After chasing away Professor Boladi, who had stayed until the end, the skull principal grumbled.

"How nice would it be if everyone was like Professor Garcia?"

"You're giving me too much credit. By the way, when are you going to start the next task?"

"...Just, just taking a little break."

"I see..."

1 minute later.

"By the way, when are you going to start the next ta..."

"I'm going now. I'm going."

The skull principal flew away, shuddering.

Although it was often forgotten due to her normal appearance, Professor Garcia was also someone who had tried to take all the school's lectures at Einroguard.

'If only we could bring a sane professor to the school.'

It was really hard to find a professor who was both excellent in magic and mentally sound.

The skull principal could only lament the unfortunate state of imperial education.

"Phew..."

"..."

"Ha..."

"..."

"Geez..."

"...Could you please stop, Professor Garcia?"

"Pardon?"

"You've been sighing dozens of times since earlier."

"Ah. I'm sorry. I'm just worried."

The skull principal had come out to rest for a bit after finishing today's work until the next path opened, but Professor Garcia didn't spare even that short moment and sighed.

The skull principal lamented the fact that Professor Garcia was diligent.

Even if he wanted to send her back to Einroguard, there was no excuse to do so.

"Wardanaz should be fine. That's what the divination magic showed as well."

"Ah. I was worried about student Ogoldos."

The skull principal gave Professor Garcia a dumbfounded look.

If a 1st-year student and a 2nd-year student were trapped together, one should worry about the 1st-year student...

Realizing that, Professor Garcia also made an excuse with an embarrassed face.

"Of course, I was also worried about student Yi-Han."

"It doesn't seem like you were that worried..."

"Of course I'm worried. If they're trapped inside the ruins, the first thing is food..."

The skull principal thought, 'If they're trapped inside the ruins, shouldn't they be more worried about traps or attacks from sentries rather than food?' but didn't bother to ask.

"You don't need to worry about that. Wardanaz always carries quite a lot of food wherever he goes."

"...Ah, yes. I see."

Professor Garcia was at a loss for words.

What the...

"Excuse me, Mr. Gonadaltes. The adventurers are demanding a meeting. What should we do?"

When the knights came and asked, the skull principal answered as if it was bothersome.

"Tell them that if they bother me one more time, I'll bury them upside down until the work is finished. Keep a close watch. Adventurers have a knack for making things bothersome because they don't understand rules."

"Understood."

After the knights left, Professor Garcia asked again.

"Still, won't they run out of food since the two of them have to endure?"

"Well, considering the amount they carry, they should be able to endure sufficiently until I go in..."

At the skull principal's words, Professor Garcia's face brightened slightly.

"Then that's a relief. Student Ogoldos will also be fine since student Yi-Han is with him."

"...Haven't you noticed anything strange while talking since earlier?"

"Senior. To prepare for any unforeseen situations, we need to save some food, so today's dessert is one slice of cake."

"...Hey, I'm also an Einroguard student."

Ogoldos was dumbfounded as he received the chocolate cake.

By Einroguard student standards, this was a luxurious feast.

Regardless of that, Yi-Han started tapping on the rock again.

The King of Ghouls, who had been mocking him at first, seemed to be getting impatient and tried to interfere with all sorts of tricks.

"You'll never be able to break through like that in your lifetime."

"Think again! What if it collapses!"

"Doing that is useless..."

Ogoldos was newly impressed by Yi-Han.

He had been impressed by this junior several times so far, but this time was a little different.

How could he so thoroughly ignore someone's words?

If it were Ogoldos, even if he pretended to ignore, he would have been bothered and responded or refuted.

However, Yi-Han truly ignored the King of Ghouls as if he didn't even exist.

So much so that the King of Ghouls was screaming as if he was having a fit.

Papapak-

Seeing the falling rock powder, Yi-Han carefully checked the distance he had dug.

Thanks to spending most of his waking hours madly pounding magic in front of this rock, he had dug in quite a distance.

'The saying that a water droplet can pierce a rock is not wrong.'

Float the water orb, spin it, and shoot it.

While repeating this simple process over and over again, Yi-Han was also gradually becoming more skilled.

Although he still couldn't immediately summon a perfect spin...

Bang!

'Oops. I was too hasty.'

Yi-Han clicked his tongue when the water orb burst out as soon as he tried to spin it at high speed right after floating it.

He still had to either spend more time or lower the speed and be satisfied with an imperfect spin.

"Fine. I'll tell you what's inside!"

The King of Ghouls shouted, getting impatient as Yi-Han kept digging.

Of course, Yi-Han ignored him as if he didn't hear. If he put his mind to it, Yi-Han had the ability to hear someone shouting next to him as if it were nothing.

'Let's think of it as the professor's words.'

"Ten thousand demons are sleeping in there. So stop! Even if you keep trying to open it, it won't be good for you either."

In the undead realm, as well as in realms overflowing with violence and struggle, the loser had to kneel before the winner and beg for mercy.

The King of Ghouls had also cruelly trampled on those who had been defeated by him on his way to his current position.

One of those traces was the space sealed by that door.

A space sealed so that the defeated, whose only souls remained, could not be resurrected with power.

Ogoldos's face became serious.

If those words were true, opening it like this was quite dangerous.

Since it wasn't opening a properly sealed door, but blowing up the rock itself in a crude way, it was hard to predict where the trapped ones would fly out.

"Junior. I think we need to think about this for now..."

"Do you think he's telling the truth?"

"Honestly, it sounds quite plausible for a lie."

Trapping threatening rivals like that was exactly the kind of thing a powerful undead would do.

Yi-Han growled in anger.

"How dare he... deceive me by calling that a treasure!"

'It is a treasure though.'

Ogoldos thought to himself.

Such powerful souls could be used to create grand magic or artifacts, so it was no exaggeration to call them treasures.

Of course, it was because Yi-Han wasn't trying to open the door properly now...

"Why are you like that, senior?"

"Th, that's right. Calling this a treasure. Ghoul bastard! You've really gone too far!"

Ogoldos answered hurriedly.

There was still a subtle anger left in Yi-Han's voice.

"If that's true, it's really the worst, senior."

"It's, it's not the worst, is it? We can just wait for rescue..."

"Having to study without being able to salvage more treasures in the remaining time..."

"..."

Ogoldos couldn't really empathize, but he stayed still because he was scared of his junior.

Kwajijijijik!

At that moment, the mana enveloping the entire palace shook like crazy and started to shatter.

The mana guarding the depths also screamed as it swirled around in all directions.

"Kuhuk...!"

Ogoldos fainted and collapsed due to the too strong wave of mana.

Although it wasn't a direct attack, the turbulence of mana rushing in like this was powerful in itself.

Kwaaaaaaang!

"Isn't that method too rough?!"

"Wardanaz will be fine, so stop worrying, Professor Garcia. Wardanaz! If you're alive, prepare to go to the punishment room..."

"No, it's about student Ogoldos."

"Ah."

The skull principal was silent for a moment.

"He won't die."

"You ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■!"

"The student is listening, Professor Garcia. Stop cursing."

"Professor. I'm here."

When she found out that Yi-Han was there, Professor Garcia stopped cursing and ran over. Just by looking at her expression, one could tell how worried the professor had been.

"Student Yi-Han...!"

"I'm sorry for making you worry, Professor."

"No, it's the fault of the person who took a 1st-year student in."

'I was the one who said I would go.'

Since he was the one who had insisted on the dream of making a fortune, Yi-Han felt a little sorry for Professor Mortum.

"Student Ogoldos... He's fine. That's a relief."

Although he had fainted for a moment, his complexion looked good, indicating that he had been safe and well until then.

Professor Garcia sighed in relief and looked around.

There were all sorts of trash, starting from the fact that they had eaten well, as well as a table and a magic book carved out of stone.

If it were other people, they would have been shocked, but the skull principal and Professor Garcia weren't very surprised.

It was only natural to study during break time.

"You've set it up quite comfortably."

"Thank you."

"But what's that?"

The skull principal pointed to the King of Ghouls trapped in the magic circle and asked.

The King of Ghouls seemed to have instinctively sensed what level of grand mage the skull principal was, and lowered his body.

"That, that's the King of Ghouls."

Yi-Han, who had spoken, added an explanation in case he looked too weak now to be the King of Ghouls.

"Although he looks much weaker now, he was a bit more powerful before being trapped, and also, since the title of King of Ghouls can be self-proclaimed..."

"...What the hell are you trying to explain??"

The skull principal was dumbfounded.

If he had eyes, he could tell that was the King of Ghouls.

After hearing the explanation of what had happened, the skull principal sighed.

'I should tell Mortum to avoid Professor Garcia for a while.'

He thought they were just trapped, but they had fought the King of Ghouls and were trapped.

Professor Garcia's fists were already clenched as if they would burst, and the veins next to her temples were bulging and wriggling. If there were no students, a few staffs would have been shattered.

'But that's his own problem to deal with.'

The skull principal decided to worry about Professor Mortum only to that extent.

If he was that old, he should be able to take care of his own life.

"That bastard is really vile and evil."

Yi-Han complained as if his teeth were chattering.

The skull principal was puzzled by that.

Wasn't Yi-Han someone with strong guts, enough to calmly overcome even when harassed by guys like Bagrak or Verduus?

But he was complaining like that.

Was the King of Ghouls that threatening and violent to that extent?

"He told me the location of the treasure and made me do all this work for nothing!"

"..."

The skull principal was dumbfounded when he saw the almost pierced rock.

He knew Yi-Han had a lot of mana, but trying to pierce that huge rock with the remaining time by making the most of that mana was a different story.

Who would have imagined such a thing? It completely surpassed the common sense of mages.

"He is indeed an evil bastard. Undead are usually like that."

"Even the torments of hell wouldn't be enough for him."

"Why are you, as a member of the Wardanaz family, so greedy...?"

The skull principal seemed to have given up and made the King of Ghouls, who was spewing curses, shut up, and flew away.

Then he finished piercing the rock and swallowed the souls of the demons inside in one gulp.

"...!"

"!!!"

It was such an intense scene that even Yi-Han and the King of Ghouls were shocked.

The skull principal emitted a blue light from his eyes and directly bound the swallowed souls. Then he compressed them into a single bone and trapped them.

"Take it."

The skull principal made a bracelet out of the bone and threw it to Yi-Han.

It was a rare and unusual artifact containing the evil souls defeated by the King of Ghouls.

He usually didn't give such special treatment to students, but this much should be fine.

Yi-Han looked at the skull principal with a slightly impressed face.

"Principal...!"

"Yes."

"But shouldn't this kind of artifact originally have jewels in it? I'm not asking this with any particular intention, I'm just curious in terms of stability..."

"..."