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.

was he

'Wait...'

something, Mellisa couldn't but

her encounter with Ren...prior to

who Ren was beating up, due to how battered the victim's face was...she now

thought Ren was beating a relatively weaker student who had

that the dispute was over an insignificant matter like the corpse of a goblin. Such disputed happened quite often, as every goblin

around for too long and just went

was for 'that' student to be Arnold...After all,

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

and tall male. Although she didn't get a clear look last time, as she looked at Arnold on the ground being helped by the third years, Melissa felt that this was the same body frame

of surprised

see Ren appear in the rank section, she didn't put much

With the aid of her potions, forcefully entering rank wasn't an impossible feat...but seeing

able to

Hard.

Very hard.

him, with how robust his body frame and defenses were, such

all over

more she got to know 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,

Dover had shown her many

away, the frown in

Ren Dover.

was definitely

...

-Wooosh! -Wooosh! -Wooosh!

three streaks of light split the air apart, and a whistle

-Spurt! -Spurt! -Spurt!

blood splashed everywhere as three

"Thanks!"

a few meters away from the goblins, glanced at Amanda who was a few

they had naturally decided to team up. Moreover, with the

deeper end of the dungeon,

"Is Jin up ahead?"

"hm"

her head, Amanda

"He is with Troy"

on her chin, Emma

guy with yellow pupils and

"Yes"

confirmation from Amanda, Emma's frown

Whenever I see him standing behind Jin, I always get this double-faced

towards Amanda, Emma couldn't help

it just me who feels that

her head,

"No"

similar feeling

...He was dangerous.

to be oblivious to it, Amanda, who always picks

he

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

if he had no

miss this point, but Amanda

she knew that something was wrong, she didn't pry too

it wasn't strange for Troy to hate him...but now that Emma was also pointing it out, it seems like his shows of hatred had started to

something big was about to happen to Jin. But this was only her gut feeling. She couldn't

Troy, do you know what the others are

thoughts was Emma who quickly cut the heads off of some of the goblins and put them into

heads