My Magus Academy is Run by Players?! [Western Cultivation LitRPG]

The speed of the vine was nothing short of extraordinary, so much so that the headless body remained standing for a brief moment before blood spurted out, and it crumpled to the ground with a dull thump. The grotesque scene left the nearby mercenaries paralyzed with fear, and their faces contorted with horror at a sight they could hardly fathom. Victor was sure that they must have never seen something like this in their entire lives.

“Eep…”

“He’s dead, just like that!”

“Aaah! What in the world are these vines?!”

“Stop, this place is no good! There are monstrous plants here!!”

Among the ranks, a few weak-willed mercenaries succumbed to panic, trembling with terror. On the other hand, the more seasoned mercenaries skillfully backpedaled away from the vines. However, their efforts were futile as the place where the vines originated was—

“Wh-What?!” A man donning an iron helmet found himself ensnared by a vine and was forcefully pulled deep into the bushes. Desperate cries for help echoed as he vanished from sight within the blink of an eye, shocking the onlookers.

Behind the bushes emerged the stuff of nightmares — monstrous plants with gaping mouths lined with razor-sharp fangs that glinted menacingly in the dim light filtering through the thick canopy. Their sinister purple hue resembled hungry serpents ready to devour any prey unfortunate enough to cross their path. An acrid odor permeated the air, unsettling the atmosphere and wincing their noses.

The unfortunate man, despite his failed struggles to escape, was slowly forced into its gaping maw that captured him. Then, a sickening sound of crunching bones and tearing flesh, along with a scream that suddenly cut off, resounded, sending shivers down the spines of all nearby mercenaries.

This horrifying tableau was the nightmare that Victor meant.

“Haha! Despair under my power!” Victor stretched both of his arms wide in glee. Even though it was indeed a bit too much, his hate and anger toward them were beyond the roof after what he had seen back at the village.

“Master, thou sure have bad taste.” Lizbeth might remark so, but her hand was hiding her chuckle.  

“Hmm? It’s all for the good of the academy.” Victor snickered sarcastically. “Still, they are not easy to deal with, huh.”

All that had been happening was only effective in culling down the weaker mercenaries rather than dealing true damage to the elites in their ranks. Technically speaking, it was less effective than he had initially thought.

A buff mercenary with a mace and wearing thick leather armor shouted, “Goddamn these plants! Anyone worth a damn, gather ‘round! We’re wiping these abominations off the map!”

“Oi, Rylan, don’t forget to use your ki. These creatures are weak to fire,” said another one wearing chainmail and using dual swords.

“Who would forget, Connor? Let’s make these carnivorous freaks regret the day they sprouted!”

““Aaaahh!!””

As a rallying cry echoed, an elite group of about twenty or so Ki-Warriors finally showed themselves and launched a coordinated assault against the Carnivorous Man-Eating plants. They cut through the vines blocking their way, dodging any attack made by the plants, and skillfully slashed through them. Obviously, they were not normal mercenaries and had gone through countless battles.

Victor discerned their skill levels — the weakest of them were Ki-initials, while some were Ki-Guards, and the two named Rylan and Connor were both Ki-Sentinels. Each of these designations was equivalent to a stage in the Initiate Attunement acolyte, respectively.

This battle would prove to be one-sided, it appeared.

***

Graviel was witnessing all this happening as they had just finished incinerating the hallucinogenic plants while covering his mouth and nose. If not for the magic tool in his hand, he would have fallen into hallucination because of the thick pheromones contained in the smoke.

Nevertheless, he was quite shocked to find out that there was another type of deadly extraordinary magical plant in this valley, which was called the “Carnivorous Man-Eating Plant,” according to Elara. This made him even more sure that someone intentionally set this up. Subsequently, his wariness shot up to the extreme as whoever was able to do this must be a very skilled Magus, and they had certain intentions to attack him, likely to be the pocket dimension. But he was not one to give up treasures that easily.

“Except for the elite Ki-Warriors sent by our families, the rest of the mercenaries are useless, Sir Graviel,” Jared commented in contempt upon seeing the lifeless bodies of mercenaries on the ground.

Graviel snorted, neither in agreement nor denial. “But they are useful as meat shields, just not in the right place and time.”

“What should we do?” Dorian inquired.

“They still have some uses. Save those who can still fight. As for the rest, let them be bait for these stinky plants,” Graviel’s eyes gleamed with a cold determination. “We must break through the valley and reach the end. Otherwise, exhaustion will be our downfall, and we could be wiped out if things take a turn for the worse.”

The group nodded in understanding and swiftly went into action. However, the eradication of the hallucinogenic plants had depleted a significant portion of their mana reserves. They now had to make the most of what little energy remained. Fortunately for them, they had a large stash of mana crystals and magic scrolls in case of emergency, so they were able to do a variety of tasks. To top it all off, Graviel had yet to use his trump cards reserved specifically for the dangers within the ruins.

As they pressed forward, they supported the Ki-Warriors locked in fierce combat with the magical plants. Graviel took the lead in casting the offensive spells, his incantation resonating through the air.

“{Freezing Shoot}!” A sharp, freezing cold projectile shot through the air, striking one of the carnivorous plants and freezing it entirely.

Jared, Dorial, and Elara seamlessly followed suit, casting {Lightning Bolt}, {Rock Bullets}, and {Bleeding Garden} respectively. Though these spells were considered ordinary Aleph-tier offensive spells, being cast by third-stage Initiate Attunement acolytes, each spell was able to eradicate each carnivorous magical plant that stood in their way without a hitch.

In the midst of the chaos, Graviel spotted a scarred, muscled mercenary who stood defiantly with his two axes and called his name, “Rowan!”

Despite the loud voice, Rowan remained unresponsive and kept fixated on the ground. It wasn’t until they drew closer that he finally reacted, turning his head with fierce red eyes.

“Oh, fuck!”

It became apparent that Rowan, in spite of having a high resistance as a Ki Master, had succumbed to a deep hallucination, due to his close proximity to the burning hallucinogenic plants. And it wasn’t a nice one either!

Graviel swiftly activated the compass, channeling its power to dispel the lingering hallucination. However, before the hallucination could fully dissipate, Rowan vanished from his original spot, soaring into the air with an uncanny speed. He positioned his axes above his head and swung it downward in a blitz-like momentum. No matter how resilient the bodies of acolytes were, they would be dead if they received the attack head-on.

“Dorian!” Graviel shouted.

“On it! {Rock Shield}!” Dorian roared as he stepped ahead, and a simple, earthen shield materialized before him and shielded them from the strike. The collision resonated through the shield, sending shockwaves rippling through the ground. The force was too strong and sent Dorian backward several meters. Crimson droplets of blood sprayed out from his mouth due to internal injuries from the sheer kinetic energy.

“Cough!”

The raw strength of a Ki Master was just too ridiculous!

Seizing the opportune moment, Elara chanted, “{Bleeding Garden}!” Vines erupted from the ground, entwining and restraining Rowan in place. Graviel then used the magic tool to expunge the hallucination effect entirely.

Rowan’s countenance returned to normal, and he quickly realized what had happened to him. “Sir!”

“Snap out of it! We’re not here to babysit!” Graviel scoffed, directing a disdainful glance at the now-conscious mercenary. “Quick, lead our elite mercenaries to carve a path open toward the exit. We don’t have all day!” Graviel specifically emphasized “our elite mercenaries” to imply that he cared little for the others in this perilous situation except for the ones sent by his families. Survival called for cutting ties, and he wasn’t one to play savior.

“Understood!” Rowan immediately leaped forward and joined the elite mercenaries fighting the carnivorous plants. “Elite warriors, with me!” The urgency of their situation didn’t dull his senses; if anything, it only sharpened it more.

Graviel and his cronies followed behind as the elite mercenaries forcefully carved a path forward through the chaotic landscape strewn with the bodies of fallen mercenaries and chunks of dead Carnivorous Man-Eating plants. The injured mercenaries, afraid of losing their lives here, limped along, desperate to escape the lethal surroundings.

Despite the weariness that clung to them after clashing with both the hallucinated mercenaries and the carnivorous plants, the group moved with a desperation that mirrored the specter of imminent death. Thirty grueling minutes passed, and at long last, they were about to escape the valley. Coincidentally, the density of carnivorous plants diminished the closer they got to the exit.

But just when the group began to bask in a fleeting sense of security, Graviel sensed an intense foreboding behind him. A larger-than-normal indigo carnivorous plant lunged at him with its razor-sharp fangs poised to tear through his flesh.

Clank!

All of a sudden, an almost transparent magic barrier materialized and clashed against the fangs, producing a clanking metallic clash that reverberated through the air. At the same time, a cross necklace hidden beneath Graviel’s robe radiated a brilliant light, reinforcing the barrier. A high-grade life-saving magic tool at his disposal had come to his aid.

““Sir Graviel!””

Shock etched across the faces of the other acolytes as they witnessed the peril their leader faced.

“Why, you little fucktard!” Feeling underestimated, Graviel hastily retrieved a magic scroll from his interspatial ring containing the Bet-tier spell {Frozen Ground} and activated it. Then, a porcupine-like ice ball materialized before him, hurtling toward the plant. As they collided, the creature was encapsulated in a meter-thick layer of ice, freezing the surrounding ten meters. Effectively killing the creature.

Graviel gasped at the sudden turn of events and gazed at his interspatial ring. Although its capacity was small, being forty centimeters cubic of space, it contained almost all his trump cards. With this, he’d used one of the magic scrolls he had saved up, causing veins to surface on his forehead. Yet, he wasted no time dwelling on the expense, immediately sprinting ahead towards safety.

After ascertaining that no more threats were present, the group stopped to rest and relaxed their guards a bit but kept a watchful gaze on the surroundings. Counting the remaining heads, Graviel clenched his fist as the realization set in that less than one hundred mercenaries remained. Before even reaching the chasm, we’ve lost half our forces…

Suddenly, there was a strange disturbance from the magic compass as its pointer began shifting in a specific direction. “Watch your surroundings, something feels off,” Graviel warned with his senses on high alert.

The surviving mercenaries instinctively formed a protective formation, wary for any danger. An eerie calm settled over the group as Graviel, Dorian, Jared, and Elara strategically positioned themselves within the formation, ready to unleash their remaining magical prowess at the slightest hint of danger.

“Sir,” Rowan began, trying to tell him something.

“Speak, what is it?” Graviel crossed his arms and tapped on his forearm.

“The ground around here looks like it has been messed up with before being flattened again. It looks like the work of amateurs,” he explained.

“What?” Graviel’s confusion was abruptly replaced by a pungent smell rising from below. Before anyone could react, explosions erupted, sending shockwaves through the air that injured those who were close to the sources. Fires swiftly spread, forming an impassable barrier that blocked their escape from the valley. This left them with no choice but to go back to where they came from unless they could put out the raging fire.

This sequence of events, from entering the valley to encountering the strange and deadly magical plants, and now to a wall of fire trapping them inside. The cascade of setbacks caused Graviel’s composure to shatter.

“I SWEAR I WILL TORTURE THE PERPETRATOR FOR ETERNITY!!”