The Academy Regressor is Obsessed

The fifth day since the exam started.

Asel and the other two people repeatedly dealt with golems as soon as they were created, having settled in a golem generation zone found through detection magic. The interval between golem creations wasn’t very long, but thanks to the three of them taking turns killing them, none of them felt fatigue.

“Oh, one came out.”

Elena, sitting on a rock, said. Asel, whose turn it was, immediately stopped what he was doing and manifested magic towards the golem.

[Heat Fragrance Pyre]

Heat with no visible form is released. In an instant, the golem’s form melts away, and just before the core turns to ashes, he draws out a magic thread to catch it. There’s a slightly scorched mark left, but the magical power contained inside wasn’t affected. Asel throws the core into a roughly dug hole and resumes his previous work.

The work wasn’t much. It was a disassembly process to figure out how this huge golem operates with just one small bead by breaking down the core. Since it requires not only talent in magic but also delicate handiwork, Asel focused all his attention on tapping and splitting the core.

“Knife.”
“Here!”

As he spoke, stretching his hand to the side, Elena handed over a dagger made of blood. Asel took the dagger and gently scraped the edge of the core. Ellen, watching this scene, leaned against a tree and let out a hollow laugh.

“…Can you figure it out by doing that?”
“I’ve already figured out about half.”

Asel answered while maneuvering the knife so as not to damage the magical power contained in the core.

“Roughly speaking, it’s a core created by a 7th-rank mage. They’ve applied magical engineering to increase the efficiency of magical power, and connected the magic formula to the outside. To put it simply, this core is merely a power source to move the golem, but the actual magic formulas and calculations needed to construct the golem all rely on some device outside.”
“……”
“If we destroy the device that exists outside, all the golems here will stop operating and collapse in an instant. The power might still be alive, but the magic formula maintaining that body will be shattered. It would be the only weakness of infinitely multiplying golems.”

Asel looked into the split core with an interested gaze.

“The reason golems are continuously generated here is because a one-time activation teleportation formula is engraved on the core. When the formula is activated through the device, it moves to the coordinates here and activates the construction formula. It’s a method of creating the skeleton of the body using soil and sand, and changing its properties to have skin like rock. It’s interesting.”
“…Asel, you’re really acting like a pervert right now.”

Elena said with a slightly disgusted expression. Asel lightly ignored her words and tucked the split core into his bosom.

“If I get the chance, I’d like to meet the construction mage who created these golems. Probably a magician majoring in magical engineering. I wonder how amazing their knowledge must be.”
“…From my perspective, you figuring this out seems more amazing.”

Ellen muttered this, and seeing a new golem starting to generate, she picked up her axe. Despite the double-bladed axe being much larger than her height, she lightly rotated it as if handling a feather and swung it widely horizontally.

Following that trajectory, the golem’s waist was cut off. The golem, whose body was divided into upper and lower halves as soon as it was born, flailed its hands as if confused, but even that was cleanly cut off. Ellen split the upper body of the golem, which was left with only the head, in half and pulled out the core. The golem soon scattered into sand.

“That makes 100.”

Ellen muttered as she put the core into the dug hole.

It had already been two days since they settled here. During that time, except for sleeping hours, they all focused on hunting golems, so it was natural that cores were overflowing to the point of rotting. With this amount, they could even smile and share a little if other participants came looking to plunder.

‘We’ll easily pass the exam.’

Ellen thought as she watched Elena drawing out blood for her turn.

The Academy’s entrance exam is notorious for its cruel difficulty. In fact, even this exam wasn’t easy if you only consider the difficulty itself. Although the golems’ durability was weak, their destructive power was strong enough to be comparable to skilled experts.

Power that could crush the entire body if you let your guard down even a little. It was relatively easy to deal with them head-on, but the golems that attempted ambushes were quite tricky. Some individuals even shot stone arrows from a distance.

Their appearance, as if copying superhumans from an actual battlefield, was objectively not an easy opponent. Since the supervisors didn’t even tell how many cores needed to be collected, the situation could only become more desperate.

But if you can smash them as soon as they’re born like this, it’s a different story.

Golems whose designed intelligence hasn’t settled yet don’t react even when an attack approaches. They only start reacting after some part of their body is cut or broken. Even then, all they do is struggle in confusion. Honestly, golems moving like that were very easy to deal with.

This is the result. A pile of cores. Considering that the activation condition for the device Asel had mentioned was 50 cores, if they pile up 50 more, everyone could pass the entrance exam.

Not much left.

Ellen exhaled a long breath and hung the axe on her shoulder. Elena, who had returned with the core, is reflected in her eyes.

“Now it’s 101!”

It really wasn’t far off.

Injuries occurring in the Academy’s entrance exam was always a thing. Although the form of the exam changed every year, the presence of combat was the same every year. It was a structure where injuries, whether minor or severe, were bound to occur.

Some people criticize that such an exam structure is wrong.

In fact, it was true. What academy throws participants into a death game from the entrance exam and only rescues them when they’re on the verge of death?

Other academies, except for Luminus Academy, conduct entrance exams solely with written tests and safe practical tests, regardless of whether it’s a non-combat or combat department. Due to this difference, the safety issue of Luminus Academy’s combat department entrance exam is raised every year.

But the principal never bent her will even to public evaluation.

-The reason we are evaluated as the best among academies is because of that special entrance exam. It filters out the weak ones as the first screening. I want talents who can really make a difference in war, not just any random people.

That’s what the principal said at the monthly “Is the Academy Okay Like This?” meeting. Some agreed with her opinion and some were appalled, but anyway, her words were true. In fact, those who pass the entrance exam basically mean they can handle combat to some extent.

Moreover, most of those who participate in Luminus Academy’s entrance exam are those who have pride in their abilities. These people, who have been called geniuses at least once somewhere, quickly grasp the essence of the exam and strive to pass the test while getting hurt as little as possible.

Thanks to this, although there are injuries, they don’t occur that much. At most about 10 people. If it goes beyond that, it means the difficulty of the exam was set abnormally. This was the stage where the supervisor had to take responsibility and normalize the difficulty of the exam.

And that stage was today.

“Fuck.”

The chief supervisor of the exam. Ross spat out a curse and looked inside the patient tent.

“Ugh……”
“Aaaaargh! Lightning keeps sparking from my arm!! Save me!”
“…That damn Grace. Who the hell is Asel. Why did she attack me just because I said I don’t know!”
“My leg, my leg……”

The inside of the tent was chaos. The few beds they brought were long since full, and they were now in a situation where additional ones were being procured from outside. This is just for those severely injured. If you add the number of participants who gave up midway through the exam, close to dozens of people were gathered here.

It was a clear mistake in setting the exam difficulty. Ross came out of the tent, pulling at his hair.

“We’re fucked.”

Only curses kept coming out of his mouth.

In fact, he wasn’t greatly at fault. Accidentally setting the core to go into the golem generation device to be slightly higher-level ones? No problem. At this level, they could cope improvisationally by reducing the number of cores needed to pass.

Allowing plundering among participants? This wasn’t a problem either. Allowing plundering in an exam where you search for something was a tradition passed down through generations at the Academy. Ross just followed that.

Then, what’s the real problem?

“…According to the on-site supervisor’s report, currently Jin Zhao, Lady Hargelin, and Revelation’s disciple have settled in the golem generation zone and are slaughtering the golems.”

Those bastards were the problem.

“Goddammit.”

The first situation where mass casualties occurred? It was the moment Asel caused lightning and gathered participants. Participants who gathered thinking there might be a special event prepared by the Academy side clashed with each other, resulting in a spate of injuries.

Next are the golems.

Golems become more violent as their numbers decrease, so it was natural that the danger of other individuals increased greatly as they slaughtered golems like that for days.

A mistake that could have been handled improvisationally originally rose to a level that couldn’t be ignored because of them. Thanks to this, there was an overflow of people injured by golems.

But okay. He could understand up to this. It was the supervisors’ side that mistook the golem’s core, and they didn’t explain that violence increases as the numbers decrease.

“But fuck. Why is Lady Baidel going around saying Asel, Asel and hunting participants instead of catching golems like she’s supposed to!”
“E-even if you shout at me……”
“Oh, fuck!”

For Ross, who has a mercenary background, cursing is like breathing. He restrained himself while acting as an Academy supervisor, but when a situation came where he had to take responsibility, his old habits came out naturally. He chewed his lips while pondering how to break through the current situation.

That’s when it happened. The door of the supervisors’ outdoor conference room set up outside the forest burst open. Ross was about to shout irritably at the intruder, but when he confirmed the intruder’s identity, he broke out in a cold sweat.

“…Professor Fernan.”

Fernan Clark. A professor in the Academy’s combat department and a swordsman famous for his elegant swordsmanship even within the Academy. A monster who has participated in numerous wars and recently reached the realm of Master.

He waved his hand towards Ross.

“Hello, Ross.”
“…What brings you here……”

Ross asked. Fernan smiled slightly and took in the flustered faces of the supervisors.

“Why else? I came to clean up. Wow, looking at the tents outside, it’s quite a sight, isn’t it? No matter how much it’s the principal, with that many dropouts, she’s bound to get angry, right? I thought she might rush here using magic herself, thinking the exam’s chief supervisor has lost his mind.”
“…I’m sorry. I will handle it quickly.”
“No, no. Don’t do that. I’ll take care of it myself before the situation unnecessarily escalates. The principal herself gave me authority.”

At those words, Ross’s face crumpled.

“…I’m sorry for disappointing you.”
“Hm? Oh, don’t tell me you think you’re fired? Don’t worry. The higher-ups have judged that this incident is entirely due to the participants. Apparently, the level of some participants is too excellent or something. So it ends if we just deal with them somehow.”
“…Are you going to kill them?”
“Are you crazy?”

Fernan glared at Ross with a serious expression. Ross immediately lowered his eyes.

“I’m sorry. My thinking was shallow.”
“Too shallow. What do you mean kill the participants? Do you want to see the Academy disappear from the map? As if the principal would order me to do such a thing. Huh?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Let’s do well, Ross. Someone might think I’m some pleasure killer.”

Fernan patted Ross’s back a couple of times and continued speaking.

“I just need to test our pretties myself. I heard that Grace Baidel is moving alone, and that Asel guy is moving in a group of three. First, I’ll test Grace, then go to the three people.”
“……”
“Oh, and the dropouts from the exam. I was told to make a separate list of them and submit it. Later, they’ll determine whether they pass through a practical test like other academies do. We need to avoid having too many dropouts.”
“I understand. I will follow.”
“Good.”

Fernan grinned and tapped the sword at his waist.

“Then I’m off. Let’s see how skilled our prospective disciples are, shall we?”

Saying that, Fernan left the conference room and spread his aura towards the forest. Not long after, Grace’s presence was caught in his sensing.

His figure disappeared in an instant.