Oh my! This world is filled with plenty of pitiful people, and many have died a sad death, but the Undead Fourth-Years are a bunch of complete fools who don’t fit in anywhere!
“Seriously, why waste your life like that with your skills?”
“Seriously, just hearing it makes me want to scream! If you don’t want to live, just hand over those skills to me!”
The magical response from the Undead Fourth-Years was so ridiculous that it made Sandkooker and Rosgini furious.
They filled themselves with mana, compressed and packed it, and even the overflow formed a natural area bigger than the typical expansion limit!
“Our cute juniors really haven’t realized it yet.”
“Well, they wouldn’t know considering their area level is low. Isn’t it a envious time to have so much?”
“True.”
The legendary masters of Seoguyeon never looked favorably upon the state of those Undead Fourth-Years.
The involved parties didn’t take offense or deny it, as if they accepted it as a matter of course.
Sandkooker found that calmness even more concerning.
“What have we missed?”
“These guys didn’t fill themselves with this much mana out of desire.”
“Eh?”
“To survive, to keep up with classes, to graduate, they forcibly gathered mana and ended up like this.”
“…!”
“Look at this stone.”
The senior infused mana into the stone. “What happens to a stone filled with mana?”
“It breaks.”
“That’s because your control skill is lacking.”
The senior readily acknowledged this and clumsily pushed mana into the stone, shattering it.
“What about a stone filled with well-controlled mana?”
“The properties change depending on how much mana is contained and its duration.”
“Coming from the Yellow Magic Tower, your knowledge is solid. Yes, those stones become rare metal.”
Crushing the stone in his hand while causing a mana reaction with high temperature and pressure, as the senior extended his hands, Sandkooker was confused about whether to commend the mana density or the crushing power that could even deform stones.
“What if a lower-grade rare metal keeps retaining mana to become higher-grade?”
“!”
“Do you know the answer?”
“At first, the properties of the rare metal become clearer. The more mana it contains, the more positive feedback there is in the manifestation strength and duration.”
“And?”
“However, once it exceeds the absorption limit, then… the structure of the rare metal collapses and is destroyed.”
The newly made rare metal flowed down from the senior’s hands.
Looking at the fate of the rare metal pooled on the floor of the Catacombs, Sandkooker broke into a cold sweat.
If that hand catches a person, they would turn to dust without a trace of who they were!
“What you’re looking at are like the destroyed lower-grade rare metals. They are the destroyed Fourth-Years.”
It seemed like a human shouldn’t be destroyed like some enhancement material, but a person filled with mana or cheap rare metal were in the same predicament.
“Could you stop teasing us in front of the younger generation and go back?”
“That’s impossible. We have to rescue a student at the juniors’ request.”
“Rescue? Did Professor Sadako really imprison a student in a coffin?”
“Not yet, but it seems like that will happen soon.”
“Then we can’t let this pass.”
If Professor Sadako really imprisoned a student in a coffin, she was already willing to open the path.
As Irene struggled to jot down useful information in her mind, the standoff changed.
“Sigh. You must hit rock bottom to know the pain. I’m about to engrave the gap between those who have crossed the wall and those who haven’t.”
The legendary masters of Seoguyeon all lunged forward.
Then, a massive boom resounded as if a mountain triggered a landslide, shaking the world.
Truly, the legendary masters of Seoguyeon, who sat around like hermits after delaying their graduation or hanging around the Academy, were on another level altogether.
The Undead Seniors seemed to realize they couldn’t withstand such a thing, their expressions hardening.
“Take this. This is the attack of our masters who have crossed the wall, given to the destroyed Fourth-Years who couldn’t.”
As the senior opened his arms wide and pulled out a large scroll, even the magic warrior Astarot gasped.
“That senior is quite ruthless. Even if he could crush them with regular mana, he’s pulling out a scroll containing a prepared magic circle against those he considers beneath him?”
Astarot’s assumption was half-correct.
Yes, the masters of Seoguyeon had prepared in advance.
However, the contents were not attack magic circles.
“This is question number 13. Do you remember what happens if the Fourth-Years in each department’s dormitory fail to fend off the monthly dormitory dungeon boss?”
“Uh, what? Why are my hands shaking…?”
“Question number 37. Do you remember what the special training a student receives from a professor if they don’t bring back the emblem of a road-level monster from the Comprehensive Dungeon Theme Park?”
“Ugh…! I feel something sealed in my mind stirring. No, don’t let the memories flood back!”
The scroll contained a collection of questions designed to attack the spirits of the Undead Fourth-Years, written with Forbidden Knowledge, making sure they writhed in agony!
“That’s more powerful than attack magic circles…?”
“The Fourth-Years aren’t resisting at all… Why do they obediently recall answers while suffering instead of ignoring the questions?”
While the second-year students were puzzled by the absurd situation, the third-years who had tasted more of the Academy life realized the principle and purpose of this comically absurd exchange and were horrified.
“That’s not the casual conversation you think it is. It’s a kind of mental attack that stimulates the seal by shaking the memories through a magically loaded voice.”
Io of the Blue Fist.
As a warrior and exorcist specializing in attacking ghost-type monsters, the words of the Fourth Kings of Class 980 made Lotto express distrust.
“Even if seniors have different skill branches, in the broad category, aren’t you also a fighter? How can a fighter recognize such a thing?”
“Exorcists always keep a mental barrier against ghost-type mental attacks and have the ability to quickly restore damaged minds. For example, we can even undo a ‘memory seal’ imposed by a high-year student who lost their will to fight.”
Seeing Io’s pale complexion, Lotto caught on.
This senior already knew what memories waited beyond the terrifying seal that the Fourth-Years feared.
“What happens if a Fourth-Year guarding the dormitory fails to fend off the dormitory dungeon boss?”
“If you sleep in the dormitory, you’ll be forcibly invited into the nightmare desired by the dungeon boss. And… you must practice the function the dungeon boss desires as a price for waking up completely from that nightmare.”
“That’s function drain, isn’t it?!”
“Correct. It’s the highest-ranking technology designated as Forbidden Knowledge in the Empire.”
“We mustn’t cooperate with such a wicked technique!”
“Even if you don’t offer your function, you’ll eventually awaken from the nightmare after a certain time. However, you will have to live under the dungeon boss’s curse during your time at the Academy. And that curse keeps stacking every night.”
“…!”
“By the way, the higher the grade, the more functions you have to collect.”
That… indeed sounds like a painful memory.
Training unwanted functions, having them forcibly taken away.
If you fail to meet the quota, curses await, and those curses may increase in severity.
There would be no worse humiliation than having to regularly pay tribute or live under a curse after failing to guard the dormitory even once.
But whether that was enough to seal a memory didn’t make sense.
“After all, we never had such nightmares, right?!”
“Of course. This year’s Fourth-Years are excellent; they’ve been defeating the dormitory dungeon bosses quite well. You should truly be thankful that the faction led by Velvet in the Seoguyeon Student Council is in power, and not the Empire Nobles’ faction.”
“The Academy we knew… was actually a rather comfortable place?!”
As the underclassmen realized the unnoticeable horrors of the night in the Gift Academy, they felt beyond fear; it became sheer terror.
“They must be under the stacked curses. So they forcibly sealed all related memories of every student in the dormitory department to maintain normal activities during the day.”
Realizing the pathetic state of the Fourth-Years, who couldn’t even handle the dungeon boss that came once a month, one wondered how they would be able to pass the professor’s tests or complete the Academy’s graduation project.
“Inevitably, they have to struggle to graduate while sealing the source of that shortage, and this is what becomes of them.”
“I don’t want this. Climbing is no longer something I want. I don’t want to be dragged down by the hands of a ghost. I don’t want to despair daily as abilities reset. I don’t want to fall every time I try to climb up. I don’t want to become someone who can’t graduate because they get cursed while wanting to ascend!”
“Ah, please don’t pee your pants; it’s annoying. I’ll quickly erase your memories, and take away your resistance so you can peacefully sleep.”
The horrifying sight of the Undead Fourth-Years, their minds crumbling and crying out in despair.
This was just one of many disastrous fates that awaited those foolishly challenging graduation with insufficient specs.
The second years covered their mouths in horror while the third years retreated, looking pale.
“Don’t, don’t be too scared. During vacation, just train hard and even take a few years off from school to power up, and then those dormitory dungeon bosses will be nothing.”
With nerves, Titosso cautiously swallowed the saliva pooling in his mouth and asked,
“Uh, how many years do the averages usually take?”
“Not long, just about five years, right? While also doing a bit of instructor duty to earn points.”
That there are seniors who can graduate from such a hellish Fourth-Year made the graduates of our Academy seem truly amazing.
The strength of the legendary masters of Seoguyeon, comparable to those graduates, suddenly felt awe-inspiring.
