High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 791: Chapter 139: Some Arrangements for Winter Hunting_1

”The winter hunt is scheduled for December 26th to 28th, for a total of three days.”

”The theme of this winter hunt remains the same as previous years, aiming to enhance the students’ practical abilities in magic, guided by the elimination of risks within the Silent Forest. Adhering to a steady and calm work style, we prioritize letting students accumulate extensive practical experience. At the same time, we strive for innovative methods, taking into consideration the early return of the Silence this year, ensuring that every task within the plan is materialized.”

”In accordance with past practice, this winter hunt is still divided into three levels.”

”The first level is responsible for hunting tasks in the outermost periphery. Due to staff shortage in this year’s Faculty Joint Conference, teaching assistants are assigned to lead the graduating students at this task, using the class as a unit. Each class is equipped with two teaching assistants, entering five to ten kilometers deep into the Silent Forest to clear any hazards encountered. Some students who have applied for early graduation are also assigned to this squad.”

”The second level is responsible for clearing work within one to five kilometers between the school and the Silent Forest. This part is allocated to teams - including all registered hunting teams from the school, some newly formed teams not yet registered, and some private hunting teams organized by third-year veterans. Each team is responsible for a direction, and every three teams are supervised by a senior school employee to ensure no oversights.”

”The third level is the winter hunt within the school. It is managed by first-year, second-year, and some third-year students. They are to clean the main campus area, the branches of various colleges, research institutes, and other areas arranged by the winter hunting office. The main clean-up work includes exterminating roaming rat groups, flesh-eating beetles, eight-eyed spiders, Red Chain Snakes, and other poisonous and harmful creatures, as well as newly formed evil spirits and violent souls in dark places. According to the ’Guidelines,’ the school will release low-risk prey in certain areas, including Fake Snowmen, Dwarf Pig Monsters, Tarzan Worms, Ghouls, Temple Pecking Birds, and more, for students to practice exercises.”

”Stop! Stop!” Old Yao, clutching his pipe, knocked hard on the table a few times, stopping Zhang Yu from reading further: ”What has a simple report been turned into... Is this how to report work? If the rest of it is again full of these long, verbose clichés, just leave them and I’ll read them myself later!”

The silver-haired young teaching assistant was silent for a few seconds upon hearing this. He stepped forward, rapidly setting down a big stack of documents in front of Professor Yao, then quickly retreated to his original position.

Old Yao looked at the stack of documents in front of him, then glanced at the teaching assistant in front of him, the corners of his mouth twitching.

”Well, written materials can be somewhat rigid... failing to cover some aspects. Let’s just do Q&A instead.” The professor quickly glanced through the materials in front of him without the patience to read through all of the long-winded prose. He then looked kindly at the chief assistant.

Zhang Yu hid half his face behind his high collar, his eyes completely expressionless.

”I remember the school has several decently capable hunting teams... Isn’t it be an overkill to let them handle the second part of the clean-up work?”

”While the second level involves only one to five kilometers from the school to the Silent Forest, many parts of this area cover the Silent River basin, especially some high-risk parts of the river, all lie within this area. Our arrangement is for the top-ranking hunting teams, including both the school and institution teams, to be responsible for cleaning up these river segments, while the weaker hunting teams will deal with the other parts.”

”For the first part, are the teaching assistants under a lot of pressure?” Old Yao bit his pipe and after sending out a few puffs of smoke suddenly asked.

Despite the seemingly abrupt question, the young wizard standing in front of the professor quickly understood what he meant.

”A lot.” Zhang Yu did not hesitate at all and added further, ”Our submitted report contains specific suggestions and advice. We believe it is strenuous for two teaching assistants to be responsible for the safety of a class in the depths of the Silent Forest this year. It is recommended that the school arrange for some researchers to perform some auxiliary tasks.”

Without any hesitation, Professor Yao immediately knocked his table with his knuckles. A fiery red feather pen jumped out of the pen holder at the corner of the desk, sucked a few mouthfuls from the inkwell, and then swiftly marked the last page of the report.

”Anything else?” The professor, pipe in mouth, watched as the red feather pen danced across the paper, then raised his gaze to the silver-haired assistant: ”If there are any issues, just speak up... You guys are here to raise concerns and I’m here to help you solve them. That’s how a meeting is supposed to proceed.”

”There is another problem,” Zhang Yu hesitated for a few seconds before discussing the next issue, but ultimately he obliged: ”It’s about the ’Rat Immortal’.”

”Rat Immortal? That old guy?” Professor Yao raised an eyebrow: ”What kind of mischief has he gotten up to now?”

”It’s not a major problem, it’s just that recently the ’Mouse Clan’ that he’s been nurturing has been quite active. Many of our lower-level students have seen these dressed-up mice roaming around the campus... a few students have even had conversations with those mice.” As Zhang Yu spoke, he glanced at the red and black invitation card on the table, adding, ”The campus newspaper recently published an article about these mice in the ’Oddities’ section, which has garnered quite a response from students. Although we have communicated with the editorial department about the follow-up report, the specific stance needs to be finalized by you.”

Professor Yao bit his pipe and chewed a few times.

”Hmm, indeed a problem.” He frowned as he rose from his chair and paced a few steps along the narrow space by the window, shaking his head in the end: ”The existence of the ’Rat Immortal’ is personally confirmed by Principal Nameless, which we all know... even if you discuss it with Principal Shi, there won’t be any new solutions.”

”For now, just leave it... You guys get in touch with the school workers and pay attention to the activities of these mice. If they behave, we’ll treat them as foreign exchange students.”

”And what about the winter hunt?” Zhang Yu asked again: ”During the winter hunt, both inside and outside the school, students might encounter these mice... should we give them special attention?”

”Attention? Why should they need it.” Old Yao sneered, stuffing his pipe back into his mouth, taking a deep puff, then blowing out two thick plumes of smoke from his ears: ”The Rat Immortal never asked us to give them special attention... They don’t need any special treatment – it’ll be up to them. If some students find them interesting, let the mice live; if some students find them scary and kill them, they’ve done nothing wrong.”

The silver-haired young teaching assistant was silent for a moment then slowly nodded.