According to Dante Hiakapho,
learning 『World Forgery』as his first ability had been a god-tier move.
It was all because of his other class, “Assassination Practicum.”
“After him!”
“He went that way!”
Class time. The cadets were running.
To kill the professor.
“Where is he?!”
“He went that way!”
They had thirty minutes to track down Professor Dante in a designated location and attempt to assassinate him.
Then, for the remaining thirty minutes, they would receive a lesson from him.
It also happened to be the class Dante Hiakapho hated the most.
He’d heard from the other professors that Assassination Practicum was the most dangerous class...
And that was absolutely true.
“Damn, he dodged the trap!”
“It’s fine! Just a little more, push him into a corner!”
An abandoned commercial district.
Now used as the set for Urban Assassination Training.
The cadets frantically moved—scaling windows and leaping over buildings—hunting for Dante.
“There! That’s Professor Dante!”
A cadet spotted him and shouted.
“Gideon! Fire!”
“Got it!”
Shushushushuk—
A cadet hurled a shuriken.
He must have had a [Throwing] ability—
because the single shuriken split into fifteen midair, streaking through the sky like bullets.
“Professor’s disappearing!”
But just as Professor Dante began to blur,
he was already gone.
Papapapak!
Shurikens embedded in the wall.
The cadet used them as footholds, scrambling up the surface and whipping his head around.
Where had Professor Dante gone?
“Ah! The rooftop!”
The cadets gawked.
There he stood, on the edge of the fourth-floor rooftop,
looking down at them—without even a single leap.
Bang! Tatatat!
Several gunshots rang out.
Dante merely turned his head slightly to dodge,
then pivoted his body toward the far side of the rooftop.
“Don’t lose him! It’s an open area—if he runs, we’ll see him.”
“After him!”
Some cadets activated [Movement Arts],
running up the wall to pursue Dante to the rooftop—
only to find nothing but a dusty, abandoned surface.
“Damn it. We just found him after ten minutes.”
“Hey. Hey....”
“Huh?”
“Look. This is freaking me out.”
“What is?”
The cadet looked at the dusty rooftop where his friend gestured.
But... what was supposed to be scary?
“Dude! That’s where Professor Dante was standing!”
“Yeah, so what? ...Oh!”
The spot where Dante had stood.
Where he’d walked.
Not a single footprint remained.
The flustered cadet looked behind himself—
and saw countless messy footprints trailing him.
“...Huh. [Movement Arts], huh.”
“Freaking insane. How are we supposed to assassinate someone like this?”
...In truth, the Dante they’d seen walking was also a [Phantom].
So was the Dante on the rooftop.
Because the phantom didn’t carry weight, it left no footprints.
And within the illusion’s radius, Dante could make and erase them at will—
giving the illusion of teleportation.
Even a professor-level assassin wouldn’t have noticed.
To the cadets, it simply looked like some ultra-high-level Movement Art.
That was the nature of a [Lv.9] [Forbidden] ability.
Currently, Dante couldn’t beat a single cadet in pure combat.
But when it came to [Illusions],
he stood at the very pinnacle of the continent.
A truly bizarre development state.
But that was exactly Dante’s goal—
To grow, always a breath away from death, walking a tightrope.
Beep-beep-beep!
A whistle rang out.
All fifteen cadets taking the class gathered in one place.
Now came the evaluation portion of the practicum.
“First off, Gideon. Your [Throwing Technique] will probably get you some attention out in the real world.”
“Ah, thank you...!”
“From imbeciles desperate enough to try using shit as medicine.”
“......”
“Absolutely disgraceful.
Your fundamentals are crap,
and you’re just showing off with flashy nonsense.”
The cadet flinched inside.
“Professor... I know I’m not perfect,
but I don’t think it was that bad.”
Dante tilted his head.
“It wasn’t?”
“...I-I mean, maybe it wasn’t perfect in your eyes,
but I’ve got some pride in it, honestly.
There are guys who throw five or ten with 『Multi-Shuriken Scatter』,
but come on—fifteen? That’s not something just anyone can do....”
“Does it help in an assassination?”
“...Huh? Of course it does!”
His voice rose, clearly upset.
“Obviously!
The wider the range, the more lethal, right?!”
That was when Dante made a broad sweeping motion with his arm—
and threw something.
A shuriken flew through the air.
“Uwah!!”
Startled, Gideon instinctively jumped back—
dodging just in time.
Luckily, it didn’t hit him.
So what was that?
Looking closer, the shuriken had split into fifteen,
just like his own.
But now they were frozen midair, suspended unnaturally.
“Whoa.”
Gasps broke out among the cadets.
“They stopped in midair!”
It was a [Throwing Technique] so unreal they couldn’t believe their eyes.
“Evaluate it, Gideon.
Was my attack just now lethal?”
“......”
Gideon clenched his lips and thought.
Fifteen shuriken came flying.
But they weren’t lethal.
He’d dodged them.
Or rather—he felt like he could dodge them.
Confusion surged.
One shuriken is weaker than fifteen.
That’s obvious.
So why had it felt easy to dodge?
What was wrong?
“Answer.”
“N-No... it wasn’t.
It felt dodgeable.”
“Indeed. Fifteen of them. Yet it was sloppy.”
Dante retrieved the fifteen shuriken and added:
“The core of [Throwing] abilities is stealth.”
“...Stealth?”
“Your [Projectiles] don’t need to be faster than bullets.
They don’t need to hit like cannons.
They don’t need to look like magic.
But unlike those, [Throwing] has a unique edge.”
“...And that’s stealth? But what does stealth mean in throwing?
Like, the projectile’s invisible or something?”
“There are many methods.
The trajectory could be stealthy.
Or the motion could be stealthy.”
“You mean... the throwing motion itself?”
The cadet recalled how Dante had thrown like a baseball pitcher.
Ah—
the motion had been so exaggerated,
it was obvious and easy to dodge.
Dante narrowed his eyes.
“All [Throwing] abilities,
in the end, evolve toward concealing the throw itself.
Like so.”
The next moment, every cadet recoiled in shock.
A dagger was spinning in place—
right beneath Gideon’s throat.
“Ah!?”
When—how—!?
No one had seen it.
Just like Dante said—
his motion had been stealthy.
There had been zero wind-up.
“......!”
If Dante hadn’t stopped it,
the shuriken would’ve pierced Gideon’s throat
and shattered his cervical spine.
And none of the cadets would’ve even realized Dante had killed him.
That was an assassination.
Even with the attacker and victim both present—
it had undeniably been assassination.
‘No way...’
‘So this is why [Throwing]-class assassins are said to be the most dangerous among the Twelve Ability Paths...’
The cadets were stunned.
“Aah......”
Only now did Gideon finally understand.
Dante’s lesson had landed deep in his heart.
It was an entirely different level of assassination.
Each and every cadet was shaken to the core.
That was the kind of class it was.
“......That concludes today’s lesson.”
┃ Mission Complete: [Class]
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 1
****
I stepped outside after finishing class.
That made it the fourth class already. After learning 『World Forgery』, life had become more manageable. At the very least, I no longer got pushed around by a bunch of kids.
The rewards that came with it were not bad, either.
< Star Fragments in Possession: 4 >
‘The key to surviving [Hell Mode] is collecting as many Star Fragments as possible, as quickly as possible.’
How does one collect Star Fragments?
There are four methods in total.
── Star Fragment Acquisition Routes ──
Assassination contracts or infiltration missions issued under Hiaka Academy. Research, thesis writing, and classwork performed as a Hiaka Academy professor. Killing demons. Increasing rapport with the Dormant Dragon Institute.─────────────────────────────
Among those, options 1 and 3 were not immediately available to me.
Option 2 was already underway.
Option 4—increasing rapport with the Dormant Dragon Institute—was something I could work on slowly over time.
‘There were some dangerous moments here and there.’
The class just now had been one of them.
That bastard Gideon had thrown fifteen shuriken, but his accuracy had been so abysmal that several of them flew off in completely illogical directions. One of those just happened to pierce through the window of the third floor of the abandoned building I was hiding in.
Clang—!
A shuriken flew past the right side of my head, missing by three centimeters, and embedded itself in a pillar.
I had nearly passed out. This must be how generals die on the battlefield—from stray arrows.
‘Ridiculous.’
Sloppy assassinations are dangerous because they are sloppy. When you have no idea where the attack will land, the odds of dying go up.
On the other hand, if it had been someone attempting a far more precise assassination, I probably could have dismantled it by now.
For example, that one over there.
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: ‘...That’s that professor, isn’t it?’ 】
The location was the central park. In the distance, Kendreik was standing with his gang—probably Blackblade—puffing away on a cigarette.
The moment he spotted me, he began striding toward me.
【 Moonshadow Institute – Year 1 – Marina: “Where are you going, Kendreik?” 】
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: “Hold on a sec.” 】
Long red hair. Eyes slanted sharply. A towering height of 2.2 meters. Even if he had not become an assassin, he could have been a fearsome warrior. His body was built like a monster.
He was the most dangerous cadet in Dormant Dragon. He was combative, aggressive, and immune to bluffing. He was the type that couldn’t be handled with empty bravado. In fact, he had already assassinated a professor and obtained a graduation certificate.
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: ‘I really hate that professor.’ 】
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: ‘I tried to assassinate him last time, but he vanished on me.’ 】
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: ‘Is he avoiding me? Or just ignoring me? I really can’t «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» tell what’s going on in his head. Maybe instead of charging in, I’ll just try talking to him.’ 】
He walked up and gave me a slight nod.
“Yo.”
I did not respond.
More accurately, I could not respond.
Up until now, I had believed I was simply pretending to be strong. But that was not entirely true.
The instincts of “Dante Hiakapho,” with whom I was <Synchronized>, were guiding me.
Dante viewed himself as an endlessly powerful adult. Because of that, I was physically incapable of accepting a disrespectful greeting.
“......”
I ignored him and continued walking at an angle, and from behind, Kendreik called out to me.
“Hey, what’s your problem? I just said hi.”
“......”
“Yo, are you seriously just going to ignore me like that? Let’s have an assassination duel if you’re not scared.”
He was repeating the exact same line he had used before, like a parrot. I continued walking in silence and slowly. Then he raised his voice slightly.
“Hey! Are you seriously ghosting me to my face? That’s just straight-up disrespect. You know that doesn’t sit well with me, right?”
I came to a stop.
“Cadet.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
I turned and looked at him. He appeared flustered, his expression a mixture of surprise and humiliation, his face slightly red.
He might have been on par with a senior professor in raw power, but from my perspective, he looked no different than a child.
“Manners.”
A child with no manners needs an adult to correct his attitude.
“Show proper respect when standing before a professor.”
His face froze.
A quiet stillness settled in the air. I turned away without saying anything further.
As I began walking again, the 【Script】 started flaring up noisily.
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: ‘What the hell? Why should I take that crap? This is bullshit.’ 】
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: ‘I could kill him if I wanted to. That was so humiliating...’ 】
It seemed Kendreik, feeling a twinge of shame, had lost some of his will to assassinate me.
“Uh, so then—”
“There will be no assassination duel.”
“...Why not? You scared? Afraid I’ll take you down?”
I walked away without responding.
“...Professor!”
Once the distance between us had grown, he finally addressed me as “Professor.”
Even then, I refused to acknowledge him.
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: ‘Motherfucker’s acting like he’s all that... What, I’m not even worth his time?’ 】
【 Dormant Dragon Institute – Year 1 – Kendreik: ‘Goddamn it, this pisses me off. Who the hell does he think he is to look down on me?’ 】
There was a reason I had exchanged words with him in that way.
Among the four methods of collecting Star Fragments, one of them was building [Rapport].
As someone experienced in this game, I knew how diverse the forms of [Rapport] could be.
And I understood that inferiority was one of them.
┃ Rapport Increase: Kendreik [3] (▲3)
┃ Reward: Star Fragments × 3