants were equally important.

The more Merchants, the faster supplies could be delivered, and the better the daily needs of the underground shelter in Vinnelag could be met.

Fewer people would die...

"Then take them to the senior alchemy lab... meow."

Lu Li fought to control the verbal tic, but as expected, he failed.

The Merchant, Antony, took the shorts and vanished. Lu Li sat down at the desk by the window and, against the backdrop of the gloomy landscape, opened 'Perspectives on Mysticism' to his bookmarked page.

The side effects of the mutation potion weren't all bad.

The frequent visits and greetings from students and professors had fragmented Lu Li's time. Aside from when he was asleep, he had almost no long, uninterrupted periods to himself.

Now, Lu Li could devote more energy and attention to his original goal for this trip: learning how to release the power of a Cursed Title.

The prerequisites for releasing a Cursed Title's power were advancing to the middle courses and meeting the specific training requirements.

The first part was simple: all he had to do was accumulate enough academic credits to advance to the next course level. Advancing from the junior to the middle courses required ten academic credits, after which a student could choose to either continue accumulating credits or advance through the standard promotion.

Continuing to accumulate credits was for those aiming for an honors promotion or an elite promotion. These required 15 and 20 credits, respectively, and granted access to greater resources and opportunities.

None of this mattered to Lu Li, however—his goal had never been to graduate from the Academy of Giant Trees.

Each level of a core subject in the first three courses awarded two academic credits, while electives awarded only one.

In addition to regular coursework, exceptional and noteworthy achievements could also be rewarded with academic credits. However, the junior courses on the crown level were quite safe, so junior students rarely had opportunities to earn extra credits.

Perhaps only during an event like the infiltration of the Academy of Giant Trees by the Stalker Spirit two days ago, would saving numerous classmates or expelling/destroying the evil spirit have been grounds for receiving extra credits.

Mysticism, alchemy, botany, divination, anomaliology, and In-Between studies.

These were the four core and two elective subjects Lu Li had chosen.

Completing all of them would give him exactly the ten credits required for the middle courses. At the same time, it would bring him closer to the prerequisites for learning to release a Cursed Title: Mysticism level 7, Alchemy level 3, In-Between Studies level 2, Anomaliology level 2, Botany level 2, and Divination level 1.

This arrangement came with one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The good news was that the level-one promotion exams were mostly theoretical and didn't require practical application—Lu Li just needed to fill his head with the knowledge, and he could even devote some energy to studying the level-two courses in advance.

The bad news was that the schedules for the four core subjects conflicted, forcing Lu Li to make a choice.

After two days of studying, unimpeded by the side effect's social consequences, his progress was fastest in anomaliology, followed by In-Between studies—subjects Lu Li already knew quite well.

Mysticism, which required the highest level for learning to release a Cursed Title, was progressing slowly due to Lu Li's insufficient knowledge of the Age of Anomalies.

Despite this, he was still one of the fastest-learning newcomers.

During the afternoon anomaliology class, the old professor brought in a new anomaly in an iron cage.

It looked like a mole or an anteater, with a long, protruding snout, black and hairless, which it poked out of the cage to sniff the air.

"Does anyone know its name?"

The old professor paused, as he often did, to let the students respond.

"No one? A pity... The Mimic. That's what the people of the Old Sewer call it."

"A person?" one student muttered in surprise.

"Don't ignore the 'mimic' part of its name, Mr. Vincent."

The old professor paid no mind to the student's muttering, his expression slowly falling, his wrinkled face turning grim in the light of the oil lamp.

"When a mimic matures, it finds a person and asks, 'Do I look like a human?' If you say no, it loses its ability to transform. But if you say yes..."

The cold, low, aged voice continued slowly.

"It will turn into one of us..."

Silence fell over the classroom, and some of the newcomers were visibly frightened.

The old professor suddenly looked up, his kind demeanor returning.

"Don't worry, it won't replace us. Their mimicry skills are too poor. They can resemble us, but not perfectly... Well, you can think of them as very strange-looking people. If you ever meet someone who looks odd, it might just be a mimic."

"But don't underestimate this change. For a mimic, such a weak, scavenging anomaly, transforming into a human is a leap to a whole new level of existence..."

"Who knows? Perhaps there are mimics that have transformed into other anomalies, but we have yet to discover them. I sincerely hope that some of you will be the ones to make new discoveries..."

After patiently answering the students' curious questions, the old professor ended the lesson with his usual refrain: "Anomalies are dangerous, and they are marvelous." Then, picking up the cage, he left the classroom.

As the classroom buzzed with activity after the lesson, Fudot, who had been absent the entire time, appeared before Lu Li just as he was about to leave.

"I got the book, Exorcist."