BAM!
The Student Council President’s office burst open, and the Nature Mana rumbled, creating overlapping pressures in multiple layers at once.
“Hey! Give me back my Graduation Project, you trash!”
“How did you guys touch the Boss Room chest without clearing the Dungeon?”
“Does anyone know how hard I worked just to get a Diary?”
Gizel, who was struggling with the Student Council work caused by Oknodie, let out a sigh as she was threatened by the fourth-years who had swarmed in.
“Can I just explain the situation you seniors went through for a moment?”
Gizel shared the details of the Gathering operation for the dual graduation project with Oknodie. The turbulent mana, which seemed ready to riot at any moment, sensed its owner’s absurdity and scattered like fallen leaves before finally settling down helplessly.
“So you decided to steal the easy graduation project so that you wouldn’t have to do the hard one?”
“Were you all so scared of getting beaten up by the fourth-years that you pulled this mass aggro?”
“Do you really think the fourth-years, wanting an easy graduation, will throw some punches to protect the Homunculi from being abused? Wow… these guys are totally insane.”
Even those fourth-years about to graduate were left speechless by the mental gymnastics of protecting the Homunculi from abuse!
“What if we say we don’t want to?”
“Then it means you seniors will have a tough time graduating.”
“If we group up for the dual graduation project, we can just handle it ourselves. What will you do about that?”
Gizel began to rummage through her pocket for Oknodie’s letter.
– Dear seniors, if you go do the graduation project on your own, you might not reach the desired outcome and there will be a cap on how many can be recognized for the dual graduation project, leading to some of you dying in the contribution fights, right? If you follow us, we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen!
“What do you think, seniors? Just saying.”
The fourth-years could not deny that it was highly likely the situation would unfold as the letter suggested. After all, they already had a party in place. It wouldn’t be possible for the fourth-years from different parties to cooperate seamlessly; they would act in groups, and if one group’s performance was lacking, chaos would naturally ensue.
Who messed up? Which members of that team were at fault?
This would lead to division within teams, where they might think, “If I kill a rival, I’ll make the roster?” reaching a terrifying conclusion. Entire teams might collude, attacking other teams to ensure their friends all pass together.
“If that’s the case, then we can act as mediators and provide support, ensuring your numbers don’t decrease and you don’t have to worry about attacks. It’s your chance to be the first beneficiaries of the newly established student council system: [Dual Graduation Support System]. Will you accept it?”
The fourth-years, realizing that they had no option but to choose the path of guaranteed survival rather than face a bloodbath, reluctantly agreed.
“I thought the student council, led by a junior, would be easy, but they’re the most wicked I’ve ever seen…”
“Let’s hear it first and then decide. What’s the content of the large-scale dual graduation project you’re proposing?”
“Operation Limit Break. It’s an operation to expand human activity beyond the boundaries of the human limits.”
The fourth-years felt a great unease.
“The more fourth-years we can unite, the larger the territory we can secure.”
“Indeed… that meets the conditions for a deal.”
“But it’s a blow to our pride to just keep taking it and not cooperate. How about just one punch?”
Gizel sighed and pulled out the second note from Oknodie from her pocket.
– Seniors, if you vent your anger on Gizel and she collapses, it’ll only make things harder for you! Gizel is the worker doing the tedious, annoying tasks of gathering information, materials, and people on behalf of me and you, seniors!
– So why not go disrupt other fourth-years whose graduation projects aren’t ruined yet? The more people in the same boat as you, the higher the chance of success for the operation, right?
“…!”
“What do you think about this story?”
“It’s realistic. If more competent people can endure the Mana Disaster, we’ll have more means to respond. The achievement we need for a joint graduation project increases, but the difficulty decreases, thus expanding the territory we can secure. Plus…”
“Plus what?”
“If I’m the only one who suffers, it’s unfair. Everyone else should taste this pain too.”
A “It’s unfair if only I suffer!” operation was set in motion!
As the fourth-years grasped the situation, the operation began to accelerate rapidly. The fourth-years, who had helped the operation primarily led by the second-years, now began to take over themselves.
The disruptor operation was naturally gaining momentum.
‘Though I didn’t tell the others, I also have the intention of a free ride.’
The cunning fourth-year devised a plan where, pretending to help with the operation, they would submit the reclaimed graduation projects as their own. They would submit their graduation projects smoothly, thriving while bringing others along for the group graduation project—an operation that was a win-win!
On top of that, they could satisfy their curiosity about how Gizel and the student council snatched those projects away.
However, there was one thing weighing on their mind.
“What was that Diary? Were you just using it as a tool for a message saying what you did was our fault?”
“Oh, that’s a token of Oknodie’s sincere apology. Haven’t you opened it yet?”
“I was afraid of falling into a trap after reading a few pages, so I closed it.”
“Since you’re already here, why not read a bit more?”
Fourth-year Kille cautiously opened the Diary.
━━━
[Oknodie’s Diary Volume 22]
Date: September 9, 981
Content:
Dorothy was taming a squirrel with Taming Magic, and all excited, I spammed the magic along with her, managing to succeed in taming a dark woodpecker!
A senior who lost their summoned beast cried and hit me for my pet back, so I had no choice but to give them an order to obey me instead!
I have to renew the command once a month, which is annoying, but I’ll just use this one for the Cooking Handbook and let the senior catch a new dark woodpecker!
━━━
When Gizel hastily closed it before the Mana Response happened, such small notes showcasing the Dark Princess’s devilish nature followed.
But as she read the diary, Kille noticed the existence of a magic lock. She was too scared to unlock it outside, worried about the chaos it might cause, but if a dangerous situation arose within the academy, the student council could be held responsible, so she mustered her courage to try and unlock it.
WHOOSH!
As expected, the unlocked diary revealed the true contents of the sealed journal. The original diary was a sort of fake diary inscribed over a sealing spell.
━━━
[Oknodie’s Diary Volume 39]
Date: September 9, 981
Content:
I need to record this before I forget about the Banshee build where just crying raises my dark energy.
Core technique is Robentus’s Lament, and the spell formulas are as follows.
(Main spell formula illustration)
(Derived 7 spell illustrations)
This technique is a formula that enhances dark energy by gathering a bunch of ghosts, and the more living beings that meet an unfair death, the better.
Usually, I gain power by roaming a cemetery filled with unjustly deceased souls, but such places are often meddled with by wandering dark sorcerers, so the remaining dark energy has poor value, right?
The heroes’ graves have been messed with by the Taboo Emperor Pake Hiuqmag, so there are no souls left.
Thus, I need to tackle the Academy Cemetery Catacombs, and it’ll be easy to feast once Professor Sadako leaves the Academy.
However, since this time, Professor Sadako is still here, using that build has become difficult, and Titosso has been exorcising a lot of ghosts that gather with his radiant mana, so I’ll seal that build until Titosso corrupts into the Dark!
Just in case it might be useful, I’ll gather the members of the Evil Organization and cause some unlucky accidents so we can sneakily gather the ghosts outside. Tomorrow, I’ll deal with the Beastman Resurgence Society radicals, and the day after, I’ll keep those of the Second Coming Eternal Life Church forever in the Evil Spirit Storage!
(Storage area map)
(Sealing release spell illustration)
Today’s date: September 10
…
━━━
“!!”
The Second Coming Eternal Life Church was an Evil Organization that Kille had also heard of.
Driven mad by the ascent of their own powers, they were a group of mid-ranking sorcerers who abducted people with life, to absorb their Bio Mana and lengthen their lifespans.
Typically, such organizations are hardly eradicated as it’s common for power-crazed sorcerers to commit crimes, but she recalled that the entire top brass had vanished at some point, leading to its natural downfall.
“This… should I see this as them being nice, or being bad…?”
Planting a friend into corruption, and recording the resources meant for advancing their growth while also noting down their locations.
And this was just a part of the diary.
It felt like the diary contained very sparse entries, yet when secret handwriting appeared, it filled several once-empty pages.
Though it was ominous, perhaps it could be a lucky break.
Oknodie’s diary had at least ten such lucky breaks written out.
Honestly, could she even use some of the builds here to poke and prod for her graduation project? she thought.
As if reading her mind, Gizel shook her head.
“The Diary is an apology from Oknodie for messing with you seniors. However, they say it’s an imperfect build missing critical elements needed for the builds.”
“Tsk. So they’ve blocked easy access to the graduation project, huh?”
“They said collaborating on the dual graduation project would fill in those gaps.”
Collaborating would mean gaining builds, knowledge, or tools equivalent to a graduation project.
Though it had clear flaws preventing its use, conversely, if one simply avoids those pitfalls, it’s enough to make even a fourth-year drool over the results.
“Does that sound tempting enough for you?”
“Of course.”
Kille felt a sudden greed.
The others must have received such diaries too.
Since I can already graduate, what if I stowed away the diary and sold it to other graduating juniors, classmates, or even at the leisure of other organizations? Just thinking about that created waves of greed.
If one person collected everything in the diaries, wouldn’t it be amazing?
The bits of information were already astounding individually, but how grand would it be once compiled?
Most of all, a nagging thought lingered.
The diary still had empty pages.
“Wait. Let’s combine the diaries.”
“You’ve caught on, huh?”
“That’s why I came to you, since I have Volume 22 and you have Volume 23.”
The two merged their diaries and unlocked the sealing spell.
As a result, fresh spells and records appeared upon some previously blank pages.
━━━
A record on how to return a name to the ancient god and become the first apostle of the god, thereby exercising overwhelming power under the best conditions (3 entries total; 5 entries to come).
━━━
This wasn’t merely a problem of graduating; it revealed the potential for an elevation in rank!
“Why graduate? Isn’t it more advantageous to just gather the diaries instead?”
“Wow, really?”
Seventh-tier graduation to live as an ace in a giant organization versus graduating at eighth-tier to become a leader of a giant organization.
The latter was overwhelmingly a better choice to the point where comparisons were meaningless.
“This letter is the one I said I should give you last if you find the seniors’ eyes tainted.”
Kille felt a jolt of shock as she accepted the note from Gizel and opened it.
– The remaining diaries will be given to the dual graduation project achievers. Therefore, please gather the materials for the treasure chest and insert them yourselves. Make sure you provide bait that will entice other fourth-years to be diligent in their searching for you!
“…Is this for real?”
“It feels kind of off.”
“Well, not giving them is also kind of an issue.”
Despite the unease, the fourth-year seniors, unaware of the diary’s existence, reluctantly opened their pockets one by one, placing their most precious items for their fellow fourth-years.
Soon after the seniors left, Jiang, hidden in the shadows, crawled out alongside Oknodie.
“Ta-da! The student council funds are all secured!”
“…It’s really happening.”
Freed from budget constraints, the student council was able to prepare for the Operation Limit Break successfully.
