LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 81
**The Professor of Jerion Academy**
They are renowned experts in the Empire.
Jerion Academy, tasked with nurturing heroes to combat the greatest foes of the Magung world.
Naturally, the selection of professors couldn’t be taken lightly.
Thus, every professor working at Jerion Academy was exceptionally skilled.
Most of them were renowned heroes who once made significant contributions in the Magung.
Their reputations soared endlessly high.
However, stagnation leads to decay.
Among those professors, once hailed as heroes, some had rotted away.
Human greed knows no bounds.
Living as a professor at Jerion Academy, they had grasped wealth and honor entirely.
Yet, there were those still greedy for more.
During their school years, a man who lived with the title of “perpetual second place,” obsessively fixated on being first.
3rd Year Magic Arts Professor, Barkio Lavlijan.
Currently overshadowed by the Blue Magic Tower Lord, he was an unfortunate genius who had lost his spot as the century’s prodigy.
He was also a figure with a terrible reputation among students.
He often disregarded those with lesser abilities and never hesitated to mock them.
As a result, his standing among students was the worst imaginable.
Now, even Professor Barkio had grown older, and his body felt heavier.
However, he still vividly remembered the past.
The shameful memory of having the position of Magic Tower Lord snatched away by a genius he could never hope to reach.
He had long wished to build his own tower.
During his school years, he thought that was the only way to regain the crushed pride.
But in the Empire, the Blue Tower and Yellow Tower had already reached the pinnacle of magic.
It was no longer possible to establish another tower.
Hence, he allied with kingdoms outside the Empire.
In return for constructing a tower for Barkio, they siphoned off secrets from the Empire and funds from Jerion Academy.
Now, it was only a matter of time before he exiled himself to the kingdom.
But an irreversible event had occurred.
A pathetic group of students known as the student council boycotters.
On the day of the national festival, they exposed the wrongdoings he had committed.
Barkio’s eyes turned wild.
Though maybe after the exile, he could handle it, but if news spread now, he was looking at execution for sure.
‘Not yet, not yet.’
This news had only spread within Jerion Academy.
If he burned all the culprits who had spread the rumors and made a quick escape, he might still get away.
‘Above all else.’
In his personal office, he had the top-secret documents prepared for his final transaction with the exiled kingdom.
Jerion Academy restricted external access.
Thus, his personal office was the perfect hiding place for top-secret documents.
But he never thought the issue would blow up from within.
He burst through the door of his office in disarray.
He had vented his anger on all those student council boycotters he encountered on the way.
A fitting punishment for those inadequate students.
Now he just needed to hurry and find the documents and incinerate the remaining culprits.
Just as he was about to gather the documents…
*Drrrk— Clack—*
The door to his personal office suddenly slammed shut again.
In the dark room.
The moonlight streaming through the window illuminated Barkio’s office.
As Barkio slowly turned his head, there was a familiar face staring back at him.
“Huh?”
A chuckle escaped Barkio’s lips as he saw him.
A man with striking white hair and amber eyes.
His face was exceptional, but his magic was poorer than anyone else’s.
“Bickamon?”
Bickamon Niflheim.
The pitiful loser who had been expelled from Jerion Academy was right there.
Bickamon was the least talented in magic among all who Barkio could remember.
So much so that he had received the most mockery during the Magic Arts classes.
And now, here he stood right in front of Barkio.
Barkio’s eyes narrowed with unease.
“So, it really was you. You orchestrated this to get back at me.”
The times he had mocked Bickamon.
In return for that ridicule, Bickamon had unveiled the truth behind the boycott.
How he learned about Barkio’s corrupt deeds, he couldn’t comprehend.
But he couldn’t possibly forgive Bickamon for daring to touch him.
“You reckless fool! Do you even know who I am, pulling stunts like this? I’ll teach you a lesson!”
Barkio drew his wand from his waist.
Seeing this, Bickamon frowned slightly, but then spoke up.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re trying to wriggle out of this, huh? I get your rage. But if you want to blame someone, blame your ludicrous magical talent!”
As he said this, Barkio unleashed his specialty, lightning magic.
The explosive torrent of magical power he released was a clear testament to why he was a 3rd Year Magic Arts Professor.
*Boom—*
Black currents of lightning darted around the room in an instant.
Bickamon stood there, dumbfounded, doing nothing in face of the incoming storm.
Just when Barkio was certain of Bickamon’s death.
*Zzap—*
The bolt of lightning that gushed out was pulled into his hand like a magnet.
There, nestled among the magic, was a ring.
Barkio didn’t know.
That he and Bickamon had the worst compatibility.
Bickamon possessed the Lightning Bulwark.
It had the power to swallow all lightning except for the strikes sent by the God of Lightning.
This meant that Barkio’s specialty, lightning magic, was rendered ineffective.
*BAM!*
Barkio’s expression of shock was evident just before Bickamon was already upon him.
He had surged forward, propelled by an explosion from his own feet.
Magic Seal, Explosion.
At the moment Bickamon reached him, having detonated an explosion from his own foot, Barkio reacted as if his past fame was genuine.
With his magical power surging, a wall of flames erupted from the tip of his wand.
Nobody would be foolish enough to breach that wall of intense heat head-on.
Bickamon would naturally retreat.
“Looks like you prepped quite a strategy to face me!”
Sorry, but a Magic Arts Professor from Jerion Academy isn’t someone you can take down with just a lightning spell.
He was confident that Bickamon would pull back.
*Whoosh!*
And yet, there was a fool here who pierced through the wall of flames with his bare body.
“What?!”
Barkio’s head buzzed from his second wave of shock.
Bickamon aimed to truly rattle him by striking with his fist.
*Boom!*
Barkio, hit by Bickamon’s punch, tumbled into the office furniture.
Though he was surprised, he managed to shield his face with defensive magic.
“Grrr, you crazy fool.”
No matter how it was, who would dare jump through a wall of fire with their bare body?
So stunned, he couldn’t even muster magic properly.
But he did tear through the wall of fire with his body.
With burns from the high heat, he was unable to move.
“Heh heh, foolish one.”
Just as he thought that and tried to stand up.
*POW!*
Barkio suddenly fell still under the weight pressing down on him.
He hurriedly looked up.
There, shining in the moonlight through the window, was Bickamon.
His clothes were charred in places here and there.
But his body bore no marks of burns whatsoever.
Barkio’s reaction to this was one of bewilderment.
He pierced through the wall of fire he conjured, yet there were no burns? Impossible!
“Quite warm, actually.”
Bickamon’s iron-clad physique.
It was imbued with the essence of fire.
Originally possessive of fire resistance, his body had now achieved a higher resilience than before.
Furthermore, he had regularly detonated his own body with magic seals.
Now, his body was in a state where it could withstand most flames.
Amidst the moonlight, Bickamon’s amber eyes glinted ominously.
*Thud—*
Barkio felt his heart sink.
Already, his bragged magic had failed to inflict any damage twice.
A strike that would have charred any student to a crisp.
Yet Bickamon stood there unharmed.
Nothing was making sense; he couldn’t help but feel a chill of fear.
“This, you scoundrel! Where do you think you’re stepping!”
As he did his last-ditch effort, he swung his wand around.
With his lightning blocked and the wall of fire nullified.
That left him with only one option remaining.
“Fine. Let’s see how long you can freeze while clinging on for dear life!”
He unleashed a storm of cold that rushed into the office in an instant.
Being adept in high-speed magic, it was a spell that Bickamon would struggle to counter.
*Crack—*
The office was transformed into an icy hell of frozen death.
Even Bickamon who took the full brunt was no exception.
He stood completely frozen, tall and proud in front of Barkio.
Seeing this, Barkio trembled in the cold, wearing a sinister grin.
“Ha ha, see? That punk has nothing against me.”
He began conjuring high-powered light bullets to shatter the frozen Bickamon.
“Die!”
Just as he aimed to launch the completed bullet…
*Clang!*
Bickamon’s frozen foot shot out in an instant.
*Crack!*
“Gahhh!”
Bickamon’s foot smashed into Barkio’s hand that held the wand.
Overcome with pain, he couldn’t complete the magic and dropped the wand.
*Crack—*
Simultaneously, the frozen Bickamon’s body moved, shattering the ice around him.
A flash of brilliant yellow light sparkled in his right eye.
There lay eyes reminiscent of a lizard.
*Chill!*
Those eyes held a warning for Barkio.
How dare he unleash worthless ice magic at him.
In that instant, Barkio felt a primal fear rooted in the instinct of living beings.
The unique ability of the remnants of the Ancient Dragon had awakened.
*Fear.*
The fear intrinsic to living beings engulfed him.
Barkio’s face turned pale, and cold sweat dripped down his brow.
“Y-You…!”
The magic of the Ancient Dragon held the worst compatibility against magicians.
Unlike Sharine, who possessed her Milky Way prowess, average mages like Barkio had no means to counter it.
Moreover, Barkio had been intoxicated by the glories of his past, neglecting his magical studies.
He had solely devoted himself to the desire of establishing his own tower.
He thought for a lifetime that he had merely fallen behind the Blue Tower Lord.
But now, he saw not only the Blue Tower Lord but also numerous skilled mages standing before him.
Barkio had lived his life ignoring that truth, convinced he was always second to others.
Those intoxicated by authority and power inevitably fall behind themselves.
Bickamon raised his tightly clenched fist.
In the end, the kingdom only used him.
They had no intention of building him a tower.
“What’s a petty dream worth? A loser like you?”
Bickamon decided to put an end to his dreams.
“Wake up from your dreams.”
Bickamon brought his fist down with finality.