studiobondurri Chapter 311: This Magic Professor Still Has Her Allure
Chapter 311: This Magic Professor Still Has Her Allure
The moment Bai Shi’s hand rested on Sorcerer Mirian’s shoulder.
Mirian had to admit, she panicked.
How long had it been since she took up the post of Study Hall administrator? She couldn't even remember.
She had remained steadfastly here, safeguarding the secrets of the Carian royal family.
It was because of these deep, dark secrets that no one could be allowed to set foot inside the Carian Study Hall.
This time, however, the enemy was unlike any she had faced before.
The Carian Study Hall had actually been inverted.
That was something that required the inverted statue, an artifact only members of the Carian royal family possessed.
But the one who had entered was not any member of the Carian royal family she recognized.
So she immediately launched her usual attack.
Every time some petty thief tried to break in, she would defeat them with ease.
Even the more troublesome opponents could not escape her judgment.
Her teleportation magic, combined with the suppressing fire from the puppet soldiers, was virtually invincible.
Feeling Bai Shi's hand on her shoulder, Mirian reacted instantly.
She quietly tightened her grip on her staff, and the crest of the Carian royal family materialized upon it.
Then, Mirian spun and swept the staff horizontally. Magic instantly extended from it, coalescing into a shortsword.
A Carian Slicer immediately shot toward Bai Shi.
The Carian Slicer was incredibly fast, more than enough to create an opening to escape at this range.
Bai Shi released his hand from Mirian’s shoulder and took a step back, letting the Carian Slicer swing harmlessly past his chest.
Having forced Bai Shi back, Mirian dared not press her attack. She quickly cast ‘Mirian's Vanishing’ once more.
At the same time, the puppet soldiers swarmed toward Bai Shi.
Seeing Bai Shi surrounded by the soldiers, Mirian breathed a small sigh of relief.
With the soldiers keeping him occupied, she could now unleash her full firepower and try to find a way to vanquish this foe.
Mirian teleported to another rafter in the study hall. She immediately conjured Loretta's Greatbow and took aim at Bai Shi, who was encircled by the puppet soldiers.
But when her gaze shifted to where Bai Shi had been, she found only a cluster of bewildered puppet soldiers.
In a perfect repeat of the earlier scene, a hand once again rested on the exact same spot on her shoulder.
“Where are you looking now?”
Hearing Bai Shi's voice, Mirian's scalp tingled, and a chill climbed her spine.
Just what kind of monster was this enemy?
Mirian found it strange. Why hadn't he attacked her, despite being so close?
Was he humiliating her?
The horrifying truth dawned on Mirian.
Along with her powerlessness, a resentful anger began to bubble up within her.
As a powerful magic professor of the Carian royal family, when had she ever been treated with such contempt?
No matter what, Mirian was determined to make him pay.
This time, Mirian didn't try to use Carian Slicer to escape.
Against an enemy this powerful, the same trick would never work twice.
Mirian felt the hand on her shoulder tighten, forcing her to turn. In that instant, she formed a new plan.
—
Bai Shi pulled Mirian by the shoulder, making her face him directly.
He had no intention of doing anything to her, no thought of causing her harm.
That was why Bai Shi had held back, merely toying with her a little.
After all, she didn't know who he was, and their brief skirmish in the game hardly constituted a real grudge.
She was, at the end of the day, one of Ranni's people and would need to continue watching over the study hall.
Killing her over something that couldn't even be called a vendetta was not something Bai Shi would do.
However, just as Bai Shi was about to reveal his identity.
Mirian, whom he thought was at her wit's end, gave him a surprise.
As she turned, a deep blue crystal cluster, formed from countless sharp glintstones, materialized before her chest.
During its charge-up, Bai Shi hadn't felt her concentrating her magic at all.
Bai Shi couldn't help but inwardly praise Mirian’s skill.
It was a remarkably adept, clever, and daring maneuver.
To have become a magic professor for the Carian royal family, she clearly knew her stuff.
As Mirian faced Bai Shi, the irregular glintstone crystal erupted violently.
A powerful blast of crystal shards exploded outward, flying toward Bai Shi like a tidal wave.
At such close range, Bai Shi’s figure was instantly swallowed by the crystal storm.
“Let pain be the price you pay for underestimating me!”
Countless crystals shot out in all directions, crashing throughout the study hall and kicking up clouds of dust.
Mirian cast her teleportation spell again, reappearing in a far-off corner.
The Crystal Torrent spell remained where it was, continuously firing toward Bai Shi's last known location.
Having made her escape, Mirian cast another spell.
A tranquil blue light washed over her, gradually calming the storm of emotions in her heart.
To secretly gather magic while pressed against an enemy was a first for her.
If she succeeded, all would be well.
If she failed... death was certain.
Only after using ‘Clarity’ to restore her composure did Mirian carefully observe the battlefield.
She had felt clear feedback from her magic; the attack had definitely hit its target.
Furthermore, the dense cloud of glintstone shards helped her pinpoint the enemy's position.
Mirian drew her magical greatbow again, loosing a continuous stream of magical arrows toward where her senses told her Bai Shi was.
The arrows flew one after another in an unbroken chain, a relentless barrage.
It was less an attempt to defeat an enemy and more a desperate release of the terror that came with surviving a near-death gambit.
She finally lowered her bow only when she was convinced the enemy must be gravely wounded, if not dead, from the onslaught.
Mirian heaved a sigh of relief.
Though the dust from the exploding arrows still lingered, preventing her from confirming the enemy's condition, she remained a little worried.
But considering the saturation attack she had just unleashed, there shouldn't be any problems.
Besides, the hand that had kept appearing on her shoulder was gone.
Just as Mirian was about to replenish her magic and recover her strength, a round of applause echoed from behind her.
Clap, clap, clap.
Mirian’s body shuddered. She spun around in disbelief.
Bai Shi was sitting on a rafter not far behind her.
And... he was completely unharmed!
How? She had felt all those attacks connect! How could this be?
Bai Shi stood up and advanced toward Mirian step by step.
As if hearing her thoughts, Bai Shi spoke.
“You must be very confused right now.”
“Wondering why your attacks seemed to hit, yet I stand here without a scratch.”
Bai Shi paused, then chuckled.
“I suppose you could call me a glintstone sorcerer too.”
“Just as you were able to gather magic right under my nose, I’ve also learned a few little tricks.”
“My skills are crude, and I haven't fully mastered my teacher's techniques.”
“But using magic and glintstone to create a decoy is well within my abilities. Oh, and by the way, your initial Crystal Torrent did hit me. A shame it just didn't hurt me.”
Mirian trembled, pointing her staff at Bai Shi.
But in her effort to ensure Bai Shi was critically injured, her relentless attacks had nearly exhausted her magic.
Now, she didn't even have enough magic to teleport.
Without magic, her staff was no different from a common fire poker.
All she could do now was bluff with glintstone pebbles.
Bai Shi walked over calmly and snatched the staff from her hands.
Gripping both ends of the staff, Bai Shi held it horizontally before him and brought his knee up sharply.
Crack—
With a crisp snap, Mirian's staff was broken in two.
Watching the staff that had been with her for years break, Mirian felt her heart bleed.
But she had no time to mourn her staff, because she might be the next thing to be snapped in two.
Mirian retreated step by step until her footing suddenly gave way, and she fell backward, landing hard on her bottom.
Bai Shi was a little surprised. Surely she wasn't that terrified?
As Bai Shi approached leisurely, the fallen Mirian suddenly thrust a silver dagger at him.
Bai Shi casually grabbed her wrist, and the dagger clattered to the floor.
This woman was certainly dedicated, he'd give her that. Unfortunately for her, dealing with her right now was like swatting a fly for Bai Shi.
Mirian knew she was no match for Bai Shi.
But his nonchalant demeanor was more than she could bear, and she screamed:
“Damn you, invader!”
“Why don’t you just do it?! Are you waiting for me to surrender?!”
“Impossible! I will never yield to you!”
Bai Shi pressed Mirian to the ground, pinning her against the ceiling tiles.
He then used gravity magic to alter the shape of the stones, binding her tightly to the floor.
With her entire body restrained, Mirian grew frantic.
“Why won’t you finish me?!”
Suddenly, a dreadful premonition filled Mirian.
“What... what are you planning to do?”
“Guh, just kill me!”
Bai Shi looked at the struggling Mirian and shook his head.
He didn't know if she'd gone mad from being cooped up in the Carian Study Hall for so long, or if she'd been reading some strange books, but her internal drama was a bit over the top.
Still, her fears weren't entirely unfounded.
The Lands Between was an exceptionally dangerous place, filled with all sorts of people.
Then again, since she brought it up, Bai Shi found himself curious about what she looked like under that magic professor's mask.
Given her identity as the guardian of the Study Hall for so long, and his own ingrained impression from how she tormented players in the game, Bai Shi had always assumed she was an annoying old crone.
But her voice just now didn't sound as ancient as he had imagined.
On second thought, age didn't really seem to matter in the Lands Between.
Everyone here had ridiculously long lifespans anyway.
It was like that old saying: in a fantasy world, you can marry someone three thousand or three hundred years your senior, but thirty years is pushing it.
When age surpasses a certain threshold, it becomes nothing more than a number.
Bai Shi crouched down in front of Mirian and casually removed the mask and large hat she was wearing.
Brown hair spilled out, revealing a dignified face before Bai Shi.
Unfortunately, the owner of that face was glaring at him through gritted teeth, her graceful features slightly distorted by rage.
Bai Shi raised an eyebrow.
Well now, Professor Mirian has certainly kept her allure.
Professor Mirian, you wouldn't want the Carian royal family to find out you failed to protect the Study Hall, would you?
Seeing Bai Shi remove her mask, Mirian’s heart pounded with even greater unease.
Even with her furious glare, she couldn't hide her panic.
However, the cruel treatment Mirian imagined never came.
Bai Shi revealed the moonlight sigil Ranni had left on him, and a spectral image of the dark moon materialized before Mirian.
Mirian strained to lift her head from the floor, her eyes widening in astonishment as she gazed at the phantom moon.
“This power is...”
“Could it be... you’re with Lady Ranni?”
Upon seeing the dark moon's mark, Mirian instantly understood everything.
He was connected to Lady Ranni, which explained how he had the inverted statue.
He must be here on Lady Ranni’s orders.
No wonder he never made a move to harm her. That was the reason.
With the situation finally clear, Mirian's demeanor softened at once, and she lowered her head.
“My apologies. I thought you were an enemy who had stolen a great treasure...”
“The only others who have come to the Study Hall have been petty thieves, so I instinctively assumed...”
As she spoke, Mirian’s voice grew quieter and quieter until she finally lowered her head to the ground.
Seeing that Mirian now understood the truth, Bai Shi nodded.
“It's fine. If we're assigning blame, it's my fault for indulging in a bit of fun instead of identifying myself immediately.”
“In any case, you didn't hurt me, so there's no need to worry about this little misunderstanding.”
Though Bai Shi was absolving her of her fault, looking at the completely unharmed man before her, Mirian couldn't feel happy at all.
Bai Shi released his control over Mirian, allowing her to stand up.
Mirian quickly snatched up her mask and large hat from the floor, dusted them off, and eagerly put them back on.
“Then... My Lord, for what purpose have you come?”
Bai Shi answered without hesitation:
“The Divine Tower of Liurnia.”
He was here for the Small Ranni.
—
With the misunderstanding resolved, the rest of the journey went smoothly.
Bai Shi headed for the lift in the center of the Study Hall.
Under Mirian’s command, the puppet soldiers no longer obstructed him.
The only things that stood in his way were a few Fingercreepers that couldn't be reasoned with.
But the Fingercreepers posed no threat to Bai Shi, and he dealt with them casually.
Soon, Bai Shi was on the lift.
The lift activated, carrying him steadily downward.
Although it felt like he was descending, Bai Shi knew he was actually moving toward the very top of the Carian Study Hall.
Clank—
The lift reached its final destination. A massive, curved dome hung inverted before him.
Pushing open the heavy, arched doors that now hung upside down, a steady, dreary rain beat against him through the opening.
Bai Shi’s gaze followed the straight causeway that appeared before him, stretching into the distance until it finally rested upon the Divine Tower of Liurnia, which soared high into the heavens.
All he had to do was cross the causeway before him, and he would reach his destination.