Charge up, remember, you must charge up—!
Cough, cough, cough.
Just kidding, Keti isn’t a demon after all. In the end, the silver-haired beauty spared Ximon, the kid, leading him back to the classroom and briefing everyone once again about tomorrow’s Real Combat Test.
It was essentially a formal notice for the students.
After hearing about this mission, many students in the class immediately looked troubled, their faces turning pale one after another. Well… Keti could understand this.
After all, these kids had no real combat experience, and the place they were going to was extremely dangerous—a dungeon that only adventurers dared to enter. Fear was understandable.
In contrast, that guy Richard was truly messing around, treating the safety of so many students like a test for himself, or worse, using it as leverage to get rid of them.
He was the one who truly didn’t care about the students’ safety.
So, Keti was actually quite reasonable and just coughed twice before addressing the students:
“If anyone can’t participate in the Real Combat Test tomorrow, please apply for leave and don’t come to school. Stay home and rest for the day.”
“Of course… I have to report the leave list to Director Richard because it’s part of his teaching requirements. Whether the leave gets approved depends on him.”
The silver-haired girl secretly hoped more students would take leave so she’d have fewer people to look after.
But if the entire class took leave, Richard would definitely think they were trying to outsmart him, pushing to postpone the test or outright denying their leave requests.
So Keti had to make things clear from the start. After hearing this, the students all nodded thoughtfully, realizing that this test was unavoidable no matter what.
Help me!
But the students had no choice.
Though their studies had been tough ever since entering the Magic Academy, now they could only trust this Keti in front of them—the strict, even Ximon-dreading, loli teacher who was keeping discipline in check.
Next, during that day’s lessons, Keti went back to her roots somewhat.
She pulled out all the strategies she and Alice had used to tackle the Giant Beast Country dungeon before and broke them down bit by bit to explain to the students.
This was probably the most attentive lesson the students had ever had since Keti became their assistant teacher. Cough cough… after all, it concerned their own safety, so the students were unusually cautious.
They spent the whole day like this. Whether it was effective or not, Keti wasn’t sure, but… it was necessary preparation. At least it was done!
And so,
The Real Combat Test began!
***
The next day, Thursday, was the previously agreed day for the Real Combat Test.
Without any buffer time, the moment Keti arrived at the classroom, Richard was already waiting for her.
She could only awkwardly cough twice before organizing the students and leading them toward the Giant Beast Country dungeon.
The group marched boldly into the dungeon, which caused quite a stir outside.
The Adventurers’ Chatroom, where many adventurers were waiting to see when this dungeon would finally be fully cleared, suddenly exploded with noisy chatter.
【Whoa, what’s going on? Why did so many people show up all of a sudden…?】
【Did I see that right? Those uniforms look like students from Liddel Magic Academy!】
【Huh? Liddel Magic Academy students? What are they doing in a dungeon? Is the Magic Academy seriously making them come here for class?】
【Are you serious? They all look like first-year freshmen to me. These kids definitely can’t handle the monsters inside the dungeon, and why bring so many at once? Isn’t this just a joke?】
【Haha… they don’t realize that having more people doesn’t mean better in a dungeon run, right? There’s a teacher leading them, but they don’t even get this basic fact?】
【Uh… big brothers, I’ve always been curious about this too. Why can’t a raid group have too many people? I saw that the Hero Squad girls only ever had three or four in their party…】
【Are you serious? Are you a newbie adventurer? It’s because the more people there are, the stronger the monsters inside the dungeon become!】
【Exactly! The difficulty of three people going in and thirty people going in is worlds apart. It’s basically punishing the group itself, and thirty people are even harder to coordinate!】
【Usually, just having the basic frontliner–damage dealer–healer setup is enough. The fewer the better for clearing dungeons.】
【Plus, fewer people means the loot is easier to split~】
【Oh, that’s how it is? Then those students coming in this big group aren’t just walking to their deaths? Haha, this is going to be good. Those rich brat kids, hehehe~】
Before the battle even began, the lively crowd outside the dungeon was already gloating. But they were actually making some valid points—nothing wrong with what they said.
Although Keti had no time to check the chatroom, these were exactly her biggest worries…
Entering a dungeon with such a large party was probably even more dangerous than before. Even with experience clearing the first half of Giant Beast Country, Keti was still somewhat anxious…
She then lifted her head to glance at the stern-faced Richard and softly said, “Director Richard, dungeons aren’t suitable for such large-scale real combat teaching.”
“With this many people, the monsters’ strength will be seriously overleveled. How about we change the location?”
“No. The plan is already set. It’s inappropriate to change the location last minute… You just do what you’re supposed to do. If anything happens and you can’t protect the students, I will personally be responsible for their safety.”
Richard cut Keti off coldly on the spot, making the silver-haired girl twitch at the corner of her mouth. Well, this guy really was… stubborn to the bone!
He talked so nobly, but when things went wrong, whose fault would it be? Hmph.
Thinking this, Keti lowered her head in frustration, hesitating whether to say more when suddenly…
A gentle tap landed on her shoulder from behind.
Keti turned around and then…
She saw her archrival grinning mischievously at her before raising his head to glance indifferently at Richard.
“Ugh… You’re only showing up now? You disappeared yesterday without a trace, ugh… I thought you weren’t coming today.”
Keti immediately blushed and shot him a glare. She hadn’t seen this guy all day, and yesterday he had vanished like he’d evaporated into thin air, causing her… to not be able to find him anywhere.
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