chapter_0022

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
22

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
22

As someone thoroughly
corrupted by the game, I have memorised almost all the maps of the
dungeons from the Soul Academy.

Naturally, I also remember the
locations of all the traps in the dungeons.

The one I’m targeting is the
Teleportation Trap in Evans Dungeon.

You know, the kind found in
RPG games that forcibly sends you to a lower floor.

There’s one just like that in
Evans Dungeon.

To be precise, it randomly
teleports you to a place on the lowest floor.

I’m planning to use this trap
to separate myself from Possell and Ferby.

Of course, those two are
absurdly strong monsters, so they would break through the floors and
come down in no time.

So, from the moment I step on
the trap, it becomes a race to see who finds whom first—whether
they find me or I enter Ruel’s Trial first.

To do that, I need to take
Karl with me.

If I fall to the lowest floor
alone, I might get caught by Possell while fighting goblins.

Even if I’m found after the
trial, I can just make an excuse by saying I was looking for Karl and
stumbled onto the trial.

The situation isn’t bad.

Possell entrusted me with
command today as well.

Thanks to my near-perfect
leadership the whole day yesterday, Possell trusts me.

He thinks that whatever
slightly odd command I give must have a purpose.

Usually, such trust would be
burdensome, but not now.

I could fully utilise this
trust.

In order to earn Possell’s
trust, I made not a single mistake while navigating the first floor.

As a result, even when I chose
a path that wasn’t the correct one after entering the second floor,
Possell didn’t scold me.Instead, he even seemed pleased about my
mistake.

Maybe he thought he finally
had something to teach me.

Well, whatever he was
thinking, I managed to lead them to the Teleportation Trap on the
second floor.

As soon as we reached the
vicinity of the trap, I gave commands to the knights as usual and
observed their reactions.

Does anyone among them know
about the Teleportation Trap?

If they did, they would
definitely warn me. Unlike other traps, the Teleportation Trap
activates the moment you step on it.

In other words, no matter how
strong the knights are, even they cannot deal with a Teleportation
Trap once it’s triggered.

From their perspective, having
me isolated by a trap would be the worst possible scenario.

Despite this, none of them
mentioned anything about the trap to me.

Are they watching to see if I
can detect it myself?

I doubt it.

If they intended to give me
that much freedom, they wouldn’t have stopped me from entering the
dungeon alone with Karl.

It’s clear.

They don’t know about the
trap.

That’s why they didn’t warn
me even as I stood right next to it.

Now, the task is to get rid of
Possell and Ferby.

If those two get caught in the
trap with me, I won’t be able to sneak into Ruel’s Trial.

Fortunately, I have a way to
deal with them. Obviously, because right now I am the commander.

‘Ferby. Possell.’

“Bald Knight. Foolish
Possell.”

I sent Ferby and Possell ahead
under the pretext of dealing with the monsters.

Up ahead, waiting for them, is
a group of about ten goblins.

It should take them roughly
ten seconds to handle those goblins.

As the two knights moved away,
Karl naturally approached by my side.

He probably intends to guard
me while they’re gone.

The situation was set.

The moment they started
fighting, I stepped on the Teleportation Trap.

Puff.

The trap activated instantly,
emitting a faint light from the floor.

Looking down, I could see a
complex magic circle with intricate patterns.

Even in the game, I always
thought the effect was overly fancy, but seeing it in reality is
something else.

As I frowned at it, the light
suddenly intensified and burst into a flash.

“Argh!”

Ugh. My eyes…

Why does a mere teleportation
trap have to blind you as well?

“Miss! Are you alright?!”

It took a few seconds of
rubbing my eyes before I could finally see again.

Karl’s face was way too close,
pressing in unnecessarily.

Ugh. What is he doing? This is
so invasive.

After pushing his bothersome
face away with my hand, I looked around.

Judging by the colour of the
walls, it seemed certain that we had fallen to the Lowest Floor.

From the moss on the ground,
the paths around us, and the shape of the walls…

I think I have a rough idea of
where we are.

We’re in luck.

This is near the location of
Ruel’s Trial.

“Miss?!”

‘I can hear you, Karl.’

“Sloppy. You don’t have
to yell for your awful voice to be heard, you know?”

“I’m sorry, Miss. But are
you alright?”

‘I’m fine.’

“Can’t you tell by
looking?”

Only after hearing my response
did Karl exhale a sigh of relief, then tried to look as reliable as
possible as he spoke.

“Don’t worry, Miss. I
don’t know where we are, but I, Karl, will absolutely protect you!”

Hmm. I guess it’s about time
to explain things to Karl.

Finding the hidden location of
Ruel’s Trial is one thing, but since I have to face it alone…

If I suddenly disappear, he
might get flustered, so it’s better to explain the situation
beforehand.

I’ve thought about how to make
an excuse.

I can blame it on a blessing.

In this world, gods are real,
so saying I received a revelation usually solves most problems!

I can just say a god appeared
in my dream and told me about Ruel’s Trial.

It doesn’t matter if Karl
believes me or not.

Once I enter Ruel’s Trial, he
won’t have a choice but to believe it.

“First, let’s figure out
where we are.”

‘Karl.’

“Hey, Sloppy.”

“Yes?”

‘Calm down. I triggered the
trap on purpose.’

“I triggered the trap on
purpose, so don’t make a fuss.”

“…Oh. On purpose?”

When I roughly explained to
Karl that I received a blessing and was given a revelation that I
need to take a trial, he surprisingly nodded along without any
objection.

“I see. A revelation, you
say?”

Even though it was my plan, is
it okay for him to believe me this easily?

Talking about gods and
revelations is a bit unrealistic, isn’t it?

I thought he might object at
least once.

‘Do you believe me?’

“You believe me?”

“How could I doubt your
words, Miss?”

His serious reply made me
frown for a moment. He probably thought it was a cool line, but from
my perspective, it was a bit gross.

I should have known not to say
something like an oath of loyalty to this guy.

Judging from my expression,
Karl added a half-joking comment afterward.

“And it makes sense why
you seemed unusually knowledgeable about this dungeon if you received
a revelation.”

Oh. So that’s how he
interpreted it?

Well, I knew everything about
the dungeon, so I cleared it, but to them, it must have seemed odd.

But if I say it was a divine
revelation, that explains it away.

I was just doing my best as an
experienced player, but who knew it would result in this…

…It was all part of my plan!
Probably!

“If you brought only me
here, I assume it’s not something you want others to know about.”

‘Yes, that’s correct.’

“You catch on quickly for
someone sloppy.”

“Haha. It’s because I’m
your knight, Miss.”

Thanks to Karl’s willingness
to understand, I saved time explaining everything.

Possell and Ferby must be
coming down furiously right now, so every minute counts.

I need to enter Ruel’s Trial
quickly.

‘Let’s move, Karl.’

“Sloppy, let’s go. No
time to waste.”

“Understood Miss, please
show me the way.”

As we proceeded through the
lowest floor with Karl, I felt relieved that I had brought him along.

Evans’s dungeon is of medium
size, so there aren’t many branches.

Thus, finding a place to
escape the monsters is difficult.

If a monster blocks the path,
we have no choice but to deal with it and move forward.

No matter if it’s Evans’s
dungeon, the lowest floor is still the lowest floor.

The goblins here don’t come in
ones or twos but in hordes.

Had I been alone, I would have
been caught by Possell and Ferby coming down from above while
fighting goblins, before I could even reach the place of Ruel’s
Trial.

But with Karl, I don’t have to
worry about that.

With a bus driver who can
clear the incoming goblins with one swing of a sword, it’s indeed
convenient.

Thanks to him, I managed to
reach the place of Ruel’s Trial in just a few minutes.

There stood a statue of a
knight.

The hands which should have
been holding weapons were empty, probably because the goblins had
stolen them.

The right arm was so broken
that it was almost unrecognisable.

The outer surface was dingy
and discoloured.

Cracks ran through the statue,
making it look as if it would crumble if you so much as touched it.

“Is this the place you
were looking for, Miss?”

‘You knew?’

“What? Sloppy Karl, you
knew?”

“Yes, this is the statue
of the Paladin Ruel.”

So, the knights did know about
this statue. Those guys have been in and out of the dungeon more than
a few times, so it’d be weirder if they didn’t know.

“Is there something
hidden here?”

‘Yes. Look closely.’

“Yeah, I’m looking. There
is something hidden here that you can’t even imagine, you sloppy
guy.”

I clasped my hands in front of
the statue.

In the game, you’d have to
find the trigger and come to this statue to get the option, but not
now.

This isn’t a game, and I’m not
a character in a game.

I closed my eyes and recalled
the line the character in the game would recite.

‘Having come here with a
single belief. Ruel. I wish to be tested for my belief by you.’

With a creaking sound, Ruel’s
statue moved, revealing a staircase leading downwards.

Whew.
I’m glad I didn’t have to say the lines out loud.

If I had to speak, the
Mesugaki skill would have made it come out all weird.

Then the statue might not have
moved at all.

“So this was hidden
here.”

Karl exclaimed in wonder as he
saw the newly revealed staircase.

It must be surprising to find
something hidden in a place you thought you knew.

I pushed the curious Karl
aside while looking at the staircase and spoke.

‘Karl. Please go elsewhere for
a moment.’

“Sloppy, please move aside
for a moment.”

“Pardon? But Miss…”

‘Otherwise, they’ll know I
went in for a trial.’

“Sloppy. Can’t you
think? If you stay here, they’ll find out I went inside.”

I want to secretly take the
trial and return quietly.

You might easily believe the
divine revelation story, but there are definitely people who
wouldn’t.

To avoid suspicion from such
people, it’s easier to say I stumbled into a trial while wandering
the dungeon by chance.

But if you’re standing here,
they’ll know I deliberately went in for a trial.

So, would you kindly just move
somewhere else for now?

“When you come out later,
you might be attacked by monsters.”

‘That won’t happen,
because…’

“Sloppy, think about it.
By then, Possell the idiot would have smashed them all. Do you think
those weak goblins would still be alive?”

If there are any goblins left
alive, it would be something pretending to be a goblin.

Karl couldn’t refute what I
said. He probably thinks the same.

After explaining to Karl how
he should respond, I stepped onto the stairs leading to the trial.

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