Chapter 12: Accomplice
"Yeah, I noticed it too. Your energy flow barely fluctuated just now. How did you do that?" another student asked.
By cheating, Hodell thought.
Outwardly, however, he only smiled and began answering the classmates who had gathered around him.
He chose his words carefully.
A little insight here.
A small practical detail there.
He explained a few subtle control techniques from his own training, filtering everything through layers of caution so it would sound useful, sincere, and just vague enough. He did not evade their questions, because complete evasiveness would only make him look more suspicious. It was better to throw out a handful of genuine sounding key points and let everyone occupy themselves thinking.
Once people believed they had something to study, they usually stopped asking for the things that really mattered.
That suited him perfectly.
After all, he was not an orthodox mage.
There were certain details he simply could not answer.
His calm and cooperative attitude quickly dissolved the awkwardness left over from earlier. Even Eric, who had been the most openly skeptical before, no longer looked as rigid as he stood with his back half turned. Though he pretended not to care, he was obviously listening in.
In a quieter corner by the window, a green haired girl who had said nothing so far looked up slightly.
She watched Hodell surrounded by other students, speaking in an even, composed voice, and curiosity flickered in her eyes. It seemed as though she wanted to stand up and join them, but after glancing across the small crowd, she hesitated and remained seated.
The Magic Conduction class finally came to an end.
By then, Hodell felt as though he had lived through an entire century.
Every second of it had been spent on alert, afraid that someone would ask the one question only a real mage could answer. Fortunately, enough people had crowded in with their own curiosity that he could keep nudging the conversation sideways whenever it drifted too close to dangerous ground.
The moment class ended, Carlo bounced back to his side.
"Come on, come on. If we wait any longer, the good stuff will really be gone." Carlo winked and nudged him with his elbow. "I know a shortcut."
Hodell followed along naturally.
After giving a few small nods to the classmates he had just met, he left the workshop with Carlo.
They crossed the enclosed corridor bridge connecting the teaching areas. Through the immense glass panels, filtered daylight and drifting clouds cast shifting patches of color across the floor. The surrounding atmosphere opened up at once, becoming livelier, warmer, and more human with every step.
Soon they entered the academy's residential district.
Designer boutiques lined the main road. Students in elegant clothes moved in small groups, talking and laughing in low voices. Sleeves brushed the air. Fine fabrics caught the light. Even the breeze here felt gentler than anywhere else he had been in months.
Carlo clearly had a target in mind. He dragged Hodell straight toward a grand building crowned with a white dome and decorated in intricate gilded vine reliefs.
The Central Dining Hall.
The moment he stepped through the doors, even Hodell had to admit it.
The place deserved praise.
The interior was vast.
Soft, bright light poured down from the dome overhead. The space had been divided into different dining zones using flowing water features, low decorative walls, and carefully arranged greenery. There were convenient food counters for quick meals and more private seating sections half screened off for quiet conversation or small gatherings.
Carlo pointed deeper inside with the confidence of a veteran local.
"See that area over there? The Crystal Hall."
His voice dropped automatically.
"That's where the really important students tend to sit. You know. Distinguished family backgrounds, absurd monthly allowances, that sort of thing. We usually stay in the outer ring. More food choices. Less suffocating."
Even while talking, his eyes scanned the food counters like a hawk searching for prey.
Then they locked onto a target.
"Found it! Energy Pudding. Quick!"
Seeing Carlo's single minded enthusiasm, Hodell could not help smiling faintly.
By the time they secured two portions of the pale gold pudding and found seats by the window, some of the tension in him had already eased.
He looked down at the trembling pudding and tapped it lightly with his fork.
It quivered obediently.
The cutlery on Liuli Star was somewhat similar to the tableware of his previous life, though everything here was more refined, more ornamental, and more annoyingly elegant.
He cut off a small piece and tasted it.
Soft.
Smooth.
Its sweetness carried a clean floral fragrance, and the energy within it seeped into his body like a thread of warmth, gentle and unobtrusive.
Hodell set the silver fork down and let his gaze wander across the hall.
The high dome above.
The bright halos of light.
The green partitions.
The low murmur of student voices.
Everything here felt alive.
A strange emotion rose within him without warning.
It was not violent, but it ran deep enough that his thoughts stalled for a moment.
For the first time since coming to this world, he felt with painful clarity that merely existing and truly living were two completely different things.
With the faintest trace of a smile, he let himself enjoy the simple pleasure of lunch.
Almost at the same time, a soft melody like wind chimes drifting through leaves echoed gently across the hall.
Hodell noticed the shift at once.
Most students calmly adjusted their clothes, smoothed their expressions, and sat up a little straighter. The invisible boundaries between previously separate dining areas seemed to soften.
Carlo also lowered his voice.
"It's [Afternoon Firefly] time."
This time, even he seemed more subdued than usual.
"It's an academy tradition. Encourages everyone to circulate, talk, meet people, build friendships, ease their minds, that sort of thing. Basically a socially acceptable excuse to wander around and look graceful."
Students began standing up one after another, carrying fine glass cups filled with flower tea and gathering in little clusters. Their voices were softer now, almost intimate, yet the atmosphere did not feel distant. On the contrary, it seemed warmer.
Several classmates from the practical session earlier approached them with relaxed smiles.
Among them, the quiet brown haired girl held a drink from which faint white mist curled upward.
"Student Ryan," she said softly, "the [Star Dew Drink] here is very good. It's calming and refreshing. Would you like to try some?"
Not far away, someone produced a small shimmering lute and began to pluck out an airy, soothing tune.
Hodell sat there and watched.
Sunlight.
Glass.
Flowing water.
Floral fragrance.
Low voices.
Lute strings.
Everything layered together into a scene so graceful and gentle that it almost felt unreal.
A thought drifted through his mind.
Beauty really is a universal passport.
The pursuit of art. The desire to shape emotion into sound, color, form. No matter what planet, what civilization, what age, intelligent life always found some way to seek beauty, create beauty, and find a little salvation in it.
No matter how strange or cruel this world could be, the existence of music like this proved one thing.
It was still a world worth visiting.
He picked up his cup of flower tea, returned the smiles of those who approached him, and let himself slip naturally into the flowing warmth of the afternoon.
…
Time, once it became pleasant, always seemed to accelerate.
When the chime like melody rang again to mark the end of the social hour, the students dispersed with the same easy rhythm in which they had gathered. Some drifted toward afternoon classes, some toward private study, some toward their own circles of friends.
Hodell parted ways with Carlo and the others with a gentle, natural smile still on his face.
His original plan had been simple.
Go to the library.
Look for any public information related to the Superpower System.
Then return to the dorm and finally spend some experience to inspect the advancement mission for [Scholar].
He followed a stone path half hidden beneath the shade of trees, still carrying a trace of the pleasant mood left by the noon gathering.
Then the peace cracked.
Near an ornamental greenhouse used to display rare magical plants, a middle aged man with an utterly ordinary face came into his sight.
Dark gray uniform.
Pruning shears in hand.
Standing at the roadside like a groundskeeper.
If Hodell had not seen him before in the Erhai School, he might never have noticed anything strange.
His heart sank instantly.
Of course.
What was meant to arrive would arrive.
Hodell did not slow down. He approached with a perfectly ordinary pace, letting his gaze drift toward the oddly shaped magical plants nearby as though admiring them.
The man never looked up.
His voice was low, but every word carried clearly.
"The song of the forest warbler is pleasant. But do not forget the road back to the nest."
Hodell ignored the code entirely and replied in the same low tone.
"What is it?"
The man still did not raise his head.
"Get me pollen from the [Starshimmer Flower]. Three grams at minimum."
Starshimmer Flower.
Hodell's mind pulled up the relevant information almost at once.
A rare magical plant. Its petals released faint starlike light in darkness. Its pollen was a core ingredient for a number of special potions and mental magic applications. Within the academy, it was a tightly controlled resource, usually found only in a few protected greenhouses or higher level alchemy labs.
"I'm a first year student," Hodell said quietly. "I cannot access something at that level."
"That," the man replied, "is your problem. Not mine."
Hodell's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Why? If something goes wrong right after I arrive, I'll immediately become one of the main suspects. That cannot be good for the School's plan."
The man's voice remained flat.
"I'll say it one more time. That is your problem. The Magical Botany Greenhouse, Section Three, will undergo routine maintenance the day after tomorrow. How you get in, how you take it, all of that is for you to solve."
He trimmed a branch with neat, crisp snips.
"You have one week."
Then he paused, just long enough for the silence to turn sharp.
"The School gave you everything you currently possess."
Another snip.
"It can just as easily take it back."
Only then did he finally lift his eyes, cold and utterly devoid of humanity.
"If you fail this task, you already know the consequences."
There it was.
Direct.
Naked.
A threat without even the courtesy of pretending otherwise.
After that, the man lowered his head again and went back to trimming the shrubs as if he truly were nothing more than a gardener.
Hodell stood still beneath the mottled shade for two breaths.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves above and shifted slowly across his face.
Then he turned and walked away.
Only for the briefest instant did a cold glint flash through his eyes.
The system responded at once.
[You have triggered E Level mission: [Theft in the Shadows]]
[Mission Objective: Steal three grams of Starshimmer Flower pollen within one week and hand it over to the School.]
[Mission Reward: 20,000 EXP]
He took another path, this one leading toward a quieter section of the basic teaching area.
He needed a place with public access materials. Academy facility manuals. Department introductions. General information on greenhouse management. Anything related to the Magical Botany Greenhouse.
Starshimmer Flower.
Pollen.
The material was delicate. Harvesting it required specialized tools and precise handling, otherwise it would lose vitality almost immediately.
His thoughts sharpened.
Would they really risk disturbing the larger plan over a mere material request?
An A Level mission chain was a serious matter, and he was already embedded within it. He was part of their long term strategy now.
Which meant this probably was not about the flower itself.
No.
What they want is leverage.
Not simply obedience.
They want me to stain my hands.
He kept walking, his expression outwardly calm.
First coercion. Then a small crime. Then another. Then another.
Once a person crossed the line a few times, they stopped being a hostage and started becoming an accomplice.
If he completed this task, then in their eyes, he would no longer be merely a useful tool forced to comply.
He would be someone implicated.
Someone with something to hide.
Someone easier to bind.
Routine maintenance…
That could mean reduced guard vigilance, yes.
It could also mean more staff presence.
How would he get in?
Disguise as a student assigned to maintenance work?
Exploit a paperwork loophole?
Create a brief distraction?
While his mind raced through possibilities, he did not notice that on another intersecting path not far behind him, a green haired girl carrying several books had paused.
She glanced toward him by chance, and confusion passed through her eyes.
She remembered clearly that he had said he was going to the library that afternoon. She had even considered finding him there to ask some academic questions. But now he was walking in the opposite direction, toward a quieter and more restricted part of the grounds.
She watched him disappear down the shaded path.
After a brief pause, she looked away again.
Everyone had private matters.
She continued toward her own destination.
…
That night, the dormitory was filled only with the rustle of turning pages and the soft scratch of a quill over paper.
Hodell had considered running.
Truly.
Unlike other Hybrids, he had the system panel. The world was huge. Somewhere out there, there should have been a place for him.
In the end, he rejected the idea.
His confidence was not high enough.
And more importantly, the original story had made one truth very clear.
Following a planet's main storyline could trigger a huge number of missions. A magnificent chaotic era was the perfect environment for rapid growth.
One step slow. Every step slow.
Strength was still the foundation of everything.
If he wanted to grow quickly enough to stop being prey, then for now, he had to endure.
Most of all…
He had the panel.
That changed everything.
Hodell finally invested in [Scholar], raising it to Level 9 at the cost of 80,000 EXP.
The return was absurd.
Ninety full points of Intelligence.
And nine Potential Points.
On top of that, he gained a new talent.
[Research Theory: For every 3 skills mastered, Intelligence +1]
It was not an outrageous boost, but it was still free value, and free value was always welcome.
Then the next system prompt appeared.
[Level 20 Advancement Mission: Learn one piece of Advanced Superpower System Knowledge.]
Hodell pressed a hand lightly to his temple and thought.
Advanced Knowledge required five Basic Knowledges from a single branch as a prerequisite. That part should not be too difficult. The library and the academy's public resources would give him chances to gather the missing pieces.
But Advanced Knowledge itself…
He let the thought hang.
There was a real chance the Erhai School might hand it to him.
After all, with his current strength, there was no possible way for him to enter high society and function as their "New Human" success story without continued support and structured guidance.
Of course, the opposite was also possible.
They might look at his growth rate, decide it was already sufficient, and refuse to give him more.
Thinking carefully, though, the logic of the School's behavior remained grimly consistent.
As the first "perfect" result of the New Human project, the higher he climbed, the more it validated their ideology. The more powerful he became, the stronger their proof became. And without the panel, no matter how much genius he showed, it would be absurd to imagine him ever challenging the entire organization alone.
A stray thought crossed his mind, and his eyes twitched.
"Actually… if I am being honest, my other attributes combined are barely competing with my Intelligence anymore. Am I really in the Superpower System and not secretly drifting into the Mechanic System?"
The comparison was almost offensive.
At this level, even Han Xiao's early Intelligence in the original story had not been this exaggerated.
…
The next day, Professor Marcus stood at the podium with his usual steady air.
"…Therefore, we must be absolutely clear about one thing. The magical properties of matter are not immutable. Under sufficiently extreme or sufficiently specific conditions, they can undergo transformations that overturn ordinary expectations."
As he spoke, he tapped the model in the center of the display.
There, resting on a support frame, was an unremarkable black stone that seemed to swallow every trace of surrounding light.
"For example, [Silence Stone]," Marcus said. "It is widely recognized as the perfect magic insulator, and it serves as a core material in the construction of anti magic facilities."
.....
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