Academy’s Undercover Professor-Chapter 343: Special Hell Lecture (2)

Ludger’s hellish special lecture pushed the students to their mental and physical limits.

But he didn’t recklessly overwork them.

Somehow, Ludger knew exactly when they had reached their limit and allowed them to rest at just the right moment.

However, if anyone tried to fake exhaustion, he caught on instantly and made them make up for it with extra laps.

After experiencing this several times, the students no longer dared to fake weakness—they could only give their best.

Commoners or nobles—it didn’t matter.

At this moment, everyone was the same, panting heavily and drenched in sweat as they ran.

And if one thought the lesson was only physically demanding, that wasn’t true either.

During the time they spent recovering their strength, they had the privilege of listening to Ludger’s “interesting” lecture.

“Magic beasts may be made of mana, so they cannot be considered living beings. Yet they possess will and exist in reality. As I said before, this is because a mage’s will settles into the mana over time.”

At that moment, a student asked a sharp question.

“Then wouldn’t that make magic beasts no different from artificial lifeforms?”

Mana imbued with a human’s will, giving birth to a pseudo-lifeform.

But could that really be considered a living being?

In other words, weren’t they no different from homunculi or chimeras?

Though, placing them on the same level as chimeras was laughable.

At least chimeras had flesh and skin, whereas magic beasts didn’t.

If one had to be precise, magic beasts were closer to spirits.

Artificial spirits, to be exact.

“Depending on the perspective, you could see it that way.”

“Perspective?”

“In the Summoning academic circle, debates over magic beasts are still ongoing. Whether they should be considered naturally occurring lifeforms or artificially created entities is a topic of endless argument.”

“Aren’t they artificial?”

“Yeah, they’re basically made by humans.”

“But no one creates them intentionally, so wouldn’t that mean they’re not artificial?”

“Then are you saying they’re naturally occurring?”

“Cryptids are similar. If you can tame a cryptid, why not a magic beast?”

The students exchanged opinions among themselves.

They had clearly been thinking about magic beasts a lot, as their opinions varied widely.

Eventually, they all stared at Ludger, silently demanding an answer—like baby birds waiting for their mother to feed them.

“The current consensus leans toward calling magic beasts naturally occurring. To call something artificial, there must be a deliberate human intent to create it. But magic beasts cannot be created just because someone wants to.”

“Why? Can’t you artificially make one?”

“No. There has never been a successful attempt, so for all intents and purposes, it’s impossible.”

In truth, there had been similar attempts, but all had failed.

A magic beast could only exist one per mage.

No method, no matter how extreme, could produce additional ones.

“There have been plenty of experiments, though. Attempts to create artificial magic beasts, necromancers trying to bind souls to golems, or summoners attempting to create spirits by forcibly gathering natural energy.”

“Were any of those successful?”

Ludger hesitated for a moment.

Artificial magic beasts didn’t exist, so the expected answer should have been no.

But there were exceptions.

Binding a soul to a golem through necromancy had worked.

And in a slightly different way, the [Steel Choir Project] had forcibly implanted human souls into automata.

Arfa was the “successful” result of that horrifying experiment.

Artificial spirits were much the same.

No matter how much natural energy was forcibly gathered, a spirit would never be born simply because energy accumulated.

Spirits were not something that could be artificially created by merely gathering energy.

But there were rare exceptions—very rare summoners who had succeeded in creating new spirits.

Selina was proof of that.

Esmeralda had once torn off a piece of her pure, untainted soul to create an artificial spirit.

Arfa and Selina—

Beings the academic world had deemed impossible.

But the circumstances of their creation were not something easily spoken of.

They had been born in the dark, forgotten depths of society.

It was ironic, truly.

Beautiful flowers that couldn’t bloom even in a well-kept garden blossomed instead on a filthy, rotten pile of waste.

Perhaps it was proof that this world was neither as beautiful nor as righteous as people liked to believe.

“Still, officially, there are no successful cases.”

There was no need to burden the students with such grim truths.

“So, in short, magic beasts are considered naturally occurring?”

“Yes. Those who argue for natural occurrence claim this: humans are part of nature too, so calling something born from humans artificial is wrong. In the broader view, everything is naturally occurring.”

The students regretted not having writing tools with them—Ludger’s lecture was that captivating.

“But whether they’re natural or artificial doesn’t matter. What you need to focus on now is recognizing the existence of your magic beast.”

“How do we even recognize it? We don’t even know if it’s really there.”

“The moment you started learning magic, it has been with you. It’s just still in an egg, unable to break out. You must continuously observe your mana, find that egg, and hatch it.”

This was why Ludger had dragged the students to the training ground to push them so hard.

All of this was part of awakening their magic beasts.

Of course, for those who were being pushed to their limits, it was only natural to doubt whether this was really the right way.

“So focus. Before your depleted mana recovers, you must carefully examine your body’s condition.”

Of course, almost no one could do that on the first try.

Most students had never experienced mana exhaustion before.

The first time someone experienced it, their entire body weakened, and even staying conscious was difficult.

Right now, most students could barely keep themselves upright.

But after experiencing this state repeatedly, one would adapt.

The first time was hard, but afterward, as they naturally recovered mana, they would also gain enough mental space to pay attention to other things.

Normally, this was something learned gradually in real combat, but Ludger wasn’t that patient.

Since time was short, pain was the only option.

“Don’t just focus on recovering from exhaustion. Suppress that process deliberately. Examine your body in detail.”

Following Ludger’s instructions, students who had been desperately trying to recover began closing their eyes, focusing.

By the third day of training, the students were starting to get the hang of it.

No one had successfully summoned their magic beast yet, but some had sensed something within themselves.

‘What is that?’

Flora closed her eyes, meditating, her brows furrowing at the strange sense of unfamiliarity inside her.

After three days of draining her mana, suppressing recovery, and observing her inner self, she had finally discovered something hidden deep within her mana.

It felt like a seed—or perhaps an egg.

Maybe even like a small box with something precious locked inside.

Normally, it was impossible to sense because her mana was always full, but after repeatedly emptying herself, its shape had finally come into focus.

‘So this is what Mr. Ludger meant by the magic beast’s egg.’

No wonder it couldn’t be sensed before.

The egg was made of the same mana as the rest of her body.

Of course, it couldn’t be detected unless she was completely drained.

‘And if it weren’t for the mana output training, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it this early.’

Increasing mana output required finding the faint presence of mana paths within her body.

It was like trying to find ley lines in a desert—far from easy.

It required suppressants and learning how to manipulate even the smallest amount of mana with extreme precision.

Repeating that process eventually gave one a better understanding of their mana when they broke through a mana path.

Understanding what kind of mana they possessed.

And how to utilize it.

It was a huge revelation.

‘It’s small, but solid. I can’t believe I never noticed this before.’

Flora fell into thought.

Finding what might be the egg of her magic beast was one thing.

But she had no idea what to do next.

‘What about everyone else?’

Flora opened her eyes slightly, glancing around.

Most students were still frowning, concentrating hard.

None of them seemed to have found their way yet.

‘I was the fastest, then.’

At that moment, a shadow fell over her.

She looked up to see Ludger.

“Flora. You’ve found it. You’ve sensed what’s sleeping inside you, haven’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“I saw your reaction. The first step is always recognizing the egg sleeping inside you. I expected you to be capable of that.”

Was that his way of praising her?

Flora felt secretly pleased, but curiosity outweighed that feeling.

“As you said, I can feel the egg inside my mana. But I have no idea what to do next.”

“Of course. It’s still unhatched. To put it simply, you haven’t even reached the starting line.”

“Then how do I get to that starting line?”

Now that she had come this far, surely she deserved an answer.

But Ludger’s response crushed her expectations.

“I don’t know.”

“W-what? You don’t know?”

“I can teach you how to find the egg, but I can’t teach you how to awaken it. There’s no set method.”

“No set method...”

“If you don’t understand, let me give you a comparison. Imagine three people, each given a bird in a cage and told: ‘Make this bird sing.’ Do you think all three would use the same method?”

“Of course not. Everyone would do it differently.”

“Exactly. One might try to entertain the bird, another might cause it pain to force it to cry, and another might simply wait until it sings on its own. Three people, three methods. Now imagine how many methods dozens of students might have.”

Flora understood what he meant.

“In other words, awakening the egg depends entirely on the individual.”

“Correct. No advice can help you. The egg of your magic beast is entirely yours. Awakening it is something only you can do.”

“Then can I ask just one thing? How did you awaken yours, Mr. Ludger?”

Ludger thought of his magic beast, Ater Nocturnus.

From the moment his teacher taught him magic, he had always given everything.

Not because he was forced to, but because he had no choice.

He had been painfully aware of his own weakness.

He had to endure the endless ringing of divine voices in his ears and hide from assassins sent by Bretus.

So he had studied desperately, learned magic desperately.

“If I had to say, it was desperation. My egg awakened because of that.”

“Desperation...”

“But that’s just ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) my method. Yours may be completely different. Focus as much as you can. Since you’ve already found it, you no longer need to run laps.”

Several students meditating nearby cracked their eyes open slightly, hopeful.

‘Maybe me too?’

“I mentioned this before, didn’t I? Those who haven’t sensed their magic beast yet will continue running. Remember that.”

* * *

Ludger’s special lecture continued.

The students who still couldn’t sense anything were forced to keep running to exhaustion. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Ludger simply observed them quietly.

He had already given them all the methods and guidance they needed.

The rest was up to them.

‘Normally, this process takes at least half a year.’

Ludger had compressed it into two weeks.

Half a year into two weeks—twelve times the usual intensity.

In other words, he was grinding the students twelve times harder than the normal process.

Because of this, complaints about his teaching method started circulating.

Hugo, the leader of the noble faction, seized the opportunity to chew Ludger out.

Of course, he didn’t have the courage to confront Ludger openly, so he worked behind the scenes.

Ludger knew but ignored it.

He didn’t care what those kinds of people whispered behind his back.

But apparently, some students didn’t share his resilience.

“I... I’m quitting.”

For the first time, a student gave up.