My Students Regret It After I Retired

13 – The Immense Ripple Effect Begins to Spread Across the Empire

“Brother! You’re back, not dead! I knew it!”

As Leos entered the cave, Bendict greeted him with a flurry of fuss. Herisia also rose from her place and walked towards the man, speaking.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m mostly alright.”

Leos went to a corner of the cave, taking a seat. Bendict began excitedly pacing, chattering noisily.

“Brother, I can barely handle one of the monsters coming out of Redgate, let alone that whole Gate itself, how do you go around sealing them alone? If I learn from you, can I do it too? Huh? Brother! Can you hear me!”

Bendict ended up receiving a sharp knock on the head, screaming and collapsing onto the ground.

“Shut your mouth, you’re being too loud.”

Bendikt spoke, sounding wronged.

“It’s me, Bendikt. Don’t you understand my heart, wanting to be of help to you, Brother! We can’t just keep receiving help from within like this forever. I want to fight by your side too!”

“You got a good memory?”

“No, I can barely even remember what I ate yesterday.”

“Then you’ll forget everything I tell you. With the monsters that appear at the Red Gate, especially the mutants, it’s crucial to remember their characteristics well. Even if your combat sense is a little lacking, if you’re aware of what abilities they use and what weaknesses they have, you might be able to hold your own against them.”

“Hey, even so, I’ll memorize it well if I try. How much do I need to memorize? How many types of monsters appear at the Red Gate?”

“At least several thousand. But since you’ve never even seen them in person, you’d have to memorize their appearances too. If written on paper, it would be at least hundreds of thousands of characters that you’d need to memorize.”

“…”

Bendikt immediately clutched his head and spoke.

“It’s me, Bendikt… I’d do anything for you, Brother, but in my life, I’ve never had to memorize that much information…”

“Shut your mouth.”

“Yes, sir!”

The man went to a corner, munching on jerky. And not long after, pointing towards Heresia, he said,

“Brother, but doesn’t that girl handle artifacts well? If she modifies one to make something like a memo pad, even someone like me could look at it and react, right?”

“…?”

Leos walked towards Bendikt, and thinking he was going to be hit again, Bendikt covered his head and cowered. But contrary to his expectations, Leos nodded his head in surprise.

“That’s not bad? Why didn’t I think of that? No, how did you even think of that?”

“Haha! Brother! Even a broken clock is right once in a while. I’m glad if I was of some help!”

Leos thought.

‘Yeah, this isn’t some kind of test site.’

If he could perfectly categorize everything and modify the artifacts so that information could be quickly accessed, the man figured that others could easily apply and use his knowledge. There was no need to memorize everything. It was like being able to use a cheat sheet.

‘Of course, not just anyone can use this method.’

Unless you were someone like Leos, who knew the traits and weaknesses of monsters perfectly, a memo from someone with vague knowledge would be worse than useless. What’s more, sometimes even a slight difference in a monster’s appearance could mean it was a completely different species, so Leos himself had to identify which monster it was. Even so, the cheat sheet strategy was quite useful.

“Herisia. Can you make it?”

“How would you like it made?”

“I want to create an encyclopedia-like set of entries in the Distance. If you say a specific word, the corresponding information should appear instantly in the Distance.”

“Hmm…that’s definitely doable. If we combine it with a virtual augmented artifact, we could even project the information onto the wearer’s goggles.”

“So, you’re talking about something like AR.”

“A…R? What’s that?”

“Never mind. Just get it done, please.”

“Yes! Just wait a moment!”

Herisia pulled various items out of her bag, and then even pulled out her inventory.

“She had an inventory? Why was she carrying a bag?”

“…Yeah! I do have an inventory but it’s completely full of artifacts.”

Just as she’d said that she was an artifact fanatic, the artifacts she pulled out of her inventory one by one were breathtaking. Not only the types, but also the sheer number of high-rarity artifacts, lined up.

“Where did you get all this stuff? That’s incredible.”

“Hehe, I just sort of collected them, one by one. I didn’t have many at first… I told you, I’m an artifact fanatic!”

Leos seemed genuinely amazed, which made Herisia giggle. The man rarely praised or spoke highly of others, so his words felt sincere, not just empty flattery. This made Herisia even more enthusiastic.

After about an hour had passed, Herisia, sweating profusely, finally spoke.

“All done! Would you like to try it?”

Hericia held out a pair of transparent goggles, and Leos took them, fitting them over his face.

“It’s simple to use. Just say ‘search’ while wearing the glasses, and then say the name of the document you’re looking for within the database. There’s only one thing registered in the database right now, so try saying ‘Hericia’.”

“Search, Hericia.”

Instantly, three-dimensional text appeared within Leos’s vision.

[Document: Hericia]

[Body: An artifact enthusiast who has consistently collected artifacts since the Gate incident. It is said that the types of artifacts she has collected exceed 500. Characteristic: An artifact artisan recognized by Leos]

The document title and body content of the Hericia document were displayed as they were. Leos, impressed, exclaimed,

“That’s amazing. To create this so quickly. When I was working at the Gatekeeper Management HQ, I never even considered using artifacts like this.”

“Ahem… well, not just anyone can do it easily. These artifacts are really sensitive, so they can break easily with just the slightest touch. Even though it looks like Leos can easily take down the Red Gate, that’s not something just anyone can do, and the work I do is kind of like that too.”

“Impressive.”

“Hehe, it’s nothing!”

“But how do I add to this?”

“There’s an app I added on Distant. You can press that and write the text. See the ‘document’ section and the ‘body’ section? Once you’re done, press ‘add,’ and if you want to delete something, just select ‘delete item’. Also, it’s voice-activated for writing, and the encyclopedia you write, Leos, will automatically sync with the goggles I made. I made three pairs of goggles for now, but I can make more if you need extra.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know if I need more later.”

Leos looked at Distant and used the voice recognition feature to register the names and characteristics of several monsters into the encyclopedia.

[Document: Divbringer]

[Body: A monster with the ability to detect humans. Its distinguishing physical characteristic is the two antennae on its forehead. It uses these antennae to detect humans from approximately 500m to as far as 1km. It detects human presence, so even if you conceal yourself with terrain, detection is still possible. Furthermore, it emits a pheromone that attracts monsters from the surrounding area as time passes. When encountering a Divbringer, it’s better to kill it immediately rather than try to escape to improve your chance of survival. The creature itself is not very strong, so hunting it won’t be hard as long as you can get close.]

[Document: Lyard]

[Body: A mantis-type mutant monster. The main feature is that its entire body is composed of material stronger than steel…]

The man spent a good while filling in information on the encyclopedia app, then spoke to Heresia.

“It’s incredibly user-friendly. Thanks. This is going to be a huge help to us going forward.”

Heresia nodded regally at Leo’s praise, while Bendict, looking a bit deflated, promptly chopped a nearby tree with his sword, declaring,

“Brother! I’m good at using my strength! If you need any heavy lifting, just let me know!”

“Don’t go swinging your sword around for no reason. Just stay put.”

“Yes, sir!”

Bendict immediately scurried to a corner and crouched down. When Leo put the goggles on Bendict’s face, letters appeared before the man’s eyes.

“oooh! The letters are moving!”

“You can read, right?”

“No, brother… what do you take me for…”

Bendict looked up, crestfallen, and Leo replied flatly,

“Just kidding.”

Bendict, still looking dejected, began checking the entries in the encyclopedia app one by one.

“Wow… brother, there are so many details about the monsters? How do you remember all of this?”

“Intense memories, when you’re about to die, they don’t just disappear no matter how much time passes. From low-level to top-tier, I might make it look like I’m hunting them casually now, but back then, I nearly died each time hunting them level by level. Even if I don’t want to, it’s all stuck in my head.”

“I see… so there was a time you were weak… if I’d met you then, I could have guided you onto the right path, so your personality wouldn’t have gone wrong… aaaH! Brother! I’m joking! My ear! My ear! You ripped it brother!”

Leaving Bendict rolling around on the ground, Leo opened the Distance.

[Welcome to Leo’s Gallery]

The manager of Leo’s Gallery. Come to think of it, he’d said he was running out of food and might die soon.

‘Even when the whole world turned their back on me, he was the only one who believed in me.’

Heresia was also gallery staff, and the manager, whoever it was, was also gallery staff.

‘Since I made the encyclopedia anyway, might as well help out a bit.’

The Leo’s Gallery was a small-scale, minor gallery. So, Leo wrote the post without feeling burdened.

[Nickname: LEO]

[Title: Object-Specific Appearance, Characteristics, and Simple Countermeasures for 50 Monster Types.]

[Body: 1. Divbringer: Ability to detect humans… 2. Lyrad: Mantis-type mutant…]

He copied information about monsters that would be dangerous for the uninitiated from the encyclopedia and uploaded it to the gallery. He even highlighted the Divbringer in red. If a human unaware of its characteristics encountered one, they could be ambushed and killed after being detected. Leo wanted at least one less person to die, since there were people here who believed in him. Even when everyone else called them criminals, they had believed in him.

After posting, Leo stopped thinking about it. After all, 50 types were just a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of monsters. And since the information didn’t even include monster photos, in a way, this was just a hypocritical gesture to ease Leo’s own discomfort.

Today’s Most Popular Post

[Author: LEO]

[Title: Object-Specific Appearance, Characteristics, and Simple Countermeasures for 50 Monster Types.]

[Views: 305,321]

However, even that small bit of information began to cause a massive ripple effect across the entire Empire.