The Genius Professor Wants An Easy Life - Chapter 42
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 42
Savior of the Great Dragon.
From the episode name alone, you could guess that the goal wasn’t simply to eliminate the evil dragon Ashtart.
Rather, we had to save the evil dragon Ashtart.
‘Ashtart isn’t just some ordinary evil dragon, after all.’
The problem was the difficulty.
It wasn’t for nothing that all manner of veterans in the community had proclaimed this dungeon as the answer.
But then.
‘…Why is there nothing?’
Normally, the closer you approached the chamber where Ashtart lay sealed, the more difficult traps and guardians would block your path—yet there were none of those.
There were only trivial traps and low-level Chaos Monsters.
‘Why is that?’
Meanwhile, the others, ignorant of my concerns, let out sighs of relief.
Kansir and Balas, in particular, were absolutely swaggering.
“I was worried since it’s an evil dragon’s nest, but it’s nothing much.”
“Indeed, sir. For Balas, something like this is simple enough.”
The two flashed me smug, contemptuous smiles.
Since the traps were so straightforward that the two of them were handling everything without needing my help, they were practically puffed up with pride.
‘Something feels off. Is this really okay?’
Uneasy, I checked the Win Rate Reader again.
: 73.32%
The win rate had jumped dramatically from the original 50.5%!
It should have been good news, but it didn’t sit right.
Something had clearly changed.
“You there, you talked big enough, but all you do is stand there frozen.”
“I beg your understanding. I suffer from Mana Insensitivity—what can I do? This dungeon requires ‘proper’ mages like us to step forward. Professor, you just follow along at our heels.”
As the two strode confidently ahead, Aktar from the Rebel Forces approached me cautiously.
“…Doesn’t something feel wrong to you?”
Aktar seemed to share my unease.
“For now, let’s keep moving. We can’t turn back anyway.”
“…Understood. Everyone, heighten your vigilance!”
I fiddled with my pockets, gripped by an ominous feeling.
I touched the “preparations” I’d brought along just in case, but nothing remarkable happened after that.
It felt like driving down a wide-open road in an automobile.
The win rate kept climbing.
-Probability of clearing the Great Dragon’s Nest: 83.6%
-Probability of clearing the Great Dragon’s Nest: 95.8%
Yet the sense of foreboding only grew stronger.
The Rebel Forces knights’ faces had gone tense, and even Yohen, still a raw-faced holy warrior, seemed to feel the instinctive danger, his fists clenching tight.
Only two remained cheerful: Kansir and Balas.
“Ha, easy doesn’t even begin to describe it. Or is it just that I’m strong?”
“If it were going to be like this, we should have come alone. Why drag along dead weight like Professor here anyway?”
Then.
Crash!
A chamber as grand as a cathedral came into view.
This was the final chamber of the dungeon.
Beyond this, Ashtart slumbered.
‘We’re supposed to defeat the final guardian…?’
But then, an astonishing sight appeared.
The guardian lay sprawled on the ground, its neck severed.
It had been a guardian of Lv. 7.
‘Who?’
Only then did Kansir and Balas sense something amiss, their faces going rigid.
“What is this thing? An undead?”
“…Something’s not right here. This is a Lv. 7 Bone Dragon Knight, isn’t it?”
And at that same moment.
-You have cleared the Great Dragon’s Nest!
A new threat has appeared. Running Win Rate analysis.
– 0.27%
I doubted my own eyes.
Not because of the abysmal 0.27% probability.
It was the name itself: “Chaos Monster.”
‘Why is that name appearing here all of a sudden?’
In that instant.
A chilling presence erupted, and I cried out reflexively.
“Everyone, be careful!”
Crash!!
“Gahhh!!”
Kansir was hurled backward, blood spraying from his mouth.
Without even understanding what had happened.
Balas beside him went ashen and frantically threw up a shield.
The Fractal Shield—so confident it could block any attack.
And yet.
“Gahhh!!”
A flash of sickly black light. Then a deafening crack of shattering glass as Balas was thrown backward and lost consciousness.
Both of them were fighters of considerable skill, and they’d been brought down in a single moment.
Of course they had.
It was inevitable.
If my enemy truly was the ‘one’ I thought it was.
Then, at last.
Footsteps sounded.
The moment I saw who had appeared, my heart sank.
“The Black Swan.”
Amanda—the Black Swan who had vanished so abruptly from the Training Hall—had appeared.
The problem lay in the energy coiling around her.
Chaos was consuming her.
* * *
‘Amanda, the Black Swan, was a Chaos Monster?’
I understood now why I had no memory of seeing her in the scenario.
She looked so different from before—I hadn’t recognized her.
‘She’s the monster that appears in “Descent of Calamity,” one of the main scenarios of the second year.’
And not just any monster.
She was so impossible to defeat that the protagonists themselves had to join forces with the military to subdue her.
‘Why has she awakened as a Chaos Monster all of a sudden? Because of Ashtart?’
Then, as if in answer, a voice spoke.
-No, it wasn’t me.
It was Ashtart’s voice!
-I had only meant to help her. But she refused, and after that, she became like this without my knowledge.
Someone else had interfered—someone other than Ashtart.
‘It wouldn’t be a lie. Ashtart may be misunderstood, but she is truly a great and righteous dragon.’
Still, I had no time to dwell on the details.
‘I need to escape, now!’
As I could see from the Level 7 Guardian lying unconscious, this was no enemy I could face at full power.
But it was too late.
“Be careful, Your Holiness! Ugh!”
Slash!!
Amanda swung a scythe wrapped in some unknown energy.
Aktar blocked it, but his face went pale.
‘The Chaos Energy—it has the property of disrupting mana!’
In the scenario, the Chaos Monster received an “Unknown Level” designation.
It meant her rank could not be assessed.
The aura and strength she wielded weren’t quite like those of high-level monsters, but the Chaos Energy she possessed made her far more difficult to combat.
She was virtually immune to ordinary sword energy or magic.
‘Only unpowered, conventional weapons can harm her.’
The problem was that her own defense was on par with that of high-level monsters, making it nearly impossible to land effective physical damage with ordinary weapons.
This was why the military couldn’t contain her, and why the protagonists had to intervene.
‘My magic won’t work on it either.’
For a moment I considered drawing a sword, but I let it go.
No matter how much the Versatile Trait blessed me, there was no way I could stand against a Chaos Monster without ever having trained in swordplay.
‘If it were possible, the win rate wouldn’t be 0.27%.’
At minimum, two well-trained knight-class protagonists and two support-class protagonists working in concert could barely suppress it.
And then, the worst possible thing happened.
“Allow me to lend my strength as well!!”
Yohen had unleashed his Holy Power.
I was horrified, but it was too late.
Amanda’s eyes fixed on Yohen with a chilling intensity.
And then.
“Ugh!”
“Holy man!!”
Amanda seized Yohen by the throat.
[Holy Power…is it? Still green, I see. I’ll eliminate it.]
Amanda—or rather, the Chaos Monster inhabiting her—spoke with grotesque malevolence.
‘This can’t happen!!’
But what could I possibly do?
A win rate of 0.27% meant certain defeat.
‘Damn it, should I just beg for mercy?’
The situation had become so dire that such thoughts crossed my mind.
But then, a single method suddenly occurred to me.
‘…Wait, I don’t necessarily have to defeat this Chaos Monster. In fact, losing might be exactly what creates the opportunity I need.’
An idea that would make others tilt their heads in confusion.
But I was deadly serious.
It was a gamble of the highest order, but right now there was no other move available.
“Hold on. Stop what you’re doing, creature. I have a proposal for you. Why don’t you leave that helpless boy alone and face me instead?”
[Hmm?]
The Chaos Monster let out a contemptuous laugh.
[You’re scheming. Why should I? I’ll simply kill you all in order.]
“If you listen to me, I will surrender my body to you.”
[!!]
The creature stiffened.
[…Do you speak the truth?]
“Of course. But only if I fall to you first.”
[…….]
“You of all things would understand—how magnificent a vessel I am. If you obtain my body, you could become something truly great.”
Greed blazed in the creature’s eyes.
With a sudden motion, it hurled Yohen aside and fixed its gaze upon me.
[Kekeke, excellent. If I seize your body, perhaps avenging myself against the Demon King who cast me into this state is no longer a dream. I shall tear the Demon King to shreds and lay this world beneath my feet.]
‘Perfect!’
Needless to say, I had no intention of actually surrendering my body to it.
Even if things went wrong, I had a safety measure in place.
‘If my plan falls apart, I’ll slip away with the Return Scroll.’
My secret trump card.
It was my tool for tactical retreat when all else failed.
Better to preserve my life than face destruction.
But Yohen, unaware of my dark calculations, suddenly cried out.
“No! How could you make such a sacrifice?! I’m supposed to be the holy one!”
‘No, I wasn’t really planning to sacrifice anything.’
This was a carefully laid trap.
It needed to be crystal clear.
After all, I had to deceive the Chaos Monster even more thoroughly.
“Didn’t I tell you? No professor would stand by and watch a student face danger.”
“!!”
Even I had to admit—a flawless, perfectly noble statement.
The eyes of everyone present, Yohen foremost among them, trembled with emotion.
-He’s not like me at all… He’s the one who’s truly a holy man.
Especially Yohen’s gaze held that very meaning.
…Somehow I’d managed to create a serious misunderstanding, but I let it slide for now.
The Chaos Monster fell for my deception as well.
[Kekek, impressive. But that’s where it ends. I’ll seize your body and snuff out that whelp’s life.]
Shhaaack!
It wielded a mass of blackened Chaos Energy.
I deployed a Fractal Shield, but of course it proved useless.
“Ugh.”
I fell to my knees in utter defeat, and Yohen and the Rebel Forces’ knights cried out in anguish.
“No!!”
“My lord!!”
They rushed forward without thought, so I quickly stopped them.
“Hold! Don’t come closer! I will face this creature alone!”
It was part of the plan, but with the Black Flame Dragon’s flair for dramatics mixed in, it looked for all the world like I was making some sort of holy sacrifice.
“No, this can’t be.”
Tears welled up in Yohen’s doe-like eyes.
The creature moved within reach and seized my throat.
[Now your vessel belongs to me.]
Groooowwwl.
Eerie script bloomed from Amanda’s body and hung suspended in the air.
Its true nature was a higher-dimensional Existential Curse with self-awareness.
Now it was trying to take root within me.
Shhaaack!
The cursed letters burrowed into my body.
“Stop!!”
“My lord!!!”
“Ban, don’t do this! If you die like this, my hundred thousand page debt will go straight back to the Rafalte Duchy…!!”
I thought I caught some of Linden’s rambling in the chaos, but there was no time to dwell on it.
[Kekek, it’s over. Now I shall become a magnificent being…!]
But that laughter didn’t last long.
[Why? Why? I cannot seize the vessel at all…?]
The creature’s voice, now panicked.
In that moment, I smiled with bitter triumph.
It was the smile of victory.
“Fool. You didn’t even know what I am, and yet you dared to seize my body.”
[!!]
“I am the Lord of Magic. The one who commands magic itself. The moment you entered my body, you cannot stand against me.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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