“Aaaaaaaaack!!!”


    “Run! Run faster!”


    “What the hell! Is that person crazy?!”


    It looked like aplete disaster. The students ran around the running track in desperation, screaming and crying their lungs out.


    Of course, these students, who had never seen such a monster in their lives, would fear being chased by something this horrifying.


    The problem was that they were not like the apprentices who did swordsmanship training and were steadily honing their bodies for a long time. These brats were geeks who only used their heads and read books. In other words, their physical strength was like that of a rat’s. However, they still ran for fear of getting caught and dying.


    Humans were said to be capable of exerting superhuman strength when faced with crisis. And since their bodies were in a much better condition than usual, the students were able to run crazily while screaming and crying.


    “Kyaaaack!”


    When a girl fell down and shrieked in terror, a boy who ran ahead of her quickly came back, supported her back up, then ran forward once again. He yelled, “Run!!! I will support you, so run!!!”


    “<em>Sob… Sob, sob…</em>”


    The children, still running and crying, finally thought of fighting back against the Balrog.


    Of course,mon sense dictated that a mage had to bepletely still and focused to be able to cast their magic. Even if one scoured through the entire continent, they would only be able to find a select few mages who were capable of casting magic while moving about.


    However, Josiah attempted to run and cast her magic at the same time. And as if to prove that her talent did not go to waste even after she had been sent to this ss, she was able to cast her magic.


    <strong>[Heed my call. Let your zing mes descend upon us!]</strong>


    The 4th Circle me magic, Fire Breath, flew in the air.


    “Oh my, we can’t have that, can we?”


    Of course, Davey was not going to sit back and watch them fight back.


    <strong>[Dispel]</strong>


    <em>Fwiiish!!!</em>


    When Josiah’s fire magic evaporated into thin air just like that, the running children only frowned even more.


    “We’re done for… Just like what we expected, any magic below the 5th Circle won’t work against it!” one of the students mumbled desperately.


    They ran away from the Balrog even quicker now, speeding up like crazy.


    With how the students were running, Davey was sure that these brats would soon reach their limits. After all, they had already run the ideal number ofps that one could normally run.


    <em>Thud!!!</em>


    In the end, some of the students copsed from fear and exhaustion. They were unable to ovee the pain, desperation, and difficulty of the task that had been presented to them.


    However, since the ss was not yet over, Davey tweaked the mass illusion magic that had been cast upon the children. He showed the illusion of the copsed students burning and turning into ashes as the Balrog’s mes devoured them.


    Seeing the others getting devoured by the mes and disappearing into ashes, the remaining children eventually burst into tears. And in the eyes of the students who were still running, the students who had stopped running were also being devoured by the mes.


    In the end, only a few survived up until the very end. Most of the students had either copsed or had been left behind.


    After recording the numbers on his clipboard, Davey pped his hands.


    <em>Thwack!</em>


    <em>Vwooong!</em>


    At the same time, the vicious Balrog vanished into thin air together with the barrier that had prevented the students from running away from the running track.


    Perhaps relieved that they had survived, the students copsed on the ground. Their gazes were nk and unfocused.


    “This is why you should also train and develop your physical fitness. If you only train your brains, then you will never grow as a mage.”


    Timmy, who had been staring nkly into space, looked at Davey with a fire burning in his eyes. He screamed, “You f*cking bastard!!!”


    Despite not having any more strength to get up and run, Timmy was still able to charge at Davey, grab his cor, and shake him. He yelled angrily, “Those guys… You killed all of those guys?! Are you even human?! One of them only just turned 14! Did you know that, huh?!”


    “I’m aware.”


    “How could you be so cruel as to kill those children? What did they even do to you, huh?!” Timmy, who failed to control his anger, threw a punch at Davey.


    “Who died?” asked Davey as he easily blocked the punch while shaking his head. He then nced at the surviving students after hearing Timmy’s outrage cry.


    The students remained on the ground and were crying helplessly. However, their scathing gazes of anger, hostility, and fear toward Davey were unmistakable. At this point, none of them were interested in how everything had happened. The only thing that they were focused on was showing their hostility toward Davey, who had killed their ssmates.


    “Timmy,” Davey said, grabbing the boy’s wrist.


    <em>Thump!!!</em>


    Timmy could not even react in time. After flying up into the air and spinning around, he then fell helplessly on the ground. “Keheok!”


    “Are your eyes just there for decoration? A mage should always question and doubt everything around them regardless of the situation. Always keep that in mind,” Davey said before pointing somewhere else.


    With a wary gaze, Timmy looked in the direction that Davey was pointing in.


    “Ti… Timmy…” a student who had been devoured by the Balrog at the very beginning called out to Timmy.


    “Molly?”


    “I’m… I’m fine.”


    “You… How…? I saw you burn down and turn to ashes…” Timmy murmured with wide eyes as he finally registered the sight of the entire school grounds.


    The school grounds should have been devastated by the rampaging Balrog, but it looked just like it had before. It was as if they had hallucinated the entire situation just now.


    “What the hell is this…?” Timmy muttered.


    “It’s an illusion. How is it? It’s super realistic, no?”


    Timmyid t on the ground with a nk gaze.


    The urgent and desperate situation that they had been forced to experience was a lie. Everyone felt the strength draining from their bodies.


    “ss is over. Go back, everyone,” Davey said.


    He checked the contents on his own clipboard before turning around.


    <em>Boom!!!</em>


    However, the students had no intention of leaving Davey alone.


    Davey twisted his head to the side, turning in the direction of a fireball that had just flown by him. He asked, “Josiah Frances, have you gone crazy?”


    “I would like to ask you that question! Are you crazy? You call this a ss?” Josiah red at Davey as she approached him with loud stomps.


    She was angry, but she had to stand on tiptoes to grab Davey by the cor. It was a rather strange sight, since she was far shorter than Davey was.


    “I have met all kinds of teachers, but you take the throne for being the worst.”


    “Well, what an honor.”


    “…” Josiah’s re turned sharper. She was angry at the fact that Davey did not react to her furious words. She snapped, “You’re going to dismiss the ss after bullying your students? After teaching us a lesson that has nothing to do with magic?! What the hell did you even teach us, huh?!”


    Davey silently removed Josiah’s hands from his cor before turning back around to walk away. He said, “We haven’t started ss yet. Today is just the first day, so I gave you a warm up. Everyone should go straight back to your dormitory rooms. Your bodies will probably scream in pain tomorrow since you’ve run too hard today.”


    The students frowned.


    “I’ll definitely report this to the academy’s administrative office.”


    “By all means,” Davey said.


    If it was aparison of who had greater influence and power, then he was very confident of his own power.


    ***


    Theints about the unruly new temporary instructor were buried much quicker than Davey had expected. Well, in the first ce, there was no one in this academy who had a higher authority and greater influence than him, someone who hade here under the Great Sage’s orders.


    However, the students continued to strongly protest against the ridiculous ss, stating that their anger would not be appeased until they were heard. They were mad that they had been subjected to harsh lessons that did not even have any rtion to magic.


    Of course, the academy had no choice but to issue a warning letter and appear to be taking some action. However, it was entirely dismissed after a word was had with them.


    <em>‘I’ll make those brats fit to win the Magic Festival. If I fail, then I will take responsibility for the matter and donate 200,000 gold to the academy.’</em>


    That amount of gold was no small amount. It was such a huge amount that even the loaded and wealthy Shakunt could not ignore the promise of such a donation.


    <em>‘Did you think you could buy me with money, huh?!’</em>


    The Principal had shouted at Davey with those very words, but…hepletely changed his mind after hearing the very amount that Davey was betting.


    “…is too much to say to you. To say that, you must be very confident. However, please remember that it’s not good to overwork the students. Please do not push them around too much.”


    In the end, Davey sessfully gained autonomy and independence over the lessons that he could give.


    Immediately after that, Davey led the students of ss F outside of Shakunt Academy. They headed toward a nearby mountain.


    <em>ng!!! ng!!!</em>


    Stone and dust relentlessly flew toward the students’ faces as they used the pickaxes in their hands on the stone wall.


    “<em>Phtew</em><em>! </em><em>Phtew</em><em>! </em><em>Phtew</em><em>! </em>There’s dirt in my mouth!”


    “Damn it! We might be students, but we’re still children of noble and prestigious families! Why do we even have to do something like this?!” Timmy yelled.


    Alyssa Yosefov, Timmy’s best friend, appeared to share simr thoughts. She looked at the boy whoined and continued using his pickaxe, then said with a sigh, “What can we do? We have to do it if the instructor tells us to.”


    “Damn! I thought Professor Severes was the most evil teacher, but I was wrong! This instructor is the devil! Shit! I can’t do this anymore!”


    <em>Thud!!!</em>


    In the end, Timmy threw his pickaxe down as he slumped on the ground. He protested, “Hey! Quit it! That instructor… No, what kind of instructor is he? How long will we listen to that scammer and do his bidding?!”


    “But he clearly said that we will taste the bitterness of life if we don’t do this as quickly as we could…” Molly Saelyn, the ss’ biggest problem child, mumbled despondently.


    Josiah Frances answered firmly, “Timmy’s right. This isn’t even a ss. I can’t allow him to let you guys do such an unreasonable thing and abuse us as much as he wants.”


    After throwing her pickaxe down, she marched toward the exit.


    “Josiah! What are you trying to do?!”


    “I’m going to negotiate with that man and put an end to this nonsense.”


    “B-But Josiah… If you do that, then your academy admission…”


    “I will have no regrets. I have already prepared myself. It doesn’t matter if I get expelled from the academy.”


    Leaving those words behind, Josiah went out of the cave with a determined look on her face. A very short momentter…


    “Eeeeeeeek! Let me go!!!”


    “You think it’s alright to goof around while your instructor is watching you closely, huh?”


    “Kyaaaaack!” Josiah shrieked when Davey threw her from his shoulders to the ground.


    Davey said with a snort, “I told you to do your best, but you’re all goofing around?”


    “Instructor! How can you call this a ss?!”


    “That’s right! How can this activity even help improve our magic skills?!”


    Davey picked his ears at the students'' grating cries, then asked, “So, you won’t do it?”


    “That’s right! We won’t! We will not do it!”


    In the end, the students exploded in anger. They even moved as if they were going to attack Davey in a joint attack.


    However, Davey only wore a vicious grin on his face. He said, “Then, I’ll make you do it.”


    The students snorted at Davey, who was a boy their age… No, they thought he was called Instructor Devy.


    “Ha! Do you think you can trick us with your illusions again?! We’re not stupid!”


    “Right! You might be able to do it once or twice, but not all the time! Besides, it’s not funny to learn under someone who’s only pretending to be a mage by cheating his way forward.”


    Still with a vicious smile on his face, Davey stretched his palm out and formed a blue light above it. He said, “So, you guys haven’t figured out the situation that you’re in yet, huh?”


    The students looked at Davey in confusion. How could a boy without any circles do something like that? Soon regaining their senses, they believed that the boy in front of them was just trying to cheat them again.


    Davey, or Devy in this case, nonchntly asked, “Ellie Taysha, what kind of magic do you think this sphere of light is?”


    The girl, who was supporting her exhausted body with the shovel in her hands, frowned. “It’s very obvious that this is just a trick of the eye. No matter how hard I look at it, there’s no mana emanating from it.”


    “Wrong. This magic is…” Davey then turned his palm around, dropping the blue sphere and letting it seep through the cracks in the ground. “…Terrible Shock (Great Earthquake).”


    The students frowned. Before they could even think that the boy was cheating them again, they registered another sensation. They were all aware that something would happen whenever that devilish psycho had that evil smile on his face.


    <em>Thud!!!</em>


    The entire underground cave began to shake at Davey’smand. Only then did he say, “Didn’t I tell you that yesterday’s running was just a simple warm-up? This time, I won’t be watching by the sidelines. You’ll have to get through this all by yourselves. Ah, don’t worry. I guarantee you that this is on a low difficulty levelpared to the lessons that I have been through.”


    Once he was done talking, Davey slowly disappeared from view. Before he waspletely gone from sight, he said, “I left behind two days worth of food rations and emergency necessities, like medicine, in this ce.”


    The students now looked very uneasy.


    “If you don’t want to die from dehydration, you better start thinking about how to survive. The items that will save you from your predicament are already in this ce.”


    This situation was no illusion. It truly was up to the students to believe what Davey was saying or not. In fact, they could even stay put and not do anything at all.


    Davey said with a smile, “You aren’t ready to learn proper magic yet. You better start thinking again. Think about your strengths and weaknesses, as well as the lessons that you have learned before.”


    Those words drained the color from the students’ faces.


    <em>Rumbleeeeee!!!</em>


    The entire cave shook and copsed, blocking off the students’ only exit. The situation was seemingly trying to prove that Instructor Devy was not lying.


    A teacher who should teach magic would trap his students in a dark underground cave, even going as far as destroying the entire cave and burying them alive. It was something that had gone beyond anyone’s imagination. The situation waspletely unbelievable.