Ch.367367 – The Secret of Another Daily Quest Dungeon

<367 – The Secret of Another Daily Quest Dungeon>

After enhancing Morb’s armor, I also enhanced my assignment box, which turned out to be quite useful for stealth.

For a +5 enhanced treasure with only one detection nullification function, it’s pretty decent!

“Huh? Why is there a box here…?”

“Idiot, don’t touch it!”

Students who happened to encounter me wearing the box showed curiosity, but were quickly stopped by others who warned them away.

“What if it’s a contract scammer Valocassio disguising a contract as a box? How dare you touch it without fear?”

“Gasp! I never imagined such a cruel method existed. Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for it before?”

“No. But I saw a passing sophomore remove a notice from the wall, then the contract flashed, and with a scream, they were forcibly teleported somewhere and disappeared.”

“That’s insane…”

That wasn’t Senior Valocassio, but the student council.

“That wasn’t Senior Valocassio, but the student council!”

I popped my head out from the box and delivered this information exactly as I thought it, causing the students to scream.

“A person came out of the box!!”

“Oh my god. It’s Oknodie! She might force a contract on us. Run!!”

“…”

With the judgment and survival instincts these classmates showed as they screamed and fled, they’ll definitely make it to sophomore year.

See you next year!

[You surprised a passing freshman by jumping out of a surprise box.]

[Stealth Experience +1]

[Intimidation Experience +1]

[Due to perfect concealment, a student mistook your surprise box for an assignment submission box and submitted their weekly assignment.]

[Deception Experience +1]

[A cleaning maid who found the assignment submission box was impressed by how many assignments were submitted today and carried the box to the storage area.]

[Deception Experience +1]

[You slipped an assignment that Titosoga had mistakenly put in their bag back into the proper place because they couldn’t complete it.]

[Concealment Experience +1]

[Good Child Experience +1]

Even after passing the freshmen, I continued diligently earning concealment experience.

Today was another productive day!

As I was about to wrap up after spending time between lectures working on my skills, I spotted Jona passing through the corridor.

Wow, Jona!

I was about to take off the box and rush over, but I hesitated.

Come to think of it…

Jona was a good target for skill grinding.

He hasn’t been a professor for long.

He’d give professor-level experience points.

But he’s less experienced in professor stuff.

And he probably doesn’t have the dangerous mindset of trying to recruit skilled students as graduate students.

-Oh my. Do you want to catch and throw our test subjects too? You’re more than welcome. Having a slave who will faithfully provide compensation for damages would make the lab’s resources abundant.

-I was actually troubled by not having a practice partner for my newly developed high-speed sword technique, Hyper Tempest. How fortunate, strength monster. I’ll handle you just enough so you don’t die. Dodge my sword a thousand times and I’ll let you go.

-A student’s body is so resilient… ah.

Just remembering those professors is painful!

Compared to them, Jona is a safe asset with no risk of getting caught and suffering while grinding skills on professors!

‘Huh? Why is his route like this?’

Unlike the usual paths professors take between their offices, classrooms, and quarters, Jona’s route was extremely unusual.

He visited the sophomore biology lab, checked the dead end of the junior exclusive corridor, passed through the senior passage, stopped by the faculty lounge, then headed toward the training hall.

Walking with steps whose purpose I couldn’t determine, he strolled around the academy as if sightseeing, but there was no expectation or hesitation about unfamiliar environments in his steps.

At each place he visited, he mechanically inserted his hand into the wall and pulled it out several times, as if performing a necessary task.

Finally, when he entered a hidden passage, I was startled.

‘Ah! That’s the daily quest dungeon that only players know about!?’

For some reason, it was the daily quest dungeon <Abandoned Laboratory> filled with high-value materials and golems guarding them.

I used to go in and out aiming for the automatically respawning laboratory resources or golem defeat experience points every week.

Reminiscing about old times, I put on my box and followed stealthily, when I suddenly bumped into someone in midair.

“Ouch.”

“!?”

“Eek! How dangerous to pull out a dagger first thing!”

Appearing from thin air like spreading paint was Zhang, the owner of advanced stealth skills.

It’s truly amazing that he can demonstrate such stealth without any treasure’s help, using just his body.

Though he was wearing a mask as if something unpleasant had happened, as always, his mood seemed to improve quickly as we chatted.

“Want to go in together?”

“Sure.”

Taking off the stuffy mask, we entered the daily quest dungeon together, and I noticed the security devices had significantly increased in difficulty compared to usual.

Rather than “abandoned,” it felt more like a laboratory whose “owner had returned” – lights came on and devices reactivated, with magical reactions felt from all directions.

“Don’t you think we’ll get caught?”

“Yeah! Does Jona know this place? Is it some secret hideout of the Foundation?”

So all this time when I was doing daily quests, I was actually raiding a Foundation hideout!

I feel newly grateful to Papa.

Even before he became my Papa, the Foundation provided daily resources – truly a wonderful organization.

“Laser sensors. Can you get across?”

Zhang crossed the laser sensors with a flash step, the assassin’s movement technique that covers distance in the blink of an eye.

After I lightly jumped over with practiced acrobatics, Zhang nodded as if he expected I could follow.

“Ah, mimic stair trap!”

“…I can recognize those from experiencing them endlessly in Professor Bronze’s treasure vault basement stairs.”

After I avoided the mimic stairs first, Zhang jumped up lightly and landed gracefully beside me.

Curious if he had studied well, I jumped over several non-mimic stairs too, but he cleverly avoided the mimic stairs at his own pace rather than just following me.

After taking turns avoiding security magic and traps, we finally reached the inner door beyond the abandoned laboratory corridor.

Guarding the door was a very large golem.

When playing the game, golems would roar and charge recklessly at mere eye contact, but strangely, this time they just stared at us blankly.

“Oknodie.”

“What?”

“They have stealth detection.”

Zhang, making eye contact with the golem, couldn’t hide his embarrassment.

He probably didn’t want to engage in combat in a place where Jona was clearly inside.

It’s a natural attitude since stealth tracking works best when the target remains unaware for a long time.

“But it’s strange. New traps have appeared that weren’t here before, so why aren’t the golems attacking?”

“Weren’t here before… Have you been here before?”

“Yes! Sometimes lecture preparation materials spawn here.”

“That’s unfair.”

“Hehe. Thrifty, right?”

“That’s not a compliment.”

But the golem is really strange.

It was definitely an aggressive mob before, so why isn’t it attacking?

Since our stealth was already detected anyway, I walked right up and poked it with my finger.

A voice came from the golem’s vocal mechanism.

“Beep. Unauthorized visitor not registered on the official list. This is a dangerous facility, please turn back.”

“Wow. It even gives warnings.”

“How was it before?”

“It kicked me as soon as we made eye contact!”

“…I wouldn’t want to face such a golem.”

Unlike the golem pet I rode during Professor Platton’s advanced physical training test in the first semester midterms, the laboratory guardian golem looks more human-like and has a sharper feel.

Its combat power must be far superior to stone golems that just use any random rocks as their bodies.

“Will it attack if we go in?”

“Beep. Intruders under 150cm in height will not be attacked according to special rules entered by the previous user.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Beep. You do not have permission to hear the answer to that question.”

“Golems don’t usually go ‘beep,’ so why are you doing that?”

“Beep. It is a language habit mimicking human onomatopoeia to buy time during computation processing.”

Come to think of it, they used to just attack without any dialogue before, never opening their mouths to speak.

It’s fun to learn new settings even though we’re in the same academy – it feels fresh each time.

I wonder if Dragon Principal has been serving as principal for hundreds of years with this same feeling?

“Who is the previous user?”

“Beep. [Data Censored], [Data Censored], [Data Censored] – these three individuals.”

“Looks like they erased the records.”

At Zhang’s words, I puffed my cheeks.

“That’s unfair.”

“Complaining to me won’t get you anything but encryption.”

Zhang, who had slipped a shuriken from his sleeve, looked up at the golem as if assessing it.

“Should I stab it?”

“Let’s just go in!”

If it doesn’t mind us entering, there’s no need to fight.

When I flung open the laboratory door, Jona’s back appeared, hands behind his back, staring at the lab bench.

‘What should we do?’

‘…Close it.’

Voices exchanged through glances!

As I was quietly trying to close the door again, Jona spoke.

“I disabled the laboratory’s soundproofing as I entered. Next time, please check security device changes more carefully, even in familiar places.”

[You’ve been caught in Jona’s trap and your tracking game has been exposed.]

[No skill experience gain will occur.]

“Ugh. We’ve been caught.”

Though I didn’t get what I wanted, unlike Zhang who had completely stiffened, I became more curious.

“How do you know this place, Jona?”

“Because this hideout was created by me.”

“By you?”

“I too was once a student at Gift Academy. Now I should be called a graduate.”

“A graduate actually exists from this crazy academy…?”

While Zhang expressed shock, seeing Jona’s skills makes it somewhat understandable, giving him a complicated expression.