The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 18

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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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Chapter 18. Mental Training (3)
The gazes of the surrounding Candidates converged upon me.
Perhaps it was due to the events that had unfolded over the past few weeks.
The eyes fixed upon me were no longer filled with the mockery and contempt I had grown accustomed to in my previous life, but rather brimmed with anticipation and hope.
‘I still haven’t adjusted to this.’
It felt like wearing a new pair of shoes that hadn’t yet been broken in.
Having lived a lifetime without ever receiving a shred of expectation, I supposed it was inevitable.
‘I’ll grow accustomed to it in time, I suppose.’
To be honest, it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant sensation.
“Wouldn’t you like to experience it?”
“No, I’ll do it.”
I rose slowly from my seat and approached Professor Morpheus.
Then.
“Um… Dale.”
Iris gently grasped the edge of my collar as I moved forward.
Iris glanced around nervously, then leaned toward me and whispered in a hushed voice.
“If you feel like you can’t endure it, please wave your right arm.”
“My right arm?”
“Yes. Just wave it lightly. Do you understand?”
“Um… I understand.”
I couldn’t discern what Iris intended to do.
But there would likely be no need for her intervention.
‘An illusion, then.’
How many seconds had I endured in my previous life?
The memory was too distant to recall clearly.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter.’
Regardless of what illusion was presented, the outcome would remain unchanged.
“Simply sit comfortably in the chair, close your eyes, and relax.”
This felt like some sort of hypnotherapy session.
I settled into the chair with such trivial thoughts occupying my mind.
I closed my eyes and released all tension from my body.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“Then, I shall begin.”
Professor Morpheus’s hand covered my eyes.
And.
‘This is….’
A crimson wasteland.
Sticky moisture clinging to the air, and the acrid metallic stench of blood assaulting my nostrils.
A place where severed corpses lay piled high enough to form small hills.
The Classroom where I’d been sitting moments before vanished without a trace, replaced by a desolate, nightmarish landscape drenched in blood and corpses.
‘Is this Professor Morpheus’s illusion magic?’
Undoubtedly.
Despite knowing full well it was an illusion, the scene was rendered with such vivid, unsettling clarity that it felt entirely real.
Severed limbs and spilled entrails, maggots writhing through flesh, exposed brain matter oozing across the ground—the catalog of horrors seemed endless.
Even a seasoned hero, let alone a mere Candidate, would have grimaced and turned away from such a sight.
‘But this can’t be all there is.’
If the illusion had ended with merely showing us this grotesque tableau, there would have been no reason for Albert—who’d experienced the illusion before me—to cry out “Get away!” or “Help me!”
—*Squelch.*
Then came a wet, sickening sound near my ear.
‘As I suspected, there’s more to this.’
I turned my head toward the source of the noise.
What I saw there was—
“What in the world is that?”
Writhing, gelatinous green tentacles undulating with grotesque fluidity.
The beast, sprouting tentacles across its entire body and wielding them with terrible precision, fixed me with eight gleaming eyes that burned with predatory hunger.
—*Squelch, crackle.*
From the writhing tentacles, a viscous pus oozed like slime, releasing a stench so vile it was almost tangible.
‘Now I understand why Albert lost his composure.’
Even I, who’d faced countless beasts across my previous life, felt my stomach lurch at the sheer abomination of its form.
“KEEEEEEEEEEEE!!”
The beast shrieked with a cry as hideous as its appearance and lunged forward.
The tentacles sprouting from its body whipped like wild hair, flinging droplets of yellow pus that splattered across the ground.
Every instinct screamed at me to flee, to scream, to abandon all pretense of composure—illusion or not.
“Haah.”
I drew a deep breath and steadied my mind.
‘It’s nothing but an illusion, after all.’
Then, unbidden—
The phantom images of my fallen comrades, wandering alone across the endless Snowy Wasteland, surfaced in my memory.
Illusions I’d conjured myself, born from the crushing weight of loneliness.
‘No matter how grotesquely this tentacled monstrosity is formed—’
Could it possibly be more horrifying than the phantoms of my dead companions?
‘This is nothing.’
Compared to the life I’ve lived.
Compared to the deaths I’ve witnessed.
A mere tentacle beast, repulsive in appearance alone, is utterly insignificant.
—*Screeeech!*
As I stood unflinching, meeting the charge of the tentacled beast head-on, a sudden, searing pain erupted from my left chest.
“Hgh.”
I lowered my gaze, wincing, and saw the Primordial Flame blazing around my stigma, its sacred fire burning with renewed intensity.
‘What the—?’
The Primordial Flame had ignited without my Resurrection blessing activating—why was it responding out of nowhere?
Before I could even process the question forming in my mind.
“KIIIIEEEEEK!”
The beast’s form began to blur and fade as it charged forward with a horrific shriek.
As if it were being consumed by an immense inferno.
The grotesque creature, covered entirely in nauseating tentacles, and the corpses piled high enough to form a small hill—all of it transformed into gray ash and scattered away.
‘The Primordial Flame has this function too?’
As I stared at the phantom burning away while suppressing a hollow laugh, the surrounding landscape—which had been drenched in blood and death—suddenly transformed back into the Classroom.
“Huh… That’s quite impressive.”
And then came Morpheus’s voice.
“I never expected you to break free from my illusion magic on your own.”
Morpheus examined me from head to toe, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“Ha. I thought I’d accumulated considerable experience as a professor, but… this is a first for me.”
He’d seen Candidates endure the illusion for a minute before.
Though rare, there were Candidates whose magical reserves were so vast, or whose natural resistance was so strong, that the illusion itself never took hold.
But.
A Candidate who had clearly been caught in the illusion yet broke free from it mid-way—or rather, burned through it—was Dale. This was the first time.
“How did you manage that?”
How did I do it, he asks.
‘I’m the one who’s curious about that.’
I shrugged while swallowing a bitter laugh.
“I have no idea.”
“Hmm.”
“Either way, I passed the test, correct?”
As I stood up from my chair and asked, Morpheus nodded with a gentle smile.
“Of course. This isn’t just a pass—it’s worthy of bonus points.”
“That would be nice.”
“Ha. I’d like to give them, but bonus points are ultimately at the discretion of the supervising professor…”
Morpheus trailed off and glanced back at Lucas Kane.
Lucas Kane looked at me with a satisfied expression, yet shook his head firmly.
“No matter how well you performed, I cannot award bonus points that weren’t announced beforehand.”
“Ugh.”
Such a stingy bastard.
“What, you have a complaint?”
“How could I possibly object to the stern Professor Lucas Kane’s decision?”
“Cut the act. Anyway, those who passed the test will be dismissed after morning classes today—so go ahead and challenge yourselves as much as you like.”
At the announcement that those who passed would be sent home after morning classes, the Classroom erupted in excitement.
Early dismissal.
Was there any phrase more capable of thrilling the Candidates than these four words?
“I’ll give it a try!”
“Me too!”
“I can do it!”
The Candidates surged forward en masse, each eager for their turn.
Watching Dale pass the test so effortlessly, they exchanged whispers with noticeably relaxed expressions.
“Haha. So Albert was just being dramatic about the whole thing, wasn’t he?”
“Right?”
“That’s… strange. How could anyone watch that and not react?”
“Honestly, Albert deserves credit for his theatrics.”
“No… that can’t be right.”
The Candidates chuckled at Albert’s aggrieved expression.
“Now then, please sit comfortably in the chair and close your eyes.”
“Okay!”
The next Candidate sat down with a confident expression.
And then.
“AAAAHHHHHHH!”
A Candidate shrieked in terror, their face contorted with fear.
“KYAAAAH!”
“Eek!”
“P-please, save me!”
“T-tentacles… the tentacles!”
The Classroom filled with horrific screams.
“Haha. You all look quite healthy, thankfully. Youth truly is a wonderful thing~.”
Professor Morpheus grinned cheerfully as he wove his illusions, and the “Mental Fortitude” class continued.
* * *
After the morning classes ended.
“So only Dale and Iris passed the test. Camilla was nearly there too—what a shame.”
Professor Lucas Kane clicked his tongue and surveyed the Candidates sprawled about in exhaustion.
“You were all so confident, yet only two passed? Heh. I’m sure you know what happens to those who fail the test?”
Professor Lucas Kane shook a container of special juice with a sinister smile.
The Candidates’ faces went pale as they beheld the bubbling green liquid inside.
“Ugh….”
Camilla clenched her fists, trembling.
“Just five more seconds… if I’d only lasted five more seconds!”
She’d pushed herself to the brink of passing through superhuman endurance.
But at the very end, the tentacle suddenly convulsed and writhed, burrowing toward a place it absolutely shouldn’t have gone, and she couldn’t help but scream.
“You were doing so well—why did you break at the end?”
“Because that tentacle suddenly went for my butt—!”
“Your butt?”
“I-I mean… ugh!”
Camilla’s face flushed crimson as she glared at me with fierce eyes.
“Y-you perverted bastard! What kind of horrible things are you trying to make a proper lady say!”
“What do you mean?”
What had I even done?
“Hmph! Enough of this!”
Camilla crossed her arms and whipped her head away, making it clear she had nothing more to say.
I shrugged and grabbed my bag, rising from my seat.
As I turned to leave the Classroom, passing by the other Candidates whose eyes burned with envy—
“Dale~ you didn’t forget that we were supposed to have lunch together today, did you?”
“Of course not.”
I nodded toward Iris with a bright smile as she approached.
Since Iris had also passed the test with flying colors, we could keep our promise to have lunch together every Monday.
“I’m so glad you passed the test, Dale.”
“This much was child’s play.”
“If it looked like you might fail, I was planning to secretly cast my ‘blessing’ on you midway through.”
“Ah, so that’s why you told me to wave my right arm if I was struggling?”
“Yes.”
Iris nodded with a bashful smile.
Her blessing contained the power to increase resistance to mental magic, so it would have certainly helped.
“But why didn’t you cast a blessing on Camilla?”
“Well, no matter how dear a friend Camilla is to me, a test should be taken fairly and squarely.”
“Uh… yeah.”
That wasn’t wrong, but—
Then why were you planning to secretly bless me?
‘Wait.’
Just then.
A question flickered through my mind.
‘Camilla said the hallucinations suddenly intensified right before she passed the test.’
I’d never seen Iris display this ability before.
But her blessing could apply its effects in ‘reverse’ as well.
In other words.
Instead of increasing resistance to mental magic through blessing, she could also decrease it.
‘No way.’
There was absolutely no reason for Iris to curse—not bless—Camilla and deliberately make her fail the test.
“Since Camilla isn’t here, it looks like we’ll have to have lunch just the two of us today.”
“Uh… yeah, I suppose so.”
“I contacted ahead, so the food should be ready. Let’s hurry before it gets cold.”
Iris walked ahead, leading the way.
“Mmm-hmm~♬”
I wondered why.
The reason Iris’s expression appeared more animated than I’d ever seen it before as she headed toward the Cafeteria was.

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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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