After Stephen took the wooden dolls that he had collected with Nathan and David,
Stephen headed with the dolls toward an abandoned training site beneath one of the buildings.
Stephen had discovered this site during his academy exploration or surveillance period.
The best thing about this place was that it didn't even have any surveillance cameras. It was the perfect place for Stephen if he wanted to use it for training, and he wouldn't need to leave the academy every time.
Stephen took out the dolls and threw them away from himself into the empty space of the large hall.
The dolls scattered around in various shapes — bears, octopuses, tigers, wolves, all kinds of shapes, even strange ones.
The time was approaching three thirty. Stephen had tried to destroy them before they turned into monsters, but to no avail.
The demonic energy was reinforcing these dolls and making their destruction impossible, so Stephen had no choice but to wait for the monsters to transform.
When the time became 3:30, black smoke exploded from the dolls gathered on the ground.
Stephen had already drawn his sword from his storage ring and had even removed his earring.
'Since I've confirmed that this place is also designed as a soundproof area, it's fine if a little noise happens.'
The black fog began to fade quickly, revealing types of monsters such as the octopus monster and some monsters that looked like wolves and various other kinds, but what was distinctive about them was that they resembled the shape of the dolls before transforming.
Stephen looked toward the monsters that were beginning to notice him.
'All of these monsters have that black gem in their heads.'
'Does that organization have something to do with this? They're the only ones who know how to embed demonic energy into anything.'
The monsters began moving rapidly toward Stephen. Stephen sighed lightly and took a step forward, then suddenly the ground beneath him turned black and he disappeared from sight.
The monsters stopped, looking around in confusion.
Then suddenly, at extreme speed, the heads of the monsters were cut off one after another, shattering those gems as well.
Stephen moved lightly and skillfully through the shadows, cutting down monster after monster with quick, clean strikes so that the remaining monsters couldn't even find him.
'Seven… fifteen… twenty-five… thirty… and…'
Stephen headed toward the monster that looked like a bear and, with a swift vertical sword strike, cut it in half along with its gem.
'Thirty-one… the end.'
(Author: I don't know what to do with him anymore 🙃 he finishes his fights too fast.)
Stephen deactivated his skills, and the darkness vanished from the ground. The bodies of the monsters piled up, filling the place with blood and corpses, turning a place that had been clean just minutes ago into one full of chaos.
Stephen looked at his clothes with disgust because they were stained with blood. He felt an urgent desire to clean them, but first he had to clean the place.
Stephen had a good way of disposing of these corpses: he could turn them into shadow monsters.
Since Stephen hadn't gone yet to obtain the other monsters he planned to get after the Light Eagle, he could now turn these weaker monsters into his shadows as well.
It's true that he could only obtain five shadows, but that applied only to monsters of his own rank. For monsters weaker than him, he could make a larger number into his shadows. Thus, Stephen could obtain 60 C-rank monsters, and those 60 monsters could be considered equivalent to one A-rank monster.
Stephen used the Shadow Art skill on the monsters. All the corpses disappeared, replaced by shadow monsters slightly smaller than the original ones.
Stephen made the monsters disappear — or rather, hide within his shadow.
Now the only thing left in the hall was blood.
Stephen raised his hand and used his blood control, gathering every drop of scattered blood, even the ones on his clothes. Gradually, they all gathered until a large sphere of blood formed in front of Stephen.
Stephen controlled the large sphere and compressed it forcefully, causing it to shrink little by little until it reached the smallest possible size.
He took out a bottle from his storage ring, opened it, controlled the blood to enter the bottle, closed it, and returned it to his storage ring.
Now he should probably return to the welcome festival square…
But… there was one thing preventing him from returning there.
...
Meanwhile, in one of the training grounds,
A girl with brown hair reaching below her back threw the hand broom away in annoyance.
"Oh my god, when will this end?"
Ira looked at her with a sad and guilty expression.
"…I'm sorry, this is all because of me."
Eveline shook her head in denial.
"No, no, it's not because of you."
Ira spoke in a self-blaming voice.
"But if you hadn't supported me, it wouldn't have happened…"
Eveline interrupted her.
"No, Ira, you're my friend, so no matter what, I have to stay with you."
Ira smiled slightly.
"…But what I did was wrong."
Eveline tilted her head in confusion.
"But there's something I don't understand, Ira."
Ira asked,
"What is it?"
Eveline spoke seriously.
"Do you hate Nathan?"
Ira looked away from Eveline and glanced around nervously.
"Oh… that… this…"
Eveline looked at her in confusion.
"What?"
Eveline's gaze focused on Ira, and finally… Ira sighed and spoke.
"I… don't hate him."
Eveline raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"Huh?"
Ira continued.
"But I'm extremely annoyed with him."
Eveline grew even more confused, not understanding what Ira meant, and before she could ask why she was annoyed, Kai interrupted them as he ran toward them.
"Ira… Eveline!!"
Both of them looked at him quickly.
Kai spoke seriously.
"Something is happening at the festival."
Ira and Eveline widened their eyes and asked anxiously.
"Huh?! What happened?"
Kai shook his head.
"I don't know, but I saw a group of teachers seriously discussing something near the festival square."
Eveline asked,
"What are they discussing?"
Kai spoke with a frown.
"It's about some kind of barrier."
Ira frowned as she thought.
'A barrier?'
She spoke seriously while running.
"Let's go and check."
The two followed her quickly.
...
Stephen was sitting on a tree near the festival square.
'I don't know how many monsters are there, but if Elisa is there, then she'll probably take control of things. She's smart.'
He looked toward the teachers who were trying their hardest to break the isolating barrier that surrounded the festival square, separating the students inside.
...
Meanwhile, inside the festival square, Nathan was extremely annoyed.
That girl Elisa had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, using her lightning here and there and suddenly giving him orders. This irritated him.
Elisa stood explaining,
"There are currently three monsters, and we can't take them all down at the same time. We need to save the students, so delaying will result in some students being killed or seriously injured."
"But since we're all here, we need to cooperate and divide into groups. I'll go to the monster on the right, while Nathan and David, and you and you—"
Elisa pointed to several other students.
"This group will go to the monster on the north side."
She pointed toward Leonard, Agnes, and some students.
"And you go to the last monster."
Everyone nodded and began moving, except Nathan, who found a place and sat down indifferently.
David looked at Nathan in confusion.
"What?! Aren't you going?"
Nathan shrugged.
"I don't want to."
Elisa frowned and approached Nathan.
"Aren't you going to fight?"
Nathan ignored her and played with his eyepatch.
David got annoyed.
"Hey! What's wrong with you?"
Nathan replied,
"I don't like orders."
David looked at him blankly, then asked seriously,
"Are you a child?"
Nathan looked at him with a frown.
"Do you want a beating?"
David looked at him with disgust.
"Huh?! Why would I want that?!"
Elisa interrupted them and spoke to Nathan.
"I didn't order anyone. I just asked for your help to save our classmates, so can you help us?"
Nathan shrugged.
"No."
"…"
"…."
David got angry.
"What?! If you don't want to, then don't. Stephen wanted us to save the students, but it looks like you don't want that, so I'll save them myself."
When Nathan heard that, he frowned and stood up in annoyance.
"Tch, fine, let's go together."
Then he walked off without looking at them.
David looked at him, then shook his head and followed him.
Elisa watched them and shook her head.
'Why did someone like Nathan become Stephen's friend? How is that? I don't understand.'
She turned and headed toward the monster.
...
Outside the square near the barrier, Eveline, Kai, and Ira stood nervously, waiting for the barrier to open.
They had more or less understood what was happening. It seemed that an attack had occurred at the festival, and the students were trapped inside the square, unable to get out, and the students had to rely on themselves to repel the attack inside.
Ira stood trembling, her skin pale.
Eveline spoke to her, trying to reassure her.
"Don't worry, they're strong."
Ira bit her lip and spoke.
"But Agnes is weak. She doesn't have offensive skills. What if she gets hurt?! What if she's killed?!"
Ira covered her face in panic.
Eveline patted her.
"Don't worry. Leonard and Elisa are there — they'll protect her."
The three waited nervously by the barrier. They didn't know how long they waited, but suddenly the barrier vanished and students began pouring out.
Some were covered in dust and disheveled, others were injured, and some had even more serious wounds.
Ira, Eveline, and Kai searched for their friends. After a short search, Kai suddenly pointed somewhere happily.
"Look, they're there—"
Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Ira running toward them at full speed.
Ira jumped onto Agnes and hugged her, bursting into tears.
"Ah, Agnes… I was so scared."
Seeing this, Agnes smiled warmly and hugged Ira back.
"Haha, don't worry, I'm fine. Look at me."
Ira released Agnes and began checking her to see if she had any injuries.
Leonard looked at her with annoyance.
"What, do you only see Agnes in front of you?"
Ira looked at Leonard in surprise, then laughed.
"Oh, Leonard, are you okay?"
Leonard shrugged and raised an eyebrow as he looked somewhere.
"Yes, but I won't be okay in a few seconds."
Eveline rushed toward Leonard.
Leonard covered his head with his hands, and Eveline hit him.
"You idiot! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Leonard spoke in annoyance.
"Ow, ow! Are you out of your mind?! Is that how you ask someone if they're okay?!"
Eveline stopped hitting him and looked him over to see if he was injured.
Leonard shook his head and patted her head.
"You idiot, I'm fine."