Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 150 - 143 Dilemma
Within the examination arena, beyond the drawn white line, the bustle of the marketplace and the scurrying figures had drifted far from oneself. Alongside classmates who had once crossed paths with Lyle, they headed toward the center of the woods, the place of past outdoor lessons, where Mr. Dragon and other invigilating teachers were waiting.
Mr. Dragon had donned a pure white robe with light grey lines, but his towering stature still gave him away. Standing at the forefront in white, opposed by teachers of the Flesh Faction clad as if in blood-smeared black attire, and the representative ghosts of the Soul Faction.
"Next, my students, this is your foundation exam for Spirit Summoning Studies. Use the knowledge you’ve learned to fight and survive in this Ghost Domain. The land has been adjusted by teachers from all three schools and will continuously produce monsters. Your scores will be determined by the number of monsters you slay. The exam will end when the first outstanding student kills a hundred monsters, and your grades will be fixed. Snatch and compete, secure a good result before your classmates surpass you."
Behind Mr. Dragon, a huge canine skeletal golem emerged from the ground. Its frigid soul fire swept over all the students. When its flame passed over Lyle, it felt as if his very soul had been frozen for a moment.
"Remember this land contains only monsters, just as only power in your hands can bring about absolute victory."
Bone Storm.
The massive skeletal golem shattered into a storm of bones, engulfing each student and tossing them into the vast forest. Nia had intended to secure Lyle with her tentacles, but the tremendous force ultimately swept her away too.
It was a specially modified spell, causing little harm; its only purpose was to scatter the assembled students across the wide forest. Thanks to the tentacles provided by Nia for a cushioned landing, Lyle didn’t suffer any damage from hitting the ground. He surveyed his surroundings; it seemed he had been thrown into some unknown corner, with no classmates or monsters nearby...
Five meters to the three o’clock direction, the ground began to tremble.
A flesh arm, bearing three mouths of sharp teeth on its limb, burrowed out of the soil. It seemed to have just awakened, its teeth gnashing at the air, expressing its discontent while the arm itself struggled against the ground, trying to fully extricate its body.
Lyle had no intention of waiting for it to pull free for a fair one-on-one fight. Plague Messenger, spreading disease, symptoms, coughing blood. Nia’s tentacles morphed into blades and began slashing bloody wounds across the flesh arm.
Its three maws were spewing blood, and the blood gushed from the wounds like fountains, but it was futile; the creature was too fleshy. The wounds healed rapidly, and even after coughing up blood for nearly twenty minutes, the arm remained bright red. Even a swiftly cast curse did nothing; flesh creatures resisted spells and psychic attacks, bone creatures resisted physical and elemental attacks, and spirit creatures were fragile, but inflicting harm on them required adherence to specific patterns; otherwise, spirit creatures could be the most terrifying monsters you’ve ever seen. Of course, these resistances had their limits. And Lyle was sure that he was nowhere near this monster’s limit. Or rather, this flesh monster was far stronger than any student of Spirit Summoning Studies.
It pulled itself entirely out of the ground, an arm riddled with festering chunks of flesh. The abscesses were like eggs sizzling in a pan, hissing continuously, and writhing like maggots. Lyle fully understood the creator’s vision; a nimble arm with mouths to provide mobility and attack capability, while an abscess served as the core for inhuman regenerative power, its blood formation and healing as effortless as breathing.
So why not attack that abscess flesh? Isn’t it the weakness?
Was that arm just for show? Would it really let you attack its core? Worst of all, through Nia’s repeated assaults, Lyle discovered that the monster’s skin was hardening, growing stronger. Initially just crawling using its arm, the flesh monster had now learned to use its immense strength to bounce, while Lyle was gradually losing the ability to inflict wounds.
In this way, what had started as a simple target for Lyle’s spells turned into a monster chasing him, only stopping when it reached a certain territory. After all, this wasn’t a wilderness survival battle royal; these monsters were bound by the limits of their domain.
Watching the flesh arm that hung suspended in the invisible boundary, the large mouth on the arm barked furiously at Lyle, clearly enraged that its meal had escaped. Lyle let out a sigh of relief; Nia’s tentacles had been torn apart more than a dozen times, and even with rapid regeneration, they were now entering a period of weakness. The monster, having devoured some of Nia’s flesh, began to change, sprouting a small, active bud of pus-filled flesh on the other end that grew into a small hand, resembling that of an infant. Lyle was uncertain what it might turn into if he let it continue devouring, whether it would become a creature with two arms, or morph into a humanoid form.
Regardless, Lyle chose to abandon this target, thoroughly unable to defeat it. Spells were largely ineffective, the Plague Messenger’s negative symptoms only served as a distraction, and the loss of flesh caused by the flesh rebellion was not as rapid as its recovery. The flesh tentacles he had created himself were completely unable to withstand its monstrous strength. Now, Nia’s tentacle attacks were merely delivering food to it.
While complaining about the excessive difficulty of the examination challenges, Lyle cautiously made his way deeper into new territory, clueless about what new monsters might lurk there.
"Nia has spotted Shiny."
Just as Lyle was about to move forward, Nia pointed at a twisted, strange tree and spoke up.
"Who’s there!"
Just as Lyle was preparing to launch an attack, Mr. Shiny emerged from behind the tree.
"Long time no see, Mr. Plague Doctor." A casual greeting, which in Lyle’s eyes, was full of hostility at this moment.
"Mr. Shiny, do you need something?" Lyle did not lower his staff.
"How goes the monster hunting for Mr. Plague Doctor?"
"Not so well; I’ve encountered a flesh creature and found myself completely incapable of defeating it."
"Eh? Has Mr. Plague Doctor already started to confront monsters head-on? How did you survive the attack of a Third Lock monster?"
"Third Lock monster?"
"Didn’t any senior inform you of the little tricks to the exam? The monsters in the graduation exam are all enhanced creations, with the strength of a Third Lock. We can’t defeat them on our own, so please take the chance to flee while it’s regenerating. This kind of leaking of questions is already a tradition for Andrey."
A streak of frustration crossed Lyle’s mind.
No one had informed him, after all, his guide, Mr. Dragon, was the chief examiner. It would be foolish for him to leak questions to his own student during the graduation exam.
