Volume Three: The Academy Goes Completely Berserk - Beneath the Sea, the Boundary-Breaking Armor

League of Scholars, Headquarters--

Are you serious?

"Absolutely true! I was just passing by after completing a mission, but I could never be mistaken. That is definitely the little girl you and Mr. Sadler are looking for!"

"You said the organization that took her in was called... World's Little Corner?"

"That's right!"

"Whoa..."

Fiaz rested his long fingers on his chin, the six reflective lenses obscuring his eyes, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.

"Doctor, should we send someone to take action immediately?"

"No rush... Let me confirm first. Right now, only you and I know this news. We haven't told Sadler, have we?"

"No!"

"That's good," Fiaz pushed up his glasses, revealing an unfathomable smile. "It's good that I didn't tell him, otherwise he would have been furious and dragged little Evelynths back."

"Doctor, are we just going to leave her like this?"

"Of course not. You see, for a while now, no matter what methods we used, we couldn't elicit 'that power' within her, let alone figure out what that power truly was—in other words, our research on her has hit a bottleneck."

You mean...?

"That's right, breaking through a bottleneck requires a catalyst. Tell me, does Evelynths seem happy in that club?"

"At least my subordinates saw her smile."

"Really? Ha! That's promising! I've got a great idea, a way to truly unleash Evelynths' power! Just don't tell that idiot Sadler about this, I'll give you further instructions tomorrow! World's Little Corner, huh... Hehehehehehe..."

"Then I'll await your instructions... Oh, Doctor, the General Council just sent an order requesting your presence."

"Oh? What's wrong?"

"It seems something in the sea has gone wrong... but I'm not authorized to know the details."

"In the sea... could it be!?"

Fiaz rarely showed a serious expression.

"I understand. You may leave now. I'll be right there."

The Central United Academy is, after all, part of the Central Sea Islands, and is naturally built on the islands in the sea. Although this sea area can be described as calm, the underwater topography is extremely complex, with countless undercurrents and whirlpools, and no one can say for sure what is on the seabed.

The headquarters of the League of Scholars was built on a peninsula, a remote and inconvenient location, but there was a reason for its choice of location.

"Six underground floors --"

In the pitch-black vertical passage, an elevator is rapidly descending.

"21 underground floors--"

An inorganic female voice announced the floor number; this was the only sound in the elevator, everyone else remained silent. There were only four people in the elevator: Fiaz, Sadler, an old man with an exaggeratedly large white beard, and a young man with a knife standing beside the old man.

"40 floors underground--"

With a ding, we finally arrived at our destination.

The four people stepped off the elevator and entered a water-stained passageway. In that instant—

Hiss--!

A bone-chilling cold swept over the four of them, as if some invisible insects were burrowing into their skin—it was utterly terrifying.

The four steadied themselves, Fiaz walked in front, holding a card that he swiped to open one security door after another. Each of these security doors was Treasure Artifact, with a thickness exceeding one meter; it was hard to imagine what kind of being could destroy them.

As they walked further, the chill grew heavier. Only Fiaz remained calm, while the other three showed expressions of unbearable discomfort.

"Arrive."

Fiaz muttered something and opened the last and heaviest door.

Before me lay a dark and gloomy Deep Sea landscape.

That's right, they're currently located at the bottom of the sea.

They entered a room that resembled an aquarium observation deck, protruding from the seabed like a reef, entirely made of transparent, super-pressure-resistant material, whose hardness was no less than that of the security doors.

Fiaz pressed several buttons on the control panel, and the lights installed on the seabed turned on simultaneously, illuminating the darkness of the Deep Sea.

The scene before us has surpassed common sense.

Metal. Countless metals.

Countless metal spikes.

Countless metal spikes, layered and piled haphazardly, formed a colossal object covering the entire seabed. This behemoth resembled a dense spider web, an endless thicket of thorns, or a swarm of countless cold, dead insects—utterly terrifying and horrifying. Each metal spike was covered with grayish-green markings, as if stained with verdigris, and was also covered with countless tiny, Copper-corroded Flower patterns, like those on ancient bronze artifacts. Each Copper-corroded Flower had many extremely sharp barbs, enough to send shivers down one's spine at a single glance.

The seabed, which should have been covered with fine sand, silt, and reefs, is now entirely occupied by metal. Layers of metal spikes, like deformed monsters, are deeply embedded in the seabed, piercing through the rock layers and eroding the seabed.

The giant metal structure not only filled the seabed but also extended upwards—towards the sea surface—like a bizarre giant tree. However, when it reached a height of about 100 meters, its path was blocked by the same transparent, pressure-resistant material, preventing it from growing any taller.

"The corrosion of the Boundary Breaking Armor is getting worse and worse..."

"This seabed has been completely eroded through. Even under such strong suppression, it still... It's truly terrifying."

The old man stroked his beard, his tone very solemn.

"There's nothing we can do; it's one of the legendary nine Divine Item."

"Fiaz said, but his tone was more one of admiration than seriousness."

What about the situation at 'Water Heart'?

"The Water Heart is working perfectly. The problem isn't with the Water Heart, but with the device we built around Water Heart," Fiaz shrugged.

"Fiaz, I remember you were the one who oversaw the manufacture of that device, so this is your fault!" Sadler immediately shifted the blame when he saw things were going badly.

"Yes, yes, Brother Sadler, but there's nothing we can do about it. What can we do when the Water Heart we possess—although it's one of the nine divine Divine Item —is practically useless?"

The Boundary Breaking Armor, one of the nine divine Divine Item, is of the same level as items such as the Gleaming Gold South-Pointing Compass Crystal Realm Fruit. Its symbol is greed and corruption.

As for the Water Heart--

"You can't say that. The Water Heart's function is indeed only to 'create water infinitely,' but it is undoubtedly one of the Divine Item recorded in ancient books. It is also a treasure passed down through generations of our Central United Academy, unknown to outsiders. We must have reverence for it!" the old man said, a hint of pride in his eyes.

"Yes, but this is the Water Heart, which symbolizes 'flow and inclusiveness,' not the Crystal Realm Fruit, which symbolizes 'solidification and suppression.' Its ability to create water infinitely is useless; it's practically worthless. It needs to be paired with the complex devices I designed to suppress the Boundary Breaking Armor. In that case, don't you think I'm even more important?"

"Presumptuous!!!"

The old man flew into a rage.

"Yare yare..."

Fiaz scratched his head.

He's slipped up again...

Thus, Haoyue and I, having successfully joined this World's Little Corner, ushered in our first day of academy life.

I'll tentatively be considered a sports-specialized student (those who aren't good at academics but are very strong in combat are all classified as sports-specialized students), and my major is mining engineering.

That's right, it's mining! On Spirit Star, there are no subcategories like ore processing, transportation, or collection; everything is called mining. Of course, as a young girl, I have absolutely nothing to do with mining, but what can I do? I got in through connections, so my major was completely randomly assigned, and this is the result of that randomness.

A school where over half the students are pampered young ladies would have a major that seems designed for miserable STEM guys? Believe it or not, it does exist, although very few people choose it, and even fewer teachers do. The most popular majors at Mikael Girls' Academy Higher Division are humanities majors suitable for young girls, such as finance, management, literature, and law. Each of these is world-renowned, while these less prestigious majors are just there to enhance the school's image and complete its curriculum.

Haoyue is a law student. With her experience growing up in a gangster family, her ruthless personality at crucial moments, and her eloquence to distort the truth, studying law should be a perfect fit for her.

In the morning, after saying goodbye to Haoyue and Elina, I went to the classroom. Haoyue originally wanted to stick close to me, but since it was the first day of school, it wouldn't be good to waste the first class, so she sensibly gave in after I refused.

"Ah, it's Sister Ye! Greetings!"

"Honey, hello! You look so beautiful this morning..."

"Does Sister Ye have a club yet?"

"Um, if you don't mind, would you like to join the Student Council's tea party this afternoon? Everyone would be very happy if you could come."

Along the way, girls in cute maroon school uniforms kept greeting me, giving me flirty glances, and making all sorts of invitations. I used the same methods I used to deal with reporters in the North Frontier, smiling and brushing them off. I seemed friendly to everyone, but I didn't accept any of their invitations.

"Well then, students, I'm so glad you've chosen to study the ancient and profound field of mining. Today, let me lead you into this wonderful world!"

Professor Gulisa, an elderly woman with wrinkles even on her fingernails, stood on the spacious podium and greeted us with a trembling voice that seemed to drift in the wind. It didn't seem surprising that she could pass away at any moment... But it must be said that it is truly admirable that she is still standing on the front line of education at such an old age.

I looked around. There were only four students in the classroom, including myself. From what I knew beforehand, the other three were daughters of wealthy families who made their fortunes in mining. They were studying mining only because they might be able to communicate with downstream industries of the mining sites. It would be embarrassing if they didn't know anything about the ore.

"Let's take a look at this first~~~~"

Professor Gulisa picked up a sturdy cloth bag with trembling hands and took out a stone. The stone was dark brown and covered with holes of all sizes, looking just like a beehive.

"Does anyone know what kind of rock this is?"

"It's basalt, Professor!"

A girl immediately raised her hand to answer.

"That's right, that's right~~~~Basalt is a basic extrusive rock~~~The most common tectonic setting is Deep Sea ridges~~~It has very high durability~~~It has many joints~~~~And basalt has many pores~~~~Some basalts~~~like this one~~~have many, many pores~~~It's also called pumice~~~"

So the old professor started with basalt and explained the structure of some representative minerals. I had initially thought that mineralogy would be boring, especially since the professor was an old woman with a trembling voice, so I was prepared to give up... But to my surprise, her lectures were unexpectedly interesting. She first introduced common rocks like basalt and gabbro, then beautiful minerals like moonstone, amazonite, and turquoise, which are likely to appeal to girls. Finally, she even brought out some rare things that don't exist on Earth, something like the Aizhe Red Stone and the Four Souls Jade. She progressed from simple to complex, fully stimulating our interest.

That old professor is truly extraordinary...

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The prototype for the Boundary Breaking Armor is the Nine Deaths Terrifying Tomb Armor from the Wuxia Coffin Mountain in Ghost Blows Out the Light, it's incredibly cool.

By the way, my major is microelectronics... There's a lot to learn, but the salary isn't as high as for software engineering... Sigh.