Before Elena could even react, Karenina had already raised her hand.
A path of ice abruptly surged forward, freezing the soil of the ground. While it covered the runes on the floor, it also sealed off the black mud from which the monsters were spawning.
“Sir!”
“Retreat.” Lomio had no intention of lingering in the fight.
“Then we…”
Just as the members of the Black and White Queen team intended to step onto the icy path, a wall of ice rose to cut them off completely.
“This isn’t free.”
Karenina’s cold voice stopped them in their tracks, and she manipulated the ice to push several of them back to their original positions.
“There’s nothing to be done. Who told your leader to be so unreasonable?”
Lomio wasn’t particularly obsessed with this single transaction. Being able to recruit two SSRs and have them work for him without constant friction was certainly a good thing. However, watching two competitors struggle over Academy Credits and their enrollment status while he already had no more worries…
‘How could this not be considered one of life’s greatest pleasures?’
Just thinking about it made the smile transfer from their faces to his!
“Sigh! Boss, you’re really trying to scare me!”
Leading her two teammates, Kexia followed closely behind, forming a perfect retreat formation. Everything seemed so natural.
“Wait, no, I…”
Lilith was suddenly at a loss. Honor, shame, and a sense of embarrassment — many emotions hammered at her heart, questioning her.
At this point, did her pride still matter?
But the only response she received was the receding figures of the Top Student team and the Flesh Golems closing in around them.
“Hey!!”
“Stop shouting.”
Elena’s voice was dry. She watched as one of her team members, whose mana was exhausted and could no longer activate a defense card, had her shoulder torn open by a golem’s sharp claws.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
The team member let out a scream of agony.
“Your shouting is useless except for wasting your stamina.”
Lilith’s body was shaking, though it was unclear if it was from anger or fear.
“Elena, we…”
“We have no choice.”
Elena interrupted her, her gaze fixed tightly on Lomio’s back. She shouted with all her might, “Lomio Arkadi! I agree to your conditions!”
At the front of the ice path, Lomio’s steps came to a halt. He did not turn around.
“Did I beg you to agree?”
“……”
Elena’s face instantly turned deathly pale.
“I said before that my talent development plan has a limited number of slots,” Lomio’s voice drifted back leisurely. “When I was counting down just now, you gave up. Now, you are the ones begging me.”
Turning around, Lomio wore a smile of extreme utilitarianism — the kind of smile that made Lilith want to split his head open with her sword.
“I won’t be giving any discounts.”
***
Meanwhile, several hundred meters away from the basin, deep within a cave shrouded in darkness, several figures in black robes were gathered around a water mirror floating in the air.
The mirror displayed the scene at the entrance of the basin.
“What’s happening?”
A raspy voice spoke, filled with extreme confusion. “Why are the Flesh Golems being cleared out so quickly?!”
“Looking at the feedback from the water mirror, the ritual circle is operating without issue, and the mana extraction efficiency has reached expectations,” another voice responded, sounding somewhat agitated. “But our ‘Cleaners’ are being handled too quickly!”
“This isn’t right!”
A third voice joined the discussion, pointing at Lomio’s figure in the mirror. In just a few seconds, he had dismantled a golem with a fluid set of sword techniques.
“That man using the blade… who is he? His attack style is very strange. Every one of his attacks directly destroys the golem’s structural link points and ends with the destruction of the mana core. It’s like… like he completely knows the construction of the golems!”
A deathly silence fell over the cave.
“Impossible,” the initial raspy voice stated flatly. “The method for creating a Flesh Golem is a lost ancient magic. Even a professor from the Academy couldn’t see through its weaknesses on their first encounter.”
“Then how do you explain this?”
“There is no need for an explanation.” The leader of the black mages didn’t seem to care at all. “Our plan is to use the golems to consume the students’ mana and stamina, ensuring they won’t take down the weakened Abyss Ripper and interfere with our final containment. Everything is still within the plan.”
“This is also part of the plan? A team that appeared out of nowhere has disrupted the entire rhythm! What exactly is that boy’s Class?”
“Lomio Arkadi, Assassin.”
“An Assassin?! You call that an Assassin? That Pyroblast he released was comparable in power to Rank 5 magic! And it was an instant cast! Most importantly, that execution technique of his… if he keeps killing like that, our accumulated golems will be wiped out! The plan must be adjusted. Our goal is the core of a Rank 5 magical beast; we can’t afford a mistake here.”
The raspy voice pondered for a moment.
“Activate the backup plan. Since a war of attrition won’t work, we’ll lure ‘it’ directly over here.”
“But… Master, if we lure the Abyss Ripper now while it’s at its peak strength, we…”
“Then let those students be the first wave of sacrifices. Especially that Dragon Ninja team.” The raspy voice carried a bone-chilling coldness. “Their value is greater than all the other students combined. I want to see if he can remain as composed as he is now when facing a real Rank 5 magical beast.”
***
“Now, your only value is to show me if your wallets are thick enough.”
Lomio’s voice pulled Elena back from the brink of despair. He shook the contract scroll in his hand.
“Originally, it was 100 credits per month for each team. Given that you’ve wasted my precious time, if you want to get on my boat now, it will be 10,000 credits per person.”
“10,000 credits?!” Lilith screamed. “Why don’t you just rob us?!”
“Why would I rob you? I’m a businessman!” Lomio’s expression was incredibly sincere. “Of course, you can also choose to be torn apart by those monsters or be sucked dry by this ritual circle. In that case, you won’t have to spend a single cent.”
Elena had bitten her lip hard enough to draw blood.
10,000 credits. For any of their teams, that was an astronomical sum, enough to leave them in absolute poverty for the entire upcoming academic year. But on the other hand, the alternative was having their credits drained, facing expulsion, or even death.
“I…” she began with difficulty.
The screams around her, the desperate eyes of her teammates, and the increasingly close roar of that Rank 5 magical beast all urged her on.
“I don’t have that many credits…” Lilith’s voice carried a hint of a sob. All her pride had been crushed to dust in the face of absolute strength and cruel reality.
“That’s easy to handle. I accept items as collateral!” Lomio pointed to the greatsword in Lilith’s hand and then glanced at Elena’s staff. “I think your weapons are quite nice. I estimate they can cover one week’s worth of interest.”
One week?!
Elena almost fainted! Her Nature’s Staff, in the eyes of this black-hearted guy, was only worth one week of interest!
“This is too much…”
An Assassin’s stamina reserves couldn’t compare to a mage’s, and Lilith was already struggling to speak.
“Sign this contract, and you’ll be my people.” Lomio tossed the scroll over. “Don’t worry, I take great care of my clients. This job covers your score and your evacuation.”
‘Crack!’
In the distance, the sound of trees splintering and collapsing followed heavy footsteps. A nauseating aura of darkness began to permeate everyone’s senses.
The Rank 5 magical beast! It was here!