MTLNOVEL Ch. 7
Chapter 7
If you asked the players of
That was the episode where the dungeon and raid system fully opened.
There’s a saying that you can tell a promising tree from its sprout.
If you scored high in the first group test, you could even gain extra stats.
Thanks to that, it was a branching point that allowed for a variety of activities and greatly helped your growth afterward.
That important test began today.
‘It’s nice to see it in person instead of just on the game screen.’
I yawned and looked ahead.
From early in the morning, hundreds of first-year students had gathered in front of a ‘cave’ located in the back mountain of the Academy.
It was run with three people per team, roughly 200 teams in total.
‘It does look like a cave, that’s for sure.’
But inside, it was a dungeon shaped like a complicated labyrinth split into several paths.
Yggdrasil had artificially created the place to awaken the first-years’ sense of real combat.
There were ten entrances in total.
Only one team could enter each cave, so ten teams went in at a time.
In front of the entrances, a third-year — presumably a teaching assistant — was stationed.
“Teams E2 through O2, get ready… Alright, enter!”
At the assistant’s signal, the teams dashed into the dungeon all at once.
“Let’s go!”
“Run faster!”
“What are you doing? Every second counts!”
I could understand why they were rushing like that.
As the professor had already announced, the team that exited the dungeon first would get a higher score.
Even a difference of a few seconds could affect the final ranking.
‘Our turn’s still far off.’
Having woken up too early, I kept yawning.
Stretching, I glanced to the side.
My teammates, Nixie and Arowell, were standing far away.
“Hmph.”
Nixie snorted at me as if displeased.
A quick look around showed other teams sticking together right up until the test began, busy discussing strategy and positions.
Only Team F4 was scattered.
To be precise, they were blatantly avoiding me.
Arowell, too, had said hello when we first met, then hid behind Nixie’s back without saying a single word since.
‘Forget strategy meetings, there’s nothing more to say between us.’
They probably already made a plan without me.
Well, they were honor students, after all.
Deciding to use the spare time for personal prep, I pulled up the Animal Farm screen.
Soul Flame ‘Hwayo’
Level: 2 EXP: 97%
Mood: Happy, Full, Stress 0%.
Trait: A lizard that breathes fire.
As its level increases, the power of its flames and its available skills rise.
‘Just a little more to go.’
Level 3 was just around the corner.
Hwayo was sound asleep in its nest, with a “zzZ” status icon displayed.
There was still room for more EXP gain.
‘Is that nest really that cozy? Sleeping like it doesn’t have a care in the world.’
Happy Nest
Just sleeping in this nest increases EXP.
Seeing it sleeping so peacefully, it seemed almost certain it would reach Level 3 by the end of today.
The key question was whether it could level up within an hour or so.
‘The test will start in an hour.’
The next batch would be Teams P2 through Y2.
With ten teams entering every 20 minutes, it would take about an hour and a half for it to be F4’s turn.
Would Hwayo level up before then?
‘This is going to be close…’
If it didn’t, there was nothing I could do.
I would really be a deadweight to Nixie and Arowell.
‘Though they already told me not to do anything.’
That might not go as planned, though.
In
‘Stats can drop significantly due to stress or conditions.’
And on top of that, there were plenty of random factors.
If I dealt with things too carelessly, in the worst case, I could fail.
Since the first test was one of the important branching points, that was the one thing I wanted to avoid.
‘So, Hwayo… do your best…!’
Whether it understood my situation or not, it simply mumbled in its sleep with a “popong” sound.
“Did you hear? Wiz’s team failed this time.”
“Seems they had trouble with the monsters.”
I heard whispers from the side.
It seemed the results of the teams that had gone first were starting to come in.
‘As expected, there are already failures.’
There would be plenty more to come.
The time limit for the test was 20 minutes.
You would encounter monsters inside the cave, but you didn’t have to defeat them.
It was fine to run away.
The score was determined solely by whether you escaped the cave.
If you failed to escape within the time limit, you got an automatic fail.
“I heard the Princess’s team result is in too. They’re in 3rd place right now!”
“As expected from Her Highness. That Ren guy, his luck’s ridiculous.”
From what I overheard, the protagonist Duke Ren seemed on track to safely place within the top 10%.
‘If the protagonist’s on a smooth road, then I really don’t have to worry.’
He was the hero who had to protect this world.
The slower his growth, the bigger my headache would be.
I was a little worried he might fail this time, but it was an unnecessary concern.
Some time passed like that.
“Team F4, please move forward.”
The moment had finally arrived.
The call included F4’s turn.
Our team stood in front of the third cave.
I checked the Animal Farm screen again.
Soul Flame ‘Hwayo’
Level: 2 EXP: 99%
Mood: Happy, Full, Stress 0%.
Trait: A lizard that breathes fire.
As its level increases, the power of its flames and its available skills rise.
‘I thought it might make it before the test started.’
But after more than an hour of waiting, the EXP had only increased by 2%.
It was a little disappointing to be just 1% away.
‘Yeah, they can just handle it themselves.’
I decided to trust Nixie and Arowell.
If it was them, they could land in the upper ranks.
“Hey.”
Nixie spoke in a low voice, just enough for me to hear.
“I’ll say it one more time—don’t try anything unnecessary.”
Yes, yes, I’m sure.
I silently nodded.
“Enter!”
At the assistant’s shout, everyone rushed into the cave at once.
In the game, thanks to graphic adjustments, the cave never felt dark.
But the real cave was completely different.
‘Without a torch, you can’t see anything ahead at all.’
I held the torch forward.
Anything beyond the light still looked like an unknown abyss.
We moved in single file through the dark cave, holding the torch.
I was the one leading in front with the torch.
The reason?
They suspected that if I was in the second or last position, I might try something against Arowell.
But if they put Arowell in front, she’d be in danger from monsters.
So, in the end, I was made to take the lead.
‘Well, I can’t do anything else anyway, so I might as well do this.’
Maybe Nixie was still annoyed with me, because she spoke bluntly.
“What are you scheming, looking around like that?”
She was right.
Instead of looking straight ahead, I kept glancing at the ceiling and the cave walls on either side.
“No, it’s just… nature’s wonders are beautiful, you know.”
“Ugh.”
Nixie sighed.
To others, I probably looked like a clueless nobleman’s son, forgetting we were in the middle of an exam and just sightseeing in the cave.
But there was a reason for this behavior.
‘I think I know where we are now.’
By observing the stalactites, walls, and terrain, I was estimating the map type and our progress.
There were a total of ten different cave dungeon maps for the group test.
‘This one’s the type where, if you take the shortcut, you might not encounter a single monster.’
If you kept picking only the shortcuts, it was basically like taking a highway.
Some would call that lucky.
‘But the problem is the three-way split, the four-way split, and even the five-way split at the end.’
If you couldn’t pick the shortcuts and didn’t know the strategy, this was the type infamous for having the highest failure rate.
‘Soon, we’ll hit a three-way split.’
I predicted it by looking at a large cluster of stalactites on the ceiling.
After walking for a while—
“…The path split.”
As I expected, what stopped our steps was a three-way fork.
Nixie crossed her arms and looked back and forth between the three paths.
“Wait a moment.”
She took out a water bottle and wet her finger.
She then held her wet finger upright and traced a circle in the air.
It was a method to check wind direction.
The direction from which the air felt cooler would be toward the entrance — at least, that seemed to be her conclusion.
“…Let’s go right.”
Arowell clapped once and cheered.
“Wow, amazing! Nixie, is there anything you can’t do?”
“I just tried something I read in a book before.”
Nixie shrugged, while Arowell gazed at her with shining eyes.
‘The middle one’s actually the shortcut.’
I almost burst out laughing at Nixie’s confident voice.
Since I knew all the answers, I wanted to step in and correct her.
‘But saying it would just waste my breath. Better to keep quiet.’
They probably wouldn’t even bother to listen, dismissing it as unnecessary meddling.
If Nixie got angry, it would only slow our progress, so staying silent was the wiser choice.
‘It’s not the shortcut, but going right will still get us through. No need to stop them.’
If we took the left path, we’d end up back where we started.
‘The right path has monsters, but they’re easy enough to take out quickly and move on.’
By unanimous decision, we followed Nixie’s choice.
I kept checking the cave terrain and my watch, gauging our progress.
‘Looks like we’re about halfway through.’
Seven minutes had passed.
Not fast, but not slow either.
‘Fourteen minutes is the cutoff for a high score.’
Even accounting for fighting monsters, if we picked only shortcuts from here, we could still make the top ranks.
“…It’s getting colder.”
Arowell rubbed her arms as if feeling the chill.
“And it’s so quiet… it’s scary.”
“Don’t let your guard down. Monsters might appear.”
Maybe it was her swordsman’s instinct, but Nixie was on edge, keeping her eyes ahead.
As we moved forward, the ceiling grew higher.
Seeing that, I steeled myself.
‘We’re almost there.’
This was the midpoint and the monster’s lair.
Honestly, I was a little tense.
After all, this would be the first time I’d see one since coming to this world.
“The tunnel’s getting wider.”
“…”
Nixie must have noticed too, because she went silent.
Eventually, we reached a space several times wider than the passage we’d been walking.
Of course, it was still inside the cave, so the darkness made it impossible to see ahead.
“This place is…”
“Quiet.”
Nixie fixed her gaze on something hidden in the darkness.
I couldn’t see it, but Nixie, who had awakened the skill ‘Swordsman’s Insight,’ surely could.
What caught her eyes was likely the exact center of the space.
When I stepped forward and shone my torch on that spot, another shadow appeared.