Chapter: 309
Kurtan, the Second Prince of the Ravbi family, was glaring at the entrance of the dungeon after being thrown out.
His brooding figure naturally evoked snickers from those who had entered the dungeon with him.
“Hey, Kurtan. Aren’t we the ones who should be angry? Why are you the one sulking?”
“Yeah, it’s your fault we failed.”
Despite the informal attitude towards the second son of the Duke family, Kurtan didn’t get angry. Instead, he slumped his massive shoulders.
“Ugh… Sorry. I thought it was the end, you know.”
“Haha! At least you realize it’s your fault.”
Kurtan was such a simpleton that it was hard to believe he belonged to a Duke’s family.
Among people who knew him, he was often called a Minotaur in human skin.
With an unbelievable massive build and overwhelming strength unmatched at the academy, it was hard to see him as anything but beastly.
However, coupled with his gentle demeanor akin to livestock, he surprisingly earned the affection of those around him despite his intimidating size.
Even after Kurtan made a blunder just before his party was about to pass through the third room of the dungeon exam, his companions weren’t too upset—his personality helped a lot with that.
“Was it really that frustrating?”
“Umm, extremely. It felt like tiptoeing through a room full of chicks.”
The third room was filled with countless golems.
These golems, looking like demons, weren’t as strong as the knights from the first room or the wolves from the second.
In fact, it was unfair to compare them; the golems were weak enough for even regular academy students to easily take down.
However, instead, they posed a different type of challenge compared to the previous two adversaries.
They required the party to defeat only the enemies marked with a specific sign.
Whenever an unmarked enemy was defeated, other golems began to grow stronger, transforming into monsters that were impossible to defeat at some point. Thus, reckless attacks weren’t allowed while tackling the third room.
To make matters worse, the golems knew how to distinguish and utilize the ones that shouldn’t fall.
They would willingly sacrifice themselves to protect the marked golems, and some would even charge in on purpose just to collapse.
Thanks to that, Kurtan’s party faced considerable difficulty in that room.
How could it not be a hassle when golems, eager to be smashed, were rushing at you, screaming for their own demise?
Still, maybe it was true that the strong is still strong.
After several trial-and-error attempts, Kurtan’s party became familiar with the third room and finally made it close to success.
Just when they only needed to defeat three remaining golems to clear the room, Kurtan, blinded by his thirst for victory, revealed his hidden strength.
He intended to smash all the remaining golems, including the three left, in a single strike to clear the third room.
“Who would have thought the other golems would try to protect the remaining ones by forming a wall?”
While the intention wasn’t bad, it didn’t yield good results.
Kurtan’s attack failed to wipe out the remaining golems, and thus, his party was expelled from the dungeon.
“Now that you’ve seriously messed up, you won’t do something like that again, right?”
“Of course. I can’t pull off another stupid stunt like that.”
“That’s settled then. Let’s have another go. This time, we’ll manage to conquer it.”
As the cheerful atmosphere surrounded Kurtan’s party, they prepared to re-enter the dungeon.
Then, an assistant professor for dungeon studies appeared at the test site.
“Everyone! Please look this way!”
As the assistant, using a sound amplification spell, shouted out, the students in the test area turned their heads.
Confirming that all eyes were on him, the assistant unfolded a notice and continued speaking.
“Starting today, those who wish may receive hints for the final dungeon exam! However, please be aware that receiving a hint will incur a penalty on your final exam scores, and you won’t be recognized as the first conquerors, so please think carefully!”
After that, the assistant added more explanations.
The penalties would apply to the entire party.
Those who read the hints would be under a silence magic—preventing them from sharing the information with others.
And the hint would only serve to assist, not lead directly to the answer.
Once the assistant finished his explanations, the students remained silent, sizing each other up.
Since they didn’t know whether the hints were worth receiving, no one took the plunge.
Amidst that tense air, a second-year party stepped forward first.
“Have you confirmed the penalties?”
“Yeah. We honestly aren’t interested in being the first conquerors anyway.”
“Then take this. The contents written on this paper will only be visible to you from the moment you unfold it.”
“Hopefully, it’s an outrageous hint~.”
As the second-year students unfolded the hints, all eyes locked onto them.
While sharing the content of the hint was impossible, they could observe the reactions of those who read it.
So, they simply had to gauge the value of the hinted information based on their expressions and decide whether to take the hint or not.
Standing among a crowd of self-absorbed students, the second-year party hummed a jaunty tune as they unfolded the hint, but before long, their expressions stiffened.
From the middle onwards, their brows furrowed, and they started spitting curses.
By the end, they ripped the hint paper apart and even went further to burn it to ashes.
Seeing that, other students thought, “So that hint must’ve been worthless. Glad we held back.” They deemed the second-years a bunch of fools.
However, the second-year party that had seen the hint appeared unbothered by the murmurs and targeted the entrance of the dungeon with reddened faces.
“Seriously, this is crap.”
“Ugh. Damn. I feel like this is the first time in ages I’ve been this furious.”
“Why not show that you’re not a coward?”
“Let’s see who’s more pathetic—them or us.”
After swearing like that, the second-year party entered the dungeon, and not long after, their names climbed dramatically on the leaderboard.
Those who hadn’t even passed the first room now successfully tackled it the moment they read the hint.
“…What the heck was written in that hint?”
“Should I get the hint too?”
“If they passed, then I can too.”
Delightedly, those who unfolded the hints soon understood why the second-year students were cursing like mad.
‘…I’ll stop here for today♡ Anyway, you pathetic scrubs will be back tomorrow for hints, right?♡ Puhahaha! Imagining that you’d come back for hints while knowing you’d be insulted is just hilarious♡ Losers!♡ See you next time~♡’
‘PS. Did I make you mad?♡ Want to punish the one who wrote this?♡ Then prove you’re not trash by clearing the dungeon!♡ If you do, I’ll apologize by saying, “Sowwy!”♡ Of course, those pathetic scrubs who look for hints can’t succeed in conquering my amazing dungeon~♡’
‘You didn’t think there’d be something hidden on the back, did you?♡ Hahaha! Sorry~♡ Nothing there~♡’
That day, everyone who read the hints for the dungeon studies exam made a silent pledge.
They would teach that provocateur about manners.
*
Before the dungeon studies assistant appeared at the academy’s testing site.
Bright and early, Arthur and his party had already entered the dungeon.
“Maybe I’ve seen it too much, but now this wolf looks kinda cute.”
Ignoring Joy’s silly remark, Arthur kicked the wolf’s body down and pressed his weary eyelids firmly.
“Your Highness the Third Prince, didn’t you sleep well last night?”
Was it because she was worried about him? Phoebe approached, and Arthur smiled weakly.
“I could hardly sleep while trying to think of how to conquer the dungeon and prepare for the exam.”
Initially, to maintain his condition, Arthur forced himself to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes, he’d hear whispers in his head.
‘You got beaten by a commoner student and still want to sleep? So pathetic to be lazy, huh?’
He just couldn’t bring himself to sleep.
“Your Highness the Third Prince, didn’t we already figure out the strategy?”
Upon hearing about the strategy, Frey tilted her head in confusion.
“We did.”
The previous evening, Arthur and his party had roughly established a strategy for the third room.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was more than enough to get through the third room.
Had they not been bound by the entry time limit, they would have already cleared the third room and challenged the fourth.
“However, we won’t just be visiting that room once or twice. We’ll be going back dozens, maybe even hundreds of times, so we should optimize it.”
“Is that how it is?”
“That’s right, so just listen. Once we enter the third room, I’ll explain what to do.”
Confirming that everyone’s attention was focused on him, Arthur began to relay the plan crafted through the night.
“As soon as we enter, Joy, you should prepare magic to attack the entire field. And then…”
As he spoke, Joy frowned at the strange sense of déjà vu.
Wait, had she heard this somewhere before?
This whole strategy of laying out the plan and luring the enemy into it was definitely—
“Joy, are you listening?”
“Oh, this is Lady Alrn’s method, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. This is how Lady Alrn conquers dungeons.”
That lady always orchestrated everything as if she knew all about the dungeon, moving according to the plan she set.
Realizing the source of her déjà vu, Joy’s lips curled slightly upwards.
Suddenly, she felt the atmosphere around them grow quieter and cautiously lifted her head.
Arthur, who had been animatedly chatting just moments ago, was now frozen with wide eyes.
“Your Highness the Third Prince?”
“…Ah. Is that so? Was I subconsciously mimicking her?”
“Um.”
“It’s nothing. Joy, don’t mind it.”
Joy thought, “It seems like it’s not nothing,” but she kept those words to herself.
Arthur looked annoyingly frustrated for some reason after realizing he had followed Lucy’s method.
“Let’s continue with the explanation from earlier…”
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