Chapter 115: Notable Improvements

"...P-Professor Zenith!!" All my students sprint desperately as a giant monster resembling a bizarre plant chasing them on its vines pursues them. Ashlyn’s voice as she calls out to me is exhausted, and she looks like she might collapse at any moment.

"Run faster! You don’t need to take any more laps, you can come in!" I call out to them, motivating them as I prepare to close the door.

"..." I wait for them to arrive, and the moment they take their first step onto the vehicle, I quickly signal for the car to take off. They nearly fall back out, but all of them manage to get in as I slam the door shut.

I hear the monster slam against the door, but the reinforced vehicle quickly speeds off, beginning its escape while firing at the monster. They pant, collapsing to the floor completely drenched in sweat.

"That went better than a week ago," I tell them, looking at the data on a tablet. It was a relatively weak monster in an isolated area, so it won’t be a problem for anyone.

’That’s a massive improvement compared to their time... I’m pleased...’ It’s been eight months since the Aurora island incident, and with intense daily training, I’ve managed to make these girls much stronger and more obedient.

Without Astrid’s restrictions, I was able to give them military training, practical training, direct combat against monsters, and various other real-world tests to expose them to things that elevate their capabilities.

"Haa..." Some of them pass out from exhaustion while I approve of what they accomplished. Today we were doing something simple — all of them had to run from a monster without using their powers for eighteen straight hours with no breaks.

It’s a fairly extreme physical exercise, since if they stopped or fell, they’d face real danger, though I was ready to save them if necessary.

"P-Professor, you’ve gotten pretty cruel these past few months," Rouge says, coughing a little from lack of air. Now that the adrenaline has worn off and they no longer have to flee, only Rouge and Charlotte have managed to stay conscious.

The others are either unconscious or just completely motionless and silent. Charlotte especially, thanks to all the training, has greatly improved her physical abilities, which were honestly pretty miserable before.

"Yes, yes, I’m quite sadistic, so I’ll do something worse tomorrow since you brought it up, how about that?"

"N-No need for that, Professor!" Rouge says quickly as I set the tablet aside. Even though they’ve all gotten much stronger and more disciplined over the past few months, there’s still one problem.

’None of them have anything new... They’ve gotten physically stronger, they’ve learned to fight for real, and most of them have improved control over their own powers, but that’s it — their powers themselves haven’t seen any growth at all...’ This is problematic. If I want them to fight against Nemesis, they need to be more capable.

’I think that’s enough of the training I’ve been giving them recently. I need to focus now on strengthening their powers, especially Tanya, who has so many variants of her ability and barely knows how to use any of them...’

"Charlotte, since you seem fine, come with me. And Rouge, take care of your teammates. Give this to Edith — she’s pretending to be unconscious — she’ll make a stimulant to keep you all awake and help with the muscle pain." I give Rouge the order, handing her some chemical compounds for Edith to use.

"Okay, Professor Zenith..." Rouge stands up, her tail and ears drooping from exhaustion.

"..." Charlotte follows me to another compartment of the vehicle, where I sit down in a chair that sinks slightly under my weight. My tail rests on the table with faint cracking sounds as I look at Charlotte.

"Do you need something?" she asks. We’ve actually grown much closer recently, which is ironic because when I first started as their teacher, she seemed like one of the ones I’d least get close to.

But I’ve relied on her help so much for getting around that a certain closeness inevitably developed between us, even if it’s only something mild.

"Yes. Your performance is excellent, but the range of your power is still terrible. Thirty meters is far too little, so I’ve been thinking about solutions for you." I’ve been thinking about all of them and how they can try to use their powers better.

For Rouge, I advised her to accumulate air before generating an attack — she should absorb excess air from the environment without affecting her own breathing or her allies’, and use that to amplify her attacks. That’s especially useful below the island, where there’s more air than up here.

For Tanya, I simply advised her to concentrate her attacks more before releasing them, increasing their power and speed — something she already knew how to do and just needed to improve.

As for Eirwen, I told her she should create isolated zones of extreme cold. Instead of simply making the entire environment terribly cold, she should create small points of extreme cold and use those points to generate ice.

That way she doesn’t affect allies while being able to create small zones where the temperature approaches absolute zero, avoiding friendly fire.

Edith didn’t have much she could do. Her usage is quite "limited" since she first needs to produce substances using chemicals or similar materials she has on hand, so my only advice to her was to study chemical reactions on the internet.

And Ashlyn doesn’t have much more she can do either. Her power is heavily based on generating those "shadows" and making them fight, so she just needs to study more about strategy.

But with Charlotte, all of this has become a serious problem. No matter how much Charlotte has improved, her power has a short range, her rifts are slow, and she can’t fight without risking injuring a nearby ally if she hesitates in a decision.

"What options do you have for me, Professor Zenith? I expect great things from you, since you’ve helped the others so much with your advice! I trained my body a lot like you asked," she says, leaning against a table.

’Is she being sarcastic? It’s hard to tell when she sounds so sincere...’

"I have two main strategies for you, but it’s up to you whether you’ll use them or decide they’re not your style. The first would be for you to start generating larger rifts with shorter durations. Since it’s a deformation in space, a single second would already be fatal for most enemies."

"So if you’re quick to activate and deactivate them, you could cause extreme damage to enemies without affecting allies. The other is for you to learn to create teleportation rifts more quickly and use them to fight." The rifts she uses for movement are fairly simple.

Since I’ve been with her for so long, I’ve come to understand perfectly how it works and why she sometimes takes so long to make one and sometimes does it quickly. In short, she folds space at two points.

Forcing point A and point B to sit side by side — it’s like taking a line and making the two ends meet, and then you just step through and you’re somewhere else. But the longer that line is, the more complex it gets.

However, the opposite is also true — the shorter the distance, the faster she can do it. Which means if she used it in a fight within that thirty-meter area, she could teleport instantly, generating extremely fast rifts to dodge or attack.

Or she could simply create rifts and fire weapons into them, making shots and strikes appear at angles that are indefensible for the enemy.

"...Hmm... I think I understand what you mean with the second option. It sounds interesting, but it also sounds pretty difficult for me to pull off," Charlotte murmurs while looking at the vehicle’s screens, seeing photos of them with collected data.

"Professor Zenith, you seem very dedicated these past few months. We’re close to graduating — what’s going to happen when we join the military? You’d kind of stop being our teacher, right?" She asks a good question.

"I’m not sure about that. In a way, yes, I would stop being your teacher, but maybe I could still help. There are military instructors — maybe I could get in and help you all. I still have to look into it, but there’s still some time left, no need to rush." I really am not in a hurry about this.

Besides, if they go into the military, the only way I could continue tutoring them would really be as an instructor. But considering what Nadir did to get me kicked out of the military, even becoming an instructor would be a big challenge.

"...Great, Professor," she says with a hint of sarcasm.

"Yes, yes, it’s truly great, Charlotte. Keep being cocky, and tomorrow I’ll make the training heavier just for you."

"Ahh..."

"I’m only joking, Charlotte. I’m going to need the help of my favorite taxi tomorrow, so I want you to rest well today. I haven’t been taking you on so many missions with me for nothing." I give private lessons to all of them, but the amount I give Charlotte is far greater than the others.

Since I take her on various personal missions of mine and show her the world, she’s far more tuned in to government news compared to any of the others, and Charlotte has even made contact with high-ranking people when she comes with me.

"...How wonderful... Anyway, Professor, are you going to keep your promise? There are three months left until all of us formally graduate from the academy and get sent to the military."

"Are you going to tell us what’s really going on when that happens?" she asks, quite interested.

"I will indeed inform you of certain things. Now go back with the others. I’ve told you what I needed to tell you. I need to compile this data and send it via Nexus to the academy, so I need silence." I give her a nod, and she shrugs before heading back to the same compartment as the others.