Bai Shi finished off the last sorcerer and leaped to the second floor of the Church of the Cuckoo. He walked over to Sellen and looked at the immense destruction wrought by Comet Azur, feeling a little sheepish. “Teacher, are you sure we’ll be fine after causing such a huge commotion?” Sellen waved a dismissive hand and shifted her posture, crossing one leg over the other. “It’s fine, it’s fine.” “I’ve already disrupted the magic they use to monitor the Church of the Cuckoo.” “This church is quite far from the other academy buildings. They won’t notice a thing.” “Besides, I held back just now. Otherwise, the Church of the Cuckoo would have been blown straight through. Now *that* would have definitely gotten us discovered.” Bai Shi spread his hands. “But, Teacher, you could have just destroyed that spell to disable the surveillance completely, right?” “Why just interfere with it? If you’d destroyed it, they would have had no way of knowing we were here.” Sellen, however, shook her head and said to Bai Shi: “You don’t understand, my student.” “Although we are infiltrating, we must, without a doubt, let them know we have arrived.” “To know we’re on their turf but be unable to find us.” “To be completely powerless, able to do nothing but watch as the crisis inches closer, as the sorcerers around them are killed off one by one.” “That is the best form of torment for those cowards who love to hide and watch from afar.” What kind of classic horror movie plot was this? Teacher Sellen really did have a wicked sense of humor. Since Teacher Sellen was enjoying herself, he might as well go along with her plan. However, there was one other thing on Bai Shi’s mind. Recalling how that sorcerer had seen through his disguise in an instant, Bai Shi asked Sellen about it: “Teacher, there’s something else I don’t understand.” Sellen turned to look at Bai Shi. “What is it? Go on, my student.” Bai Shi recounted his performance, which he believed had been flawless. “I entered through a side door just now. Given the layout of the Church of the Cuckoo, one would normally assume an enemy would come through the main entrance, right?” “And I didn’t act strangely at all.” “But the sorcerer inside immediately knew I wasn’t one of the academy’s own.” “I don’t understand how they did it.” “Could it be some kind of identification magic, or maybe a special mark?” Sellen blinked, then looked Bai Shi up and down. She quickly spotted the problem. Placing a hand on her ankle, Sellen slowly lifted the hem of her long skirt, revealing a flawless, delicate foot. She extended the leg she had crossed over the other toward Bai Shi, wiggling it in front of him. “My student, have you not noticed that all the sorcerers in the Academy of Magic go barefoot?” Bai Shi stared at the pristine foot Sellen had extended toward him, completely astonished. “What... So that was the reason...” “My acting and disguise, which I thought were perfect, were exposed for a reason like that...” At that moment, Bai Shi felt an indescribable sense of defeat. He had done so well with both his route of entry and his physical disguise. But he had been found out for such a bizarre reason. Sellen seemed to have tired of holding her leg up, so she simply rested her foot on Bai Shi’s thigh. Bai Shi looked down at his teacher’s extended foot. It was only now that Bai Shi realized Teacher Sellen had been walking barefoot this whole time, yet there wasn't a speck of dust on her... no, on closer inspection, her feet were utterly spotless. Forget calluses from walking on various surfaces; there wasn’t even a trace of dust or dirt to be seen. The arch of her foot was an elegant curve, and her small, delicate toes curled slightly, hooking onto the hem of his robe. Her foot was like a carving of white jade, as fine as smooth porcelain, the veins beneath the skin faintly visible. Calling it a jade-like foot was no exaggeration. Teacher Sellen hadn't been active in this body at the academy for long, and Bai Shi had been carrying her most of the time, so she hadn't done much walking. But before this, this body had been constantly walking around the cellar in Limgrave. Logically, her feet shouldn't be this clean. Bai Shi was very curious as to how she managed it. “Teacher, how do you walk barefoot without getting any dirt or dust on your feet?” Sellen pressed her foot down slightly. Through his sorcerer’s robe, Bai Shi could easily feel the pressure. “Want to learn? I can teach you.” Bai Shi looked at Sellen, unable to resist asking another question: “Teacher, why does the academy have such a strange rule?” This question stumped Sellen. Although she had always done so, now that she thought about it, she never knew the answer. Or rather, it seemed there was no such written rule at all; it was just something everyone did. So Sellen thought for a moment, concocted an explanation, and then said to Bai Shi: “Ahem, my student, you must understand that for a sorcerer, the precision of mana control is very important.” “This is also a form of training.” “You need to keep your mana in a constant state of condensation, which prevents the filth on the ground from sticking to your feet.” “As for why we do this...” Sellen bit her lip, quickly coming up with a reasonable explanation: “...Because this is the safest way to practice.” “Think about it. Even if you fail, you just get your feet a little dirty.” “But as long as you can maintain it successfully, the improvement in your mana control will be quite significant.” Although Bai Shi found it a bit strange, it also sounded quite reasonable. Oh well, he would just do as he was told. Bai Shi took off his own shoes, stored them in his spatial disc, and began to learn this technique from Sellen. The leaders of the Academy of Magic gathered once again, staring at the blurry, disrupted surveillance feed. The picture quality was poor to begin with, but now it was just a chaotic smear. It was like watching a 360p video with an extra layer of mosaic over it. The visuals were useless, so they could only listen to the audio. But there was no useful information there either. The most update n0vels are published on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝~𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖~𝕟𝕖𝕥 Apart from a single cry of “Enemy attack!” there was only one sentence: “This guy isn’t a sorcerer at all!” What did that mean...? The person had undoubtedly used various kinds of magic, and their mastery was considerable... In any case, the sorcerers now knew one thing: the intruder was inside the academy. Although they didn't know who this person was, their power was terrifying, and they seemed intent on slaughtering every last one of them. So far, there had been no news of survivors. It was truly horrifying. They had initially suspected that Sorceress Sellen had returned for revenge. But from the voice that came through, it didn’t seem to be her. They immediately put all sorcerers on high alert. They also had the group of sorcerers they’d sent as reinforcements use their magic to destroy the water wheel that led to the academy’s various classrooms. This time, there was no way he could get up, right?— After a short period of instruction, Bai Shi had successfully mastered the magic of walking barefoot without getting his feet dirty. Although it felt rather useless, it was at least applicable for the current situation. As for training his mana control? Bai Shi felt it was a bit unreliable, but since his teacher said so, he decided to just accept it. After all, Teacher Sellen had said that she herself had indeed practiced this way. Bai Shi looked at the Academy of Magic in the distance. To reach the academy proper, one had to proceed forward and ride a large water wheel elevator up to the section with the actual classrooms. But the area at the top had only a single corridor to pass through. Moreover, it was crawling with sorcerers, so sneaking past was practically impossible. Fortunately, Bai Shi could simply travel across the rooftops with Teacher Sellen. In a normal game playthrough, one would have to clear that area first to gain access to the rooftops for exploration, eventually reaching the top floor of the Cuckoo Church. Bai Shi was essentially skipping all the intermediate steps, exploring the area in reverse. From the rooftops, he could access all parts of the academy. In that case, all he needed was for his teacher to lead the way. Thus, Bai Shi carried Teacher Sellen as they traveled directly across the rooftops, leaping step by step toward the academy’s instructional area. During this time, Bai Shi and Sellen witnessed from the rooftops the destruction of the academy’s magnificent water wheel. Watching the enormous mechanism crumble from the sky, Bai Shi couldn’t help but clutch his chest and grit his teeth. These were all his future assets, his future sphere of influence! How much time, manpower, and resources would it take to rebuild this in the future! Sellen had already grown accustomed to moving while pressed close to Bai Shi and was no longer as flustered as before. On the contrary, she actively dismounted with great curiosity and ran and jumped across the rooftops herself. Sellen carefully savored this peculiar experience, one she had never had as a sorceress. “Ooh, so the top of the Church of the Cuckoo has such a high peak.” “Huh? You can get directly to the academy’s instructional area from up here. On the ground, it’s a very, very long walk.” “Though I’m very familiar with the academy, this is my first time running on the rooftops.” “And I never would have thought that those sorcerers would place these marionette soldiers on the roofs. These things are completely useless. They didn’t even bother to install a single surveillance function. Are they idiots?” Bai Shi carried Sellen, listening to her various recollections of the academy. As they spoke, the master and student duo had already reached the roof of one of the magic classrooms. Sellen pointed at the building beneath their feet and said to Bai Shi: “My student, the top floor of this building is the Twinsage Classroom.” “Let’s start from here.” Black monkey, what have you done to me! How can you make me think of you for 24 hours a day, one thousand four hundred and forty minutes, eighty-six thousand two hundred and sixty-two seconds! Come back, my monkey, my proudest faith!