At the 99th floor of the Academy Dungeon, I returned to the entrance and, frustrated, struck the wall with my mace.
Despite the fury behind my strike, the wall didn’t break.
I hit the wall repeatedly in my irritation, but after a while, I was drained of energy and collapsed onto the ground.
‘...Grandfather, what time is it?’
<You came in around the morning, so by now, it should be around 7 or 8 o’clock.>
‘How much of that time have I spent here?’
<Hmm. About four hours, I’d say.>
‘Four hours of pointless wandering...’
I stared up at the ceiling of the dungeon, bit my lip, and covered my face with my hands.
I was so frustrated I couldn’t stand it.
I had already figured out the gimmick of the 99th floor a while ago.
There are four paths at the entrance of the 99th floor, and at the end of each path, there is another dungeon.
To open the path to the 100th floor, I need to defeat the bosses in all four of these dungeons, nearly simultaneously.
The reason I say "nearly" is because there’s a slight margin of error allowed.
From what I observed while grinding, it seems that they allow about a minute of leeway.
After defeating one boss, if I return to the entrance after a minute, it seems to work that way.
This kind of gimmick is common in RPGs that feature raids.
In other words, it’s something that can’t be put into a single-player game.
How could one player take down two bosses that are far apart at the same time?
In reality, this kind of gimmick didn’t exist in Soul Academy.
Even if there were NPCs to use as party members, they couldn’t be relied on to handle the dungeon bosses on their own.
Of course, now that there are no game restrictions, it’s not unusual to have such a gimmick.
As long as the cooperation between party members works, it’s totally doable.
But since I can’t cooperate with anyone, that means I can’t clear it.
‘If I had known this would happen, I should have gone alone and not let them impose any restrictions!’
I cursed my past self as I stomped my feet and then sighed deeply, slowly getting back up.
Having figured out the 99th floor’s gimmick long ago, I came to the belief that there had to be another way, so I kept trying different approaches.
Since the core concept of the Academy Dungeon is that anyone should be able to clear it, I believed that even a lonely, friendless nerd like me would have been given some way to do it.
But my struggles were in vain.
As I narrowed down the possibilities, the conclusion was clear—only a four-person party could move on to the next floor.
No, the professors who made this dungeon were seriously thorough—they blocked every possible variable.
Just recently, I tried provoking the dungeon’s boss and pulling it out.
But as soon as the boss crossed the dungeon’s entrance, it died instantly.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it.
If I were an ordinary person, I would have given up on this frustrating dungeon by now, right?
But of course, I’m not ordinary.
If I were a normal person, I wouldn’t have stuck with a game like Soul Academy for years.
After countless failures, I became determined to clear this dungeon by any means necessary.
Hearing the announcement from the Academy, I took out my notebook from my inventory and jotted down the information I had just gathered.
I wrote down how much damage the boss at the fourth path had taken and my estimate of the boss’s HP.
What was I planning to do?
It’s simple.
In the end, I just need to defeat all four bosses at once.
It doesn’t matter whether one boss dies slowly or in a single strike.
<Lucy, no matter how I think about it, this method doesn’t seem like a normal one.>
‘That’s true.’
I don’t think it’s the proper strategy either.
But I’ve collected all the clues again and climbed up, so maybe there’s still another way to do it.
But it no longer matters.
Now that I’m determined, I’m going to break through this dungeon my way!
After finishing the notes, I quickly ran out of the Academy Dungeon and headed toward the back alleys.
There were a few items I needed to get right away.
Having spent the entire day working on the dungeon, Arthur and his party finally arrived at the 99th floor, where Lucy had been.
They didn’t have time to fully tackle the dungeon but managed to take in a few of its elements before heading back, their eyes still full of determination.
The reason for their renewed focus was that Lucy Allen was still hovering around the 99th floor.
After using all kinds of restrictions to get ahead, Lucy had overtaken them, bringing things back to a tie.
Now, Arthur’s group was meeting early the next morning to discuss their plan for when the dungeon door opened again.
“The biggest clue we have is that Lucy Allen couldn’t clear the dungeon.”
Joy and Faivy nodded in agreement.
Lucy was someone who knew everything there was to know about dungeons.
It was almost impossible for her to be trapped on the 99th floor unless there was something she couldn’t handle on her own.
After all, she had managed to reach the 99th floor in just one day, even when entering the dungeon alone.
The reason she was stuck there must be because there was something she couldn’t solve by herself.
“Most likely, it’s something that requires magical knowledge,” Arthur said.
"Hmm? Isn’t Lucy Allen good with magic too?" Arthur questioned.
Joy, with a knowing smile, shook her head.
“I thought so too, but I was wrong.”
Recently, Joy had attended a magic class with Lucy and realized that Lucy, though skilled at suggesting paths for wizards, didn’t actually know much about magic itself.
Arthur still didn’t seem to fully understand.
“What’s strange about that?”
"Well, Lucy Allen always scored excellently in magic-related exams in her first year," Joy added.
Arthur, recalling that he was just below Lucy in the rankings, was puzzled.
That was strange. How could she do well on exams if she didn’t know magic?
“That’s something we’ll need to ask Lady Allen herself later. There’s no point in discussing it now,” Faivy interjected, keeping the options open as she spoke.
“I think the most likely explanation is that the dungeon is designed in a way that can’t be cleared alone.”
“I agree with Saintess’ opinion. Unless there’s some trick to it, I don’t think she’d be stuck like that.”
Arthur’s own observations inside the dungeon supported Faivy’s theory.
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The four paths and the underground areas at their ends seemed simple enough for one person to pass.
But once you got past those, there were many devices that changed the paths when activated.
Though they hadn’t tested all of them, Arthur strongly believed that Faivy’s theory was correct.
But then...
“But that doesn’t align with the ideology of the Academy Dungeon.”
The Academy Dungeon was meant to be something anyone could clear.
It was fine to be weak, but not being able to use magic, holy power, or remove curses meant you couldn’t clear it. That was never allowed.
“I don’t think this will change anytime soon.”
“Oh.”
Arthur furrowed his brows, just as Joy suddenly gasped.
“Did you figure something out, Joy?”
“No, not about the dungeon strategy. But I think I’ve figured out what the professors are thinking.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it, Your Highness. Is there anyone else besides Lucy Allen who would try to tackle the Soul Academy Dungeon alone?”
“No. Who would have such a crazy idea?”
Indeed, the students entering the Academy were the kingdom’s elites.
But the difficulty of the Academy Dungeon was designed to suit those elites, so individual talent didn’t matter much.
Arthur himself wouldn’t even be able to clear it from start to finish alone, so no one would attempt such a thing unless they were Lucy Allen.
Now, understanding what Joy was implying, Arthur nodded in realization.
“So the reason Lucy Allen can’t clear the 99th floor on her own is because the professors designed it that way?”
“That’s right. After Lady Allen showed them a brilliant dungeon, the professors decided to prepare something fun specifically for her.”
Only Lucy Allen had managed to reach the 99th floor alone.
So the professors must have created something specifically for Lucy, which she hadn’t figured out yet, keeping her stuck at the 99th floor.
"...So this is something designed for Lucy Allen, an exception."
Arthur, though uncertain of exactly what awaited them, shook his head as he thought it would likely be something terrifying.
“If this theory is correct, then we can assume the 99th floor of the Academy Dungeon is designed for a group, not a solo player.”
“Yes, we can narrow down the possibilities based on that.”
While the others engaged in a heated discussion, Freya, tired of the talk, had fallen asleep with her head on the table.
Meanwhile, Lucy Allen, having arrived in the back alleys of the Academy, was speaking with a subordinate of Alsetin about what she needed to get immediately.
“...Are you planning some kind of terror attack?” the subordinate said, his voice full of concern as he saw the list of items Lucy had requested.