This youth, Arthur, was one of the more promising ones.

  His few cronies were also decent; their physiques were clearly a cut above the average person nearby, having obviously soaked up a considerable amount of “Corpse-Red Mist” and built a solid foundation.

  But the others with them were not so great. It was clear they were mostly ordinary people who had barely absorbed any “Corpse-Red Mist” at all. Limited potential.

  Another group with potential was the small faction from the manor. The group centered around a girl named Pandora. It was quite rare.

  Most people in this small group seemed to have absorbed some “Corpse-Red Mist,” their physical conditioning clearly much better than the others. Especially those three dressed as knights, and that round-faced, rather adorable girl, Betty.

  Among them, the knightess Aurora was the most outstanding and thus caught Poppy’s attention the most.

  Poppy pegged Aurora as the one with the most potential out of this entire batch of freshmen.

  Her gait was incredibly steady. Her physical conditioning was excellent. That was the result of relentless training, over years, an achievement carved into the very instincts of her body. And she was able to remain constantly vigilant. This was especially valuable in a chaotic scene like the one they had just witnessed.

  What was strange… was that girl Pandora, surrounded by everyone at the center. Although her personality seemed cautious and calm, without the airs of a typical young lady, making her relatively pleasant, her physical fitness… was no different from an ordinary person’s.

  And the perfectly beautiful, doll-like personal maid beside her, Elsa, was in a similar situation.

  Poppy wasn’t very optimistic about the future of this master-and-servant pair. She’d seen it too many times before. Those past identities were destined to fade away…

  These tight-knit groups, held together by old-world relationships, would inevitably, after entering the Academy and facing its new, cruel rules of survival, ultimately fall apart. If this master and servant pair couldn’t adapt to life at the Academy, couldn’t complete their transformation… their future was destined to have only one outcome: death.

  Besides the manor’s group and Arthur’s group, there weren’t many others with potential. In her initial assessment, only two others were worth her attention…

  “HIISSS—ROWWR—!!”

  Just as Poppy was silently observing this batch of freshmen, a zombie, constantly pacing at the edge of their procession, attracted by the scent of blood but intimidated by the aura of her black smoke, suddenly let out an exceptionally violent, terrified roar.

  This roar directly jabbed at the group’s already frayed nerves.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  The crowd stirred slightly. But soon, they calmed down again. Because they realized the zombie wasn’t roaring to attack.

  On the contrary! Its rotting body seemed to have sensed something, something far more terrifying than the black mist! It was actually… fleeing!

  Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, the zombie, in a posture of near-panic they had never imagined, scrambled into a nearby alley without a backward glance and vanished in an instant.

  The freshmen, naturally, attributed all of this to Poppy’s actions. Without her even knowing it, their yearning for her power was invisibly pushed to an even higher level.

  However, Poppy herself knew that she hadn’t done it. She hadn’t given the zombie any hint or applied any extra pressure.

  But, if it wasn’t her, who could it be? It couldn’t be this group of freshmen who hadn’t even planted their “Plague Seeds,” could it?

  Poppy’s fine brows furrowed slightly. For the first time, she felt a sliver of… a desire to investigate this batch of so-called “freshmen.”

  She completely failed to notice that on the face of the girl in the center of the group, the one she had categorized as “limited potential,” beneath that calm expression, a flicker of suppressed, restrained excitement shone.

  That’s right, that last move was done by Pandora.

  Pandora had been observing for a long time, observing the black smoke, observing the faintly visible, incomprehensible, vicious beast-shadows within it. She suddenly had an idea. She wanted to know just how far the power of a second-rank Wizard, on a spiritual level, could go. She wanted to know if a mental interference could simulate a deterrence effect similar to what Poppy had demonstrated.

  And so, she tried it.

  But the power of a Wizard, strong in the spiritual realm, wasn’t as easy to control as a physical ability. It took her some effort to focus her mind to its peak, then, using an imagined, invisible “thorn,” she focused that immense spiritual power into a sharp point, and released it toward the luckless zombie.

  The result… was unexpectedly good!

  The zombie’s reaction was one of utter terror, as if it had been marked by a higher-level predator. It immediately abandoned the fresh, living meat right in front of it and fled!

  But… Pandora then gently shook her head. She knew very well. This “technique” of her own wasn’t very useful. Because the method of use was too crude. While it could produce a great deterrent effect on simple-minded zombies, the drain was immense. That one move had instantly emptied nearly half of her spiritual reserves.

  And because the drain was so fast, she even felt a slight, hangover-like dizziness. It wasn’s that her second-rank Wizard self wasn’t strong enough. It was purely that her technique was too primitive, too unrefined. Without the mysterious “Wizardrys” from her Wizard’s Book—those with specific structures and runes—she couldn’t yet form a truly effective, refined lethality.

  Shaking her head, she sighed at the fact that her Wizard’s Book didn’t even contain the most basic “Wizardrys.”

  Pandora wasn’t too disappointed, though. After all, once she was at the Demon Hunter Academy, she would have plenty of opportunities to acquire more.

  ………………

  Before they knew it, led by Teaching Assistant Poppy, this procession, full of vigilance and curiosity, finally arrived at the Academy’s campus.

  Pandora looked ahead and was slightly surprised.

  It wasn’t the green, tree-lined campus, buzzing with the sound of students, that she had imagined.

  On the contrary, the place retained major traces of being an “industrial zone.”

  That’s right. the “campus” where Demon Hunter Apprentices studied and lived day-to-day was actually converted from an unimaginably vast, long-abandoned industrial zone.

  Its area was several times larger than any university campus Pandora had ever seen in her past life.

  However, such a massive campus didn’t feel empty.

  According to Poppy, they were considered a relatively late batch of freshmen to arrive this year. So, throughout the campus, apprentices could be seen coming and going from time to time.