Chapter 36: The Elf and the Academy

The coast, the waves, the sun, and the beach.

The salty sea breeze filled her nostrils, and the distant sound of the tide echoed in her ears. Since reincarnating into this world, she finally felt a sense of civilization.

Of course, a mushroom could not feel these things; they were sensations shared by the Elf.

The teleportation point was at a harbor.

Colorful flags, sails, vendors… everything in this Another World had its own style. Even the air felt sweeter than in the Great Labyrinth.

As a monster herself, these thoughts felt a bit like being a traitor to her kind. No more acting—she was firmly on the side of humanity.

What was so good about the Great Labyrinth? It was just a group of primitive creatures ruled by savagery and instinct, playing out the same old drama where the big fish eat the small fish and the small fish eat the mushrooms. It wasn’t civilized at all.

She was going to follow the little Elf to pursue the beacon of civilization. Don’t miss her; see you never.

Okay, she was just joking.

She would definitely continue exploring the Labyrinth. After all, her other body was there, along with countless walking experience points and skills waiting to be harvested.

Even with such a vast distance between them, she could switch her consciousness to her main body in the Labyrinth at will. Since she had two bodies, she naturally had to make use of both.

The mushroom did not have any grand ideals about ruling the world; she just wanted to survive. For that, power for self-preservation was necessary. Her requirements were not high—she just needed to be able to stand against the Elf’s aunt.

‘As for the Wolf King? What was that?’ Just a funny husky.

Her standards had likely risen; she now looked down on beings she once had to look up to. Unfortunately, stat inflation had nothing to do with the mushroom. Other than having something to brag about—like saying she had met so-and-so—she still had to work hard and grow step by step.

Planning to leave the Labyrinth with Lumina was not just to see the sights of this Another World; she also wanted to use the human market to collect useful skills.

A single person’s power was limited, so she would not be human… wait, she would rely on a group of people to achieve her goals.

Her Title effect only required corpses and did not have a prerequisite of her personally killing the target, so she could just buy whatever skill she liked. As for being penniless… was not Lumina there? She could just have the Elf pay for her.

The mushroom had helped her so much, so it was only reasonable to collect some fees.

Anyway, a new area: Langa Island, Adventurer Academy.

She originally thought the Town Portal Scroll would lead back to a town near the Labyrinth. She did not expect it to take them directly to the location of the Elf’s academy in one go.

‘What? You’re asking about the aftermath of the argument between the Elf and her aunt?’

The aftermath between the two Elves was that there was no aftermath.

After Lumina expressed her resolve, the teleportation happened to activate. Once it ended, before she even felt like they had settled, Aunt Welte had already taken the first step and left.

“Tsk, tsk. What kind of excuse is that? Being able to survive a monster like the Wolf King is already good enough, yet she still nitpicks you. If it weren’t for me, you would’ve been gone long ago. She wouldn’t even know where to go to cry then,” Marlow complained as soon as the other woman was gone. Her indignation quickly resonated with the little Elf.

“Exactly! She’s just being unreasonable. The opponent was so strong; whether I could escape or not depended entirely on luck. The outcome wasn’t something I could control,” she echoed angrily. “According to her, everything I’ve done since I stepped out of the house with my right foot first has been wrong. Becoming an adventurer was wrong, everything I did was wrong, and only following her arrangements counts as correct.”

So, the mushroom followed suit and said, “Exactly, exactly.”

After they had gossiped behind her back for a while, the Elf patted her cheeks and said somewhat helplessly, “Let’s not talk about her anymore. Aunt Welte has always been prejudiced against me. Just like those Elves who value bloodlines, my existence is a stain on the Felin name… So what if I failed my classes? I’ll just make them up later. I won’t give up my career as an adventurer because of that.”

“You have the spirit of a rebellious youth. Young lady, have you ever run away from home?”

To this question, the little Elf only chuckled and softly retorted, “I don’t have a home.”

Hey, hey, that’s a bit much. How could she say that with such a calm face?

This made it hard for her to keep teasing the little Elf.

“But didn’t she still come to find you?”

She thought for a moment, trying to add some positive imagery for the aunt in the Elf’s heart. After all, based on the effect of the Bloodline Link skill, she felt that Welte’s performance was very contradictory. No matter what she said, she actually cared about Lumina’s safety.

“That was an academy mission—rescue, investigation… anyway, it wasn’t for personal reasons.”

“By the way, Marlow, how did you come out? My aunt wasn’t far away at the time. Weren’t you afraid of being discovered?”

Lumina held her staff, her hands behind her back. As she walked along the embankment by the sea, she chatted with Marlow in her mind. The topic regarding her aunt was abruptly shifted.

“Afraid? What’s that? As the Lord of Fungi, I’ve never been afraid.”

***

After Welte left, Marlow shamelessly overturned her previous cowardice. Her stubbornness clearly failed to convince the Elf.

‘If she isn’t afraid, why did she use a favor for “anything I want” as hush money so I wouldn’t tell anyone about the mushroom?’ Lumina thought. ‘Could it be that Miss Marlow plans to go back on her word?’

The Elf puffed out her rounded cheeks in annoyance. “Then I’ll go tell my aunt right now.”

She made a deliberate pause, turned around, and pretended to chase after the departed Welte.

“Go ahead, go ahead,” Miss Marlow’s lazy voice made her pause.

Given her understanding of the mushroom, her current attitude seemed to indicate she really wasn’t afraid. She didn’t even seem to care if she told others about the mushroom’s existence.

‘Why?’

‘Was Marlow’s previous behavior just acting? It didn’t seem like it, but the current change was genuine. The only variable was moving from the Labyrinth back to the academy.’

She pondered and asked tentatively, “Marlow, could it be that you have some sort of reliance that lets you fight a Legend now that we’ve left Monderaire?”

‘Wait, when did this silly girl stop being so silly?’

Although she was far from the truth, she had indeed narrowed it down to a certain range. Even though it had to do with Marlow going easy on her, it was still worthy of praise.

“You can understand it that way for now,” Marlow said, her tone shifting as she called out in a forced, cutesy voice, “Big Sister Lumina~”

She murmured, “Why big sister?”

“Eh?”

It wasn’t quite the reaction she expected. The little Elf didn’t feel the satisfaction of a completed request, nor was she charmed by the specific tone Marlow used.

Everything was dull and flavorless, making the mushroom almost suspect she had lost her charm. It couldn’t be that the pure Elf had already raised her threshold and no longer reacted to such small teasings, could it?

“It’s nothing.”

She suddenly blushed and stopped sharing her thoughts with Marlow, focusing on walking. She followed a deserted path quickly up the mountain.

On Langa Island, the low-lying area near the harbor was where the island’s residents gathered. Red houses were arranged neatly, with two or three main roads intersecting. The entire area was distributed roughly in a fan shape.

The Adventurer Academy, supported by various nations, was located at the apex, situated above the town—a massive castle nestled near the mountain peak.