Chapter 227
The first thing Luke did when he left the training camp was to go to the management to search for Vinigo. The speed of movement of the half-wolf’s running caused such loud noises that it caught the guards’ attention.
“Hey, wait a moment! Why are you running so hard?!” The guard in front of the management tried to stop him.
However, Luke was in a hurry, so he just ran past him at a speed that sent shivers down the guard’s spine. This man was a Class-C adventurer, so he was startled that he couldn’t even see how the half-wolf got past him.
Once Luke entered the management office, he noticed that it was very quiet.
The head secretary’s shift had already started, and she was at the reception desk. She was surprised to see Luke because it was rare to see him appear in the administrative building.
“Hello, sir—”
“Is Professor Vinigo here?!” He asked, elated, without letting her say much. He didn’t have any more time to waste; after all, the old man might want to run away when he realized he was being watched by Bastet.
“No, he’s not here—” she was answering him, but Luke was gone in a blink of an eye before she could finish.
Soon after, the half-wolf went to the main building of the Academy to look for Vinigo in the teachers’ lounge. He knew the chances were low of finding him in places he never saw him visit, but Luke needed to make sure beforehand so there wouldn’t be a mismatch.
Thus, when Luke entered the teachers’ lounge, he didn’t find who he was looking for either, but two old teachers who loved to pass the time by gossiping in that small room. He immediately left the room, not caring about the women’s presence.
Tum! He slammed the teacher’s lounge door hard.
“What was that!?” The two old women wondered almost immediately.
While running to the stairs of the main building, Luke spoke to himself:
“Now, there are only two places where he can be.”
Since the professor’s office and classroom were in the basement, more precisely on the second floor of the subterranean floors, he jumped down the stairs like an acrobat kitten.
People who knew the half-wolf and saw him dashing wondered what had happened. Could one of his students have been injured during a practical lesson? Or was he just itching to go to the bathroom and couldn’t find it?
Luke didn’t mind the stares and kept running as fast as possible. Since he didn’t know where to find the Alchemy Room, he simply left it as the last option if he couldn’t find Vinigo in his office.
However, when he reached the second floor, he was surprised. Many students were outside the rooms, so he had to slow down.
While he was walking and had to ask permission to cross, he overheard some side conversations that were taking place.
“Did you guys hear that noise just now?”
“Yes, everyone heard it!”
“I wonder where the loud bang came from!?”
“I was wondering the same thing…”
“It sounded like a roar, then it was several explosions.”
“I’m afraid. I don’t like underground places like that.”
“And your dream is still to be an Adventurer? You’ll need to get into even tighter Dungeons, asshole!”
“Maybe it was something upstairs that broke?”
Everyone seemed confused by some kind of sound that resonated throughout the floor.
In Luke’s mind, the possibility that the noises the teenagers heard were caused by Vinigo’s eventual fight against Bastet wasn’t at all far from reality.
Bastet was a powerful summoning that, according to his owner’s expectations, was at least on the same level as Luke without the Sea Ornament or the Legendary Skill . Therefore his blows could cause quite a bit of noise, even more if he was fighting so seriously to the point of being destroyed.
“Calm down, people!” Luke held up his hands and got everyone’s attention in a long hallway. “Ann… We are investigating what may have caused the noise. For now, everyone can go outside. All classes in the underground have been suspended!”
When the teenagers saw Luke’s fuzzy ears and his face, they immediately identified who he was. Even though they had been at the Academy for almost a week, the rumor about the Tournament of Legends Champion becoming the Duel Teacher had spread like the flow of a violent river. For this reason, everyone obeyed Luke’s request and began to evacuate the second floor, also warning everyone in the other hallways of the half-wolf’s announcement.
At one moment, a teacher who appeared to be between thirty and forty years old approached.
“Hey, but what does this mean? You’re a rookie; you don’t have the authority to suspend classes!” He stated, poking the half-wolf’s chest.
Luke looked at him angrily, but controlled himself, “It’s not a matter of authority; it’s a matter of priority. I prioritize the safety of the students, and you? Would you rather leave them in a danger zone than miss a class of yours? Stop navel-gazing and move your ass. Warn the teachers on the other floors and guide the students out of here together.”
This Math teacher was so startled by Luke’s aura that when the half-wolf turned his back, he still tried to say something, but his throat locked.
As the corridors were emptying, Luke quickly reached the end of the second floor, where the Alchemy Professor’s office was located.
When Luke approached his objective, he smelled a familiar smell in the room, and it startled him.
‘Wait… is that Meredith’s smell? And it’s recent… What was she doing here? She’s only a 1st year; she shouldn’t be taking any classes in the underground…’ He thought.
He remembered telling John and Meredith the location of Vinigo’s office, but he never imagined that either of them would make such a risky move without warning him.
Suddenly an absurd idea flashed through his mind.
‘Could it be that Meredith entered Vinigo’s room while he was here, and he tried to attack her for some reason?! That would explain why Bastet acted prematurely!’
This hypothesis was so horrifying that he doubted it could be real. However, as Luke got closer, the more pungent the smell of the half-fox began to grow. Furthermore, he noticed that there was much more dust on the ground than usual, which were clear signs that the tremors and rumblings came from that region.
So, Luke stopped in front of the huge door of the Alchemy Professor’s office and asked any God that Meredith would be safe, because he couldn’t imagine what an ally of the demons who studied Chimeras could be capable of.