<367 - Another Daily Quest: Secrets of the Dungeon>
The Enhanced Assignment Box, which I accidentally strengthened while enhancing a mob’s armor, was surprisingly useful for stealth.
With a +5 enhancement, if it only had the “Dispensing Detection” function, it would make sense!
“Huh? Why is there a box in a place like this…”
“Idiot, don’t touch it!”
Caught off guard, the students who bumped into the box, which had accidentally fallen upside down, showed curiosity but were deterred by each other’s warnings from hastily reaching out.
“What if Contract Scammer Velocasio left a contract disguised as a box here?”
“Gasp! I never imagined such a cruel method existed! Have you ever been caught?”
“No. I saw a second-year student tear down a notice hanging on the wall, and then the contract gleamed and vanished with a scream!”
“Crazy…”
That wasn’t Velocasio’s doing, but the Student Council’s.
“That wasn’t Velocasio; it was the Student Council!”
As I popped my head out over the box and shared my thoughts plainly, the students screamed, “Aaaaah!”
“A person came out of the box!!”
“Oh my gosh. It’s Oknodie! They might force us into a contract. Run!!”
“…”
In an instant, the judgment and survival instincts of my classmates, as they screamed and fled, made it clear they wouldn’t survive until the second year.
See you again next year!
[You startled a passing first-year by popping out of a surprise box.]
[Stealth Experience +1]
[Fright Experience +1]
[Due to your perfect stealth, a student who mistook the surprise box for assignment submission received weekly assignment tasks.]
[Trick Experience +1]
[A cleaning maid passing by noticed that a lot of assignments had been submitted today and proudly transported the submission box to the designated area.]
[Trick Experience +1]
[The assignment meant for Titosso was accidentally stashed in their bag while passing by.]
[Hide Experience +1]
[Good Kid Experience +1]
Having passed by the first years, I diligently worked on my hiding experience again today.
Feeling satisfied with the function work I do during any leftover time after class, I was trying to sneak out when I spotted Jonnas walking down the hallway.
Wow, Jonnas!
I jumped up from the box and hurried to run over but hesitated.
Come to think of it…
Jonnas was a great partner for function work.
It hasn’t been long since they became a professor.
Experience points would be generous since they’re at professor level.
Besides, they hadn’t taken much professor-level classes either.
They probably didn’t have the dangerous idea of trying to recruit a talented student as a graduate student.
“Oh my. Do you want to throw our experiment team into the mix? We’d love to have you! If a reliable slave comes in to help with compensation every time, our lab resources will flourish.”
“Oh good, I had no practice partners for my newly developed High-Speed Blade Hyper Tempest. Just don’t push it too hard, alright? If you dodge my sword a thousand times, I’ll let you go.”
“Students are really sturdy… Ahh.”
Just recalling their faces brings back painful memories!
Compared to that, Jonnas is a safe asset who won’t be a hassle by experiencing function work against a professor!
“Huh? Why is their route like this?”
Thinking of the usual route professors take from their offices to classrooms, and from there to dormitories, Jonnas’s path was exceptionally strange.
They stopped by the second-year biology lab, checked the end of the third-year exclusive hallway, passed through the fourth-year passage, visited the faculty lounge, and then headed toward the training building.
Wandering around as though they were on a tour of the academy, there was no sign of anticipation or hesitation about the unfamiliar environment in that step.
Every time they headed somewhere, they seemed to check off boxes on the wall systematically.
At the moment they entered the hidden secret passage, I flinched in surprise.
“Aah! That’s a daily quest dungeon only players know about!?”
Somehow, the abandoned laboratory, which was stacked with high-value materials and guarded by golems, turned out to be a daily quest dungeon.
I used to pop in and out of there to collect automatically respawned lab resources or target golem defeat experience.
Remembering the old days, I was sneaking around with the box on when someone bumped into me from the air.
“Ow.”
“!?”
“Gaaah! Why are you pulling out a dagger so dangerously?”
Out of thin air, appearing like paint spreading, was Jiang, the owner of advanced stealth skills.
It’s really impressive that they showcased such decent stealth without any treasures.
Perhaps they were upset about something, wearing a mask, but as usual, they quickly relaxed while chatting.
“Do you want to go in together?”
“Sure.”
As I took off the suffocating mask and entered the daily quest dungeon together, I noticed that the security devices this time were surprisingly of much higher difficulty than usual.
Not ‘abandoned’—the lights inside the lab turned on as if ‘the owner had returned,’ with magical reactions reactivating everywhere.
“Do you think we’ll get caught?”
“Seems like it! Is Jonnas familiar with this place? Must be some kind of secret hideout of the foundation!”
So, while I’ve been doing daily quests, I’d been robbing from the foundation’s hideout!
I felt grateful to Papa all of a sudden.
Even when he wasn’t there, he provided me with the necessary resources, a sign that the foundation is a fantastic organization.
“It’s a laser sensor. Do you think you can get past it?”
In the blink of an eye, Jiang leaped over the laser sensor with the nimbleness of an assassin.
With their trained acrobatics, they passed through lightly, and Jiang nodded, saying they expected I would keep up.
“Ah, it’s a mimic stair trap!”
“…I recognize that since I’ve been through enough of Professor Bronze’s treasure vault’s underground stairs. I can spot that.”
While I dodged the mimic stairs first, Jiang leapt up lightly and landed right beside me.
I was curious if they had reviewed well, so I jumped over several non-mimic stairs, and luckily, they sidestepped them correctly without following my rhythm.
Continuing to trade moves, dodging treasure magic and traps, we finally reached the door beyond the abandoned lab passage.
A sizeable golem was guarding the door.
In the game, these goliaths would stomp towards you with roars at the slightest glance, but this time, oddly enough, they gazed at us blankly.
“Oknodie.”
“Why?”
“They have stealth detection.”
Jiang couldn’t hide their perplexity as they met the golem’s gaze.
It seemed they didn’t want to engage in combat in a space where Jonnas was clearly inside.
It was natural to refuse, as function work needs to go unnoticed for a long time to be effective!
“What’s weirder is that new traps have appeared where there weren’t any before, yet why aren’t the golems attacking?”
“New ones appearing means… Have you come here before?”
“Yeah! Assigned preparation items sometimes pop up.”
“How stingy.”
“Hehe, isn’t it practical?”
“That’s not a compliment.”
But the golems are genuinely strange.
They were clearly supposed to be aggressive mobs, so why aren’t they charging at us?
Since my stealth is already blown, I casually walked up and poked one with my finger.
A voice emanated from the golem’s sound system.
“Beep. Unauthorized guest not registered on the official list. This is a dangerous facility; please turn back.”
“Wow. A warning message, huh?”
“How was it before?”
“As soon as we made eye contact, it kicked us out!”
“…I don’t want to deal with such golems.”
Unlike the golems I fought in Professor Plato’s Advanced Physical Training exam during the midterm, the golem guarding this lab looked more human-like and had a sharper appearance.
Its combat power was surely way better than tossing any stone and turning it into a stone golem.
“If we enter, will they attack?”
“Beep. Guests under 150cm tall will not be attacked, according to previously entered special rules by the last user.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Beep. You do not have the right to hear the answer to that question.”
“Golems usually don’t beep, so why are you talking like that?”
“Beep. I am imitating human sound words to buy time during computational processing.”
I remember those previous instances where it only charged, and there was no response verbally.
Every time I discover unknown settings, I feel excited even though we’re in the same academy.
Was that how Dragon Principal felt administrating this place for hundreds of years?
“Who was the last user?”
“Beep. [Data Censorship], [Data Censorship], [Data Censorship] and three others.”
“They wiped the records.”
Puffing up my cheeks at Jiang’s remark.
“Such a cheat.”
“Don’t blame me; it’s just memorization for me.”
Jiang casually pulled out a shuriken, looking up at the golem as if estimating its value.
“Should I stab it?”
“Let’s just go in!”
If it says we can enter, there’s no need to fight stubbornly.
As I kicked the lab door open, I saw Jonnas’s backside, turned away, gazing at the experiment table with arms crossed.
‘What do I do?’
‘…Close it.’
An exchanged voice through our glances!
As I tried to quietly shut the door again, Jonnas spoke up.
“I’ve disabled the soundproofing of the lab as you entered. In the future, even in familiar places, please check the security device changes more meticulously.”
[You were caught by Jonnas’s trap, and the stealth game has been exposed.]
[Function experience points will not increase.]
“Huh? I got caught.”
Though I didn’t acquire what I wanted, unlike Jiang, who turned tense, my curiosity had only increased.
“How do you know about this place?”
“It’s because I built this hideout.”
“It’s you, Jonnas?”
“I was also once a student at the Gift Academy. Now I guess I should call myself a graduate.”
“A graduate really existed in this crazy academy…?”
While Jiang was aghast, my expression showed the reason I could understand Jonnas’s skills was a mix of disbelief and acceptance.
