Chapter 23: Jaiden’s Worth (4)

Jaiden watched the trolls advancing from far away. He was also the first person to fire a shot when the whistle that signaled the retreat sounded.

When the other students saw him firing a shot, they also started firing magic bullets rapidly at an area not further away from the professors and the knights. 

“Don’t keep on firing aimlessly! We have to shoot as accurately and as precisely as we can!” 

Jaiden roared at the children when they tried to continuously fire at the trolls.

Even if the guns that they were holding were modified and had lesser recoil and power than a normal gun to fit the children's body structure, their power would be compromised and their aim would be ruined if they continued firing like that with their measly arm strength.

If that happened, then they would not be able to aim and hit properly at the trolls' weaknesses. Rather than doing something so useless, it would be better if they could just focus on shooting a single shot while precisely aiming for the trolls' weaknesses. 

As if proving that his thoughts were correct, the trolls that were unlucky to be hit on their vital shots screamed in pain.

In fact, it did not matter if they were only able to shoot their bodies. Even though their skins were thick and leathery, they would still feel a tingling pain if they got hit. Of course, it was a given that they could recover easily but just like when humans got hit, the tiny and insignificant tingling and stinging on their bodies would definitely escalate and give them severe pain if they were hit continuously. 

The charging trolls shrunk and cowered from the pain of the magic bullets. When the knights and professors saw this, they quickly took this chance to stage their retreat in response to the retreat signal.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

―Guwoo!

One of the trolls roared as it banged on their drums.

A blue mana rose and swept around the field along with the beating of the drums. The mana slowly crept and seeped through the bodies of the trolls in the area.

After the mana entered their bodies, the trolls' eyes started to turn blue as their bodies took on a reddish tint. Then, blue flames suddenly erupted from their bodies as they started to turn enraged.

Once the changes were done taking place in their bodies, the trolls charged forward. Since the trolls were quite clever, they instinctively felt that they would be faced with an annoying situation if they let the fleeing knights and professors. 

“They went berserk!”

“Be careful!”

The professors shouted loudly at their students when they passed through the academy’s main gate. However, contrary to the professors’ concerns, the students remained calm as they continued to fire on the trolls.

Berserk trolls had increased regenerative powers. Even their skin and muscles would be temporarily strengthened making the bullets completely ineffective against them. 

However, even if the students did not deal any significant damage to the trolls, they would still be able to leave a tingling and ticklish feeling on their bodies.

But the  more the bullets struck and grazed the trolls' bodies, the more violent they became. 

“Did the support troops arrive?”

“No.”

Jaiden shook his head at the tactical professor’s question. 

“But how can…”

“Go inside for now.”

Jaiden immediately cut off the tactical professor’s reproach.

The professor looked around. He couldn't help but flinch when he saw the countless explosives buried in the area near the academy's main gate. However, the only thing that he could do was sigh as he went inside. Even the knights were looking worriedly at the students as they rushed inside the building. 

But the trolls just continued to charge at them. 

“Close the gate!”

Hearing Jaiden’s roar, the students quickly moved together to close the huge and heavy gate.

When the gates closed, trolls rushed forward while they roared and banged at the gate. 

“Let’s retreat.”

The children immediately retreated from the gate when they heard Jaiden’s orders.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Only a few seconds had passed but the gates were already creaking from their banging on the gates. It seemed like they were dead set on breaking it down with brute force. 

Not far from the scene, Jaiden and the other children watched as the trolls began to gather and push in the gap that they had successfully created. 

Only after confirming that there were dozens of them that were stuck on the gate did Jaiden nod his head. 

Seeing his nod, the children began to detonate the bombs one after the other.

Baaaang!

The collapse of the main gate and the walls surrounding it accompanied the loud bang that rang loudly in the area.

The trolls that were stuck banging on the gate as well as the trolls that were trying to climb over the walls were caught up in the huge explosion. 

The explosion was so loud that it made the ground shake and tremble. However, no matter how loud the explosion was, they believed that the trolls would not die just like that. After all, they were monsters that were known for their strong regenerative abilities.

The trolls that were in the center of the blast would have died but the trolls that were only standing in the vicinity were guaranteed to survive. Their monstrous regeneration could allow them to restore cut off limbs so something like this was just a trifling matter to them. 

“Let’s go.”

The students only temporarily remained in the training grounds to blast the bomb so they immediately fled deeper in the academy once they heard Jaiden’s orders. 

Once they entered the building, they were greeted by the exhausted professors that stood there waiting for Jaiden. 

“What the hell were you thinking?! The explosion was much bigger than we thought but you know damn well that a troll wouldn’t be killed by something like that!”

“That’s right. It will only injure them. The strengthened regenerative abilities of the trolls will allow them to endure a blast like that.”

The large monster tactics professor agreed with the words of the general beast theory professor. 

“It’s not over yet.”

“What?”

Bang!

A huge explosion accompanied Jaiden’s answer. And as if to prove that it was not really over yet, a series of explosions rang loudly in the area. 

“Those guys have to break through our bomb field to get here. By the time they arrive here, even the troll with the world’s greatest regeneration will be on the brink of death. Their regeneration can only do so much if they continue to get blasted like that.” 

“That…”

Even if the trolls were able to hold out against the first blast, their regenerative abilities would definitely face a decline once they suffered from injuries over and over again. If that happened, then their recovery time would lengthen which would allow them to deal significant injuries on them.

In addition, they still had to face the limits of their berserk state. 

“The berserk state has a weakness. They will suffer from powerlessness and will be helpless against others for a short period of time. Am I right?”

“…Right.”

The general beast theory professor answered Jaiden blankly. 

“When those guys get here, they will either be covered in blood or weak from being released from their berserk state. If that’s the case, then we’ll be able to finish them even with the professors and knights being injured.”

Jaiden smiled as he explained to the professors. 

“Of course, that was only if they got here on time.”

The students nearby smiled at Jaiden’s words too. 

Except for Jaiden and the students that buried the bombs in the main gate where the professors and knights were located, the rest of them went all over the area and buried a lot of things here and there. Although their traps and devices were a bit crude, they were still able to bury a lot. 

They mainly did this to stall for time so the support troops could still arrive with them alive. At the same time, it also served as a deterrence that blocked the trolls' charging advance. 

Of course, the distance between the main gate and the academy building was not that long so the trolls eventually reached the place where the students and the professors were gathered.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

―Guwooo!

The students fired rapidly at the bloodied trolls that were rushing towards them while the knights jumped forward and cut off their necks to finish them off.

It was an easy task for the knights to finish off the trolls since their berserk state had already been released. Even the professors were able to kill several trolls one after the other. 

The nasty and disgusting trolls grabbed their necks as they tried to drag their exhausted bodies to where the children were gathered. However, they were no match to the knights’ attacks with their already exhausted. 

―Guwooo!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

One of the trolls roared loudly. It was wearing a necklace and a cane decorated by bones. It seemed like those items symbolized its position as chief of the tribe.

When the berserk trolls heard the roar, they immediately regained their senses and stopped their reckless charge. Then, they gathered around the Troll Chief. 

Jaiden hurriedly shouted to his professors when he saw the scene. 

“Professor! We need to disperse!” 

“A sorcerer?” 

Jaiden’s frantic voice pulled the professors’ concentration away from their frantic battles. They quickly turned to look at the location where the Troll Chief was located. 

“Everyone, disperse!” 

The students and the knights began to disperse when they heard the professor’s orders. 

They could see that the gathered trolls created the balls of blue fire that were now flying directly towards the academy. 

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Those crazy bastards! They didn’t even care that their colleagues were still here!”

“They can regenerate so it doesn’t matter to them!”

The knights hurled curses at the trolls’ reckless attacks. They mocked and cursed at the trolls that gave up their comrades while they continued to evade and block the attacks with their swords.

Meanwhile, the students evacuated deeper inside the building. The building was sturdy enough to withstand such attacks since it was engraved with an old and tattered defense magic. The beams of the building were also enforced with thick steel so it wouldn't collapse so easily. They built it this way as an insurance. After all, they were located in an area that was teeming with monsters.

“Heok… heok…”

“Crazy bastards!”

“Isn’t that Troll Chief really crazy?!”

After running to safety, the kids tried to catch their breath as they watched the scene outside. They couldn't help but click their tongues when they saw the trolls attacking recklessly and abandoning their colleagues just to deal with their enemies. It was quite an atrocious behavior. 

However, in Jaiden’s perspective, this was something natural. He was aware of how shrewd and clever the trolls were after plenty of encounters with them in his previous life.

He stared at the agitated children before speaking. 

“Those bastards know. They know that they’ll lose if the fight gets dragged longer.”

“The trolls’ brain can think that much?”

“That’s right. Unlike ogres, the trolls are clever. They’re quick witted monsters. What more if those guys have a lot of experience fighting against humans? You can expect them to do this much.” 

Jaiden also could not believe this back in his previous life. However it was the truth. The trolls were truly quite clever, shrewd and scheming, something that was completely contrary to their dumb and ignorant appearance. 

In fact, from his experience fighting in the Northern War in his previous life, he thought that fighting against the clever goblins and trolls was much more troublesome than fighting against droves of ogres.

“Then, if things continue on like this, will they be able to breach the academy?” 

“Don’t tell me they’ll still be able to do that after all that we did?” 

The students looked outside with tears glistening in their eyes.

They could see that the professors and the knights were being pushed back even though they were fighting so hard against their enemies. 

The trolls had already stopped their bombing and had long rushed in. But what made matters worse were the trolls that had survived the magical attacks and the bomb field earlier. They had now stood up and made things more difficult for their instructors.

“From now on, we have to do one thing.” 

“Starting from now, there’s one thing that we have to do.” 

Jaiden spoke firmly to the crying students. 

“We have to confirm that the bombed trolls are dead. If they’re not, then we have to kill them.” 

“How?” 

“Stab them in their anus.” 

“Anus…” 

Number 2 mumbled unconsciously when she heard Jaiden’s words. 

“Those until number 30 can express their mana a bit, right?” 

The students nodded their heads at Jaiden’s words. 

“Then, we will split into groups of ten. Numbers 1 to 20 will lead a group on their own. While the groups that numbers 21 to 30 will lead have to pair up and fight together. The rest of the students will fill up the groups and cover for us.” 

After listening to Jaiden’s instructions, the students quickly picked the elites that they would follow as they formed groups one by one.

Jaiden confirmed that there were nine students behind him before giving them a final instruction.

“Let’s all survive.”

All of the students nodded firmly and looked at him with determination.

“Let’s go!”

Hearing Jaiden’s words, the group of students moved out of the building one by one.

Based on the students’ skills, it would be too far-fetched for them to fight and kill the charging trolls. But if it was just finishing off a dying troll, then their skills were more than enough.

The elites stabbed the anuses of the dying trolls while the rest of the students in their groups supported them with their guns. But they did not end there. Their swords were actually coated with poison that they had sneaked out of the professors’ office so the trolls’ anuses were made into a complete mess by their stabs.

―Kuwooo! Kuwooo!

The trolls were roaring in pain from the torment that the students’ swords had brought them. However, they just continued on. They even became crueler. After all, they were not in a position to leisurely care about their methods and look at the circumstances of their opponents. 

They did all that they could to try and slow down the advance of the trolls, even just for a little bit, by killing off the dying trolls and keeping the incoming trolls in check. But even then, the cordon that they had barely maintained started to collapse when the knights and the professors started to get injured heavily one by one.

But before they could completely fall, flames suddenly burst out from the sky.

“Drakes?”

Jaiden looked at the green flames that were blazing in the sky with a blank look on his face.

There, he saw knights riding on drakes as they painted a giant magic circle in the sky. The magic circle started to rain down lightning bolts on the trolls. The trolls responded with their sorcery but their defense instantly collapsed when the veteran knights started to jump off and deal with them.

Perhaps it was because of their exhaustion, but the students’ legs started to turn into jelly as they collapsed one by one while watching the scene in front of them.

“We… We survived!” 

“I’m alive!” 

“Waaah! We did it!” 

The students couldn’t help but cheer loudly when they realized that they had successfully survived this ordeal.

While they were busy cheering, a mechanical sound rang in Jaiden’s head.

― You have done an unbelievable job in the Northeast Academy. People will call you the ‘Northeast’s Divine Saint’.

― The title ‘Northeast’s Divine Saint’ has been created. Everyone will praise you for your unbelievable achievements at a young age in the monster-infested Northeast. This title will double the effects of your achievements and titles until you are 20 years old.

― Title : Northeast’s Divine Saint (Double the effects of your titles until the age of 20.)

― You have combined your extensive knowledge about monsters and your excellent tactics. The scholars will praise you and call you a monster scholar.

― Title: Monster Scholar (The effect of your attack will be doubled if you have acquired the knowledge about the monster.)

― The effects of the title will increase when linked with ‘Jjambap Doesn’t Go Anywhere!’ 

Jaiden was in a daze as he listened to the continuous barrage of the mechanical sound. Then, his most anticipated notification finally came.

[ Clue about the second Divine Beast. ]

Please take good care of the sick and injured owl! It may become a huge source of strength for you in the future~♥

“That’s all?”

Jaiden was confused. He couldn’t help but stare blankly into space.

He did his best and worked hard to clear this difficult mission because he was looking forward to this reward but all that he received was a short and absurd sentence.

While he was busy trying to make sense of the absurd clue that he had received, the knights sent by the Command finished their massacre of the trolls. The crisis that their academy faced had finally ended.