Heaven's Greatest Professor

Jenni retched, her stomach contorting as it attempted to expel the disgusting mushroom she had just eaten. It had appeared as a normal mushroom, smelling like one too. She found nothing wrong with it when she boiled it or even when she consumed it. However, it started acting strangely once inside her stomach.

Before the superior digestion process of her Iron Ranker body could commence, the mushrooms acted up, burning her intestines in fiery anguish. It left her questioning her decision to embark on this expedition.

In the end, Jenni had only herself to blame. Her participation in this journey to the Inheritance Ground was a last-minute decision. She had prepared nothing other than taking her Dimension Cube, assuming it would have everything she needed. Moreover, she had joined the Azalea Garden team, and those women were nothing if not trained for the worst.

She had thought she was in good company, but that was a couple of days ago. Jenni found herself teleported to the middle of nowhere, with a thick forest and vast expanse before her eyes. The absence of light made it far from ideal for habitation. There was no sun or source of light, and the atmosphere was gloomy and chilling.

As for her Dimension Cube... well, the only useful things she found within it were a couple of weapons and a winter dress. There were some food and leftovers of desserts she had stolen from Warden, but they were all gone. She devoured them all on the very first day, thinking she would meet someone else or a woman from the Azalea Garden.

It wasn't like she had never been to a subspace before; the moment would pass, and she would have her adventure and a carefree time away from her father's nagging.

Apparently, she was supposed to meet her supposed fiancé, who was more than five times her age. There was no way Jenni would even consider that, much less agree to the meeting.

The guy had already waited a hundred years; he could wait a bit longer, she had thought as she ran out of her house. She actually found Lady Cassandra Azalea outside, who had come to repair some of their equipment.

After Jenni requested this opportunity, Lady Cassandra only needed a moment to arrange everything. Cassandra compensated the person with a one-year VIP pass to Velvet Kiss, a foundation owned by Azalea Garden. This was more than enough to secure a spot.

Technically, it wouldn't even matter if Cassandra didn't acknowledge the person they left out, but she was very kind and professional in her approach.

"And very ladylike too," Jenni snorted. While she had no intention of ever acting in such a courtly manner, she couldn't help but admire the impossible poise Cassandra carried herself with.

Well, Jenni could be charming if she wanted, but what she desired was the confidence and competence to not give a damn about anything. Just like Captain Agnes.

If she had planned all this out, she would likely have joined Captain Agnes's team. However, she hadn't done so, and the captain would likely deny her. Besides, from what she had heard from the women of Azalea Garden, the twenty-fourth prince had taken over Agnes's team.

It's hard for Agnes as well, Jenni sighed and cast her gaze towards the endless expanse of darkness. It certainly had an ominous presence here, as if alive. More evident when she lit up a light construct. The darkness would always curl around the light, as if avoiding it.

Jenni didn't know the full story of it; perhaps none of the participants did, but one thing was certain—it ran deeper than her imagination could fathom. It wasn't some simple Intent.

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Ravenous, she crept from her safe spot to find something better to eat than these burning acidic mushrooms. Hell, she wouldn't even mind if it were some cursed creature. Certainly, she could use some purifying construct to cleanse the taint, but with her condition, she was prepared to eat it raw if her situation escalated further.

"Well, I certainly see myself doing it if I'm in this state for over a week," she mumbled. Unfortunately, Jenni found no sign of any demonic creature since she was dropped here. There were some mutated bugs on the trees, but they looked far more disgusting than those mushrooms.

"Come on, someone found me already," Jenni complained, looking up at the cascading canopies that hid the twinkling stars. "My luck can't be that bad."

Abruptly, a loud screech echoed throughout the dark forest, chilling her spine. Jenni froze in her spot, goosebumps crawling up her skin. Even without catching a glimpse of the creature, Jenni acknowledged that whatever it was, it was out of her league to deal with.

Looking right, left, up, and down, she quickly crept away from the spot, clutching her cape to activate its concealment scripts. Jenni had made it herself, one of her finest accomplishments that she couldn't bear to sell. And from the look of it, the cape would save her life right now.

After cautiously creeping for a couple of minutes, she finally discovered the creature that instilled dread in her heart just from its screech. It was a massive wolf-like creature, standing over five meters high. It had three eyes, glowing red like a blacksmith's forge. Its body was jet black, with tar-like liquid dark essence oozing out of it.

Against its massive form were a dozen monstrous figures of trolls, assisted by another group of orcs and goblins, attacking the creature from a long distance. The ambient darkness resonated with its roar, curling around its form. The monstrous wolf fought the encompassment of three forsaken races on its own and was actually winning.

Jenni sucked in a deep breath, taking shelter behind a tree, even though her concealment was intact. She didn't know which side to take; both choices seemed like a bitter pill to swallow.

On one side, the forsaken—trolls, orcs, and goblins, each one worse than the other. If they win and Jenni falls into their hands, her fate would be worse than death. Goblins were best known for tormenting their captives, and as for orcs, they would deflower her to her death. Trolls were much more tame compared to them because they were a stupid bunch; they would probably eat her.

Jenni felt a chill running in her blood as she turned to the beast. It could affect the ambient energy, and only very few human rankers—the master-ranked personnel—could achieve that. Yet, this creature was doing it without even trying.

"I need to get out of here, no matter who wins," Jenni thought and put her feet to use once again.

Their battle had already uprooted dozens of trees, going at it without caring about the environment. The light of the countless twinkling stars finally found a way to filter through the broken canopy, but Jenni was in no mood to appreciate the star-filled skies.

She ran as trees and branches began to tear behind her. Her father wouldn't even find her bones to marry to the old man if she fell here. Jenni didn't find any of the options cordial.

Then suddenly, a huge log crashed onto her from her back, flinging her away. Jenni cried; a couple of bones on her back might have fractured, but she could live with that. She just needed to make sure to keep the concealment intact.

Clenching her jaw and biting through the pain, she forced her awareness into the cape, using her runic smithing expertise to repair the shroud of darkness in real time. She was still flying... how much force was behind that trunk to send her flinging so far?

She opened her eyes to see... she blinked...

Jenni wasn't flying. No, she was falling from a cliff...

"Goddammit!" she screamed. "Motherfu—"

Her curses were muted as she fell into the water. Yeah, she could live through that. It's water, after all. It's not like she couldn't swim, and...

An icy burning invaded her system, freezing all her energy instantly. Jenni couldn't even curse. It wasn't simply water.

---

They were on a slow walk through the desolate land of the outer layer. As Agnes had mentioned, there were hardly any creatures in this region, the reason being, it was the territory of a moonspawn. Other creatures didn't tend to survive around a moonspawn for long. Its tyrannical aura was already hard to bear, not to mention its murderous nature.

But considering they were on a mission to hunt a moonspawn, it was the right direction to take.

"So let me get this straight," Agnes said, sucking in a deep breath. "You're saying you have no clue about your past... The only memory you have is of the past couple of months?"

"Pretty much," Warden said. "Though I do have some ideas about my past... I got some visions a few times, though they are somewhat contrasting to what I am now."

"What are you now?" Agnes asked, furrowing her brows.

"A dashingly heroic adventurer," Warden winked at her, "a teacher, runesmith, and a chef."

She snorted to humour him. "Have you ever felt like you never belong, that you're better off—"

She stopped midway, feeling signs of disturbance from their rear.

"Ayee, was thinking who could be gossiping out in the open; turns out it's two humans," said a crackling voice, as many others joined in the laughter, their weapons raised. "Go capture them... Don't kill them, especially not the female... I had been some time I have personally tormented a human female."

Warden spun on his heels, his expression shifting to alert. But then, he relaxed, finding it was only goblins.

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Poor Jenni... Send your well wishes...