High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1902: Chapter 123: Magical Zoology

”Magic is not an innate ability that every life form possesses.”

”In other words, magic is an ’unnatural’ state, something that violates natural rules. Just like money in the mortal world, which inherently holds no value, yet represents infinite value after being defined by certain special memes.”

”Similarly, money can be inherited in an orderly manner under specific relationships, and magic abilities are the same, passed down through different special methods such as bloodline, invasion, and infection... But blessings and curses go hand in hand, causes and effects are predestined, and common creatures that want to acquire magic, in violation of natural rules, naturally need to pay an equivalent price...”

Zheng Qing hesitated momentarily with the feather pen in his hand as he copied down the lecture notes. He frowned as he tried to recall, feeling that these words sounded familiar, as if he had heard them somewhere before.

After a while, he finally remembered—on Monday morning during the first potion-making practice class, Xiao Xiao had said something similar to him. However, Zheng Qing could no longer recall the context at the time.

He vaguely remembered it was when they were discussing some issue about collecting White Dew, and the doctor mentioned something about needing to pay a price for violating natural laws.

After all, it happened two days ago.

It was now Wednesday afternoon; two days were enough to erase most of the trivial details in everyday life, let alone a brief passing experience in a young wizard’s mind.

Zheng Qing felt that being able to recall the origin of that sentence was already quite impressive.

”The teacher glanced at you.”

Jiang Yu, sitting on the right, keenly noticed the warlock’s brief distraction and nudged him with her elbow, reminding him softly, ”Don’t get distracted!”

Zheng Qing snapped back to attention, looking towards the lectern, sitting up straight.

Wednesday afternoon’s class was a school-wide elective. Zheng Qing didn’t join the fat guy and doctor in selecting Magic Universe Study, nor did he choose Zhang Ji Xin’s easier-to-pass Mysticism (Notebook) Overview; instead, he picked magical zoology.

Whether the course was simple or whether the credits were easy to earn was not important; what mattered was Jiang Yu also selected this class. Of course, facing the odd stares of others, he only needed to raise Poseidon high to cope with most situations.

The few he couldn’t deal with, he hadn’t intended to hide from them anyway.

The teacher on the lectern nodded slightly, very satisfied with the student’s attitude.

The magical zoology lecturer was a school researcher named Gan Ning, who wasn’t much older, looking similar to a senior student. Zheng Qing had seen him in Professor Montelio’s laboratory before, with a very likable round face, his gaze and tone extremely gentle, just like the thin, nearly transparent fuzz on his face.

”...Let’s take a very common example, goblins.”

As he spoke, Teacher Gan turned around, grasped a piece of chalk, and quickly drew a goblin on the blackboard, vividly lifelike. Through the blackboard, Zheng Qing seemed to smell the stench emitted by the little fairy.

The magical zoology teacher turned back, looked again at the students, his hand somehow holding a pointer, tapping on the goblin on the blackboard, causing the little creature to bare its teeth viciously:

”Goblins are a very common magical creature, widely distributed in Europa, the Great Britain Island, and Scandinavia. They are small in stature, ugly in appearance, skilled in escape, stealth, and illusion magic, with extraordinary sensitivity to metals and gemstones... The most prominent feature of this creature is its long and pointed ears and red eyeballs.”

”Some students might think this little fairy is too ordinary and useless, making everyone consider it unworthy of being a magical creature. But magic is never categorized by ’useful’ or ’useless’... This distinction applies to wizards, not magic itself. Remember this point carefully.”

”Back to the topic.”

”As a type of magical creature, goblins have paid many prices to acquire magical powers, such as their small stature, ugly appearance, obsessive and twisted nature, and so forth.”

”These prices are apparent, visible at a glance. There are also many hidden costs, such as allergies to sunlight, salt, and white vinegar... Well, since we’re here, everyone take note, I’ll briefly outline several traditional methods that wizards commonly use to deal with goblins.”

Speaking here, Teacher Gan paused slightly, emphasizing: ”...Past exams often involve these magical creatures, so please take notice.”

Immediately, the classroom resounded with the rustling of pages turning and the scratching of feather pens on paper.

Zheng Qing felt that in that moment, the entire classroom seemed to awaken a bit more.

”Traditional witchcraft methods to deal with goblins are quite simple... For example, tomato juice can burn their skin; the vapor from white vinegar can suffocate them; refined salt can blind mature goblins or liquefy young goblins, an effect similar to slugs reacting to salt.”

”And in magical zoology, you need to further learn the more fundamental reasons behind similar phenomena. For instance, tomato juice contains a large amount of light elements, which can directly contact the goblins’ filamentous protruding mesh nerve system, stimulating the system to produce a burning-like reaction... Compared to ordinary creatures, magical creatures have more developed nerve cords, denser nerve fibers, making their nervous systems more sensitive, able to react to many common materials.”

”Whereas ordinary creatures, due to the lack of a nervous system, develop a ’dullness,’ preventing similar reactions, this too can be considered a blessing in disguise to some extent...”

Upon hearing the words ’a blessing in disguise,’ Zheng Qing’s mind unconsciously drifted again, and the pace of his feather pen recording subtly slowed.

”Still bothered by hunting team matters?”

The witch sitting beside him was jotting notes while casually tucking her long hair behind her ear, softly reminding without looking up, ”No matter how bothersome, don’t let it affect your class.”

The hunting team was indeed among the things bothering Zheng Qing.

Aside from Alpha Academy’s freshman public-funded student Lin Yan recklessly referring to acquiring the Absolution Hunting Team, which brought a heap of paper cranes, there were also the hunting team’s recruitment, club and student council needing to mention the hunting team’s annual training plan, application and defense for upgrading the absolution to a formal hunting team, and so forth—a myriad of issues came rushing in, leaving Zheng Qing overwhelmed.

Indeed, the Absolution Hunting Team had no recruitment plans this year.

But the freshmen who had just entered were unaware of this fact, still continuously sending him flying paper cranes. Refusing them once was never enough. Perhaps having heard too many elder stories, quite a few young wizards perceive Zheng Qing’s refusal as some form of test, visiting again and again. Combined with the heavy second-year coursework, all of this left Zheng Qing exhausted both physically and mentally.