Internet Mage Professor-Chapter 51: Stopped

The courtyard was still echoing with the collective scream when Calien’s blade phased through the creature.

It was like slicing into water—no resistance, no impact, just a ghostly ripple spreading from the point of contact.

The translucent flesh shimmered oddly as if the steel didn’t belong in the same dimension. For a split second, Calien blinked, startled. Then the true danger surged.

A spear-like tentacle lashed out, aimed straight at his chest. But Calien moved with instinctive sharpness, ducking low, then springing backward with three swift steps.

The ground beneath him cracked slightly from the force of his retreat.

A deep, throaty roar erupted from the cage, the sound distorted, almost like the creature was rabid.

Its humanoid torso twisted unnaturally, and its limbs—or what could be called limbs—whipped through the air.

Two thick tentacles hung from where its arms should’ve been, lashing angrily at the confines of its prison. The creature thrashed, its rage mounting.

"Huh?" Calien muttered, narrowing his eyes. "It didn’t even get hurt?"

Then he remembered the words echoing in his head: Unkillable.

His gaze flicked to the side, toward Nolan—still standing in a daze, stunned from everything that had happened.

Calien’s expression shifted.

"Unkillable... unkillable..." he whispered under his breath. "Isn’t that the same as the infected?"

He clenched his fists, remembering yesterday’s grueling life and death real combat training.

That horrid drill Nolan had pushed them through.

The same type of aura. The same intensity of madness. Back then, they had almost collapsed. But they’d adapted. They’d overcome it.

He smirked. "Since it’s unkillable, then..."

Reaching to his side, Calien tossed his current sword aside without hesitation. It clattered noisily on the stone floor.

His fingers slipped into a hidden sheath inside his cloak, and he drew a short blade with a strange, organic gleam.

The weapon glowed faintly with a sickly green hue—the Pathogen Knife, a gift from Nolan just the day before.

According to Nolan, it was designed to kill the infected in a traditional sense. It counters the corrupted rabies from within, like a virus remover filtering the creature’s rabid state.

Calien’s demeanor shifted in an instant. The casual bravado was gone. In its place, a cold, calculated calm.

But as he raised the blade, ready to dash forward again, two swords suddenly clashed into the path ahead of him—crossed in an ’X’ shape, barring his advance.

"Huh?"

He stopped, blinking. His vision adjusted to see two armored knights flanking him, each with their weapons pointed not at the creature... but at him.

"Do not cross," one knight said flatly.

"It’s too dangerous," said the other.

Before Calien could demand answers, a calm yet commanding voice boomed over the courtyard.

"Student Calien," said Old Duldor, stepping out from the viewing platform, "do not take another step. Stand down."

Still holding the Pathogen Knife, Calien hesitated, confused, but slowly obeyed and stepped back. His eyes darted between the knights and Duldor.

He sheathed the knife, but the tension in his stance remained.

"What’s going on?" he muttered under his breath. "Why stop me? I can take it down."

Duldor sighed. "Congratulations on passing the assessment, student Calien. You’ve done well. But what you were about to do is dangerous—reckless even."

"But why?" Calien asked. "Isn’t it unkillable? Doesn’t that just mean it’s like the infected? You can’t break it from the outside... you have to corrupt it from within."

Duldor raised a hand, commanding silence.

"The creature you faced is unkillable not merely in theory but in design. A cursed entity forged from the Forbidden Layers. It cannot be slain by force unless the attacker is several stages higher in cultivation—only then can a clean, instant kill be achieved. Otherwise..." he paused, his tone grim, "the more you attack it, the more rage it accumulates. The stronger it becomes. Every wound fuels its madness."

Whispers erupted across the courtyard.

"Several stages higher?"

"Then no wonder it’s caged..."

"It’s... a disaster waiting to happen..."

Calien furrowed his brows. "But I don’t need to be stronger. I already have the means to kill it."

His tone wasn’t arrogant—it was confident. Belief grounded in real, brutal experience.

"I was trained for this. Teacher Nolan prepared us yesterday. He gave me this knife, taught us how to deal with these things."

He gestured toward the creature. "I can end it."

A deep silence followed.

Earlier, the chief explained that it’s unkillable and that they must conduct experiments first to understand it. Now, a student is claiming he can kill it.

Just what is this then of events?

Hundreds of eyes turned to Nolan.

Immediately, the pressure on him was immediate.

Nolan, who moments ago had been relishing Calien’s success, suddenly felt cold sweat slide down his back.

The joy of victory was replaced with the paralyzing awareness of scrutiny. He was being stared at not just by students, but by instructors, high-level Mana Knights, even the Chief.

Nolan would notice that the eyes of the chief squinted.

’Holy shit, did he remember me?’

His lips parted. Then closed.

Then opened again.

’I hope not...’

He swallowed hard and forced himself to speak.

"Well..." he began slowly, "during my travels through various cities and outer zones, I encountered similar... phenomena. Beasts and entities that matched this one in aura and instability."

He straightened a little, voice gaining more strength.

"I realized these types may one day appear in this city too. So I wanted my students to be ready. Not just physically, but mentally—emotionally. Creatures that can’t be killed normally require different thinking. So during this past month, I... I spent all my time reshaping my Arcane Special Realm to simulate encounters like these."

He looked toward Calien.

"I trained them yesterday with much intensity. That’s where they got used to enemies like this."

A hush fell again over the audience.

Then the murmurs came.

"Arcane Special Realm? He made one?"

"No wonder Granfire’s students passed too... I remember Granfire saying that the reason they trained and passed was because of that teacher Nolan too.."

"Wait, is Nolan... the reason all of them could survive?"

The buzz built steadily.

Nolan stood still, doing his best not to flinch under the sheer volume of attention. If he had known things would escalate like this, he would’ve fled after getting his system rewards.

He’d already decided not to involve himself with anything further—especially not cursed, unkillable monsters in front of half the elite families of Silver Blade City.

And yet, here he was.

And somehow, because of him, the students were being seen as capable. Powerful, even.

Granfire was watching him too, of course. That damned smirk hadn’t left his face. It had only grown wider. He seemed... impressed. Amused. Intrigued. As if saying, Oh, you thought you were just a tourist in this city? Think again.

Although he lost, seeing that Nolan was in a tight situation, he couldn’t help but feel good.

Nolan sighed.

And then a commanding voice rang out again, this time from the Chief of the Mana Knights himself.

"I say..." the man’s voice boomed, causing the entire courtyard to still.

"Let the student continue."

All heads snapped toward the source of the voice.

"I trust his teacher Nolan," the Chief said, his eyes resting on Nolan with a surprisingly calm intensity. "If he says the student is prepared... then we will bear witness to it."