Chapter 40

Chapter 40

“I’ll remember you, Roan!”

Leaving his two damn roommates behind, Roan stood in front of Gulba.

Given Gulba’s personality, it was obvious that he would come over and swing his axe anyway even if Roan didn’t step forward.

The other students, perhaps sensing what was about to happen, had already distanced themselves far from the two.

“Demonstration! I will do it weakly!”

Gulba said so, gripping the axe in one hand and bringing it behind his back.

Crack— Creak—

His insane physical strength distorted the surrounding space just from him putting force into it to swing.

‘!$%@!#*!’

Roan cursed harshly inside and hurriedly raised his mana.

How was that ‘weakly’? Had his authority translated it incorrectly?

Even the False Divinity sensed an instinctive danger and added strength by converting the holy power radiating from Gulba into black mana.

As he compressed his black mana with all his might into the Abyss, Gulba’s axe swung in perfect timing!

Ruuuuumble—!!!

A roar exploded that made it impossible to imagine it was a collision between an axe and a human.

As if a lightning strike occurred, streaks of light poured down.

— What kind of class is this!

— I-I’m flying away!

The students had to try their absolute best to hold their ground to avoid being blown away again.

“Roaaaannn—!”

Demona flew away once more.

Finally, when the eternity-like aftershock created by the fleeting collision faded away.

“Gasp… gasp…”

Roan was there, gasping for breath, and—

“I understand! Darc blocked my attack! Gulba doesn’t have to go to Kaina’s room!”

Gulba was there, leaping with joy.

‘What a crazy professor!’

Roan truly felt as though he had crossed the line between life and death.

Of course, as Gulba said, it was indeed a weak attack.

Strictly by Gulba’s standards.

Most clearly, because he hadn’t even used both hands.

But distorting space when attacking a student?

Had it not been for Roan, no one here would have been able to block it.

‘Gulba’s demonstration… does change depending on the student’s stats…’

In fact, Gulba was set to always attack precisely according to the student’s level.

In other words, this attack meant it was a power that Roan could barely block even when doing his best!

“R-Roan, are you okay?!”

Laphia ran toward Roan in surprise.

Riel, Demona, and even Hector checked on Roan’s condition, perhaps feeling that this was too much.

“I’m fine. It was an attack I could block.”

Roan spoke, dusting off his body.

Although his body could have been split in two had he been a moment later, he was ultimately fine as a result.

“How is Gulba’s teaching! He teaches well!”

“Cough!”

Gulba laughed heartily and patted Roan on the back.

Each strike was as powerful as a hammer embedded with a holy spell.

Demona, who had returned before they knew it, snapped at Gulba.

Demona looked quite poisonous after being blown outside the training ground twice already.

“Booo! Gulba cannot teach! Professor Kaina will take you away!”

Roan looked at Demona with a fresh gaze.

‘This girl, picking up Gulba-language in such a short time…’

Occasionally, in the “God & Devil” community, they would imitate Gulba’s way of speaking.

Although it was a language that required a bit of skill.

Regardless, Gulba flinched at Demona’s jeering and took a step back.

“I-I’m sorry. I will teach better.”

“Booo! I will tell that Gulba is learning black magic!”

“N-No! I hid Deep Root’s statue well!”

Roan clicked his tongue, listening quietly to Gulba’s words.

To think he still kept the statue of Deep Root.

“Deep Root? What’s that?”

“An idol.”

When Roan revealed its identity, Demona became fully excited and pushed Gulba even harder.

“Booo! Gulba has an idol! I will tell Kaina!”

“H-Heep! I was wrong!”

And the Acherandir freshmen, who had grasped the situation, also began to chime in.

— Booo!

— Wicronon is the best!

— Gulba, we will tell on you!

It was practically a grand festival of unity where all the students joined forces around Demona!

If there was a professor or an upperclassman passing near the training ground, they would have been astonished.

Just what was with these freshmen…?!

***

After the bizarre phenomenon of the students cornering the professor passed.

“Gather strength! Shoot strength!”

Gulba’s somewhat detailed explanation followed.

— L-Like this?

— Oh, looks plausible?

The students also reached a level where they could replicate Gulba’s defense technique quite well, albeit clumsily.

Of course, if they were subjected to an attack that broke space like Roan’s, they would be blown away before they could even defend.

At any rate, Gulba also seemed quite satisfied with the progress of the students.

“Students do well! Now you get strong!”

— As expected, the heretic professors…

— Shh, shh!

Although their perception of the professors seemed to be turning strange,

‘As long as they teach well, it’s fine.’

Roan didn’t particularly care.

Uli, who was devout but didn’t teach classes, and Gulba, who didn’t know much about gods but taught diligently.

As a student, from whom would you want to learn?

‘Though actually, it would be best if I didn’t meet either of them…’

At any rate, Gulba gathered the students to move on to the next step.

Since they had sufficiently learned the concepts, all that remained was practice.

“Students form pairs! Attack and defend!”

Meaning they should practice in pairs, just like in Vulcan’s class.

However, since Gulba did not pair them up himself, each student teamed up with a close friend.

Roan also tried to pair up normally with either Demona or Hector, but

‘Hmm. It might be a bit dangerous.’

he flinched upon seeing Hector, whose eyes glistened with madness as he looked back and forth between him and Demona.

Revenge and jealousy toward the two were burning hot!

Teaming up with Hector felt as though it wouldn’t end peacefully.

“Laphia, Riel. With me—”

For that reason, Roan turned his gaze away completely to speak casually to the female students, but—

“Darc, come here! Partner with Gulba!”

“…?”

Before he could, Gulba called Roan.

“You mean partner with the professor?”

Roan asked, wondering if he had heard wrong.

Gulba nodded heavily.

“Friends partner up! Gulba! Darc! Friends!”

He mentioned being friends with Darc earlier, did he mean to kill him like this?

Roan felt deep skepticism.

— Hey, hey, Darc is partnering with Professor Gulba again.

— What? Is he really going to die now?

Even the listening students thought so!

However, because no one possessed the courage to protest such a thing to Gulba, no one stepped forward.

If anyone spoke up and got entangled with Gulba for no reason, it would mean certain death.

“F-Fanatic. Shall we do it together?”

“S-Sure. Heretic…”

Even Hector and Demona quickly read the room and vanished together.

‘To think I trusted those bastards who don’t have a speck of loyalty!’

Roan looked at them with contemptuous eyes.

Yet that was all Roan could do as well.

Soon, the defense technique practical practice began.

— Hiyah!

Whoosh—!

— Huhuhu, excellent.

— You too. Now it’s your turn.

— Here I go!

The students traded blows with practice weapons, sweating profusely.

Using the opportunity to further strengthen their trust in each other.

And on one side of the training ground…

Booom—! Bam-bam-bam-bam— Ruuuumble—!!!

Sounds that shouldn’t be heard during class erupted continuously.

Gulba swung his giant axe at a speed that was hard to follow with the naked eye.

Each strike was a destructive attack that kicked up a savage wind pressure and turned nearby terrain features into dust.

However, the even greater problem was—

‘$)#($#*&@!!’

Roan, who was somehow blocking Gulba’s continuous attacks.

The cold sweat running down his entire body evaporated instantly due to the wind pressure Gulba generated.

A boundary between life and death where a single moment of carelessness would split his body in two!

Roan focused his entire mind on Gulba’s attacks targeting him regardless of arms and legs, torso and head, front and back.

‘The most horrifying thing is that I’m gradually getting used to it!’

Roan clicked his tongue inwardly at his transcendent talent.

Although he wondered what kind of crazy professor this was at first, once he actually blocked it, he could clearly feel himself getting noticeably more accustomed to the defense technique.

The processing of the Abyss, which had taken quite some time, and the process of sending it to every corner of his body was gradually shortened.

However, Gulba’s attacks also became faster and stronger to that extent.

Just like a machine analyzing the opponent’s combat power.

Because of this, Roan couldn’t let his guard down from start to finish.

Of course, this was strictly the thoughts of the two exchanging blows,

and in the case of the watching students…

— Hey, is Darc really a freshman? Didn’t he repeat a grade?

— How many years do you have to repeat to become like that?

— Rather than that, was the professor’s clan destroyed by the Darc family?

They simply looked at the two in bewilderment.

Was this really a class?

Not an illegal colosseum?

‘Right side of the neck!’

Crash—

Roan narrowly defended his vital point once again.

“Really good! Gulba is surprised!”

Gulba also had no choice but to voice his honest admiration at this point.

He never seen a warrior who started fighting for the first time grow this rapidly even in the Budor Archipelago where he had lived.

Gulba briefly halted his attack.

Roan gasped for breath for a moment.

Was it over now?

However, Gulba spoke with a smile all over his face.

“Last strong attack! Block this and Darc rests!”

“Damn…!”

There was no way the class would be that easy.

‘At this point, just let me rest!’

Roan screamed internally.

Gulba gripped the axe with both hands.

Meaning he would attack with some sincerity at least this time.

Crash—!

As he put force into the axe handle, a crack in space appeared, incomparably larger than when he used one hand.

From that gap, dark energy billowed out.

The power used by the archipelago people was demonstrated in earnest.

“Fanatic, can you arrest something like that as a heretic too?”

Demona, who had been watching, asked Hector.

Hector looked back at her with a dumbfounded expression.

“Could you even arrest him?”

A realistic aspect showing that heretics were on different levels!

“Here I go!”

At that moment, Gulba charged toward Roan with a battle cry.

In that moment, Roan felt an instinctive threat to his life.

‘I’m really going to die!’

No matter how much he used the defense technique with the Abyss, he couldn’t block something like that with his current power.

His only choice was to use real defensive magic.

Roan’s subconsciousness brought to mind the strongest black magic he could use currently.

‘Shield of the Deceased!’

Although it was a basic spell that was embarrassing to compare to Gulba’s attack,

he had to try anything to avoid dying!

Wooong—

the False Divinity quickly translated the black magic circle, and

the Shield of the Deceased was holy-spelled and deployed in front of Roan.

Flash—!

A large golden shield blocked the path between Roan and Gulba like a wall.

Sion, who recognized that holy spell, was startled.

‘Saint’s Patience!’

The defensive holy spell used by experienced paladins, Saint’s Patience.

It was a holy spell excellent against a force of darkness slightly more fundamental than black magic.

Just like the power of another dimension that Gulba had cracked open.

‘To target even that and deploy a holy spell in such a short moment!’

Sion felt a wall between her and Roan once again.

As expected of the relentless Darc, who would head to the library after class!

He was clearly studying holy spells not taught in class in advance.

Meanwhile, Gulba’s axe slammed mercilessly into Roan’s defensive magic.

Kaboom—!

The ground beneath Roan’s feet seemed to cave in instantly,

— Uwah!

and explosive dust and wind swept over the freshmen.

The students, who had forgotten their own practice to watch the two clash, shielded their eyes with their forearms and stared at where Roan was.

There…

the figures of the two were still standing!