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<1005 – Eastern Experience Chronicle (4)>

Oknodie was munching on Spirit Herb.

The circumstances were simple.

To quell the chaos in the village, Sadi Chocolate deployed soldiers controlled by mind to confront the weird creatures.

In the meantime, Oknodie slipped into the spot where the premium Spirit Herb was growing and began devouring one that was part of the weird creature territory!

It was a division of labor of sorts.

Sadi orchestrated the plan while Oknodie reaped the rewards, but Sadi’s frustration at not being able to claim unfair labor was another story.

“Oknodie? Why are you here?”

“…What gives?”

Dorothy and Rockbell were left dumbfounded.

In the moment of their shock, a cautious look rose in Oknodie’s eyes.

Like a wild animal worried about losing its prey!

Slurp.

The Spirit Herb caught in Oknodie’s mouth disappeared without a trace.

“Not stealing! Would you eat something that’s already in someone else’s mouth?”

“Phew. Then that’s a relief!”

“But why is Oknodie here when they didn’t attend the lecture? They definitely weren’t here. If Oknodie had been spotted, the others would have freaked out even more!”

Listening to Professor Weird’s lecture, Dorothy, along with Oknodie, learned all about the pros and cons of attending classes.

She was as scared as Andersen of there being overlapping classes with Oknodie.

Professor Red Mountain’s lecture, <Beyond Cheonryeong Mountain Range>.

Certainly, Andersen hadn’t been present at the start; many had already been hit by the unfair twist when Andersen popped up after the lecture registration adjustment period.

Now, seeing Oknodie appear after being absent for two consecutive classes made Dorothy’s head spin and a chuckle escaped her lips.

“Could it be that you were secretly attending the lecture using invisibility magic?!”

Thanks to the magic that skips attendance checks in one second, no one knows who actually attends unless they face-to-face. This was one of the side effects of Professor Red Mountain’s class.

If attendance had been checked by calling names, this misunderstanding would never have occurred.

Oknodie fell into contemplation.

If she answered yes, what would happen, and if she answered no, what excuse would she have to come up with?

The former was something Cooking Oknodie would handle, and the latter was her own problem.

“I did sneak out!”

From Oknodie’s perspective, it was true, and from Dorothy’s perspective, it sounded like a “yes” response—a cunning excuse!

Dorothy finally realized she had been hit by the double trigger of Andersen & Oknodie’s unfair lecture.

“Ugh. I put so much effort into preparing that class. How could this happen? It’s truly unfair!”

Dorothy sulked for ten minutes before getting yanked back to the classroom by the auto-teleportation magic at the gate.

“Why are you crying like that? It’s noisy. If you got bitten by a monster, go to the infirmary and cry there.”

“I didn’t get bitten… I was just upset because of Oknodie.”

“Oknodie?”

My vegetable thief.

Also, my naughty thief apprentice.

A river was drawn across Professor Red Mountain’s forehead.

“You were listening to the lecture using invisibility magic, right? I saw you munching on Spirit Herb!”

Saying Oknodie had attended the lecture while invisible was surprising!

Professor Red Mountain quickly opened the attendance sheet.

Her memory was correct.

Oknodie’s name wasn’t there.

The absence scan magic, which recorded students attending automatically, hadn’t caught Oknodie, yet here she was eating Spirit Herb.

Something was clearly wrong.

Could it be that traveling all the way across the Eastern Empire to munch on Spirit Herb led to her being caught?

That’s ridiculous.

Compared to that, it made more sense that the attendance scan magic hit her at the moment it reached her, and she managed to hide her presence, sneaking past undetected.

There had been similar cases before.

Oknodie had already shown slyness last year, evading the academy’s detection magic.

Professor Weird, who tried to catch Oknodie through detection magic—which she couldn’t tolerate as she couldn’t just freely earn points—eventually let her slip, meaning the details were unforgettable.

So, how should she deal with this now?

Should Oknodie argue that she wasn’t a student since her name wasn’t on the attendance list?

Then she’d end up marked as a fool of a professor who let a non-student munch on Spirit Herb during lecture time.

She might even get reported through the student council.

The professor didn’t put a non-student on the attendance list, ignored them, and didn’t give them grades!

‘Professorial massacre, yet clumsy. You should blame your notorious actions instead?’

Professor Red Mountain smiled at Dorothy’s clever accusation and admonished her gently.

“Calm down. I’ll give you additional points and rewards for bravely going in first.”

Just like giving candy to a crying child, the professor showered her with rewards!

Dorothy’s pitiful sobs ceased immediately.

“Oknodie really was attending the lecture. It’s recorded on the attendance sheet.”

“But what are you writing on the attendance sheet now?”

“I wrote, ‘The kid is very agile.’ It’s a student evaluation.”

“Oh, really…!”

“I noted that you’re pretty agile too. So, if you catch another glimpse of Oknodie sneaking around, try to catch her next time.”

“Yes, Professor!”

She may not have been taking advantage of the situation, but she met a true professor who knows how to encourage and not be stingy with praise for students!

Dorothy was very happy, and seeing her childhood friend’s joy made Rockbell feel proud too.

Professor Red Mountain was relieved to elude Oknodie’s malicious professor assassination attempt, and Oknodie was blissfully munching on the Spirit Herb.

“What is this?! An unknown lecture has suddenly appeared during my naptime… I didn’t sign up for this class!! Mandatory attendance is illegal!!!”

At the moment everyone else was rejoicing, the only sad one was Cooking Oknodie, who suddenly found a class she had never enrolled in appear on her timetable after just trying to take a nap.

*

Spirit Herb.

Humans should never consume magical herbs meant for spirits.

It’s a collection of grievances from spirits aspiring to become even larger ghosts.

You could say it’s a promotion item for the monsters of the spirit realm.

Successfully digesting it upgrades one to a high-ranking demon.

Failing to digest leads to an explosion, turning the Spirit Herb into more spirits to feast on.

Since a human consumed such things, how could there not be consequences?

[The countless grievances of the Spirit Herb knock violently on the Gate of Blood to test you.]

[The dark mana’s great power peers through the opened door at the lowly energy that has intruded through the back alley.]

Shouldn’t something be going wrong…?

Oknodie wasn’t an ordinary person.

[At the reaction of great power, the spirit energy shrinks.]

The resident dark mana, unbothered, glared at the impolite intruder who dared to knock.

-Who are you?

-Eep. Sorry, I’m in the wrong place.

The spirit energy politely closed the door.

No, it wanted to close it.

The dark mana that opened the door had no intention of loosening its grip on the handle.

Instead, it came out from the mana circuit and grabbed the intruder by the scruff of their neck.

-You’re going to be punished, aren’t you?

The dark mana devoured the impurities and rampaged around the mana circuit.

Racing at high speeds like a centrifuge, the residue mixed with spirit energy burned away and vanished.

-You can enter freely, but leaving isn’t going to happen that way.

With a temperament just like its master, the dark mana held the filtered spirit energy tightly, ruthlessly tossing it against the ceiling and walls of the mana circuit.

While the sturdy circuit could withstand savage manipulation, the weak spirit energy was crushed into bits.

-But this smells kind of nice?

The dark mana drooled, promptly consuming the former spirit energy, now void of grievances.

[The dark mana has digested the grievance energy.]

[Magic Experience Points +10]

Instead of growing in height, Oknodie’s powerful mana swelled one level today.

The grievance energy of the spirits who lost their promotion items weakened in its territory, and they cried out, but they quickly lost strength before the official troops’ onslaught.

“Why aren’t they collapsing?”

“Don’t worry. People don’t die from just a broken arm. If they’re afraid of pain, they can just not feel it, right?”

Sadi controlled the terminals embedded in the bodies of the injured official troops, manipulating their peripheral nerves and muscles.

The official troops, who followed Sadi like a deity, got ecstatic when their pain temporarily numbed and began rampaging.

“It’s a blessing from the goddess!”

“Let’s wipe out these demons!”

Even with broken fingers, broken arms, or even decapitated corpses, they fell entirely under Sadi’s control, like puppets instead of their original personalities.

Faced with the efforts of the immortal pain-free official troops, the monsters of the spirit realm, who had repeatedly died, now found themselves in terror.

A thrilling revenge so satisfying it was enough to cleanse the grievances of the villagers who had long endured suffering!

“Thank you sincerely for rescuing us from our cursed fate.”

“May the blessing of the primordial celestial sovereign accompany the goddess and the immortal legion!”

Where grievances faded, there was no more cycle.

The village and its residents gradually grew dim before disappearing into the air like mist.

“It’s a curse. A curse using dolls. Classic, yet quite powerful magic.”

Sadi picked up the doll, her interest piqued, and smiled subtly.

“I feel similar energies emanating from various places. What shall we do?”

“Let’s dig them all up!”

“Dig? What did you sneakily consume?”

“Spirit Herb…”

“No way! Why would you eat that? It’s a curse!”

“Because I have high resistance to curses…?”

Continuous achievements in developing an immunity!

For Oknodie, consuming wouldn’t lead to problems, but leaving it would be bothersome.

The prologue to the Eastern experience began with the elimination of the imae-mangyang around the coastline and harvesting of grievance herbs.

“Yay! I ate it all!”

“Now they’re finally catching on.”

“Really?”

“The enormous ‘ritual’ spread across the entire coastline of the East has collapsed. Whether it’s due to the broad area or the lack of finesse in the sorcerer’s skill, they’re rather dull.”

Thanks to causing a commotion, Sadi’s experience points and the summoned military forces all increased significantly.

“So what now? Should we wait for an attack in our territory and block it? We might be able to learn more about the enemy’s cards.”

“Is there really a need for that?”

Oknodie’s desire to collect the bestiary was insatiable.

Sadi chuckled at her ravenous hunger.

“Then it’s onward! There’s a castle nearby in the plains. It houses a facility that gains profits through formations, so if there’s an enemy stronghold, it should be there.”

“That area…!”

“Yes. According to the official troops, it’s also where one of the Eastern check points is located.”

A place intertwined with the sword clan that Sing belonged to in one form or another.

The starting point of revenge.

 

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