Chapter 148 — While He Was Away

1

A damp, musty smell filled the air, tickling the noses of the three people.

Manus quietly stared at the entrance of the dungeon, checking the message that had appeared before him.

Just when things had been quiet, interference had started again.

Where did the boundaries lie? He had no way of knowing.

Was it Aiden? Or was it Elena?

Who would play a pivotal role in his story?

“Ugh, I’ve got a headache. Are you both okay?”

“It’s something I just can’t get used to. What about you, Manus?”

“I’m fine.”

Manus spoke after a brief pause.

For now, he had to set aside his concerns and focus on the task at hand.

The three of them quietly stepped into the dungeon.

He wondered what kinds of monsters and traps awaited them.

By now, he had become quite accustomed to fighting demons, so dealing with monsters wouldn’t be too difficult.

Fighting monsters was more dangerous than fighting demons.

He had cataloged every type of demon and their weaknesses in his mind, but the same couldn’t be said for monsters.

“Let’s go.”

At Aiden’s prompting, the three of them entered the dark dungeon.

Once they disappeared into the darkness, the door to the dungeon closed behind them.

Moving forward in complete darkness.

It was a fundamental skill needed to explore a dungeon.

[Pillar — Lux]

A bright white sphere appeared, illuminating the path ahead.

Manus looked at the walls and felt a strange sensation.

The sticky substance flowing down them resembled…

“—Blood?”

“Blood, you say?”

Elena reacted first to Manus’s words, and Aiden jumped in surprise.

A sticky, red liquid was oozing down the walls of the dungeon.

Elena cautiously touched the substance with her finger and examined it.

“It’s a Blood Slime nest.”

“Blood Slime? Isn’t that… really dangerous?”

“At our level, yes.”

What was the academy thinking?

A Blood Slime nest was a place even seasoned knights and mage towers avoided.

A dungeon that would require at least a 5th-Class mage or an Aura Expert-level knight.

And they had thrown just three students, without any backup, into such a place?

Aiden let out a deep sigh.

The academy was likely testing how they would overcome this challenge.

They had learned about Blood Slimes in class.

The methods to defeat them were clearly described.

“We should move forward. Standing here won’t do us any good.”

“Alright, lead the way, Aiden.”

Aiden nodded and carefully stepped forward, shield in hand.

As he walked, Manus couldn’t shake a nagging suspicion.

In the original work, there was never a dungeon of this level.

An ominous thought suddenly struck him.

They weren’t the only ones who would come to the artificial island.

Tomorrow, the second years, and the day after, the first years would come.

‘This doesn’t feel right. If this is part of the DLC story…’

A situation where no one could offer help, a completely isolated environment.

They wouldn’t die easily, but the anxiety gnawed at him.

Would the less experienced students be able to handle this?

Was this how a parent felt when sending their child out into the world?

There was only one answer.

Clear the dungeon as quickly as possible and be prepared to step in if something urgent happened.

‘While I should trust the academy professors—’

Still, stepping in himself gave him the most peace of mind.

Manus’s blue eyes gleamed sharply.

Aiden and Elena, sensing the intense mana swirling around Manus, turned to look back at him.

What they saw was a Manus whose gaze was more terrifying than any monster.

In that moment, both of them instinctively felt the difference in their status.

No matter how skilled they were, they realized they were still prey in the end.

“Uh, let’s keep going.”

Elena, staring blankly at Manus’s expression, finally spoke, and with that, the long and grueling dungeon exploration began.

In the distance, the sound of a slime crawling could be heard.

Soon, the sounds of battle echoed through the dungeon.

2

The professors watched as the students arrived on the artificial island.

They noticed something strange.

The level of the monsters was unusually high.

Professor Trail frowned.

This was far beyond what the students could handle, wasn’t it?

While it was important to have a range of difficulty for a fair evaluation, if the challenge was too difficult, it would become a different matter.

“Who was responsible for setting up the dungeon magic this time?”

“It was me.”

The one who answered was Professor Kaiser.

She, along with a group of assistants and fellow professors, had worked together to create the magic circle.

However, looking at the results, Trail thought it was excessive.

While it was generally a rule not to interfere in a colleague’s work, it wasn’t out of line to raise a question.

His tone was laced with concern as he asked.

He needed to know if it was an accident or done intentionally.

“The group Manus is in was sent to a Blood Slime nest. The group Santo Leo is in… they were sent to a standard ogre village.”

“…What? That can’t be—”

Professor Kaiser’s eyes widened in shock.

She had prepared everything at the “appropriate level.”

She had spent several nights, using magic to fend off fatigue, making sure everything was perfect.

She hurriedly checked the footage from inside each dungeon.

Manus’s group, 3-D.

With all her accumulated knowledge, there was no way she wouldn’t recognize a Blood Slime nest.

She was sure everything was fine just this morning.

“This… this can’t be happening.”

“What happened?”

Trail asked, genuinely worried.

Professor Kaiser shook her head in disbelief.

Sure, even the best could make mistakes, and there could be some errors.

The magic affected the entire island, so a few dungeons could vary in difficulty due to an error.

But how likely was it that the entire set of dungeons would be filled with overwhelming challenges?

Unless someone had intentionally tampered with the magic circle, or unless there had been a major mistake in the planning or execution, this couldn’t have happened.

“I must have made a mistake.”

“Is it alright to continue with this? The second years will enter tomorrow, and the first years the day after.”

“Hmmm…”

Professor Kaiser rested her chin in her hand, deep in thought.

There were two options.

One was to halt the evaluation immediately and completely overhaul the magic circle.

The other was to proceed and take the difficulty into account when grading.

Since the dungeons were all artificially created, they could be controlled at any time.

Even if there was a mistake, Mythos Academy was known for gathering the most talented individuals from across the continent.

There might be some trauma, but leaving it as is wouldn’t be the worst thing if this were a real training scenario.

“I think it might be better to let things play out as they are.”

“Professor Todd?”

“It’s in real situations that you face countless variables. Those who can perfectly control those variables will become true warriors.”

It was an unexpected response.

Professor Todd, who was known for being nearly obsessive about eliminating errors, was now advocating for letting Kaiser’s mistake slide.

Professor Jennifer, who had been watching with her arms crossed, also spoke up with a sly smile.

“It does sound like it’ll be fun. I’m curious to see how the little ones I’ve been training will handle this… I’m in favor.”

“…But if we’re not careful, there could be casualties.”

“Are you saying you don’t trust the academy’s safety measures, or us?”

Jennifer’s playful remark was a challenge to the pride of the entire faculty.

This system was something they had spent countless hours developing.

It wasn’t something they had just thrown together overnight; it was a masterpiece designed to handle any situation.

If they couldn’t protect the students’ lives in a scenario like this, all their efforts would have been in vain.

Professors Jennifer, Chandler, and others who had been at the academy for a long time nodded in agreement.

Professor Trail let out a small sigh.

‘I hope I can trust their confidence.’

Professor Jennifer lightly patted his shoulder.

She reassured him that they could pull the students out at any time if things got dangerous.

Trail reluctantly nodded.

“If anything happens, we must stop immediately.”

“Of course. Though I doubt that situation will arise.”

The decision was made.

The students would be tested on how they responded under extreme conditions.

It was a minor deviation, but it wasn’t of major concern.

In fact, it aligned well with the philosophy of Mythos Academy.

“I’m going to check the magic circle.”

“Please do.”

But Professor Kaiser had to move to correct her mistake.

Even if the system they created was perfect, it was all for naught if the person using it was inexperienced.

Doubt clouded her expression.

This was something that hadn’t happened in all the years of evaluations she’d conducted.

Her accomplishments and track record were too vast for her to simply dismiss this as a mistake.

It was too important and something she had invested a great deal of effort into.

“This is strange, really strange—”

She quickened her pace, her face wrinkled in concern.

Then, she spotted someone in the distance and called out without thinking.

A professor always needed an assistant by their side.

“Assistant? Hurry and come with me.”

“Ah, but I was just asked to deliver—”

“I’ll take care of that, so hurry.”

“…Yes.”

The assistant who had always been by her side, Chesthip.

Come to think of it, she had a lot to teach him as well.

She had been too busy to pay proper attention to him recently.

Professor Kaiser believed that the more she pushed her assistants, the more knowledge she imparted to them.

Knowledge wasn’t something that could be learned just from books; it also came from hands-on experience and understanding the atmosphere on the ground.

At least, that was her philosophy, and she was training her assistants accordingly.

“Someone must have made a mistake, and it’s become quite the headache. Let’s go check it out together.”

“The magic circle?”

“Yes.”

“I recall that it was completed without any issues…”

Professor Kaiser nodded.

That was exactly why it was so strange.

She had checked the magic circle several times, so for it to be malfunctioning on the day of the evaluation didn’t make sense.

The only explanation was that some external factor had interfered.

In the worst-case scenario…

‘No, surely no one at the academy would—’

Maybe someone with a malicious intent had tampered with it.

Doubt was the source of endless negative energy.

Professor Kaiser’s motto in life was to stay as positive as possible.

The world looked better through rose-colored glasses, after all.

Some might have criticized her for being naive, but that mindset had carried her all the way to her current position.

Professor Kaiser arrived at the heavily guarded area and spoke up without hesitation.

“I need to go inside for a moment.”

“What’s the matter?”

The guards, surprised, asked her.

These guards were mercenaries hired by the chairman, one of the most powerful groups on the continent.

The place where the magic circle was controlled was extremely important.

A single mistake could blow up the entire artificial island.

The guards blocked her way, but Kaiser gently pushed them aside as she spoke.

“There’s an issue with the magic circle. I’m responsible for it, so I need to check.”

So step aside, now.

Her fierce gaze pierced through the guards.

And then, Pandora’s box was opened.

–TL Notes–
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