Chapter 78: False Calm I

"Several higher-ranked cores are stored beneath this camp," he explained. "They aren’t registered to any of the examination groups. I could take enough to ensure your group passes, and nobody would know where they came from."

"Wouldn’t Instructor Klein notice?" Lillian asked.

"No." The custodian shook his head quickly. "I have maintained Base Camp D for five years. Instructor Klein has not even been stationed here for one."

"He knows how to operate the transportation mirror, but he doesn’t know how it works or what’s powering—"

"Whatever," Lillian cut him off. "And you’re certain taking them won’t be noticed?"

"If I only remove a few."

"No," she shook her head. "If that’s the case, then take them all."

"What? But that’s—!" the man sprang up from his chair.

"Might as well aim for that first-place?"

With that final statement, she turned and walked toward the entrance. But just before she exited, the girl turned back.

"Keep in mind your situation and decide wisely."

Lillian then left quietly, leaving the custodian standing alone inside. Rian remained motionless beneath the veil as she stepped out of the staff tent and returned toward Orion’s group.

His mind, meanwhile, was racing.

In the original novel, everyone had assumed the transportation mirror was deliberately disabled to trap the students inside the Graveyard.

But what if that assumption had been wrong?

What if there had never been a traitor planning to strand them?

Someone could have removed the reserve cores merely to falsify the examination results. Then, once the camp was attacked, the consequences spiraled completely beyond their intentions.

’Was that why she suddenly got so attached to Orion in the novel? I mean, he did save her, but was it more because of the guilt of what happened? Did she want him to protect her from the consequences?’

Though the more he thought about it, their plan felt disturbingly familiar to his own.

Rian frowned, muttering under his breath. "That idiot didn’t even let him explain what those cores were powering... At least I was going to leave everyone enough to pass and escape."

For a moment, he considered changing his plan entirely.

He could confront the custodian now, inform Instructor Klen, or perhaps even tell Orion what one of his precious heroines was planning behind his back.

Though none of those options would prove whether the original incident had truly been an accident.

The custodian hadn’t removed anything yet. If Rian exposed him now, Lillian would deny the conversation ever even happened, and House Arkens would likely find some way to bury the accusation and cause even more hassle.

More importantly, neither possibility explained the monsters that would eventually overrun Base Camp D.

If the custodian attempted to access the reservoir, the trap would expose him. If someone else reached it first, Rian would learn that there really was another culprit.

’No point changing a perfectly good plan.’

Rian waited until the custodian finally emerged from the staff tent, looking considerably paler than before. When the coast was clear, he crossed the camp right to where he sensed the reservoir was before.

Pulling out his utility spellbook and looking through the spells, Rian managed to find one perfect for his needs.

[Excavate has been added to Known Spells]

Placing both hands onto the dirt, he muttered the incantation.

〈Alter Terra — Excavare〉

The soil quietly shifted apart under his palms.

Rather than throwing dirt everywhere and leaving an obvious hole, Rian compressed it against the sides to create a narrow passage leading all the way down.

And several seconds later, his fingers touched cold metal.

A reinforced chest had been buried under the camp, connecting directly to the mirror through several thick mana conduits. Numerous enchantments covered its surface, but they weren’t designed to prevent access. They merely regulated how much energy flowed toward the mirror.

Rian carefully lifted the mana panel, and the moment it opened, he had to contain himself.

Inside were dozens of monster cores resting in individual sockets. Even the weakest appeared to be 4-Star, while several larger cores radiated enough power to have come from 5-Star monsters.

Each one shone like a miniature sun.

He had never seen this much concentrated mana gathered in one place. The cores he harvested from the Dead Woods looked like cheap pebbles in comparison. Just one of these could probably sustain him far longer than fifty low-ranked cores combined.

’Maybe nobody would notice if one disappeared.’

’Rian,’ Sylpheed warned inside his head.

’I’m only considering it.’

’You’re drooling.’

Rian stared longingly into the chest, with every instinct of his body urging him to reach inside and activate Lifeforce Synthesis.

Four days wasn’t much. Once the examination ended, he would begin burning through that lifespan again. Taking even one of these cores would provide him with a considerably larger safety net.

Unfortunately, these cores were also their only guaranteed way home. Rian reluctantly closed the maintenance panel.

’Fine. I’ll come back for you later.’

’You’re talking to them like they’re abandoned puppies.’

Ignoring Sylpheed, Rian reached into his sling bag and removed the two alarm rods he had taken from the abandoned chapel.

He planted the first rod inside the reservoir and secured the second against the underside of its maintenance panel. A nearly invisible mana thread formed between them.

If anyone opened the reservoir, their movement would alter the thread’s tension and immediately activate the receiver.

Rian pulled out the small brass disk Eliza had given him. Its needle remained motionless.

He lifted the panel by the smallest amount, causing the needle to twitch ever-so-slightly.

’Perfect.’

After a moment of thinking, Rian decided to set two traps.

The first would be a net trap, which would bind whoever tries to lift it. The second would be an explosion trap, if they managed to dodge the first, as that would practically alert the entire camp.

And there was no way anyone could get away with any other excuse. Something like a reservoir doesn’t need to be checked on so regularly. Therefore, whoever came here would only have one intention:

To steal.

Rian sealed the narrow passage with Earth Magic and returned the displaced soil to its original position. Within seconds, there was no visible indication that anyone had disturbed the ground at all.

But as he stood up, the staff tent shifted behind him.

Someone was coming.

Without waiting to discover who, Rian tightened the curtain of darkness around himself and slipped away from the reservoir.

All that remained now was to wait and see who reached for the cores first.