***

"Senior John!", the professor who was in charge of briefing the students of class 1-1 about the practical mid-term exams spoke as he slapped another professor's shoulder.

"What are you here for?", the senior professor, presumably named John, narrowed his eyes.

Shrugging his shoulders, the junior professor spoke. "5 hours have passed and no student have came out of the dungeon. Shouldn't we do something about it?"

Pausing for a moment, John answered. "No, it's perfectly normal considering how convoluted the pathways of the first layers are"

Still worried, the professor continued. "But it's strange however you think about i—"

"Stop with your nonsense!", John glared at the professor as he interrupted him. "Have you gone into <Ant's nest> personally before?"

"...No"

"Exactly!", John folded his arms together. "And I have gone there multiple times. So obviously, I'd know about it better than you"

Seeing that the junior professor was still somewhat unconvinced, John sighed. "Look, if you're that worried, give it another hour or two before going in since—"

After all,

"—Everyone will have been finished by that time"

Raising his eyebrows, the junior professor spoke. "Don't you mean 'everything'?"

Realizing his mistake, John corrected himself. "Ah yes haha! I often confuse those two words with each other"

After seeing the junior professor out of his office, John returned to his work, albeit with much more enthusiasm. He was even humming as he did the paperwork.

After all, he was going to get paid big time after this whole ordeal was over.
***

I threw Ria, who was being carried on my back, onto the ground.

Not even letting her gasp in surprise, I took my sword out from <[Alternate storage]>.

<The second movement of [V- World splitter]: Rupturing thrust>

Spurt—!

Red blood spilled onto the floor as my sword made a clean stab to her heart.

"W- Why..."

"..."

Spurt—!

Ignoring Ria who was looking up and me with hazy eyes, I pulled my sword half-way out of her body and stabbed into it again, and again, and again.

Spurt—! Spurt—! Spurt—!...

Eventually, she died.

I removed my sword from her body, severe her right hand and threw her corpse towards the tree.

Instantly, roots shot out from the ground, grasping Ria's body.

Creak—!

As I had expected, the belly split open, and Ria's body was thrown in with the ant.

Seeing that the tree was distracted, I quickly grabbed Ria's hand and dashed to where Kasumi was.

"THIS IS THE SECOND TIME ALREADY! WHY THE FUCK DID YOU D—"

"Quiet", I glared at Kasumi and interrupted her.

I then sat down on the ground, fiddling with Ria's hand while waiting for time to pass.
...

"How long are you going to keep staring at that?", Kasumi glared at me as I was looking intensely at Ria's hand.

I couldn't respond to her, as I was in deep thoughts.

'5 minutes have passed already... it shouldn't take this long!'

I was genuinely worried. What if Ria had lied about last dying 3 years ago? What if I had just killed her for real?

Such questions were plaguing my thoughts. Thankfully, however, I got my answers soon after, in the form of a peculiar noise.

Fwoooooosh—!

It was the sound of bright red flames suddenly manifesting on Ria's hand.

Feeling the immense heat, I dropped the hand on the floor, and watched it with intrigue.

In no time at all, the flame had completely enveloped her hand, turning it into ash. The ash then seemingly dispersed into thin air despite there being no wind in the cave.

"Hehahaha! I was worried for nothing", I laughed in relief.

Kasumi alternated her gaze at the charred spot on the ground and me in confusion. "W- What was that?"

Being in a good mood, I smiled at her. "You'll know in 5... 4... 3... 2"

"..."

"...1"

BOOOOOOOOM—!

A deafening explosion rang out in the boss room. The bright yellow light the explosion released was equally blinding.

Using my hand to cover my eyes, I shouted to Kasumi. "BOSS CLEARED!"

However, in response to me, a loud voice, not Kasumi's, rang out from inside the boss room.

Well, admittedly, its contents weren't related to my earlier statement.

"THEODORE GRAY! YOU'RE DEAD TO ME!"

It was Ria. She was slowly walking out from the remains of the tree, her eyes glaring at me with a bright hue of yellow.

Flames enveloped her body, and fire with a slightly darker red shade concentrated on the left side of her chest and her right hand.

"Ria, good jo—"

Interrupting my sentence, Ria dashed forwards with immense speed. Flames shot out from behind her, boosting her speed even further.

<[Inferno beam]>

Two beams of condensed red fire shot out towards me.

One look at the spell and anyone can instinctively know that I'd be turned into ash if I let it hit me.

I considered dashing out of the way, but Kasumi was right behind me. As such—

<[Air vacuum]>

—Wind magic was the best choice at that moment.

The fire beams collided with the barrier of oxygenless space, dissipating immediately.

Seeing the shocked face of Ria, I held my breath and rushed towards her.

<[Air vacuum]>

I used the magic and, but this time, the airless barrier surrounded my body like an armor.

<[Raging flames]>

She released yet another one of her spells. However, just like before, the spell dissipated into nothingness as soon as it hit that barrier.

Eventually, I got close enough to her and—

<[Splice]>

—I grabbed Ria by the face and pummeled her to the ground.

"Calm down!", I said as I released the Wind barrier.

Her flames were burning my hand, but I didn't care about the pain, as I had to get my message across and solve this apparent misunderstanding.

"CALM DOWN?", her bright ambers eyes glared hatefully at me through the gaps of my fingers. "YOU FUCKING FED ME TO THAT TREE TO ESCAPE BY YOURSELF! AND YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN?"

"...It was for the best. Look behind you, the boss died, right? And nobody's hurt", I said as I inspected Ria's body. Apart from the ripped clothes at the parts where I stabbed her before, she was unscathed.

My words seemed to have gotten through the Ria, as she had calmed down quite a bit. However, that wasn't to say that she had forgiven me.

It was understandable though, as I would also be fairly pissed if someone killed me and acted nonchalant as if nothing happened.

"Then couldn't you have at least TOLD ME ABOUT YOUR FUCKING PLAN!?"

Sighing, I replied. "You wouldn't agree to go through with the plan if I did so"

That was the truth, and Ria must have known it too. After all, even if coming back from death was possible, no one would want to voluntarily go through it.

This is especially true to Phoenixes, as the process of reviving is described as excruciatingly painful.

Eventually, Ria gave up on trying to kill me. Although, she was still glaring at me.

Releasing her from my grasp, I winced in pain as I looked at my hands.

"Yep, this is going to hurt for weeks"

Looking at Ria once more, I was surprised to see that Kasumi was talking to her, apparently trying to pacify her for me.

'That's Eleanor's servant alright', I chuckled.

After a while, Ria walked up to me with a smirk on her face.

"Hey!"

I stopped bandaging my hands and looked up at her. "What?"

"You're pretty strong for an <F-> rank"

Pausing my gaze on her for a split second, I coughed. "Keum! Thanks for the compliment"

"..."

"..."

"Enough of that, let's get into the main business"

"..."

"I killed the boss monster, right?"

Looking at her skeptically, I slowly answered. "Yes...?"

Grinning even wider, she continued. "So, you owe me one, correct?"

"...Yes", I sighed frustratingly.

"Great!", her eyes shone with excitement and mischievousness. "Then remember that you are indebted to the great lady Ria here. I'll inform you of my request when the time comes"

"..."

She then suddenly glared at me with rage, the mischievousness from before was nowhere to be seen. "And you'll better be prepared physically... and mentally"
...

After confirming that Ria and Kasumi had walked into the exit in the boss room safely, I walked up to the tree and got into its belly.

'Fuck! No cores...'

Disappointed that the boss monster didn't drop any cores, I glanced around the insides of its belly, which was littered with fully burnt corpses of the unlucky students. Amongst them was definitely Bigsnake, but I couldn't make out were he was since everyone's faces were melted off.

Concentrating on my senses, I heaved a sigh of relief as—

'There's no familiar Mana residuals... good'

—Aside from the dense sensation of Ria's mana, there weren't any traces of Krista, Amelia, Raun, Lucy, Evelyn or Sylvia inside its belly.

"So they're still in the caverns... maybe they're injured?", I muttered.

I knew Krista's capabilities best, so I was sure that she wasn't harmed when she dropped to the last layer.

Lucy was a vampire, so she could have just... turned into a bat or something.

Sylvia, well, she might have used her Ice magic to create a slide, or even make snow to soften her fall. And even if she fell face-first onto the ground, I was fairly certain that she would survive.

The main problem was Raun, Evelyn, and especially Amelia.

'Let's just hope I don't find them as mangled corpses...'

As I thought that, I ran back inside the caverns and searched for them.
...

"Huh?", I lets out a confused noise as I sensed several dozens of presences just around the corner.

Focusing on the presences for a while, I confirmed that it was most likely wasn't the ants, as I could feel the familiar mana of Krista and Raun, however, they were unmoving.

'Please don't be dead! Please don't be dead! Please don't be dead'

Silently hoping for the best, I turned around the corner only to see that—

"Fucking hell! I was worried for nothing!"

—They were lying on the ground, not dead, but instead alive and sleeping very soundly.

Apart from them, there were several dozens more students in the room too. And all of them turned their gazes to be as I sprouted my curses out.

Amelia, who was tending to a student's wound, lets out a surprised gasp as she saw me.

She then walked up to Raun and stomped on his stomach.

"Wake up!", she shouted. "It's Theodore"

Groaning in pain and slowly getting up, Raun looked hurtfully at Amelia, before turning his gaze to me and making a similarly surprised face.

"OH THANKS GOD I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!", he rushed towards me.

Seeing this, I took a step to the right.

Raun, who were running up to me with his arm wide open, expecting a hug, crashed into the wall right behind me.

"Ow! Can't you be more considerate of your friend?"

Ignoring Raun massaging the bump on his forehead and complaining at me, I moved closer to Krista. 

"Wake up", I shook her shoulder.

Walking up to me, Amelia shook her head. "Let her be, she deserves to have a rest"

'Since when did she not stutter when she speaks?'

Maybe it was due to Ria boosting Amelia's ego. You know, by cowering behind her whenever something scary happened.

Or maybe it was because she had to act strong to calm the students who were very obviously frightened at this whole situation.

'Oh, at least most of them are...', I thought as I felt several glares on me.

No doubt some of the students didn't like me trying to shake Krista wake and talking to Amelia.

It should be noted that no one was questioning the fact that I, a low ranker, could survive for this long. It might be due to [S - Monarch of the Storms] making my distinct black hair gray, but they should have realized my identity upon seeing my trademark sunglasses.

Hell, Amelia even shouted my name out loud earlier. They definitely knew who I was.

'Maybe they didn't say anything because they feared Amelia?'

Ignoring the frightening implication of such a thing, I briefly looked at Krista's face again and asked. "What happened to her?"

Sighing Amelia answered. "She went looking for you for 4 hours straight and several students followed her. And well... during her search she came across the boss room but..."

Eventually, Amelia gathered her courage and continued the story. "The boss wasn't what it was supposed to be. However, some students still tried to defeat but... most of them died"

"..."

"Krista had to struggle a lot to save the remaining of them", she pointed to the students who were glaring at me.

"I see..."

Thinking about it, I really did seem like an asshole earlier. 

'Well, I'm already an asshole from the beginning of this incident though'

However, that was the least of my concerns, as some of the students behind Amelia definitely deluded themselves into thinking that Krista liked them just because she happened to save them.

'You'd better be prepared if you do...'

After all, I would skin even Raun - my first friend, if he touched my sister without approval from me.

Stopping such thoughts, I turned to Amelia again and asked. "4 hours? How long have you been here?"

I've only been here for about 3 hours after all.

Looking at me confusedly, Amelia answered. "We fell around 5 hours ago. Wasn't it the same for you?"

Shaking my head, I replied. "No, I've been here for only 3 hours"

"I see, so we all fell at different times", Amelia muttered.

'That would explain why I didn't come across anyone when I was on the first layer...'

It also meant that Kasumi and I were the last to fall.

But more importantly—

"How did you even survive the fall?", I asked Amelia.

—There was no way Amelia, Raun, or Evelyn could survive that huge fall alone.

"Oh, Sylvia were with us when we... fell, and she saved us", Amelia replied with a shudder. The experience must have been a terrifying one.

"I see"

I then glanced around the room again and noticed two familiar figures.

They were Lucy and Evelyn.

Lucy was, like Amelia, tending to the wounded students. However, she was mostly responsible for stopping the bleedings.

Evelyn was standing in a corner with her arms folded. Even in this situation, she still didn't forget to be racist against Humans.

Straining my eyes around the room again, I eventually gave up and decided to ask Amelia, as I couldn't spot Sylvia.

"Where's Sylvia?"

Looking at the entrance to the room and deliberately ignoring Raun who was still cursing at me, Amelia answered. "She went out to find the Exit just a few minutes ago since she couldn't defeat the boss monster"

Hearing this, I couldn't help but to shake my head.

'She was probably expecting to find a strong but manageable monster in the Exit room'

Sighing, I turned to Amelia again. "Well, I'll let you onto something. Ria had already killed the boss monster"

Ignoring Amelia's surprised face and the student's obvious display of suspicion towards me, I continued.

"You can stay here if you want. But I advise you to go to the boss room and get out of this dungeon as soon as possible. The dungeon will only be cleared of regular monsters for 2 hours after the boss monster is killed after all"

I then ran out of the room.

"Where are you going?", Raun shouted.

"To find Sylvia!"
...

I decided to get to the Exit room first, since that was where Sylvia said she would go to.

As I was closer to the Exit, I couldn't help but notice that the air was getting increasingly colder.

It was so cold, in fact, that with each steps, I felt as if frostbite could form on my exposed skin at any moment.

'Yep, she's definitely in the Exit alright'

Turning around the corner, I stared in awe at the sight before me.

Standing in the middle of the room was a lone figure - Sylvia.

As she was facing the wood blocking the Exit, all I could see was her waist-length silver hair. However, I was sure that she was expressionless at this moment, like she always had been.

And judging by the fact that her tail was drooping down, it seemed that she was disappointed that there weren't any monsters inside the room.

Suddenly, the air grew immensely colder. 

Tinkle~!

Tinkling sounds reverberated throughout the big Exit room, as if several thousands of crystals were rubbing against each other.

Immediately following it was a chilling voice coming from Sylvia.

<[Absolute zero]>

TINKLE—!

The tinkling now sounded much more aggressive as permafrost infiltrated the insides of the wood.

After a while, the frost had infiltrated every nooks and crannies of the wood, making it look no different than a big and brittle block of ice.

Ting—!

With a flick on her finger, a high-pitched sound rang out, and—

"Woah!", I widened my eyes in surprise.

—The wood crumbled into small, blue pieces, revealing a blue fissure - the Exit.

As Sylvia heard my voice, her tail suddenly curled up in surprise... and hopefully not excitement.

She then slowly turned around and faced me.

"H- Hey Sylvia", I stuttered. "I wasn't creeping on you or anything"

In response, Sylvia merely stared at me and—

{Freeze}

Tinkle—!

—Froze the Exit with cold, hard ice.