Chapter 51: 48 – The assassin and the mid-term exams [3]

As soon as I entered the dungeon, I was greeted with a dark space. Stalactites on the equally dark ceiling hung over my head, dripping water down onto me.

I was rather annoyed by it.

Putting my annoyance asides for now, I reached for the area surrounding me. Feeling murky and damp texture of the stone wall, I muttered.

"It's a cave... What did I even expect from the place called <Ant's nest>?"

Despite that, however, I was somewhat caught off-guard that the dungeon was a cave-type one.

After all, the novel spent only a single paragraph stating that some unexpected events happened and Kasumi died while protecting Eleanor from the boss monster at the end of the dungeon, and that Ria was the one that killed the boss.

Hell, it didn't even mention what the boss monster was.

The rest of the chapters was just dedicated to showing Arthur strolling through the <D> ranked dungeon, proving that he was indeed very powerful.

'As if he hasn't proven himself enough already'

After standing still in my spot for 30 more seconds, I frowned as no one else was coming in.

"...Is the entrance randomized?"

That would be the only explanation, as I was fairly certain that a few other students were right behind me as I ran into the dungeon.

Pausing my thoughts there, I once again focused on my main objective.

'First, I'll have to find Kasumi'

<[Spark]>

Currents of red lightning gathered on the tip of my finger, making crackling sound while illuminating the space around me.

"Let's just hope I don't run into much troubles"
...

Swish—! Spurt—!

-KRIEKKKK!

An <Armored ant> shrieked as I thrusted my sword into its underside.

"Keep it down!", I shouted as I twisted my sword, causing even more internal damage to it.

Immediately after, electricity danced on my blade and creeped into the ant's insides.

Bzzzzt—! Crackle—!

-KRIEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

And of course, it had to make more noises than before.

Luckily for my eardrums, the screech soon stopped as the ant was fried from the inside.

Pulling my sword out and looking at its melted blade, I clicked my tongue and threw it away.

"How many have it been now?", I muttered as if sighing. "14? 15?"

I wasn't counting the number of ants I've defeated. Instead, it was the number of swords I've thrown away.

These ant bastards had an extremely annoying trait. They literally explode into strong acid as soon as they died.

As such, the best way to kill them was to target the acid-producing organ directly. Furthermore, frying the ants from the inside with lightning can also reduce the chance of acid spewing all over my face.

Not just that, the upper parts of the ants were covered in, you guessed it, extremely hard armor. Hence, the name <Armored ant>.

Thus, if anyone wanted to defeat them with cold weapons, they'd have to target their squishy undersides.

'I should have practiced with a spear...', I sighed inwardly, as spears had the range to deal with these ants efficiently.

Despite not having the optimal weapon for these monsters, however, I've already killed 29 of them. And during the 2 hours I spent doing so, I haven't came across anyone.

"...Am I alone in this dungeon?"

Cra- Crack—!

As if the dungeon was responding to my stupid question, the ground cracked apart.

"Wha— AHHHHHHH!"

Before I got the chance to figure out what was going on, the rocky ground below me crumbled into pieces, sending me down into the seemingly bottomless pit.

Of course, I didn't want to fall to my death. As such, I gathered Wind mana into my hand, and casted.

<[Wind burst]>

Pressurized air shot out from my hand, slowing my descent down considerably.

I didn't use [Wind burst] to send myself flying up to where I was before, as I was fairly certain that the first layer, or at least the part where I was on, was destroyed.

In fact, judging by how long I was falling, it was safe to assume that every grounds that were directly below me got destroyed, except for the one at the last layer.

'The Darkest night really went all out with this, huh?'

Although this dungeon was ranked <E>, it was a floor-type dungeon. As such, the last layer was probably ranked <D>.

Because of that, the last layer was usually used to conduct classes for 3rd years.

'How did Ria even clear it', I wondered, as the boss monster had to be at least <C> ranked.

I couldn't think about it any further though, as—

"AHHHHHHH!"

—Something, or someone screamed and clung to my legs as I was slowly descending down.

"Get off me!", I shouted.

But upon seeing a familiar pair of purple eyes, I immediately corrected myself. "On second thoughts, just keep doing that"

"Brace for impact!", I shouted.

THUD—!

Without a loud thud, we landed on the last layer of the dungeon.

As we were both around <E> rank, the fall didn't really do much damage to us, especially when my Wind magic slowed down the fall.

Dusting the, well, dust off my clothes, I looked down onto the student who was still holding onto my legs for her dear life.

"How long are you going to do that for?"

Hearing this, the student, whose identity was Kasumi, looked around with teary eyes, before removing her hands from me and immediately stood up.

"Keum!", she faked a cough. "What a coincident, to think that you fell too"

Shaking my head at her shamelessness, I ignored her statement and directly asked her. "Did 'Arlenoe' tell you that this would happen?"

Frowning, Kasumi answered. "No. Lord Arlenoe just told me to observe you and listen to your orders"

'So Eleanor's not so stupid as to let others know about the 'future'... good'

<[Spark]>

Illuminating the area around me, and eventually finding a pathway, I called out to Kasumi, who was looking at my fingertip with a frightened expression.

"Follow me. We need to locate the exit"
...

"..."

"..."

"Are you sure? Can you repeat that for me?", I eyed the male student in front of me suspiciously.

Kasumi and I were looking for the exit when we came across a student who was hugging his knees and bawling his eyes out on a corner.

Still gazing up at me with teary eyes, he replied. "Yes... Me and my other friend found the exit but it was blocked by extremely hard wood. A- And Ryan... he got... by the ants...."

He then proceeded to cry again

'This is a problem...'

 Not the part where his friend died of course. I couldn't care less about that.

Instead, it was because there was no feasible way something like wood would appear in this place, since <Armored ants> were a mix of termites and ants. As such, even the hardest <Ice wood> wouldn't last a day in here.

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Pausing my thoughts there, I looked at the student, who had stopped sobbing by now.

"..."

"..."

"My name's Brian, but you can call me Bigsnake"

"I didn't ask but okay"

Much to Bigsnake's surprise I grabbed him by his hand immediately after saying that and made him stand up.

"Lead us to the exit, won't you?"

Shaking from fear, Bigsnake stuttered. "B- But the ants! T- They'll kill us!"

Frowning at this, I signal for Kasumi to help.

Sighing, she walked up to Bigsnake and patted him on the head.

"Come on Brian, tell us. Although this guy-", she pointed to me. "-is merely an <F-> rank, I'm an <E+> rank myself, so I can defeat the ants with ease. And don't you want to avenge Ryan?"

Hearing this, Bigsnake's eyes turned fiery as he had a look of determination on his face.

He then pointed to the South. "That way!"
...

"So he was telling the truth...", I muttered as there were really wood blocking the exit.

Not just the exit, entire room was filled with wood and roots which pulsated along the walls like veins.

And there was a dry and unrecognizable corpse in the middle of the room. Roots sprouted from it, and were still moving slowly into the ground.

The corpse probably was once the student called Ryan.

Luckily, Kasumi covered Bigsnake's face in time. We couldn't risk him having a mental breakdown in this kind of place after all.

Carefully walking to the entrance, I drew my sword and slashed at the wood.

THUD—!

With a thud, the sword bounced right off it.

'It's definitely hard, alright'

<The second movement of [V - World splitter]: Rupturing thrust>

Riiiip—! THUD—!

And, as expected, my sword bounced off the wood again.

'Why do everything have to be protected by mana?', I cursed inwardly.

Despite two consecutive failures, however, I wasn't about to give up just yet.

<[Lighting spear]>

bzzzzzt—! BOOM—!

Kasumi probably flinched upon seeing the spear materialize. She might have developed a PTSD of my Lighting spell but I didn't have time to dwell on that thought for long, as I was busy cursing at the wood before me.

"Fuck you! Why can I never take the easy way out!"

Kicking the ground once more in annoyance, I turned back to Kasumi, who was still looking at where my [Lightning spear] once was with a fearful face.

"Let's try our luck with the boss"
...

Peeking around the corner, I gulped as the boss monster was—

"A giant tree?"

—A humongous tree that looked like that one boss in the critically acclaimed video game: Bright Souls III.

The only difference was that as opposed to the tree in the game which had ballsacks that acted as its weakness, the tree in the dungeon seemed to have no weaknesses.

"Strange... the boss monster is supposed to be an <Armored ant royal knight>", Kasumi muttered.

Cre— Creak—!

It was then that the tree creaked its head and looked straight at us. No doubt it knew we were here.

However, it didn't seem like it was doing anything. It was just staring at us as we stared back at it.

Well, the tree was hell-bent on proving how wrong I was, as the roots on the ground suddenly converged into each other, forming—

"R- Ryan?"

—what Bigsnake had just claimed to be Ryan.

Although it probably looked exactly like Ryan when he was still alive, it was still made of wood.

As such, it was blindly obvious that it wasn't actually Ryan, and it was just using Ryan's figure as a trap.

'How wicked... not that any sane person would fall for it though'

And of course—

"RYAN! I'VE COME TO SAVE YOU!"

—One of us fell for it.

Brian rushed out of the corner, running towards the wooden Ryan.

Kasumi reached out, trying to hold Bigsnake back.

However, I stopped her before she could do so.

"What are you doing? It's clearly a trap and Brian is falling fo—"

"No.", I interrupted her. " 'Arlenoe' told you to follow my orders, so just sit back and watch"

Gritting her teeth in anger and disgust, Kasumi shut her mouth close and stood where she was.

Nodding my head in satisfaction at Kasumi's compliance, I turned my gaze back towards Bigsnake.

"RYAN!"

He finally reached the wooden Ryan. However—

"Ryan! Are you ok— AHHHHHHHH!"

—It was really a trap, just as I had expected.

Roots shot out from the rocky ground before Bigsnake could even reach the wooden figure.

They then wrapped around his neck, twisting it sideways.

CRACK—!

With a loud cracking sound, Bigsnake's body turned limp, and he was slowly dragged towards the tree by the roots.

'May you have better luck in your next life', I silently prayed for Bigsnake as I somehow had a feeling that someone named R*n D*ver would feel extremely guilty for not knowing Bigsnake's real name before he died.

Shaking myself off such out-of-this-world thought, I focused on the boss monster again.

The tree's belly split open as his corpse got close to it, and the roots threw the corpse into the belly.

It was just for a split second, but I could make out the figure of a medium sized ant inside of it, feasting on the many other corpses that were stored within the belly.

'So that's the boss monster...'

It looked rather... weak. And in fact, judging by the brief glimpse of it that I had just caught, it was probably <F> ranked at best.

However, the tree, and by extension, the roots that it supposedly controlled was the real problem. As I had tested in the Exit room, none of my attack worked against its hard wood.

'Maybe fire can do the trick... right, I have to find Ria...'

She was the one who originally defeated this boss in the novel after all.

Glancing over at Kasumi, I ordered her.

"Kasumi, follow me. We're looking for the Phoenix"