Ch.31Chapter 31. Aiming for First Place (1)

“What’s going on?!”

“We can’t teleport into the dungeon!”

“The mana interference barrier…!”

‘What is this…’

Amillion tried to maintain her composure in the chaotic meeting room.

Of course, it wasn’t easy.

“Undead?!”

“For now, Professor Sinclair has headed to the dungeon…”

The professors who had been watching the competition with interest were in an uproar because of the monsters that had appeared in the dungeon.

At first, no one noticed.

Except for the few professors who prepared the competition, most didn’t know the details about the dungeon.

So they initially thought the preparation team had put in extra effort for freshness, but that wasn’t the case.

It all started when the professor in charge of creating the dungeon jumped up and shouted, asking what those things were.

The monster that appeared before the third-year students was an Undead, specifically a Death Knight—a high-ranking Undead that hadn’t been seen on the continent for decades.

When ghouls subsequently appeared in front of the first-year students, chaos erupted.

Professors capable of teleportation magic immediately attempted to enter the dungeon but failed.

Attempts to inject mana to display warning messages to alert the students of danger also failed.

The only success so far was preventing the second-year students, who hadn’t yet entered the dungeon, from going in.

‘Is this even possible?’

Logically, it shouldn’t be.

How could something unknown to internal personnel happen during an event held within the Academy?

Amillion reflexively turned her gaze toward the Vice Chancellor.

Vice Chancellor Landgar remained staring at the screen with a rigid expression.

“Oh no! The ghouls!”

At someone’s cry, Amillion turned her attention to the screen and bit her lip hard.

The ghouls that had appeared in front of the first-year students were now surrounding Elaine Sinclair.

‘Damn it.’

Amillion clenched her fist so tightly it trembled, swallowing her frustration at being unable to do anything while watching her student in danger in real-time.

“Is Professor Kassis still not there?!”

Amillion thought she should have followed Kassis Sinclair instead of just standing here.

It was a critical situation.

If Elaine were to be completely surrounded by those ghouls…

‘…Huh?’

“…Oh?”

Just before the situation became dire.

The encirclement of ghouls surrounding Elaine began to collapse rapidly from behind.

It wasn’t Elaine breaking through the encirclement from within.

The ghouls were falling one after another from the outside.

It was Ryu, cutting through the ghouls like paper and destroying the encirclement around Elaine.

“Ohhh!”

With someone’s admiring exclamation, Ryu dispatched all the ghouls surrounding Elaine in the blink of an eye.

Not stopping there, Ryu continued to push through into the darkness beyond the reach of light.

When Ryu completely disappeared into the darkness, there was some concern, but he soon reappeared.

Ryu emerged with a refreshed expression, like someone who had just enjoyed a good workout.

All the numerous ghouls were now lying on the ground without exception.

A momentary silence fell over the meeting room, which had seemed impossible to quiet down, thanks to Ryu’s performance.

Even in this critical situation, Amillion had an irrelevant thought.

After what Ryu just demonstrated, any doubts about his abilities would completely disappear.

“Where did that sword come from…”

Amillion muttered, looking at the black-bladed sword in Ryu’s hand.

Just when she thought the immediate danger had passed…

“Th-there!”

That wasn’t the case.

“Wh-where is Professor Kassis?!”

Someone’s cry echoed hollowly.

**

BOOM—

‘What now?’

The loud noise and scattering dirt made me frown involuntarily.

I had just passed one sudden trial, and unfairly, something else was appearing right after.

And it wasn’t even coming from the front but breaking through the side wall.

‘So we could break those walls after all.’

When I used the Black Shadow Sword earlier, I thought breaking the walls might cause problems, but apparently not.

If I had known, I wouldn’t have held back.

“Urrrgh!”

“Hmm?”

I expected another monster based on the presence I felt beyond the wall, but surprisingly, I heard a human voice.

It was a man’s voice I hadn’t heard before.

“Who, who are you?”

Next came a woman’s voice.

I squinted, trying to see through the dust cloud.

A pair of men and women were facing off against something large.

A brown-haired man in knight’s armor and a woman in a red robe with short red hair.

“Are you first-years?”

“S-Senior Bernstein?!”

In this confusing situation, Cynthia, who was behind me, finally spoke up.

Cynthia seemed to know who these two people were.

‘Senior?’

“Ugh. Did you cross over to the first-year testing area? Everyone get back!”

WHOOSH—

Along with the man’s voice, a sharp and heavy wind sound came from beyond.

‘What’s that?’

I strained my eyes, trying to get a clear view of the being through the dust.

A knight with a massive build, probably 2.5 to 3 meters tall.

He was raising what looked like an incredibly heavy sword, about to bring it down.

CLANG—

“Urgh!”

WHOOSH—

“Ugh, dust, ugh.”

The massive knight raised his sword and simply swung it downward.

It was a simple swing without any technique, but its power was tremendous.

The resulting wind blew away all the surrounding dust at once.

How strong was he?

My eyes were wide open, so the dust got in and stung badly.

Finally rubbing my eyes and opening them again, the situation was much clearer now that the dust had settled.

“What is that…”

A massive knight all in black, somewhat similar to my taste.

The difference was that his face was a skull.

He was clearly an Undead.

“Urgh! Everyone run back! Just get to the warp magic circle…!”

CLANG—

“Ahhh!”

And the brown-haired man blocking the skeleton knight’s sword.

It was impressive that he withstood that power, but it looked very precarious.

CLANG—

“Oh no…”

“Gareth!”

My prediction was correct.

The man called Gareth, who had barely blocked the attack, soon lost his grip on his sword due to the overwhelming force.

The skeleton knight didn’t miss the opportunity.

The skeleton knight effortlessly raised his sword, which was exaggeratedly almost as big as Elaine’s body.

Not only was his power amazing, but he was fast too.

“Damn…”

The skeleton knight exuded an overwhelming presence just by raising his sword.

So much so that not only the other students but even Gareth, who was about to be hit by the sword, couldn’t move.

WHOOSH—

‘I should block it, right?’

The moment the skeleton knight’s sword swung toward the man called Gareth, I moved.

Since Cynthia called them seniors, they’re probably second or third-year students, and it didn’t feel right to just watch.

‘Damn, I need to get first place.’

The thought briefly crossed my mind that if Gareth got taken down by the skeleton knight’s sword, we would essentially be in first place.

I had the bad thought of just letting it happen, but my body moved first.

Since this was an event held within the Academy, they probably wouldn’t let students get seriously injured.

There must be some safety mechanism that automatically warps you out if you take a fatal hit.

‘Maybe I should have just left it alone.’

BOOM—

With belated regret, I swung my sword, and a deafening sound erupted as the two swords collided.

It was too dull to be the sound of metal hitting metal.

ZING—

A tingling vibration traveled through my sword to my wrist.

His power was no joke.

GRIP—

“Hup.”

But after all, he’s just a monster.

I gripped my sword tightly and pushed the skeleton knight forward.

THUD—

“Wow, he is heavy.”

The skeleton knight jumped back a step, pushed by my strength.

He was definitely heavy, probably because of his large sword and size.

“Huh…”

“Ah…?”

When I pushed back the skeleton knight, the surprised voices of Gareth and Bernstein were the first to be heard.

The skeleton knight, after being pushed back by me, quickly regained his stance and prepared to attack again.

“Emily! Are you still like that?”

“N-no, sir!”

“…R-right. Do you know what this is? It looks like an Undead.”

Taking advantage of the brief pause, I called out to Emily behind me.

After all the ghouls disappeared, Emily had calmed down somewhat and was now clinging to Cynthia’s side.

I was a bit taken aback by her answering in such a disciplined tone when I called her.

She sounded just like Elaine.

“W-well, I’ve never seen one directly, but…”

“This is a Death Knight. And one that’s immune to my flames.”

The red-haired woman called Bernstein cut off Emily’s words and answered.

Flames flickered in her hand, suggesting she was a fire mage like Cain Hover.

Fire and the name Bernstein.

I feel like I’ve heard of this somewhere.

“Ah, I see. So do I need to cut off its head to completely kill it?”

“…You’re Ryu, the first-year top student, right? You’re truly a puzzling character.”

“Verthe! Now is not the time for such talk. Here it comes again!”

So this woman’s name was Verthe.

At Gareth’s words, I reflexively looked ahead and saw the skeleton knight charging at us again.

‘Tough one.’

WHOOSH— BOOM—

I charged toward the skeleton knight as it rushed at me.

I needed to knock it down temporarily and find out how to completely defeat it.

A huge sound erupted again as our swords collided in mid-air.

THUD—

After blocking its charge by meeting its sword with mine, I spun my body and kicked the skeleton knight squarely in the chest.

With mana and strength behind it.

WHOOSH— BOOM—!

The skeleton knight, sent flying by my kick, crashed into a distant wall and was partially embedded in it.

I tried to control my strength, but was that too much?

“…”

“So, you can kill it completely by cutting off its head, right?”

“W-well, I don’t really…”

Verthe muttered, looking at the skeleton knight embedded in the wall far away.