Chapter 252: Teamwork

Chapter 252: Teamwork

The air inside the dungeon was damp.

Water seeping through the stone walls had collected in shallow hollows in the floor. Mana lamps placed at intervals along the corridor gave off a faint light, and roots hanging from the ceiling cast shadows over our feet.

It was unnecessarily detailed for an artificial dungeon.

I glanced at a crack in the wall. Beneath the stone, mana pulsed at regular intervals, holding the entire structure together. The flow I’d sensed at the entrance continued here, running through the walls and floor before stretching farther down the corridor.

The academy had clearly put a great deal of effort into this exam.

My teammates, however, were more interested in what lay ahead than in how realistic the stones looked.

The boy with the sword stood in front of us, staring into the dark stretch of corridor. The archer had taken the bow from his shoulder. Celine’s supporter had created a small light at the tip of her staff.

Charlotte stood behind us, watching what we would do.

I could feel her eyes on me.

I didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary in the same dungeon as this girl. The longer I stayed, the more opportunities she would have to cause trouble for me.

I started walking before the others had even decided where to stand.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The swordsman’s voice echoed through the corridor.

I tilted my head slightly.

"Going to clear the dungeon."

"This is a team exam. We need to work together!"

He looked at me as though he thought his point was obvious. The girl with the staff glanced between us and nodded in agreement.

"Good luck with your teamwork."

"Just because you’ve got some strength doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want," the boy said. "We can’t move on without a plan. Besides, even you won’t earn any points if you act like this. You’ll be disqualified!"

"That sounds bad."

I turned back and kept walking.

A brief silence followed.

"My god," the archer muttered. "Why couldn’t I have ended up on a normal team?"

The mage pulled her staff a little closer to her chest. Our team had started arguing before we’d even seen the first monster, and that alone had been enough to put her on edge.

The swordsman, however, didn’t look ready to give up.

"Wait!"

He hurried over and stepped into my path.

He was trying to stand tall. Still, the moment I stopped in front of him, I noticed his eyes involuntarily flick toward Charlotte behind me.

He was expecting our supervisor to back him up.

"Look, all of us need to—"

"I don’t care about the exam or the rankings."

The words caught in his throat.

I looked him in the eye.

"If you don’t want your bones broken, get out of my way, kid."

The girl with the staff gasped. The archer also chose to keep his mouth shut instead of continuing his earlier complaint.

"I need to finish this exam and leave as soon as possible," I continued. "You want teamwork? Then shut up and follow me."

The boy’s jaw tightened.

He wanted to say something.

But after glancing at my hands, he changed his mind.

They knew what I’d done to Felix during the entrance exam. They probably also knew I’d beaten an upperclassman who was a general’s son.

Either way, he was smart enough to realize that standing in my way wasn’t a good idea.

He stepped aside.

As I passed him, I looked at Charlotte.

Her arms hung at her sides, and her face was expressionless. She hadn’t moved to stop me.

It was hard to tell what she was thinking.

At least for now, she had no intention of dragging out this little argument.

As I rounded the first bend in the corridor, more footsteps followed behind us. All three had decided to follow me.

We hadn’t even needed to assign roles for that.

Quite a successful start.

---

We encountered the first monsters a few minutes later.

There were six cave wolves in the large room at the end of the corridor. Two lay beside a fallen pillar, while the others prowled around blackened fragments of bone scattered across the floor.

They raised their heads when they noticed us.

The hard ridges along their backs gleamed in the dim light. As they rose and bared their teeth, the boy behind me drew his sword.

"Cave wolves. The armor on their backs—"

My black sword appeared in my right hand.

The nearest wolf leaped at me the moment I stepped into the room. Before its mouth could reach my face, I swept my sword beneath its jaw.

As the creature fell beside me, I advanced toward the second wolf.

The others were preparing to attack in much the same way. Leap, bare their teeth, growl... After killing the first, I didn’t need to do anything different for the rest.

The second wolf tried to sink its teeth into my leg. I pulled my foot out of its path and brought my sword down on its neck. The third jumped over its body and came at me from the left.

I turned my wrist.

Its severed body landed a few steps in front of me.

An arrow flew past me from behind.

It struck the fourth wolf in a front leg, cutting its attack short. The swordsman immediately stepped forward and struck the stumbling creature in the neck.

So they weren’t completely useless.

The remaining two creatures began to retreat.

I channeled mana into my legs.

I reached the first before it could make it to the other side of the room. Swinging my sword, I turned toward the second without stopping. By the time the last wolf turned to flee, my blade had already passed through its neck.

A few drops of blood fell from my sword to the floor.

The boy behind me stopped looking at the wolf he’d killed and surveyed the rest of the room.

All the advice he’d wanted to give earlier was now unnecessary.

"Let’s keep moving."

"Could we wait a moment?" the mage asked. "There might be something in here—"

"There’s nothing else."

I headed for the corridor beyond the room.

The girl closed her mouth. She brightened the light at the tip of her staff and followed me.

Charlotte slowed slightly as she passed the last wolf. Her gaze shifted from the cut in its neck to me.

I hadn’t dismissed my sword yet.

Still, I didn’t like how closely she was watching my hand.

"Something you want to say?" I asked.

"Move at a pace your team can keep up with."

I looked at the three students behind me.

None of them were injured. There was some sweat on the archer’s face, but I wasn’t sure whether that was because of the monsters or because he was on my team.

"They’re keeping up."

"That doesn’t mean things are going well."

Charlotte’s voice was calm.

So I kept walking instead of answering her.

---

The second room was much larger than the first.

Thick stone pillars rose among the roots hanging from the ceiling. Pieces of wood and rusty weapons scattered across the floor made it look as though the creatures inside had been living there for some time.

The academy’s attention to detail was truly irritating.

The goblins sitting around a fire pit farther ahead didn’t all notice us at once. When the first one stood, shouted, and raised its axe, the others began to turn.

Several wore armor made from scraps of leather. The larger ones carried metal shields.

The archer studied the dark passages on either side of the room.

"There are too many."

"Definitely more than last time."

The look he gave me suggested he hadn’t found my answer particularly helpful.

There was movement behind the creatures we could see as well. More emerged from between the pillars, accompanied by the clatter of weapons and muffled shouts.

The swordsman immediately moved to the front.

"If we stay at the entrance, they won’t all be able to reach us at once."

It was a good idea.

For someone who didn’t want to waste time, though, walking into the middle of the room was much easier.

So that was what I did.

"Hey!"

The boy’s voice was lost among the goblins’ cries.

I deflected the first creature’s axe and cut through its throat. I slashed the second across the chest as it came at me from the right. My sword split the third one’s shield down the middle.

But the creatures weren’t only attacking me.

Several had gone for my teammates at the entrance. The hum of a spell taking shape joined the clash of metal behind me.

The swordsman blocked the first blow. He had to retreat to stop a second axe coming at him from the side.

The archer put an arrow through one creature’s face.

As the dead goblin fell, a larger one jumped over it. It slammed its shoulder into the mage’s barrier, cracking the pale surface of mana.

The girl immediately poured more mana into her spell.

"They’re coming from the left!"

The swordsman turned and blocked the new attack.

He’d driven back his first opponent but hadn’t killed it. As the creature came at him again, another swung its axe at his exposed leg.

The boy jumped sideways.

A barrier appeared between the axe and his leg, stopping the blow.

The girl had timed it well this time.

Still, her breathing had quickened. Casting defensive spells one after another was costing her more mana than she’d expected.

After cutting down the last goblin attacking me, I turned my attention to them.

All three were still standing.

But they were trapped at the entrance. In trying to narrow the space their enemies could fight in, they’d restricted their own movements as well. The archer kept shifting his bow to different angles to avoid hitting his friend’s shoulder.

A thin line of blood ran down from the swordsman’s wrist.

He wasn’t seriously injured yet.

At this rate, they would wear themselves out in the second room of the exam.

I was reminded of how tiring it could be for a warrior to fight several monsters at once. You had to block one attack and turn toward the next, keep your feet in the right places, and bring your weapon back into position after every cut.

Even if you had enough strength, repeating the same movements more than necessary was annoying.

A mage, on the other hand, could clear the entire room with the right spell.

I lowered my sword.

"Duck."

The swordsman turned his head at the sound of my voice.

"What—"

"Now."

All three immediately crouched. The girl pulled her staff close and dismissed her barrier, while the archer held his bow against his chest.

I stepped between them and the goblins.

With their targets suddenly out of sight, the creatures turned toward me instead. The large one raised its shield. Those behind it shoved one another as they tried to find room to swing their weapons.

I drew my sword to my right side.

The mana gathering on its black surface condensed into a thin line along the edge. As the surrounding flames shrank, the blade’s edge stood out more clearly in the dim light.

One of the goblins raised its axe and lunged at me.

I didn’t even look at it.

Absolute Severance.

I swung my sword horizontally.

The movement was short and silent.

The nearest axe head separated from its severed handle and spun through the air. Then a thin line appeared across the creature’s chest. It passed through the shield behind it and stretched to the other side of the room.

For an instant, every goblin remained where it stood.

Then the upper half of the shield slid down.

The creature behind it came apart as well.

Those running between the pillars were caught in the same slash before they could even understand what was happening ahead of them. Leather armor, rusty weapons, and hard bones did nothing to stop it.

As blood spread across the stone floor, the last cry in the room fell silent.

I lowered the tip of my sword.

The three students behind me hadn’t stood up yet.

The swordsman looked from the creatures lying in front of him to the bodies on the other side of the room. The two pieces of the shield he’d been struggling with all his strength to hold back had fallen right in front of his feet.

The archer slowly stood.

He still hadn’t released the arrow nocked to his bow.

The mage’s lips parted, but she said nothing.

Charlotte was also looking at the sword in my hand.

She’d seen the same move during my duel, so she didn’t look as surprised as the others.

Still, the watchful look on her face had grown a little more pronounced.

I didn’t care.

Perhaps I should have enrolled at the academy as a mage.

Then I wouldn’t have to swing a sword at every stupid creature that got in my way.

After thinking about it for a moment, I shrugged.

There was no need for that right now.

I dismissed my sword and walked toward the corridor on the other side of the room.