I Became a Genius Black Mage at the Holy Academy

A divine power source was simply a Hilidium rod charged with divine energy. It was the same principle as a magic power source charged with magic.

Roan looked down at his rod with a perplexed expression on his face.

‘Why did something like this get created?’

Of course, Roan knew how this phenomenon came to occur. But was it supposed to turn out this extreme? All he did was pour magic into the Hilidium rod.

Roan subtly glanced around at the other students.

He had a bad feeling about this.

‘This is going to cause a commotion, isn’t it…?’

Sure enough, the False Divinity scolded Roan.

Vrrr─!

‘Didn’t I tell you to take it easy?’

‘When?’

Roan genuinely had no clue.

Meanwhile, Demona, who had tossed aside his own rod, exclaimed in amazement when he saw Roan’s.

“Wow, Roan’s is floating!”

At that, the other students, who had been struggling with their rods, began turning their attention toward him one by one.

─ Look at that! 

─ Did he already make a flying object with the divine power source?

In an instant, the classroom became noisy, and even Ulli, who had been focused on her own work this entire time, couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“Quiet down! Do you know how much I lose every time my work gets interrupted…?”

But then she began sniffing with her small, cute nose.

‘Sniff sniff, where is that money smell coming from?’

Sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff ─

Ulli threw aside her tools and jumped off his workbench, gradually approaching the source of the scent.

Roan had a pretty good idea of where she was headed.

Ulli finally hopped onto Roan’s workbench.

“What is this?!”

She was startled.

Roan, trying to remain calm, answered, “I’m not sure, but isn’t it just an ordinary divine power source?”

“Ordinary? Ordinary! You call this ordinary?!”

Ulli shouted out loud. Even though she was the size of a squirrel, the sound-amplifying relic she used forced all the students to cover their ears.

“If this is ordinary, then all the artisans in the world might as well be beggars!”

Ulli stomped her foot on the ground, glaring at the rod with an ecstatic expression on her face.

“This is… an Ultimate Divine Power Source!”

“…”

Roan kept his mouth tightly shut.

The Ultimate Divine Power Source was a mythical object that, until now, no one in the history of God and Devil had been able to create. It only appeared in legends, used by the High God Hiloa after the creation of the world to defeat the demons that ravaged the continent.

It had infinite energy that never depleted, floated in the air, and was far denser and more powerful than regular divine energy, emitting a heavy, murky light.

‘Technically, it’s not an Ultimate Divine Power Source.’

It wasn’t about whether it was powered by magic instead of divine energy. That wasn’t the issue.

A few years from now, the Ultimate Divine Power Source would be developed in reality. A new alloy, Hardeum, far more efficient than Hilidium, would be created, and a new crafting technique would be applied. This would be an achievement of the 5th- and 6th-year students in Akerandir’s advanced course.

So while what Roan had made might be similar, it wasn’t exactly an Ultimate Divine Power Source.

However, he suspected he knew what had just happened.

‘The compression was the issue.’

The theory behind creating an Ultimate Divine Power Source involved surpassing the material’s limits by concentrating divine energy. In the process of Roan compressing the Abyss and pushing it to its limits, he must have accidentally broken through the limitations of the Hilidium.

… In fact, this might have been an even greater accomplishment.

Vrrr─!

At that moment, the False Divinity vibrated cheerfully.

‘See? Things went well because you listened to me.’

‘This guy….’ Roan felt his anger rising but somehow managed to hold it in.

Meanwhile, the students who overheard Ulli couldn’t believe their ears.

─ Did you hear that? She said it’s an Ultimate Divine Power Source!

─ What? What’s that?

─ You idiot! With that, you could make an endless wine goblet!

It was a bit sad that they were thinking of using such a mythical item to create an endless wine goblet, but still, the students understood how incredible the object was.

However, Ulli, who had been inspecting the rod closely with a magnifying glass, mumbled in slight disappointment.

“Hm. On closer inspection, it’s not an Ultimate Divine Power Source. It doesn’t have a circulation loop. It’s just been compressed with a lot of energy in a crude way, but even so, it’s producing this effect. Still… What’s your name?”

‘At least this means I haven’t been found out yet.’

Hiding his relief, Roan calmly answered.

“Roan Darc.”

“What? Darc?!”

Ulli’s mouth dropped open.

“I’ve heard that your family’s secret workshop is impressive, but to think you could create something like this!”

“…?”

Roan was rendered speechless. He was clearly confused.

‘Secret workshop? What now?’

Apparently, there wasn’t a field this family’s name hadn’t touched, even if Roan himself had no clue about it.

─ Did you hear that? The Darc family has a secret workshop!

─ That guy, he’s getting a head start in sacred relic classes too, after dominating the Holy Battles lessons…

─ He’s relentless, just relentless.

‘What does the Holy Battle class have to do with this?’

Roan’s face scrunched up into a frown at the students’ absurd utterings.

Demona, who had been listening from the side, chimed in.

“Professor, the Darc family —”

“Oh, right, they were wiped out.”

─ …

The students, who had been badmouthing Roan just moments earlier, all fell silent.

‘This guy is seriously …!’

Roan wasn’t even the real Roan Darc, so he wasn’t directly affected, but the constant mention of his family’s demise was starting to annoy him to no end.

When Roan shot him a death glare, Demona flinched and quickly defended himself.

“It wasn’t me, the professor said it…”

Anyway, Ulli climbed onto Roan’s divine power source and asked, “How did you make this?”

“… By chance?”

Roan didn’t particularly want to give such a half-hearted answer to the professor, but he had nothing else to say. He couldn’t exactly explain that he had used the Abyss, an advanced form of dark magic, and pushed it to its limits.

But Ulli interpreted it differently.

“Right, you can’t just give away your family’s secrets. I think I get the gist of it, though.”

‘Get what exactly?’

Roan nearly blurted out, ‘Does she know it’s dark magic?’ but that wasn’t the priority right now.

“No, it’s not like that —”

“I’ll give you 100 Dalants. Why don’t you sell it to me?”

‘Does this professor have no shame?’

Roan was stunned by Ulli’s blatant attempt to undercut the price. After all that talk about the Ultimate Divine Power Source, and she was offering only 100 Dalants?

Even an incomplete first sample of the future Ultimate Divine Power Source would later fetch 50 gold pieces at an auction — a huge sum of money. Though this situation was different, 100 Dalants was considered an insult.

“Then 3,000.”

─ Whoa, 3,000!

As soon as Roan stayed silent, Ulli immediately raised the price 30-fold!

Roan clicked his tongue inwardly.

This professor, who had thrown her conscience into the relics she crafted…

If it was going to be like this, what was the point of offering 100 Dalants in the first place?

Despite his annoyance, Roan, after a moment of thought, shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but regardless of the price, this item is not worthy enough to sell to you, Professor.”

“Then why did you make it during class if you’re not going to sell it?!”

‘Because it’s class time!’ Roan wanted to respond, but held his tongue.

What kind of student creates a divine power source with the intention of selling it to the professor? Besides, the uncomfortable thought of handing over a dark magic-infused power source to a professor was holding Roan back.

At that moment, Ulli sighed deeply and raised the offer.

“Alright, 10,000 Dalants. I can’t go any higher.”

“Well, since you’re insisting so much, I have no other choice. I’m giving this to you out of respect, not for the money.”

It was too large a sum to refuse.

‘Who would have thought she’d go up to 10,000 Dalants?’

At this point in time, it wasn’t about feeling uneasy — it was definitely worth it! Roan was certain that Ulli would simply add the item to some relic and sell it off without much thought.

When Roan responded with a smirk, the students were horrified.

─ That guy is ruthless! 

─ He haggled with the professor?

But what did it matter if they criticized him? For context, Ihern had saved 10,000 Dalants for over four years. Who wouldn’t sell at that price?

Envy and jealousy were the domains of losers.

‘If this were a game, I’d probably unlock an achievement for scamming Ulli,’ Roan thought to himself, secretly pleased.

“Out of respect? So, are you giving it to me for free?” 

“I’ll make good use of the 10,000 Dalants you’ve given me.”

“Tch!”

Not a chance.

Pat, pat ─

Just then, Demona nudged Roan’s arm.

“Roan, could you maybe help pay my fine…?”

“Go clean the bathroom,” Roan replied with a cold expression and his earlier smile was nowhere to be seen.

***

“Alright, a deal’s a deal!”

Ulli quickly pulled a 10,000-talent note from her cheek pouch and then dashed off with Roan’s divine power source.

The problem was that she didn’t run to a workbench inside the classroom.

Boom─!

Instead, she ran straight out of the classroom.

─ …

The students fell into a collective silence.

Then they slowly began murmuring amongst themselves.

─ Did the professor just run out of the classroom without teaching?

─ … Wasn’t she not teaching in the first place?

─ Huh?

Maybe nothing had really changed after all. Ulli never seemed particularly interested in teaching to begin with.

Demona asked Roan, “When Professor Timothy was absent, Assistant Joy took over the class. Doesn’t Professor Ulli have an assistant?”

Roan responded, looking incredulous, “Do you think he has one?”

“Oh, I see.”

For some reason, Demona, as well as the other students, nodded in agreement. Instinctively, they realized that Ulli was on another level compared to Timothy.

Creak ─

Roan put his textbook into his bag and stood up. Rafia looked at him curiously and asked, “Where are you going, Roan?”

“Hmm? Class is over, so I’m going to grab something to eat.”

Though it was still a bit early for lunchtime, wandering around the Commercial District was always somewhat fun. He didn’t care at all that Professor Ulli had disappeared. Ulli’s classes were more like random events that depended entirely on chance. If the professor left the room, that was most likely it for the class.

Seeing this, other students began to follow Roan’s lead, slowly getting up from their seats as well. That would have been fine, but…

Sneak, sneak ─

The students gradually gathered around Roan. After all, they had just witnessed him receive 10,000 Dalants, an amount greater than all the freshmen’s combined savings.

Roan clicked his tongue in annoyance.

‘These shameless fools!’

The same ones who had gossiped and insulted him in small groups now wanted to act friendly? They called themselves students of the Holy Empire Academy, but in reality, they were no better than shallow, greedy thugs.

Roan glanced at the group’s leader, who, coincidentally, was Trian, a hippopotamus beastman.

Twitch ─!

Seeing Roan’s fierce gaze, Trian started sweating nervously, red beads of sweat unique to hippos trickling down his face.

‘I-I was just trying to leave…!’ he thought in panic.

Roan’s seat was unfortunately near the back door, which Trian had to pass. Trian had no real interest in Roan’s Dalants. He had learned his lesson after getting into trouble with Roan last time, even though he hadn’t personally suffered any harm. The fact that Roan had ruthlessly beaten his friends despite the support of the prestigious Wickron family still haunted Trian’s nightmares.

Even if he tried to get something out of Roan, he knew better than to approach someone who wasn’t reasonable. At this point, Trian wouldn’t believe it even if Roan offered him Dalants for free.

However, Roan’s thoughts were different.

‘This guy still hasn’t learned his lesson.’

To Roan, Trian was nothing more than a potential school bully. 

Roan thought he had scared Trian straight when he ran away in tears before, but clearly, that wasn’t the case here. There was an old saying: “You can’t transform a villain.”

‘Being too soft is always going to be a problem,’ Roan reflected, realizing that it was time to assert his dominance properly.

“… Come at me if you’re ready.”

He didn’t particularly want to attract attention, but when it was time to make a point, it had to be done.

Roan turned toward Trian, preparing to summon the Abyss in his hands. Even if it was just a simple physical enhancement, taking a hit from the Abyss would still hurt a lot.

─ Eek! Are Lesterol and Darc going to fight? 

─ Trian! Show him what you’ve got! 

─ 10,000 Dalants!

The students quickly distanced themselves, forming a circle around Roan and Trian. Most were cheering for Trian, while Roan’s friends looked confused, not understanding why the situation had suddenly escalated.

Trian was even more flustered now that the atmosphere had turned into a showdown between him and Roan.

‘W-What do I do now?’

What kind of freshman exudes such a ferocious aura and picks a fight with a fellow classmate like this? Looking at Roan, one might think he was about to face off in a life-or-death duel with a dark mage.

Moreover, there was the strange, ashen divine power forming in Roan’s hands.

‘Is he even a freshman?’

At that moment.

Step ─

Someone suddenly stepped between Roan and Trian.

A slender figure with soft curly blond hair — Demona Wickron.

“You worthless, despicable worms!” he shouted.

Demona looked around at the freshmen with a commanding gaze, his voice filled with an overwhelming authority that left no room for argument.

“If you have even the slightest sense of responsibility as future leaders of the Empire, if you take pride in learning the divine teachings of High God Hiloa, take a good look at yourselves!”

‘Is this boy actually smart?’ Roan thought, watching Demona’s back with a new sense of appreciation.

In the game, he was always hanging around the Commercial District, and after returning to his family post-graduation, he essentially disappeared from the narrative. Was there more to his story?

“To let your heads be turned by mere scraps of Dalant paper… Tch, if you have a mouth, speak! Is that the behavior of citizens with pride?”

─ Wickron’s right. 

─ High God Hiloa always taught simplicity and contentment…

The freshmen, now completely overpowered by Demona’s authority, began to scatter. Leading the way was Trian, completely drenched in sweat, running away in a panic.

“I-I’m sorry!”

He hadn’t meant to cause any trouble, but when Demona created an opportunity for an escape, he took it!

Soon, most of the students had dispersed, leaving the area.

Demona turned back to Roan with a playful smile, looking nothing like the authoritative figure from moments before.

“So, how did I do?”

“Yeah, not bad.”

This time, Roan nodded in agreement. It was far better to let Demona handle it than to stir up unnecessary conflict with Trian. Being a Wickron, Demona wouldn’t attract any strange attention for intervening.

“So, buy me lunch!”

“…”