Chapter 202: Chapter 201: A Lousy Teacher
After Sela walked out, another girl with the same round-framed glasses and a face full of freckles followed her. She was also wearing a sky-blue robe and looked like the type who cared a lot about her grades.
Colin could recognize her as one of the Mage Apprentices who had given him food during the Yule Festival.
Sela asked in surprise, "What are you doing at the Black Tower?"
"I’m here to..."
Before Colin could finish, the young woman beside Sela tugged her sleeve and urged, "We’re going to be late, Sela. I don’t want to be late for the practical training class. If we..."
"’If we have to retake the practical training exam, we’ll lose course credit.’ I know, I know, Lillian, stop nagging."
As the other girl pulled her along, Sela looked back and waved at Colin. "We have to go! You should get going too, Colin."
’Come to think of it, my class is about to start too.’
With that thought, Colin also hurried forward.
Soon, a wooden door with a sign that read "Chimera Corridor" appeared before him.
He twisted the handle and opened it. Behind the door was a wide hallway. After walking a few dozen more steps, he saw another wooden door with a sign reading "Chimera 506."
’Now I really have to go in and be a teacher.’
After taking a deep breath, Colin stood at the entrance, aimlessly flipping through the lesson plan he had prepared. Then, he reached for the handle and opened the door.
He opened the door and froze on the spot.
Sela and the young woman from before, Lillian, were sitting in the front row of the classroom.
Colin recognized most of the other students sitting in their seats as well. Many were the same students he had seen on the day of the Yule Festival, and a few of them had even given him food.
The moment he opened the door, all the students in the classroom looked over.
A familiar-looking student raised his hand and asked, "Um... has the monster for today not been escorted here yet, Mr. Adventurer?"
"I’m the teacher." Bracing himself, Colin showed them the teaching materials in his hand.
The air went quiet for two seconds.
Colin could clearly see Sela’s mouth fall slightly open, her normally serious little face turning somewhat dazed. Lillian’s round glasses slid to the tip of her nose, and a few of the boys he recognized in the back rows exchanged glances that seemed to ask, ’Am I seeing things?’
’He didn’t need to guess what these students were thinking—’Isn’t that the Adventurer from the Yule Festival? The one who was so poor he didn’t even have a thick coat, the one we helped out? How did he become a teacher?!’’
’This is mortifying... Is this some kind of bizarre public humiliation scene?’
’Goddess of Fortune, please, just spare me this once!’
Colin felt a headache coming on.
He silently walked to the lectern and snapped his fingers. A blackboard materialized behind him, and a small floating tray holding a box of chalk appeared in front of him. Both objects glowed with a faint blue light, suspended in mid-air.
Just as Colin was about to reach for a piece of chalk, the students below the stage all rose in unison, placed their right hands over their chests, and bowed to him.
Colin cleared his throat twice and said, "Be seated."
After a rustle of movement, the students sat back down in their seats.
Every one of them raised their heads and looked at him intently. The earlier confusion in their eyes was gone, replaced by a thirst for knowledge and course credit.
To Colin, those pairs of eyes were more terrifying than the hundreds upon hundreds of Skeletons in Snow Deer Valley!
"Good morning, everyone. I am Colin, and I will be in charge of today’s practical training class. I am currently a ’Black Robe’ field operative and have a certain amount of practical combat experience." ’Though I haven’t officially received my insignia yet.’
Colin cleared his throat again.
He decided to skip the awkward opening and get straight to the point. He turned and wrote on the blackboard: "Monster Countermeasures and Practical Combat."
"Today, we’ll be covering the topic of adventuring in the wild after graduation. I know this subject may seem premature for Mage Apprentices, but it is extremely important.
"Compared to other Adventurers, Casters are quite fragile. In the academy’s history, many Mage Apprentices who performed brilliantly within these walls have died in the wild due to small mistakes. This is precisely why the academy established this course..."
After saying a few more sentences, Colin felt his speech becoming much smoother.
The initial nervousness began to fade away without him even realizing it.
The discipline in the classroom was excellent, far better than what Colin remembered from his own university days. Everyone had textbooks and notebooks on their desks, and they were staring at him intently, ready to take notes at any moment.
"...Regarding adventuring in the wild, the most crucial thing is to know what kind of monsters you will face. The vast majority of low-level monsters have their own weaknesses and attack patterns. Only by preparing in advance can you effectively counter them. After all, for us, knowledge is the sharpest weapon..."
He lectured for about ten minutes.
Colin noticed that many of the students in the front rows were slowly starting to lower their heads. He could vaguely see that they were already studying the textbook on their own.
’There was nothing to be done about it. He himself had never systematically studied Magic, and the content he was covering so far was not much different from what was in the textbook. Colin felt that any other Mage Teacher from the academy could teach this.’
After lecturing a little longer, Lillian, sitting next to Sela, also lowered her head and began to study on her own.
Seeing that the students were no longer looking at him, Colin felt sweat begin to bead on his back.
’Teaching is much harder than I imagined. These thirty Gold Coins aren’t easy to earn.’
’If these students don’t learn what they’re supposed to in this class, what happens if they die while adventuring later on?’
Although something like that probably wouldn’t have much to do with him, Colin couldn’t help but feel his conscience prickle.
’After all, every apprentice here was rigorously selected. They’re among the best in both character and ability. The death of any one of them would be a huge loss.’
"...And recently, many monsters from the north have appeared around Thousand Masts City. The frequency of Fallen Druid sightings has also increased. The Black Tower hopes all of you will be prepared to face them."
Colin swallowed hard.
At that moment, he saw the encouragement in Sela’s eyes from below the stage.
She, at least, had been listening attentively since the class began.
’Honestly, there’s no need to stick to the formal lecture format,’ Colin thought. ’I might as well just fast-forward to the part I’m good at. I’ll just have to be more detailed during the practical combat section.’
"Next, I will demonstrate the key points for facing a Blight."
With that said, Colin clapped his hands.
A grinding of metal sounded from behind him as the iron plates making up the wall slowly rose, revealing steel bars and a demonstration area below.
At the same time, a faint magical screen covered the steel bars, providing complete protection for the apprentices in the classroom.
The demonstration area was now filled with several large trees and numerous bushes, looking no different from a forest environment in the wild.
’The practical demonstration begins now,’ Colin said to himself.
The next moment, a white light flashed before his eyes, and the feeling of his feet leaving the ground, characteristic of Teleportation Magic, washed over him.
