A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 259: Chapter 208: Dog catching a Mouse_1

After cooking and exercising, Duanmu Huai arrives at Leila Lucalia Magic Academy.

I must say, any place with the name ‘Magic Academy’ tends to be beautiful. This place is no exception, with its tall magnificent buildings, courtyards and halls shrouded in a hint of mystery, and the arrangements of stacks of books and scrolls, each giving a sense of being in a grand hall of knowledge.

Ann would surely love this place.

Duanmu Huai could even imagine that if Ann came here, she would stare at this library with sparkling eyes and drool on the spot.

Since it’s a magic academy, there are naturally many mages. However, the outfits of these mages left Duanmu Huai speechless – all of them were wearing large, cartoonish hats!

What on earth was this custom??

Duanmu Huai had even taken off the hats of these mages to inspect them. He thought these mages must be wearing such things due to mutations caused by magic studies, such as having a large head, four eyes, or a deformed skull unlike those of humans’. However, the heads underneath the hats appeared to be completely normal without any mutations.

Well…Duanmu Huai could only guess that this might be a peculiar local custom.

For example, the female students at Manaria Magic Academy would wear short skirts like those depicted in cartoons.

Although that was quite pleasing to Duanmu Huai’s eyes.

But if he had to wear a hat like those at Leila Lucalia Magic Academy, he would refuse politely.

Soon enough, Duanmu Huai regains his focus.

Because he discovered…he seemed to not be the first guest here.

“It seems that someone else has made it here before me.”

Facing the bodies of the dead mages, Duanmu Huai frowned. After crossing the main entrance of the academy and entering the school building, he discovered that nearly all mages here had been killed and their bodies were left sprawled on the ground. Judging from the traces around, there had been a fierce battle here.

And it was a recent one.

“Thud!!”

“Clang, clang, clang!!”

Just then, Duanmu Huai quickly picked up on a noise from above. His face darkened slightly and he gripped his war hammer tighter, heading up the stairs.

Through the corridor and classrooms and up the stairs, Duanmu Huai quickly reached a place resembling a meeting hall. Then he saw two figures jumping around there.

One of them was a large red wolf, with a lightsaber in its mouth and ferociously chasing its prey. And the one being chased by the red wolf was…….

“Waaaaah, why is it chasing me, I’m not tasty aaaaaah!!!”

Melfy squealed as she jumped around, fully demonstrating the agility of the Spirit Rat Tribe. It seems wherever there was a hole, she would squeeze into it. However, the red wolf doesn’t seem to want to let its prey escape and doggedly chases her around.

“This is nostalgic.”

Watching the scene before him, Duanmu Huai couldn’t help reminiscing. It was like a scene from the cat-and-mouse cartoons, where Tom chases Jerry. The cat and mouse ran around the house creating a mess – yep, that’s basically what’s happening right now.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a black maid around to hammer Tom.

“Ah, Sir Knight!!”

At this moment, Melfy, who was being hard-pressed by the red wolf, also noticed Duanmu Huai standing at the entrance and yelled in desperation.

“Please help me!!”

“Roar————-!!”

Upon hearing Melfy’s cries, the red wolf immediately turned its attention to Duanmu Huai. Probably realizing that Duanmu Huai posed a bigger threat than Melfy, the red wolf roared and lunged straight at him. At the same time, a magic circle appeared behind it, and several lightsabers emerged, shooting towards Duanmu Huai!

Well, it’s a magic academy alright, even the dogs here know magic.

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai was a bit surprised. But he disregarded the flying lightsabers and continued forward, hammering at the red wolf before him. He struck it directly in the waist. The wolf howled instantly, falling to the ground.

As the saying goes, wolves are tough except at the waist. It seems even magic-wielding wolves are no exception. With one swing of his hammer, Duanmu Huai broke the wolf’s spine, paralyzing it completely. As the red wolf tried to turn around and bite him, he seized its head and twisted, forcibly pulling it off. The red wolf slumped to the ground without a sound.

“Hmm……”

Looking at the red wolf’s head in his hand, Duanmu Huai squinted. For some reason, he found himself instinctively inclined to behead his enemies in battle…

There shouldn’t be the influence of any evil gods involved, right?

“Phew…thanks, Sir Knight…”

Melfy, who was out of breath, arrived in front of Duanmu Huai and thanked him, then sat on the floor, spent. From her appearance, one could tell just how exhausted Melfy was.

“What happened? Why are you here?”

“I really have no idea…”

Melfy started complaining to Duanmu Huai. Like the other girls, she was also teleported away. When she came to, she found herself in this magic academy. At first, Melfy wanted to ask for help, but everyone in the academy acted like lunatics. They attacked her on sight, so she had no choice but to fight back and kill them. The bodies that Duanmu Huai had seen were her doing.

Melfy, though part of the Spirit Rat Tribe, is not particularly strong. However, her small stature makes her better at stealth… In other words, a rat is still a rat, Spirit Rat included.

Using her petite body, Melfy managed to evade the mumbling magicians. She initially thought of searching for the Forest Princess or someone else at the Magic Academy, but upon arriving here, Melfy was caught by the Red Wolf.

The opponent had a keen sense of smell, and he could use magic; Melfy couldn’t escape at all. She was chased so hard that she cried out for help but to no avail. If it weren’t for Duanmu Huai’s timely arrival, she might have been exhausted to death.

It’s like a dog chasing mice, meddling in other people’s business.

Unfortunately, Melfy didn’t know this proverb.

“Sir Knight, do you know where the princess is?”

“I’m not sure, I just hope she’s all right.”

In response to Melfy’s inquiry, Duanmu Huai just shook his head. He too didn’t know where Mistelina was teleported to. But that princess seemed to be quite active, which has given Duanmu Huai a bit of a headache. If she were to be driven by curiosity and do something troublesome… that would really be troublesome.

“Anyway, let’s continue to explore inside. Follow me.”

“Sure.”

The two rested for a while before continuing forward. According to Melfy, she already searched most of the places during this time, but she didn’t find anyone. There was one place that Melfy had not been to yet, the huge library at the top. The path to it was blocked, and enemies were all around, so Melfy couldn’t evade them.

But now, with Duanmu Huai, these problems were naturally not problems.

After passing through courtyards and corridors, the two ascended on a large elevator at the end and arrived at the top floor. Duanmu Huai reached out and slowly pushed open the massive door.

Then, he led Melfy inside. @@novelbin@@

The library was dark and appeared uninhabited. They walked forward together when suddenly…

“Splutter!”

Accompanied by a soft sound, Duanmu Huai stopped. He looked down and saw a decapitated body beneath his feet. It seems he accidentally stepped on this poor fellow when he was walking.

Wait…

“Sir… Sir Knight, something seems a bit off… ”

Melfy, who was perched on Duanmu Huai’s shoulder, said uneasily. At the same time, candles were lit one by one in the dark library. They could see a group of young Mage Apprentices lying on the floor holding candlesticks, their faces cold and emotionless like the living dead, as they stared at the two.

Then, a flickering light appeared, and Duanmu Huai saw a tall woman holding Amber, slowly descending from the air.

“Ah, my dear children, are you awake? I’ve prepared many candlesticks and books.”

The woman murmured to herself, and then she looked at Duanmu Huai, a spark of brilliance in her eyes.

“Do you two want to become my children? Come… I’ll make you behave… ”

“Sir Knight, this woman is creepy!!”

“I’ve noticed… Be careful!!”

Almost instantaneously, Duanmu Huai abruptly jumped back, and then watched as a massive chandelier came crashing down, landing exactly where Duanmu Huai had just been standing.

It was clear; the woman meant harm.

“No choice, we have to finish her off!”

Duanmu Huai gritted his teeth, then jumped up, gripping his war hammer and swung it with all his might at the hovering woman. However, to his surprise, just as he was about to hit the woman, a golden barrier appeared, enveloping her completely. The thunderbolt from Duanmu Huai’s hammer had no effect on her; instead, it was knocked back by the barrier.

What’s going on?

Before Duanmu Huai could figure it out, another headache-inducing scene unfolded. The seemingly paralyzed Mage Apprentices on the ground began their assault on him and Melfy. Chanting nursery rhyme-like spells and waving their wands and candlesticks, they made the books fly towards Duanmu Huai while flames spurted out, rushing towards them.

What a nuisance!

“Die!!”

Duanmu Huai roared, swinging his Thunder Warhammer down on the ground. Flashing bolts of lightning exploded, turning all the apprentices in front of him into charred dust.

But then, something unexpected happened.

“Ahh… my children…”

As she saw the charred apprentice bodies on the ground, the woman in the air cried out in sorrow. However, as she sighed, streaks of golden light descended from the sky, covering the charred bodies. Under this radiance, the apprentices who should have been killed, once again came back to life!

“Come, my children… It’s time for you to be born again…”

“……”

Having witnessed this scene, both Duanmu Huai and Melfy were left dumbfounded.

The BOSS is invincible and can even revive minions?

How is this even a fair fight??