“So this is the power of friendship, what a cliche.” 

 

Sigh

 

"Nom... nom... but I have to say, it does make them more effective."

While munching on the sandwich he had packed earlier, Akira thought to himself. He had arrived on the scene earlier, when the three groups were fighting the elemental, mistaking it for a golem.

 

When Drake saw him, he asked, "Oh you're still here?"

 

But he didn't respond and kept staring at the monster in front of him. His lack of reaction led others to believe that he was too shocked to react after seeing such a monster and couldn't say anything.

 

"Haha, it's okay; this must be your first time inside a dungeon, so being scared is normal," Drake said, patting his shoulders.

 

"Now watch me as I slay this monstrosity," Drake said as he advanced with his sword brandished.

 

Akira muttered to himself, "This is different."

 

According to the current scene in the game, instead of the earth elemental, there should have been two dark vine guards, and the SIT members would have easily defeated them.

 

But an elemental changes everything; they'll have to do a lot more than they did back in the game.

 

"So these things can change as well," he was surprised to learn.

 

Previously, when he tried everything to avoid being beaten by the protagonist, he discovered that this world was indeed that of the game, but it was not bound by it. 

 

Things were independent here; they could or could not follow the incidents as they did in the game. The characters could also take a different path than they did in the game, which he did not want to happen.

 

What good will his previous knowledge be if the plot unravels and everyone starts doing things differently than they should? But, of course, none of this matters anymore because all he wants is to live a carefree life.

 

"This golem is strange," Shin observed as he approached Akira.

 

'Because it's not a golem,' Akira reasoned and sighed.

 

"Everyone, let's attack it together," Drake yelled, blocking the elemental's arm.

 

"Let's go, guys," he said as his group charged ahead and engaged the monster.

 

Richard and his group had also arrived at this time, and when they saw the final combatants, they weren't surprised; the SIT members were expected to make it to the end.

But it was the group led by Chris von Deroy and, of course, Akira that surprised them. They could accept the latter because it had become a habit to see him in places like this, but the former? 

 

How could he, the trash son of a noble, live to the end? Even with the assistance of others in his group, they should have been eliminated after a few hours at most, so how are they still alive?

Richard gave a slight nod to Chris, who happily nodded back before approaching Aurora's group.

 

"Nice to see you're here as well," he said to her.

 

"Oh? Were you hoping for something else?" Samantha asked, smiling.

 

"What? No, why would I think that?" he argued, waving his hands.

 

"Relax Richie, she's joking," Aurora said.

 

"Oh, that's fine." 

 

"By the way, it follows the expected pattern." 

 

"Hmm, exactly as officer Laura predicted, but she made one error."

"Yeah, I was a little skeptical when she said Akira would be able to make it here, but no one expected Deroy to be here," she admitted.

 

"Well, you can't really predict anything, so are you prepared?" he asked, drawing his spear from his back.

 

"You'll see." They were waiting for Drake's group result, and they didn't have to wait long because the monster defeated their group.

 

"I'll go first," Richard said, motioning for his group to follow.

 

But Lily didn't follow him and kept her gaze fixed on the spot where Akira was standing.

 

"Let's go, Lily."

 

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry," she said as she began to run.

 

Aurora's eyes were drawn to it, and curiosity began to bubble inside her. She was curious about what had happened to them, but this was not the appropriate time.

 

Akira jumped onto a tree and began to observe the trio and their battle against the elemental.

 

"If I'm not mistaken, Simon must be hiding somewhere nearby, thinking of a way to assist Chris in killing this monster."

 

"He can't come out, and Chris can't use his 'new' powers to attack it unless he doesn't mind exposing himself." Let us just wait and see." He had a very content smile on his face.

 

After a few minutes, Alexandria arrived at the location and discovered everyone lying on the ground; Chris and his group had been eliminated in the interim. 

She was planning a strategy when Richard, who had been kicked out earlier, approached Lily and said something about working together to defeat the elemental.

 

Finally, when everyone agreed, they began arguing about what everyone should do. 

 

"All right, Aurora, use your ice magic to keep him in one place, then Alexandria and Drake will use their special attacks to hit him at the same time, and finally me and Lily will finish him while he heals."

 

 "Why are you going in the end? What are you a protagonist?" Drake responded. "I am going in the end with Aurora."

 

"We can't do that, Drake; Aurora must stay back to restrain him."

 

"Yeah? Then why doesn't Alexandria use her shield attacks to keep him at bay?" he questioned.

 

Aurora yelled from ahead, "Guys, can you think quickly? The elemental is attacking the ice wall."

 

It was at this point that Akira decided enough was enough; the elemental had been slightly weakened by his fight, and if he waited any longer, Richard and others would undoubtedly kill it before him.

 

He couldn't let that happen because this elemental was his ticket to the next tier. He also didn't have to fight the elemental to kill him; all he had to do was destroy the green gem that was hidden somewhere inside its body.

 

He returned to the ground and approached the earth elemental, who looked at him and charged the next moment.

 

“Blitz bolt.” Akira's legs were engulfed by lightning as his body moved at breakneck speeds, rendering the elemental's attack useless.

 

When the elemental was perplexed by what had occurred, Akira appeared behind him and used,

 

"Twin fireballs," he said, shooting two massive fireballs from his hands towards the elemental's back.

 

When the fireballs made contact, they didn't explode, but instead swirled up the elemental's entire body into a vortex of fire, slowly revealing the effects of being subjected to high temperatures.

 

But, as an earth elemental with lava power inside, it quickly shrugged off the external fire attempting to enter him.

 

"Hmm, so you're concealing it on your right shoulder." That explains why their attacks were ineffective." When Akira's vortex of fire was applied to the green gem's body, it shone brightly.

 

"Let's see if you make it through this."

 

"Fire cannons." Massive amounts of mana began to pour from his cores, bringing his vision of a round cannon with nine mouths above his head to life.

Two magical circles were constantly swirling in his hands, guiding the mana into the structure above his head. When the elemental with the lower intelligence realized what was going on, it rushed to attack him.

 

The cannons began to heat up as the target was locked on.

 

"Fire," he said, and shot after shot was fired with pinpoint accuracy towards the right shoulder of the advancing golem.

 

Though the shots had been precise, the elemental deflected most of them them using his sturdy body but that didn't prevent Akira from unleashing more of such attacks which in turn overwhelmed the monster and made him drop his guard. 

 

His movement's had also slowed down and was using both of his hands to protect its core, which was hidden inside the right shoulder.

 

"Oh, you don't do that," he said as he hurled his Agni shots at the target, employing the principle of target-guided missiles.

 

"Hey, do you feel that?" Aurora inquired as she noticed large amounts of mana accumulating there.

 

"Damn, now that elemental can use mana attacks as well?" Drake exclaimed.

 

"No, it's not the same," Richard replied.

 

"Aurora, could you please lower the ice wall?" Lily inquired, her tone slightly nervous.

 

"All right," she said as she lowered the massive ice wall she had built.

 

They were all ready to defend against the incoming attack, but it never came, and the only thing that reigned was silence. They moved forward, trying to follow their mana senses in the silence that resembled the aftermath of a war.

 

But when they arrived, the elemental looked nothing like his former self; he was lying on the ground with a hole in his right shoulder. 

 

Above the elemental, Akira stood with a green gem in his hands and immediately recognized what it was.

 

It was the elemental's core, which they had been trying to locate since the beginning of the fight but couldn't find. And now the core was right in front of them, in the hands of Akira.

 

He smiled at them as he crushed the green core with his right hand.

 

The core shattered into smaller pieces, and the entire space around them began gyrating, and all of them were standing outside of the mock dungeon room in front of the crowd in an instant.

"Ahem... welcome back everyone," Arata said.

 

"I hope this was an enlightening journey; let us now announce the results of this activity," he said, motioning for Laura to come forward.

 

"These points are calculated by the dungeon system and the data in your watches, so you can be confident that these are the correct numbers." She notified them.

 

"As usual, the toppers will meet me afterwards, and tomorrow we'll be teaching some weapon and mana theory classes, so get some rest." 

 

"Thank you, officer Laura," they said before bowing and exiting the room.

 

Akira was leaving the room with them because he had no desire to remain there any longer, but how could she allow that?

 

"Stop, Akira, didn't you hear what officer Laura said? The top rankers have to meet her later," Arata said from behind.

 

'I tried,' he mumbled before returning to the group.

 

The top rankers were filled with mixed emotions as they looked at him; Richard, Drake, Aurora, and Alexandria couldn't believe the rankings.It made no sense to give them higher rankings than him because he could kill the elemental while they couldn't.

 

They were also perplexed as to how he accomplished this feat. Their vision was obscured by Aurora's ice wall, and when it was lowered, the battle had already ended, so they couldn't see how he had defeated it on his own.

 

Alexandria was thinking about something else; when she felt Akira's surge of mana, it was similar but not the same as the person who had helped her in the dungeon.

 

"All right, I've prepared some personal reports for you to read. Mr. Arata would be one of the SIT members' combat partners." She stated.

 

"Really?" Drake inquired.

 

He was ecstatic to learn from someone of his own race as a beastkin it was a great opportunity.

 

"Yes, he is more than qualified," she responded.

 

Richard approached her and asked, "Officer Laura, I have a question."

 

"And Mr. Arata would respond to that," she said as she exited the room, not before casting a glance at Akira.

 

"Umm, Mr. Arata, can you tell us why he's not at the top of the list?" Aurora inquired.

 

"Is this over? I'm tired and want to go home," Akira asked, his voice irritated, which they didn't expect.

 

"Hey, you can't just leave," Drake responded.

 

"We definitely want to know how you did it," Lily added.

"Not my problem," he grumbled. 

 

"Sure, he can go," Arata said, silencing them.

 

He said nothing else and left the academy campus, because he was truly angry for the first time in his life and didn't know how to control it.

 

He was so enraged that he forgot about the meeting with the student council.

 

Back with the group, however, they struggled to comprehend the situation. If it was because he was ranked lower than the elemental despite killing it, that would make sense, but that didn't appear to be the case.

 

"So, teacher, why wasn't he ranked higher than us?" Richard wondered.

 

"The thing is, we didn't tell you about all of the rules that had to be followed inside, one of which was not to fight your classmates and try to steal their watches, which would result in point deductions."

 

"Wait, you're telling us he did that?" Drake inquired.

 

"Many students attempted to do so, so their points were deducted; however, in his case, he was attacked first and retaliated, so his points were deducted."

 

"Who was it who attacked him?"

 

"That doesn't matter, and for the time being, concentrate on the graded result you have in your hands; it was created by Officer Laura herself, and it has a lot of things you could improve on." 

 

"That being said, I will be departing now," Arata followed suit.

 

"Who wants to read anything right now? We can do that later; for now, I want to know more about him," Drake said to Lana.

 

"But who in the dungeon would have attacked him?" According to what I know about him, he doesn't have any friends, let alone someone who would attempt something like that." Lana responded.

 

"Hmm, that's something I'd like to know as well," Shin mumbled.

 

Inside the principal’s office

 

Laura sat in front of the man who needed no introduction; his name alone was more than enough.

 

And right now, after hearing everything she had told him, he was lost in thought.

 

Simon's abuse of power had taken Edward by surprise; he had never expected his old friend's son, for whom he had done so much, to stoop to this level. Sigh, even after all these years, humanity was still a mystery to him.

 

But what was more problematic was the method used by Simon, if Laura couldn’t deduce it then it was a good chance that none of the other trainers could do and that was not a good news.

 

According to the information he was receiving from the royal court, something sinister was brewing in the empire, forcing the king to enlist the help of his key officials. But if it was truly what he feared, things won't be easy.

 

“Are you sure he was using some demonic magic?”

 

“I am not exactly sure because he was using a masking spell but the residual mana in the dungeon was tainted.” Laura responded.

 

“What is that idiot thinking?” Edward slammed the table underneath him.

 

"But Sir, it should be impossible, right?" she asked, "because only demonic beings or those who had sold their souls could use demonic magic."

 

“And that’s the problem. Do you remember what happened twenty years back on your island?”

The mere thought of those times sent shivers down her spine; how much had she lost back then? How many of her sisters were murdered by those heinous creatures? The scars on her body had healed, but those on her heart and mind had not.

 

“I am sorry if that startled you.” Edward apologized after seeing her condition.

 

“No-no it’s okay.”

 

“Okay let’s leave that topic for now, I will talk with few people and then decide something. You had something else to say?” He asked.

 

“Yes it is about a student.”

 

"Hmm? What's the matter with a student?" he pondered.

 

“You should watch the recording yourself.” 

 

As the principal, his watch was the most special; it was linked to all of the cameras installed throughout campus, and it could also control all of the main building's defensive and offensive capabilities.

 

Using his mana, Edward quickly navigated through his watch and watched the last fight inside the dungeon. His expression changed several times before he sighed.

 

“This kid has some real talent, which house is he from?”

 

“He is the one from the E section.” She reminded him.

 

"Akira, correct?" Well, there's no need to worry about him; I've read his file, and despite his abilities, he's not someone who will have much to do in the future."

 

"After all, his bloodline limits him."

 

Afterall an Iron bloodline was only going to take him so far. In the longer game the one who had better bloodline always beats the one who doesn’t and they focused on the longer game not immediate mistakes.

 

And today after killing the elemental Akira’s worst fear came true as the system’s prompt came upon.

 

 

Akira was inside his house, contemplating how quickly things can change; after killing the elemental, he was happy to transcend into the next tier, but then the bloodline potential warning arrived, crashing all his happiness.

 

“I want to sleep.”

 

With that, he drifted off to sleep.