Chapter 135 – Star Fall (18)

“F-Flameball!”

Slap!

“Ron Diade’s [Dancing Sparks]!”

Slap!

“Ahhhh! Flames born from the grave of ashes! Suffocate the enemy and make them writhe! [Ash Flame]!”

Schlappp!

‘Hm, the last one was a pretty strong one. He must’ve known that I wasn’t going to attack first, so he’s been progressively using stronger spells that take more time to use, and thanks to that, I was feeling a little anemic from all of the blood that Blood Armor was using to block the attacks.’

Rattle, rattle.

“Hey, you going okay over there? The average adult has thirty-two teeth… so you should have about twenty-four left. I don’t have much time to spare, so let’s speed it up a little, alright? Get those stronger spells out! Then I’ll get more momentum to knock out the rest of them faster.”

“Uahhh… auhhhh…”

As Professor asked the man while picking up the uprooted teeth, the mage crawled backwards and latched onto the cloth of the crimson robe.

“T-teacher! T-t-t-this isn’t right! That monster used deceiving words to trick us and used physical strength to assault me during a mage’s battle! This is an assault, not a duel, so it would be self-defense! Teacher, burn that ma—”

“[Sticky Flame]!”

Flwoom!

“Agghhhhh!”

The mage with the red beard, who had been scowling even harder than he had been during his argument with Ottman, cast a spell, and Sebram’s busted face erupted into flames.

“Aaahhhh! H-hot! It burnsss! Teacher! Please stop! Pleaseeee!!!”

“…My student has displayed some unpleasant behavior.”

“I think it should be ‘is displaying’, not ‘was’. Is he alright? Being a fire mage doesn’t make them immune to all fire, doesn’t it?”

The mage, who looked back at his student at my question, then turned back with a defiant huff.

“Hmph! If he is burned by those flames, then that is all he was capable of. I have never taught a student who cannot endure embers like that, so dying would just mean he was lazy with his training. It is not my problem from there!”

“Well, doesn’t really matter to me since that’s your business. But anyway, your mage ran away, so do you accept defeat?”

“That… How dare a mere water mage mock the Lone Flame…”

When heat waves started to rise from the trembling mage’s body, he leaped behind a counter to protect himself. Malcur was either at the peak of a Level 4 mage or at the beginning of a Level 5. If a mage who had the title of ‘Blue Flame’ started to shoot their fire around the place, then a tavern like this was easily going to become a nice toasty campfire.

“I cannot accept this! It is impossible! Water cannot beat fire! I, Blue Flame Malcur, will prove—”

Few- w- w- t-!

“Eurgh!”

“Hey! Whatcha tryin to do? This is a duel with an official referee, and here’s one side that just runs away and then tries to call it quits! I know mages are supposed to be eccentric and all, but this is too much, don’tcha think?”

Just before Malcur released all of the heat he had collected, five daggers from the corner of the tavern flew precisely towards his vitals. Instantly layering together the small chains of flames, he succeeded in blocking the daggers, but he had needed to cancel the attack spell he was preparing to release.

“Who was that? Who dares disturb the Lone Flame Academy?”

“The Halfling that’s referee, you old man! It wouldn’t matter if they were just duking it out between themselves, but there’s money on the line here! Are you gonna pay the fee if the match gets called off? Huh?”

“Indeed. Not only did he flee from a fair match, but the man called his teacher, is not accepting their loss, and is threatening the winner. That won’t do.”

“Let’s see! I’ve downed a good amount of booze and feel s—ty after losing my money, so why not swing around my axe a bit?”

“Oy, you say your name was Malcur? I hate to break it to you, but most of the guys here work under the title ‘Warrior’, you know? We execute justice for a living!”

When the customers inside the tavern started to throw criticism at the man, Malcur shouted right back at them.

“Y-you… mere garbage who does not know a single thing about the flame!”

.

.

.

.

.

Creak!

Grooaan!

Thud! Thud thud! Crash!

“Woahhh, he cursed! The mage cursed!”

“Goodness! Trash? My heart of justice was just insulted! I’m not gonna take that! I challenge you to a duel, mage!”

“They say that the Lone Flame is infamous for their eccentricities, even among the fire-type academies, making it hard for them to maintain any social relationships… And right they were. It’s hard to stand even listening to them.”

“Is it a fight? I want in, too!”

“We’re fighting! Bring my gauntlets!”

“Take mine, too!”

“Booooo! Buzz off!”

The crowd jeered as they rose from their seats and threw their gloves at Malcur. Some of them even imbued an aura into the glove and threw it like a cannon.

“Grrgh… Darn you! I will not forget this day! One day, all of you will melt down in the hottest of flames of hell!”

“Booooooo! Even your retreating line is bad!”

“Go away, budget fire staff! Go learn magic from a campfire!”

And so, with all sorts of curses being thrown at them, the fire mage group rushed out of the tavern.

Ottman, who had been watching all of that happen, then approached Professor with a bright expression that looked like he was reborn.

“Heheheh! Good work! I knew you would be able to teach them a lesson. That is your specialty, is it not?”

“They started to dig their own graves in the middle of it. Well, that’s why you should always be careful of what you say. If they just accepted defeat and that Malcur guy challenged me, I would have been more than ready to say yes. But it just ended without a proper finish.”

“Now now! Sorry to interrupt you two, but we need to finish the match now! Winning side, raise your hand up high!”

The Halfling supposedly called Gray Foot suddenly appeared from somewhere, then, stacking up two chairs on top of the table, jumped up to the top and raised up Professor’s hand.

“The Red Flag’s side has surrendered and has been disqualified from the match! The winner! Is! Blue Flag! Level 2 Mage of the Reedflow Academy! The Light’s Order’s Warrior, Professor!”

The crowd in the tavern cheered and clapped for Professor when he raised his arm inside the empty fighting ring.

“Way to go, mate!”

“I’ve got my booze money thanks to you! Come to our table later!”

“Not bad! Come visit the Igzis Warrior group if you ever want work! We’ll greet you with open arms!”

“I’m feelin’ good today! I’ll give half of what I earned today as a tip, so get the best drink they’ve got here! Ahahaha!”

“Darn, what a shame. It would have been much more interesting had it not been for that dumb bastard that ruined it.”

Clink, clink!

Ding—!

Ding—!

Ding—!

“S-Shillings! It’s raining Shillings!”

“Points! It’s raining Heroic Points! It isn’t stopping!”

As the Halfling cheered gleefully from the surplus of tips and Professor cheered from the points as all sorts of Warriors and high nobles recognized him, the two looked at each other.

They didn’t say anything, but in that moment, the two knew that they wanted the same thing.

“Excuse me… Warrior Professor? If you don’t have any plans, would you like to do a little side job with me?”

“I was just happening to look for a nice referee who knows how to make a crowd excited. This match turned out to be no fun because of an interruption. Shouldn’t we take responsibility?”

“Heehee! Of course! A Warrior should always take responsibility for their actions!”

“Exactly my point! Now then… how about we do this?”

Whisper whisper.

“Ohhh! I see! If that is true, then the crowd would go wild! Of course! Let’s do it!”

After sharing a joyful clap with the Halfling, Professor completely took off his shirt and returned to the arena, boasting his scarred, muscular body. Then the Halfling shouted out with his sharp voice.

“Now~ Everyone! It isn’t over just yet! You must all be itching to fight after those torches just ran away! It must be worrisome that the time you wait for the war to begin is getting longer, as the blades you worked so hard to sharpen feel like they are dulling! Hence, why we prepared this! Today’s special event~! A friendly sparring with the church’s Warrior, Professor!”

“Oh?”

“That sounds interesting.”

Point!

“And it’s not just for entertainment! Our Warrior Professor! Has a body with incredible regeneration, just like the mutes!!!!! A fact officially revealed by the Light’s Order! Now, now! Sparring permissions start at 3k Shillings per person! This isn’t a common chance you have here! A spar with the owner of a mute-type body with skilled combat abilities at just 3 thousand Shillings! What better practice is there than this?”

“Me! I’ll do it!”

“I’m a mage from the Wind’s Whisper Academy! I have spells that I wish to test on an opponent with high regeneration!”

“5 thousand! I’ll give you 5 thousand, so start with me first!”

“Piss off! You think we can’t pay more?”

“What did you just say? That’s a lot of talk from a guy I can’t even warm up against!”

“Why don’t you fight me if you can? I’ll make you fall asleep on this ground in seconds and go spar with him!”

“Fine! Come at me!”

Warriors were known to wander around because they don’t want to stay put, so how frustrated would their bodies, used to large, comfortable suites, be tied up in this cramped place with nothing to do?

“Ahh, noooo… my tavern… Honey, I’m sorry… I couldn’t protect the tavern…”

Watching Professor start to fight with the first opponent in the empty circle created in the middle of the tavern, with all of the other warriors also pulling out their weapons, the tavern master cradled a framed photograph of his wife in his arms and started to bawl. The cheers and sounds of powerful blows drowned out the cries of a widowed man who had been running a tavern alone in the capital.

“So, not only did you fight with those fire mages, but you also sparred with the other customers and made this mess?”

“Uh… yes. Consequently speaking. But you know me. If I don’t abuse my body enough every day, then I’ll be consumed by the infection agents. I couldn’t help—”

“Wow. Great job. Welllllll done. Thanks to that, we are now going to sleep on the streets! Where are we supposed to go now?”

That night, when Borka and Aldrich returned, they found the tavern with the ceiling of its second floor caved in and Professor holding their belongings covered in wounds. They immediately prepared for battle, but after listening to what happened, they just stood there with their mouths gaping open. A Warrior just sparred with people for money? And the others just said yes?

“Ottman, you should have stopped him!”

“W-well… I was cheering for him when he fought with the fire mage…”

“And! W-w-what about the sparring or something?”

“I did think they were going too far and went to stop them, but the Halfling that took all of the money disappeared! When I went to chase him down and returned empty-handed, the tavern was already in this state…”

“Then you gave a Halfling money and expected them not to run away with it? I have not ever seen a bigger dimwit than this! To think that a man like you was next to a Halfling. I would need to think of it as a fortune that we did not get the money we had stolen.”

“A-ahem! Hm!”

“Do not tell me… our Shillings, too?”

“M-my apologies…”

“My goodnesss, whyyyyy?!!”

Aldrich felt like he saw the skies turn yellow. He just came back from training his new, well-mannered, and talented student to find that the leader of their party had demolished the inn they were staying in, and the one that should have been stopping him had been robbed. And not just anything, but the bag of silver coins that he gave to Ottman because there were many souls who had grudges against silver coins!

“Goodness gracious. No wonder there is a saying amongst Soulbinders that says evil spirits are fine, but to always avoid the spirit of a mage. Are all mages like this?”

“They are from what I know. It was Ottman, who had been far too normal for a mage until now. And Professor… he has never been inside the range of ordinary, so this is normal.”

“Grwugh. Ghost oldie teacher. Growing male, fight often. If they do not fight when they want to, grows as small male. Big small human made good choice.”

“Notum… I knew you would be on my side!”

Knowing that he had done something wrong, Professor had his head hanging down in the corner, but just as he was about to hug Notum for her warm encouragement, he jumped back in surprise at the white haze with people’s faces hovering around her.

“W-what are those? Did you get cursed while you went gravedigging?”

“They are dead people. Ghost oldie teacher said to try calm the spirit’s heart, so I said they got so rotten from staying in one place, so they should go travel, and now it’s following me.”

“Then… you persuaded all of those people?”

“No, the rest of them followed the first one. They must be friends.”

Looking up, there weren’t just a couple of spirits floating around Notum. A few of them were strong enough that he could see them clearly even in the sunlight, and there were too many of the hazy ones that he couldn’t count.

“Unlike foolish Ottman and yourself, Notum spent an incredibly beneficial time! There are even fewer Soulbinders than dark mages, so we usually discuss with each other if there is any chance we meet, but I have never seen someone with so much talent in Soulbinding in my life! Skills that others take decades to realize are just instinctual to her! To think that a child like this has lived as an ordinary troll in the forest for years—if she had by any chance been subjugated by ignorant humans, then that would have been one of the biggest losses in human history! I can say this with my name on the line!”

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– Jokass : Whoever posted the Guide for Easy Money in World 3, better erase that~ They’re saying it’s the stupidest thing to happen in GG history~

– Soygaybar : Got a copy of the original text. [It won’t be easy to start barehanded just after the Noble Wars ended. There’s this strange troll in the forest next to Turan, and they’re really dumb and naïve so they listen to whatever the person says. You can talk them into following you or just cut through their tendons to sell to the circus to make easy cash.]

– Holli : How could they to such a kind and innocent troll…. QnQ

– Noru_is_druig : LMAOOOO They’re actually changing the post. You looking at this OP! What about the tendons of this kid? Apologize rn!

– Soygaybar : Fact. The first one to sell Notum was Rabbit Princess.

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It would have been only about 20 thousand Shillings if he sold Notum to the circus, but Notum’s potential couldn’t even be converted into money.

Just like how bamboo shoots or bean sprouts grow, she was quite literally improving by the day. Unlike other normal growth-type Hero Units who were treated as important units for future seeds, Notum would do her share in the party in just a few, no, in just a month.

“It seems we got sidetracked, but where do we go now? Professor, can you somehow arrange a new place to stay through the church?”

“Mmm… that is possible too, but let’s just leave now that things happened this way.”

“Leave? To where? It does not look like the enemy will be moving anytime soon. Are we a separate troop again?”

When Aldrich complained to me with an irritated expression, I showed him the letter that the Archbishop gave me instead of responding.

“What is this? [Penitence to the brethren I have abandoned]?”

“I can’t tell you the contents because it’s classified information about the church, but just think of it as a secret letter from the Archbishop to the other races. And obviously you can’t tell anybody you saw this.”

“I am not that stupid. Anyway, if you are carrying the Archbishop’s secret letter, then it means you are the messenger, but the recipient…”

“…Are the other races. Our party is to go visit the leader of each race, deliver them the apologies of the Light’s Order, and persuade them to send us reinforcements.”

“Oh goodness, the Light’s Order, symbol of human supremacy, actively looking to make up with the other species? What a historical event.”

Aldrich scanned Professor from his feet up and let out a deep sigh.

“Do you not think that this is a little too important of an event to mention in front of a half-destroyed person wearing tattered rags?”

“Woah, Soulbinder, sir. It’s the spirit that matters, no?”

“You and your silver tongue. So, where is it that we are going first?”

“I’m thinking of the Forest of the World Tree west of the Blue Line, the Great Forest in the south, or the desert region in the east… but we probably need to choose from them.”

It might be possible to make it to all three if they rushed, but there was only one letter from the Archbishop. As important a quest item as this was, it was probably unwritten advice from the system to choose just one.

‘Monster-type races like elves, orcs, and trolls, or the Ancient Humans in the east, that you can’t be distinguished as either human or a different species. Which side should we choose?’

With the singular letter from the Archbishop in his hand, Professor fell into deep thought.