NOVEL NEXT Chapter 90
I gazed at Elisa, who was trembling as she sensed my presence, and I was convinced she had been hiding the fact that this assignment was, in fact, a group project.
“Is it really a group project?”
“Yes… it is. The assignment for Dungeon Studies is essentially a group project! Even if it’s an easy dungeon, unexpected situations can arise! Ohohoho!”
She seemed scared by my face, but perhaps due to the pride of a noble, she quickly reverted back to her usual expression, and I admired her internally. Noble or not, managing one’s expressions like that must be a given.
“Who is that gentleman over there? May I request an introduction?”
At the noble-looking female student’s inquiry, I mixed a bit of lie into my answer.
“Johann Quartz. A knight. And a former adventurer. I’m here to help with the assignment at Elisa’s request.”
“A knight…?”
Her suspicious gaze collided with mine. She quickly withdrew her gaze, but it seemed she still couldn’t shake off her doubts.
“Does this convince you?”
I showed her the pendant that proved my knighthood. Only then did the unknown female student’s suspicion fade away.
“Thank goodness you are a knight. I thought Elisa was hiring some rough adventurer who loiters around the tavern…”
I did look rough, so I wasn’t offended by that. Really.
Anyway, at first, I thought she was your typical annoying noble girl, but hearing her genuinely worry about Elisa made me feel strange. Sure, she spoke loudly, but she seemed like a kind person at heart.
Unlike before, the female student politely bowed her head to apologize.
“I apologize for my rudeness.”
“It’s all good. I’ve been misunderstood plenty of times, so it’s fine.”
“I was just so surprised that Elisa brought someone with her that I acted rudely without realizing it…”
It was absurdly plausible.
Elisa’s reputation as an outsider must have been well-known among the students. Naturally, being in the same class, I couldn’t help but know.
“Elisa.”
“Yes, yes?”
Elisa looked at the nameless female student like a school bullying victim, cowering. The student, with a soft smile, spoke in a stern voice contrasting her demeanor.
“It’s not good to insist on doing the group assignment alone. You need to develop your social skills. Do you understand?”
“But, but, others hate me—”
“If you had spoken to me, I would have gladly included you in my group. Do you know how embarrassed I was to find out later?”
“Um, well—”
“Making excuses is a bad habit, Elisa. How long are you going to keep this up? I told you last time—”
“Alright, that’s enough. Your friends are waiting, aren’t they?”
I quickly pointed towards the students behind the female student who were watching cautiously. Upon hearing my words, the female student looked up at me, realizing her mistake.
“Oh, I got too worked up. I’ll take my leave now as my party is waiting. I hope you have a good exploration, Elisa! Please, Johann, help Elisa finish the assignment safely!”
The nameless female student soon disappeared into the crowd.
“…whoever she is, she’s quite diligent.”
“Can’t deny that.”
“Martina looks after people well… she gets along with everyone…”
That was quite nosy… An appropriate assessment. Just from the way she spoke, it was clear she had a caring personality. But even with someone like that, Elisa’s outsider status couldn’t be changed. One person caring wouldn’t shift others’ perceptions.
Well, that wasn’t the important thing right now.
“Elisa. It seems we need to talk.”
—————————–
I methodically organized in my mind Elisa’s explanation, which came out like a distorted XTube video due to her poor signal.
“So, there are many in the department who dislike you, and you can’t really talk back, so you’re isolated. For this assignment, no one wanted to include you in their group, so you ended up doing it alone. Is that right?”
“People look at me with, with scary eyes… and, and if I get found out…”
“Ugh, how frustrating.”
Sif perfectly voiced my feelings.
At this rate, she might get wrongly labeled as a witch just by doing nothing. Not only did she emanate a dark vibe, but her personality was gloomy too. She was the epitome of a true outsider. What should I do about this?
Besides, it was outside my ability to jump in and solve it.
I’m not even a student, just a colleague, after all.
It might be better to pair her with Millia to help develop her communication skills, as Millia was an extroverted person who could easily get along with passing students.
…But first, let’s just run the dungeon and think about it later.
“I’ve wasted enough time as it is.”
“Elisa. Sif. Let’s finish the assignment first and then think about this.”
“Okay. So where to?”
Sif quickly picked up on what I said and asked. I briefly recalled the dungeons around here. I didn’t remember all of them, but there were likely a few dungeons that hadn’t been touched yet.
“Follow me. There’s a dungeon that no one knows about. If we explore an undiscovered dungeon, we can get good grades.”
“If it’s an undiscovered dungeon, we can also get rewards from the Dungeon Exploration Guild, right? Have you not reported it even after discovering it?”
“It’s more efficient to clear it out before reporting.”
Normal folks wouldn’t want to tackle it, since it would be life-threatening, but that didn’t apply to me.
In fact, I could just burrow through any troublesome sections, leaving no need to announce it to anyone else. It mightn’t be a universal trick in every dungeon, but it was practically a cheat code for the dungeons around here.
“Johann! I think 20% sounds fair!”
“…Are you only thinking about rewards?”
“But there has to be rewards for entering a dungeon! The more money, the better, right? So, how about it? Just give me 20%~ I’ll do all the scouting!”
She was not wrong, so I raised an eyebrow and thumped Sif on the head. Why was it so satisfying? I thought I might get addicted to hitting Sif on the head.
“Meow! Why did you hit me?!”
“Because it’s there.”
“Don’t hit people with such a big, dumb fist!”
Dumb fist? At least my fist is more intelligent than yours. As I lifted my fist, Sif yelped and hid behind Elisa.
“…Don’t hide behind Elisa. Can’t you see how scared she is?”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Did you promise?”
Sif finally stopped hiding behind poor Elisa and returned to my side. Elisa sighed in relief and followed us closely behind. This whole scene felt oddly amusing again.
Recalling what happened last time, I turned to Sif.
“Sif. We’re splitting. Proceed.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t you think it looks odd right now?”
“Odd? What do you—oh, got it.”
Sif slowed her steps and positioned herself on either side of Elisa. As we positioned ourselves, Elisa appeared flustered and tried to step back again. But there was no way we would allow that. Sif took Elisa’s hand and spoke softly to her.
“Come on now, we’re allies, right? Allies walk side by side like this.”
“Ally? You mean, we’re allies?”
“Exactly. We shouldn’t be scared of each other. Do we look like people who would harm you?”
“Ah, no…”
“If anything happens, I’ll protect you, so don’t worry.”
I instinctively began to reach out and pat Elisa’s head like I did with Millia before stopping. I had heard that most girls don’t like it when you touch their heads, so that’d be… awkward.
Just as I was about to withdraw my hand, it happened.
“Ah…”
A sound of clear disappointment escaped Elisa’s lips. Startled by her own sound, she flushed and lowered her head. Sif glanced at me, giving me a look.
Was there some kind of drug emanating from my hand? I tentatively patted Elisa’s head like one would pat a puppy. Her hair slipped through my palm like fine silk.
“You’re unexpectedly good at charming women, huh?”
Sif, who had shifted to my opposite side, poked my side with her elbow, whispering in my ear.
Should I smack her? No, I promised not to.
“Quit spouting nonsense. Let’s hurry to the dungeon.”
We quickly made our way towards the dungeon.
————–
“There’s a dungeon here? There’s nothing!”
“Look closely.”
I pulled out the shovel strapped to my back. Just in case, I had covered the blade part with leather. As I removed the leather, my shovel’s stunning blade was revealed.
Naturally, Sif, who was always after money, reacted when seeing my shovel.
“Are you saying the blade is coated with mithril?”
“Correct.”
“Where did you find a blacksmith who could work with mithril…”
“I did it myself.”
“What? You did it yourself? Even renowned blacksmiths struggle to handle mithril; are you joking?”
Her familiar look of disbelief came upon her. I shrugged off her look with my shoulder and replied.
“Does it look like I’m joking?”
The bone of a Hydra is not as good as mithril, but it’s decent material just under that. Coating a shovel blade with mithril wasn’t that hard. After all, I merely needed to melt and apply it.
“Wouldn’t you just make a fortune if you became a blacksmith? A blacksmith handling mithril is basically someone the royal family would want to recruit!”
“Not quite. But step back, as I’m about to open the dungeon.”
At my words, both Elisa and Sif stepped back.
I depended on my hazy memories and plunged my shovel into the ground. While I didn’t recall the exact location, digging in this area would likely expose the buried dungeon entrance. I began to rip up the ground at a frantic pace, like an excavator.
Thankfully, after about 5 minutes of digging, the dungeon entrance revealed itself.
“Wow, if someone saw this, they’d think a lake was being dug up…”
“Impressive…”
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and used my skill.
“Crafting.”
The piles of dirt I had stacked up began to shrink, filling in the floor beneath. And stairs made of earth formed around the dungeon entrance.
Seeing a construction site instantly transform into a plausible dungeon entrance felt gratifying.
This is what construction is all about.
“I’m going in. Be careful not to trip and follow me.”
I lit the lamp I had attached to my backpack.