Problem

[Chapter 9 Comment]

[Twin_dragon13773: I hope that in the future chapters we get to read some parts of how each student trains, I feel that may be quite interesting. Would be cool to read about what advice you give to them on how to train more effectively.]

[Xinhuan: It appears that reading comments takes up some real amount of time and is not instantaneous nor fast. This could limit its usefulness in combat.]

[Midday_Eclipse: Howdy Theodore, nice to meet you. I'm a new reader and commenter who just recently found and got caught up with this story. I will try to interact with your story frequently to avoid a situation where no comments happen. See more…]

Theo widened his eyes in surprise. This time, he received three comments, which was a new record. On one hand, he was happy that he received a lot of comments. On the other hand, he was concerned because if there were too many comments, there would be less space for the author to write about the plot. This would seriously limit his movement greatly.

However, it seemed that the author had devised a strategy to mitigate one of its problems. Theo glanced to the side. In this enclosed space, it would be weird if they found him talking to the readers. So, he tried to answer it inwardly. Of course, he wanted to do this before, but there was a chance that it wasn't projected to the readers, which would leave them disappointed. But since he would look bad this way, the author should have no choice other than projecting his thoughts.

So, he answered them inwardly, "Yes, Twin Dragon. It's true that I want to leave the academy when the time is ripe, but while I'm with the academy, I'm planning to do my best to teach the students. So, you can wait for it.

"As for Xinhuan, I'm concerned about it as well. However, I know that it's impossible for the author to neglect this part. For example, what if someone decides to write a ten thousand-word essay? The author won't seriously put it here since no one wants to read that essay where it's supposed to be the story about me.

"Last but not least, hello, Midday Eclipse. I'm grateful for your support and I hope I can see your comments often. And…" Theo saw the 'see more' at the end part, knowing this was one of the plans. "I see. By using this 'see more' function, the author can limit the word count. It's unfortunate, but that's the only way for now."

Theo tapped the 'see more' button and saw the rest of the comments. "Hmm, telling about my daughter's power, huh? I can't give you the details right now so as to prevent you or others from being spoiled. But I can give you a keyword. Prankster… That's about it."

Theo answered all these questions carefully. He had time for it because his students were still taking care of the smaller spiders. There wasn't much to do yet.

Of course, there would come a time when he might have no time to answer or react to the comments.

So, Theo needed more time to adjust and experiment with this feature so that he could take full advantage of it.

"Mia!" Lancelot shouted.

"Alright." Mia summoned a teddy bear, the size of a muscular human. The teddy bear charged at the spider as if it was trying to ram its body.

"What are you doing? If you use your smoke—" Serena warned her that it was dangerous if she filled up the cave with smoke since it would reduce their visibility further. But before she could complete her words, the teddy bear had reached the spider.

Instead of exploding, the teddy bear actually smashed the spider with its hard body and pinned it to the wall.

"What did you say?" Mia grinned as if she was telling her that she got pranked. It wasn't an explosive teddy bear, but a hard one.

"Never mind." Serena let out a long sigh. Both father and daughter were dangerous because they kept tricking her. She might be the top student in the class, but she didn't know if she could win against Mia or Theo. Even if she could, it would be after a lot of frustration.

"Go!" Mia shouted, ordering the teddy bear to help Lancelot. Then, she added, "I've found the big mama. There are approximately four spiders near her and a lot of eggs. The big spider seems to be three times the baby's size."

"For real? Can that spider even move in this enclosed space?" Aurora frowned.

"Oh, there is an opening like a cylinder. It's quite spacious, so the mama spider shouldn't have any problem moving around."

"Should we force the big spider to go to this tunnel?" Serena asked while throwing another tube that soon became crystallized, freezing the spider.

"I doubt Lancelot is enough to stop it. Even with the teddy bear, it'll be a problem if we fail to stop it. I think it's better to fight it in a spacious location." Aurora shook her head.

"What should we do about the small spiders then?" Lancelot asked while slashing the last spider's head.

"I'll take care of the smaller ones." Mia offered herself because she was confident that she wouldn't lose against these spiders.

"Alright then. A big spider like that will be hard to stop, so I will try to avoid it while grabbing its attention. Serena…"

"I know." Serena took out two small tubes from her bag. "These are the ones I used to increase your strength and speed earlier. Taking them directly will give a better effect, but it will only last for ten minutes. Be careful."

"I will shoot the spider's eyes then. It will take some time, but please endure it." Serena raised her hand with a nonchalant expression as though it was an easy job as long as Lancelot could keep the spider at bay.

"Got it." Lancelot nodded.

Since there was no disagreement, the group moved forward, exploring the cave. But as Mia said earlier, there were only the big spider and a few small spiders left, so they didn't encounter any enemies until they reached the larger room.

Before they entered it, the group gathered and tried to look inside to see how spacious the room was.

They didn't realize that Theo had a bored expression, not because it took them too long to do this, but because he knew what was going to happen.

"We do this in the morning so that the tide is low and I've stationed the people at the right place to limit the problems. But if I know the author right… I'm afraid there will be another problem." Theo muttered inwardly. This kind of problem wasn't that big of a deal since he knew what was going to happen next. He just waited for the right time and gave his students a chance to showcase their abilities.

It seemed that they had finished their last preparation.

Lancelot drank Serena's potions and gripped his sword tightly as he came out from his hiding.

Scree?!

The spiders immediately noticed his presence as they could see easily in this darkness.

Lancelot waved his sword, shooting out the Essence he had concentrated on his sword. "Sword Blast."

The wavy-shaped energy flew toward the big spider.

Scree!

The big spider didn't like their intrusion and spurted out a web from its butt. Surprisingly, the web was durable enough to not be sliced by the sword strike. It eventually fell to the ground and the sword strike exploded.

Scree!

The big spider ordered the rest of the smaller spiders to kill him. But a few teddy bears also came out and stood in their way.

"Haaaa!" Lancelot roared as if challenging the big spider.

The big spider observed the situation for a moment to check on its babies. But it seemed that they had killed all the other babies to enter this place. The realization caused the spider to get angry and jump down, trying to use its weight to crush Lancelot.

But that was the time Serena and Aurora came out. Serena tossed a glowing tube into the air as Aurora shattered it with her arrow. As a result, the glowing tube shone brightly, illuminating the darkness and blinding the spider.

Scree!

The spider was screaming in pain, but Aurora took this opportunity to snipe two of the spider's ten eyes.

The spider's momentum stopped, causing it to fall in front of Lancelot.

"Nice!" Lancelot smirked and looped around, striking the spider's legs with his blade.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

A series of clicking sounds echoed across the room. The sound was a bit smaller than they expected.

When Lancelot looked at the spider's legs, he realized that his blade had actually cracked the shells on the legs.

He had been doing this when he fought the smaller spiders, but as one would expect from the big spider, the legs could withstand the blow. It would require two or three more strikes to completely cut off the legs.

Theo observed their movements and was satisfied with them. 'As expected of the S Class… they could solve the problems easily. Well, considering the enemies are only two-star monsters, I don't think it's a problem. They should be able to kill a three-star monster, but I don't know if they can handle a four-star one.'

'There are a total of nine stars from a level where a normal human can kill to something that even a nuclear warhead can't. But for this spider, even an anti-tank bullet should be able to kill it. Though, the speed and strength of this monster are the main concern since they can devastate a whole platoon if they're not careful. That's why the people are raising these children… They can use Essence or even ridiculous weapons from their own world. Not only can they minimize the loss by sending elites, but it's also good publicity. I guess that's the reason for the academy.'

'But…' Theo paused while squinting his eyes.

"Haaa!" Lancelot stepped up his game, slashing the spider's body multiple times. He moved as quickly as possible so that the spider couldn't follow his movements. At the same time, Aurora was taking out the spider's eyes one by one. The battle had only begun three minutes ago, yet the spider only had four eyes left.

Serena had also thrown a few tubes that burned and froze a part of the spider's body. If this continued, they could finish this battle in another three minutes. As Theo said, the students wouldn't have any problem killing this spider.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't realize that they were inside a story. And since Theo knew he was the main character of this story, he knew that whatever he did, a problem would definitely occur just because the author needed tension in his story.

That was why the big spider suddenly let out a deafening screech.

Lancelot gritted his teeth, enduring the pain in his ears. He tried to stop the spider, but that loud screech wasn't meant to stop them. Instead, the spider was trying to call for its brethren.

The eggs near the wall began to pulsate before holes appeared on top of them, spurting out green-colored liquid. It turned out the spider was using that screech to forcefully wake up its babies. And there were a total of twelve eggs in the cave. With their positions, Aurora and Serena would be their first targets.

"Not good." Lancelot gritted his teeth, looking around.

Yet, in this dire situation, there was one person who could actually smile as though everything had gone according to plan.

It was none other than Theo.

[Chapter 10 Comment]