Chapter 14 - Shadow World: Strange Tales of the Demon Academy

“Cornelia, are you ready?”

“Mn.”

Dekan moved his limbs around before walking toward the Void Gate with Cornelia.

The feeling of stepping into the Void Gate was identical to the feeling of stepping into the Void Gate created for the Artificial Shadow World.

It was completely pitch-black. Nothing can be seen.

That said, Dekan could tell that Cornelia was next to him.

Apart from his own heartbeat, he could also hear her breathing.

Soon, the surroundings started shining. In a flash, a new view appeared before Dekan’s eyes.

This place…

Dekan surveyed his surroundings.

He seemed to be inside a classroom?

Why ‘seemed’ to be?

The reason for that was because this classroom appeared extremely strange.

Even though it was a very large classroom, roughly two hundred square meters, it appeared extremely dark and stifling.

The only source of light were the couple lanterns hanging on the wall.

Dekan looked down and saw a parchment with a demon symbol printed on it and a set of black writing tools on his desk.

He slowly lifted his head back up. He could see a whole bunch of strange fellows seated in the classroom.

Find the original at bit.ly/3Tfs4P4.

They were all different looking. Most of them had horns of some sort. There were those with black tails and those with strange patterns on their skin.

Furthermore, there were two very dangerous looking fellows walking through the aisles between the desks.

Although they were wearing clothes resembling suits, they were emitting a nauseating reeking of blood and swamp.

Their desire and bloodthirst were fully present in their blood-red eyes. It was as if everything within their field of view were their prey.

This was simply a nightmare scenario.

That being said, Dekan couldn’t help but appreciate the distinctive style of the classroom.

If he were to open up a cafe during the school festival with this as the inspiration, it would definitely be extremely popular.

Alas, this Shadow World was obviously not one that could be easily cleared.

Soon, the Shadow World’s introductions appeared before his eyes.

It was a prompt that could only be seen by the ‘Shadow World Challengers.’

[Shadow World: Strange Tales of the Demon Academy]

[Tier: 4]

[Total Challengers: 6]

[Danger lurks in every corner of this bizarre Demon Academy. Demonic culture was actually a game of massacre. For the purpose of studying demons, several human adventures disguised themselves as demons via the use of lost magic potions. They infiltrated into the Demon Academy only to discover that there were humans being tortured by demons inside the academy. Please rescue the captured humans or release them from their suffering.]

[Mission Objective 1: Explore over 50% of the academy. Current progress: 1%]

[Mission Objective 2: Rescue at least 3 humans. Current progress: 0/3]

[Mission Objective 3: No more than three humans are detected by the demons. Current number of humans still in disguise: 6/6]

[Time remaining: 11 hours 59 minutes.]

[The Exam Room is the starting point for all challengers. The exam’s time limit is 2 hours and 30 minutes. Exam subject: Comprehensive Demonology.]

[Cheating is strictly forbidden in the exam. Upon discovery, exam proctors are allowed to immediately terminate the cheater.]

[Once the exam period is over, those that scored 60 or less shall be judged as failed and will be immediately terminated by the exam proctors.]

[It is allowed for students to hand in their exams before the time limit.]

[Remaining exam time: 2 hours and 29 minutes.]

The prompt would appear or disappear before one’s eyes using one’s thought.

Haah, so we’ve arrived at the Demon Academy?

Here I thought we’re going on a vacation. Turns out only the study location changed.

Dekan cursed in his heart.

He decided to ignore the setting and background for the time being.

But, what the hell was with the tier 4?!

He was only tier 2 and Cornelia tier 3. No matter what, they shouldn’t be allocated into a tier 4 Shadow World!

This made things complicated.

He thought the Shadow World raid would be easy-peasy. Never did he imagine that it might become quite exciting.

That said, the Demon Academy had quite an outstanding academic atmosphere. Those who failed the exam would receive death as punishment.

Who would dare to ignore their studies in such a setting?

Hmmm… I guess my appearance is that of a demon now?

Dekan lowered his head to look at his body. He was wearing the Demon Academy’s student attire. Besides that, his fingernails resembled shiny blade jades.

He rubbed his head and discovered two horns on his head. As for his back, he discovered a long thin tail.

For the time being, he cannot determine what sort of demon he had disguised himself as.

He really wanted to find a mirror to check out his current appearance.

Dekan started to narrowly examine his surroundings. He discovered that there were three students looking around in an obvious manner.

Likely, those were the other challengers.

Likely, there were other challengers cautiously surveying the surroundings like him.

“If I hear whispers again, you will be deemed as cheating!”

A hoarse voice sounded from a roaming examiner. His murderous desire was as strong as a long caged beast on the verge of breaking free.

Terrified, the students immediately lowered their heads to look at their test papers.

Mm, I cannot look around in an obvious manner.

Dekan thought.

But, it seemed like it’s still possible for me to sneak narrow glances.

Earlier, Dekan discovered a good piece of info.

Cornelia was seated right left of him. There was only an empty seat distance between them.

Earlier, he managed to cross gaze with Cornelia.

Cornelia’s outward appearance didn’t change much. The only differences were that there was a pair of tiny dragon horns on her head and that her eyes had turned beastly gold. It seemed like she had turned into a draconic demon.

Seeing her, Dekan was certain that his outward appearance must’ve not changed much either. The reason for that was because Cornelia also recognized him.

Since they’ve found each other, Dekan decided to have a look at the exam.

As a top performing student, Dekan firmly believed that if he doesn’t know the answers to the exam questions, the other challengers will likely not know either. They wouldn’t be able to pass the exam room either.

[Question 1: In order to assimilate into their communities, humans will abandon ¾ of their ego in their growth. To humans, that is something very painful. If demons wanted to assimilate into human communities, what percentage of ego must they abandon?]

[A. ¼]

[B. ¾]

[C. 0]

[D. 1]

Ssss.

Dekan couldn’t help himself from sucking in a mouthful of cold air.

What the fuck is this?! Philosophy?! mathematics?!

As he continued to read the exam, the questions only became stranger and stranger.

Finally, Dekan confirmed that these questions were not meant for humans.

Although some of the questions could be guessed, it would be near-impossible to obtain 60 points by guessing.

After all, there were short answer questions and subjective questions too.

……

Hevenlit Magic Academy. Viewing Hall.

“How come they entered a tier 4 Shadow World?!”

“It’s over! Two new students entered a tier 4 Shadow World! Last year, even the older students were killed in a tier 4 Shadow World!”

“If it’s those two freaks…they might be able to survive. After all, they’ve defeated weakened tier 4 examiners on their entrance exams. But, their experience is severely lacking.”

“Oh no, those are questions regarding demon culture. Even the professors proficient in Shadow Worlds might not be able to pass that exam. We don’t have much information about highly civilized demon societies from the other Shadow Worlds.”

“Let us pray for them…”

……

Professor Arnold was sitting in his office when he suddenly received an emergency summon from the Knight College. He had managed to make his way into the conference room.

“Dean, what do you think about their current situation?”

Arnold asked with some anxiety.

The Dean looked at the College of Alchemy’s broadcast and shook his head.

“It’s hard to say, I’m unable to predict those two’s actual combat abilities either. It’s fortunate that they’ve brought the Viewing Program with them. I will go and figure out exactly what happened.”

There were two explanations for why one would be assigned a Shadow World higher tier than oneself.

Possibility one: One’s simply unlucky and has been allocated with too many strong teammates.

Possibility two: There were high tier individuals that deliberately teamed up with low tier individuals to challenge a lower tier instance dungeon.

It was forbidden by royal decree for people to use Team Cards if their tiers differed more than three because it could severely affect the survivability of other raiders.

Nevertheless, investigations must be done in order to determine exactly what happened.