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

student he had previously disdained had reached a similar level to his in a mere two

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

Time was almost up...

master Jin's odd behavior. He was much nicer than

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

him like

Arnold couldn't help but feel

Acknowledged.

how the current Arnold

Jin had finally acknowledged his hard work

his hard work had finally

treated him like someone who was worthy

Arnold couldn't help but recall the conversation he had with

how Jin

Yes...

had asked for it, now that he had been

down, washing his clothes, to cleaning up bugs.

do anything that was asked of

in the distance, Arnold

price for

...

"Hmmm?"

I noticed a couple of stares coming in

I couldn't be bothered to

mind was already focused on what was

writing in the novel, this dungeon was located in a cave-like setting,

the visibility inside of the dungeon was

writing this part of the novel hence why I knew a lot of what was to come. With Kevin being rank, the level of difficulty was on a much harder level. Though I didn't know the full layout of the

...this was good.

I started thinking about what else

edge compared to

to

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

momentum every time I

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

...This further complicated things.

the fact that I wasn't confident in my written score. With me having wasted a lot

to score high

not killing monsters

What do I do?

everyone please pay

thoughts was

entrance of the dungeon, there will be another instructor

glancing at every student present,