The Overpowered Cult Leader at the Academy Chapter 21

Chapter 21

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The brief mont of respite I had finally found didn’t last long.

Having now wrapped up the massive tide that was Episode 1, there was a lingering concern taking root in one corner of my mind.

“Senior. This ti, we really need to get a good evaluation…”

“Winter.”

“Yes?”

“How do you pay your tuition?”

“Ah, there are scholarships… for people like . I also took out a student loan.”

Winter was organizing the expected evaluation draft for the first-half assessnt from the Order. She was explaining it point by point, but I had no idea what she was talking about, so I was letting it go in one ear and out the other.

At my sudden question, Winter seed to quiet down a bit. Knowing her lonely past, I chose my words carefully.

“Hm.”

Money, no matter how much you gathered, was never enough. Even for , the Duhein Family’s support had been cut off, so I was barely scraping by.

How would I pay next year’s tuition? The smaller expenses piling up wouldn’t be easy to handle either. The sa went for Winter.

Winter had no hobbies. No favorite foods. In her life, defined by extre self-restraint, only a burning desire to study remained. That was what barely brought her this far.

“They did say the Order supports believers financially, right?”

“Yes? They do, but… you don’t need to go that far for …”

“No.”

She was a founding mber of the Anaye Order. On top of that, a rare talent with excellent managent skills. If not , then who else would look after Winter?

I closed my eyes for a mont and recalled my mories. Carefully, I went over the information I had saved while playing the ga.

Most of the data focused on how to strengthen characters. Then sothing interesting ca to mind.

“Winter. Do you know anything about the Forbidden Forest?”

“N-not really… No, I don’t!”

This cunning little girl seed to catch on to my intent right away. She averted her gaze in a very obvious way and mumbled her answer.

She was clearly trying to avoid being sent sowhere she knew would inevitably result in an accident or serious injury. I let out a rough laugh.

“Ah, then I guess I’ll just have to go in without knowing anything and co back hurt.”

“Aaagh! Why are you going to such a dangerous place again!”

Winter shrieked in protest. I chuckled and kept teasing her for a while.

It had beco a habit without even realizing it, because the reaction was just too satisfying. The one at fault here was the one who reacted too well.

She huffed and puffed, fuming with frustration.

“Hoo… You know about the magic of the sea, right?”

“Yeah.”

Eventually giving in, Winter took a short breath and began to explain.

The sea possessed a strange magic that lured life toward it. Legends like the [Siren Legend] and [Ghost Ship Legend] were related to this power.

“The Forbidden Forest exists because of those kinds of magical properties. Do you know about the [Black Moon] in the southern forest?”

“Of course I do. But go ahead and explain it anyway.”

“...Museion Island is such an ancient island that it’s one of the areas most affected by the sea’s magic. Among them, the [Black Moon] is a rare phenonon that appears on the cliff in the southern forest—just like the na says, the moon turns black.”

“Oh. And then?”

“Well, there are a few things. But the main story is that everyone who saw it ended up dropping out of the academy? From what I’ve heard, a spirit of the moon wearing a black mask appears and tornts them.”

“That’s it?”

“...Of course you’d think that.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Only after I twitched an eyebrow did Winter co to her senses. She glanced at cautiously, then continued the conversation.

“Anyway, don’t go to the Forbidden Forest. If you can help it. The [Black Moon], the [Screaming Valley], the [Laboratory of Perdikaf]—they’re all dangerous places.”

“Right. That’s what it was called.”

The last one she ntioned. [Laboratory of Perdikaf]. Hearing that na, I clapped my hands.

It was a hidden area that could only be accessed after obtaining a reward item from clearing Episode 9. That place had so pretty valuable stuff.

Originally, it was designed as a bonus reward for overcoming a difficult episode and to provide useful items for tackling future episodes more easily.

The funny thing was, with the right thod, you could enter that area early in the ga.

‘It was ridiculous.’

I rembered that ti—while grinding after clearing a mid-ga episode, I had fallen off a cliff and ended up in the [Laboratory of Perdikaf] by accident.

Getting in was easy, but I couldn’t go further due to not eting the requirents. There were a few such chanics scattered throughout the ga. When I looked up guides just in case, I found that there was actually a thod to get in early, but only for mages.

Even in this world, there was a route similar to what speedrunners in the ga used.

“I’m going to make so money.”

“Huh? What? All of a sudden?”

The Order’s operations were barely sustained through support from the Imperial Knight Order. But anything beyond that was impossible.

The Imperial Knight Order wasn’t stupid. They claid they were doing everything they could—but that was a lie.

They maintained a delicate balance: not so little that it would be interpreted as dismissive, but not so much that the Order could grow freely.

If you thought about the Vice-Commander, it was obvious that this setup was her doing. There wasn’t much I needed to prepare. I grabbed a shovel and left the chapel.

***

“This should be about the place.”

A cliff where the cold wind cut through. I had arrived at the [Screaming Valley] in the southern forest and glanced around.

―Kyaaahhh!

What sounded like a chilling scream was actually just the wind passing through small gaps between the strange rock formations.

The atmosphere was certainly eerie. It felt unnerving and creepy, like the kind of place no one would want to be near.

If I had stumbled in here by accident, I’d be desperate to find my way out.

“It’s not a valley, it’s just a damn cliff.”

Though it had been given the nickna “valley,” it was really just a well-carved cliff. I had no idea why it was called that, but in reality, it was nothing more than a natural sculpture shaped by ti.

Fear cos from the unknown. The students feared this southern forest. Simply because they knew nothing about it.

The countless legends circulating among them were nothing more than exaggerated rumors layered on top of the academy’s official ban on entry.

The truly dangerous things—those never even made it into stories. That way, it helped maintain safety, and the academy deliberately kept it that way.

“Found it.”

I had been walking for quite a while with the [Screaming Valley] to my left. Despite the sun hanging high in the sky, the forest atmosphere was dark and gloomy.

So spotting a solitary cabin standing tall in such a place was a welco sight. It looked like it could collapse at any mont, which left a strong impression.

Without hesitation, I headed straight for the cabin.

“The sll, though.”

This used to be my go-to base camp back when I was grinding nonstop in the ga. It was the only place in the southern forest that could be set as a return point.

Think of the southern forest as a kind of dungeon. In specific areas, there were high-level monsters that only appeared there.

This cabin served as a midpoint, connected with the shortest routes to most monster respawn zones.

The five-pyeong cabin had only a table and a bed. I opened the window despite the dust and musty sll of old earth—better to let in the ominous wind of the southern forest than to breathe that in.

“Northeast, huh.”

I plopped down onto the bed. Dust scattered, but I didn’t care. Since I couldn’t register it as a return point, the cabin now served only as a compass to guide my way.

In the ga, due to the strange magical power here, the cardinal directions would vanish from the minimap. Even if you moved using the map, at so point you'd end up lost.

That’s when this cabin ca in handy.

“Damn that magic.”

I clicked my tongue at the all-powerful magic system. This ga slightly favored mages. Honestly, real combat was all about rolling, slashing, rolling, and slashing—that tension is what made it fun.

Of course, now that this had beco reality, easy wins were best.

After grumbling for a while, I finally took out the compass. It had been spinning aimlessly, but now it finally pointed in a single direction.

With the compass as reference, the target was at 1 o'clock. If I walked nearly a kiloter from the cabin, I would arrive at the long-awaited entrance. I set off quickly.

“Well, would you look at that?”

When I reached the entrance, I was t with sothing unusual. Draped in loose, dark fabric and wearing a black mask, the figure emitted a cold, eerie light.

It was perched on the trunk of a black tree deep in the gloomy forest, staring directly at . The very creature behind the rumors that gave rise to the legend of the [Black Moon].

“Not that scary, honestly.”

I knew what it was. It wasn’t so ghostly creature—it was more like a scout created by the guardian of this island.

Now, it had lost its original function and was nothing more than a spirit aimlessly wandering the southern forest. Even in the ga, it was treated as part of the background, barely noticed.

It was smaller than Winter. No hostility whatsoever could be felt from it. No matter how I looked at it, there was nothing about it that would make soone consider dropping out of the academy.

“The [Black Moon] is on the complete opposite side, though.”

There was one odd thing. The [Black Moon] appeared on the complete other side from where I was headed now.

At this point—after the tutorial had ended—it was impossible to know what these creatures were doing. That kind of detail lay outside the ga’s system.

‘Could it beco a variable?’

There are countless variables in the world, but I preferred to minimize them as much as possible.

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t co up with an answer. I shrugged and dismissed it. If it didn’t bring harm, there was no need to pay it any mind.

I resud walking.

“Almost missed it.”

A round stone plate. Covered in moss, I nearly walked past it without noticing.

If not for the faint hardness I felt through the sole of my foot, I would have missed it entirely. Irritated, I brushed the moss away.

Strange symbols filled the border. This was the entrance. Using the key earned as a reward for clearing an episode, this entrance could be activated.

‘Though this changes things.’

I bit my finger and held it to the edge, now revealed with symbols. A drop of blood ford at my fingertip and dripped onto the glyphs.

This wasn’t so precisely engineered chanism. It was a product of magitech, created with magic. In the ga, the entrance could be opened by deciphering and manipulating the runes.

Of course, being a multi-run veteran, I knew exactly what needed to be altered. But since I wasn’t a mage, I couldn’t use that thod.

“Episode 1 went smoothly thanks to this.”

Back when I hunted the Mana Stone Spider, I had already begun to suspect that my blood wasn’t just normal blood.

After several tests, I’d confird it was quite useful. Piercing Coco’s shield so easily in Episode 1 had finalized the conclusion.

The blood of soone with the trait [Ancient Magic] completely nullifies magic upon contact with a surface.

When my blood had soaked half the runes, sothing unusual occurred.

“Ah. Right.”

With a faint vibration and the sound of grinding stone, the ground beneath my feet gave way.

What was supposed to slowly descend like an elevator had its magic cut off and simply stopped functioning—collapsing instead.

In an instant, I was swept up and falling into a pit of total darkness, unable to see a thing. Originally, I had planned to drop the elevator and descend later using a rope.

I hadn’t expected it to break down so suddenly. But I didn’t have ti to panic. I extended a finger and thrust it toward the wall with all my strength.

Normally, that should’ve shattered my finger on impact. But my Adaptive Body endured. Instead, my finger punctured a hole into the stone wall.

“It stings a bit.”

The hand that should’ve been mangled from the friction was in surprisingly decent shape. In the pitch-darkness, I summoned the Holy Scripture and used its glow to inspect the wound—it wasn’t too bad.

And seeing it slowly nd on its own was the truly unsettling part. If you used the key properly, lights would automatically turn on.

But since I had forced my way in with a shortcut, all that greeted was darkness. I began to walk forward slowly. There was only one path, anyway.