Chapter: 424
Back at the entrance of the 99th floor of the academy dungeon, I was feeling pretty cranky and whacked the wall with my mace.
Even with all my anger behind the blow, the wall didn’t even flinch.
Seeing the tiny dent that vanished instantly, I lost it and started pounding the wall like a madwoman until I ran out of steam and collapsed onto the floor.
‘…Grandfather, what time is it now?’
[Well, since you came in around morning, it’s probably around 7 or 8 o’clock by now.]
‘How long have I been stuck here?’
[Hmm, roughly about four hours?]
‘Four hours of just flailing around…’
I stared up at the dungeon ceiling, bit down on my lip, and covered my face with my hands.
I was so annoyed I could hardly take it.
It’s not like I didn’t know what the gimmick on the 99th floor was.
At the entrance of the 99th floor, there are four paths, and at the end of each path, there’s another dungeon.
To open the way to the 100th floor, you have to defeat all the bosses in those dungeons at nearly the same time.
The reason I say “nearly” is that there’s a bit of a grace period allowed.
From what I gathered during my grinding sessions, it seems like you can allow for about a minute of leeway.
I mean, after taking down one boss, if you return to the entrance within a minute, that’s an indication, right?
This kind of gimmick is usually something you find in RPGs with raids.
In other words, it’s not something you can throw into a single-player game.
When there’s only one player, how the heck do you take down two bosses that are far apart?
In fact, the Soul Academy didn’t have such gimmicks.
Even if there were NPCs available as party members, you couldn’t just send them to take down the dungeon bosses without your guidance.
Of course, now that the game’s restrictions didn’t apply, it wouldn’t be strange for such a gimmick to appear.
As long as the party members can coordinate well, they could totally pull it off.
But that doesn’t apply to me, since I have no one to cooperate with.
‘If I’d known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have bothered trying solo!’
Grumbling and stomping my feet in frustration, I let out a big sigh and slowly got back up.
Since I had figured out the gimmick of the 99th floor a long time ago, I came with the belief that there must be some other way and tried all kinds of things.
The ideology of the academy dungeon is that anyone should be able to conquer it, so I figured they’d have offered some solution for a friendless loser.
But every effort was in vain.
Every time I narrowed down the methods, I ended up concluding that you couldn’t proceed without four people.
No, really! The professors who made this dungeon must have thought of every possible variable to block me.
Just the other day, I tried taunting the dungeon boss to lure it out, right?
Well, the moment the boss crossed the dungeon entrance, it just dropped dead!
At that time, I was so dumbfounded I could only laugh.
A normal person would have probably thrown in the towel and whined about how stupid this dungeon was.
Ah, but not me.
If I were a normal person, I wouldn’t be clinging to a game like Soul Academy for years.
After countless failures had turned into determination, I resolved to conquer this dungeon by any means necessary.
– Lady Alrn, the dungeon door will close in five minutes.
Hearing the academy’s notification, I pulled out my notebook from my inventory and scribbled down the information I just gathered.
About how much damage the boss at the fourth path had sustained.
And my estimates of the boss’s HP based on what I tried so far.
What am I planning to do, you ask?
Simple.
In any case, I just need to take down all four bosses at once.
Whether one boss is dying slowly or falls in a single hit doesn’t matter at all.
[Lucy, that method doesn’t seem like the standard procedure.]
‘That’s what I thought.’
I don’t really think this is a standard way to tackle it either.
But I might find another way if I recall the clues from below and come back up.
But now it didn’t matter anymore.
With my stubbornness set in, I would break through the dungeon my way!
Finishing my notes, I rushed out of the academy dungeon and dashed into the back alley.
There were a few items I needed to grab right now.
*
After tirelessly strategizing until the entrance of the academy dungeon closed, Arthur’s group successfully reached the 99th floor where Lucy was.
Since they were short on time, they could only take in the various elements inside before heading back, yet there was still a fire of determination in their eyes.
Why, you ask?
Because Lucy Alrn was still roaming the 99th floor.
Despite all the obstacles thrown her way, Lucy had pulled ahead only to be equalized once again.
Arthur’s party had gathered to discuss their next move the moment the dungeon doors opened in the morning.
“The biggest clue we have is that Lucy Alrn is stuck in that dungeon and hasn’t conquered it.”
At Arthur’s words, Joy and Phoebe nodded along.
Lucy was someone who knew everything about the dungeon.
There was practically no possibility that she was caught off guard by the academy dungeon’s gimmicks.
After all, she was the one who had reached the 99th floor in just one day, despite coming in late.
There must be something there that she couldn’t resolve on her own.
“The most likely scenario is that something requires magical knowledge.”
“Huh? Didn’t Lucy Alrn know a lot about magic?”
When Arthur raised his doubts, Joy shook her head with a laugh.
“I thought that too, but turns out I was mistaken.”
Not long ago, during magic class with Lucy, Joy realized she had been misled.
Lucy’s relaxed expression held clear bewilderment.
While she could guide a magician’s path, she didn’t really grasp magic itself.
Despite sharing this anecdote, Arthur remained unconvinced.
“What’s so strange about that?”
“But you know, Lucy Alrn achieved top marks in magic-related exams during her first year.”
Arthur said this, recalling that he was just below Lucy in those rankings, and Joy tilted her head.
Indeed, it was odd. If she didn’t know much about magic, how on earth could she ace those tests?
“We’ll ask Lady Alrn directly about that later. There’s no point in speculating now.”
Phoebe dismissed their questions and suggested they keep all possibilities open while stating her opinion.
“For now, the most likely case is a structure that cannot be tackled solo.”
“I agree with the Saintess. Unless it’s outright absurd, I doubt she’d get stuck like that.”
What Arthur had seen of the dungeon’s structure seemed to back up Phoebe’s insight.
The diverging paths and the underground at their ends suggested there were numerous mechanisms to find.
Instances that changed the path whenever those mechanisms were activated.
It was still unclear since they hadn’t tried several things yet, but Arthur was inclined to believe Phoebe was correct.
However.
“But that wouldn’t align with the academy dungeon’s ideology.”
The academy’s dungeon was designed so that any student could conquer it.
Being weak is one thing, but not being able to use magic, be unable to invoke the sacred, or lift curses would not be permitted for someone to get stuck.
“This scenario shouldn’t change anything.”
“Ah.”
Just when Arthur furrowed his brow, Joy exclaimed in realization.
“Have you figured something out, Joy?”
“It’s not about the dungeon tactics. I think I’ve figured out the professors’ thoughts.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Prince Arthur, think about it. Who else, other than Lady Alrn, would want to conquer the Soul Academy dungeon solo?”
“No one. Who would have such a crazy thought?”
It’s true that the elite of the kingdom come into the Soul Academy.
However, the dungeon’s difficulty is also tailored for those elites, meaning personal skill alone doesn’t mean much.
If you asked Arthur himself if he could climb from start to finish alone, he’d shake his head realistically.
Without Lucy Alrn as an exception, no one would even attempt that.
With that thought, Arthur understood what Joy was driving at.
“Are you saying the professors created a scenario where Lucy Alrn couldn’t advance beyond the 99th floor?”
“Exactly. Last time Lady Alrn showed us a splendid dungeon, and this time the academy’s professors are offering something amusing for her.”
Only Lucy Alrn could be so capable of making it up to the 99th floor alone.
Thus, the academy professors had prepared some challenge for Lucy that she had yet to realize was why she was stuck on the 99th floor.
“…Something constructed specifically for the exception of Lucy Alrn.”
Arthur shook his head as he thought of the horror that likely awaited, feeling a shiver run down his spine.
“If this speculation is correct, the 99th floor of the academy must require several people for a proper strategy.”
“Yes. Based on that, let’s narrow down our options.”
While three of them passionately debated, excluding Frey, who was dozing off with his head down on the table, Lucy Alrn had found Alsetin’s lackey in the alley of the academy street and was briefing him about the things she needed to collect immediately.
“…Are you planning some sort of terror attack or what?”
Alsetin’s lackey voiced in shock, as he surveyed the list she handed him.
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