The Conjurer of the Academy

Chapter 96

Bang! Crash!

Inside the old, darkened storeroom, junk on the shelves began to spill over, turning the interior into a chaotic mess.

[Truly wondrous.]

Even while dodging the falling debris, Yomi kept ruminating over the identity of the doppelganger.

[Who would’ve thought a storeroom’s spirit would merge with such a trifling creature?]

The doppelgänger turned out to be a slime that had sneaked into the storeroom. More precisely, it was an old spirit that had merged with the slime.

Slimes can naturally form in damp, old places.

Furthermore, spirits binding to objects is something often seen in folklore, and it seemed that the slime, due to its low intelligence, was treated like an object.

As a result, the long-trapped spirit in the storeroom had gained the ability to transform at will into the body of a slime. Of course, the ability to perfectly mimic others is a technique of the spirit.

‘What a nuisance, though.’

Originally, I intended to subdue the enemy as soon as the battle began, but the situation turned out to be more troublesome than I thought.

‘Defeating it is easy, but I need to assess it and control it.’

If I cut the soul with the Sain-gum, the soul wouldn’t ascend but would be completely obliterated. That’s why I can’t recklessly sever spirits.

While I pondered how to subdue this creature, the evil spirit-doppelgänger launched an attack first.

[Let’s start the game of tag!]

The creature, with its mouth wide open, began to swell up.

Boom!

It exploded, splattering slime everywhere. At a glance, it appeared to have self-destructed, but that wasn’t the case.

[Hehehe.]

[Tag is going to be fun.]

[Let’s play~.]

The slime that had fallen on the floor began to squirm and gradually took on a human shape.

‘A clone.’

The lights in the storeroom went out, turning the interior into complete chaos.

Crash!

The spirit began to rampage, and items on the shelves fell as slime poured in like a flood.

“Se-ah, be careful!”

“Kyaa!”

Just as a shelf was about to fall on her, Jin So-yul threw herself at Ise-ah, pushing her out of harm’s way. While Se-ah was safe, a large shelf now separated them.

“Let’s split up for now, Ha-baek!”

“I’ll come find you soon.”

With that, the three of us scattered in different directions. The problem was that the doppelganger-spirit-slime, having split multiple times, kept charging endlessly.

[Found you!]

“Yomi.”

[Ahhh!]

Even after burning it again and again, the slime continuously reappeared, crawling over the shelves.

“Yomi, how do I control a spirit that has a physical body?”

[First, you need to separate it from the body.]

Yomi looked around.

[If it’s possessed, you have no choice but to either remove it or destroy it.]

“Is that so? That sounds simple enough.”

Fortunately, taking down this slime was similar to dealing with a golem.

“Just destroy the core.”

One key difference was that attacking the clones was completely useless. To end the battle, the core of the original body had to be destroyed.

[It won’t be easy.]

Yomi added.

There was a reason behind Yomi, usually brimming with confidence, showing hesitation.

“The flow of spiritual energy is disrupted.”

Due to the numerous clones, detecting it wasn’t easy. It was also dangerous to break through the collapsed shelves, as Jin So-yul and Ise-ah might get caught in the crossfire.

‘Finding the location of the core is crucial.’

Breaking the core would render the spirit defenseless, and subduing it would be a piece of cake. Thus, the key to this fight was how quickly I could locate the core.

“Waaah!”

“Senior?”

Just then, Jin So-yul came flying out from beyond the fallen shelves, along with fragments of the slime. She rolled on the ground a few times before springing to her feet.

“Ha-baek, you’re alive!”

“Ah, get away from me.”

After finally prying the teary Jin So-yul off of me, our eyes met.

“Where’s Ise-ah?”

“Sorry, the slimes swarmed us, and we got separated.”

Jin So-yul started sniffling. Before she could start crying in earnest, I quickly covered her mouth.

“It’s not too late. Did you happen to see anything resembling the slime’s core while you were escaping?”

“I think I saw something! Just trust this senior and follow me!”

Regaining her spirit, Jin So-yul began moving again.

[Found it-]

“Get out of the way!”

[Squawk…!]

Punching the emerging slimes into mush one by one, Jin So-yul bulldozed through the collapsed shelves, clearing a path.

“This way, this way!”

“…”

I silently followed behind Jin So-yul. As we safely reached the center of the old storeroom, the amount of green slime underfoot began to increase.

The sticky slime trickled down from the fallen items and collapsed shelves.

“Here it is!”

Climbing over the piled shelves, we finally reached the deepest part where the green slime had formed a nest-like accumulation.

[You found it.]

A voice echoed, thick and sludgy.

Nestled in what looked like a bunker made of shelves, there was a massive egg made entirely of slime.

“Ise-ah.”

Inside the translucent egg, Ise-ah lay unconscious. In front of her stood a sticky, human-like figure.

[Didn’t expect you to get here so quickly.]

The spirit, just like when it was first discovered, had taken on a humanoid shape. Slime dripped from its wide-open mouth every time it spoke.

“What are you planning?”

[Nothing much.]

The spirit chuckled, its mouth stretching all the way to its ears.

[I’m going to abandon this weak body and take over a fresh new one. Then I’ll escape from this cramped storeroom.]

At that moment, the Sain-gum at my waist vibrated violently.

[Complaining about it being cramped in such a spacious place, aren’t you a greedy spirit.]

When Baek-Ah shouted angrily, the spirit opened its mouth wide.

[You can hear my voice, right? Don’t worry, the more spare bodies, the better.]

“Do you think you can catch me?”

[Of course.]

The moment the spirit reached out its hand—

Whoosh—

At the same time, I drew the Sain-gum from my waist and swung it horizontally. However, the direction I swung the sword wasn’t straight ahead.

“Hmm?”

The sword cleanly cut across the neck of Jin So-yul, who had been standing behind me.

She didn’t know what had just happened. Her face remained frozen in confusion as her head fell to the floor.

Thud

The side of her head that hit the ground shattered, and green slime oozed out. The severed head on the floor stared up at me with cold eyes.

[You figured me out.]

“The plan was to make me lower my guard and ambush me at the decisive moment, wasn’t it?”

The crushed head started to laugh eerily.

[When did you notice?]

“From the very beginning.”

Pretending to be deceived was harder than I expected. In fact, keeping my ruse up was nerve-wracking.

[How did you know?]

“You recognized me immediately upon seeing me.”

I raised my index finger upward, pointing to the ceiling.

“In a place this dark, only spirits like you or me could recognize someone’s face instantly.”

[Is that so?]

The head that had fallen to the floor completely turned into slime and scattered, soon causing the slime in every direction to bubble up and begin taking on human shapes.

[If you knew from the beginning, why didn’t you attack back then?]

“To use you as a guide.”

If it hadn’t been for that, there wouldn’t have been any betrayal after betrayal.

“I figured if you were going to lure me, you’d take me to the core. Revealing the core is risky, but it’s also where the most slime gathers.”

[Correct~ You’re really smart.]

The silhouettes of the slime taking on human shapes began to become more defined.

On top of the monotonous green, colors started to appear, giving sharp forms depending on the details being mimicked. The many clones soon coalesced into one form.

[But for someone so smart, I wonder why you haven’t thought about the fact that you can’t defeat me.]

What surrounded me were numerous versions of myself. About dozens of doppelgängers with my lethargic face drew their Sain-gums and pointed them at me.

“Of course, I expected this.”

For the spirit, this was the best strategy.

Among the three of us, I was the only one who reached the deepest part with a clear mind. Considering me the strongest, it created numerous clones.

“It’s pointless.”

[Such bluffs won’t work.]

“No.”

I remained unafraid.

Initially, anything else would be strange.

“You can only copy humans. So, bow your head at once.”

[…What?]

The moment the spirit tilted its head in confusion, Yomi’s figure on my shoulder flickered and vanished.

[Kneel before this great yokai, you inferior and crude being!]

[Screech, screech…!]

Yomi, igniting a foxfire, floated up into the air. At that moment, the clones around us could not withstand the heat and exploded all at once.

‘Because it can’t copy a yokai.’

It’s obvious, but the slime’s physical form can only replicate living beings with bodies.

Because of that, it was never a match for me, who had Yomi and several other summoned spirits under my command from the start.

[It can’t end like this…!]

Seeming fearful, the spirit took a step back.

[Now, what should we do? I’m in a good mood, so I’ll let you decide. Should I burn it? Or perhaps devour it alive?]

“Hmm, how about doing nothing at all?”

[Alright! Then I’ll do noth- huh?]

Yomi blinked at me in confusion.

“I told you, I’m not here to exorcise. So step back.”

[…Tch.]

With a dissatisfied look, Yomi settled back onto my shoulder. Once Yomi was calmed, I slowly approached the spirit.

[What are you up to?]

The spirit stretched out its lips into a sneer.

The enemy, who had been threatening to attack just moments ago, suddenly relaxed its combat stance. From the perspective of the evil spirit, this was understandably unsettling.

“Don’t worry. I don’t plan on harming you. I’m not going to forcibly break your core either. If the fight drags on, it’ll be meaningless for both of us.”

Having encountered many spirits, I had come to understand one crucial thing.

‘The techniques used by spirits all follow the characteristics of the spirit itself.’

The fox spirit, Yomi, controls foxfire, while the toilet-bound spirit, Baek-ah, controls water and toilet paper.

The guardian spirit, Shin Seo-jun, gives potential—wings—to the protector, and other deceased beasts use the abilities they had in life as their techniques.

“Then this one is…”

Let’s think about it.

How did this spirit come to possess the ability to mimic others’ appearances?

Simply using slime as a physical form didn’t seem to fully explain it. The hint for me came from Jin So-yul.

“Do you ever think about ‘friends’?”

Honestly, at first, I had no idea why she asked that question. But the spirit replied to this seemingly random question,

“In this harsh world, everyone needs friends they can rely on.”

‘She saw it all from the start.’

Unlike me, who focused on distinguishing the real from the fake, Jin So-yul had been looking at why this was happening from the beginning.

“You… actually…”

A line from a poem I read a long time ago suddenly came to mind.

It was about someone walking alone in the desert, battling overwhelming loneliness and sometimes walking backward to cope with it.

“You needed a friend, didn’t you?”

I extended my hand toward the spirit.