Chapter 57 - I Became the Daughter of the Academy’s Villain

<57 - The Goal> Professor Plato asserts that from species to ego items, everything is abandoned by those who give up being human. "A healthy mind dwells in a healthy body. Therefore, I thought, if one were to possess the healthiest of bodies, they could harbor a mind healthier than any other!" "Behold, the epitome of wellness crafted by investing my entire fortune—a rare metal physique that can regenerate even if pulverized by the principal’s earnest punch." Zhuang murmured, her eyes on the body that shimmered with light, "Titoso would be delighted to show this off." "I’d love to instill the joy of inhabiting a healthy body in the new students as well, but rare metals are expensive! Even a million points wouldn’t cover the cost." No need. Disregarding the students' visibly repulsed expressions, Professor Plato revealed the theme of his lecture. "However, there’s a way to attain a healthy body even with a meager organic mass. The method is intense physical training coupled with nutritious meals to enhance recovery speed!" The students’ eyes sparkled at the mention. "Nutritious meals?" "Are you providing food?" "Can we have seconds?" Professor Plato gladly responded. "Of course! Not just seconds; you can have up to ten servings." "Woahhhh!" "Professor Plato is the best!" "The conscience of the academy! A living intellect!" "The ultimate professor who abandoned being human! So cool!" Professor Plato, adept at receiving flattery, smiled broadly. "Do you wish to eat?" "Yes!" "Do you want to eat a lot?" "Yes!!" "Then, run. Head towards that mountain with all your might, and make sure to return with less than 10% of your stamina, 10 minutes before the lecture ends. That's your first assignment." As Professor Plato tapped the students on the shoulders, a fist-sized muscular statue appeared and clung to them like a sticker. "Ew, what's this?" "So many muscles. Disgusting." "Is this a miniature version of the professor at one-two-hundredth scale?" This miniature was a form of the professor's avatars, tasked with... "Oknodie’s remaining stamina is 90%." "Giselle's remaining stamina is 82%." "Son Ocheon’s remaining stamina is 96%." "Isabel's remaining stamina is 88%." A condition-measuring device. Or rather, a device to plunge students into despair by measuring their remaining stamina. * * On the way to Omine Mountain. Some students ran in pairs, matching their pace, while others suddenly burst forward, scaling the mountain with all their might. Among them, Isabel realized anew that Oknodie's stamina was surprisingly strong. "She's already out of sight." "Indeed." Feeling momentarily left behind. Giselle and Isabel soon understood they had underestimated their situation. "Giselle's remaining stamina is 75%." "Isabel's remaining stamina is 84%." Their stamina wasn’t decreasing. Well, it was, but not as quickly as they had assumed it would. "Is it really possible to reduce our stamina below 10% in this test?" "It is. You need to sprint at full speed for more than 10 minutes or exhaust all your strength until you can't even flick a finger." "This is madness. Isn’t this lecture too favorable for the physically inclined?" "Not really. Students accustomed to training find this lecture disadvantageous, overwhelmingly so." "And you're telling me this as I'm practically dying next to you?" Isabel, seeing Giselle drenched in sweat, couldn’t help but feel envious. "I'm jealous of that lazy body of yours." "Are you mocking me? Even I get angry at times like this." "I'm not mocking. Your stamina, it's dropped again." Noticing Giselle's focus, the professor's avatar on his shoulder said, "Giselle's remaining stamina is 74%." "The rate of decline!" "That's what I'm envious of." Giselle realized. Having rarely exercised, it was easy for him to lower his stamina with minimal effort. However, for those whose daily life involved rigorous physical activity, a lecture aimed at depleting pure stamina meant a different scale of energy consumption and effort. "Then Son Ocheon and Miss Oknodie..." "It would be a challenging lecture. Far more than any other they've attended." * * Dorothy was in her element. Outside the academy, her job was as a forest keeper. Though just an apprentice, she navigated the lush forests as if they were her home. Even though forests and mountains are different terrains, the techniques for sprinting through forests could still be partially applied to mountains. "Hehe, somehow this is fun." The feeling of outpacing others who were stronger yet lagged behind due to their lack of technique was unparalleled. "Dorothy’s remaining stamina is 45%." Considering she started with 90% stamina, she had spent exactly half in an hour. If she expended the other half on her way back, she could deplete all her stamina perfectly. The plan was flawless, but reality begged to differ. "Ugh, ugh... This is too hard...!" The closer stamina got to 0%, the more physically demanding it became. 45% felt different near its peak compared to when it was plummeting to the bottom. The burden the body felt was on a different level. Without superhuman willpower, squeezing out every last drop of stamina down to 0% was virtually impossible. 'I’ve come too far!' She envied the nobles she had confidently surpassed earlier and cursed herself. 'Huh? But there are faces I haven’t seen since the start, right?' Dorothy realized. There were students who had gone faster and farther than her! 'No matter how bad I mess up, I won't be the last!' The comfort in knowing there are others worse off than oneself. "Ah! Caught up again!" "Why is she so fast?" "Please, just trip!" Ignoring the desperate cries of the imperial nobility students, Dorothy passed by them with a snort. "Dorothy's remaining stamina is 8%." After running with all her might, Professor Plato greeted her with a hearty laugh in the clearing. "Wonderful! To return with your stamina within 10% despite the challenge of the journey back." She realized it then. That she had grown even more on her way back than when she had run up the mountain. "Am I first?" "Yes, you are." "I did it!" She had wanted to eat a lot after running so hard, but after sweating profusely, she didn’t feel like eating anything at all. As she watched the other students enter the clearing, gasping for breath, she noticed the imperial nobility students she had passed earlier desperately running towards them. But as they got closer, their steps slowed down, and they couldn’t reach the finish line. "Ugh, what is that?!" "Didn’t I tell you? Reaching the finish line only counts after your stamina is reduced to below 10%. Those students still have more than 10% stamina left, so the avatars will help reduce it." Lazy students who meandered back near the starting line found themselves pressed down by Professor Plato's mini avatars that grew enormously. It was practically certain that students who fell under their pressure wouldn’t be able to enter the clearing! "Ah, I'm dying." "We made it, Mr. Giselle. Just a little further." Students with weakened stamina collapsed on the ground in a flat position as soon as they entered the clearing. "Where did you two run from? I don't remember passing you on the way here." "We just ran around a nearby hill a few hundred times." "That’s a way...?" Oknodie had discovered this loophole while learning Isabel's entrance exam strategy that focused on exploiting every trick in the book. The condition for returning to the clearing was simply to have less than 10% stamina, so they used up all their energy nearby and kept the distance back as short as possible. "Oknodie was doing loop runs too?" "No. I ran straight for the lead." Students who had run ahead started returning one by one, but most were pinned down by the growing avatars near the clearing because their stamina surpassed 10%. "Huh?! I was sure it was 9% before I arrived!" "Masgaki's remaining stamina is 11%." "My stamina recovered just because I slowed down a bit?!" Empress Masgaki, among others, hurried to deplete their stamina by sprinting in circles or doing push-ups, having learned using shortcuts at the last minute! Boom- Boom- Boom- The students, sweating and struggling, turned their heads at the thumping sounds coming from beyond the mountain. "Thinking of leaving me behind, huh!" "Ah, a crazy monkey is throwing rocks!" "Pfft. You're just wasting your efforts. If it's about eliminating everyone but me, I know how to do it much better." "Sticky traps?! You cowards. Did you have to go this far?" "You started it, remember?" "Fly high!" "Ah, that guy. He used flying magic!" The contest among the upper-class students, who were among the top in terms of stamina, was on a different level. Rock throwing at the leader, sticky traps to bind the followers, and students flying to avoid it all turned it into utter chaos! "Everyone, move. If you don’t want to freeze to death." Duchess Irene from the north, who didn’t want to get involved in the fight, created a path of ice that froze the entire terrain with a touch of her hand. "Irene's remaining stamina is 4%." "As expected of the barbarous northerner, she planned her remaining stamina to use it all up here." "Ah, it’s cold!" "The ice wall is too big." "I can’t even slide over; it's too slippery!" Irene's ice magic created a slide that allowed her to pass through easily while blocking those following her with a wall, preventing them from passing. The fight that started with the imperial students' tricks to disqualify all students from the borderlands ended inconclusively due to Irene's counteroffensive. "I was really lucky... I'm genuinely relieved I came in early." Dorothy shivered at the sight. Even she, confident in her running, would have only floundered on the ice, stumbling and falling if faced with a madwoman freezing her way down the mountain. But there was something odd about Irene coming down the slide that led right to the clearing. "Why does she have two avatars hanging on her shoulders?" As Irene entered the clearing, the reason became clear. [You hung onto the shoulder of the Northern Duchess for more than a minute without being detected.] [Sneaking experience +10] [Stealth experience +3] Taking advantage of the chaos, one student clung tightly to Irene's shoulder until landing, then swiftly rolled off into the clearing the moment Irene stepped forward – the crafty Oknodie. "Ta-da! I've arrived!" "Oknodie's remaining stamina is 10%." Irene turned to Oknodie with astonishment in her eyes. * * Northern Duchess, Irene. She was a combat mage who had been through numerous battlefields as a military sorcerer. Unlike most talents who were admitted for their 'potential,' Irene, albeit self-taught, was already a practitioner with verified skills. In the North, there was no one who didn't know of her and no demons that did not fear her. Thus, she always had to be prepared for the danger of assassination. <Frosty Ground> She made the earth frost over, ensuring any step would make a noise. <Cold Space> She would freeze the surrounding air, deterring any would-be assailants from approaching. <Battlefield Instinct> Above all, her honed wilderness senses instinctively detected an assassin's approach. All these trained detection methods were completely bypassed. Am I doing well? While losing herself in the pride of her cleverness and enduring the muscle pain, Isabel, who was tricked into bearing pain by the audacious little trickster's complement, beamed with satisfaction. "How rigorous must the infiltration training have been to demonstrate such a feat?" Irene found herself unwittingly biting her lip as she pondered the harsh conditions this child must have endured during her upbringing.