It’s an Academic Fact That Rankers Are Model Students – Chapter 160

Chapter 160: Don’t Let Them Push You Around (2)

“What the……”

Surrounded by forest, he saw a giant cliff towering behind him.

Sky Cliff.

Lately, it’s the place he frequently visits with Ceram whenever he can’t focus.

“Ah, come to think of it, yesterday I was herb gathering with Ceram and logged out right after.”

『Ceram-style Contemplation Herbal Tea』, obtainable only by combining rare herbs in precise quantities down to the second decimal place.

Although it comes with the side effect of -50% to all stats for a whole day, it temporarily increases memory and concentration by 50%, making it a favorite……no, a tea that Kyung-joon has been enjoying lately.

Honestly, a -50% stat decrease for a day didn’t matter much to Kyung-joon, who only studied, so he was very satisfied with it.

But there’s one regret…….

“There’s not much mint left in Sky Cliff, is there?”

<Yes. Only about 30% is left compared to when it was first discovered. Shade Rosemary and Sun Basil have even less left.>

“Right. I’ve been using a lot lately.”

Just like Crazy Coffee Pod, he drank a lot of herbal tea while preparing for the midterms.

Especially since the effect wears off after a minute, he couldn’t even count how many cups he drank.

Ceram, who made the herbal tea, even complained, telling him to stop drinking so much.

<If you wish to continue using the herbal tea, cultivation will be necessary soon.>

“Yeah. But that’s easier said than done.”

Kyung-joon had tried many things to grow canned herbs within the territory.

But it was a series of failures.

Unlike rice or wheat, which grow quickly with water, sunlight, and fertilizer, herbs either die immediately in the territory or become powerless weeds even if they manage to survive.

To overcome this, he’s been reading books on fertilizer in agricultural chemistry and cultivation in life science, but it seems like it’s still a long way to go before he can actually implement it.

“Let’s go back.”

<Yes, that would be best.>

Thump, thump.

How long had he been walking?

While walking along the familiar path back to the territory.

“Demon child! Because of you, our Silvas are all going to die!”

“Why are you alive?! Because of you……because of you, my family…!”

“Who let you live?! Those cursed by the Demon should have been killed at birth!”

He heard a commotion from beyond the bushes.

However, it wasn’t human language.

“Fairy language?”

<It’s the same language Ceram uses.>

“It is. Let’s go.”

Come to think of it, he had never met any other Silvas besides Ceram.

It was natural since Silvas lived deeper in the Whale Forest, closer to the body than the tail.

‘But there are Silvas here? This is much closer to the tip of the tail than the body……’

Kyung-joon decided to move quickly.

He also asked Teemo in advance.

“Teemo, go ahead and check out the situation.”

<Understood.>

Whoosh~!

Teemo’s crystal quickly flew towards the direction of the sound.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

“You cursed children have no idea how to behave here in the Whale Forest, and this is what happens!”

“That’s right! That’s right!”

“Cursed one! Disgusting one!”

The green-skinned Silvas, the fairies of the forest.

Many of them surrounded a single tree.

The being trapped and surrounded at the center of the tree was none other than Black-skinned Silva.

It was Ceram.

‘Why are my fellow…… no, why are the Silvas here?’

This was the very edge of the Whale Forest.

It was almost impossible to meet Silvas living in the border area between the tail and the lower trunk.

Silvas were not an aggressive group, and they rarely left the safe confines of their territory.

And yet, they met here.

Furthermore, they had not met by chance, but they had found Ceram and chased him as if he were an enemy.

‘Why are they suddenly coming after me now, when they usually avoid me because they think I’ll give them the curse?’

Ceram was currently cornered against a tree, and was being verbally abused as if he were being beaten with words.

He couldn’t understand it.

Originally, Silvas hated black colored Silvas so much that they would kill them on the spot if a black-skinned child was born.

However, they would not cause such a commotion even if they left the territory.

As I mentioned earlier, they avoided them because they thought the curse of the demon would spread to them.

But now, it was different.

“Get out of the Whale Forest right now! You’re a monster like a Black Leopard!”

“Cursed beings should not be in the Whale Forest!”

“Go ahead and make an excuse! Demon spawn!”

Countless accusations continued.

“……..”

Ceram bowed his head and waited for them to pass.

Come to think of it, this wasn’t the first time he had been insulted for having black skin in his decades of wandering.

Not only Silvas, but other monsters had attacked him, saying that he was disgusting because he wasn’t originally green.

‘Yeah…… It’s always been like this. I forgot my place while I was living in Kyung-joon-nim’s territory.’

Kyung-joon-nim and the humans and monsters in his territory.

As the saying goes, pets resemble their owners, and they all had a kind heart like Kyung-joon.

When he said this, Kyung-joon would wave his hand and say that it was nonsense, but at least that’s how Ceram felt.

‘……And I forgot.’

He was originally a wanderer who wandered through a cold and uncomfortable reality.

If you stay in a warm and cozy place for too long, you become dull.

So now, it was time to return to the reality that he had been trying to forget.

‘Yes. I am Ceram, a peddler of nothing…… A black-skinned…… Disgusting Silva cursed by demon…… That’s me.’

So Ceram closed his mind, closed his ears, and closed his eyes, as he had always done before.

They’ll get tired and fall asleep when they’re tired.

But.

This time, things turned out differently than before.

“Why is everyone hesitating?! It’s obvious that this guy will come back and do peddling stuff even if we drive him out! We have to deal with him here and now!”

“……!”

The Silvas were surprised that someone was talking about killing one of their own kind, even though he had black skin.

As such, the Silvas were originally very non-aggressive monsters.

In fact, they had never tried to kill Ceram the few times they had met him.

They were now trying to kill Ceram.

“The gentle arlivs were corrupted by the curse of the Demon God! It must be because of this guy! We have to kill him here!”

“B, But……..”

“What do you mean, ‘but’?! Black guys should have been k|lled as soon as they were born anyway!”

“T, That’s right! We’re just correcting a mistake that someone else failed to make!”

The green Silvas approached Ceram, the black Silva, closer and closer.

At the same time, mana gathered in their hands.

Ceram was going to resist with mana as well…….

“Ah……”

In the end, he couldn’t do it, and he could only stare blankly at the mana gathering before his eyes.

He still thought of them as his fellow tribesmen, even though he had been hurt by them……

That’s why he had learned fairy language from his teacher, even though he wondered if he would ever use it……

Now that even that faith was broken, it was all useless.

Wooong!

Ceram closed his eyes tightly as the light of mana grew stronger.

He prayed desperately.

If he had another life.

Please be born with a normal appearance like everyone else.

If that’s not possible, just let me die……

“Why are you just quietly asking them to kill you?”

A voice rang out.

It was a familiar voice.

“Mr. Ceram, is this a prank? You said you were going out as soon as your tutoring contract was over.”

And it was a slightly angry voice.

Plop!

Kyung-joon stepped forward, snapping his fingers.

Then.

[Unique skill 『Multi Mana Control: Nano (Lv.4)』 ]

[Unique skill 『Mana Plunder (Lv.1)』 ]

[Takes multiple mana and replaces it with its own.]

Woooong!

Kyung-joon’s mana instantly invaded the green Silvas’ mana.

Then, the green mana that had originally been imbued with the forest’s attributes began to change into a bland mana, as if it were made of 0s and 1s.

“Oh, no!”

“Ack! What the heck is this?!”

“My mana……! I can’t control it……!”

The Silvas were having their mana control taken away by Kyung-joon.

They tried to resist somehow, but it was useless.

‘Who do you think you’re messing with?’

Kyung-joon is a human who had a mana duel with the Fairy-Elven Alliance’s gatekeeper 『TikiTiki』.

Of course, TikiTiki won as soon as she got serious, but this is a skill he gained from that experience.

He wouldn’t be pushed by a wild fairy living in the forest.

“Ugh…!”

“My, my body’s mana……!”

“My, my strength…… is draining away……”

Swoosh!

Kyung-joon wasn’t satisfied with just taking the mana gathered in the Silvas’ hands, and he began to reclaim the mana in their bodies.

He had become familiar with it while touching the mana circuits of the territory’s residents countless times.

Rather, for fairies, whose mana circuits are clearly visible and whose skills are lower than humans, it is not difficult to take away the mana in their bodies from a distance.

“Ugh…!”

“P, Please stop…!”

“S, Save me…!”

Unlike humans, fairies are beings for whom mana is more important than their physical bodies.

As Kyung-joon continued to take away their mana without stopping, the Silvas fell to their knees, writhing on the ground and crying out in pain.

[The level of the unique skill 『Mana Plunder』 has increased to 2.]

“Hmm.”

Even so, Kyung-joon didn’t think about stopping.

As if he was going to suck up their entire existence, he even accelerated the speed at which he was taking away their mana.

Suwaaak!

“K, Kyung-joon-nim……! Isn’t that too harsh……?!”

Ceram was rather bewildered by Kyung-joon’s relentless retaliation.

“Why? You were about to die.”

“T, That’s true but……!”

“Are you being naive?”

“No… that’s not it…!”

“Then what is it.”

“T, That……!”

Suwaaaak! Suwaaak!

Kyung-joon still showed no sign of stopping.

Ceram racked his brain to come up with something to stop Kyung-joon’s actions.

“Circumstances! It seems that there were some circumstances…… Silvas don’t usually attack others! They don’t even come to the forest near the tail here in the first place! Judging from the fact that the demon’s curse has suddenly corrupted arliv, something must have happened in their forest!”

“Do you expect me to spare their lives because they have circumstances? Are you being naive? When you call yourself a merchant?”

“Y, Yes?!”

He tried to speak long and hard, but it wasn’t the right answer.

Kyung-joon urged on as Ceram looked bewildered and didn’t know what to do.

“Is there anything else you have to say? These guys are about to die soon?”

“Ugh…! T, That… Ah!”

Ceram quickly came up with a new answer.

“If you kill them, won’t you be unable to hear their story! It will be much cheaper to keep them alive and ask them what happened in the forest!”

“That’s a good answer.”

Kyung-joon nodded with a somewhat satisfied expression.

However, he still did not stop Mana Plunder.

“So you were trying to get yourself killed on purpose? To lead to this situation?”

“Yes?”

“No?”

“Ah, no…… nothing like that……”

“Then why were you trying to get yourself killed? Are you being naive?”

“T, That…!”

He kept going around in circles.

“Ah. I’m getting hungry for some pumpkin and sweet potatoes since I’m being naive.”

Suwaaaaaaak!

However, Kyung-joon showed no sign of stopping.

How could he escape from this endless loop……!

‘C, Could it be……’

At that moment, Ceram realized something.

And this time, he had probably put the right answer in his mouth.

The most unexpected, but the simplest answer.

Translator’s Blog

Blog

• The Ultimate Isekai Checklist: From Denial to Acceptance (and Maybe a Little Indigestion)
• Why You Can Read Light Novels But Can’t Speak English: A Guide to Unlocking Your Inner Voice
• Yo, Millennials: This TikTok Dictionary Translates Gen Z So You Don’t Sound Like a Boomer
• Aqua Hoshino: The Ultimate Husbando?
• Scrolling Through Reddit: “My dog got into the Chinese take-out before I did”