I opened my eyes and was greeted by the sound of rain pounding on the roof of the shabby building I slept in. It was a relief that the classroom was leakproof, otherwise I'd have to move locations. After all, this time the rain wouldn't be ending for another three months.
Every year the Jungle Region had a Region-wide rain storm that would last for a quarter of the year. Luckily the Wood and Fire Fairy Sect was located in the East of the Region, being closer to the Southern Plain Region. It was actually the Jungle Lotus Sect that got hit the hardest because it was located closest to the Ice Wall. They experienced intense flooding over there, while we experienced intense mudding. But just because it was raining didn't mean I would stop working.
It was hard to tell because of the cloudy sky, but by the smell of the air, you could tell it was early in the morning, probably just after sunrise. That meant it was time to wake up the eager students, the four of them that remained anyway, "Alright... Time to wake up!!!"
With my loud wake-up call, they all started to slowly wake up. Once they were all up and seated, one of them realized the discrepancy in the classroom. Culdia had a confused look on her face before catching my attention and asking me, "Hey Igmor, where's Vernam?"
After she pointed it out, the others were snapped out of their sleepy states and began to look around as if Culdia hadn't just hinted at Vernam being gone. I ignored the reaction of the others and answered her question, "Medisma specifically asked for her help with something and I couldn't say no to a Grand Elder. But she should be back within a week, so she won't be too behind. Don't worry about it too much, just focus on your own studies."
My excuse was sufficient enough to not make anyone suspicious enough to question it, so I just went with it and began teaching. That was an interesting thing with humans. Most believe the things they are told because they have an internal want to believe that others are telling the truth. As long as nothing cultivation-related was involved, lying was actually quite easy. People believe what they see. That was why I was able to sliver out of the entire Pulchra situation, temporarily at least. But that's the future.
Thanks to the rainy season, I should have at least another three months before the murder blows up in my face. Though, from what I've heard, the Fortune Nine Sect still has their hands full with the Demonic Jungle Brothers case, so I should still have a good amount of time. All I had to do now was slowly win the affection of these Elders, plant my seeds of manipulation within the students, take control of Vernam, get as strong as possible, and of course, finish recruiting the keys.
I wanted to get all of that done before midterms, which meant I had a little less than three months to go.
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I patiently waited outside the doors belonging to the Magic Arts classroom, waiting for the deluge of students to burst through the exit. After waiting for around five minutes, the doors were opened and groups of students left the room while chatting to each other. They were all in different groups of three to five people, leaving the classroom at different times, but each one would eventually stop moving. This went on for a couple more minutes until all of the students were once again bunched up.
I got Igmor's voice ready and then began to talk with a tense demanding the utmost attention, "I realized that I never told you all where to go for the Combat Arts Class, so I figured I'd better tell you all. Of course that would be too easy, so instead I'll lead you all to the location. That way I can get to know you all better before class starts."
I turned around and began to move. The horde of people were stunned at how fast I was talking, so once I started to move they didn't immediately follow. A second passed before Spiravit took the first step, snapping the others out of their paralysis. Once the entire class was following me, I turned my head around and asked my first question, "So what's going on with you... black hair... a bit on the short side... really muscly... hmm... Ah, the one in the front. That would have been a much easier way to describe you. Go ahead and introduce yourself to me."
Spiravit continued following me as he answered in a normal tone, "My name is Spiravit, I cultivate the Wood Branch, and I'm the class president."
That's interesting, not a single mention of any achievements, no bragging, no arrogance, just a straight answer. He really has changed since I last saw him. He had gotten rid of that cocky attitude, on the outside at least. Then there was also the mention of the class president. I'd never heard of it, but by the name, it was easy to deduce what it meant. He was not only the class's leader unofficially, but the leader in name as well. He must've been working his ass off to get rid of the negative reputation.
I nodded my head up and down and then moved on to the next person, "That's good to hear. Next, let's do miss aura-less ponytail in the back."
Iusus jumped a little at me mentioning her concealing her aura, but soon recovered as she answered my question, "I'm Iusus. I use the Fire Branch, and I'm just a student. I guess I should also mention that I can fight on the level of Stone Class."
I guess this was just who she was normally. She had no vendetta against me, nor any positive views, so she just answered me like a normal person. Her being able to fight Stone Class Cultivators at Dirt Class was good, but I already knew that, so I didn't get any new information from it. But I still had to act like I didn't know, "Well that's very impressive Iusus, good on you. For the next one... How about the mopey one on the side?"
Capcis jolted from my words, which caused everyone in the area to pause in confusion. After she calmed down, she breathed in and out before introducing herself to me in a monotone voice, "My name's Capcis. Wood Branch. Student. That's it."
Hmm... I suppose she had a serious change of perspective. Instead of being timid while barely answering my questions, she was quick and decisive. It was almost as though she wanted me to perceive her as uninteresting. But this was in direct contradiction to her jolt earlier. That told me that she had probably made a conscious decision to appear boring. Her file was pretty empty, only describing her being depressed or something like that, but obviously, it went deeper than that. I would find out later, for now, I'll just move on to the next kid.
It was no coincidence that I started with the three I was most interested in as after 3 more introductions we were already where we needed to be. I stood outside the grandiose double doors and turned around announcing to the students, "We're here! And yes, I know this is the Martial Arts classroom, but it best fits my purposes, so we're using it."
Without waiting for their reaction to start pouring in I turned back around and shoved the doors open. They flew open with force, and I walked forward as though I owned the property. I moved farther in before taking notice of the person inside the Martial Arts room. Wearing her tight black suit, and sweating profusely with a sword in her hands, it was Telferr.
She looked at me in confusion before looking behind me and seeing all the students. She looked back at me and raised an eyebrow, asking what was going on. I understood her meaning and said confidently, "Didn't that old man tell you? I'm running a class as Igmor now. I need to use the Martial Arts classroom for my teaching. Don't worry about us messing up your routine, we'll be out of the way. Of course, if you want to watch, I would be glad to welcome another attendee."
With me both speaking in a different tone and in a different manner, Telferr was able to pick up what was happening and responded to me, "Yeah, I remember something like that now. You go ahead and do what you need to do. I'll just be doing what I'm doing unless I see something interesting happening of course."
When she said that, a student said in a hushed voice, but purposely loud enough for everyone to hear, "Wow, I never thought I would see Telferr speaking like a normal human being... this teacher must have some incredible ability to pull that off."
This comment earned a whisper of quiet laughter among the students, which also earned the rage of Telferr, "You little!... I'll let you off now out of consideration for Igmor's class time. But if you don't tell me who said that tomorrow, I'll give you all 50% more workouts!"
With that threat from Telferr, the chuckling was stopped and instead replaced with everyone looking at the origin of the sound with anger. To make sure I actually had a class, I put a stop to this, "Alright, well it's nice seeing you Telferr. I'm going to bring the students over to the desert battlefield. If you want to stop by, go ahead." With that, I reactivated my legs and walked forward.
Eventually, I and the students loosely following behind me arrived at the desert battlefield. I stopped moving forwards and turned around before beginning to talk, "Alright. This will be where lesson one takes place. Which one of you is considered to be the strongest?"
Once my words reached their brains, it didn't take long for everyone to look at one person: Spiravit. He noticed they were insinuating he was the strongest, and then stepped forward, "Well, looks like that's me. What do you want from me... Mr..."
"It's Mr. Proebel. And what I want you to do is quite simple. You and I are going to fight each other. No Fruits. No Martial or Magic Arts. Just our bare fists."
Spiravit looked a bit hesitant as he said to me, "Well, I don't know if that is necessary Mr. Proebel. It's obvious that you will be stronger than me, I'm only a peak Dirt Class Cultivator after all."
I just gave him a slight smile and calmly replied, "Don't worry about it. I'm still just a peak Dirt Class Cultivator myself. I won't have any cultivation-related advantages, so it will be a fair match."
My words shocked many of the students, including Spiravit. You were able to clearly see that my aura matched that of a peak Dirt Class Cultivator, but they probably assumed that I was just lowering my aura for whatever reason. Because how would a Dirt Class be a teacher? With me saying this Spiravit gained a burst of confidence. He looked like this fight would be a done deal. He still had blind confidence it seemed. But not everything can be fixed in only a couple of months...
Spiravit walked onto one side of the desert battlefield, before looking at me and saying, "Well let's get this started, shall we? Wouldn't want to waste time."
He was eager to fight, probably because defeating a teacher hired by Convir would make him look much better than before. Nonetheless, I went to the opposite side of the arena and prepared myself. I turned to the crowd and exclaimed, "Someone count us down!" After hearing my words, one of the students began to count down from three, "Three! Two! One! Go!"
I used up some of the Genesis Orbs I picked up earlier, and due to the short distance between us two, practically teleported in front of him, "Rule one of combat: Always read the fine print." Before he could even react, I kicked in the gut so he would fly upwards. And fly upwards he did. Once he was at the peak of the parabola, I appeared on top of him, "Rule two of combat: Always try to lure your enemy into a false sense of security."
With that, I brought my hands together into one big fist and smashed him in the stomach to the ground. As he hit the ground, his back arched and he coughed up the air within his lungs. It was obvious I had won this bout, but I still showed up next to him again. I lifted my foot up and said, "Rule three of combat: Destroy your enemy." Then I let my foot drop.
It pressed deep into his side, and he coughed up blood before passing out. I took my foot out of his bunched-up flesh, and looked at the students from before. Some looked at me in fear, others in amazement, others with respect, others with longing, and many more. It was obvious I had put on quite the spectacle for them.
I gave a sweet smile to the students and said, "Let me officially welcome you to the Combat Arts. And the hell that follows it."