The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 96

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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 96

Whoooosh—!
After Yeom Sa-hyeon vanished, swept away by the raging current.
Left alone, Ha Jae-yun bit down hard on his lower lip.
‘…Right. This isn’t the time to fall apart.’
He had to keep his wits about him.
Just as Sa-hyeon had said—from here on, he had to do this entirely alone.
Moving cautiously within the still-fierce rushing water, Jae-yun shifted his body.
He carefully felt his way across each tooth, sliding sideways.
When he reached the far edge near the cheek, the current weakened considerably.
Jae-yun braced himself, gathering strength throughout his frame to stand firm.
Keeping one hand pressed against the solid inner wall to avoid being swept away by the torrent, he moved cautiously toward the base of the tongue, just as Go Gyeol had instructed.
Finally reaching his target point, Jae-yun pressed against the moist, arched roof of the mouth.
‘They said to direct Mana outward…’
The technique of gathering internal Mana and pouring it outward to a single point on the body.
“…Breath.”
But it wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
Without a Skill to help, concentrating force into a single point proved difficult; energy kept leaking out in all directions.
It was a high-difficulty task demanding extreme precision and tremendous focus.
“Breath…”
Jae-yun gathered the scattering Mana back together.
He suppressed the flow dispersing across his body and focused entirely on the tips of his fingers, condensing the Mana.
Whump!
At last, he’d succeeded.
A vivid, foreign sensation of dense Mana flowed through his palm.
“I did it!”
Jae-yun broke into a bright smile.
‘Wow… and Sa-hyeon does this even from a distance?’
Jae-yun marveled inwardly, then withdrew his hand.
He remembered exactly where his hand had been and took a deep breath.
In an instant, Mana rippled across his eyes.
Hummmmm—
As the Skill activated, blue Mana began blooming around his right fist.
All the impact he’d absorbed since entering the Gate converged into a single point.
Zing.
But the sensation felt different from the smooth endurance he’d managed before.
Far more massive power poured into his fist than he’d anticipated.
His arm pulled with a dull, bone-deep ache.
‘…That’s strange. Even if I’d accumulated impacts from Monsters and the cruise ship, it shouldn’t have gathered this much power.’
Puzzled, Jae-yun clenched and unclenched his fist, then suddenly widened his eyes.
A nonchalant voice brushed through his mind.

—Don’t close your eyes at a time like this.

“…Ah!”
A small gasp escaped him.
The spot where he’d been kicked was tingling.
Even for Jae-yun, who felt no pain from ordinary physical blows.
‘Could Sa-hyeon have calculated that kick too?!’
It actually did hurt!
Thanks to the teacher’s thoughtful (?) intervention, enough power had gathered.
“Exhale.”
He released a long breath and assumed his stance.
‘I can do this. I have to.’
Steeling himself inwardly, he clenched his fist tighter.
The aura of Mana around Jae-yun’s right hand grew denser.
The moment the blue light reached its peak, he drove his fist toward his target.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!”
Crash-BOOM—!
The explosive shockwave tore through the ceiling.
Crack, splinter!
The reinforced inner wall split open, and the sickening crunch of a skull fracturing echoed through the chamber.
The boss monster, shrieking in agony, snapped its jaws wide—and the violent recoil sent Jae-yun tumbling outward on a vicious current.
Jae-yun thrashed in the cold seawater until his head finally broke the surface.
“-Gasp!”
He was flailing his arms, drawing ragged breath, when—
Ding—

[Boss Hunting Quest completed successfully.]

A clear blue window materialized before his eyes.

* * *

Moments earlier, on the deck.
The orca had swallowed Yeom Sa-hyeon and Jae-yun and was diving deep beneath the surface when Lee Yoo-wol lunged for the railing, ready to plunge into the sea.
Go Gyeol grabbed him urgently.
“Wait, Lee Yoo-wol! That bastard might have dived deliberately to lure us in. Down there, it’s completely its domain.”
“…….”
Lee Yoo-wol’s teeth clenched.
He knew Go Gyeol’s reasoning was sound, yet the situation itself filled him with a gnawing dread.
Tae Eun-o released the railing and gave a light shrug.
“Fair point. Why should we worry? If things really get hairy, the Professor will just slice open the whale’s belly and walk out!”
Tae Eun-o glanced back at Lee Yoo-wol.
“You just stay put. I’m catching up on the score.”
Before the words even finished, Tae Eun-o grinned and hurled himself into the air.
Whish—BOOM!
The hunt resumed, Tae Eun-o unleashed once more.
Lee Yoo-wol exhaled a faint sigh and signaled Archinoyx with a glance.
Spark—
Archinoyx let out an exasperated huff, then surged forward in a shower of sparks, charging at the monsters.

[Monster Elimination Count]
Lee Yoo-wol – 39
Tae Eun-o – 31
Go Gyeol – 22
…….

The Combat Division’s score climbed rapidly.
The Martial Arts Division pursued doggedly behind them, but they couldn’t match the pace.
Lee Yoo-wol, having left the hunting to Archinoyx, was staring intently at the water below when—
Thud!
“!”
The surface suddenly churned violently, and the cruise ship lurched.
A powerful tremor rose from the depths.
All movement on deck froze in an instant.
A familiar silhouette entered Lee Yoo-wol’s field of vision.
“……Ha Jae-yun?”
The figure that broke the surface with a spray of seawater was none other than Jae-yun himself.
At the same moment, a blue window flashed before everyone’s eyes.

[Boss Hunting Quest completed successfully.]

Tae Eun-o, mid-landing, stumbled and jerked his head up in shock.
“What?! For real?!”
“Ha Jae-yun did it?”
Go Gyeol, equally stunned, dashed toward the railing beside Lee Yoo-wol and peered down at the water below.
Jae-yun grabbed the emergency ladder attached to the cruiser’s outer hull and hauled himself aboard.
“Ha-ha-ha! Insane, you’re really something, Jae-yun!”
“You actually pulled it off?”
Eun-o and Gyeol rushed over, genuine delight written across their faces.
“Ha… it was all thanks to you all.”
Splayed across the deck, chest heaving, Jae-yun watched as Yoo-wol approached with a rigid expression, her stride purposeful.
“Where’s the Master?”
“Ah, well…”
Jae-yun’s face twisted with discomfort as he wet his lips.
“The Professor was swept away by the current… into the interior…”
“…What?”
Yoo-wol’s expression darkened in an instant, her features contorting into something fierce.
Jae-yun, shrinking under her gaze, rushed to add an explanation.
“N-no, but it looked like he went in on purpose! It seemed like he had business near the stomach or something…?”
“Business inside a monster’s belly? What business?”
Eun-o blinked, bewildered.
Gyeol folded his arms and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, Sa-hyeon’s always popping up and disappearing like that. Nothing new.”
He kept his eyes fixed on the window displayed before him.
“The boss is handled anyway—let’s just finish up the rest of the quest.”

[Defeat Monsters.]
[E-rank or Higher Monsters: 138/500]
[Boss: 1/1]

Once the combat and martial arts divisions’ kill counts were combined, the numbers had stacked up considerably.
Yoo-wol couldn’t bring herself to share in their easy confidence, but she wholly agreed with the notion of ending the quest quickly.
Zing—click.
Yoo-wol loaded her Mana Gun.
Then she sprinted forward at a furious pace, pulling the trigger relentlessly.
“Hey, what’s gotten into her all of a sudden?!”
Eun-o let out a hollow laugh, but the competitive fire ignited in his eyes, fierce and bright.
As Eun-o joined in, unleashing Wind Slashes, Jae-yun—who had been sprawled on the deck—shot to his feet.
“I’m coming too…!”
Jae-yun charged forward with a shout.
The three of them tore through the monsters with a ferocity that bore no comparison to moments before.
Gyeol stood alone, blinking with mild displeasure.
“…At this rate, we’re going to finish the entire quest ourselves.”

* * *

Whoooosh—
Meanwhile, Sa-hyeon had surrendered himself to the current and settled into the orca’s stomach.
He stared down at the liquid sloshing up to his knees with a deeply grimace expression.
“…Filthy and damp.”
Sa-hyeon clicked his tongue and examined the Thorn Sword in his grip.
‘This doesn’t seem to be it.’
The vibration transmitted through the blade was no different from before.
He raised the sword and swept it about, peering in all directions.
The tremor felt through the blade still pointed toward the esophagus—the upper passage he had traversed just moments ago.
‘Is it reacting to the core or heart in between?’
A core seemed far more likely.
Cutting open the belly would settle it immediately, but he couldn’t ignore the pitiful efforts of this creature that had thrown itself into danger just to have him slay its boss.
Sa-hyeon tilted his chin thoughtfully, lost in deliberation.
Boom—!
A massive sound erupted, and the interior convulsed violently.
Organs swayed chaotically, and stomach acid sloshed about in frenzied waves.
The tremor ceased as quickly as it had begun.
At the same moment, a system window appeared above Sa-hyeon’s scabbard announcing the boss’s defeat.
‘Looks like they finally got it done.’
It meant Ha Jae-yun had finished what needed to be done.
‘Now I can poke around if I want.’
Yeom Sa-hyeon reached down to adjust his grip on the Thorn Sword.
“?”
The faint vibration that had been singing through the blade stopped abruptly, as if it had never been there at all.
He swept the sword through the empty air with a broad stroke, but heard only the sharp whistle of its passage.
No response came back.
Yeom Sa-hyeon’s eyes narrowed.
‘The vibration stops the moment the boss monster dies, then…….’
Even if the strange vibration had ceased, it was worth investigating.
He set the blade edge-first into the tissue before him.
‘If it all comes loose and scatters in the water, that’ll be trouble.’
He oriented himself toward the spot where the sword had been pointing just moments before.
Riiiiip—!
The whale’s thick flesh parted cleanly under the blade.
The cut penetrated to a precise depth, stopping just short of the bone beneath.
‘Is that the skull?’
Thunk.
He drove the sword deeper, cutting through bone, and something caught between the brain and the cranium came into view.
‘So it was reacting to the core after all.’
A core the size of a small ball.
He flicked the black core—lodged deep in the flesh—free with the blade.
‘I should get out and have Hae-seong appraise this.’
Since he’d only just entered the Gate, completing the Quest would take a bit longer.
He’d spend that time in some corner, slowly examining this object.
“My stomach’s starting to feel off….”
First, he needed to get out of this damp, sticky whale belly.
He’d just adjusted his grip to cut open the whale’s abdomen when it happened.
Ding—

[Gate Conquest completed.]
[Moving to Reward Zone.]

The system notification chimed at an unexpected moment.
Yeom Sa-hyeon furrowed his brow and let out a dry laugh.
“……Well, at least I saved myself the trouble of getting out.”

An S-Rank Instructor Devours the Academy · Episode 96

Author
Baek Ruga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yun Tae-ri
Cover
Tonp

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0096

ⓒ2026, Baek Ruga

※ This e-book is protected under the copyright laws of the Republic of Korea.
No part of this work may be reproduced, modified, or redistributed in any form without permission from the author and publisher.

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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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