Chapter 33
“This way… I think we need to turn left here.”
Cynthia turned left immediately, without arguing.
As expected, the Ghoul and the Death Knight that ambushed the third-years earlier must have been just surprise trials.
Since then, everything had been exactly as the map Addy gave me.
Not just the paths, but even the timing and appearance of monsters and traps matched perfectly.
“We’re almost there now.”
“…How do you know that?”
“My instincts are telling me.”
Elaine’s sharp question was met with my vague answer as I reviewed the dungeon layout in my head.
We’d just dealt with that disgusting spider earlier, so we were nearing the end.
“Just a little further from here, there should be a plaza, and that’s where it ends.”
“…And how do you keep knowing this? I’ve been asking repeatedly.”
“Let’s just move past the small stuff.”
“That’s not small stuff at all—!”
“Oh! This is it!”
I intentionally cut Elaine off and spoke in an exaggerated tone.
Finally, the wide-open area from my memory came into view.
Cynthia lowered her bow and cautiously moved forward, confirming that no one was there.
Since the Death Knight encounter, both Cynthia and Emily had been almost completely silent.
It seemed the lingering shock of seeing Undead was greater than I had anticipated.
“Oh wow, there’s the Warp Portal in the center!”
“It’s finally over…”
Emily muttered to herself from the back.
She’d been in a mentally fragile state ever since the Ghoul ambush.
Yes, for someone like Emily, I needed to secure first place and get us out of here quickly.
“Alright, once we secure first place, we can head out into the daylight. We are in first, right?”
“It seems that way.”
Elaine was the only one who responded, as always, neither eager nor reluctant.
After confirming that there was no one else in the area, Elaine sheathed her sword and walked toward the center.
‘No one is here.’
Just in case, I extended my senses to confirm, but fortunately, I couldn’t detect any traces of other life forms.
No second-years, no apparent enemies—nothing.
That meant we were in first place.
“Hehe, I’ll finally learn magic.”
“Magic…?”
“Ah, I mean, after the competition ends, we’ll start learning magic in class.”
“That’s how it’s always been, though…”
Hearing my mutter, Emily perked up slightly, as if excited about the idea of leaving soon.
The fact that she was reacting to my idle chatter seemed like a good sign.
“But nothing’s happening yet.”
“Hmm, do we need to wait a bit? Maybe the professors will show up to congratulate us or something?”
“I doubt that’s the case…”
“With this level of scale, you’d think they’d at least do something like that.”
Wondering if all team members needed to stand on the Warp Portal for it to activate, I gathered everyone in the center. But nothing happened.
Come to think of it, the map showed that this was a wide area, but seeing it in person, it was massive.
“What should we do now?”
“We’re supposed to reach the finish line first—that’s the rule. And this is definitely the finish line…”
I tried infusing mana into the portal, stabbing my sword into the floor, and doing anything else that seemed plausible.
But nothing worked.
Just as I started doubting whether I had misremembered the map—
Whoooosh—Crackle—
‘Huh?’
A breeze blew through, even though we were in a cave where no wind should exist.
At the same time, I heard the sound of something cracking and breaking around us.
“What was that?”
“Excuse me? What’s wrong?”
“Didn’t you feel that? The wind and the cracking sounds?”
“No?”
Apparently, I was the only one who felt it.
Elaine, Cynthia, and Emily all looked at me, confused.
Clack—Clack—Clack—
In contrast, everyone reacted to the sound that followed.
All four pairs of eyes turned toward the source.
Clack—Clack—
“Hoofbeats…?”
Cynthia spoke up for the first time in a while.
As I considered the sound, it indeed seemed to be the sound of hoofbeats.
Clack—Clack—
“Uh…”
Soon, the source of the sound emerged from the darkness.
Just as Cynthia said, the clacking was coming from a horse.
But it wasn’t an ordinary horse with muscular legs and a sturdy frame.
“Seriously?”
Instead, it was a skeletal horse, its body engulfed in green flames.
And atop it sat a figure.
Whoosh—
A knight, even larger than the Death Knight we had dealt with earlier.
This time, the figure wielded a lance instead of a sword.
No wonder the trial hadn’t ended yet.
“There’s still more?”
I couldn’t help but sigh.
***
‘Hehehe. Let’s see if you can handle this one.’
Nigel gazed at the screen showing the scene with a sinister grin.
On the screen was the Mounted Death Knight he had only recently managed to summon, radiating its grandeur.
A skeletal horse wreathed in green flames, and the lance-wielding knight upon it.
The academy fools should’ve seen that majestic sight for themselves.
“Tch.”
Nigel clicked his tongue in frustration, annoyed that he couldn’t showcase his glorious Mounted Death Knight to the academy fools.
The higher-ups had explicitly forbidden him from revealing it, so Nigel had no choice but to dismantle the magic that had been broadcasting the battle in real-time.
In other words, the only people who could see the Mounted Death Knight now were the four students facing it in the dungeon.
“Hehehehe.”
Nigel let out a sinister laugh as he stared intently at the black-haired student.
It was all because of him.
Defeating the Ghouls? Fine. That much was expected, given that even students could handle packs of Ghouls if they were skilled enough.
But the Death Knight? That was unexpected.
After the Ghouls had been wiped out, Nigel had deliberately sent the Death Knight toward the first-years, intending to deal with them all at once.
“Die, you insolent brat.”
Yet, the black-haired kid had mercilessly stomped the Death Knight into the ground.
Even though the Death Knight was designed to resurrect repeatedly until its hidden core was destroyed, it had been reduced to a pile of rubble.
It seemed the student didn’t even know the location of the core but had managed to destroy it through sheer brute force.
Watching the scene unfold in real time, Nigel had been on the verge of madness with rage.
Do they have any idea how much it cost to summon that single Death Knight?
Even though it was the most resource-efficient type of Death Knight, Nigel had never expected it to be destroyed so easily.
“Die! Just die!!! Hahaha!”
Nigel shouted in uncontrollable excitement.
He desperately wanted to kill the brat who had destroyed his precious Death Knight.
“I’ll use you as a sacrifice. Hehehe.”
Nigel began to think that the black-haired kid might actually be a better target than the heirs of the Six Great Houses he had originally aimed for.
He hadn’t expected much since the kid was a commoner, but his unexpected strength had piqued Nigel’s interest.
Even though his bloodline was inferior to that of the Six Great Houses, his sheer power might still prove useful in some way.
“Hehe, consider it an honor to serve as the foundation for the revolution.”
Nigel’s lips curled into a wicked grin.
Compared to an ordinary Death Knight, the Mounted Death Knight was several times stronger.
Not only was the knight itself incredibly powerful, but the skeletal horse, engulfed in green flames, was just as formidable.
Nigel had yet to deploy the Mounted Death Knight in battle, and he was eager to see its full potential.
Whoosh—
As if sensing Nigel’s thoughts, the horse wreathed in green flames began to gallop swiftly.
Its target? The students.
As the horse charged toward its target, the knight swung its lance in a wide arc.
Clang—
A sharp metallic sound rang out as the lance clashed with a blade.
Nigel couldn’t help but smile.
The black-haired kid had barely managed to block the lance but was sent flying far into the distance.
“He won’t stand a chance against this one’s power. Hehehe.”
Nigel, drunk on his summoning’s strength, smirked as he focused on the screen.
He looked like a madman.
Within the Nameless Organization—often referred to as “Moomyung” by its members—Nigel was quite notorious.
“The Mad Black Mage.”
It was a title Nigel had earned, filled with words he relished.
Whoooosh—
The Mounted Death Knight, having sent the black-haired student flying with a single strike, was preparing for its next attack.
“The knight and the horse move as one.”
Even in his excitement, Nigel analyzed the movements of the Mounted Death Knight.
While he couldn’t collect close-range combat data, he focused intently, knowing this was the first time he had successfully summoned and deployed the creature.
Just how powerful was the Mounted Death Knight, which required five times the sacrifices of a regular Death Knight?
“Originally, it wasn’t meant to be used on mere students.”
If things had gone according to plan, it would have been used to distract the professors within the academy.
“Yes! Run them down! Kill them all!”
Nigel shouted gleefully at the screen, where no one could hear him.
Whoosh—
The Mounted Death Knight quickly changed direction, now charging toward the blonde-haired student, Elaine Sinclair.
“That one would’ve been more valuable alive, but it can’t be helped.”
Nigel watched as Elaine drew her sword, confident she wouldn’t be able to block the attack.
Clang—
“Huh? What? How?”
The sharp metallic sound rang out, and for a moment, Nigel’s eyebrow twitched in frustration.
Just as he had predicted, Elaine couldn’t block the Death Knight’s attack.
But the black-haired kid had.
Somehow, the black-haired student had appeared in front of Elaine and intercepted the lance.
This time, he didn’t even get pushed back.
“Ughhh.”
Nigel’s anger flared even higher.
The fact that the black-haired brat had once again blocked the attack was infuriating.
At this point, the idea that the Mounted Death Knight might lose hadn’t even crossed Nigel’s mind.
He was simply annoyed by the persistent defiance of the black-haired student.
—
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