Chapter: 422
As soon as the Academy Dungeon opened, Arthur dashed inside and surveyed the atmosphere within.
First of all, the dungeon’s theme is similar to the usual dungeons in other regions.
Contrary to rumors claiming it would be the hardest ever, it feels pretty ordinary.
It seems the others who entered with him were on the same wavelength, all tilting their heads, looking around.
“They said this would be the worst dungeon in academy history. It doesn’t look too different from what we saw last year.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions, Joy. You might trip.”
“I’m not being careless. Our opponent isn’t this dungeon; it’s Lady Allen.”
Recently, the party, who had accepted a bet after being provoked by Lucy Allen, started devising a strategy to win against her.
The word “carelessness” couldn’t exist in their minds. They’d been reluctantly dragged into Lucy’s outrageous antics, so how could they be careless?
Sure, there’s a numerical advantage, and it’s true that Lucy Allen has her own restrictions, but that difference could easily be overturned by her abilities.
Knowing this, the four kept moving their feet upward without pause.
The speed at which they ascended the dungeon was incomparable to last year when they tackled it together.
By last year’s end, they thought it was a miracle just to reach the hundredth floor of the Academy Dungeon, yet now they had broken through the twentieth floor in under three hours after starting.
The biggest factor contributing to this was Arthur’s improved leadership skills.
Last year, Arthur had an understanding of dungeon strategies but could hardly be called an expert.
Despite being royalty, he couldn’t freely learn anything beyond the commonly known theories.
But that’s no longer the case. After reading and re-reading the dungeon strategy guide Lucy had given him, he could even recall specific lines on specific pages, showing off remarkable strategy skills that could rival seasoned mercenaries.
Adding to that momentum was Joy, who, like Arthur, had perfectly memorized the book Lucy handed over and applied its contents to dungeon strategies in her own way.
She had connected her usable magic with the dungeon strategies.
Thanks to that, she was able to find the path through the dungeon faster than anyone else and could discover and dismantle various traps, making her the kind of capable person anyone would want to team up with in the dungeon.
The moment Arthur and Joy’s abilities combined, advancing through the dungeon became exceedingly smooth.
Moreover, their training with the Allen Knights made them adept at forced marches.
Previously, taking breaks after a certain amount of progress was natural, but now, even after three hours of continuous movement, the party showed no signs of exhaustion.
Given their training with the Allen Knights as a benchmark, it was hard to even call this a forced march.
There was no need to mention that their individual skills had drastically improved.
The bosses that appeared on the tenth and twentieth floors couldn’t last more than a minute before they were smashed, so how could anyone criticize their skills?
Thus, the party, enjoying a fast-paced ascent, finally came to a halt when they reached the fortieth floor after five hours.
Just like before, they easily defeated the boss of the fortieth floor and opened the door to the next floor, revealing the scene of the thirty-first floor.
“…What the…”
The first thought that crossed Arthur’s mind upon seeing the spectacle was a memory of something Jack Burrows had told him before entering the dungeon.
“Third Prince, this dungeon was inspired greatly by the dungeon created by Lady Allen. It surely can’t be breached merely with brute force.”
His words were correct. Arthur let out a chuckle and turned his head back.
“Joy, don’t you think something feels off?”
“…I might need to go up again and analyze it.”
“What about the Saintess?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t pick up on anything either.”
“Hmmm, this is troublesome.”
If there were clues between the thirtieth and fortieth floors, that would be fortunate.
But if the clues were below that, things would get annoying.
Tsk. Standing still won’t yield answers, so maybe it’s time to move.
“Prince, don’t you want to ask me?”
Just as Arthur furrowed his brow, Frey popped up beside him. He let out a sigh in annoyance at her pestering.
“Is there really a need to? You probably weren’t paying attention to anything while swinging your sword.”
“Tch. Fine, I won’t say anything then.”
“…Did you find something?”
“No need to ask, right?”
“Sigh. Damn it. Sorry, I was a bit harsh. Please, can you just tell me what you found?”
With his pride quickly subdued, Arthur lowered his head, and Frey bobbed her head as if she had achieved something and then spoke.
“I didn’t find anything.”
“…Frey Kent!!!”
“Third Prince, could you keep it down? It’s kind of noisy while I’m trying to concentrate.”
“Is this my fault?! This Frey Kent started it!”
“Oh. Now that I look again, there’s something strange here. Let’s go quickly.”
“Joy Partlan! Are you ignoring me too?!”
*
A day later, I arrived at the entrance of the Academy Dungeon and wondered how far the other students had gotten.
Why are my friends still stuck around the eightieth floor? The second-year dungeon shouldn’t be that hard for them, right?
The others were the same way.
The party of the Second Prince was stuck at around the sixtieth floor, and Jack’s group couldn’t pass the fiftieth floor. Even the other promising candidates I knew were stalled near the center.
…Has the Academy Dungeon really changed because of me? Did I create a dungeon that motivated the dungeon studies professors to craft a new one?
I chuckled at the thought after hearing rumors through Erin, who was working with other servants within the Academy.
If the professors managed to create a dungeon that was entirely different from the games, then all the knowledge I had in my head would become useless.
I definitely wouldn’t be able to speedrun like I originally thought.
But what’s the issue with that?
A new dungeon has emergent.
A new dungeon that I know nothing about.
A dungeon crafted by the Academy professors with great effort.
That’s right in front of my eyes!
Feeling ecstatic about quickly finishing up the dungeon strategy and jumping into something else, I stepped into the dungeon.
However, what I encountered was a scene of an exceedingly ordinary dungeon, contrary to what I had anticipated.
It felt like a place I could find anywhere.
The monsters emerging from the dungeon were the same story.
Facing off a sloppy monster that was naturally supposed to come out on the first floor, I noticed it behaving politely once hit by my mace and tilted my head.
This is strange. For something inspired by the dungeon I created, it seems way too bland?
[Lucy, think it over. There will be new students among those entering here. What would happen if it’s too hard from the start?]
‘…That’s true.’
If that’s the case, then there really isn’t much in the early stages.
As I progressed quickly through the dungeon, I understood that grandpa’s words were correct.
Nothing interesting had come out until I broke through the thirtieth floor.
The dungeon created based on the general rules existing in the Academy Dungeon only brought disappointment.
However, upon shifting to the thirty-first floor and wandering around, I started feeling a flicker of excitement.
There were far too many elements inside the thirty-first floor that wouldn’t be needed in a typical dungeon.
The Academy’s dungeon was crafted by professors and completed by grinding down graduate students.
Naturally, they had to be attentive to efficiency when doing this.
Even when I was making dungeons back then, it was the same.
But on this staircase, there were way too many unnecessary elements unless they were intentionally placed.
Things that were subtly inserted so they wouldn’t be recognized unless one was aware.
Hmmm. Based on these clues, it would be correct to assume that there’s an entirely different path than it seems?
Humming to myself as I followed the clues, a wall appeared blocking my way.
Anyone oblivious would probably think they took a wrong turn upon seeing this wall, but not me.
It’s marked as a spot that can be broken if hit right, so how could I miss that?
BANG!
As I lightly struck the wall with my mace, it crumbled away revealing a drastically different temple-like sight from the previous dungeon that resembled a cave. I couldn’t help but smile.
Wow, they’ve really put serious effort into this.
Back when I made dungeons like this, the grad students would have been wailing in despair.
Thinking about how chaotic the Academy was with human resources lately, I wondered how much trouble they had to go through to create something like this.
It’s no wonder a follower of the Evil God slipped in among them without their notice.
Poor souls.
At least they didn’t lose their lives and were just confined somewhere.
Thinking about it, I wonder if they were scared while imprisoned or if they were relieved to have a break.
I’m curious about that part.
I should probably drop by and ask them later after I finish the dungeon strategy.
With that thought, I stepped toward the next floor and saw how much the Academy professors had invested in various places, deciding I’d have to roam this dungeon for the whole week.
I can’t believe they paid this much attention to it.
If it’s like this, then it’ll be totally worth it to conquer it.
I should optimize it later; if I roll with my friends, we could probably set some incredible records.
[Lucy!]
While I was excitedly exploring the dungeon with a bouncy step, grandpa called me with a chuckle.
‘Yes?’
[Did you forget that this dungeon strategy is part of a bet? ]
‘…Oh, right.’
Thinking about it, I should have been speedrunning right now, not later.
I was so thrilled about the new dungeon I completely forgot for a moment.
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