Chapter 242: Testing the Water

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

That evening, Baiyi randomly chose some homework from his prepared stockpile, giving Mia and the rest tasks that would occupy their time. After that, Baiyi went to his room and began to interview the new students one after the other.

If Baiyi was going to be their mentor, then he wanted to be a responsible mentor who knew his students like the back of his hand. He sought to know the levels of his students’ intelligence, their foundations, and most importantly, their communication skills. For that purpose, he rejected Nota’s offer to take on the role a translator for her fellow students, for he wanted to see the level of communication that these students could express without help.

The room was decorated with props, making it resemble an Earth-style interviewing room. It contained two chairs, a table in between, and multiple forms placed atop the table.

The first student to enter was the big fox, Zakum. It obediently leaped onto the chair and patiently waited for its first test: intelligence test.

“Hafu hafu?” Baiyi asked.

The fox was stunned. It had no idea that the first question which its respectable mentor would ask would be the Edgy Eleven-year-old Gamer’s Favorite Vocabulary. It looked down in hesitation, feeling quite embarrassed and musing over the correct words to reply.

In the end, it took out its paw and let Baiyi examine it clearly. Then, it slowly raised its middle claw.

Hmm, this answer is quite… fine, I guess. Baiyi nodded, writing “Caveman” underneath the “intelligence” section.

He asked, “So, how do you suggest we communicate in the near future?”

“Like this!” A speech bubble containing these words suddenly appeared above the kitsune’s head; it was similar to the speech bubbles found in anime and manga. This speech bubble was formed from the fox’s own mana. The words in the speech bubble were written in a neat handwriting.

“Oh, not bad at all.” Baiyi nodded, feeling satisfied and ticked a small box opposite the words “Communication”.

“Thanks, mentor!” appeared on the speech bubble above the fox’s head.

“Now, let us look at your foundation. Your talents are martial arts, magic, alchemy, and adventuring, right? Then, tell me your magical preference: Classic Rohlserlian or Modern Runic?”

“I major in Modern Runic melee fights,” the kitsune replied candidly.

‘Oy. I couldn’t tell that this foxy has the same taste as the Sorcerer,’ Baiyi thought to himself, and immediately after, a haughty and mocking voice rang out within the Void, “Ha! Would you look at that, fellas? You all don’t even have the taste and intellect of a bloody animal!”

Of course, it did not take long for the Void to be filled with dust and cries as all sides fought each other again. Baiyi could only minimize that window and turn his attention back to the reality, “How strong are you, specifically? May I assess it?”

The fox nodded. Baiyi used his psychic energy and scanned its body for responses and reactions. Curiously, though, it had considerable puissance, making it simultaneously strong and highly agile. It had no trace of combat chi in its body. Its mana level was about the same as Tisdale’s. Hence, in conclusion, the total combat prowess for this big furry fox would be…

Baiyi looked down at the form, and under the section “Combat”, he wrote: “Undine*2”

“Hey! Did you just treat both the Caveman and Undine as measurement units? They’ll be so upset if they knew!” a voice. which had not joined in on the fray erupting in the void, directly said to Baiyi.

‘Huh? It’s the Assassin?’ “At least use the Hammerhead Shark Plushie as the measuring unit!” the Assassin continued.

“Please, you’re joking, right? How can these people even be measured using a big unit like that? You want me to write it as ‘1/4 of Hammerhead Shark’?” Baiyi replied indignantly.

Then, he added, “Hmm, since you’re free, lemme ask you: if this fox is worth two Undines and one-fourth of a Hammerhead Shark, then how much of a Hammerhead Shark is one Undine worth?”

“W-what? U-um…!” The Assassin was thrown into chaos. Her consciousness split into a few copies as if she was counting with her fingers, and then after a long pause, her voice sounded as though she was close to bursting into tears, “You big bully! Hmmph! I’m not talking to you anymore!”

Her voice vanished just like that. She might have really been mad!

‘You… can’t even answer middle school math, so you act tsundere? Oh please!’ Baiyi replied internally. ‘This universe really needs to improve its mandatory education, pronto!’

Back in reality, Baiyi created a few relatively simple runes in mid-air for the fox to try and recognize so that he could gauge its reading level. All questions were answered without any stutters, except the last one.

Faced with the last question, the fox rubbed its fur and scratched its ears for a long while, and in the end, it helplessly shook its head in resignation. It was worried that its imperfect performance would upset its new mentor, so it began to look dismayed.

“Ah, it’s okay. Your performance had been very good.” Baiyi’s head was faced down as he wrote “Thane” on the section “Knowledge”. Then, he added, “The last one wasn’t a rune, you know. It’s the image that people use to test for color-blindness… 1 ”

The fox suddenly felt its fangs suddenly growing longer and sharper, and its eyes lingered on Baiyi’s neck; meanwhile, the Thana roared in the Void, “You sunnavabitch! You’re using me as a measurement unit, too?!”

‘Well, It’s because you’re not very strong inherently, but you are very good in strategy and war tactics, right, my beloved Master Thane?’ Baiyi replied in his mind sweetly.

The test had now reached the last section. It was the moral and ethics section, and after a while, Baiyi asked the fox, “If Mia and I both fell into a river, who would you save? Left paw for me, right paw for Mia.”

The fox felt like it was about to go crazy. It had realized how insane its new mentor was, so it put up both paws in surrender.

“Very excellent! You know to save the teacher who passes you knowledge, and you know to protect the weak and unable. Bravo, bravo!”

For that section, Baiyi wrote ” Hope 2 “.

The fox was finally left off. Before it left, it turned toward the next victim, the owl — who was next in line to get interviewed — and gave it a forlorn look before patting its feathered-shoulders as a show of moral support.

“Hoot?” The owl’s head tilted to a side, and its eyes did not blink. It could not understand the gesture, apparently.

After a few moments in the office, the bird finally understood.

“So, your talents are martial arts, magic, aerial battles, adventures, and the study of magical items… My psychic energy had found nothing from you. Is this a property of your race? Hmm, then show me your arsenal of moves! Gimme a White Goose Spreading its Wings 3 !”

“Oh, you can’t do that? Ho, how about… Quick Attack? Thunderbolt? No? Then, what can you do? Tail whip?”

“There, there! No giving up, okay? You’re okay! Alright, lettuce 4 try something else, like…”

A barrage of senseless questions followed which could be seen as lethal strikes at the owl’s sense of reality. Of course, as the owl answered as best it could, Baiyi filled up its form with comments like “Monster”, “Undine”, “Mia”, and “Hope”.

In general, the owl seemed to be less competent than the fox, except in Morals. It was more dependable there.

When it was time for Potter the owl to go, its mood had sunken completely. Just as it was about to leave, Baiyi called out, giving it some words of encouragement, such as expressing his support for its future study and training. Then at the end of that, he added, “Right, about shadownyx owls — can’t they shapeshift at will?”

The owl nodded, and then it went on to demonstrate this to Baiyi. It spread its wings wide, and streams of black fog began to surge from all parts of its body. The fog thickened, rotated, and in the end, the owl seemed to have been completely vaporized. Then, the fog dispersed and proceeded to slowly coalesced back together; it was condensing into something else. When the owl had fixed itself into a new form, Baiyi almost jumped.

It had turned into little Mia, donning her favorite new winter wear!

“To this incredible level of detail?!” Baiyi’s face was a wide-eyed (0.0), and he immediately asked the owl to come and stand in front of which, then he started examining this form with his psychic energy. ‘ Not an illusion. This is an actual transformation!’

“It’s an exact replica, huh,” Baiyi said as he touched the barren skin. ‘Gods, the feeling of its hand is the exact same as the real Mia’s!’ Even the hair was amazingly detailed; every strand of it was as real as Mia’s actual hair. If one did not look closely enough, they would not be able to tell that this is not the original Mia!

The only problem with the owl’s transformation was its glassy eyes and expressionless face. This Little Mia looked more like a marionette than the actual person; “her” eyes were dim and lifeless. It would be an obvious hint to a normal person with a little knowledge of human social interaction — so maybe that was why Potter chose to assume an owl’s appearance and not a human’s.

Besides that, there were a few problems with the way it processed clothing. The clothes were synthesized as part of the skin, so there really wasn’t any cutoff point between the edge of the collars and sleeves with the skin. The clothes were also unnaturally smooth and did not a single wrinkle.

This transformation seemed like the best Potter could do. This may look like the real thing on the outside, but a few details would still reveal it as a fake.

‘This owl may not be a fighter, but it sure has another pretty cool trick, huh?’

Just as Baiyi was carefully examining the life puppet Mia, Tisdale entered the room with her homework. Her head was down when she pushed open the door. She was mumbling, “Sir, this is a tough question that I can’t solve. Can you explain it to me?”

Baiyi had always given her a tad bit more leeway, so she never actually paid much attention to common courtesy. This was especially true when she was absorbed in a question.

Tisdale was just being her usual self when she barged into his room. Normally it would have been fine, but today…

Oh, today was different. As Tisdale looked up from her book and fixed her eyes ahead, she saw her teacher squatting close to the floor, lifting Mia’s skirt up.

“Gaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!”

A piercing scream shook the entire mansion. Downstairs, both Attie and Mia, who were trying to comfort the fox, jumped up in fright.

Insignia

No, Owl! Just assume a girl’s appearance! I love marionettes! I love porcelain dolls! I love dolls. No, I’m not into that kind of dolls, honestly. You be you, though!

I wouldn’t mind some dolls that looked a little bit lifeless in the eyes, hee hee. Of course, I pride myself on my own ability to make dolls that seem kinda alive in the eyes, even though they are seriously very raggedy and coarsely-made and generally priceless (as in you can’t attach a price on them and sell; you won’t earn any money). Doll-making is one of this TL’s hobbies! I made them because I find them humanoid enough to feel pleasant and converse with, but not human enough to be too complicated in interaction and intention. Plus, you can make dolls of your favorite characters without spending money on figurines — and sometimes, your fav characters don’t get to be made as figurines.

The way this owl shapeshift reminds me of how I make dolls sometimes. Those times I cheat by not making the pieces that were gonna be hidden (like skin underneath the garment, or feet, etc). This is so cool! It also reminded me of Mystique from X-men. …Wait, how does she generate the target’s clothes again? It’s part of her blue skin too, right? Though I think the clothes also sometimes react as if they were actual clothes… Plus why would Mystique even need to buy clothes if she could just shapeshift them out onto herself…

Also, hee hee. I know what sort of naughty stuffs can we do with a shapeshifter like this owl, hee hee, cough.

Notes

Possibly the only part I could score, then! I know plenty useless shits instead of important stuff, and this is definitely one of them!There are many reasons why the correct measurement unit for this answer is so not ‘Hope’, okay? At least place Laeticia or something?!White Goose Spreading Its Wings is one of the moves in Tai Chi!Baiyi actually said “lettuce” instead of “let us”.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep