[Card Name: Greed Slime I]
[Type: Spirit Card]
[Level: ☆☆]
[Race: Elemental]
[Attribute: Grass-type]
[Mana: 200]
[Attack: 0]
[Defense: 0]
[Special Move: Treasure Scent]
[Treasure Scent: A greed born from its very nature grants the Greed Slime an extraordinary sense of smell for treasure. However, no treasure can satisfy its avarice.]
…
A standard blue card whose only skill was a passive one.
Its race and attribute were completely unchanged.
Its Attack and Defense were still 0.
Only its Mana had increased by 100 along with its +1 level increase.
This was [Greed Slime I]—ultimate greed, ultimate trash!
Truly a fitting advanced form for a Trash Slime.
Dark stared intently at Greed Slime I's only skill—[Treasure Scent]—and wondered if he could have avoided many detours in his search for the Valkyrie's treasure had he obtained [Greed II] sooner.
"Puyo!"
The jelly-like, blue-green slime bounced off the bed with its highly elastic body and landed with a "splat" on Dark's face.
Its unusually sensitive Treasure Scent made it realize instantly.
It had found the greatest treasure here!
…
"Still the same cool-to-the-touch feeling, but it has more substance now."
Dark didn't peel it off right away.
A slime's body might seem sealed, but it actually had an internal oxygen cycle and wouldn't suffocate a person.
However, after transforming into Greed Slime I, its original [Enhanced Stomach Acid] skill had disappeared, so it no longer worked as a face mask.
Fortunately, this change would only last for 15 minutes.
For now, he would let it have its fun!
…
15 minutes later.
As the effect of [Greed II] completely wore off, [Greed Slime I] reverted to [Trash Slime], but the spiritual intelligence it had gained did not disappear.
However, the [Trash Slime]'s intelligence level was still temporarily stuck at around 2.5. While it was an improvement, it hadn't broken through 3.0.
Perhaps this was because its foundation was too poor.
Or maybe it was simply because its compatibility with [Greed] wasn't the best.
"An intelligence level of 2.5 is pretty good, but it's ultimately not keeping up with the main group."
Dark was a little disappointed.
However, the [Treasure Scent] skill of Greed Slime I was clearly a dream skill for anyone to have outside of a duel.
He couldn't be any greedier!
…
After Ditto carried its baby back to bed to sleep, Dark closed his eyes and practiced the [Art of Meditation] for half an hour before drifting off to sleep naturally.
As the number of extractable [Deadly Sins] increased, his expectations for the [Art of Meditation] grew higher and higher, and he practiced it with increasing diligence.
…
Two days passed in a flash.
Just as the first-year little magisters were gradually adapting to the new semester, a new rumor began to blow through the castle.
"Dark, have you heard?"
On Thursday evening, Dark went to the library to finish his homework.
Diana sidled up to him and asked.
He looked up slightly, a hint of confusion on his face.
Diana immediately grinned, looking a bit smug. "You don't know, do you? I heard we're getting another new professor!"
"A new professor?" Dark's gaze shifted. "The Magical Beast Studies professor for tomorrow?"
"No," Diana said. "The Astronomy professor!"
"The Astronomy professor?" Dark frowned slightly.
For first-years, Astronomy was considered an interest-based course, and Professor Didi had originally taught it concurrently.
But the current Magical History professor, Ryan Hawkes, clearly didn't have the capacity to take on another role.
So, hiring a new Astronomy professor was perfectly reasonable.
But he'd heard that the upper years also had Astronomy as an elective. Was the upper-year Astronomy professor too busy to take on the first-years?
That was also possible.
Not all professors at St. Marian Academy took their positions just for the salary.
Some professors were there for a place to stay, while others were after St. Marian Academy's vast resources.
While teaching, they also had their own research projects.
Human lifespans are finite.
Not every professor could treat time as a joke like little Lily.
They needed to achieve their goals within a limited time, and once they went all-in, it always felt like time was never enough.
…
After thinking it over, Dark asked, "So, is there any news on who the professor might be?"
Diana shook her head vigorously. "I don't know, but I heard it's going to be a sage. Hmm, or it could be a prophet!"
Dark: "A sage or a prophet? I hope it's a proper astrologer!"
Through his research, Dark had long since discovered that the Seven Deadly Sins were closely related to the stars.
But astronomy was a very profound subject, and progress was slow with self-study alone.
Furthermore, while this world also had planets like the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, they were often just namesakes, and their characteristics didn't completely match the planets from Dark's memories.
That's why he had always looked forward to the start of Astronomy class.
However, over the entire last semester, there had only been one Astronomy class.
It was quite frustrating.
"I wonder who it will be?"
Dark was intrigued.
There were a few relatively famous astrologers in the kingdom.
The vice-lord of the Sky Castle.
The master of the Star Tower.
Both were authorities on astrology.
But it was unlikely to be them.
…
"Hmph."
Diana puffed up her cheeks, thought for a moment, and then added, "By the way, are you going to the Dueling Club recruitment tomorrow?"
Dark nodded. "I'll go check it out."
Diana immediately perked up. "Okay, then I'll go too!"
After a semester of preparation, the basic requirement of twenty magic cards was no longer a major hurdle for some students.
Their problem was how many of those twenty cards were just there to fill the quota.
But for first-years, just managing to collect twenty cards was already quite impressive.
If they had a few powerful magic cards among those twenty, passing the Dueling Club's recruitment test was a matter of course.
Joining the Dueling Club was a prerequisite for participating in dueling competitions to earn school points.
By the time they reached their second year, over eighty percent of students would have joined the Dueling Club.
Even if some of them didn't like dueling, no one could refuse school points.
Unless they really wanted to slack off and wait for death—and then fail to graduate!
…
Dark finished his homework before Diana and then, under her pouting gaze, resolutely left the library.
The familiar figure was still missing from behind the library counter.
It felt surprisingly unsettling.
"It's this late already."
The winter moon seemed particularly clear.
As Dark walked along the path to the Noble House tower, he happened upon Professor Hawkes wandering there and casually greeted him.
"Good evening, Professor."
…
"Ah, it's Demon."
Ryan Hawkes turned around.
He didn't hold a negative impression of Dark just because he was the son of the dovish faction's leader.
Dark asked curiously, "Professor Hawkes, where are you headed so late?"
Hawkes stroked his beard and smiled. "I just got here. I'm taking advantage of the free time at night to familiarize myself with the castle."
His prosthetic leg was of a magic-tech construction, similar to the limb structure of a Golem, but of a relatively simple type. Moreover, its surface was old and bore numerous signs of repair.
Given his current situation, just covering the maintenance costs for the prosthetic was likely very difficult.
As for familiarizing himself with the castle, that was a plausible explanation.
It was just that seeing someone who looked like him walking through the dimly lit castle was a bit frightening.
Dark thought for a moment and decided to say, "Professor Hawkes, if you need repairs for your prosthetic, Professor Kazel might be able to help."
Hawkes paused for a moment, then smiled, looking quite pleased. "I've already spoken with him. Once this month's salary comes in, I'll get a new pair!"
Dark: "That's good to hear. Professor, I'll be heading back to my dorm now."
Hawkes: "Go on, go on."
It wasn't until Dark was on the bridge leading to the Noble House tower that Hawkes's expression suddenly dropped, and he looked around with a grave gaze.
The castle of St. Marian was even larger than he had imagined, and it was full of oddities.
After wandering around for the past two nights, not only had he failed to get his bearings, but he found it increasingly inscrutable.
"I wonder where the entrance to the secret passage is. Maybe I should ask a student or two?"
Hawkes felt around the area a bit more before limping away from the spot.
…
Only after Hawkes had moved further away did a small bee with a (一一) face fly up unsteadily from the shadows.
Dark opened the window guard and let in the little bee that had circled around to the balcony.
The knuckle-sized bee suddenly expanded and, with a "splat," stuck to his face.
He quickly peeled Ditto off his face. "Why are you learning from the slime? You're not breathable."
"Ma-ma!"
Ditto wriggled shyly.
Dark asked, "Did Professor Hawkes do anything unusual?"
Ditto shook its head, then nodded.
It then formed a mouth and mimicked Hawkes's lip movements to say something.
Dark repeated the lip movements, trying to lip-read, but failed…
Without professional training, it was actually quite difficult to read what someone was saying just from their lip shape.
But Ditto quickly started mimicking word by word.
By deciphering each word, Dark slowly pieced together a sentence.
"I wonder where the entrance to the secret passage is. Maybe I should ask a student or two?"
"Was that his tone?"
"Ma-ma!"
"That's strange. He doesn't seem to be shy about mentioning the secret passage."
Dark stroked his chin, pondering like a great detective.
Since regaining his memories, he had gradually integrated into his environment, associating this world with that game less and less.
Coupled with the fact that he wasn't very familiar with the game to begin with, he could only guess at various developments based on his knowledge of 'Harry Potter'.
But the plot of 'Duel! St. Marian Super XX Academy' was, after all, only an imitation of 'Harry Potter'. If he relied solely on 'Harry Potter' as a reference, many errors and omissions would surely arise.
Moreover, with his arrival, the plot had definitely undergone drastic changes.
So he had long since started to think outside the box of a fixed plot.
But there was one point that likely hadn't changed much.
That was the period from the first to the sixth year, which was a concentration of plot development.
Major events were bound to happen in each academic year, more or less.
With St. Marian Academy as the grand stage for these events, everyone who entered was like an actor on that stage, destined to dance under their own spotlight.
It was just that the roles could be overt or covert, major or minor.
In such an environment, Dark only wanted to be an audience member, sitting in a safe and secure box seat with a plate of pastries and a cup of black tea, watching leisurely from the sidelines.
But his abilities wouldn't allow it!
But speaking of which, had the 'big event' of the first year already happened or not?
Did the Moon God incident count as a big event?
Did the vampire incident count as a big event?
…
Could Professor Ryan Hawkes, by wading into these muddy waters, be the instigator of a new event?
But Claire was also a professor for two months and didn't trigger anything, did she?
So this was actually a false premise.
It was better to approach it with a calm mind.
At most, he just needed to pay a little more attention in his daily life.
…
Dark mulled it over for a while, then extracted the day's portion of [Pride].
Including last month's surplus and yesterday's amount, he had now stored a total of 4 points of [Pride]. In just four more days, he could begin refining [Pride III].
He was really looking forward to it!
Whether it was research or daily life, things seemed to be getting more and more interesting!
…
The next day, Friday.
The temperature dropped to freezing, and a layer of ice had formed on the lake leading to Traveler's Street.
During his morning run, Dark could see someone dancing on the ice through the castle windows.
The distance was great, and a thin mist shrouded the lake's edge, so he couldn't see who it was, but he could vaguely make out graceful limbs as slender as a swan's, reminiscent of the protagonist from the 'Swan Lake' ballet performed at the Christmas Ball.
"Today's a good omen."
Seeing something so pleasant put Dark in a good mood.
He returned to his dorm, sat on the balcony eating breakfast, and opened 'The Great Sage Daily,' only to find that the denunciations against the Holy Church in the newspaper had suddenly gone silent.
"It seems the Grand Princess's side has compromised. I wonder what price the Holy Church paid to quell the impact of this incident."
He closed his eyes and thought for a moment, feeling that this matter wasn't over yet.
…
The first class on Friday was Dueling Class.
At the end of the class, Professor Jones specifically went over some of the rules for the Dueling Club's recruitment.
But before the Dueling Club recruitment in the afternoon, the first-years had one more new class—Magical Beast Studies!
As a course that had been on the schedule since last semester but had yet to begin, the first-years hadn't even met the Magical Beast Studies professor. It could very well be considered a brand new class.
A new course, a new professor.
And new knowledge!
Boys were often interested in all sorts of strange and fantastic magical beasts, while girls were more hesitant.
The mood before class was polarized.
Of course, there were also girls like Diana, who was so excited she was practically bouncing.
________________________________________
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