My Disciples Grind, I Get 100x Their Progress

"What’s that?"

"Huh? What? Oh...! Is that a crack?"

At first, only a handful noticed, but slowly, through whispers passed from student to student, the entire crowd started registering the single crack forming right in the middle of the park.

A thin, dark line, the air suddenly turning heavy, froze the students in shock for a moment. Then, the next second, a powerful tremor shook the ground and the academy buildings alike.

Rumble—! Rumble—!

Students stumbled and fell, the sturdy buildings holding steady, though a few fragile pieces slowly crumbled and broke off.

"W-what is this!?"

"H-hey! Watch out!"

"Everyone! Hold on tight!"

Panic swept through the students instantly, their faces turning grim, but thankfully the academy’s buildings were solid enough that they wouldn’t collapse from a mere tremor.

The bigger problem now was that crack, slowly widening, tearing apart the surrounding ground.

"K-Kiena?" Worried the blind girl might get hurt, Kina quickly moved to shield Ilunia, keeping her eyes locked on the crack steadily expanding.

"What’s happening?"

Kina hesitated. "M-maybe it’s a Breach?"

She’d never actually witnessed a real Breach before, but the phenomenon had occasionally been covered in textbooks and taught directly by the professors.

Kina forced a nervous smile, cold sweat trickling down her face as she watched a small crater begin forming, steadily growing larger and larger.

And once the tremor shaking the buildings finally subsided, the result became unmistakably clear.

The crack in the air revealed a massive opening leading into a place shrouded in darkness, yet scattered with countless glittering stars.

The surrounding environment fell into chaos, the air shifting, growing unbearably heavy, dust swirling everywhere, and the students who’d registered the Breach quickly descended into panic.

"W-we would’ve died for sure if we’d still been in that part of the park."

"...Haha.... this... what’s actually happening here? Why would a Breach open up right at the academy?"

"A Breach? Is this really a Breach? But how!? Isn’t this supposed to be a Safe Zone?"

The students’ fear was plain to see, and even Kina and Ilunia themselves looked visibly shaken.

But that thought suddenly shifted the moment she looked down, specifically toward the figure standing in front of the tree.

Dust swirled thick enough to nearly swallow his silhouette, but Kina could still clearly make out that her Master was still standing right there.

She wasn’t the only one who noticed.

"Oh... right, how’s that guy holding up?"

"Look, I just realized, isn’t that Kiena’s guardian?"

"What’s he doing over there? Does he want to die?"

"W-wait... guys, don’t you think we should be running away?"

They probably should have been. But these students didn’t feel particularly terrified. They had no idea the professors were absent entirely, so they assumed everything was fine, under control.

They figured the professors would show up any moment now. Which was why, in the end, they found themselves unwilling to miss out on witnessing how a real Breach actually worked, and how an Alien might emerge from one.

And then, exactly what they’d been hoping to see happened.

From within the dark crack, a hand emerged, as though reaching out from between the pages of a book, breaking straight through into reality.

A set of dark fingers with long, purplish claws, its skin rough and coarse, covered in thick scales along the front of its arm.

Next came its legs, followed by its head emerging alongside a body held in a slight hunch.

The students held their breath as the Invader stepped out. An Alien with a melting, liquefying head, its body dense, muscular, and entirely bare.

Its other arm had no fingers at all, instead taking the shape of an extremely sharp, jagged blade.

"T-that’s... that’s a Rank-D Invader!"

"How could it possibly show up here? This shouldn’t even be possible, right...!?"

Just as they’d said, according to everything they’d been taught, the presence of a high-ranked Alien here should have been utterly impossible.

Fine, if it had somehow infiltrated from outside, sure, that might’ve been plausible. But emerging directly from a Breach right in the middle of a Safe Zone?

That shouldn’t have been possible at all, to the point where it practically felt engineered.

Given its level far exceeding anything they’d expected, many students immediately broke into a panicked run.

Chaos erupted in an instant, though a fair number of students still stayed put, choosing to watch what would happen next, even if it meant wetting themselves in the process.

"Glehgueh—!"

The Invader said something, its wet, garbled voice sounding as though solid matter was lodged in its throat, making it nearly impossible to understand a single word.

But that hardly mattered.

The students’ attention shifted, because right as the Invader emerged, standing directly across from it was the man they knew as Kina’s guardian, his sword already raised above his head.

***

’There it is, that’s the Invader responsible for the massacre in that vision.’

Julian raised the sword the moment the Invader thrust its arm out. He wasn’t about to waste a single opportunity here and intended to finish it off immediately.

Even a moment’s delay carried the risk of dragging things into territory Julian never wanted to face.

So, the instant the Invader’s gaze locked onto him, and the moment its body fully emerged from the Breach, Julian didn’t hesitate for even a second.

He unleashed One Slash. Dense Mana gathered, wrapping tightly around the blade he’d received from Kina.

And the next instant, Julian let the sword fall. A thin, single line sliced clean through the air, moving faster than the students could even track, and by the time they registered it—

Slash—!

Kraak!

The whistling sound of the strike tore through the air along its entire path. The Rank-D Invader flinched, but raised its arm in response.

A tremendous explosion erupted from the impact, dust scattering through the air, and Julian let out a breath, staring at the Invader.

’Is it dead?’

His hands trembled slightly, his face completely dark with tension.

’Please please please, just die quietly!’

But right then, Julian suddenly realized he hadn’t received any progress notification for his rank at all.

His expression darkened further, and once the dust finally cleared, what Julian saw was a streak of pure darkness shooting toward him at tremendous speed, tearing through the air, aimed straight at him.

Julian found himself frozen stiff, his heart pounding violently, his eyes widening slightly, trembling.

Watching that attack close in, Julian understood with absolute clarity that he was about to die. But his survival instinct forced his body into motion, and, reflexively, desperately, he triggered Flash Step.

Vanish—!

Kwaah—BAAAM!

That darkness slammed into the tree that had stood behind Julian moments before, shattering it into pieces and leaving behind a powerful wave of decay.

Its leaves rotted instantly, the green grass beneath it wilting and darkening. The very air seemed tainted by that single attack.

The next moment, Julian suddenly reappeared right beside the Invader, in fact, directly behind it, drenched in sweat.

Dark blood dripped from the Invader’s body. One Slash hadn’t killed it outright, but it had clearly inflicted a severe wound.

Julian didn’t think, not even for a second, moving purely on instinct, and in his hands, the sword began glowing with a faint, bluish light.

The warm air around him was drawn in, shifting from heat into an intense, biting cold.

Julian raised the sword and drove it forward in a thrusting motion, wasting no time at all, giving the Invader no chance to react.

Piercing—

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