Chapter 341 - 312: The History Department’s Small Project (Part 2)

Chapter 341: Chapter 312: The History Department’s Small Project (Part 2)

Come to think of it, he was spending the night alone. His "Childhood Sweetheart" hadn’t come...

And he couldn’t use [Infiltration] to get to Elolo’s side, so he had to sleep alone...

For some reason, Lloyd suddenly felt a little lonely.

And then, a moment later, he felt a presence beside him.

"Whoa!!!"

Lloyd had been somewhat affected by the nonsense he’d heard from those people earlier, and he was so startled he almost leaped up.

Thankfully, a closer "look" revealed it was his "Childhood Sweetheart."

She was still non-corporeal, but he could feel her familiar, gentle aura and her sweet scent. It seemed like she was already asleep.

’Uhh... How is she getting so bold? She came right onto my bed?’

’If she’s this daring now, I can’t even imagine what she’ll do in the future...’

But as the saying goes, since she was already here... Lloyd couldn’t just kick her out of bed.

Besides, the bed was plenty wide; it wouldn’t feel crowded even if two people were rolling around on it.

’She’s my "Childhood Sweetheart," after all. Sleeping in the same bed isn’t that big a deal, is it?’

’Of course, it’s not like they could do anything other than sleep...’

As Lloyd’s mind raced with these thoughts, he gradually calmed down. He lay back down and whispered:

"Good night."

He didn’t get a response, but he felt a soft, fragrant, delicate body snuggle up against him.

In truth, the feeling wasn’t particularly romantic or ambiguous. The atmosphere felt more... inevitable. Natural. Like things were simply falling into place.

This atmosphere gave Lloyd a strange sense of security, and he drifted peacefully into sleep.

...

The next morning, Lloyd’s internal clock woke him up right on time, and he began his usual routine at Mizkatoke.

First, he returned to the [Thought Realm] to collect his daily Madness Value. After leveling up, he spent his 5 Attribute points on [Rationality], pushing it directly to 300 and giving him a solid sense of security.

Next, he saw the little kitten by his pillow was still asleep and decided to grab it to wash his face.

But the kitten suddenly woke up, darted forward, and pounced onto Lloyd’s head, nuzzling his face.

’Uhh... How does it feel like the kitten just used *me* to wash *its* face?’

’It’s learned to take the initiative?’

Afterward, Lloyd did his morning exercises with the kitten, threw together some breakfast, and prepared to start his studies for the day.

But without the ritual of combing his sister’s hair, he felt a little empty inside...

Just then, his student handbook vibrated. A message from Professor Lawrence came through:

"Are you awake? If so, come to the lab. You should know the coordinates, right?"

Lloyd suspected that Professor Lawrence and Professor Hazled had reached some sort of unspoken agreement. Although they hadn’t set a clear schedule, Professor Lawrence hadn’t contacted him yesterday, which suggested they were taking turns contacting him on alternating days.

He replied:

"Okay, I’m on my way."

The last time he was in the lab calculating the coordinates for Knowledge Square, Lloyd had taken advantage of the lab’s unique spatial properties to calculate its coordinates as well. This saved him the trouble now; he could just use his previous result.

Before he left, Lloyd said to the kitten:

"I’m off, you watch the house... Oh, and feel free to invite your new friend over to play."

He still remembered that plump Little Fragrant Pig from yesterday. It was adorable.

With that, he stepped through the Teleportation Gate, arriving unerringly in the laboratory.

There were two more researchers in the lab than when he’d visited the day before yesterday. When they saw Lloyd enter, they nodded at him in greeting.

"Morning~"

Lloyd responded politely, then noticed an unfamiliar professor standing next to Professor Lawrence—

The professor’s attire looked a bit... weathered? He was dressed for an expedition, complete with a hunting jacket, tall boots, a waterproof hat, and the like.

If not for the lapel pin on his collar, which only full professors could wear, Lloyd would have mistaken him for an adventurer Professor Lawrence had just rescued from the jaws of a Demon.

The two professors were chatting in low voices. When they saw Lloyd appear, Professor Lawrence lifted his chin and asked:

"So? This is the one I was telling you about. Not bad, eh?"

Lloyd immediately sensed the adventurer-like professor’s gaze fall first on his Arm Badge, then on his lapel pin. The man then said, his voice a mixture of amusement and exasperation:

"You’re recommending a freshman to me? He’s still a freshman, even if he is wearing an honors student’s pin!"

"What’s wrong with a freshman? Weren’t you the one who said it was perfectly safe? I just want him to get out there and see the world a bit."

"Huh? Wait a second! How did your Space System end up with a freshman in the first place?"

"Don’t sweat the small stuff. I already convinced the dean... Anyway, as you can see, we’re on a scheduled rotation here, and this is all the staff I’ve got. So, you can either take him with you, or you can wait."

"Ugh... Let me think it over, consult with the others."

As he spoke, the adventurer professor closed his eyes, looking as if he were about to doze off.

Professor Lawrence didn’t wait around, turning to Lloyd and asking:

"How are you coming along with those books?"

"Um... They’re rather deep. A bit abstruse..."

Lloyd answered truthfully, debating whether he should tell the professor that he’d spent two days and only managed to get two-thirds of the way through the first book.

’Better not bring it up. Progress that slow is kind of embarrassing...’

But Professor Lawrence seemed very understanding as he continued:

"It’s normal to be slow. Even the foundational knowledge is as abstruse and difficult as you said. Otherwise, the Space System wouldn’t require students to be third-years to join... which is why I’ve arranged a practical project for you."

As he spoke, he glanced over at the adventurer professor, who still hadn’t "woken up" and was "dozing off."

"Everyone in the history department is like that. They can only use this inefficient method for long-distance communication, yet they boast about how safe it is."

Professor Lawrence scoffed as he explained.

Lloyd pointed at his own nose and asked in surprise:

"A history department project? For me?"

"Yes. You must have noticed by now, right? Mizkatoke has numerous school districts, but it has even more dangerous zones."

Lloyd nodded.

Over the past two days, from wandering around and browsing his student handbook, he had learned a fair bit about Mizkatoke and its history department.

Although the school districts here all seemed to be separate, independent spaces with no direct physical connection to each other, their combined area was likely no smaller than the South City District of Radiant City.

An academy the size of a city district was already an absurdly large scale.

But that wasn’t all. Beyond the existing school districts lay even vaster "danger zones," which some students also called "history zones" or "archaeology zones."

If you included all these areas, the scale of Mizkatoke was probably comparable to Radiant City itself.

These danger zones were once academy territory as well. But with the coming of the apocalypse, Mizkatoke did not escape unscathed. It too experienced a terrible cataclysm, and the entire academy was nearly wiped out overnight.

After all, in that Era of Brilliance, Mizkatoke had been equally brilliant, and the vast stores of knowledge it preserved became the deadliest poison...

Fortunately, the academy managed to pull through in the end. After a long period of patching things up, it was restored to its current size.

In the danger zones that could not be salvaged, however, vast treasures from the previous civilization still remain, waiting to be discovered by future generations.

And that was precisely the job of Mizkatoke’s history department.

Of course, this also inevitably meant facing all sorts of unknown dangers and horrors...