Chapter 18
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The Dome's combat training took place on Tuesday, Friday and Thursday.
I should have been able to rest on Sunday and Saturday, but on this precious Saturday I walked to a certain club room.
When I got to the door of the room, I saw Estelle entering the room.
The academic club met in room 104. As expected, I saw a lot of first years in there, except for a few girls in my class, the rest were sophomores and seniors.
There were about 30 of us in total and 23 of them were girls who were mesmerized by the club president.
After looking around, I sat behind Estelle, in the back row, away from the others.
There was a faint odor coming from her blonde hair.
Was it the smell of chemicals? It wasn't a bad smell, but it was one you didn't want to smell for a long time. Estelle must have spent a long time in her lab before coming here.
After 5 minutes of inevitably smelling this smell... Finally, the club president came in.
"Nice to meet you. I'm John Kay. Welcome to our academic club."
The club president was a third year named John Kay. Tall and broad-shouldered with green eyes, he looked quite interesting from the outside.His Harry Potter glasses with round lenses gave him an intellectual air rather than a nerdy look.
"At today's orientation we will briefly discuss what our club is all about."
The eyes of the female students began to sparkle at his mesmerizing voice.
Had they really joined just for this John guy?
The reason for this gender disparity probably had something to do with the charming appearance of the class president.
"In this club, we research and discuss the classifications, weaknesses, behaviors and attributes of monsters. Topics include how they behave, where their vital points are, what their qualities are and how to deal with them efficiently."
John spoke about an important topic in modern society.
His mesmerizing voice drifted throughout the classroom, entering everyone's ears pleasantly, like a beautiful note from a finely tuned instrument. Suddenly the eyes of the female students began to shine even brighter.
He was using magic, although I couldn't quite make it out in his voice. He was doing it in a subtle way, of course.
She was the one who would be responsible for the disappearance of several Dome students later in the story.
He had a pact with a demon called Lust, which is one of the important demons in this story. I have to end the conversation here to avoid spoilers.
This magical voice of hers was a gift.
A special power given to him by Lust himself.
I thought it might be the worst idea to transfer the abilities from the demons to their chosen ones.
The real reason John was here was because of Estelle herself.
One of the main events of the novel would happen to her.
John kidnapped the female students at the Dome.
After the young girls disappeared one by one, his last target was Estelle herself. Fortunately, Arthur, Seth, Eleine and Sofia were assigned by the Dome to investigate.
In the end, Arthur and Seth would fight against John and neutralize him.
Happy ending....
Estelle would not forget this favor and would always come to Arthur's aid.
I wondered if I would get a mission in this situation.
Just then a panel opened in front of my face
[ You have 1 mission! Want to see it? ]
Bingo
I took out my computer and tried to make what I was doing less conspicuous.
The last time I raised my hand in the air, the whole class looked at me like I was stupid.
[...]
I clicked.
[Someone in the Research Club has made a deal with a demon, find him and eliminate him. ]
[ time limit : 5 weeks ]
[ Reward: +2 points increase in all stats.]
[ Failure: Estelle's death. End of story ??? ]
The quest made my head stop for a moment.
The time limit was very wide. I already knew who the culprit was, but stopping him...
That's not something I can do right now.
Ahhh, whoever gave me these missions wanted me dead.
John was a 3rd year Dome student. Even with an average score, 3 years as a dome student would have made you very strong. Also, his covenant with the demon Lust made him invincible for 1st years. Am I supposed to fight alone against a man that Arthur Seth and Sofia defeated together in my story?
I also didn't understand what the reward and punishment part was. If I failed, I would never finish the story.
"Fuck."
I was closed by three question marks, like the reward at the end of the story.
I didn't think any more.
I closed my computer and focused even more on John's speech.
"In food discovery, we research and discuss monster and plant composition. We will look at which monsters and plants are edible and how they benefit our bodies. The topics we will cover in this class are monster identification, cooking methods, poison extraction, which combinations work best, and plant identification."
"It may sound boring or something, but don't worry, this is only the boring part..."
John smiled brightly and looked at everyone in the class. As he did so, Estelle, who had been quietly listening to the lecture, paused for a moment.
I rolled my eyes behind Estelle so that John wouldn't notice.
Did he think no one noticed him looking at Estelle?
"For the fun part, with the permission of the academy, we're going to go to different places and taste great food!"
A wave of applause instantly engulfed the classroom as the male students celebrated that they could leave the academy, while the female students cheered for a different reason.
There were only five of us, and the fact that they were applauding you and John made me uneasy.
It couldn't be their favorite types, could it .....
I made a mental note of the names of the other 5 guys in the class, best to avoid them. If I met them in the future, I had to be careful not to sit at the same table.
Strange as it may sound, 'food scouting' was one of the most sought-after courses for lower class academies because it paid well and did not carry a high risk compared to dungeon hunting. This was especially attractive for those with no fighting skills. Despite their lack of fighting skills, they were still widely recognized and respected by most people.
Monster attributes.... Generally, it was either used in blacksmithing or as a binder in the production of various potions and medicines.
Estelle was a laboratory enthusiast, which is why she joined the club. In fact, it was her father who forced her to join a club. He must have known that his daughter failed to make friends, so he made her do it.
What really surprised me was how Estelle did it of her own accord. This was not a tenner at all.
John walked to the table carefully placed at the front of the classroom.
"I'll give you a quick demonstration. Let's take a look at this steak. It's a Level C mantor steak."
The wheel-sized steak on the table made my mouth water with just one glance.
At the touch of a button, a holographic image of a large horse appeared for everyone in the class to see.
Mantor was an evolved version of a horse. It was big, almost as big as three humans. What made them a nuisance was their fierce and frightening personalities that made them attack everything with minimal provocation.
While they were normally as strong as a Level D monster, their ferocity carried them all the way up to Level .C.
"As most of you probably know, the mantor horse is an extremely difficult creature to kill, let alone capture.
After careful research and analysis, we found its weakness, and if we hadn't, hunting it would have been torture, but even so, this steak is already worth five figures."
As John spoke, a sudden wave of fatigue washed over me.
Mostly it had to do with the fact that I was over-exerting myself these days, but it also had to do with the fact that I already knew the content of the lecture.
"Huaaaaaaaaam..."
Soon a yawn escaped my mouth and the corners of my eyes watered.
I blinked my eyes twice.
My yawn, which was quite loud, caused John's eyebrows to twitch slightly.
Soon every woman in the class turned her head to me and looked at me with hatred.
It was as if
'How dare you interrupt our prince when he is speaking?'
they were like.
To be honest, I wouldn't have been surprised if they actually attacked me if I yawned one more time.
Even though my sadistic soul begged me to do it, I still wanted to live a little.
Only Estelle kept her eyes on the hologram and ignored what was going on around her.
Hmm she had really come here to learn something, but for what ...
Coughing...
John let out a dry cough before continuing his explanation.
"As you can see this meat is ...."
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