Ch.32Chapter 32. Aiming for First Place (2)

Gareth stood there blankly, unable to speak or even think properly.

He wasn’t under a paralysis spell or petrification magic.

He was simply frozen in shock at the situation unfolding before his eyes.

Verthe beside him seemed to be in the same state.

Despite facing a Death Knight, she had not only failed to cast flame magic but had even extinguished the flames in her hand.

Like Gareth, she stood motionless, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene before them.

“This is impossible…”

Verthe was the first to break the silence.

Almost simultaneously with her quiet mutter—

WHAM!

“Emily, don’t you know how to kill it properly? Cutting off its head doesn’t work!”

WHAM!

“It’s still moving.”

“…Haha.”

Gareth couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh, too dumbfounded to say anything else.

Ryuyeong, this year’s top-ranked first-year student, had knocked the Death Knight down and was stepping on it.

Literally stomping on it.

Continuously.

WHAM!

‘How does stepping make such a sound…?’

Gareth was beginning to feel sorry for the Death Knight.

Just moments ago, it had exuded a terrifying presence that seemed capable of killing someone at any moment.

WHAM! WHAM!

“Huh? Is it not moving anymore?”

Now that same Death Knight was embedded in the wall, its limbs trembling pathetically as it was being mercilessly stomped on.

Gareth thought the trembling hand that the Death Knight raised somehow looked like a desperate plea for help.

When he had failed to properly block the Death Knight’s attack and it had broken through to where the first-years were, he had truly feared the worst.

His protective responsibility had suddenly expanded from just Verthe to five people.

Moreover, he no longer had the strength to cross swords with the Death Knight.

Every time his blade had met the creature’s—the one now being stomped on—the impact had sent tremors through his entire body.

So he had thought it was truly the end.

WHAM!

“Huh? It’s not moving.”

Thud—

Just as Ryuyeong said, the Death Knight’s hand, which had been stretched upward while its body remained embedded in the wall, fell limply.

Ryuyeong stomped on the Death Knight a few more times anyway.

Though it was clearly a human defeating a monster, somehow the scene made Gareth wince.

Only when the Death Knight stopped moving entirely did Ryuyeong finally jump lightly off it.

Gulp—

Gareth looked not at the fallen Death Knight but at Ryuyeong.

Despite having crossed swords multiple times with the incredibly powerful Death Knight, Ryuyeong looked completely unaffected.

Meanwhile, Gareth’s arms were still trembling.

“Is everyone okay?”

Ryuyeong casually brushed back his hair as he asked the others.

In his light attire, he didn’t even appear to have broken a sweat.

Gareth, on the other hand, had been drenched in cold sweat from his confrontation with the Death Knight.

“But… seniors?”

“…Ah, what?”

“Isn’t this cheating? It’s a bit troublesome if you bring a monster from your side over to us and ask us to deal with it.”

“…”

“And honestly, you looked in danger. If we had just ignored you and pressed forward…”

“Lord Ryu!”

Gareth could only nod as he listened to Ryuyeong’s smooth-talking remarks.

He was right, to be honest.

With just himself and Verthe, there had been no way to overcome that Death Knight.

‘…Though this guy managed to break through alone.’

A bitter smile formed on Gareth’s lips.

“How can you say such things in this situation! No matter what…”

“No, he’s right. You’re Elaine Sinclair, aren’t you?”

“…Yes. Hello, senior.”

Gareth waved his hand to interrupt Elaine, who had tried to stop Ryuyeong’s words.

Elaine greeted him politely when he addressed her.

“Ryu is right. Verthe and I probably couldn’t have overcome the Death Knight by ourselves.”

“Right, right! As expected of a senior. You’re cool enough to admit when you’re wrong.”

“…”

Gareth wanted to retort to Ryuyeong’s playful interruption but held back.

After all, it was true that they had overcome the Death Knight with the help of a first-year—specifically, Ryuyeong.

‘Though it doesn’t make sense that this is part of the competition.’

“Well, shall we go ahead? Don’t unfairly get ahead of us, okay?”

“…Alright. We’ll forfeit the competition here. We won’t move forward until you reach the finish line.”

“Ohhh!!”

Gareth let out a small laugh at Ryuyeong’s overly excited reaction and looked at Verthe.

She was still in shock, staring at Ryuyeong with astonished eyes.

“Verthe. Let’s do that, okay?”

“…”

Verthe didn’t answer.

Instead, she just kept staring at Ryuyeong as if she had discovered some strange new creature.

“Well then, we’ll go ahead? We don’t know how far the second-year seniors have gone.”

“…”

‘There’s no way the second-years could have overcome a monster we couldn’t defeat.’

Gareth didn’t voice his thoughts.

After all, the students before him were first-years.

Meanwhile, Ryuyeong had finished conversing with the other first-years and was ready to leave after saying goodbye.

“See you after this is over?”

“…Sure.”

“We’ll be going ahead, seniors.”

Bow—

After watching the first-year juniors say goodbye in their own ways, Gareth sat down where he stood.

“Gareth.”

“Yeah?”

“What is he?”

“…”

Instead of answering Verthe’s question, Gareth looked toward the Death Knight embedded in the collapsed wall.

For some reason, the massive iron sword lying beside it looked strangely empty.

**

‘I’ve never seen undead even in the North.’

“Are we still far?”

“Almost, almost there!”

Kassis frowned as he heard the panting voice beside him.

Of all places, they had to create the dungeon so far away.

They could use warp magic to get close, but they couldn’t teleport directly to the dungeon entrance.

Apparently, they had created warp magic circles throughout the dungeon interior but hadn’t bothered to make one outside.

As a result, Kassis was running to find the entrance with the professor who had created this dungeon.

He understood that the professor couldn’t have anticipated such a powerful mana-disrupting barrier, so Kassis tried not to blame him.

‘Ugh.’

Still, he couldn’t help feeling frustrated and annoyed.

“Th-there it is! Hwaah.”

Shing—

As soon as Kassis detected traces of mana—artificial traces—he drew his sword.

The cave-like structure was clearly the dungeon entrance.

“The barrier…”

Kassis had intended to slash through the barrier, but he couldn’t sense any barrier at all.

One can’t cut what one can’t sense.

Kassis wondered if the barrier had disappeared.

“Is the mana disruption still active?”

“Heck, haaah, heck. Yes, haaah. Movement is impossible, haaah.”

Ignoring the magic professor gasping for breath behind him, Kassis pointed his sword toward the dungeon entrance.

There was no sensation, no reaction.

Step—

Normally, he wouldn’t approach such a suspicious place carelessly, but now time was of the essence.

Despite feeling something was off, Kassis stepped forward.

‘…It just lets me through?’

“Eh? Professor Kassis?”

“There’s no resistance at all.”

“What? That can’t be.”

“…I’ll go in first and bring the students out. Please work on this from outside in the meantime.”

“Ah, yes, yes. Let’s do that.”

Without hesitation, Kassis immediately ran into the cave entrance.

Despite the unfamiliar type of barrier and numerous suspicious points, he had no choice.

‘Damn it.’

Once inside, Kassis had to stop at a three-way fork in the path.

Separate passages for each year.

Kassis had no way of knowing which path was for first-years and which was for third-years.

He calmly closed his eyes and awakened his senses.

He hoped to detect something from inside, but unfortunately, nothing registered to his senses.

‘I should have brought more professors.’

It was too late for regrets now.

As soon as the Death Knight had appeared on the screen, Kassis had grabbed the dungeon creation professor beside him and rushed outside.

The other professors were watching it as some kind of test, but Kassis knew better.

That thing was real.

His instincts, honed over years of risking his life in the war-torn northern continent, told him so.

It was a genuinely dangerous situation.

So Kassis had rushed out without a second thought.

Inside the dungeon were not only his disciples but also his own flesh and blood.

‘I was too agitated.’

There was no other option now.

He would have to call the professor waiting outside to maximize the chances of rescue.

Just as Kassis was about to exit the dungeon to call the professor—

Rustle—

“Hmm.”

With his senses on high alert, Kassis caught a sound.

Something was moving.

Shing—

Kassis pointed his sword toward the sound and concentrated harder.

“…Impossible.”

“Hmm?”

Following the rustling sound came a voice.

A familiar voice.

“I think we’ve come quite far…”

“Gareth?”

“Eek! W-who… Professor?”

Kassis rushed toward the middle path where the voice came from and, upon seeing blue flames, let out a sigh of relief.

It was his disciples, Gareth and Verthe.

“Pro…fessor, why are you here?”

“The Death Knight! What happened to it?!”

“Ah, that.”

Verthe answered Kassis’s question.

The Death Knight was dead, she said.

“Dead…? You two defeated it??”

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t us.”

“Then perhaps another professor already arrived? Was the barrier already removed…”

“Ah, no. It wasn’t other professors…”

“It was the first-years.”

Kassis was momentarily speechless.

First-years?

“S-so where are the first-years now?”

Kassis decided to ask about the first-years’ whereabouts first and get the details later.

Who knew what other monsters might be lurking in the dungeon.

He could send the third-years out now, and then he just needed to find his brother among the first-years.

“Um… they said they were going to win first place and headed toward the finish line.”

“…”

Kassis was speechless once again.

They encountered that Death Knight and still went deeper inside?