Chapter 370

As I wandered around here and there, time flew by. It had already been four hours since the scheduled appointment.

In the meantime, I got hungry and visited the town, but there wasn’t much to do. I hardly ran into any students.

Even if I did, they weren’t thinking of fighting me. Most reactions were something like…

“Oh, it’s the Assistant! Run away!”

“We’re doomed! Let’s get out of here!”

They either fled or…

“Um, what should we do? Should we fight?”

“We have no choice! We’re at a dead end behind us!”

They either ended up getting smashed like a dog in a fight or…

“··· ···”

“··· ···”

“Get up.”

“I’m sorry.”

Pretending to be dead and getting caught by me, and so on.

All sorts of responses popped up, but most were reluctant to confront me.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a bit off. Why was everyone so busy fleeing instead of fighting?

Even now, I was carrying three treasures. Basically, I was a walking golden goblin.

Yet despite that, the hesitation to fight made me feel something was wrong.

‘I just don’t get it.’

Thanks to that, I ended up wandering alone and wasting time. I pondered while tearing into a can of food.

Using the dark blue treasure that gives clues about other treasures wouldn’t be fun. But honestly, it wasn’t exactly entertaining right now either.

How could I make the students come at me? That was a tough nut to crack.

‘I wonder how Kara and Karas are managing.’

I thought while eating pineapples from the can with my bare hands. Was just walking around really enough?

Karas was skilled at incitement and fabricating stories, but waiting for that was simply boring.

‘Is there anything fun around?’

I polished off the canned pineapple and got up from my spot. The town where I was currently located was at the northwestern edge.

Naturally, it was deserted. The students were there, but they all fled.

It felt pointless to just sit here, so I decided to look for treasure using the clues.

‘Let’s see. The clue is…’

I pulled out a piece of paper from my pocket. It was the paper with the clue written on it.

It’s simple where this clue came from. It was given to me by students who were investigating this town.

At first glance, it might seem like I was extorting them, but I definitely didn’t seize it that way.

To summarize the situation roughly:

“I’ll give it to you.”

“What?”

“I’ll give you the clue. Please let me go.”

“··· ···”

That’s how it went. The students with the yellow treasures were much better.

To give up on fighting without even trying? No tenacity, no tenacity at all.

Still, it wasn’t so bad since I could replenish my strength in the process.

‘A power that can move the world, huh… That’s quite grandiose.’

That was the content of the clue I received from a student earlier. The power to move the world.

It sounded impressive, but I had to consider the possibility that it might be empty inside.

‘The location is… the Twelve O’Clock Town.’

With nothing else to do, should I go check it out? I muttered around the pineapple in my mouth as I stood up.

Since I was bored on the way, I didn’t forget to look for another can. Walking on my two feet made me quite hungry.

Eventually, I unfolded the map and headed toward the town at twelve o’clock. On the way there, I still didn’t run into any students.

It was comfortable, but I wondered if this was okay. Though the theme for this exam was ‘capture the flag,’ if I kept avoiding it, it wouldn’t help me at all.

-Crackling sound

[Hey, Sivar. Can you hear me?]

As I was walking toward the town, Kara contacted me. The orange ring on my left pinky started glowing.

I brought the orange ring closer to my mouth for clearer transmission.

“Yeah, I can hear you.”

[Nothing else going on, right?]

“Nothing at all.”

Actually, it was so quiet it was boring. I didn’t bring that up, though.

Soon enough, Kara explained their situation and shared some crucial information.

[Karas scouted around and said the number of students is increasing.]

“Increasing?”

[Yeah. It seems they are starting to gather together.]

That was good news. The students, realizing they were in trouble, were beginning to group up.

Perhaps the professors wouldn’t want to see this scene at all. Plus, they had a valid reason to unite.

‘Though issues may arise because of what follows.’

Still, just the fact that they were cooperating was a good thing. But the world doesn’t just roll over that easily.

I replied to Kara that I understood and ended the communication. Then, I took another ring out of my pocket.

The dark blue ring that reveals the location of other treasures. I slid it onto my right finger.

If the students were showing signs of working together, I needed to find the treasures more quickly.

‘First, let’s head to the Twelve O’Clock Town.’

Inside the dark blue ring was a guiding magic. When infused with magic power, it would indicate the location of each treasure.

It wouldn’t specify the exact location, just the direction, but that was enough.

As I drew upon the power of the treasure, I quickened my steps. Eventually, I arrived at the town.

Each town has landmarks like fountains or windmills, and this town had a cemetery.

The arrow pointed toward the cemetery, so without any doubts, I walked over there.

“Oops.”

It was after I had arrived in the middle of the cemetery that the directional sign suddenly pointed backward.

This could only mean one thing. I had passed the treasure. But this was a cemetery.

‘Could it be underground?’

There was a high chance of that. Coincidentally, due to the cemetery’s characteristics, shovels were scattered around.

I grabbed a shovel and started digging into the ground. The soft earth made it easy to dig.

-Thunk! Thunk!

As I dug with the shovel, I heard something solid hit. I quickly moved the shovel aside and cleared the dirt away.

As I removed the dirt, a coffin popped up right before me. The chances were extremely high that treasure was hidden inside.

I wondered what kind of treasure awaited. With a racing heart, I quietly opened the coffin lid.

“Oh?”

And there it was, the ‘purple’ treasure inside.

“Ohhhh!”

I couldn’t help my awe at its features.

“Oh wow!”

It felt like I had discovered something incredibly valuable, or no, a toy!

*****

As Kara had mentioned to Sivar, the students gradually started clustering together.

At first, Reina desperately tried to persuade here and there but received little support.

Though her destructive speaking skills contributed, there wasn’t enough solid evidence. Above all, there was a lack of merit.

After all, couldn’t they just take the bracelet off? Surely if they wandered alone, they wouldn’t be beaten, and so on.

There were various reasons, but fundamentally, ‘distrust’ was the biggest issue.

Just when it seemed Reina’s efforts would go to waste, a powerful ally emerged to bolster her claims.

“What? A zero on the exam score? Is that really true?”

“Yeah. I clearly heard from the Assistants. They said they planned to reset our exam scores to zero with a wish.”

“If we really get a zero… ”

“Flunking is confirmed.”

It was Um Seok-dae, no, Namgoong Seokdae. He relayed the conversation he had overheard from Kara and Karas.

None other than a highly influential person from the class. It was impossible not to believe him.

“That person is insane! He shot us by chewing on rocks!”

“We had our arms and legs tied and couldn’t do anything!”

Moreover, there were students who had been knocked out by Sivar directly verifying this. Sivar said they had to work together to take him down.

Thanks to that, as time passed, the students gradually began to gather. Reina’s role as a messenger played a significant part.

Thus, most students congregated in a single town, yet an unexpected conflict arose.

“You want us to trust those Empire bastards? I’d rather just stick to my own crew.”

“Still not getting it? If we all get zeros, it’ll backfire on you too.”

“Right. Even if we somehow take down the Assistant, what then? What guarantee do we have that you won’t betray us afterward?”

Just as Sivar had anticipated, they soon began bickering over what would happen afterward. This was beyond anyone’s control.

Reina felt the same way. After all, she had entertained such thoughts herself at some point.

The striking nature of the wish made the rift of conflict even deeper.

It felt like cooperation was impossible when Namgoong Seokdae snorted dismissively.

“You’re too foolish not to even consider teamwork over your pride.”

“What? Are you done talking?”

“Let me ask honestly. Do you believe you can win against that Assistant? If you think you can, raise your hand.”

“··· ···”

No one easily raised their hand at Namgoong Seokdae’s question. They were too busy watching each other, nervous.

And understandably so, as Sivar’s strength had already been proven. He had fought evenly with Ratatosk and even commanded lightning.

Besides, there was also the information that he possessed treasures. Without cooperation, defeating Sivar would be tremendously difficult.

“I’m not really interested in the wish. I’m just focusing on getting a good score. There are plenty of others like me. Especially you guys from the Allied States.”

“··· ···”

“And… I’m also curious. I wonder just how strong that Assistant really is.”

Namgoong Seokdae quietly adjusted the sword at his waist. A surge of competitiveness arose.

Despite Sivar scraping against their pride, he had his own reasons. He must have been confident in his strength.

Moreover, he also wanted to crush that pride at least once. Seeing a straightforward apology for it was just a bonus.

“You found the blue treasure, right?”

“······ Yeah.”

“We’re sitting on the red one. If you want it, we can give it to you.”

With Namgoong Seokdae offering a shocking proposition, the representative of the Allied States had no choice but to contemplate.

If they backed down while offering so much, they’d only be considered the stingy one. Ultimately, the representative had no choice but to accept.

“······Fine. Just this once.”

“Good choice. Then…”

Namgoong Seokdae turned his head. Reina happened to catch his eye.

Unable to find a reason to intervene, Reina was just rolling her eyes.

And among the new students, she was considered the strongest. I had felt that myself during the duel.

“Did you say your name was Reina?”

“Uh? Ah, yes…”

“I’d like to give you this.”

Namgoong Seokdae quietly extended something. Reina watched carefully as he laid it out on his palm.

It was a ring studded with a red gemstone. Reina’s eyes widened in surprise as she stared at Namgoong Seokdae.

“This, this is… ”

“It’s a treasure that enhances physical abilities. It should suit you well.”

While the students began to gradually cooperate.

“Ohhhhh!”

Sivar was in awe as he gazed at a massive boulder floating above in the sky.

Literally, a rock was hovering in mid-air.

Without a single thing in Sivar’s hands.

“This is fun.”

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