Watching Arthur and his team struggle through the dungeon, it dawned on me why they weren’t even considering the dungeon’s gimmicks.
“Joy!” “Tch! I’ll seal its movements with sheer force!” “We have no choice! It’s better than letting it collapse!”
The reason was simple—they thought they could just muscle through it without bothering to strategize.
When I designed the fifth-floor boss, I specifically made it so it couldn’t be overcome by brute force. The point of this Dungeon Studies exam was to test their ability to analyze and conquer gimmicks.
This final boss was supposed to be the culmination of those principles. Like some dungeons in the world of Soul Academy, this one required challengers to gather clues scattered throughout to discover the boss’s weaknesses, each found only after suffering a crushing defeat or two.
But the real problem was that I’d adjusted the boss’s difficulty to make it beatable by all students in the academy.
I didn’t want them breaking apart at the end, so I set limits to keep it from being overwhelmingly difficult. Yet, that cap just happened to fall within reach for a party like Arthur’s, who are far beyond the average academy freshman in capability.
“Frey!” “I know. I’ll back off.”
On top of that, the boss was using the various gimmicks embedded throughout the dungeon.
It would sometimes regenerate instead of taking damage, require intense focus to immobilize, or demand attacks to specific areas to weaken it.
This boss, a culmination of all the dungeon’s gimmicks, met the purpose of the exam by requiring a methodical approach to exploiting its quirks.
“I’m deploying a barrier! Gather here!”
Watching Arthur’s group, all working together under his command to bring down the boss, I felt a headache coming on and pressed my fingers to my temples.
If they were bound to fail, I would have been fine with this approach.
Whether they ultimately figured it out or kept failing repeatedly was all the same to me. If they did manage to clear it, then great; if they failed repeatedly, at least they wouldn’t be cursing me to the heavens.
But here they were, trying to brute-force their way through my dungeon! In a way that absolutely shouldn’t work!
Gyaaah! Is this what dungeon creators feel when someone tries to brute-force through their work?!
No, no, I don’t regret the way I used to blast through dungeons back then! Those creators deserved all the criticism they got!
As I muttered incoherently at the scene unfolding before me, I suddenly realized something.
Wait a second. Every leading group is stuck on the fifth floor.
Could it be?
“Your guess is correct. Both Prince Cecile’s and Marquis Kurten’s parties are attempting to beat the final boss by force rather than figuring out the gimmicks.”
Since they’re second and third years, their version of the boss is even stronger than the one Arthur’s party is facing, yet they’re not backing down either, the professor sighed.
No way!
I get that Kurten’s all muscle-brained, but Cecile?! I thought he’d changed, but turns out he’s just as muscle-brained as the rest!
And Jeff! What are you even doing there?! You’re supposed to be the brain of the party—why are you charging in recklessly?!
Are you really a perfect guy apart from your siscon tendencies?!
I took a deep breath, cooling down from my heated thoughts, and leaned back against my chair.
Honestly, it’d be nice if they all just failed to clear it.
Then I could mock the academy’s idiotic students while demonstrating the correct strategy myself.
“Damn it. Another failure,” Arthur muttered, disappointed.
Watching his expression, I let out a heavy sigh.
Haaah.
If I’d known this would happen, I should have made the freshman boss even harder.
Joy lay sprawled on the ground after being ejected from the dungeon, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Nearly a full day had passed since they’d reached the fifth floor of the academy dungeon, yet the boss showed no signs of falling.
“Is it even possible to defeat it?” she wondered aloud, feeling the fatigue settle deep into her bones.
As she thought about getting up, her eyes drifted closed, and images of the dungeon she’d been tackling flashed before her.
The dungeon Lady Allen had designed was remarkable, without a doubt. It was so impressive that she fully understood why Lady Allen took such pride in her creation.
Her appreciation for the dungeon started on the first floor, when they finally understood how to clear the boss.
They’d been fuming when they’d reached Floor 0, feeling like all their previous efforts had been for nothing. Prince Arthur had even muttered about giving Lady Allen a good thump on the head, and Faivy hadn’t been able to stop him from venting.
But that changed the next day when they discovered the strategy for the first-floor boss.
To defeat the knight guarding the floor’s final section, they had to target its weak points one by one, breaking down its defenses little by little. It was a clever twist, reusing the first room’s gimmick.
“This knight has the same weaknesses as the soldiers we faced earlier!” Lady Kent had pointed out.
“What? No way... Wait, it does match up. Ha! Ha ha ha! So we knew the strategy from the beginning?!”
That gimmick, which felt like a nod of acknowledgment to their earlier struggles, had melted away their anger.
And as they explored, they encountered similar elements throughout the dungeon.
The small wolf on the second floor, which ran at the sight of them.
The hidden passage they found by discerning an illusion.
Ghostly apparitions that were difficult to tell apart from reality.
The boss on the second floor, who alternated between false and true attacks.
By the time they cleared the second floor, Joy felt like this dungeon was teaching them the mechanics of illusions, encouraging them to utilize their newfound knowledge.
The third floor continued in much the same way.
Enemies that seemed endless but would vanish if their leader was defeated.
Rooms with only one correct door among dozens.
A demon who knelt and pretended to show them the truth.
And a boss surrounded by countless magic circles, with only a few that needed to be destroyed.
On the fourth floor, they faced challenges where they had to distinguish dreams from reality every time they opened a door.
Lady Kent grumbled about the hassle, but Joy found it fun. In dreams, she could use magic without worrying about resources, though she’d overexerted herself once, earning a scolding from Prince Arthur.
Finally, they reached the fifth floor.
Confronted by the figure who had previously sent them to Floor 0, they encountered a true wall.
Its innate abilities were beyond logic.
As if to declare its mastery over the dungeon, it utilized all the gimmicks they’d faced thus far.
And it was so tough that despite their relentless attacks, they doubted it could even be harmed.
In the face of this overwhelming challenge, Faivy—the saintess of the Church of the Main God, who had endured countless hardships—refused to despair.
“Everyone, wouldn’t it be a waste to give up after all we’ve gone through?”
“If you think about it, Lady Allen has never given us an impossible task.”
“In other words, Lady Allen believes we can overcome this last enemy.”
“As people who’ve received Lady Allen’s guidance, we can’t betray her trust, can we?”
“Let’s try again. Let’s get up and keep going. All the way to the end.”
Even in a hellish scene, Faivy’s voice sowed the seeds of hope, dispelling their despair.
So they kept trying.
Over and over.
“His foundation is all the gimmicks present in the dungeon! So the strategy should be similar!”
They kept trying.
“When his sword glows red, it’s a deadly attack. I’ll block it with a barrier.”
And kept trying.
“I’m starting to read his swordsmanship. It’s similar to Professor Karl’s.”
Relentlessly.
Even now, as they approached victory.
Joy felt they’d already mastered nearly every aspect of the boss.
Only one thing remained.
Overcoming the boss’s final desperate move, where it spread crimson mana throughout the room.
What could it be?
How could they counter that gimmick?
Lady Allen wouldn’t have designed something impossible to clear.
She must have left a clue in the gimmick itself.
Haaah.
I really have no idea.
Think it through once more.
What was the pattern of that magic circle?
As Joy visualized the magic circle’s shape, an idea came to her.
...What if.
Just what if.
What if they stopped the magic circle from forming in the first place?
If she mixed her own mana in when the magic circle was being etched, she could halt its activation.
The moment this thought clicked, Joy’s eyes shot open, and she jumped to her feet.
“Joy, are you awake? You should take a short rest since the schedule—”
“I’ve got it!”
“...What?”
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“I know how to bring down the final boss, Prince!”