Second Semester Finals (2)
The moment the dungeon gates opened in the early morning, Arthur marched inside and began pouring out his grievances against Lucy with tremendous enthusiasm.
That lunatic!
How many times had he told her not to set the difficulty based on herself? What in the world was this?! The very first opponent he encountered after entering the dungeon — why was it so absurdly strong?!
He'd sensed something was off from the moment the first soldier appeared, but the knight waiting at the end of the room went far beyond the pale. This wasn't merely the level of a working professional knight — this was a monster!
"Your Highness!"
"I know!"
Twisting his body to slip past the knight's descending blade, Arthur slammed a prepared fire spell straight into the knight's face. The magic detonated with a thunderous roar, and grey smoke bloomed upward. He'd cast the spell with the intent of blasting the man's face off, so Arthur assumed it must have dealt at least some damage — but his expectations were utterly betrayed. Charging through the grey haze, the knight's face was so pristine that Arthur doubted whether the magic had hit him at all.
"Damn it!"
As the knight bore down on him, Arthur lightened his frame with wind magic and evaded the blade. Blocking had never been an option to begin with — the gap in raw strength between the knight and Arthur was vast enough that a half-hearted defense would have led straight to death.
Just as the beleaguered Arthur was gritting his teeth, Frey appeared behind the knight and lunged for his throat. Bolstered by Phoebe's buffs, Frey was like a beast cloaked in wind — even a knight with overwhelming stats could not simply ignore her sword. The knight took a step back to answer her attack, buying Arthur the breathing room to steady himself.
"Joy! Not yet?!"
"Almost done! ...Casting finished!"
"Good! Frey!"
"Got it!"
Having answered in the affirmative, Frey quickly layered aura over her blade and unleashed the single most powerful strike she could muster.
CRAAANG! The sudden burst of a killing blow startled even the knight. Glaring up from beneath his helm, the knight hastily raised his sword and managed to block Frey's strike — but in doing so, he lost the margin to deal with what came flying in behind it.
"Burn!"
A crimson magic circle etched itself into the ground at the knight's feet, and from its center, scarlet flames erupted to swallow him whole.
"Ghhk!"
From the heat of a forge fire hot enough to melt iron, a pained groan finally escaped the stoic knight's lips. Had an ordinary human been inside that inferno, they would already have been devoured by the flames and reduced to ash — but the knight was no ordinary human. Before long, he seemed to acclimate to the fire's heat, and with his teeth clenched, he swung his sword and cleaved the magic circle in two.
The flames scattered, and the knight reappeared, breathing hard.
"So that still wasn't enough," Arthur muttered, clicking his tongue as he furrowed his brow and steadied his blade. At that moment, the knight chuckled beneath his helm.
"Well fought. You have passed the trial. Proceed through the gate ahead."
After explaining this, the knight sheathed his sword and vanished like a mirage. One by one, every knight that had filled the training grounds melted away in his wake.
"I feel like I'm going to die."
Perhaps it was her way of declaring the danger truly past — Frey, who had been on the front line mere moments ago, dropped to the floor without a shred of hesitation.
"Frey Kent. Do not lower your guard." Perhaps her display displeased him — Arthur frowned and chided her, but Frey, plugging her ears as if she couldn't hear a word, showed no intention of getting up.
"Hey. Until Joy finishes confirming—"
"It's all right, Your Highness. I just finished checking. This area is safe now."
"See? It's safe, Your Highness."
"...Tch." Clicking his tongue lightly, Arthur sheathed his sword and sank to the ground with a long sigh.
"Since there was no telling where to aim, the proposal to strike the entire suit of armor proved valid. Well done. Joy."
"It wasn't my idea, Your Highness — it was Phoebe's. All I did was put her suggestion into action."
"No. Without your magic, it could never have been executed at all."
"Oh... you think so?"
"Indeed. Joy. The credit is largely yours."
"Right! Your fire magic was incredible — so hot!"
As the other three showered her with praise in turn, Joy hurriedly drew a fan from her sleeve and covered her mouth. She apparently disliked letting her loose, unguarded smile show. What she hadn't anticipated, however, was that as the smile bloomed, her eyes softened along with it.
Arthur gazed at Joy's face with a fond warmth, then soon let out a light laugh and checked the clock. They had barely cleared the first room, and already the time for the first exam was drawing near.
"Lucy Alrn. What in the world was that girl thinking, building a dungeon of this difficulty?"
Even with the four most capable first-years in all of Soul Academy gathered together, clearing the very first room had required genuine effort. Which meant most students would fail in this space and be thrown out of the dungeon entirely.
"The dungeon studies professors are no better. If Lucy Alrn runs wild, they should be reining her in from behind — what are they doing egging her on with 'well done, well done'?"
If the first room was already this bad, how brutal would the difficulty grow deeper in? No wonder the dungeon had been kept open for the entire duration of finals. Without that much time granted, no one could even attempt a proper clearance.
Listening quietly to Arthur's grumbling beside him, Phoebe soothed him with a smile and her characteristic gentle voice. "It's not all bad, though. At this difficulty, even the Academy's upperclassmen will be put through the wringer."
"...True enough. If even a first-year exam is this hard, what kind of monsters must the upper years be facing?"
This was a knight that Frey Kent and the Saintess herself, even with her support, had struggled against. The opponents awaiting the upperclassmen would be far more difficult still — could an average sophomore or junior possibly handle him?
...My heart goes out to them, truly.
"Your Highness."
"What is it, Joy?"
"Will you press onward from here? Or shall we turn back?"
"...Hmm." Given how long the first room had taken them, conquering the second before their other exams began would be impossible.
"We're better off pressing on, I suppose." Still, moving forward was the right call. With the dungeon configured to this absurd difficulty, its conquest was bound to become a war of attrition. So even if they failed, it would serve them better to burn the next room into memory and search for clues toward clearing it.
"Then we should get moving. If we dawdle any longer, I fear we won't make it to our other exams."
"Agreed. Frey. Get up. It's time to move."
"Ehhh."
After forcibly hauling the complaining Frey to her feet, they passed into the next room — and ten minutes later, Arthur was spat back out just before the fangs of a giant wolf could tear into him. Confirming that his neck was still intact, he bowed his head with a sigh of relief.
"...Lucy Alrnnnnn!"
And then he made a silent vow. Should he succeed in conquering this dungeon, he would carve a nightmare into Lucy Alrn's memory so terrible she would never forget it as long as she lived.
Lunchtime on the day of the finals.
Having finished the Kingdom History exam, I was strolling toward the dungeon studies exam hall, humming a little tune.
I mean, when Grandpa refused to cooperate, I genuinely considered just guessing on every single answer, you know? Besides, this exam didn't really matter whether I aced it or bombed it.
The only penalty for failing was losing out on the Academy's reward — and that reward didn't matter much to me right now.
But when I imagined the catastrophe of failing by sheer bad luck, I found I absolutely could not slack off.
Joy getting all high and mighty about it? Fine. That's cute. I can just smile and pat her head — "There, there. Great job!" — and let it slide.
Arthur puffing up his shoulders is the same. Annoying, sure, but that much falls within acceptable range. If it gets too grating, I'll simply crank the training intensity up a notch from where it already is.
But Frey flatly calling me a scrub with that blank expression on her face? That I absolutely could not forgive. If that girl ever smirked at me with scorn, I might genuinely cave her skull in with my divinity-laden mace.
Having resolved to prepare for the exams for the sake of Frey's safety rather than my own, I went to find Slave #2 — Avery, who had dirt on her — and asked about the scope of the various exams. I didn't actually expect our pathetic little scrub to know every exam's scope; my plan was to order her to research it all diligently and present it to me.
But it turned out she knew every single exam scope I asked about, cold.
Why does someone styled after a nasty villainess study so hard? It genuinely pisses me off. At this rate, I'm the only lazy, bottom-tier human among us, aren't I?
'Why are you angry when I answered properly?! ...No. It was my fault. I'm sorry. I beg your forgiveness.'
Anyway, based on the exam scopes Avery had given me, I studied... no, I didn't. I attempted perfectly legitimate cheating using the Log Function instead.
How can cheating possibly be legitimate?
Of course it can. As long as you don't get caught, it's legitimate. It's common sense. If you didn't know that, learn it now.
In any case, having successfully completed the first exam with the Log Function, I was now heading to the dungeon studies exam grounds to check how people were reacting to the dungeon I'd created. Given that the dungeon studies professors and department TAs had united in lavish praise, surely the Academy's students would be marveling at it too, right?
Hey, hey! How did anyone even conceive of a dungeon like this?!
The Alrn heiress is goooooood!
I thought she was only good at clearing them, but she's a master builder too?! lololol
I stepped into the dungeon entrance area expecting exactly those reactions — but the scene that greeted me was nothing like my expectations.
"How many times did I even die in there?"
"I've tried over twenty times and I still haven't cleared the first room."
"What was going through her head when she made this thing?"
The place was a kind of hellscape, painted in despair and resentment.
"The second room is even worse. Ah, dammit. My hands are still shaking."
"My friend wet herself and went to change clothes."
"Is that you?"
"I said it was my FRIEND!"
"Haah... I lost track of time clearing the dungeon and missed my exam. I want to die."
Among the people slumped on the ground lamenting, there wasn't a single whisper of admiration for the dungeon. What steeped their voices was pure, undiluted hatred — nothing but hatred.
"I seriously want to murder whoever built this dungeon."
"Wasn't it supposed to be the Alrn heiress or something?"
"You believe that? The professors probably made it themselves and she just got a spoonful of the credit."
"So the head I should be smashing belongs to the dungeon studies professors, then."
"For real?"
"I would, if I could."
The atmosphere suggested that if the dungeon's creator showed their face, they'd be strung up from a tree and burned at the stake — so I quietly retraced my steps. It was obvious what would happen to me if I struck up a conversation and let something slip.
...
Let's refrain from wandering around at night for the time being.