The Author's POV

*Tsk*

"Another dead end..."

Clicking her tongue, Melissa glared at the cave wall that was blocking her way.

Turning around, she once again walked back towards the entrance of the fork roads, not minding the fact that the road was littered with goblin corpses.

"This way, I'm sure this is the correct path"

"Quick before the others catch up"

Along the way, Melissa would occasionally spot other students running down the path, but she didn't bother to even glance at them nor speak to them.

Since this was a competition, there was no need for her to tell them that this road was a dead end.

Moreover, with the fact that she was walking back, it was already painfully obvious that this was a dead end. Yet the students seemed to have completely brushed this fact off.

It was not her fault they were dumb.

Sighing, Melissa couldn't help but speed up her pace. After all, the faster the time the better the score.

As Melissa ran, she couldn't help but wish to get this over with.

In reality, she didn't particularly care about her exam.

Her specialty lied in the theoretical area, meaning that she had no interest in fighting. If not for the fact that her parents practically begged for her to enroll at the Lock, she would've never have come to this place.

"Damn this..."

If not for the fact that she choose the wrong path twice, Melissa estimated that she would've been first by a long shot.

She had wasted a lot of time...

Though she didn't particularly care about the exam, that didn't mean she wanted to botch it either.

Even if her specialty laid in the theoretical area, she still wanted to get a good score. After all, for a perfectionist like her, anything below Top 5 was a failure.

Fortunately, the dungeon was still long and thus she could still reach first place, but the fact that she wasted time irked her. Thus, without pause, she soon ran back to the entrance at full speed.

-Beeeeep! -Beeeeep! -Beeeeep!

As she reached the entrance of the cave, Melissa soon heard the loud and continuous beeping sounds coming from the other side of where she was.

Frowning slightly, slowing down her steps, she soon spotted three third years squatting down and treating a student.

...hm?

Getting a closer look at who the student in question was, Melissa was slightly taken aback.

...Wasn't that Arnold?

She recognized him instantly. I mean, he was Jin's lackey after all. Whenever Jin was present he too was present.

Though not anymore, with Jin always sticking around her whenever he had a chance, she had obviously seen Arnold several times in the past.

...He too annoyed her. Especially since all he did was lick Jin's ass

But why was he passed out on the ground?

According to what she remembered, Arnold, being Jin's lackey, was a fairly strong individual. Pretty much the same strength as her.

Before the trial started, she had estimated that apart from him, no one else would really pose a threat to her in terms of power.

how in the world was he in such a

'Wait...'

something, Mellisa couldn't

Ren...prior to when she entered

didn't know who Ren was beating up, due to how battered the victim's face was...she now had a feeling that it was in

a relatively weaker student who had picked a fight

Such

around for too long and just

'that' student to be

like she was wrong...it turns out that he was capable of beating the

the ground being helped by the third years, Melissa felt that this was the

sort of surprised

surprised to see Ren appear in the rank section,

entering rank wasn't an impossible feat...but seeing Arnold battered on

be able to

Hard.

Very hard.

with how robust his body frame and defenses were,

third-years applying ointment all over Arnold's face, Melissa

about Ren, the more she felt that he was strange. From the incident back in Professor Rombhouse class to the theory he had given her, and to

had shown her many

Arnold's body away, the frown in

Ren Dover.

definitely

...

-Wooosh! -Wooosh! -Wooosh!

cave-like environment, three streaks of light split the air apart,

-Spurt! -Spurt! -Spurt!

blood splashed everywhere as three goblins lifelessly fell down on the

"Thanks!"

her shortswords away, Emma, who was a few meters away from the goblins, glanced at Amanda who was a few meters behind her, and thanked

naturally decided to team up. Moreover, with the fact that they were

the dungeon, Emma

"Is Jin up ahead?"

"hm"

head,

"He is with Troy"

her chin,

guy with yellow

"Yes"

Amanda, Emma's

creeps me out. Whenever I see him standing behind Jin, I always get this double-faced feeling

Amanda, Emma couldn't

me who feels that

head, Amanda

"No"

too felt a similar feeling whenever she saw

...He was dangerous.

to it, Amanda, who always picks up on little things regarding people's behavior, noticed Troy

he

polite smile on his face whenever he was with him, but on rare occasions, his face would

as if he had

attention, chances were that they were going to miss this point, but

she knew that something was wrong, she

him...but now that Emma was also pointing it out, it seems like his shows of hatred

happen to Jin. But this was only her gut feeling. She couldn't confirm

enough talk about Troy, do you know what the others

quickly cut the heads off of some of the

of the heads