The Author's POV

"1...2...3...8...15...23...47...53"

Counting the students present in the line designated for the <F> ranked students, the professor quickly scribbled something onto the tablet in his hand, and lightly mumbled to himself

"...that's a significant increase compared to last year's batch"

Nodding his head in satisfaction, putting the tablet away, in a stern tone, the professor spoke up.

"Alright, all of the 53 students in the <F> level difficulty, please listen up."

"As I have already explained the rules before, I won't go into too much detail with regards to what you need to do. However, I do have to remind you that you will all be sent to the same dungeon at the same time. Meaning that, yes, you can cooperate with one another..."

"We won't stop you from collaborating with someone since, in real dungeons, such situations often occur."

Pausing slightly, the professor squinted his eyes and his voice turned serious

"...and yes, with the fact that you can collaborate with the other students, it also means that you can also interfere with another persons' progress. After all, the person who reaches first also gets an additional bonus point."

"So, not only do you have to watch out for the monsters inside of the dungeon, but you also have to watch out for the people next to you."

Pausing and glancing at all of the students before him, smirking slightly, the professor said

"You better watch out...in dungeons, no rules exist. What may seem like your teammate moments before can quickly turn and backstab you when you least expect it...such situations aren't very rare occurrences inside of dungeons"

With dungeons being places that had no cameras, situations where your ally would betray you as soon as the chance presented itself wouldn't be all that surprising. Especially if something tempted them into doing so-

As the professor's words flowed through everyone's ears, all the students present took a step away from the person near them. Their eyes were full of vigilance.

Human greed was boundless...You never know what would happen if you weren't alert.

Glancing at the students who were now wary of each other, a satisfied smile appeared on the professor's face.

"Enough of that. I'm going to go brief the other students now. You have five minutes to prepare yourselves...if you're planning on choosing a teammate you better choose yours carefully...bye now"

Finished with what he wanted to say, turning off his tablet, the professor headed towards the next group.

Watching the professor leave, with his arms crossed, Arnold glanced at the students beside him.

Immediately disdain appeared on his face. None of them were worthy of teaming up with him.

...in fact, he didn't need to team up with anyone. Arnold was confident no one would be able to beat him.

That's how confident he was in his abilities.

To him. No one was a competitor.

As he was looking at the students, Arnold's eyes soon paused on a certain individual.

Snorting to himself, Arnold couldn't help but clench his fists.

"Hmph, to think that bug has also reached the F rank..."

Although Arnold was currently <F> rank, he found it unbelievable that the student he had previously disdained had reached a similar level to his in a mere two months.

...Especially since he had promised young master Jin before that he would've taken care of him.

Time was almost up...

Frowning, Arnold couldn't help but recall young master Jin's odd behavior. He was much nicer than he had ever been in the past...

He would no longer beat him to vent out his bad mood, nor was he spoken to as if he was someone beneath him.

...he almost treated him like an equal.

Thinking thus far, Arnold couldn't help but feel his heart thumping in excitement.

Acknowledged.

Thats' how the current Arnold felt.

He felt that the current Jin had finally acknowledged his hard work and dedication.

All of his hard work had finally paid off.

Jin now finally treated him like someone who was worthy of following him...

Staring at Ren in the distance, Arnold couldn't help but recall the conversation he had with Jin two months prior. Before Hollberg.

...at how Jin wanted him gone

Yes...

Since Jin had asked for it, now that he had been acknowledged, he must use anything within his power to satisfy Jin.

Be it kneeling down, washing his clothes, to cleaning up bugs. He was prepared to do it.

Arnold was prepared to do anything that was asked of him...

Staring at Ren in the distance, Arnold licked his lips.

'You must pay a price for offending someone you shouldn't have...'

...

"Hmmm?"

Picking my ear with my pinkie, I noticed a couple of stares coming in my direction.

Honestly. I couldn't be bothered to check who they were from.

My mind was already focused on what was to come.

According to what I remembered writing in the novel, this dungeon was located in a cave-like setting, meaning that there wasn't much room to maneuver the body freely.

Moreover, the visibility inside of the dungeon was also low.

I still vividly remember writing this part of the novel hence why I knew a lot of what was to come. With Kevin being <D> rank, the level of difficulty was on a much harder level. Though I didn't know the full layout of the dungeon as I never dwelled too deeply into it, I knew what monsters were present, their weak points, and where the traps were located.

...this was good.

Thinking thus far, I started thinking about what else I could do to optimize my score.

I think drifting steps would definitely give me an edge compared to the other students, however, there was a problem.

I needed to kill monsters.

With drifting steps, because the speed increased as time progressed. If each time I ran, I killed a monster, I would definitely lose all the momentum I had gathered. Especially since I couldn't kill whilst run at extreme speeds.

This meant that I would lose a lot of momentum every time I killed a monster... which was not good.

It also had to be noted that drifting steps was still not in the minor realm of mastery. Meaning that I wasn't very adept at using this skill.

...This further complicated things.

I also had to take into account the fact that I wasn't confident in my written score. With me having wasted a lot of time, I wasn't too sure on high of a score I could get.

...I definitely had to score high on this exam.

Thus not killing monsters wasn't an option.

What do I do?

"Alright, everyone please pay attention to me"

Snapping me out of my thoughts was the loud shout coming from the professor.

"I will now open the portal. Once you enter, you will automatically be transported towards your designated post. At the entrance of the dungeon, there will be another instructor that will give you some equipment and another short briefing on what to do and what not to do"

Pausing, glancing at every student present, the professor's tone became incomparably grave.

"Please make sure you listen to whatever they say as it may save your life...no human is perfect. We may not be able to save you on time, thus you must listen carefully to what they tell you as it might save your life."

Glancing at every student present to make sure they understood, the professor nodded

"Have a nice trip..."

Finished with what he wanted to say, glancing towards a staff member wearing a black Lock uniform on the right, the professor nodded in his direction.

Nodding back, the staff member pulled a lever.

-Vuuuuam!

Right after the lever was pulled, the glow around the portal intensified as the residual magical power being emitted from the portal quadrupled in magnitude. The air around us solidified due to how thick the mana in the air was.

Staring at the massive portal before him, the professor moved to the side and gestured towards a certain group not so far from where I was.

"G ranks first..."

-Vuuum! -Vuuum! -Vuuum!

On cue, after seeing the portals light up, the students standing in line for the G ranked section entered the portal one by one.

As I stared at the students entering the portal, I couldn't help but notice how their group was much bigger compared to the other groups.

It seems like there were a lot of <G> ranked students present...

Like that, for the next five minutes, students would enter the portal one by one in a single line.

"Looks like everyone entered... please change the dungeon level"

After making sure that every student had entered the portal, glancing towards the left, the professor gestured towards the staff member on his right to once again switch the dungeon grade.

Nodding his head, the staff member once again pulled the lever

-Vuuuuuuuuuuuam!

Soon after, the blue hue surrounding the portal intensified. The air around the portal further thickened, and solid threats of mana slowly sank their way into the portal. It was obvious that the portal difficulty increased.

Without glancing at the portal, the professor glanced towards his tablet and said

"F ranks, off you go..."

-Vuuum! -Vuuum! -Vuuum!

Right after his words entered the student's ears, one by one, the <F> ranked students entered the portal.

"Fuuuu...."

Glancing at the students who were entering the portal, taking a deep breath, and staring at the large portal before me, I too stepped into the portal.

-Vuuum!

'ah....let's get this over with'