[This Instanced Dungeon is partially artificial. To clear the Dungeon you either have to defeat the boss of the area who is sealed at the northern part of the dungeon, or leave by touching the flag post at the eastern side of the dungeon. Beware, the creatures in this dungeon have been afflicted with a temporary weakness Debuff.]
The notification was like a blessing for Ludwig because it conveyed a lot of information to him. First thing first, this whole dungeon is modified, as in it had already been in control, and it was probably Teacher Rembaldi’s doing.
The weakness on the creatures in the dungeon could tell that they are at the level where students can handle them to a point. As for the leaving, he could do one of two things. Either go to the north of the map, and defeat the boss of the dungeon, or head to the east and touch the pole.
The first option wasn’t something he was planning on doing, Ludwig had no idea what this ‘Boss’ Monster was capable of, and he had no plan on fighting it. So, for now, they can simply group up together and head to the flag that is in the east.
“Let’s move,” Ludwig said as he began moving deeper into the forest, he made sure not to make his movement known for the rest of the group of nobles behind him.
Bron noticed Ludwig and his group of ragtag moving deeper into the forest and smiled as he turned to the rest of the nobles.
***
“Good, they left, we’ll give them an hour start before we head east,” Bron said.
“East? Why?” another member of the nobles asked.
“Because that’s where the flag is, don’t ask me how I know,” he said.
“Then why not move right now?”
“Because the commoners need to be a bit away from us. Although I wouldn’t have minded breaking a few of their legs and go to the flag myself, the teacher forbids harming one another directly. So we’ll wait a bit, at least an hour, and once they’re far enough we’ll move. Even if one of them comes back to report on their scouting they’ll find no one,” Bron said.
“I like your plan, but that really doesn’t do much no?” a female student asked, “they can still find their way out later, if any of them is good at tracking and they can just leave after ward. Granted they won’t get any good scores since they’ll be later than us… but they’ll still emerge out of the dungeon eventually,” she said.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Bron waved a finger, “A small bird told me that the creatures in this dungeon are weakened, and by the time they figure out what is going on, the creatures will have returned to their peak form. The teachers are forbidden from interfering with the stage, and all we need to do is just leave and make sure no one else leaves after us,” Bron said.
“You don’t think you’re going too far with this?” one of the lower nobles of the group asked.
Bron flashed him a vicious glare, “You, for someone who’s the son of a baron, you’re awfully chummy with those commoners!”
The young man stammered but kept quiet, “I don’t like to have filth like them mingling with us. The commoners are to obey and serve. So don’t have pity on them, lest you become one of them,” Bron said.
“No need to get angry, let’s calm down for now,” the same female student from earlier intervened, “I agree with Bron, the commoners really did lower the level of this academy. You won’t find a single commoner in any of the other towers. So we need to do our cleanup ourselves.”
“At least there is someone sensible here, regardless, I’ll need to keep track of them,” Bron said as he pulled a small mechanical bird like creation.
“Whoa, a Spy Bird, those are really expensive,” one of the students said.
Bron smugly smiled, “Nothing is expensive for a Steelheart, This will keep track of them and tell us of their current location, I don’t want them to luckily stammer their way to the flag,” Bron said as he flung the mechanical bird high up.
The small thing flew up and began flapping its wings and headed toward the general location of Ludwig and his company.
***
Ludwig was making sure to be as far away as possible before changing direction to the east where the flag was. And after a good time moving, Kassandra spoke up, “You seem to be moving with purpose, do you know something we don’t?”
‘Sharp’, Ludwig thought, “Not really, but I have a feeling that we should head east.” He said.
“Why?” Hoyo asked as he was looking around.
“Because that’s where the sound of the beasts we heard came from. Or at least most of them,” Ludwig said.
A student then asked, “Doesn’t that mean we should be as far away from that?”
“No, that means that that direction is where the ‘test’ is. Regardless, it’s not like we can go anywhere else,” Ludwig said as he pointed forward.
Looking at where he pointed, a whole new scenery revealed itself to the group of students.
They were at the edge of a massive cliff, heading anywhere but north or east meant falling down to their death. The cliff overlooked a massive sea of clouds that seemed to expand endlessly.
“I guess we’ll just have to go east then,” Hoyo said.
“Not much of a choice we have,” Ludwig said as he turned toward the direction of east.
“Weren’t we supposed to be scouting?” one of the students said.
Ludwig turned to him saying, “Do you honestly think that they sent us to scout because they needed it?”
“W-well, Bron said so…” the student replied
“And you believed him?” Ludwig tilted his head, “Why would they even need to scout? They already know where the exit is in the first place,” Ludwig said and that instantly put the whole group on alert.
“What do you mean they know?”
“That Bron guy, he was awfully ready and geared up for this, so trust me when I tell you, in situations like this they already know well the road they need to, after all, for a noble getting a favor from a teacher isn’t that hard,” Ludwig shrugged.
“Your reasoning is somewhat flawed,” Kassandra said.
“How come?” Ludwig asked.
“Why would they ask us to scout if they had the map then?” she asked.
“Simple,” Ludwig shrugged, “Because they don’t want us commoners to make it through the test, remember we’re like a sore thumb in an academy full of snobbish nobles.”
“Then couldn’t you have said something!” one of the students said shouting, “We could have stuck to them, or refused this scouting mission? I’m going back!”
A few students seemed to agree with him, to the point of antagonizing Ludwig.
This made him quite annoyed, after all, they couldn’t and wouldn’t say anything if a noble was speaking, but since he is just a commoner like them they could bitch about him all they want.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Ludwig said, “Saying anything there would have just made us a target.”
“Then what are you planning?” Hoyo asked, “If scouting is a ruse we got pulled into, we should go back to them no? They have a map that can guide them to where the exit is like you said, shouldn’t we follow them from behind?” Hoyo finalized.
“I thought about that for a bit,” Ludwig said as he glanced up, “But I don’t think that’s possible,” he added.
“What do you mean?” Kassandra asked.
“I’ll tell you if none of you make it obvious,” Ludwig said.
Seeing the group frown confused he added, “Don’t look up basically, but there is a Spy Bird above us, they sent it to keep track of us. If we backtrack or follow them they’ll figure out that we’re going to track them.”
Ludwig’s eyes were glowing as his [Inspect] had been active.
***
[Spy Bird]
Type: Mechanical Creation
HP: 1
A small recon mechanical creation shaped into a bird. It has intricate magical circles and advanced engineering systems that allows it to fly and report via magic transmission on the target it is currently spying on.
***
The students had a hard time not looking up, but thankfully everyone understood what was going on.
“If it’s above us, we need to take it down to move in stealth,” Kassandra said.
“I thought about that, but we can’t male it obvious, I don’t think I can accurately shoot it down,” Ludwig said.
“But I can,” Hoyo said as he moved back under the shade of a few trees.
He had a small rock in his hand.
“You know you can’t miss,” Ludwig said.
“I’m pretty accurate with my throws, check this out,” he said as he flung the rock incredibly fast toward the moving bird.
A loud clang echoed above them and the bird fell to bits right next to Ludwig’s feet.
Ludwig collected the bird’s remains and said, “Good job, but this is still a problem for us,” he said.
“What is?” Hoyo said.
“Though there is a chance that they can’t figure out what happened to the Spy Bird, they should already know it’s down, meaning that they’ll move faster.”
“Doesn’t that make our situation worse? Now they know we’re going after them,” one of the students stated.
“They might, or might now, and in the worst case if they know, they don’t know where we currently are and how far we are from them, so let’s head east and follow after them. Our job was scouting anyway, so might as well do it for real this time,” Ludwig said as he moved ahead.