I Became a Demon Who Can Never Be Headpatted in the Academy?!

3/3 Bonus chapter for Weekly Top #15 ranking on I Became a Demon Who Can Never Be Headpatted in the Academy?! – Novel Updates~!

“Ugh…”

『Stress has increased by 15!』

The situation unfolding before my eyes was so absurd that I involuntarily gripped my horns with both hands.

What the heck is this? Why is a ‘Black Mudman’ suddenly in the treehouse, like a poorly made difficulty-increasing mod?

Isn’t this monster, like a poorly implemented ‘2x difficulty mode’, completely out of place?

“Ugh…! Murmur!! Aren’t we in a bit of a dangerous situation?”

“Let me think for a moment.”

The ‘Black Mudman’, about ten times my size, is a pretty strong monster. It’s a creature you’d only see in the High School Division chapter in the original game, so its sudden appearance is making my head spin.

But the good thing is that it only has resistance to physical attacks, so it takes full damage from magic.

“Ah! Seriously! Isn’t this a monster we can’t handle? It was supposed to be easy…! It’s not easy at all!!”

Esme’s hastily thrown fireball didn’t do any damage to the Black Mudman.

Let’s not panic and think calmly.

There’s still some time before Sitri interferes. Even if she does, I know the location of the treasure chest, so it’s more like we’re gaining an ally!

“Hoo…”

Among the various enemies you encounter while playing Legend of Academy, there is no enemy that you absolutely cannot defeat.

Even if it looks invincible at first glance, if you clear the hidden gimmicks, the resistance or immunity disappears, allowing you to inflict damage directly, or the enemy gets debuffed, or even if you can’t win by fighting, you can win by talking. There is always a way for the player to defeat the enemy.

In that sense, the Black Mudman is not a terribly difficult enemy. I was just flustered because it suddenly popped out.

“Esme! There’s something Murmur can’t do alone! Help me!”

“Of course, I’ll help! You didn’t even need to ask!”

“Esme, you’re good at elemental magic, right? Can you freeze the Black Mudman?”

Esme’s eyes sparkled.

“Of course! Is that all? Hehehe! Leave it to me! Murmur!”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Esme shook her fingers and created a magic circle. Esme aimed the magic circle at the Black Mudman, and a chilling coldness that made my skin crawl emanated along with a gust of wind.

“N-No… Ooooo…!”

Good, it’s working! Just as I remembered, the ‘Black Mudman’s’ body began to freeze!

“Ugh! T-This guy! It’s freezing slower than I thought…!”

That’s obvious, Esme! Your elemental magic is only level 1 to begin with! There’s no way a Black Mudman ten times bigger than us would freeze instantly, right?

Anyway, it’s fine. It’s starting to freeze as I expected, so all we have to do is stall for time.

“M-Murmur! What should I do… Kyaa!”

“Thorrin, you’re going to ride the spirit with Murmur!”

Well, it’s not exactly riding, but!

I grabbed Thorrin’s wrist and climbed onto the body of the water and wind fusion spirit, Sifrinde, who had brought us to the treehouse.

“Sifrinde!! Let’s run! Run! Keep running until Murmur tells you to stop!”

— Thud!

No sooner had I finished speaking than the Black Mudman’s sticky, heavy mud fist slammed down where we had been standing.

But there’s really no need to be scared. The Black Mudman’s attacks were slow to begin with. In the game, it only attacks once every two turns, right?

Esme is turning that turtle-slow monster into a giant snowman with ice magic. There’s no way we can’t dodge the attacks!

“W-Wow… F-Fast! It’s fast!”

“Thorrin! Can you hold onto Murmur with your right hand?”

“Yes! I’ll hold on tight so Murmur doesn’t fall!”

That’s why dwarves are good.

It would take Esme a long time to freeze the Black Mudman alone. Sifrinde is the one who is dodging the attacks anyway!

“Jack Frost…!!”

With my two free hands, I summoned an ice spirit. It was the head of a ‘snowman’ with a bright blue hood, black button eyes, and a carrot nose, but it was enough for now.

“Hya!”

I lifted the spirit, which was about the size of my head, with both hands and threw it at the Black Mudman.

— Splat!

One snowman head stuck cutely to the body of the giant Black Mudman. But it wasn’t just a cute decoration. The Black Mudman’s body was quickly freezing over, starting from the area where Jack Frost was attached.

“Jack Frost…! One more! One more! One more!”

It was a reckless method that used so much mana that I could feel the heat rising from my body, but this was the right answer. The only way to eliminate the Black Mudman’s ‘physical resistance’ was to freeze it.

When I actually played the game, I didn’t bother with such troublesome methods and just spammed high-level magic! But I can’t afford such luxuries now!

“Noo… Oooo!”

The Black Mudman’s hands were now so slow that it couldn’t attack us properly.

“What… what are you doing?”

“Kyaa! Why is a monster like that here?”

“B-But is it supposed to look like that? With all those snowman heads on it?”

Why are they over there again? How did they know about this treehouse?

No one except Sitri’s party was supposed to think of coming here, so it was important to arrive within 9 minutes and 30 seconds, right?

… Surely not? They didn’t follow me here because they were curious about me riding Sifrinde, right?

We’re in the middle of an exam. We’re in the middle of a task! You guys shouldn’t follow just because you’re curious!

“Murmur! It looks like it’s almost completely frozen!”

“We have to keep freezing it! Esme! Don’t let your guard down…”

— Whoosh!

Seriously! As soon as I say something! The Black Mudman’s huge head, which had only been interested in punching us so far, swelled up like a balloon.

Yeah, that pattern! I know it well! It was an attack designed to trick mage players who spam magic from a distance, right? A dirty attack that sprays mud to obscure the vision!

And it’s even trying to shoot that at the kids huddled in the doorway, not us!

“Sifrinde!”

I squeezed the soft water bubble with my thighs. Fortunately, Sifrinde understood and shot off at an incredible speed towards the place where the children were gathered.

“Murmur?”

“W-Wow! That’s so cute!”

“W-What? What’s going on? Why are you here! Go away!”

“You guys! It’s dangerous!”

I immediately used the ‘Wind Shield’ magic with my left hand. If it ended here, it wouldn’t be enough to block all of the Black Mudman’s attacks. With my right hand, I used ‘Aero’ to roughly push the shield I had just created towards the Black Mudman’s head.

“Good job! Murmur! I’ll freeze it!”

As expected! Even though Esme looks ordinary, she has a good understanding of elemental magic!

Esme added cold to my magic, which was just a strong gust of wind, and the mud that the Black Mudman spat out was reflected back at him and froze solid at the same time.

At this point, it definitely won’t be able to attack from a distance again.

“Oh, what… Murmur is…”

“Did she save us? Or not?”

“W-We were in danger, weren’t we?”

I drew a line with my toe between the dazed children and me.

“Don’t come in! It’s dangerous!”

Even if you guys don’t interfere, it’s different from the game, so I can’t tell exactly who it’s attacking.

“Thorrin! Can you get on top of this Jack Frost?”

“I-I think I can!”

“Then let’s finish this! The Black Mudman has become a giant snowman!”

Esme had frozen the giant body solid, and I had created and thrown more than five Jack Frosts. Looking at it like this, it looked more like a pile of ice cream than a giant snowman.

“… Ah, I understand! I just need to smash the Black Mudman, right?”

“Yeah! Thorrin is strong, right?”

Even if she’s a kid, a dwarf is a dwarf. She even has a hammer in her hand, so of course she’ll do well!

“Jack Frost…!”

I grabbed the heads of the snowman that were bouncing on the ground with both hands. Thorrin quickly climbed on top of them and immediately used ‘Aero’ magic to launch Jack Frost towards the Black Mudman’s head.

“Kyaaak…!”

“Now, I can’t… anymore, ugh… I can’t use magic.”

While Esme lowered her hands, sweating profusely, Thorrin successfully reached the Black Mudman’s huge head. After that, it was a bit obvious. As I expected, Thorrin raised her hammer high with both hands and brought it down.

“Hya…!”

— Boom!

The giant ice cream exploded, and beautiful white snowflakes fluttered down.

“Wow… it’s pretty.”

“So, we could defeat that monster.”

“Murmur is amazing… or is it Esme who’s amazing?”

“I would have run away! I would have run away, I tell you?!”

Thorrin, who was floating in the air, was also quickly caught by Sifrinde’s soft water bubble and brought back to the ground. Esme, who was sweating profusely, was clinging to my back and rubbing her face against it, but it wouldn’t be a big problem.

“Ugh… it’s so hard. Why is Murmur so, so energetic?”

“Because Murmur is a demon.”

“Ah, no way! It’s the first time I’ve ever been jealous of a demon!”

Unlike Esme, who was grumbling cutely, Thorrin’s eyes suddenly lit up and she jumped to the place where the Black Mudman had been guarding.

Is it because she’s a dwarf that she can tell right away? Thorrin dug into the ground with both hands, thud, thud, thud, and found a golden shining box and lifted it up.

… But she dug it up with her bare hands?

“Murmur! Look at this! Esme! L-Look at this!”

“O-Oh? There really was a treasure chest, just like Murmur said?!”

“Murmur said there would be one.”

“How could you believe that!”

Esme said with a bright smile and then ran to Thorrin.

The sight of the two of them lifting the sparkling treasure chest together was quite cute.

Hmm, is this why some people like the fifth grade of elementary school stories the most…?

“Hooeng…?”

“Murmur, come here too! Come here! It’s a treasure chest! A treasure chest!!”

“Murmur doesn’t really need to lift…”

“Murmur, come on!”

No, wait! You guys! Listen to what I’m saying! There’s no need for three of us to lift it together?!

Thorrin and Esme half-ignored my words and forcibly brought my hand to the treasure chest and made me hold it.

I’m shorter than you guys to begin with, so I can’t even lift it?!

* * *

“Wow… there really were four treasure chests here?”

“One golden one that the Black Mudman was guarding… and three chests with the Cosmos Academy emblem that Murmur found.”

The three chests could only be found by using exploration magic very delicately, but for me, who knew the locations, it was no different from taking out hidden candy.

“Wow… Murmur is really amazing.”

“I never even thought there would be a chest.”

“And that spirit from earlier! It’s kind of cute!”

“Eeeh…? Aren’t the horns too big?”

And what should I say about them.

No, it’s awkward to even call them ‘them,’ but all the students who participated in the collaborative task had somehow gathered in the treehouse.

“Esme!! You were really amazing earlier!”

“Yeah! That’s right! How did you think of freezing the Black Mudman?”

“Amazing! Amazing!”

“T-Thorrin! I’m sorry for calling you an idiot last time!”

“But… are dwarves naturally that strong?”

“I didn’t know you could go kwakwakwakwakwang with a hammer in one go!”

The gathered children were making a ruckus, thinking that the collaborative task was over.

Well, it’s over for me anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter?

“It wasn’t my idea. It was Murmur’s idea.”

“If Murmur hadn’t helped, I wouldn’t have been able to swing the hammer.”

Unlike Esme and Thorrin, who were receiving a barrage of questions from the gathered children, no children approached me.

There were children glancing at me from afar, but none of them actually came closer. But I wasn’t particularly disappointed or upset. It was actually more comfortable because I wasn’t being bothered.

“Hoo…”

Anyway, even though Nikea suddenly disappeared, I was able to complete the collaborative task properly.

Of course, we’ll be first place, right? I got to the treehouse faster than Sitri and found three of the highest-grade chests, right?

And, although it wasn’t my intention, all the kids who were supposed to be working hard on the task ended up gathering here.

“… … Huh.”

But, what is it?

Why isn’t Sitri here? Everyone, even the extras whose names I don’t know, gathered here because they were curious about me riding Sifrinde, right?

But why isn’t Sitri here? I was thinking that Sitri would interfere in the first place.

“Ugh!”

In the short time I was thinking this, my horns suddenly got hot.

“Ugh…!”

“Huh? Murmur? What’s wrong suddenly? Your horns got hot again?”

Esme quickly approached me and started stroking my horns.

『A new event has been detected!』

“Huh…? Ugh?”

《Save Sitri》

《Time Remaining: 49 minutes 13 seconds》

What is this? That can’t be right?

The event to save Sitri in the collaborative task only occurs in the Demon King route?