High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 275: Chapter 199 The Trouble of Lazy Bugs_1

Sand Hour Jelly, is a semi-transparent jelly-like substance that represents the residues found in the gland capsules after the sand hour worms consume the timeline.

Named as such because it serves as the sole diet for the mother of the sand hour, the Jelly.

In traditional magic potion studies, Sand Hour Jelly acts as a life-prolonging potion, its mild properties and unique effects revered and pursued by many wizards as sacred.

Hunting for the sand hour worms became a popular pastime among the wizards - this activity was even included in the official schedule of the International Hunting Teams League to improve wizards’ ability to discover and observe!

However, the unregulated long-term hunting leads to a decrease in the number of wild sand hour herds that could produce Sand Hour Jelly, and the Silent Forest on Buji Island gradually became the only publicly recognized area in the Magical World where the wild sand hour herds dwell.

Presently, when high-level wizards need to use Sand Hour Jelly in their experiments, they have to hire elite hunting teams to the depths of Silent Forest to collect them at a high cost.

Thus, when young wizards learned that the culprits wrecking the school were a group of sand hours, their first reaction was not to crush these terrifying little bugs, but to capture a couple and widen their horizons.

After all, not everyone gets the chance to see sand hour worms alive.

In this era of declining magic power and hidden beasts, many creatures of legend have become just a few images in the books of the Book Mountain Library. Seeing live sand hour worms in school is worth showing off to relatives during the holidays for many young wizards.

Wizards, after all, are rational beings.

When their curiosity fades away, their inherent calculations begin to show.

The bodies of the sand hours, their nests, the unhatched eggs inside the nests, and even some small parts from the mother of the sand hours become the targets of young wizards - no wizard would refuse such rare experimental materials.

Of course, topping every demand list is the Sand Hour Jelly.

Not only is it a valued experimentation material, but it is also a precious life-prolonging potion. Under specific circumstances, Sand Hour Jelly equals the existence of a high-level wizard – from this perspective, it’s never excessive to elevate the status of such a ’jelly-like substance’.

Zheng Qing was fortunate enough to obtain a small jar of Sand Hour Jelly.

To call him fortunate is because among the hundreds of members from the patrolling team that participated in the search for the sand hour nests, less than ten received this reward. If old Ferna hadn’t asked him to take care of the hunting dog May, Zheng Qing wouldn’t have had the chance to spot the ’giant snail’, the size of a fist hidden among the shrubs during May’s toilet break, which looked like a piece of broken rock.

Even though Zheng Qing was nearly falling asleep due to exhaustion when the old janitor announced the rewards after the capture, he could distinctly sense the admixture of envy, jealousy, and all sorts of complicated emotions from the atmosphere.

While every participant in the search received two academic credits as a reward, no reward could compare to a small jar of Sand Hour Jelly.

Many senior students immediately proposed a hefty price to buy the Sand Hour Jelly from Zheng Qing.

From jade coins to academic credits, precious magic books, treasured alchemy materials, and even people who would exchange it for the full technique of a high-level magic spell!

Zheng Qing drooled all over the place.

If he didn’t know so many people, he would have certainly hugged these senior students’ thighs and plaintively asked for alms.

Fortunately, though he was somewhat tired, he did not lose his senses. After much pondering, he declined the ’irresistible conditions’ that seemed promising at first.

After all, he still had a group of little elves who were dying and needed to be revived.

The effect of the Residual Spirit Powder that Dr. Du Zemu prepared earlier was getting worse, and although the elves still seemed lively, Zheng Qing had noticed some worrying trends from their daily medical check-up data.

So, facing the purchase request from the two classmates, the young student funded by the state could only express his helplessness.

”Sorry,” Zheng Qing apologized with a smile, looked at Tang Dun and Matthew, pointed at the little elves obediently assembled along the blackboard, and forcibly squeezed his eyes to look as if he was about to burst into tears, ”I genuinely want to exchange this for jade coins... but this is a life-saving substance, and I can’t sell it.”

Tang Dun nodded his head in understanding, and reassuringly patted Zheng Qing’s shoulder.

Matthew also closed his mouth, turning his gaze back to the window.

Since the start of the semester, the Elves’ story, as peddled by a few bad seniors, slowly began to spread among many of our peers, especially among Astronomy Class 08-1 where Zheng Qing was. The adorable little creatures attracted the attention of all the girls in that class.

Therefore, on hearing that Zheng Qing intended to use the royal jelly from the Sand Hour queen to extend the aliens’ lives, even Li Meng, who was always looking down her nose at him, nodded repeatedly and revealed a look that suggested Zheng Qing might not be hopeless after all.

”That’s more like it!” The girl confidently tugged at Zheng Qing’s collar, straightening the one she had previously wrinkled, and she complimented him: ”A man should act responsibly!”

Zheng Qing was half crying and half laughing.

Xin the Fat Man, standing not far behind Li Meng, was making faces and sticking his tongue out, which amused the crowd.

Laughter erupted from the crowd.

Li Meng turned her head in suspicion, just in time to see Xin Fat Man nodding like a bobblehead with a serious expression, seemingly agreeing with her earlier words.

At this moment, Jiang Yu interrupted the chaotic scene by throwing out a question.

”Is the queen’s nest truly empty?” The female class monitor, casually fiddling with a green paper crane, asked with a smile, ”I heard that after you guys captured the Sand Hour queen, many lazy bugs escaped because her nest was shattered. Is that true?”

Zheng Qing, slightly confused, glanced at the green paper crane, scratched his head and first denied the accusation.

”There are no lazy bugs inside the Sand Hour nest, only eggs... it’s common knowledge.”

”As for the rumors about numerous lazy bugs in the school, there may have been some misunderstanding when the message was passed on, as the maintenance committee hasn’t officially released the notice yet.”

”According to the professors, the Sand Hour have been in the school for at least a month.”

”Normally, it only takes 21 days for a Sand Hour to go from an egg to larva, and finally mature. According to the inspection wizards, the nest we found showed signs of repeated hatching... this means that the bugs have been breeding massively recently.”

”The number of adult bugs and eggs we eventually found in the nest is far less than calculated.”

”This indicates that a large number of lazy bugs have been scattered throughout the campus by the adult Sand Hour, parasitising other magical creatures – including us wizards – by stealing their life time to complete the final metamorphosis of these larvae.”

At this point, Zheng Qing couldn’t help but rub his own earlobe.

Ever since he found out that lazy bugs like to hide behind wizards’ ears, he constantly performed this action.

Perhaps his action reminded the other students. Many of them franticly began scratching their ears and messing with their hair, trying to find these disgraceful time-thieves on their bodies.

”Don’t panic,” Zheng Qing raised his voice, assuring everyone, ”According to the maintenance committee’s plans, the school will arrange a bug cleanup for us this week... No one will get hurt.”

”But... But the whole school is talking about patrol members being attacked by Sand Hour. Half their faces turned black after the attack... I don’t want to turn black.” Li Meng bit her fingernail, her face full of worry.

”Rumors are just rumors,” Zheng Qing sighed, pushing the young girl back into the seat, and explained to everyone at a higher volume, ”A patrol member turned black because he accidentally fell into a pond and got bitten by a Fish Wife... caught a bit of Semi-Necrosis Poison. The school’s doctor said that as long as he stays indoors and eats plenty of radishes, his face will recover in less than a week.”

His explanation eased many of the students’ tension.

”The teacher’s coming...” the Stick Figure behind the classroom door suddenly shouted.

Ever since a Jamaican named Daley The Third taught the inexperienced Freshmen how to teach Stick figures a lesson, these line-drawn figures had considerably calmed down, and false alarms hadn’t occurred for quite some time.

Thus, everybody immediately scattered and rushed back to their seats.

Soon, the classroom door was opened with a bang.

The bald and shiny head of Teacher Yao immediately caught everyone’s attention.