The moment I stepped into the dungeon for testing, the surrounding scenery transformed.
It took on the appearance of a quiet mansion.
The scene unfolded just as I had envisioned.
The various paintings hanging on the walls,
the slightly dark, heavy atmosphere naturally formed,
and the reverberation that spread and echoed with each step I took.
All of it made me smile involuntarily.
I had said the dungeon studies professor would be surprised, and it really was true.
The feeling when I stepped into the dungeon created by the academy was completely different from that of stepping into the one I designed.
As I walked down the corridor with a racing heart, enjoying the sounds around me, an old man expressed his astonishment with a slightly raised voice.
<Impressive. How could you create something like this after seeing that awful painting?>
‘Are you referring to the background of the dungeon that I drew?’
<Why ask the obvious? I’m talking about that picture that looks like it was drawn by a five-year-old on the dirt floor.>
‘A five-year-old can't draw that kind of thing?!’
My drawing skills aren’t that great, but I’m better than a kid who just runs around without any thought!
At the very least, I know about perspective! I understand depth! I can do detailed descriptions!
Of course, I don’t know the details well enough to put them to use, but still, I’m not to be compared to clueless little kids!
<I know a kid who mastered shading by himself when he was five.> ‘...Isn’t that person a crazy genius?’ <That may be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re worse than a five-year-old.> ‘If you set that person as a standard, most people in the world would be worse than a five-year-old?!’
As I countered the old man’s unreasonable claims, I engraved the scenery of the dungeon in my mind.
Once the excitement settled, I started noticing the finer details.
There were slight shortcomings in the intricate parts.
Especially the year written beneath this final portrait, which needs to be accurate as it will be one of the clues later on.
I should jot it down in my notepad so I can request corrections later. After walking through the corridor for a few minutes, I reached a dead end.
I headed toward the empty cradle in front of the wall and picked up a piece of paper contained within it.
Foll𝑜w current novℯls on ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm.
As soon as I read the phrase that someone would nod along to, saying, "That's because it's a maze," the scenery of the mansion crumbled and was replaced by something else.
Where there had been carpet, bricks emerged.
The scarlet walls scattered, revealing a training ground that could be somewhere nearby.
Where the portrait had been, numerous soldier faces were engraved.
The transition of the background was neat. It gave the impression of moving to a new space. A student seeing this for the first time would surely gasp in awe, right?
Hehe. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be sure to ask Joy how it was later.
“Hey! You there! No time to dawdle!”
While I imagined Joy’s flustered appearance, a rough-looking knight from afar raised his voice.
“Do you think you’re the only one taking the test today?!”
As he called out, a soldier appeared before me.
He had a commanding presence, with muscles that suggested rigorous training.
Calloused hands gripping a spear.
An aura of martial prowess exuded from his movements.
Anyone could sense that this soldier possessed outstanding skills, and as he took his stance, the knight in the distance shouted again.
“I’ll begin immediately!”
‘Excuse me...’
“Hey, you loud-mouthed idiot knight. What test are you talking about?”
“If you’ve already forgotten what I just told you, it’s better to fall! Figure it out yourself!”
Alright. The tutorial is going just as I imagined.
It’s amusing that they’re conducting a test without revealing the content.
That knight will not disclose the details of the test no matter what. Therefore, those who came to conquer the dungeon must discover the test’s contents for themselves.
While I pondered over the intricate details, the soldier before me smiled.
“Looks like you’re ready. Are you prepared?”
‘Yes. Of course.’
“Why would I need to be prepared to deal with someone like you? Come at me. I’m not afraid of a little girl like you.”
As the soldier clicked his tongue and charged at me, I pulled out my shield from my inventory.
The spear being thrust from afar looked sharp enough to pierce my heart the moment I let my guard down.
However, the power it should possess to be effective is lacking.
No exceptional skill is needed to block that spear.
Just extending the shield is enough.
Clang! The tip of the spear struck the shield but failed to penetrate, bouncing upward.
With that, a massive opening appeared in the soldier's defenses.
Hmm. Even though this is just a tutorial, isn’t the opponent a bit too weak?
At this rate, who would bother to figure out the conditions of the test? They’d probably just crush the soldier and move on.
This tutorial, meant to teach that you have to figure out the gimmicks to break through, is going to be troublesome if it continues like this.
I’ll need to raise the difficulty a bit.
With that decision made, I dashed toward the bewildered soldier and smashed the wooden panel affixed to his right armor.
“The first test is over! You’ve passed magnificently!”
The knight, who had initially been shouting haphazardly, announced the end of the test.
Although I had only entered the beginning of the dungeon, it seemed the overall structure was properly established.
If I just fix the details a bit, I can recreate the dungeon I envisioned perfectly.
“Now, we’ll proceed to the next test!”
The following tutorial was not significantly different from the first one.
The gimmicks were functioning normally, but the soldiers were too weak.
Even though this was a dungeon meant for first-years to conquer, isn’t this a bit too easy?
It feels as if the dungeon’s creator is looking down on the first-years.
‘What do you think, old man? Isn’t it too weak?’
<It is indeed weak. At this level, anyone could break through it with brute force.>
‘Right? My standards aren’t too high, are they?’
Once the dungeon conquest is over, I’ll have to go see the dungeon studies professor and tell him to raise the tutorial’s difficulty.
At this rate, the tutorial won’t serve its purpose.
“...Congratulations. You’ve overcome the trial to become an adventurer.”
The moment I finished the tutorial by crushing the boisterous knight, the surroundings shifted again. This time, it appeared as a dark, gloomy cave.
The suffocatingly thin air.
The only light source was the faint glow coming from the ceiling.
I smiled with satisfaction at this ominous scenery, and upon hearing a sound from behind, I turned my head.
The red eyes sitting in the cave's darkness were so large they seemed similar to my hands.
Threatening fangs that could pierce steel.
Fur that looked as tough as wire.
Claws scraping against the stone floor as if it were dirt.
Seeing the scene that anyone would find terrifying brought an involuntary smile to my face.
Oh, really.
If it’s made this well, it could be a problem.
With this, I can’t help but look forward to what lies beyond.
Originally, I intended to focus on QA rather than conquering the dungeon, but my mind has changed.
With my heart racing like this, I won’t be able to scrutinize all the details carefully!
So, for now, I’ll conquer the dungeon!
Then I’ll take my time to review it again and supplement the details!
With that resolution, I lifted the corners of my mouth and gripped my mace tightly.
“Please! Professor! I can’t rewrite that thesis from scratch!...”
Margean, a graduate student from the Dungeon Studies department, woke up from his nightmare and let out a sigh of relief upon realizing it was just a dream.
It had been truly terrible. The professor had torn apart the thesis I wrote, saying it was not worthy of being called a thesis and ordered me to start over from the beginning.
If something like that happened in reality, I would have immediately smashed the window and jumped out.
Wiping the cold sweat off his forehead, Margean stretched and looked around.
There were people sprawled out like corpses everywhere.
They had all pulled all-nighters for several days to create the final exam dungeon.
Just a moment ago, Margean had occupied one corner of that pile of corpses, and he recalled how things had ended up like this.
The beginning of this catastrophe was the dungeon created by Lady Lucy, belonging to the Alrn family.
The dungeon she had created was so beautiful that anyone majoring in dungeon studies would be left in awe.
When Margean first saw that dungeon, he became envious of the talent possessed by Lucy Alrn.
However, the admiration of the other graduate students vanished the moment they heard the words from their supervising professor.
“Now, you all will create this dungeon yourselves. What do you think? Isn’t it exciting to create this work of art yourself?”
The fact that the dungeon was so beautiful that those walking the path of academia would admire it also meant it was a bizarre and finicky dungeon.
“Are we really expected to create something like this? And we have to do it two weeks before the final exam?!”
To meet that deadline, it wasn’t just a matter of not going home; it meant sacrificing sleep entirely for the duration of the work!
Hearing the supervising professor's words, all the graduate students screamed in their minds, but no one dared to voice their complaints to him.
Having lived as graduate students for a long time, they were already accustomed to being treated like slaves.
How many days had they spent cooped up in the lab, only to be scolded for thinking one hour of sleep was too much?
By yesterday, the graduate students had succeeded in completing the dungeon.
After handing it over to the professor, they all collapsed as if they had fainted.
Let’s see. Is it around 4 PM now?
I’ve been out cold for almost half a day.
But why do I still feel so sleepy?
Yawn. Since Lady Alrn, who was in charge of the dungeon’s design, said she would personally conquer it to identify parts needing revision, QA will take some time.
So, it should be fine to sleep a bit longer, right?
Margean thought he would sleep until tomorrow morning, and as he closed his eyes again,
“Wake up, you graduate students worse than slaves.”
With the sound of the door flinging open, a clear, beautiful, and annoying voice filled Margean’s ears.
“I checked how poorly you turned the wonderful dungeon I created into garbage.”
...Already?
Has the dungeon confirmation already been completed?!
Considering the difficulty of that dungeon, there’s no way they could finish QA at this hour, right?!
“I must say, you all put in some effort, even if you’re pathetic enough to not even be able to write a proper thesis. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re pathetic, does it? I’ll tell you the parts that need revision, so engrave it in that tiny brain of yours.”
Seeing Lucy Alrn’s triumphant gaze, Margean couldn’t help but shed tears.
It seems he would need to struggle for several more days to get a proper sleep.