Ch.33Chapter 33. Aiming for First Place (3)

“I think we need to… turn left here.”

Cynthia followed my direction without any objection, immediately turning left.

I guess that Death Knight that attacked the ghoul and third-year students earlier was just a surprise trial.

After that, everything matched perfectly with the map Addy had given me.

Not just the paths, but even which monsters or traps would appear at which timing.

“We’re almost there now.”

“…How do you know that?”

“My intuition tells me so.”

I gave a vague answer to Elaine’s sharp question while recalling the dungeon layout in my head.

We had just dealt with a disgusting spider, so we were nearly at the end.

“If we go a bit further from here, there should be something like a plaza, and that’s the end.”

“…I keep asking how you know that.”

“Let’s skip the trivial details.”

“That’s not trivial at all…!”

“Oh! Here it is!”

I deliberately cut off Elaine’s words, speaking exaggeratedly loud.

The wide space from my memory finally appeared.

Cynthia lowered her bow and moved forward after confirming there was no one in the area.

Come to think of it, since dealing with the Death Knight earlier, Cynthia and Emily had barely spoken a word.

The shock of encountering undead seems to last longer than I expected.

“Oh, look! There’s a warp magic circle in the middle!”

“Finally, it’s over…”

Emily muttered to herself from behind.

Emily had been in a weakened state since the ghoul attack.

Right, for Emily’s sake too, we should quickly take first place and get out of here.

“Yeah, yeah. Now we just need to take first place and get out to somewhere bright. We are in first place, right?”

“It seems so.”

Only Elaine responded to my words, whether I liked it or not.

After confirming no one was around, Elaine sheathed her sword and moved toward the center first.

‘There’s really no one here.’

I carefully sensed the surroundings just in case, but fortunately, I couldn’t detect any traces of life.

No second-year academy students, nor anything that could be considered an enemy.

That meant we were in first place.

“Hehe. Finally, I’ll learn magic.”

“Magic…?”

“Ah, they say we’ll learn magic in class after the competition ends.”

“But that’s been the case all along…”

Emily seemed to have perked up a bit at the thought of going outside soon, responding even to my muttering.

“But there’s no reaction at all.”

“Hmm. Should we wait? Maybe the professors will come and congratulate us?”

“I don’t think that’s likely…”

“I thought they’d at least do that for something of this scale.”

Wondering if perhaps all team members needed to reach the magic circle for something to happen, I brought everyone to stand in the center, but nothing happened.

By the way, it looked spacious on the map, but seeing it in person, it’s really huge.

“What should we do?”

“No. The rule was to reach the finish line first. And this is definitely the finish line…”

I tried everything that seemed plausible, from injecting mana into the magic circle to stabbing the ground with my sword.

But still, nothing happened.

Just when I was wondering if I had remembered the map incorrectly.

Whoosh- Crack-

‘Huh?’

A wind blew from somewhere, even though there shouldn’t be any wind in this cave.

Simultaneously, I heard something around us cracking.

“What was that?”

“Pardon? What’s wrong?”

“Didn’t you feel something blow by and break?”

“What?”

It seemed I was the only one who felt that sensation just now.

Neither Elaine, Cynthia, nor Emily seemed to understand what I was talking about.

Clop- Clop- Clop-

Unlike before, everyone reacted to this sound.

Four pairs of eyes turned toward the source of the sound simultaneously.

Clop- Clop-

“Hoofbeats…?”

Cynthia spoke up after being quiet for a while.

I was trying to figure out what the sound was, and it did indeed sound like hoofbeats.

Clop- Clop-

“Uh…”

Eventually, the source of the sound emerged from the darkness in the distance.

As Cynthia said, the clopping sound was indeed from a horse.

However, it was different from the ordinary horses I knew.

It wasn’t a horse boasting sturdy leg muscles and a solid body.

“Sigh, really.”

A horse with a skeletal body surrounded by something like green flames.

And someone riding on top of it.

Whoosh-

A knight who appeared even larger than the Death Knight we had dealt with earlier.

This time wielding a spear instead of a sword.

No wonder the test wasn’t ending.

“There’s still more?”

I couldn’t help but sigh.

**

‘Hehehe. Let’s see you try to take this one down too.’

Nigel stared at the screen on the orb with a malicious expression.

On the screen, a mounted Death Knight that Nigel had only recently succeeded in summoning was displaying its magnificence.

A skeleton horse surrounded by green flames and its rider, a Death Knight wielding a spear.

He wished all those academy brats could have seen this majestic and splendid sight.

“Tsk.”

Nigel clicked his tongue at the fact that he couldn’t show the brilliant mounted Death Knight to the academy students.

Since he had been strictly ordered from above not to show it, Nigel had no choice but to dismantle the magic that was broadcasting in real-time.

In other words, only the four students currently facing the mounted Death Knight could see this sight.

“Kuhehehehe.”

With a malicious laugh, Nigel stared intently at the black-haired student.

Everything was because of that guy.

It was understandable that he could defeat the ghouls.

With enough skill, even students could easily eliminate groups of ghouls.

But he hadn’t expected the Death Knight.

When all the ghouls were defeated, he had deliberately sent the Death Knight toward where the first-year students were to deal with them all at once, but…

‘Die, you insolent bastard.’

That black-haired guy had mercilessly crushed the Death Knight.

Despite the fact that the Death Knight would repeatedly resurrect until its hidden core somewhere in its body was destroyed.

It seemed that although he didn’t know the location of the core, he had stomped on it so much that the core broke.

Nigel was furious as he watched the scene in real-time.

Do you know how many sacrifices were needed to summon just one Death Knight?

Even though he had deployed the Death Knight that required the least resources, he never expected it to be destroyed.

“Die, die!!! Kehehehehe!”

Nigel was shouting, unable to contain his excitement.

He desperately wanted to kill that guy who had destroyed one of his precious Death Knights.

“I’ll make you my sacrifice. Hehehe.”

Nigel thought that the black-haired guy might be even better than the six noble family heirs who were the original targets.

He hadn’t expected much since he heard the guy was a commoner, but he was surprisingly strong.

Although the quality might be inferior to the blood of the six noble families, with that level of strength, he could be useful somewhere.

‘Hehe. Consider it an honor to become a stepping stone for the revolution.’

The smile never left Nigel’s face.

The mounted Death Knight was several times stronger than a regular Death Knight.

Not only was the knight itself strong, but the green-flamed horse was just as powerful.

Nigel wanted to see the power of the mounted Death Knight, which he had never deployed in battle before.

Whoosh-

As if reading Nigel’s mind, the horse surrounded by green flames began to gallop quickly.

Directly toward the students.

As the horse charged toward its target, the knight swung its spear in the air.

Clang-

And soon, a sharp metallic sound spread.

Nigel’s smile naturally bloomed at the tingling metallic sound of the spear and sword colliding.

The black-haired guy barely blocked the Death Knight’s spear and was sent flying far away.

‘It’s not even comparable to that guy from earlier. Hehe.’

Nigel kept twitching the corners of his mouth, intoxicated by the strength of his summon, focusing on the screen.

He looked just like a madman.

In the organization known as “The Nameless” among its members, Nigel was quite famous.

The Crazy Black Magician.

It was Nigel’s nickname, composed only of words he really liked.

Whoosh-

Having sent the black-haired guy flying far away with one strike, the Death Knight was preparing for the next attack.

‘It moves as one with the horse.’

Even in his excitement, Nigel was analyzing the movements of the mounted Death Knight.

It would be good if he could collect combat data up close, but since that wasn’t possible, he needed to focus more.

This was the first time he had successfully summoned and deployed it in battle, so Nigel was curious too.

Just how powerful would the mounted Death Knight be, requiring five times more sacrifices than a regular Death Knight?

‘Originally, it wasn’t meant to be used against mere students.’

According to the plan, it would have been used to capture the attention of professors inside the academy.

“Yes! Run! Kill them all!”

Nigel cheered for the Death Knight in the video with a shout that no one could hear.

Whoosh-

The Death Knight quickly changed direction and this time charged at the blonde student, Sinclair.

‘It would be more beneficial to keep that one alive and bring her back, but it can’t be helped.’

Nigel was confident that even though Elaine had drawn her sword, she wouldn’t be able to block the Death Knight’s attack.

Clang-

“Wh…what? When?”

But the metallic sound rang out.

For a moment, one of Nigel’s eyebrows twitched sharply.

As Nigel had predicted, Elaine couldn’t block the Death Knight’s attack.

Instead, the black-haired guy who had been sent flying earlier blocked it for her.

Somehow, he had appeared in front of Sinclair and caught the spear.

Moreover, this time he wasn’t sent flying.

‘Grrrr.’

This action alone further fueled Nigel’s anger.

That black-haired guy had blocked the attack again.

Until this point, Nigel hadn’t even considered the possibility that the mounted Death Knight might lose.

He was just annoyed that the black-haired guy was resisting.