NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 1027
<1027 – Master of Darkness (5)>
Professor Red Mountain.
She carries a past identity.
Member of the Special Operations Unit, Jekmyomyoh.
It’s a status from the time when she reigned over the Cheonryeong Mountain Range.
She sought help from the Principal to cast a curse and even sent an instructor to watch over the Everlasting Grass, yet she couldn’t find peace.
‘How can I feel safe when my mentor has been robbed of charm and my apprentice has lost face?’
To surpass that rogue combo, she needs more and varied sensing methods.
Thus, Professor Red Mountain set foot in the Cheonryeong Mountain Range after a long time.
[The ancient master of the mountain has returned, let the owners of the peaks show their faces.]
The boss monsters that had been hesitating sent their subordinates to check in and were shocked to hear news of their flunkies.
The new boss monsters that had taken over part of the mountain’s habitat ignored it completely.
Professor Red Mountain clicked her tongue inwardly.
‘I really have lost my temper. I was thinking of addressing this nicely first.’
She chose a way to not get her hands dirty like she would with students, but the turnout was less than half.
It’s understandable that the old boss monsters, who had long since retreated since her absence, either perished or faded away due to competition, passing their positions to their offspring and forgetting Jekmyomyoh’s voice.
However, the fact that Professor Red Mountain should consider their circumstances did not become a reason.
───
<Curse Art>
<A curse that makes rocks appear as handsome men or beautiful women>
───
Inexperienced newbie boss monsters loitered around their respective rocks, committing foolish acts they would regret for a century.
Delighted, they amused themselves with the rocks, exhibiting every ridiculous behavior!
Moreover, that scene was simultaneously broadcasted thanks to Professor Red Mountain’s kind relay magic, so all the monsters in the Cheonryeong Mountain Range could watch live.
───
<Curse Art>
<Cancellation Activated>
───
Realizing that the rock they were fondling was just an ordinary rock and not the handsome man or beautiful woman they had imagined, the boss monsters couldn’t lift their heads in shame.
It was a feeling of self-loathing akin to crazy antics like sleeping with the neighborhood aunt or uncle while drunk!
The sneers from their same-gender subordinates asking if their boss had lost it.
The disdainful looks from their opposite-gender subordinates who were filled with the sentiment of “what a disgrace!”
Feeling as if every living being was laughing at them as they trudged to comply with the summons, they could hardly bear to get impaled on their peak!
But in this case, it wasn’t just a feeling.
It was all publicly revealed due to the simultaneous broadcasting.
They arrived at the summoning place, having faced all sorts of ridiculous humiliation.
“Hey, horny grizzly. To find your mate, you’d better come to our clan. We’ve got a rock as big as you at our peak.”
“I-I don’t really understand what you mean?!”
“I saw it all. Thanks to our ancient master of the Cheonryeong Mountain Range.”
Those who had responded to the summons first realized, looking at the magic of <Spirit's Gaze> that Professor Red Mountain had used, that the spirits clinging to them acted like CCTV.
There was no humiliation worse than this.
To be ridiculed by clan folks who could be covered up was one thing, but those present were all boss monsters from rival clans.
It wasn’t easy to win by force, and even if they did, it would be tough to keep their mouths shut.
If rival clans gleaned this kind of useful information, how many years would they mock it?
This was shame they would carry for a lifetime.
One boss monster, unable to bear social shame, jumped off a cliff, resulting in the change of a peak’s ruler.
“Newbies, are you coming to your senses?”
Several angry newbie boss monsters roared at Professor Red Mountain.
She threw a talisman at the cliff, and three boss monsters tumbled down in sequence.
It’s not like a boss monster died just from free diving without a lifeline—unless they voluntarily released their mana—but how ridiculous did they look doing so?
Every time the boss monsters rebelled against Professor Red Mountain, they learned.
Anyone who opposes Professor Red Mountain faces public humiliation and social execution before everyone.
“Now that you’ve come to your senses, perform this master’s mission. From now on, you are to beat up and capture every human that approaches the Imperial Palace courtyard garden of the Eastern Empire. I will open the path.”
An elite guard squad of Everlasting Grass composed of carefully selected high-level boss monsters!
To be honest, Professor Red Mountain thought that if the defenses were this strong, even Oknodie should be caught.
Although Jiang and the instructor panicked when boss monsters suddenly poured into the aerial garden, those with the strength of graduates or upper-class students should survive that much!
*
As soon as the boss monsters burst into the unfamiliar garden, they first went to sniff around.
No matter how much of a monster they were, tracing their lineage would lead them back to the memories and instincts of the beasts.
Most followed the ancestral instinct to scent-mark or make temporary nests.
‘That flowerbed is just right for lying flat.’
‘If I just strip away the branches, it will make a nest!’
‘The soil is too viscous. I need to spit out some poison.’
The garden was quickly turned upside down by the boss monsters.
“Senior, shouldn’t we… run?”
“I’m starting to fear the wrath of the high-ranking officials in the palace… but for now, Professor Red Mountain is scarier, so I’ll hang in there.”
That was optimistic.
The palace guards didn’t notice the dimension tent, but the boss monsters didn’t overlook it either.
The boss monsters were arrogant.
Instead of blending into the ecosystem, they distorted it to suit themselves.
The change in the environment quickly morphed into distortions in their domain.
High-ranking experts from the palace arrived, sensing the trespass.
“We’re being surrounded. Fold the tent!”
“This could be dangerous, senior?”
One individual wielding a sword like a mountain shattered the upper half of a giant golem.
Ziang deflected the shards flying towards the tent with his memorized spells, but what they failed to notice was the sudden commotion in mid-air.
The boss monsters, furious at their comrade being taken down first, retaliated.
“I’ll transform you into a puddle of blood.”
The enormous poison frog, continuously spewing out poison while producing its own toxic pool, unleashed its toxin.
The force rivaled that of a machine gun, breaking the swordsmen’s stances and stirring their guts due to pure water pressure rather than the poison.
It was hard enough to counteract the poison, but once countered, the poisonous splash threatened their very breathing.
Such toxins began to accumulate on the battlefield.
The instructor naturally used wind magic to push the toxic slop outside the tent.
“I’m feeling empty.”
A giant centipede emerged from the ground, swallowing a swordsman whole before vanishing back to Gehenna.
A large bear hurled rocks, and the sword energy rained down, wreaking havoc in the garden.
It was truly a chaotic scene!
“The world’s changing, and the ecology of the weird creatures is collapsing, yet those who dare to step foot in this land are brazen?”
The tide of battle which had initially favored the boss monsters turned when a man clad in the robes of a masked priest appeared.
Ziang felt a strange inferiority when looking at the man’s mask.
Unlike his own mask, which merely had practical abilities enhancing its stealth and intent, this had an altogether different aura.
It was like the unsettling feeling of witnessing someone who grew up as a commoner seated at the pinnacle of a feudal society.
He couldn’t understand why he felt such emotions, and it only fueled his fear.
In the Gift Academy, ignorance leads to losses.
But how could a person be unaware of oneself?
Especially an assassin.
The slightest sensation at the tip of a finger.
A brief emotional ripple.
A tiny miscalculation.
One mistake.
Each could lead to a loss of life.
How could one like her be unaware of her own feelings?
That’s absurd.
Thus, this wasn’t due to Jiang’s lack of training.
It was simply that the being before him possessed a hideous mental and territorial capability to evoke others’ instincts.
To Jiang, a creature of this caliber should certainly be at least professor level or higher.
“Celestial Observer! Help me!”
“Wear the mask.”
The masks thrown by the Celestial Observer landed in the hands of the guards.
Those who wore them without hesitation unleashed the bizarre powers that the mask contained.
Those who were pushed by brute force retaliated with brute strength.
Those who were overwhelmed by poison spewed it back.
Those dragged underground tore through the ground like water.
Contract Mark.
Seal Magic.
Before they could even grasp what lay hidden beneath it, the celestial observer’s gaze accurately fell upon Jiang and the instructor, concealed in the dimension tent.
“It’s alien.”
Swinging the long offering used for sacrifices, the bell at the end rang, disrupting and distorting the dimensional forcefield that the tent unfolded.
Clang!
Jiang and the instructor became forcibly exposed.
As they struggled to hide their disgrace, the guards in masks turned their heads at impossible angles to meet their gaze.
They were done for.
In an instant, they were under the scrutinizing eyes of both factions and faced with concentrated attacks.
Jiang realized that the focus of their gaze was subtly not directing towards them.
Tracing where that gaze ended, it was…
“Help! Let me out!”
Amid the chaos, Oknodie lay trapped beneath the collapsed tent, wriggling helplessly.