Chapter 113: Final Evaluation (3)

In front of the warp portal leading deeper into the ruins, the cadets were gathered in their parties. Even though the final evaluation had yet to begin, they already looked like they were attending a funeral.

“We’re doomed!”

“Seriously, have they lost their minds? How are we supposed to win against the professors?”

“Can’t we just give up on the finals?

Professor Kane glanced around at the cadets. “Alright, alright. That’s enough chatter. When I say win, I don’t mean you actually have to beat them. As long as you can hold out reasonably well, you’ll still get a token. So don’t worry too much.”

“T-then can we just run away the whole time without fighting?” asked a cadet.

“Of course you can. That is...” Professor Kane grinned and looked down at the trembling cadet’s thigh. “If you can still run after your legs are broken.”

The cadets were speechless.

“

Hahaha

! I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Now, go on, get in the warp portal!”

Like livestock being led to slaughter, the cadets trudged toward the warp portal.

I pointed at the warp portal and turned to my party. “Alright, time for us to head out too.”

Everyone had changed out of their usual cadet uniforms and into gear meant for actual combat. Iris was in a pure white cleric robe with sacred relics adorning her, Camilla was clad in light metal armor with a massive claymore strapped to her back, and Yurina was wearing flexible leather armor with a sword forged from a unicorn’s horn at her waist.

Just looking at them made me feel invincible: a healer; a holy knight; a swordswoman; and I, an all-rounder capable of both close combat and long-range magic. It was an ideal party, so well-balanced that it was hard to believe it had come together in this half-baked hero academy.

“Well, l-let’s all... do our best!” I said.

That was the case, except for one person.

Albert clutched the hilt of his sword at his side, legs trembling. “I-I mean, I might end up holding everyone back, but... I’ll do whatever I can!”

I walked up to the overly tense Albert and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t stress too much. Just try to stay relaxed. Remember what Professor Kane said? Who your party members are doesn’t really matter.”

Albert nodded repeatedly, looking visibly more at ease. “T-thanks, Dale.”

Camilla squinted suspiciously, arms crossed. “That’s surprising.”

“What is?” I asked.

“That you’re capable of being kind to anyone. Honestly, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“What kind of person do you think I am?”

Well, to be fair, Camilla wasn’t entirely wrong. I wasn’t the type to go out of my way to be nice to others. But Albert reminded me too much of how I used to be. The way he nervously worried about dragging the team down just because he was in a party he felt unworthy of was all too well like how I had been in my past life.

Back then, no one had ever said a single kind word to me. Maybe my words were a half-hearted sympathy. But even so, I didn’t want to inflict the same miserable experience I had gone through on someone else.

Albert clenched his fist tightly and declared with newfound resolve. “I’ll do my best to find something, anything I can do to help!”

I gave a faint smile and turned around. My party members were already waiting for me. In my past life, I was the one tagging along at the back, but that was not the case anymore.

“Let’s go.” I took the lead and stepped into the warp portal.

***

Darkness flickered in my vision. As a feeling of weightlessness washed over me, the black void surrounding my sight flipped and twisted. Camilla and Iris groaned, holding their heads after the warp.

“

Ugh!

”

“This sensation, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”

Like motion sickness, the disorientation from warping varied greatly from person to person. In more extreme cases, people would throw up, like Albert just did.

“You okay?” I asked him.

“

Ugh,

s-sorry,” he replied.

“Here, drink some water. It’ll help you settle down.”

Albert accepted the canteen I handed him, eyes watering with gratitude. “Dale...”

Yurina, disguised as Yuren, was ready to draw her sword at any moment, scanning the surroundings with a hand on her hilt. “Just like on the map, it’s huge.”

As she said, the inside of the ruin, where the final evaluation was to take place, was overwhelmingly massive, far beyond the Cave of Crimson Tears, which we had explored last time.

Iris, now recovered from the warp, came up beside me and looked around slowly. “It really does feel like we’ve entered some kind of underground labyrinth.”

The massive underground space, with towering rock formations jutting up like spires beneath a sealed ceiling, looked exactly like the kind of labyrinth she described.

Camilla turned to the rest of us and asked, “So, where do we go now?”

“Hold on a sec. First, let’s figure out where we are.”

I activated my Hero Watch. As the Hero Watch powered on, a holographic map floated into the air. It was the same one Professor Kane had shown us back in the classroom, and a yellow dot on it marked our party’s current location.

We were just slightly northwest of the center. It was not a bad starting point. After all, our target was the northernmost edge of the ruins. That was where the Diamond-grade token was discovered last time. Of course, I couldn’t fully trust my past life memories as the future kept changing. Still, it was definitely worth investigating.

“Let’s start by slowly moving around and checking the outer areas of the ruins first,” I suggested.

“So, you’re planning to work your way from the outside in?”

“That’s the idea.”

It was just a matter of where to start. Either way, we would have to explore the entirety of the massive ruins to find the secret space.

Yurina turned to me with a sly grin. “We’re aiming for the Diamond-grade token this time too, right?”

She was probably remembering how we had competed over the unicorn during the midterm evaluation.

I gave a small, amused nod. “Of course.”

Yurina nodded with confident enthusiasm. “Great. I’m all in!”

Watching her clench her fists and burn with motivation, I gave a wry smile. I had assumed she’d be less focused on grades now that her family issues were resolved.

However, just as I thought I had underestimated her, she stepped in close with her eyes sparkling and said, “If our party comes in first place this time, you’ll finally move out of the lowest rank, right, Dale?”

Grabbing both of my hands, she shouted energetically, “I’ll make sure you come in first, Dale!”

Suddenly, a memory of Yurina, in her original appearance, flashed through my mind.

“From now on, you’ll be my sun.”

Yurina had said that to me with a radiant smile. Recalling that moment, I let out a soft, incredulous laugh. I did underestimate her. Who would’ve thought the reason Yurina was so fired up was to help me become number one? Well, it was a relief. At least she wasn’t obsessing over first place like before.

Looking at Yurina, who was still gripping my hands and smiling brightly, I gave a faint chuckle. As long as it didn’t go overboard, passion wasn’t a bad thing. Honestly, it was only natural for a cadet to strive for good results.

Then came a grumbling voice from the side. “That arrogant brat, how dare he!”

Turning my head, I saw Iris, her cheeks puffed out in frustration, suddenly grabbing the hand Yurina was holding. “I’ll do anything to help you come in first, too, Dale!”

“Ah, yeah. Thanks, Iris.”

“Even if I have to betray all the Seven Gods!” she said confidently.

“No, please don’t.”

Hey, Iris, you can’t go around selling out the gods if you’re a Saintess

, I said in my mind.

Camilla pressed her fingers to her temple as if she had a headache. “Enough of this nonsense. Let’s get going already.”

“Alright.”

I let go of Iris’s hand, though she shot Camilla a deadly glare. We headed north, following the map. I remembered hearing in my past life that the secret space was discovered somewhere around here last time. Of course, I had only heard rumors about the general location, never seen it myself, so I didn’t know the exact spot.

Yurina pointed between two cliffs. “Hey, Dale. Look over there. That. Doesn’t that look like smoke?”

“It does.” Just as I confirmed that, the black smoke rose beyond the cliff. “Let’s check it out.”

“Yeah!”

When we approached the source of the smoke, what we found was dozens of guardian golems, completely shattered and scattered throughout the ravine.

[Ch-chzzk. Crackle-crackle.]

[Error. Error.]

Albert fell back in shock at the scene before us. “

H-hiiiek!

Wh-what is all this?”

Even if the rest of the team didn’t scream like he did, they were visibly stunned.

“Aren’t those the guardian golems Professor mentioned?”

“I-I think so.”

“There must be dozens of them. Who could’ve destroyed all these golems?”

Everyone looked around, frowning at the remains of golems scattered throughout the valley. I also narrowed my eyes, examining the wreckage. There were no signs of battle nearby. Unless someone was able to obliterate dozens of golems in the blink of an eye, it didn’t make sense for the wreckage to be here with no trace of a fight.

Even we wouldn’t be able to destroy this many golems without leaving a single mark behind. This meant someone had deliberately moved the golem remains here. No cadet would go to such lengths for this. That left only one possibility.

“Stay here for a moment,” I said to my party members.

“

U-um

, okay.”

“Cover your ears,” I added.

“

Huh

?”

Leaving the confused team behind, I walked to the center of the ravine where the shattered golems lay. I slowly inhaled and gathered my mana. Spreading my arms wide, I clapped them together with force, unleashing the Berald Combat Style: Thunder Clap. A thunderous explosion rang out like a bomb detonating, and the golem pieces scattered in all directions from the shockwave.

There, revealed beneath the cleared rubble, was a door leading to the secret space.

“Bingo!”