Chapter 314: 18th Week Final Exam (7)
I had a dream.
When I opened my eyes, a gray, fluffy cat was sitting on my chest.
It was in the so-called “loaf” position.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen this one.
I don’t think I’d seen it since midterms.
There was no real reason to shoo it away, so I just let it be and kept staring blankly at the sky.
Then, out of nowhere, a scruffy-looking puppy appeared.
It seemed wary of me, but even so, it trotted over with tiny quick steps before curling up right beside me.
“…..…”
Maybe the cat didn’t like that.
The gray-furred cat abandoned its loaf position.
Then, it walked up to the scruffy puppy and started smacking it with its little paws.
“Woof!”
The puppy whimpered over and over, but it didn’t run away and just stubbornly stayed right next to me.
I couldn’t just sit there and watch, so I stepped in to break them up.
“Stop hitting, stop hitting.”
I kept repeating it, and then—
My eyes snapped open.
As expected, it was a dream.
Was it because I was sleeping in a different place?
The same thing had happened during midterms, and now, finals were giving me restless dreams too.
I decided not to dwell on it. It was just a dream, after all.
When I checked the time, I realized morning had already arrived, so I sat up.
That was when Seo Ye-in who had been using the Kim Ho pillow groggily opened her eyes and slowly tugged at me.
“Sleep a little more…”
“No. Get up.”
Of course, I was firm.
I had even let her use the Kim Ho pillow so she could sleep well, so now it was only right that she wake up.
But Seo Ye-in wasn’t the only one stuck to my sleeping bag.
When I turned my head to the right, I saw Hong Yeon-hwa fast asleep and breathing softly.
Why is she here?
Her sleeping bag was definitely over there.
The best way to figure this out was to ask her myself.
And since I had to wake everyone up anyway, I gave the sleeping bag a light shake.
“Hong Yeon-hwa.”
“Mmm….”
She furrowed her brows slightly and mumbled in response.
“Don’t wake me up….”
“It’s morning. You need to get up.”
“I said don’t wake me up….”
Even so, I kept shaking the sleeping bag. Eventually, Hong Yeon-hwa who was now at the peak of her irritation opened her eyes.
She let out a low growl and grumbled,
“Hey, how many times do I have to tell you not to—huh?!”
The moment our eyes met, her face turned deathly pale and she shot up.
But since she was still inside the sleeping bag, she lost her balance and flopped over in the opposite direction.
After struggling for a while, she finally managed to free herself from the sleeping bag.
She stood in front of me and began to ramble out excuses.
“Th-This…. I was stuck to you because…? It’s not like I did it on purpose, it’s just that, um, my sleeping habits… It was too noisy? Baek Jun-seok was, uh… snoring…?”
I could kind of understand what she was trying to say….or maybe not.
But that wasn’t the important part. Ignoring everything else, I asked just one thing.
“So, did you get some good rest?”
“Huh? Oh, uh… yeah….”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
What was important was whether she had rested well and whether it would affect today’s activities.
The reason her sleeping bag ended up stuck to me was suspicious, but I had no intention of making a big deal out of it.
Even after that, Hong Yeon-hwa kept sneaking glances at me, but when she saw that I wasn’t reacting, she looked relieved.
Once things settled down, Baek Jun-seok who had been watching spoke up.
“So, what’s the plan for today?”
“We’re heading to the cheese room too.”
On the first day, we had focused on securing items since the number of hidden rooms and the items we could obtain from them were limited.
Meanwhile, since we had already gathered most of what we needed, the importance of the hidden rooms had relatively decreased.
So now, it was time to shift our focus toward the cheese room, which was the original goal of the final exam.
“That’s the plan. If we come across any hidden rooms on the way, we’ll check them out.”
“Sounds good. What about Go Hyeon-woo?”
“He’ll contact us.”
I answered casually.
Even if we had lost contact, Go Hyeon-woo was someone who could assess the situation and act accordingly.
For all I knew, his team might also be heading toward the cheese room.
So rather than worrying about them, it made more sense for us to focus on our own task.
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I looked at my companions and spoke.
“Let’s move out.”
***
The most efficient way to gather supplies was to do what we were doing: raiding hidden rooms.
Of course, the other participants wouldn’t know the locations of the hidden rooms as well as I did. For them, finding one would be pure luck.
Still, they must be doing some farming.
After all, ghost monsters also dropped items.
By picking up whatever they could, teams would eventually manage to regroup or get in contact with their members.
And the team we had just encountered seemed to be one of those cases.
Just as we were about to turn a corner, a group of four made of two men and two women appeared from the opposite side.
The moment they spotted us, they froze in place.
“……!”
“……!”
A tense standoff followed.
I took a closer look at them. Each of them carried a sword at their waist, and the energy they gave off was undoubtedly that of martial artists.
Judging by that, they were most likely from the swordsmanship club.
The opposing team also seemed to be assessing our strength. But when they spotted Hong Yeon-hwa’s face, their tension visibly deepened.
It was only natural. She was a promising student, after all.
Before long, the girl who appeared to be their leader finally spoke up.
“…We don’t want to fight. We’ll just pass through.”
At that, Hong Yeon-hwa stepped forward.
We had already agreed that she would take the role of leader in situations like this.
Her name carried weight, after all.
I had also given her the freedom to make decisions based on the circumstances.
And it seemed she had decided that now was the time to assert dominance.
She asked in a haughty tone,
“What if I say no?”
“……”
The swordsmanship club team immediately placed their hands on their sword hilts, ready to draw at a moment’s notice.
With a hardened expression, their leader asked,
“Do we really have to shed blood?”
“That’s up to you.”
Hong Yeon-hwa made it clear that she was more than willing to fight.
If they wanted to avoid that, they had only one option left.
The girl offered a deal.
“One item. That should do, right?”
“Two.”
“…Fine.”
She let out a small sigh.
If they lost the fight, they wouldn’t just lose everything; they’d be kicked out of the dungeon and forced to sit around doing nothing for hours.
She must have decided that giving up two items was the better choice.
One of the male students stepped forward and opened his subspace backpack.
Hong Yeon-hwa who was feigning indifference peered inside and picked out two items.
[Earplugs]
[Calorie Bar (Vegetable Flavor)]
The girl checked them and asked,
“This is enough, right?”
“Yeah.”
At Hong Yeon-hwa’s curt nod, the four members of the swordsmanship club hurried past us.
The girl who seemed to be the leader kept glancing back at us. However, rather than looking at Hong Yeon-hwa, it felt like she was staring directly at me.
That look in her eyes seems suspicious.
Should I chase after her and press her for answers?
However, while that might have been an option before receiving the items, going back on our word after taking them would cause unnecessary trouble.
Besides, since Hong Yeon-hwa was our public leader, she needed to maintain her reputation.
And honestly, even if they were up to something, what could they really do? In the end, I decided to just let them go.
Before long, Hong Yeon-hwa handed the vegetable-flavored calorie bar to Seo Ye-in.
Her arrogance from moments ago was nowhere to be seen. She was being surprisingly cautious.
“Here… Eat it later.”
“…qualified.”
Seo Ye-in’s expression remained neutral, but for some reason, she seemed satisfied.
Looks like she’s skipping the spicy challenge today.
Next, the earplugs went to Baek Jun-seok.
“Here, use these.”
“Thanks.”
He too looked quite pleased.
If a banshee had jumped out along the way, he would’ve been the only one hit with the debuff. But now, he was immune as well.
Alright, time to stack again.
We continued moving forward, dragging a trail of banshees behind us.
– Kyaaaaaah!
– Kiiiieeeh!
[Screaming Jar (17)]
[Screaming Jar (18)]
…
[Screaming Jar (23)]
We kept stacking the Screaming debuff and occasionally stopped by hidden rooms as we made our way through the dungeon.
When I checked the map, I saw that we were getting close to the cheese room.
“……?”
But then, Seo Ye-in suddenly slowed her pace and stared ahead in silence.
Everyone except me had their earplugs in, so I could only ask her what was wrong with my eyes.
Instead of answering, she abruptly fired her magic gun toward the front.
Tududududu!!
Her eyesight really is something else.
I felt quite pleased and couldn’t help but smile.
Something must have triggered my stagnant water instinct, so I was about to give them a warning. But there was no need; she handled it on her own.
“Tch.”
Sure enough, a faint clicking of the tongue echoed from somewhere, and suddenly, swordsmen burst out from the walls.
Some of them lunged at Hong Yeon-hwa, while others thrust their blades toward Seo Ye-in and me.
Shwiiiiiik!
But an ambush is only effective when the target is unaware.
Now that they had been exposed, their reckless attacks were bound to be blocked.
Bang!
One of the charging swordsmen was struck by Wind Force and sent flying backward.
At the same time, I blocked the incoming blade aimed at Seo Ye-in with Root and sent a dark cloud toward Hong Yeon-hwa to reinforce her defense.
As a result, we took no damage at all.
With their ambush failing, the swordsmen immediately retreated to reorganize their formation.
There were six of them in total, and the one who appeared to be their leader had a rather familiar face.
So, I spoke up.
“It’s been so long I can’t quite remember. Your name was… something ‘Gong’?”
“Sa Gong-wook.”
“Ah, I was close.”
He was part of the Black Faction from the swordsmanship club.
I had clashed with him once before during the midterms.
Just as Jang Moo-geuk had hinted, he had been waiting for the right moment to ambush me.
However, since it was crucial that no one suspected Jang Moo-geuk as an informant, I feigned ignorance and asked,
“Did Mak Dae-woong send you?”
“You really thought it would end with just that? I’m sure he told you. You’re no longer in our good graces.”
Sa Gong-wook smirked coldly.
As I watched him, another question popped into my head, so I asked it right away.
“But how did you even find us?”
“We’re the swordsmanship club. No matter where you go, there are eyes and ears watching.”
“Just as I thought; it was them.”
In truth, those so-called eyes and ears were none other than the four swordsmen I had encountered earlier.
No wonder they seemed to recognize me. Looks like they shared my location.
Of course, just as I had thought at the time, whatever tricks they tried wouldn’t change much.
This actually works out better.
If I had to face them anyway, now was as good a time as any.
As the finals progressed, things would only get messier.
I threw out another question.
“But Gong-sik, doesn’t it seem like your plan is already falling apart?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Sa Gong-wook’s lips curled into a cold smirk.
Despite failing to achieve anything with his ambush, he showed no signs of backing down.
It’s six against four.
With the numbers on their side, they must have thought they had a chance.
Sa Gong-wook soon turned his gaze toward Hong Yeon-hwa.
“I know you’ll refuse, but I’ll make the offer anyway. Our target is him and him alone. Stay out of this.”
“Why bother asking when you already know the answer?”
Hong Yeon-hwa scoffed, and Sa Gong-wook gave an indifferent nod of his chin.
“Figured as much.”
At that moment, all six swordsmen simultaneously raised their energy, and we prepared for battle in our own ways.
A tense standoff.
Seo Ye-in’s hand moved toward her frying pan.