Boom! Crash!
The golems toppled backward one after another under the brute-force assault of the Dragon Fang Soldier, Deathvice.
All Cain, Senia, and I had to do from behind Deathvice was keep casting spells in rapid succession, and the golems were completely silenced.
“This is getting kind of repetitive.”
“Still, I’m glad we can proceed safely.”
By now, we had destroyed nearly a dozen golems.
They were only training golems with limited combat abilities, but we were probably the only team dismantling them this quickly.
“Eriol, I don’t think there’s anything left to hunt around here. Should we head down another floor?”
“Yeah, let’s.”
We had already descended quite deep.
We’d been moving while avoiding clashes with other teams, so heading lower had been inevitable.
“If other students spot Deathvice, it’ll cause a huge commotion.”
Senia gave a wry smile as she looked at Deathvice.
“Let’s take those stairs down. We should still find untouched prey.”
“Got it.”
“Okay!”
Just in case, we sent Deathvice back, then headed deeper underground.
Down there, a variety of monsters—not just golems—were waiting for us.
But we had already become too accustomed to monster hunting for them to pose a real threat.
“They really only put weak monsters here. This isn’t hard at all.”
“Yeah. I don’t think there are any monsters on par with that Minotaur from before.”
“At this rate, we won’t even need Deathvice.”
We kept pressing forward, hunting monsters as we went.
When we found edible ones, we cooked and ate them on the spot.
“Oh, this tastes just like pork.”
“It’s kind of like having a barbecue.”
Roasting monster meat with flame magic turned out to be surprisingly tasty.
If these kinds of monsters kept appearing, we wouldn’t have to worry about food.
As we were circling the area and hunting monsters…
Cain raised a hand.
“Wait. Someone’s coming. It’s not a monster.”
“What?”
“Probably other students…”
Step, step.
With the sound of approaching footsteps, three students emerged from the darkness.
Helios, Charlotte, and Ingrid.
“Knew it was you guys.”
Helios scowled as soon as he saw us.
“I was planning to clear out all the monsters in the deeper floors before the others got here, but you beat me to it.”
Looks like Helios had been thinking the same thing we were.
Good thing we moved quickly to descend.
“From the corpses lying around… looks like there’s not much left for us to eat.”
“Oops. Sorry about that.”
“Don’t apologize, you smug bastard.”
At Cain’s words, Helios narrowed his eyes.
“You planning to keep hunting as you head deeper?”
“Yeah. Too likely to run into others if we stay higher up.”
“Then it looks like we’ll be running into you.”
At Helios’s words, Ingrid flinched.
“H-Helios, you’re not seriously thinking of fighting Eriol’s team, are you? They’re not prey.”
“Of course not. What are you, stupid?”
“Ugh…”
“But we’re still competitors for a limited number of monsters. Conflict’s inevitable.”
Tension settled between us.
This was exactly what we’d been trying to avoid by rushing to the deeper floors…
“Helios, don’t start a pointless fight.”
That’s when Charlotte spoke up.
“We can just do our own hunting. There should still be plenty of monsters down here, and we just need to take out more than Eriol’s team, right?”
“Hmph…”
“It’s not like we can forcibly drive them out either.”
“Tch, fine. Whatever.”
At Charlotte’s words, Helios grimaced and nodded.
“Eriol, same goes for you. Don’t mind us. Let’s just each do our own thing.”
“Got it. Sounds good to me.”
I agreed with Charlotte’s suggestion, and so all of us headed down to the next floor together.
“Whoa, there’s a lot of monsters down here.”
Cain frowned as we looked into the darkness teeming with creatures.
“Lots of slimes and even Great Leeches. This could be a bit much.”
“…”
Even Helios looked tense now. He probably hadn’t expected this many monsters either.
“This looks like… a zone meant for multiple teams to clear together.”
As Senia pointed out, it did seem like this area was too much for just one three-person team.
But…
“Let’s go, Cain. Senia.”
I stepped forward.
“We can handle this.”
“Eriol, are you serious?”
“There’s way too many…”
Cain and Senia both voiced concern, but I just shrugged.
“Those guys will take care of half. We’ll be fine.”
“…!”
As they both gasped, I turned to Helios.
“You can handle half of them yourselves, right?”
“You bastard…”
Helios looked dumbfounded.
“You really are full of yourself.”
“Back off if you’re scared.”
“Don’t make me laugh. We’ll take out more than half if we have to.”
“Then let’s see which team bags more.”
With that provocation, I pulled the Dragon Fang back out of my pack.
“Let’s begin.”
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, the Dragon Fang Soldier Deathvice appeared—and at that moment, the monsters that had been lying in wait all rushed forward.
“T-that’s a Dragon Fang Soldier?!”
“Ingrid! Don’t just stand there!”
“Ah—yes! Summon Dead…!”
Ingrid hurriedly summoned skeletons in response to Helios’s reply.
There were five of them in total. Unlike me, who only controlled a single Deathvice, Ingrid seemed to prefer commanding multiple undead at once.
“Man, what a chaotic mess!”
Cain raised his hand with a grin.
Unlike before, his expression was much more relaxed.
“Cain, Senia! Just do exactly what you’ve been doing! While the Deathvice up front takes the hits, bombard them with magic!”
I issued orders to the two of them while preparing my own spell.
This area was spacious, and there were a lot of enemies.
Using a powerful fire spell to sweep them away all at once was the best strategy.
‘Fireball!’
Boom!
As the massive fireball exploded in the center of the enemy ranks, countless monsters were engulfed in flames.
The Deathvice charged in fearlessly and engaged in close combat.
“Ingrid! Focus on controlling your skeletons! We’ll handle the magic attacks!”
“Understood!”
Meanwhile, on the other side, Helios and Charlotte were launching spell after spell, using the five skeletons controlled by Ingrid as their frontline.
Helios electrocuted the monsters in groups with lightning magic, while Charlotte froze them with elemental frost spells.
‘Her ice spells aren’t working too well… must be because it’s too dry.’
Although it had rained heavily during the night, there was no sign of moisture around here.
It felt like the deeper we went, the stronger the dehumidifying effect became.
‘What kind of dungeon is this…?’
They said the Catacombs were the underground tomb of some evil cult.
Was there a reason to keep the deepest part of the tomb dry?
‘Maybe… they needed to keep the corpses dried out?’
The thought flashed through my mind, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it.
I had to keep controlling the Deathvice while casting offensive spells, so I couldn’t afford to be distracted.
‘Let’s deal with these monsters first!’
With that thought, I continued casting spells in quick succession.
A powerful fireball exploded again.
“This… this is incredible.”
Professor Murselt raised his voice while checking the data being transmitted from underground.
“Are they really taking down monsters this fast? How are six freshmen doing this?!”
“They’re seriously impressive. Must be some very gifted kids.”
Professor Sylvia swallowed nervously as she reviewed the data.
“Looking at the data… it seems they’re using something up front as a shield. Could it be they’re controlling undead with necromancy? Professor Klein, what do you think?”
“That’s the most likely explanation. Considering the kinds of spells they’ve learned so far, it’s probably necromancy.”
Even if they used summoned creatures to fight, the students still received points.
But since the data didn’t specify exactly what was being used, the professors could only speculate.
“Their scores are skyrocketing. The gap between them and the other teams is massive.”
Compared to the other teams, only Eriol’s and Helios’s groups had standout scores.
At this rate, the two of them would easily take first and second place—with a huge lead over everyone else.
“These kids are incredible. We should recruit them into the Biological Department and help them hone their enhancement magic.”
Murselt nodded enthusiastically with a wide grin.
Sylvia also licked her lips, clearly eyeing them with interest.
“Professor!”
Just then, an assistant entered the tent—bringing in students who had withdrawn mid-competition.
“Some of them are severely exhausted. I think we need to let them rest somewhere.”
“Really? If it’s that bad, take them to the ship and let them lie down. There are beds there.”
The ship that brought the students was still docked nearby.
Using the onboard infirmary beds would be ideal.
“Well… the ship’s completely empty. All the doors were locked too.”
“What?”
“It looks like the crew left their posts.”
Hearing that, Murselt and Sylvia exchanged glances.
“What the heck? Did they all go for a stroll or something?”
“They can go where they want, technically, but… this is strange.”
“Professors, something’s not right.”
Klein spoke up urgently.
“You remember what happened during the last dungeon raid event, don’t you? A vampire infiltrated the dungeon and caused a major incident. This could be the same kind of warning sign…”
Could it be the opening to another disaster?
Klein had a bad feeling.
“Now hold on, Professor Klein. Are you seriously suggesting another vampire has slipped in?”
“That’s ridiculous. Unlike last time, there aren’t any undead for a vampire to control. The only creatures in this dungeon are golems and boneless lower lifeforms. They can’t be turned into undead.”
“I’m not saying it has to be a vampire…”
Klein was frustrated.
He wanted to present clear evidence, like Kaisel had done before, but nothing major had turned up.
And the data from inside the dungeon hadn’t shown any abnormalities either.
“I’ll go take a look myself.”
In the end, Klein decided to go into the dungeon alone.
If anything serious were to happen outside the academy’s grounds, the damage could be significant.
So he had to act, just in case.
“Man, you worry too much.”
“How are you supposed to inspire confidence in the students like that?”
But—
Murselt and Sylvia grumbled as they stood up from their seats.
“Professors, you too…?”
“If something really is happening, you won’t be able to handle it alone.”
“I doubt it’s anything serious, but since it involves the students, we may as well take it seriously.”
Klein was unexpectedly moved by their words.
They might be strict with their students, but that didn’t mean they didn’t care about them.
“Hey, Klein. That dungeon—you’re sure it’s been thoroughly investigated, right?”
“Yes. We deciphered the coded inscriptions on the walls and even located the hidden chamber.”
“And that strong dehumidifying system inside… what was the conclusion on that again?”
“It seemed like it was meant to dry out the skeletons in the lower levels. We already removed and incinerated those bones.”
“I see.”
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason. Just being cautious.”
Murselt scratched his head.
“Since it’s a ruin left behind by some evil cult, I figured maybe someone might be trying to revive whatever was sealed in the depths. But if there’s nothing left down there… then I guess it’s just my imagination.”
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