“Sister! Huo Wushuang, does your sister still need a little sister?”
Lin Ling’s eyes lit up, and she shamelessly clung to her.
That was an S-rank dungeon item, given away so readily; she adored sisters who were so generous.
‘As for dignity…?’
Lin Ling: ‘Dignity? What’s that? A few bucks a pound?’
‘Wow! A sister who can get stuff from an S-rank dungeon! I’d even pay to stick with her.’
“…”
Huo Wushuang, looking utterly speechless, pushed away her materialistic roommate.
“Ling Ling, you dropped something.”
“What did I drop?”
Lin Ling, taking her seriously, glanced down but found nothing.
She blinked innocently. “Nothing’s there.”
“You dropped your integrity…”
****
The scorching sun traversed the sky, yet not a single cloud was swept away.
“Waaah—crap—!”
A piercing scream echoed through the teachers’ dormitory, startling sand birds into flight along the shore.
“Oh no, oh no! I overslept!”
Aya Tone pushed aside the thin gauze lightly covering her, her eyes wide with terror.
‘How could this be? I clearly set my alarm!’
‘Did it not ring?’
With a mix of alarm and doubt, she tapped her phone screen, revealing 15:03.
‘Oh, crap!’
‘An hour late…’
“Teleport! Whoa!”
****
Training Ground
“[Warning! Unidentified spatial fluctuations detected! Warning! Unidentified spatial fluctuations detected!]”
“[Ding! Scan successful. Intruder identified as S-rank instructor. Warning disengaged!]”
“[Welcome to the training ground, Instructor Aya!]”
“[You are 1 hour and 4 minutes late. Please proceed to Training Ground B-01 for your lesson as soon as possible.]”
The silver glow of spatial magic faded, and Aya Tone appeared at the training ground entrance, her hair a disheveled mess.
Hearing the mechanical voice from the training ground, Aya Tone’s small face instantly crumpled.
‘I know, alright? No need to broadcast it…’
Aya Tone hurried along, her short legs pounding after the guiding arrow.
‘Run, you dead legs!’
She genuinely wanted to cry now. ‘Why did I take a nap? Without Big White to wake me up…’
‘Now look what happened. An hour late. Who knows how much money they’ll dock from me.’
“I’m here! Ahhhhhh!!!!”
The moment Aya Tone pushed open the door, several dangerous-looking vines lashed through the air, instantly coiling around her limbs.
They left her no time to even draw her magic wand.
“What the f—!?”
‘What’s going on?!’
‘Am I being ambushed? Has the dungeon gone rogue? Are monsters invading?’
A barrage of three questions overwhelmed Aya Tone’s mind, leaving it buzzing.
She had followed the training ground’s AI guidance to this particular training room…
‘Then where are my students?’
Aya Tone’s first thought was that if these vines were here, then her students!
‘Had something terrible happened to them all??’
Filled with overwhelming anxiety, Aya Tone channeled the magic within her to her eyes, and the scene before her instantly transformed.
All physical objects resolved into magical structures.
In that moment.
What Aya Tone saw through her eyes was a world of magic.
Predominantly black and white, these were inert objects devoid of magic.
In this world, every living creature possessed at least a trace of magic within them.
Yet, the plant before her, its vines swaying wildly, appeared as a monstrous blood sphere, completely dominating Aya Tone’s vision.
‘Crimson magic!’
Aya Tone’s brows furrowed deeply; she had only ever encountered such magic in S-rank dungeon monsters.
‘Could it be a monster that escaped from the S-rank dungeon in Nanan City?’
‘No, that’s not right!’
The authorities hadn’t issued any urgent subjugation missions, nor were there any chaotic cries for evacuation in the city, which strongly suggested that the Nanan City dungeon was not experiencing any issues.
Aya Tone did not dwell on it further.
What she truly wanted to see at that moment was not this.
Finally!
Over a dozen flickering auras, like candles in a storm, appeared within her magical vision.
The magic within them was so frail it could not withstand any disturbance, as if even a gentle breeze could extinguish it.
‘Severely wounded!’
Aya Tone’s gaze sharpened.
Their internal magic was so depleted; it couldn’t possibly be merely from training.
While a few students suffering from magical exhaustion might be understandable, every single one of them being in such a state was not.
Aside from being critically injured and near death, she could conceive of no other possibility.
“You dare harm my students!?”
Aya Tone glared, her eyes blazing with fury at the culprit before her.
The rage in her eyes seemed poised to devour the monster whole.
Simultaneously, she was consumed by self-reproach for having overslept.
‘If only…’
‘If she had arrived sooner, they wouldn’t have endured such torment.’
Self-reproach, fury.
These two emotions surged within Aya Tone, transforming into an undeniable killing intent.
‘I swear, I will tear this demonic vine to shreds!’
“Hmph!”
Aya Tone let out a cold, baring-toothed snort, and her magic surged dramatically.
A black ceremonial dress materialized from thin air, fitting her form perfectly.
Under the influence of her intense killing intent, her Heart Force subtly activated.
Her original short skirt elongated wildly, and several black ribbons unfurled from its hem, dancing freely in the turbulent air.
The hurricane-force winds stirred by her surging magic swept her silver hair upwards.
The demonic vine, having absorbed all the students’ magic, seemed to sense the danger emanating from the person whose limbs it had bound.
It manipulated the chaotic tangle of surrounding vines, lashing them violently towards Aya Tone.
As the vines sliced through the air, emitting a whistling shriek, they lunged directly at her.
Aya Tone’s eyes narrowed, and her ribbons transformed into sharp blades, severing every approaching vine.
This included the vines coiled around her own limbs.
Aya Tone’s fierce gaze swept over the massive vines, now cut into segments and plummeting to the ground.
Then, her eyes locked onto the demonic vine before her.
‘Something’s wrong!’
A flicker of doubt crept into Aya Tone’s mind.
‘If it were a monster from an S-rank dungeon, how could it be so… feeble?’
Yes, feeble was precisely the word.
It possessed the aura of an S-rank dungeon monster, yet lacked the actual power of one.
A mere touch, and it shattered into countless pieces.
‘Have I become stronger?’<200c>
Aya Tone lowered her gaze, clenching her fists tightly.
‘Perhaps a little.’
Then, she lightly raised her small hand.
A magic staff flew out from her four-dimensional backpack behind her, settling securely into her grasp.
‘Whether I’ve grown stronger or not, a single blast will tell, won’t it?’
A cruel smile touched Aya Tone’s lips.
‘To dare harm her students? She would show no mercy!’
“Go!”
Although Aya Tone’s heart was overflowing with fury and killing intent, her rationality remained intact.
Before unleashing her attack, she had to ensure her students’ safety.
The several black ribbons behind her seemed to possess a life of their own, continuously extending.
They split from one to two, then two to four, until each ribbon precisely located a student, coiling around them and shielding them within its embrace.
As the last student in her magical vision was secured by the ribbons, Aya Tone secretly let out a sigh of relief.
The ribbons swiftly retracted, and over a dozen students, guided by the ribbons, landed safely behind Aya Tone.
To her surprise, however, the ribbons were not encasing students clinging to life, as she had imagined.
Aside from their depleted magic, not only were they not critically injured, but they didn’t even have a single external wound.
Carried by the ribbons, their faces were etched with awkwardness.
‘What in the world was going on now?’
Aya Tone’s gaze swiftly swept over each face. Someone was missing!
‘Where was Huo Wushuang?’
This won’t end well.