Chapter 246: Walpurgis Night (4)

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Creak.

As the hut door opened, a metallic sound rang out from the hinges.

It was so stiff, it clearly hadn’t been maintained in a long time.

“……”

The inside was no different.

Dust had settled everywhere in the murky air.

Looking around, there was no sign of the Saint who had entered earlier.

‘No footprints coming in. Considering they reach only up to the door, this space must operate differently.’

Carl retraced his steps and exited the hut.

There was nothing particularly unusual about the building itself.

Perhaps it felt strange precisely because it was so ordinary.

A building used by someone like the Saint shouldn’t be so mundane.

“…Should I just blow it all away?”

A hut this size could be wiped out with a single swing of his arm.

But doing so would be nothing more than a petty tantrum.

After a brief moment of consideration, Carl reached toward the closed door.

Heavenly Demon Divine Art, Bright Heaven Divine Art, and Primordial Unity Divine Art all produced no response.

Just as he was about to draw upon his Divine Power—

Slide.

Something faintly pale appeared before his eyes.

“A lock?”

That seemed to be the answer.

He tried to infuse it with the divinity of Kylos to gain access rights, but a powerful backlash quickly occurred.

Crackle!

Carl immediately withdrew his hand as his fingertips began to burn.

Even his protective aura and artifacts were momentarily rendered useless by the powerful barrier.

He could have broken through by force, but instead he clicked his tongue lightly and withdrew his energy.

“Let’s leave it at that for now.”

He still didn’t know why the Saint of the Demigod Cult had claimed to be watching him.

One thing was certain—their side had definitely been recognized after this fight.

He had no intention of hiding anymore anyway, not with the time approaching.

Tap.

Carl marked the spot where the two Automatons had fallen with a NOX marker.

Once things here were settled, NOX would retrieve the Automatons.

It was a bit of a shame he couldn’t speak more with the woman known as the Saint, but it likely wouldn’t be long before they met again.

Swish.

With a light kick, Carl darted through the forest.

Retracing his steps, he sensed the presence of Laysis and Lewis as they continued their search through the woods.

“Hm?”

Just then, he felt a familiar energy.

He’d found their presences, but they were moving fast—as if in the middle of a battle.

Carl sped up even more and landed on a branch nearby to assess the situation.

“I told you we should’ve just called Carl!”

“I think I can manage just a bit more.”

Lewis looked uneasy, while Laysis swung her sword with ferocity.

Before them, a massive Golem thrashed about wildly.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Laysis never took the Golem head-on.

It was a monster with that much mass.

One mistake and she could be crushed or trampled flat.

So she avoided its attacks and targeted its joints and legs—its weak points.

Whoosh!

Laysis moved with near-perfection.

Her accumulated experience and grueling training hadn’t been in vain—where once she could never have faced such a foe, she now stood her ground.

Thump.

Her efforts bore fruit as a crack finally formed in the Golem’s leg, and it collapsed in place.

It had a recovery function, so she had only a brief moment.

Having waited for this very chance, she didn’t miss the opening.

Boundless Azure Sword Technique: Mystic Willow.

Blades of sword energy extended and coiled around the Golem’s body.

It was such a graceful sight that Lewis, who had been supporting her from the rear by manipulating wind, found his eyes drawn in without thinking.

Even Carl, who was watching with his arms crossed, wore a faint smile.

“Not bad.”

KABOOM—!!

The Golem’s head split into three, and its body collapsed.

Laysis stepped back and sheathed her sword with a sigh of relief.

“As expected. The core was in the head.”

“You sensed that?”

“Yes. Thanks to the Golem’s recovery function. When I struck a spot, mana would flow from the head to heal the damage.”

“……”

Lewis looked at Laysis with his tongue clucked in amazement.

‘I’d known Carl was a monster, but…’

During the fight just now, he hadn’t dared to exchange blows with the Golem and had fallen back to a rear support role.

He had recognized that his skill wasn’t up to par and given up early.

He hadn’t expected Laysis’s abilities to have risen this much.

‘Maybe it’s not just Laysis?’

Had the other cadets who had always stayed by Carl’s side also achieved such remarkable growth?

A chilling sense of urgency ran down his spine, making his lips go dry.

‘If I don’t push harder too…’

He’d already long let go of his obsession with Nerian.

He’d come to realize there were far greater obstacles ahead.

But seeing Laysis’s capabilities, it seemed he’d need to put in even more effort than before.

“Well done.”

Tap.

As the Golem fell, Carl descended and appeared before the two.

“Carl!”

“So you were watching? You could’ve helped, you know.”

“Laysis was more than capable.”

“Hmph.”

At Carl’s words, Laysis straightened her shoulders and radiated confidence.

“While searching, I discovered it here, and since I wondered what it was, I tried to investigate, but it suddenly started moving.”

“At a glance, it looked too hard for just the two of us to handle, so I suggested calling another cadet or at least you, but she insisted she could take it down.”

Lewis gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

Since she had ultimately taken it down alone, there was nothing more to say.

“But what is this, anyway, and why is there a Golem in the middle of a forest like this?”

“It seems my prediction was correct, and Walpurgis Night Festival had already begun.”

“Huh?”

At Laysis Alforam’s question, Carl kicked the shattered head of the Golem with his foot.

A small Mana Stone rolled out and came to a stop in front of her.

“……A Mana Stone?”

“It was a Mana Stone engraved with spatial coordinates, and the idea was probably to defeat this, reactivate the Teleport Gate, and come to the real venue.”

“Ah, I see, the structure was well designed, and were they trying to use the preliminaries as a sieve?”

“Well, since there were so many academies, it made sense to filter them out this way, because under normal circumstances even a dozen or so cadets working together would struggle to take it down.”

Lewis reached out and poked the Golem’s body a few times.

It seemed like even if there were ten or so more people like himself or Nerian, it would still have been difficult to defeat.

Only by carefully planning a strategy with magical support and various devices would it barely have been possible.

“And it doesn’t end with just one.”

“What, does that mean we have to defeat more Golems?”

“The engraved coordinates cut off abruptly midway, and while rough inference was possible, that would violate the nature of the test, so judging by the volume, it looked like we needed to take down three more.”

Carl thought for a moment.

Even by conservative estimates, more than fifty academies were participating in Walpurgis Night Festival.

Had they prepared such devices for every academy?

Or was there another test?

“For now, we go back to where we were, because we need to report what we found.”

“Yes, and from now on it would be better if everyone cooperated, because if a small group solved everything on their own, it was hard to know how the evaluation would turn out.”

“……And you’re the one saying that?”

Lewis spoke with a dumbfounded expression, but Lewis calmly followed after Carl.

When they returned to the site, they could see the members of the representative team gathered together.

The base camp had been safely set up.

Judging by the campfires burning here and there, it seemed preparations to spend the night were complete.

“You’re late, and we were discussing whether we should send people to search for you.”

“No way, since it was you, Carl, we figured you’d handle things just fine and waited.”

At Darius Leipzig’s words, Eriksen replied with a laugh.

Setting Darius aside, Eriksen had already crossed hands with Carl directly before.

Darius glanced at Eriksen, then informed Carl.

“To summarize what we gathered here, we discovered a giant Golem, and it seemed the key to the test was defeating it……”

“That’s correct.”

“……Correct?”

“When you defeat the Golem, it gives you a Mana Stone engraved with spatial coordinates, and judging by the spell formula, it seemed to consist of four in total, so we just needed to secure three more.”

“If that’s the case……”

Thud.

Carl held out the Mana Stone engraved with coordinates to Darius.

At that, everyone nearby gathered around to look at the Mana Stone.

“Oh, this is it?”

“Then our guess was right, and coming to those strange coordinates was the start of the test.”

“What should we do, senior, and should we just push through with force?”

“Hm.”

Darius, who had taken the Mana Stone from Carl, pondered briefly and then looked up.

“How strong was the Golem?”

“It was quite strong, and even with a dozen or so representative cadets working together, it would barely have been an even fight.”

“That strong?”

Eriksen’s eyes widened.

Even at Bayern Academy, only the most capable had gathered in the representative team.

Yet a Golem that even a dozen of them combined would struggle to defeat was hard to imagine.

“……But you took it down with just the three of you?”

“To be precise, it wasn’t three, but Laysis alone, and I only assisted.”

Lewis shrugged.

It might have been natural to claim credit, but since he truly hadn’t done much, there was nothing to boast about.

Even so, no one doubted Carl’s words or suspected that Laysis possessed the combined strength of a dozen cadets.

They had already verified their abilities countless times during training.

“Alright, let’s do it this way.”

Clenching the Mana Stone, Darius came to a conclusion.

“There were three Mana Stones left, which meant there were three Golems, so each grade would handle one, and the fourth-years would split up and join the other grades.”

“That sounded clean.”

“That sounded good, and do we move right away?”

At Darius’s arrangement, everyone showed their enthusiasm.

They looked ready to dash out immediately and start fighting.

“No, it was already late at night, and forests at night had many variables, especially since we didn’t even know what kind of forest this was.”

Since it was used as a test site, a minimum level of safety would have been ensured.

However, as the representative of the representative team, he couldn’t help but consider emergency situations.

If they encountered Magical Beasts or unexpected factors while dealing with a Golem, it would only put them at a disadvantage.

“We’ll start the hunt at daybreak, so until then, everyone should rest.”

After a night’s rest.

The representative teams of each grade headed toward the forest with high spirits.

Only one Golem had been confirmed on this side.

Since it had been assigned to the third-year team by the earlier draw, the first- and second-year representative teams set out to find new Golems.

Saaaah.

The search wasn’t particularly difficult.

There were many people here who specialized in detection.

“Let’s see……”

With Lewis, who possessed authority over wind, at the forefront, the mages expanded their senses and swept through the forest interior.

“……Found it.”

So it wasn’t by chance that they detected the Golem’s presence in under ten seconds.

“Let’s go.”

Led by Carl, the first-year representative team all kicked off the ground with sharp momentum.

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