[Episode 7]

[Familar Contract Ceremony]

"Wow..."

And then, a green landscape filled his vision.

It wasn't an ordinary green.

If Baek Yu-Seol were to describe it with his cheap expression, it would be like a space filled with fluorescent green.

Every green plant was emitting its own light, and fireflies-like creatures hovered seamlessly in the air, making the whole world glow even beneath the canopy.

Squelch!

"Uh, what is this?"

A sparkling green liquid-like substance fell to the ground and slithered away somewhere.

At first, he thought it was a slime, but upon closer inspection, it was a young familiar without intelligence. It would eventually take the form of an animal as it grew.

"Oh... It's quite fascinating."

As he gently poked the soft familiar with his finger, it wrapped its hand around his hand, just like a cat gently nudging his cheek.

Clearly, there was a connection between the breathing exercises he did next to spirits. The familiar seemed to like him.

After playing with the soft creature for a while, poking it with his finger, it seeped into the ground and disappeared.

That was enough sightseeing.

There was work to be done.

"Alright, let's start heading there."

———-

As most of the students entered the space of the familiars, at the entrance of the roots, the elven guardians checked the number of people.

"1,139 people have entered.”

"Really? Weren't we supposed to allow 1,141 admissions this year?”

“One person is hospitalized, but we are short by one."

"Well, it happens sometimes. Even Stella's students get scared and leave in places like this."

"If that's the case, they shouldn't have aspired to be magical warriors."

"Anyway, supposedly, the hopeless ones in the second year will be filtered out, right?"

"Is that so? Human schools are peculiar. Our ‘Astral Flower Magic Academy' for elven warriors carries on until the end, no matter how weak-willed they are."

"Haha, they all have their own personalities."

"Well, anyway, this year we have an exchange student with Stella Academy, so we'll see what happens then."

The elven guardians chatted while eating oranges. Their remaining mission was to guard this place until Stella's students came out in a week.

"Should we start closing the barrier then?"

The moment the barrier of the Heavenly Spirit Tree was closed, no one could enter or exit.

However, a senior guardian raised his head.

"Well, it seems someone else is coming over there."

"Oh, really? He must have been late while doing something else."

"Can Stella's students really be like that? They must have been preparing something essential."

"Yeah, it seems they won't run away after all."

The approaching student had a slightly peculiar demeanor. He completely covered his face with a robe and bowed deeply.

But, they understood because it was Stella's student. It was a place where many peculiar mages gathered, after all.

With the academy uniform and the pocket watch at their waist, their status was clearly proven, and they were instructed to enter. It wasn't a particularly difficult procedure.

Passing through their midst, he entered the realm of the tree's roots...

"Ha."

Maizen Tyren threw off his robe and smiled brightly as if he had everything in the world.

"It can be this easy!"

He had endured until now.

Endured a lot, truly a lot.

He suppressed the emotions of resentment, tears, anger, jealousy, and envy towards someone who had made him miserable.

But now, there was no need to endure anymore.

[Progress of Dark Corruption: 49.99%]

[Progress of Dark Corruption: 50.00%]

[Progress of Dark Corruption: 71.84%]

Gloop! Gloop!

Maizen’s face contorted grotesquely, twisted, and then returned to its original form.

"Hoo!"

Breaking the enchantment that had been suppressing the dark corruption, a refreshing sense of liberation enveloped his body.

Truly, an immense and incomparable power was felt.

"Ah... yes, this energy."

He imprinted the space of the familiars in his partially open ecstatic eyes.

He couldn't even imagine that he could enter this space, where the intrusion of dark mages was not permitted, and even so easily at that.

Even if things were going well, they were going too well. It was as if everything was falling into place as if it had been arranged by the gods themselves.

Thanks to the recent death of one of the students, reducing the number of people, he was able to enter without any suspicion.

And thanks to the enchantment from the leader, he was able to suppress the dark corruption and avoid detection.

From now on, Maizen’s task was simple. He had to taint the familiar residing on the Fourth Layer with the dark corruption and then break the barrier to send them to the upper level.

If Familiar with a minimum Danger Level of 5 or higher were to be tainted by the dark corruption and start rampaging, it would be nothing short of a disaster for the first-year students.

But they would have no space to escape. For a week, no one would be able to leave this place or enter here.

During that week, Maizen planned to consume their blood entirely. The blood of promising mages would become the power of the dark mages.

"I'm looking forward to a week from now."

Maizen indulged in pleasant fantasies and stepped deeper into the roots.