Automatons could function without the need to control them remotely, which is why I chose one to scour the area for me.

I watched the invisible bat fly out of one of the openings a Shadow Demon probably made when infiltrating this building.

Of course, since my eyes—no, my whole body too—were enhanced with Magic, I could make out the automaton’s soaring form.

It was made using Earth Magic, making it quite sturdy, but since it was a basic summon, I didn’t expect much in the department of offense and durability.

It was mostly for spying, after all. That was why I even cast a cloaking spell on it.

I needed to figure out what was going on. Hopefully, my Spell and the darkness served as a good cover for my little Automaton.

‘I’m happy I learned that Spell…’

Thanks to my interest in a lot of fields, I ended up diversifying and learning lots of things in various areas. Automaton creation was one of them. The field would be considered very difficult to master, especially for someone my age—and they would be right.

Fortunately, my past knowledge gave me an edge since I had quite the knowledge and experience handling Golems and their designs.

‘Automatons are simply modern upgrades to the Golems…’

It was still difficult, so I could only reach the Basic Level. But, this much was plenty for me. After all, there were tons of other fields that required my notice.

“That’s enough of that…” I whispered, slightly chastising myself for getting carried away in my thoughts.

I looked at the floor, a distance from me, and saw a human lying in his pool of blood. I recognized that face well. It was the Dorm Master.

He had been impaled in many areas, bleeding out of so many openings in his body. His blood had turned dark thanks to the lack of oxygen in them, and I could smell the gore from my distance.

Many would consider the sight sickening, but I only found it sad—a vestige of some memories I would very much like to forget.

My eyes left the dead man and trailed to the flight of stairs that hung before me.

With the immediate threat extinguished, it was best to check out how the other students were faring. It would take some time before the Automaton completed its mission.

It was a bother. I sincerely wished none of the students were here with me. That way, I could act more proactively, but…

“JAREEEDDDD!!!” I heard a couple of voices call after me.

My ears prickled, and I sharply tilted my head upward to see three people rushing down the stairs. My eyes widened as I recognized them immediately.

Edward, Jerry… and that kid that was peeping through the door back then—the one I gave the mission to.

‘For them to be here, that means everyone is probably safe…’

“You guys…” I made to speak but was assailed by their torrents of questions.

“Jared, what’s going on?”

“The tremors, what caused it?”

“I-I completed the mission!”

The three boys finally finished descending the stairs and presented themselves before me, expecting my response.

I simply sighed and cast a sidelong glance at the corner of the room where our Dorm Master drowned in his blood. The boys followed by gaze, and a few seconds after.

“Bleughh!”

The weakling vomited, and soon after, Jerry and Edward both made sick expressions. The gore seemed to overwhelm them, so much so that they glanced at me with surprise that I was unfazed by the sight.

“When I descended, he was like that.” I calmly retorted, hoping they didn’t have any funny thoughts and maybe suspected me of killing the man.

“W-who… what could have done this?”

“Urh, this is so…”

“Blueughhhhhh!!!”

I grew a bit irritated by the vomit the other boy kept splurging, even more than the corpse within my line of sight.

“I’m not sure what they are, but… I will soon find out. How about everyone? How are they?” I asked with concern.

“A-ah, they’re safely tucked upstairs. The other Elites are guarding them.”

I gave a dubious look at Jerry the moment he uttered his last statement, causing him to look a bit nervous. He soon felt like correcting himself, but I raised my hand to stop him before he could say any more.

Anyone who watched would have been surprised if they knew who the senior one among us was. In any case, Jerry kept quiet, allowing me to give a deep sigh.

“I can’t assess the situation properly currently. I sent an Automaton to check our vicinity. It should be done in a few minutes. In any case, we should prepare for the worst.”

My voice sounded grave, obviously frightening the two. I was sure the little vomiter had told them what he saw when he peeped—how the enemy wasn’t human. I allowed their imagination to run wild a little.

“W-what’s the worst?” Jerry was the first to speak, clearly trying to stay calm.

Was it his pride as a senior, or… did he really feel he could handle it?

“An invasion. The whole Academy could be infested with the enemy. I killed about thirteen just now, but judging from my calculations, they should be close to a hundred.” I murmured.

The duo before me appeared fazed.

I wondered what was more surprising to them—the numbers of the foes we had to defeat, or the fact that I casually mentioned killing. There were no bodies around, though—well, other than that of a hero we died fending off the enemy… probably.

That should have at least told them our opponents weren’t human.

Besides, if they didn’t believe me, they simply had to wait until my soy returned. If it didn’t show up after a few minutes, I would have to assume it was destroyed; then we were going to prepare for the worst.

It was an automaton, so it could function on its own, plus I didn’t have the luxury of attaching my Mana to it. There were too many variables to consider.

“For now, let’s go check on everyone. I should fill you guys in now, but I’ll wait until I get to address you all.”

It would be a pain explaining things twice.