Magic Tools Are Selling Too Well

There’s a genius undergraduate selling magic tools in the Alchemy Department!
Something… Something is different! Magic tools made by the genius undergraduate are somehow different!

Such rumors began to spread like a trend in the Swordsmanship Department.

It was certainly unusual.
Only those with positions of researcher or higher who had graduated from the academy could sell items at the academy’s alchemy shop, and even then, the reality was that they didn’t sell well.

The reason was simple.
You could find better quality magic tools at any alchemy shop in the imperial capital outside the academy.
There were many outstanding alchemists even if they weren’t researchers, and most students preferred to buy magic tools from private shops.

The continent is vast, and heroes are numerous.
Just as demons and monsters pour down like rain when gates open, hero aspirants were snowballing all over the continent.

It was truly amazing that a single undergraduate student’s magic tools were selling like hotcakes, breaking through the alchemy of so many hero aspirants and already graduated heroes.
Moreover, he wasn’t even a senior, but a second-year student.

“Is this the magic tool made by that undergraduate…?”

Jenith Polgram, the top student of the entire 4th year in the Swordsmanship Department, looked at a stone he held in his hand.
A rough stone emitting reddish light from various spots.
A combat magic tool commonly called exstone.

It was a magic tool that his freshman younger sibling had waited two hours to buy for him as he was going out for combat practice.

[Explosion Stone]

Type: Stone
Creator: Sacher Philip
A stone that causes a large explosion where it’s thrown. It needs to be infused with a bit of mana and thrown to be effective. If it hits a monster, it can cause a chain reaction.

Jenith had used exstones before as well.
Although it wasn’t frequently used due to its high price, it was definitely practical, and since Jenith was a noble, he could afford it without financial constraints.

However, the sentence “If it hits a monster, it can cause a chain reaction” in the last line of the appraisal information was something even he had never seen before.

‘So it’s not just an empty rumor.’

Magic tools made by the genius undergraduate are somehow different.
Recalling that rumor, Jenith gave a bitter smile.

Jenith hated the word genius.
As someone who had never lost the top spot from his freshman year to his current fourth year, he disliked how his accumulated efforts were belittled by a single word “genius”.
Born as the eldest son of the “Count Polgram family,” known as a family of knights, he had held a sword without resting even once since he was six years old.
What put him in the top position was 80% effort.

But ironically, Jenith had to acknowledge this rumor.
It was a result that was hard to believe was made by an undergraduate student.
It was amazing enough that a second-year student made a combat magic tool, but it even had additional information he had never seen before in its appraisal.
There was no other way to explain it except with the word genius.

“Break time is over! Everyone, finish your preparations.”

The professor from the Swordsmanship Department in charge of supervision called out.

This combat practice was monster hunting in an underground dungeon created by a special gate.

Gates are generally divided into blue regular gates, red special gates, and black invasion gates.

Regular gates occur in specific places like mountains, forests, or wastelands, and generate monsters daily.
Special gates appear creating dungeons or mana-related topographical features, and there are places where monsters are repeatedly generated or disappear after being cleared once.
Lastly, invasion gates were a kind of dimensional passage through which demons and monsters came to invade when a demon war broke out.

This underground dungeon was one of the special gates where E-rank monsters “Axe Goblin Warriors” were generated daily. The level of monsters was appropriate, making it a frequently used practice location by the department.

“Once we pass this room, it’s the master room. Your group has done well without any particular deductions despite being the first, so if you clear this as is, you’ll be able to get bonus points. Just a little more effort!”

The professor encouraged the tired students with ceremonial words.

The group of 10 Swordsmanship Department students, including Jenith, was the first in the order for this practice.
Although there was a supervising professor, it was impossible not to be nervous in a real situation where they had to kill monsters.

As all the students finished their preparations and stood up, the professor opened the door to the last room.
And… he realized something had gone terribly wrong.

The professor urgently drew his sword and shouted.

“All students, stick to the walls and form a defensive line! Split into two groups of five!”

The “master room” where the master should have been residing was, for some reason, filled with monsters.
It was an unexpected variable of the special gate.
Dozens, no, nearly hundreds of monsters?
The professor felt his head spinning at the countless number of monsters filling the room.
This number of monsters was certainly something the professor could handle alone.
But the problem was that there were newbie hero aspirants to protect behind him.
Could he block all the monsters that would rush past him towards the students while he dealt with them?
Trying to shake off the negative thoughts dominating his mind, the professor infused mana into his sword.

Kieeek-!
Kieeee-!

“Crazy! There are too many goblins!”
“Everyone, stay calm! As long as we don’t expose our backs, they’re just the same ones we’ve been killing until now.”

It was as the professor had expected.
He couldn’t block all the goblins swarming like bees.
Even as the goblins fell like autumn leaves to the professor’s sword, they rushed towards the students behind him.

‘Somehow… we’ll manage to kill them all.’

Jenith thought as he thrust his sword into the head of a goblin rushing at him.

No matter how many there are, they’re still E-rank monsters.
With himself, the top student of the 4th year, and a professor-level hero present, it was only a matter of time before they could deal with them.

The problem, however, was his classmates pressed against the wall with him.
Not everyone had excellent swordsmanship like Jenith, so there was a possibility of casualties from the goblins’ blind axe swings.
And having casualties in his group due to an unexpected situation was something Jenith couldn’t accept.

“I’ll buy some time somehow.”

Jenith pulled out the exstone he had been looking at earlier.
If he could just clear out the monsters on this side, he could help the professor deal with the remaining goblins.

“I didn’t expect to use it in practice, but…”

The situation was urgent enough to use anything available.

Jenith infused mana and threw the exstone at the group of goblins surrounding the students.

With a ‘thud’ sound, the exstone hit the head of a goblin.

And about 2 seconds later.
A tremendous explosion that seemed to shake the entire dungeon enveloped the space.

BOOM-!!
BANG! BANG! BOOM!!

“Everyone, duck!!”

The students briefly ducked their heads at the sudden explosion and tearing sounds.
It seemed like they would turn to ashes if they faced this explosion head-on, which sounded like it could deafen them just by hearing it.

The professor, who had just finished clearing out the last goblin in the master room, hurriedly moved towards the explosion that erupted behind him.
He had just become able to help the students, and suddenly this happened.

“What’s going on!”

The smoke created by the explosion made it difficult to see the situation ahead.

The professor checked on the students’ survival as he pushed through the smoke.
Fortunately, all 10 were alive with no major injuries.

It was a huge relief.
The professor asked about the situation while escorting all 10 to the rear where there was no smoke.

“What happened? Why did an explosion suddenly occur?”
“We’re not sure either. Jenith suddenly used a magic tool and this happened…”

Magic tool?
Hearing those words, the professor immediately thought of an exstone.
It was the most representative stone-type magic tool among exploding combat magic tools.

But no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t believe an exstone had caused this level of explosion.
This level of power would require at least a high-level magic spell like [Explosion].
It was literally nonsensical for a mere magic tool to produce the power of magic that only a professor from the Magic Department could cast.

The professor’s puzzled gaze fell on Jenith, but he was staring into the smoke with an expression as if entranced by something.

And as time passed and the smoke cleared, an unbelievable sight appeared.
Dozens of goblins that had been rushing towards the students were all lying dead.

“What is this…”

The professor looked at the scene before him in disbelief.

This was a sight that couldn’t be created even with [Explosion].
Was [Explosion] an area-of-effect magic that could kill nearly 100 monsters?
As far as he remembered, it was considered to have killed many if it took out twenty monsters.

“Something…”
“Huh?”

The professor’s head turned as Jenith, who had been quietly staring at the mountain of goblin corpses, muttered.

Jenith slowly spoke while stroking his chin with one hand.

“Something is different…”
“What?”

The professor couldn’t help but ask stupidly.

What’s different?

But Jenith, paying no heed, shouted like an explorer who had made an amazing discovery.

“Magic tools made by the genius undergraduate are somehow…!”

…And so, another regular customer of the alchemy shop was being born.