Chapter 278: Ch-278: End of Dungeon Training

Everyone turned their heads toward the new arrival, and their eyes widened in surprise due to Lance's sudden arrival. He moved his eyes across the battlefield as his gaze swept across the corpses of the spiders and then landed on the giant spider that Amber had just beheaded.

"Headmaster Lance, what are you doing here?" Olivia stepped forward and asked in confusion, as there was still some time left for the tour to end.

Lance looked at Olivia and said nothing, as his eyes were fixed on Victor and the others. "Where did you go after the sudden disappearance? We checked every security camera installed there and even used artifacts, but we could not find your presence in the dungeon. It's like you vanished into thin air."

"Huh, you four left the dungeon? What's going on?" Rachel, who heard this, was surprised and asked while looking at them.

The girls got a bit tense, especially Valerie, who remembered that there were surveillance cameras everywhere in the dungeon.

Victor just raised an eyebrow when he heard his words. He already had an excuse prepared, as he knew someone would have noticed their absence and would interrogate them after they returned. He looked at Lance and replied calmly, "We were transported into a separate space. It seemed like it was a dungeon inside a dungeon, and we got trapped there."

Lance's eyebrows shot up as he exclaimed, "A double dungeon? It makes sense."

"Uh..." Valerie was speechless as Victor's excuse worked.

"Headmaster, what is a double dungeon?" Andrew asked curiously.

"We have discovered that dungeons have hidden dungeons within them that randomly appear, and we gave them the label of double dungeons. I guess you were sucked into one," Lance explained as he looked at Victor.

Beep Beep

Beep Beep

Suddenly, everyone's wristwatches, provided by the Academy before they entered the dungeon, started to buzz rapidly.

"Well, students, you have an hour left. After the time is over, head back to the exit," Lance said, looking at them, and then vanished.

The students looked at each other as the four groups went their separate ways.

---

Over the next hour, Victor and the trio would take their time traveling back to the dungeon entrance while killing any beasts they found, mostly Valerie, while Victor assisted her, as he ran the risk of being surpassed by others.

Di. Di. Di.

Di. Di. Di.

Di. Di. Di.

The group stopped moving when both of their watches started going off at the same time.

"Looks like the training course has ended. Any kills after this point will no longer count. Let's head back to the city now," Valerie said while looking at the others, who nodded.

On their way back, they would encounter other students from the Academy, and the majority of them looked beat up, with their clothes in shambles and their hair all dirty and tangled, almost as though they'd tumbled down a mountain or something.

Compared to the other students' appearance, Victor and his group looked completely fine, as if they had taken a stroll in the park while the others had gone through hell and back. The other students would shoot them suspicious and incredulous looks. The boys would shoot Victor a glare for traveling with such top-tier beauties, especially when they saw Valerie, who belonged to one of the top families.

Victor smirked in amusement when he heard the whispers as he stopped near the entrance.

"That's Lady Valemont, the team she had led."

"They must have mooched off her."

"Are you an idiot? Student Victor has a score of 10,000, while Lady Valemont has only 1,000+ points."

"So what? Maybe Lady Valemont gave him a weapon and made him do the work so his name is at the top. Maybe she did not care, as the total points of the group were the highest."

"Hmm, that makes sense."

Victor looked at Valerie, who blushed in embarrassment and shot murderous glares toward the gossiping students. 'These bastards... They're embarrassing me. Me helping a monster like Victor???'

"Oi, Valerie." Valerie heard a familiar voice and looked at Ruby, who was looking at her with a scowl and barely hidden jealousy.

"Ruby," Valerie said with a smirk, and seeing that smirk irritated Ruby even more.

Ruby stopped close by and asked in a whisper, "How in the heavens did you get such a high score? They helped, didn't they?"

Ruby said while gesturing toward Victor with her eyes.

"What if he did? Jealous?" Valerie said with a raised eyebrow, not denying her words.

"Tsk." Ruby clicked her tongue and did not say anything, instead looking at Lance and the Vice Principal, who had arrived in front of the students with the other instructors.

"Looks like the students did not have an easy time," the Vice Principal said, looking at the haggard crowd, and some of the students were bleeding from their wounds.

Lance looked at the students and said with a sigh filled with disappointment, "Well, I can't say I didn't expect such disastrous results."

Then Lance's voice turned cold and disappointed as he addressed the students. "I must say, even though I expected it, I am very disappointed with you all. I have seen the footage, and only a few students actively hunted beasts, while most of you hid, and even if you killed any, it was because they attacked."

Many of the students flinched under his accusation and looked at the ground like they were counting the stones, as if they contained a huge secret.

"You all are the future pillars of humanity. You can't be cowards. That is the reason we have decided that the students who did not perform according to our expectations will be participating in dungeon dives every single day," Lance announced, and many of the students' faces went pale in fright. At first, they entered the dungeon thinking it would be a breeze, but reality hit them hard with how cruel and vicious the monsters were. Fighting in reality and in the game are two entirely different matters, and after the revive function of the game vanished, they rarely hunted beasts.

"Che, cowards," Rachel said with disdain and shot a few of their own members a glare, which caused them to avert their eyes.

"Anyway, hand over your devices. We will compare the results with the other branches of the Academy in different countries and announce the results," Lance said as everyone removed their devices and handed them to the instructors.

---

One hour later, Roshfield Manor, Russia

Bang!

Sizzle!

"How is this possible?" Regal glared at the results and saw his name was not even in the top three of the dungeon raid. In his anger, his arm turned to magma as lava dripped from it onto the floor.

He had a look of sheer disbelief on his face. He thought even the dungeons they were to explore would be different. He was confident he could kill enough to rank in the top three, but...

"Victor, Amber, and Rina..." Regal, after calming down, muttered the names under his breath, and his brows furrowed. He knew about Victor and Amber, but this was the first time he had heard about Rina, and he rubbed his temples.

"Young Master, do you want me to send some people to kidnap them?" a butler said with a cruel glint in his eyes.

Regal looked at his butler speechlessly and said, "Are you an idiot? Do you think you can kidnap them? And if you do that, do you think the Academy will let that slide?"

"T-That..." the butler sputtered, and his face turned red with embarrassment.

---

Zero Wing Guild

The building was situated at the heart of New York, which Victor had bought to serve as the headquarters for Zero Wing after some remodeling.

"This is the first time I've come here," Victor muttered as he stepped into the building alone. Rina and Amber had already left Earth and gone back to the Silvernum Territory.

"Stop! Who are you?" an Awakener stood in front of Victor and said.

"I am the Guild Master," Victor said calmly.

There was a brief silence before the guard burst out laughing.

"Hah, that's the funniest joke."

"You... a guy dressed like a country bumpkin thinks he is the Guild Leader?"

"Uh..." Victor was left speechless and rubbed his chin awkwardly. He was about to explain when a voice cut him off.

"What's going on here?"

Victor turned around and saw Edward in a butler uniform exiting the car.

"Elder Edward." The Awakener bowed upon seeing him. Edward was an Elder, a position Victor had assigned right below the Leader and Vice Leader of the Guild.

Edward ignored them, and under their surprised and horrified looks, he stopped in front of Victor and bowed. "Lord Victor, you are back from the dungeon trip."

"Yeah, let's go inside and talk," Victor said, ignoring the shocked looks of the others.

After some time, they arrived in front of a large office.

"Che, not bad. This is the first time I've seen the office."

Victor said with satisfaction, but before he could continue, Edward handed him a file and asked with a raised eyebrow, "What's this?"

"This contains the details of the upcoming auction. You know, a lot of dungeons have appeared, and we also acquired quite a few, but this one requires your presence, as the government invited every Guild Leader for the bidding of an S-rank dungeon," Edward explained.

"S-rank dungeon?" Victor said, surprised.