My Disciples Grind, I Get 100x Their Progress

Julian found himself in a strange state. He drifted like a disembodied soul, the world itself seeming to lose all color, screams echoing everywhere, becoming the only thing he could hear with any clarity, yet also grating painfully against his ears.

In a world constantly dimming into darkness, then draining back into faded color, Julian forced himself to focus, looking around, trying to understand exactly what was happening.

He saw Canelo Academy’s building, saw students running in a panic, and saw a massive crater freshly formed, having killed dozens of lives in an instant.

There, Julian saw the bodies of people he recognized. Kina’s own corpse lay among them, along with Ilunia’s, both in a state of utter devastation.

Julian’s breathing grew heavy.

’N-no...!’

His gaze locked onto a crack, a Breach tearing open, unleashing a Rank-D Invader.

His face broke into cold sweat, gripped by pure terror. But Julian forced himself to keep looking around.

’Something... anything, I need to—’

His gaze swept the surroundings. This location was the academy’s garden, the usual spot students gathered during break time, so judging by how many students filled the area, it was safe to assume it was currently lunch break.

The sun hanging high overhead confirmed as much. But that wasn’t enough. Julian tried to turn his body, forcing himself to look toward a certain direction, but his body felt impossibly heavy, something forcing his focus to remain locked on that Breach instead.

Julian bit down on his lip, drenched in cold sweat, and just barely, he caught a glimpse of something posted on the academy’s wall, and that made his eyes go wide.

The next second, Julian felt his entire body swept away, and everything plunged into total darkness in an instant.

”Hah...!?”

Julian jolted awake. His breathing ragged, his blanket soaked through with cold sweat, he glanced around and found himself back in his own bedroom.

For a moment, Julian just lay there, letting himself process what had just happened, before wiping away the sweat and getting up from bed.

He gulped down a glass of water, washed his face, then glanced at the mirror, finding his own reflection looking utterly exhausted, drained.

’This is happening again.’

For three straight days now, Julian had been involuntarily receiving prophetic visions, thanks to the skill he’d received from Ilunia.

It wasn’t a good prophecy either, something so genuinely awful that it left Julian completely drained every single time he woke up from it.

Worse still, his Mana got entirely sapped dry just from that alone. Julian let out a long sigh, splashing more cold water on his face, pushing through the exhaustion.

”What am I supposed to do with this?” If what he’d just seen actually came true, then Kina and Ilunia would...

Julian bit down on his lip, closed his eyes for a moment, then startled at a system screen suddenly appearing before him.

[System]

New Skill acquired.

Skill: [Frost Edge]

Initial Grade: [D]

Progress: [0.0%]

Skill successfully registered.

[Status Update]

Skills:

• [Frost Edge] — [D] — [0.0%]

”Oh... Kina’s finally managed to learn her new skill. Good to see.”

Julian gave a bitter smile, but that smile vanished the instant his mind flashed back to Kina’s death. The girl lying there, lifeless, her body torn apart, blood soaking every inch of her.

Even Ilunia had met the exact same fate. Beyond that, there’d been other students too, young lives lost in a single catastrophic event.

’Where were the professors, where was the headmaster? Where were all the hunters?’

Julian tried to steady himself. Right then, he heard the doorbell ring. He hesitated. ”Who’s coming by this early in the morning?”

Julian headed downstairs, then opened the front door. There, he found a woman with a modest yet striking beauty about her.

Her green hair fell gracefully around her, her eyes curved like a crescent moon.

”Hello, I’m here after finishing up the paperwork for your identity card.”

It was Adelle.

What Adelle had said back at LittleMart hadn’t been an empty promise after all, she’d genuinely come through and helped Julian sort out the whole matter.

So, over the past few days, Julian had been accompanying Adelle through the necessary procedures.

”Oh, it’s all done?” Julian kept up his usual composure, inviting Adelle inside.

Once seated facing each other on a single sofa, Adelle smiled as she pulled out a thick, sturdy card and slid it across the table.

”Yes, with this, you no longer need to worry about your residency permit in Central. You’re now officially registered as a permanent resident, no longer a Slum resident.”

’Ah, that’s genuinely good news.’

Julian took his identity card, smiling with real happiness. His mood improved somewhat, though not enough to fully mask everything underneath.

After that, he simply made light conversation with Adelle, though a few thoughts kept nagging at Julian throughout.

’How should I even bring this up? Could I possibly explain that I have the power to see the future, and that I’ve foreseen something terrible about to happen at Canelo Academy soon?’

But that would clearly sound absurd. Julian, just an ordinary LittleMart cashier, claiming he could see the future?

Adelle would probably just laugh it off entirely.

”By the way, did you know? I heard Kiena’s already built the foundation needed to fully master Frost Edge, she really is remarkably talented.”

Julian wasn’t fully listening, simply nodding along, his mind half-consumed by the future he’d witnessed, murmuring under his breath, low but just loud enough for Adelle to catch:

”Hmm... she’s already fully mastered it.”

”Eh, already? When?” Adelle was naturally surprised. Julian wasn’t even at the Academy, so how could he possibly know Kiena had just succeeded in mastering it?

”Just now.”

”Ah,” Adelle smiled, a little awkward. ’Does he have some way of keeping tabs on his disciple’s condition? Or... oh, maybe he’s got some kind of informant helping him out?’

That actually made a strange amount of sense. There was no way someone on the level of a hidden Master wouldn’t have any connections at all, right?

He’d been living in Central for less than a month, and that had already been enough time for him to gather a few people working under him.

’Right, that checks out.’

After that conversation, Adelle finally took her leave, leaving Julian still completely unfocused, unable to shake off his thoughts.

He slumped weakly into the sofa, shoulders sagging, his face drained of color, looking genuinely bleak.

”...Seems like there’s no other choice.”

His stomach churned violently, an overwhelming wave of nausea making Julian feel like he might actually throw up right then, out of sheer fear.

But he held it all in. In the end, this was exactly the kind of situation Julian had already known, deep down, would come sooner or later.

Julian could avoid the Aliens entirely, on his own. But his disciples couldn’t, and because of them, Julian chose to act, to face that Alien directly, head-on.

Once again, Kina, and now Ilunia, had become responsibilities Julian was willing to shatter his calm, peaceful life for.