Chapter 56 : Students Joining Through ELT

“Valos Tarodum!”

‘Seriously, of all places, there are four Mummy Warriors where I landed!’

The Nightmare Pyramid had a structure that looked like an upside-down pyramid.

In other words, the first floor dungeon was the widest, and the lower you went, the narrower it became.

Because of that, the monster density increased the lower you went.

You could tell just by the fact that on the first floor you didn’t run into a single monster, but the moment you descended, you were immediately surrounded.

‘Duren, sorry to ask, but can you kill all four Mummy Warriors at once with the Hundred-Stepped Spear? Even if you cut off their heads, they won’t die. You have to destroy the topaz staff located along their spines.’

‘No problem. Leave it to me!’

I quickly pulled the Moonglaive out of my subspace pouch and handed over control of my body to Duren.

Duren immediately dodged the Mummy Warriors’ attacks, lowered his body in a swift motion, and elegantly swung the Moonglaive.

Hundred-Stepped Spear: Crescent Slash.

Slash!

Honestly, Mummy Warriors were just fodder mobs inside the Nightmare Pyramid, but in lower dungeons, they were practically considered mid-boss level, so I had been anxious — but thankfully, Duren finished them off in a single blow.

If even one Mummy Shaman had been mixed in with that group, it would’ve been hell for sure.

I couldn’t help but feel relieved.

At any rate, after securing at least a minimal safe zone, I immediately activated Constellation Ritual to check on the situation with Vex and Zeke Wolftail.

Even the dungeon’s outer walls — which boasted a hardness even Inkshadow couldn’t pierce — couldn’t block the reach of the Constellation Ritual.

“Ahhh! What, what have I done? Right, the ELT! I need to use the ELT! Vex, hurry and use the ELT to call the instructor!”

“I’ve already activated the ELT.

Thanks to this, we’re almost guaranteed to place last, but that’s not even the real problem.

ELT transmits coordinates based on the device’s location, but since Sunghoon has fallen to a completely different floor, we may not be able to go rescue him right away.”

Just as Vex said, since the ELT transmitted coordinates based on the device, it wasn’t easy to cover those who got separated from the group.

Despite quite a bit of time having passed since the ELT was activated, no instructor had arrived.

Since we sent a distress signal from the first floor, even an instructor without teleportation magic should have been able to reach us immediately — but there was no response at all.

At this point, I began to suspect that all these events weren’t just coincidences, but part of someone’s deliberate scheme.

Yet before I could dwell on it, someone completely unexpected appeared.

It was none other than Iris, leading Abel and Stella with her.

“We received a distress signal through the ELT. What exactly happened here?”

“Ah, we’re saved! Lady Iris, it’s like this — Kim Sunghoon fell into a dungeon trap and plummeted to a lower floor.

So we immediately activated the ELT, but no instructor came.

I know they’re busy with the dungeon exercise, but… could you please help us?”

“You’re saying Kim Sunghoon is isolated alone on a lower floor of the dungeon!?

Please explain more in detail, Zeke.

Right now, the dungeon training isn’t the priority.

If we can just figure out exactly which floor he’s on, we’ll go rescue him immediately.”

“Hold on! Iris, wait a second.

I get that it’s a dangerous situation, but why the hell are losers like you even inside an S-rank dungeon like the Nightmare Pyramid?

There’s a limit to recklessness!

Do you even realize how dangerous this dungeon is?

Even we can only manage to clear one floor a day!

If you end up putting yourself in danger while trying to save that Kim Sunghoon guy, are you going to take responsibility?”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down, Stella.

I agree that pushing into a dungeon beyond your level was reckless, but still — if a classmate’s in danger, isn’t it natural to help?

That said, right now we don’t have enough information.

Could you please explain the situation more clearly, following the who-what-where-when-why-how principle?”

As Stella Darkbane nearly looked ready to stab Zeke in fury, Abel Celerime quickly stepped in to mediate.

Thus, Zeke Wolftail, looking visibly intimidated, explained in detail how they ended up entering the Nightmare Pyramid and described all the incidents that occurred over the first, second, and third days.

“Survival points… I’ve heard senior students mention that kind of thing before, but I can’t believe you actually used it like this.

I’ll give you points for creativity, but it ultimately led to the worst outcome.

I don’t know how many floors Kim Sunghoon has fallen through, but even for us, surviving alone in the Nightmare Pyramid would be nearly impossible.

Rather than trying to rescue him ourselves, it would be better to call an instructor as soon as possible.

Since ELTs (Emergency Locator Transmitters) can communicate with each other inside the dungeon but not necessarily outside, there’s a chance the devices might be malfunctioning.

Why don’t we try using our ELT?”

“Abel, what are you talking about!? You know how huge the penalty points are for using an ELT! Why should we sacrifice ourselves for these idiots?”

“Stella, you’ve done an outstanding job over the past three days carrying out reconnaissance missions.

If it weren’t for you, we probably would’ve been swarmed by monsters and run out of supplies.

Of course it’s frustrating that all your hard work could be undone by circumstances beyond our control.

But Kim Sunghoon doesn’t have a contracted Constellation, and he’s not as strong as we are.

Right now, he’s probably trembling in fear somewhere deep in the dungeon.

Once we save him, I’ll put in everything I have to earn enough dungeon clearing points to more than offset the penalty points.

Please — just this once, could you be a little lenient?”

“I-I mean… if you’re asking so sincerely, Iris… I guess I have no choice…”

When Iris grasped both of Stella’s hands and pleaded earnestly, Stella’s face turned red.

Seeing this unexpected shift in tone — so different from how Iris usually acted — Abel cleared his throat awkwardly and said:

“Ahem! Then I’ll take that as agreement and activate the ELT.”

“Wait, stop!”

Unexpectedly, it wasn’t Iris who interrupted, but Abel himself as he pulled out the ELT and prepared to activate it — and a warm, spring-like voice stopped him.

At first, they thought it might be an instructor finally arriving.

But emerging from the darkness in the distance were none other than Senior Division Rank 4, Archer Neriel.

And standing beside her was a massive, muscular man whose head almost touched the dungeon ceiling — even without seeing his face, they could tell from his build alone that he was Senior Division Rank 3, Warrior Grumble.

“Senior Neriel! Wh-What brings you here?”

“It’s been a while, Iris Lunai. The last time we met was during the Summer Martial Arts Festival, right?”

“Ah… I’m sorry for declining the invitation to your homeworld back then.”

“Don’t worry about something like that.

More importantly, I have pretty good ears, you know.

I heard everything you guys were talking about from afar.

We’re not here for the dungeon training; we just came to update our record, so we’ll use our ELT.

Honestly, I think they shouldn’t deduct points for using the ELT in emergency situations like this, but since there are some instructors who lack flexibility, let’s do this by the book.

Also, one of our party members went missing too.”

“What? You mean someone from your party went missing as well?”

“Yeah, we’ve got a reckless idiot who wouldn’t listen and ran off on his own, falling into a trap.

But don’t worry too much.

That guy could survive even if he were dropped onto the boss floor.

As I mentioned earlier, we’ve already cleared the Nightmare Pyramid once before.

We just challenged it a second time because we wanted to break the graduation record.

Well, now that the situation’s like this, setting a new record is out of the question.”

The “reckless idiot” Neriel mentioned was likely Sword Saint Dokgo Yujin, ranked 2nd in the Senior Division.

Realistically speaking, he was the strongest student in the Pantheon Academy, but due to his terrible sense of direction, he often ended up separated from his party.

Anyway, Neriel, considerate of Iris, activated their own ELT.

Surprisingly, as soon as she did, a flash of lightning crackled in midair, and an instructor with dreadlocks and a headset popped out of nowhere.

It was so fast that you could believe he had been hiding nearby under invisibility, waiting to rush over the moment the button was pressed.

“Yo, Yo, Yo! Did these lovely little fledglings call for me? No matter how dangerous the situation is, now that MC Neon is here, you can put all your worries to rest!”

“So today’s dungeon training supervisor was Instructor Neon. That’s a relief. With your psychic abilities, finding the missing student should be much easier. Would you like a situation report?”

“No, No, No! I’ll figure it out myself using my psychometry ability, so no need to waste your breath. Seeing is believing, right? I’ll check it out firsthand.”

The instructor who called himself MC Neon suddenly got down on all fours like a dog and began rubbing the floor like a club DJ.

It might have looked ridiculous, but Instructor Neon was not only the academy’s sole psychic abilities instructor, he was also a member of the Disciplinary Committee (which included the tiger beastman Instructor Atrox).

That alone proved how outstanding his psychometry was.

Before long, his expression visibly darkened.