<820 – The Power of the Student Council (3)>
By breaking all the easy graduation projects of the Lower Class for Fourth Year, they enforced the difficult group graduation project [Limit Break Operation].
Just hearing Oknodie’s plan gave headaches to his close aides.
“Doesn’t that mean if it works out, we’ll be graduates from the Fourth Year Lower Class, not Second Year?”
From the listener’s perspective, it seemed unfair.
It would mean two years of preparation!
“Hi hi. I’ve got my own ideas. The graduation projects, in fact, can be easily done!”
“What? How can the word ‘easy’ coexist with graduation projects that the Principal inspects rigorously?”
It had been a while since Oknodie had updated his shocking remarks about how it was possible to get perfect scores on tests just by using what was taught in lecture time without visiting the library for research or additional study!
“What do you usually think the recognized content is for graduation projects?”
“Difficult difficulty?”
“Monsters of gold medal level or higher?”
“Gya ha ha! That sounds like a request from someone high up, doesn’t it? A King-level quest, perhaps?”
“Writing a thesis that innovates magic spells?”
“You’re all correct! But if I were to add one more, it would be ‘Betrayer Tracking’ and ‘Academy Special Retrieval Request List’!”
Isabel, currently serving as the leader of the Esornia Expedition Team, perked up as if she could smell treasure at just the mention of finding items.
“How precious is that treasure?”
“Usually, it involves things like [Numbers Magical Tools] or [Forbidden Books from the Library] that haven’t been returned due to missing deadlines or the owner having passed away!”
“It smells like money but there’s a high chance of death… There must be incredibly strong enemies or dangers around such magnificent treasure, so how can that be easy?”
Isabel was disappointed.
“It’s too early to be disappointed. No matter how powerful an enemy is, no one can survive for hundreds of years.”
“Are you saying there are items just lying around because both the owners and the enemies have already died?”
“If you look at the [Academy Special Retrieval Request List] that becomes available at the Department Head level or higher, you’ll see plenty of requests from quite a while ago. Department Heads usually don’t bother with such things and aren’t generous enough to pass on good requests to others, so a lot of them are passed down only through word of mouth without accurate information.”
“Aha. So those lacking skills in the Fourth Year Lower Class are counting on a one-shot life turnaround graduation by challenging the retrieval of those items that are just floating rumors, right?”
“Exactly!”
Isabel thought about it; it seemed too cruel to break the last hope of the seniors in the Fourth Year Lower Class by taking their last-minute easy graduation project. However, she remembered that the seniors were the ones wrong to perpetuate bad habits and practices even knowing how the Homunculi were treated.
Honestly, those seniors had it coming.
“What should we do?”
“Prepare the Esornia Expedition Team, excavation equipment, and a guard squad for unexpected situations!”
“Who will go?”
“Eh. We don’t even need to go ourselves.”
“Is it that easy? If it’s an item that the Academy would place a special retrieval request for, then it must be heavily guarded to at least the level of a dungeon boss room’s treasure chest.”
There are plenty of seniors who would hide valuable items in dangerous dungeons, thoroughly secured, even if it meant risking their own lives or being unavailable for long periods.
To recover such items, one would need to be equipped with specially designed gear for dungeons and know the strategies inside out or try to find the strategies themselves in the most safe way possible.
At least, that was Isabel’s common sense.
And now, Oknodie suggested a completely outlandish third method.
“There’s no need to follow the dungeon’s path as intended and strategize accordingly. If we can simply bust in through a backdoor to the treasure chest’s location and nab it!”
“…!”
Thus began the unthinkable plan of taking a shortcut directly to the treasure chest, ranked number one in dungeon etiquette violations!
*
The Esornia Expedition Team was more than happy to join the operation upon hearing they could help Isabel.
“I was feeling uneasy about it anyway.”
“Who would have thought our former employer was the Foundation?”
“If joining in on an endeavor that harms the leader could clean up the past, then I’m all for the challenge.”
Isabel, who was not only focusing on her studies in that perilous Gift Academy but also building connections with the talented individuals from various nations, was something the adventurers of the Esornia Expedition Team reflected upon deeply.
“Isabel is building relationships with influential figures while we’re just getting in her way!”
“The Dark Princess is said to torture human souls, trapping them into instruments to turn their screams into melodies whenever she feels annoyed.”
“I heard the boss of the Dark Trading Company engages in wicked deals where no amount of money will assure you’ll get the item you desire—it’s all random gacha nonsense.”
“While she’s busy deepening her connections without stepping on the toes of such monsters, we need to repay our nuisance this time around.”
Their workforce in the Foundation Workshop Battle had been somewhat lacking.
Since there are many competent individuals even more formidable than the Esornia Expedition Team.
This time is different.
This is a major excavation operation centered around the Esornia Expedition Team!
It’s a simple plan to follow the coordinates on the map, grab the treasure, and get out easily!
“Are the teachers here to escort us?”
“Jukeong.”
“Correct. That’s what they said.”
“…The translation device works really well!”
“Haha, I apologize for the trouble. Jukeongmusae and Silheongmusae are just such shy children that normal communication is impossible. But they have indeed become much stronger, so please bear with them.”
The escort from the Esornia Expedition Team provided by Oknodie consisted of the Foundation Branch Manager Pasible Yep and his elite unit.
Behind Jukeongmusae and Silheongmusae were their secretary Kkamang and countless cute girls with various concepts, leaving the Esornia Expedition Team feeling the futility of life.
“No matter how many adventures we go on, the number of girls keeps decreasing while our skills just keep increasing; why are there only girls over there?”
“Captain of the escort squad, please share your secret!”
“Haha. That is because you guys only recruit the competent ones through job postings.”
The Esornia Expedition Team primarily operated in and around the human limit area.
Only considerable skilled people could keep up.
“So if we take in non-competent personnel, will that increase the number of women?”
“Not that there aren’t any strong female adventurers, though…”
“Did that dude take all the strong females?”
Pasible Yep’s subordinates hadn’t initially been strong.
After the Foundation went under and Pasible Yep absorbed nearby branches, he poured all the precious elixirs into his subordinates for power enhancement.
Thanks to that, his subordinates, who had evolved by leaps and bounds, all had shiny faces and glossy feathers.
“The secret is… tirelessly training weaker kids until they become strong!”
“What a great method!”
“If you succeed in this mission, you’ll have the means to recruit new members and prepare a growth path according to step-by-step adventures.”
It doubled the motivation of the Esornia Expedition Team, who eagerly operated equipment to dig and bore holes into the dungeon.
The dungeon’s surrounding terrain had a solid quality that prohibited external intrusion thanks to the dungeon’s magic, and in severe cases, even a single grain of dirt and gravel could boast tremendous resistance proportional to the dungeon’s overall defense and shield values.
“High-difficulty dungeons take it a step further by changing the environment. This dungeon is one ruled by extreme ice, so it’s blowing hot winds.”
“…Aren’t we going to end up as human fried snacks while mining?”
“Psh. That won’t happen; I’m here with you.”
Rosgini manipulated fire-element mana puzzles to create a path for the hot wind to escape.
The gusts of wind erupted in response to the stimulated shielding, burst up along the pathway created by the fire-element mana drawn by Rosgini, and vanished into the ground.
“Awesome! With a magician around, we don’t have to worry about dying from the dungeon’s intrusion prevention system. Let’s take advantage of that and trick the dungeon!”
Tricking the dungeon was straightforward.
If the target touching the dungeon shielding was detected as a ‘material’ beneficial for the dungeon’s defense and expansion, rather than inhibiting intrusion, they would instead allow entry easily.
The surrounding terrain and materials would be devoured by the dungeon itself.
[Crimson Fire Stone Block with a hole shaped like ㄷ]
[Sequence Light Stone Block with a hole shaped like ㄱ]
[Magma Block with a hole shaped like ㄴ]
[Fire Stone Block with a hole shaped like H]
Entering through the holes created before the blocks could digest them allowed access inside the dungeons, and they made a hole behind the boss room.
It was a cowardly yet innovative dungeon strategy utilizing materials from the Production Department.
“How did the Dark Princess figure out this knowledge?”
“Maybe she realized it by watching people thrown into the dungeon shielding and die?”
“Isabel is truly amazing. She’s managed to survive so long next to such a scary child.”
Pasible Yep secretly wondered, what’s so scary about how people regard the Dark Princess?
Having devoted their humanity as a sacrifice to gain power, they couldn’t even feel fear anymore.
However, he understood from experience that fear diminishes morale and lowers work efficiency; thus, he came to the defense of the Dark Princess.
“Everyone. The Dark Princess isn’t as bad as you think.”
“Really?”
“The Dark Princess, instead of torturing someone over a long time by repeatedly smashing them against the shielding, is the type to send them straight to the grave with one shot once they are out of her sight.”
“…”
In the now chilly atmosphere, the terrified adventurers of the Esornia Expedition Team focused solely on operating their mining tools.
They didn’t want a report to go upstairs saying they had unnecessary banter during work, risking being sent straight to the grave.
Thud
“It’s open!”
Fortunately, the suffocating silence reminiscent of death ended quickly.
The wall behind the reward room had been breached.
“Jukeong!”
“The treasure chest is ours!”
“Wait! Beast girls, that chest could instantly kill you just by touching it.”
The veteran adventurers of the Esornia Expedition Team knew the reality of dungeon treasure chests.
“The official name of that is a storage box. It continuously absorbs the mana of all life forms born and perished within the dungeon to enhance the items inside—a sort of mana drain box.”
“Jukeong?”
“They were asking what kind of system it operates on.”
“By collecting the mana of the dungeon’s life forms, reminiscent of the treasure chest, the chest’s affinity increases. Once it reaches a 100 affinity, using mana obtained from hunting as a sacrifice will simply open the chest.”
“Conversely, if someone like us comes through the back door without going through such procedures, this box may consider us intruders and devour our mana until we become mummies.”
A box that kills those who don’t work!
Thus, the importance of contribution in dungeon challenges was paramount.
“Jukeong!”
“So how do we grab it?”
“Haha. Well, the essence is that entities without bio-mana can open it without concern. If you lose mana, what can you do? You don’t have mana to begin with.”
A repairman of the Mechanic class controlled a mechanical robot to open the treasure chest.
Even a mana drain that could kill a human levelled the mechanical being, but since it had no mana, it didn’t perish.
“Whoa! The item inside the chest is a Forbidden Book!”
“No way. A book that could drive you mad just by touching it?!”
“But that thing is a machine.”
Machines have no hearts.
They were devoid of worries about being corrupted or controlled by the Forbidden Book.
“Why is there a warrior magician here? Isn’t a mechanic required for one party?”
“But if that’s the case, we wouldn’t need a thief, right?”
“True. If we could pierce through the traps by the side route, we wouldn’t need a thief to handle the boxes either.”
Oknodie’s final command to siphon the ultimate treasure from the dungeon’s treasure chest not only brought tears to many adventurers but also significantly impacted the unemployment rate of thieves.
It would be a sad story indeed if Oknodie’s mentor, the ubiquitous thief Destroyer, heard about this and cursed the disciple he thought was promising for repaying kindness with enmity.
