“What is it?!”
“Oh, come on.”
“The video feed cut out!!”
The first-year lecture building at Crescent Academy was in an uproar due to the sudden interruption of the video feed.
The students, who had been gathered in their respective classrooms watching the inter-grade competition, spilled out into the hallways, muttering amongst themselves after the feed cut out.
Ideally, the faculty in charge of each class would have stepped in to maintain order, but not a single professor was in sight.
“Would you all quiet down?”
“Does this mean our team took first place?!”
“That’s gotta be it, right? They reached the finish line!”
Cain listened to Anes and Marie’s conversation with obvious displeasure.
‘Something’s definitely up. There’s no way they could have taken down that monster, which not even Bernstein’s flames could affect, so easily.’
Cain was still trying to rationalize ways to downplay Ryu’s performance.
The first-year representative team, led by Ryu, was exceeding all of Cain’s expectations and putting on an impressive display.
During the second trial, Elaine St. Claire proved why she was a St. Claire.
Until then, Cain hadn’t been particularly bothered. After all, he’d known the St. Claires were exceptionally talented.
However, when the dungeon exploration began and Ryu started massacring a hoard of zombies, things felt off.
While Elaine St. Claire was struggling to fend off an encircling group of enemies, Ryu suddenly charged in with his sword.
Not only did he break through the encirclement alone, but he proceeded to obliterate all the monsters.
From that point on, cheers could be heard echoing throughout the first-year lecture building.
It was true that there had been complaints about Ryu’s status as a commoner and his top student ranking.
Nevertheless, Ryu had participated in the competition as the first-year representative. Naturally, his classmates reacted with cheers to his superb performance.
It was as if the internal conflicts among the students were being resolved by the external challenge.
And when Ryu sent a massive skeleton knight flying, the first-years’ cheers reached their peak.
Even though Anes and Marie were in a separate classroom, the cheers seemed to pierce through clearly.
Anes and Marie, too, couldn’t hide their excitement.
“Hmph. Seems like the professors finally figured out something fishy was going on and cut the broadcast.”
“…”
Cain’s chilly remark fell flat, without any response from either Anes or Marie.
Anyone who had been watching the live feed from the start would have understood why.
Even ignoring the earlier skeleton knight incident, Ryu had shown an overwhelming presence throughout the dungeon exploration.
Whenever an enemy appeared, he was always the first to take it down, skillfully bypassing traps along the way.
He was equally adept at navigating the dungeon’s pathways.
Meanwhile, the third-years had abandoned their mission and were retreating, while the second-years hadn’t even entered the dungeon yet.
The first-year lecture hall was filled with excitement. When the broadcast suddenly cut out, preventing the students from witnessing the historic scene of first-years taking first place in the competition, their fervor predictably reached a fever pitch.
“Huh, I doubt that’s it.”
“Ryu’s already proven his abilities…”
“…”
Cain, ignoring Anes and Marie’s words, slammed the door shut and stormed out of the lecture room.
Outside the lecture room, the hallways were packed with students who had come out when the feed cut off.
“d*mn it.”
Cain was dissatisfied with everything.
“It’ll be fine. Professor Cassis is there, after all.”
“That’s… true.”
“Come on. Since the broadcast was suddenly cut, professors responsible for the students should return to their respective buildings and inform everyone. The students are probably confused.”
“…”
Amillion couldn’t comprehend the vice chancellor’s response.
Even if every professor rushed to the dungeon immediately, it wouldn’t be enough. And yet, the vice chancellor appeared utterly unfazed.
‘Even though the undead were dealt with…’
The massive d*ath Knight that appeared before two third-year students.
Frankly, Amillion thought it wouldn’t be surprising if there had been casualties.
A d*ath Knight that even Garet and Berte, the third-year aces, couldn’t handle, appeared in front of first-year students.
However, events unfolded completely differently from expectations.
Completely different, in fact.
Ryu vanquished the d*ath Knight after handling the group of ghouls.
More specifically, he stomped on it.
He simply crushed the body that even Bernstein’s blue flames couldn’t damage with his foot.
When that scene aired live, silence filled the meeting room where the professors had gathered.
For a moment, all they could do was stare dumbfounded at Ryu.
Once Ryu had dealt with the d*ath Knight, the tense atmosphere in the meeting room eased significantly.
Based on the video footage, there had been no casualties, and there seemed to be no more undead around.
Chancellor Landgar, however, suggested they simply monitor the first-years’ actions, much to Amillion’s bewilderment.
Despite his confusion, no one dared to contradict the vice chancellor.
As the first-years continued to move forward, Amillion watched anxiously.
Fortunately, no more incidents occurred.
Finally, when the first-years reached the finish line and everything seemed to be over, the broadcast cut off again.
Still, the vice chancellor calmly suggested they check on the other students first, as if it were no big deal.
Amillion bit her lip, thinking that if the chancellor had been present, the response would have been different.
‘Something feels off.’
“And, Professor Karen, could you come talk to me for a moment?”
The vice chancellor spoke as if concluding the situation.
Perhaps because the highest-ranking person present was handling everything so calmly, the professors began leaving the meeting room one by one.
As if the earlier undead incident were merely a trivial event.
Amillion observed Professor Karen, who had overseen the dungeon’s creation, explaining something enthusiastically to the vice chancellor.
“Urgh.”
Amillion felt the current situation was somehow wrong, but there was nothing she could do on her own.
She could only fervently hope that Professor Cassis, who had gone into the dungeon, would resolve everything and bring the students back safely.
Professor Cassius St. Claire, the target of someone’s fervent hopes, was earnestly inspecting the d*ath Knight half-buried in the ground.
“This is real.”
After escorting Garet and Berte to the dungeon’s entrance and returning inside to find the first-years, Cassius discovered that the d*ath Knight had already been dealt with.
And not by Garet or Berte, but by the first-years.
Cassius regretfully thought he might have overestimated the situation when watching the video.
At the time, he’d felt an alarming sense of danger.
“Apparently, it was well within the students’ capability to handle.”
According to Garet’s account, Ryu, the first-year top student, had handled it alone.
Though Cassius initially thought it was a joke, seeing the serious expression on Garet’s face, he had no choice but to believe it.
“Hmm.”
Cassius pulled the d*ath Knight’s body out of the ground and picked up its discarded sword.
It was heavier than it looked.
‘This guy was casually swinging this thing around with one hand.’
No matter how much he thought about it, Cassius found it hard to believe that a first-year had dealt with this alone.
He assumed that Garet had probably helped out quite a bit.
“There’s no way undead could spontaneously appear here. There must have been some outside interference.”
Cassius planted the d*ath Knight’s sword into the ground and glanced around warily.
The area wasn’t just littered with the d*ath Knight’s corpse but also with countless beheaded ghouls.
The scene looked nothing like an internal academy event.
Rather, it closely resembled landscapes he’d seen in the northern continent.
Clearly, these weren’t artificial creations for the test.
They were genuine undead.
Not something created artificially for the academy’s event.
There was no way undead could naturally appear in the academy’s test dungeon after all.
weren’t they creatures derived from black magic?
With black magicians supposedly eradicated from the continent, their natural appearance was implausible.
In fact, their mere existence, in any form, was implausible.
“Regardless, how far have they gone?”
Though investigating the situation was important, there was something else he needed to do first.
He had to go find the first-years.
According to Garet and Berte, the first-years were heading toward the finish line.
When he questioned if that was sensible given the undead situation, they said they thought it was part of the test.
Cassius, too baffled to respond, had no choice but to accept it.
He had to go look for them.
“Elaine…”
Thinking about seeing his younger sister, Cassius felt a bit embarrassed.
Of course, it wasn’t like he had rushed into the dungeon without thinking because of Elaine, but her presence wasn’t completely irrelevant either.
Though their relationship wasn’t particularly warm, Elaine was still his bl**d-related younger sister.
“Hem.”
As Cassius cleared his throat unnecessarily and prepared to move again, he sensed something eerie.
Sizzling…
A chilling sensation came from deep within the dungeon.
Zap…
Cassius frowned and started running inside the dungeon.
For some reason, he felt uneasy.
‘There shouldn’t have been any harm coming to the students.’
Zap…
Cassius sprinted at an almost flying pace, his feet pounding against the ground.
