The Author's POV

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

Counting the students present in the line designated for the 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 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.

has also reached the F

he had

promised young master Jin before that he would've taken care of

Time was almost up...

young master Jin's odd behavior. He was

him to vent out his bad mood, nor was he spoken to as

almost treated him

thus far, Arnold couldn't help but feel

Acknowledged.

the current

felt that the current Jin had

hard work had finally paid

someone who was

recall the conversation he had with Jin two months prior.

Jin wanted him

Yes...

he had been acknowledged,

his clothes, to cleaning up bugs. He was prepared

prepared to do anything

in the

must pay a price for

...

"Hmmm?"

noticed a

to

was already focused on what was to

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

of

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

...this was good.

I started thinking about what else

drifting steps would definitely give me an edge

needed to kill

the speed increased as time progressed. If each time I ran, I killed a monster, I

meant that I would lose a lot of momentum

in the minor realm of mastery. Meaning that I wasn't very adept at

...This further complicated things.

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

to score high on this

not killing monsters wasn't

What do I do?

pay attention to

my thoughts was the

of the dungeon, there will be another instructor that will give

every student present, the professor's tone became incomparably