Chapter 100

“Another dead end.”

Arriving at the fourth lake, Leo grumbled.

He’d searched all over for the lake where Luminus was sealed, but all four had come up empty.

‘Is the one at the stronghold the last?’

Leo had already spent several hours wandering the city district.

He’d triggered several curses along the way.

Any other student would have been eliminated long ago from all the different curses, but Leo remained perfectly fine.

‘Because I know them all.’

Leo smirked at another curse that had activated nearby.

In his previous life, Leo had experienced every curse imaginable, so he knew how to dispel them all.

The current curse interfered with the nervous system.

‘This one doesn’t even need to be lifted.’

If he moved his left arm, his right leg would move; if he moved his right arm, his left leg would move. Nervous system curses were among the trickiest, but Leo detected the confusion and adjusted his movements accordingly.

‘Curses like this just go away with time, anyway.’

His power may have weakened, but his experience as a legendary hero hadn’t disappeared.

Handling curses with ease, Leo turned toward the stronghold.

“Guess it’s time to head over there. The others are probably fighting for their lives by now.”

Most students had likely left the city and were battling for the stronghold by now.

“Hm?”

He stopped and looked up at the sky.

His sharp senses caught something.

‘A wide-area curse?’

Leo narrowed his eyes.

A new curse.

‘If I look at the range, it’s the entire Neigrang?’

It was a tremendously powerful, large-scale curse.

‘The land itself is cursed.’

Something felt wrong.

Neigrang had been a cursed land ever since it was affected by the Hero Dungeon.

The curses troubling the students were all remnants.

‘But a new curse at this point? And this curse…’

As he realized what kind of curse it was, Leo’s expression hardened.

‘The Curse of Severance.’

It was a curse Tartarus often used in large-scale battles.

The curse itself had no direct effect on people.

Its effect was severing external connections.

In other words, it was a powerful barrier curse that isolated an entire region.

“Damn!”

Knowing there was a traitor inside Lumene, Leo understood the situation immediately.

‘I need to regroup with the others—fast!’

Stirring his [Aura], Leo kicked off the ground.

Boom—!

Kicking up a huge cloud of dust, Leo started sprinting toward the stronghold.

—

Meanwhile.

The students at the royal castle also realized the gravity of the situation.

A student eliminated from the competition wasn’t teleported back to Lumene, but was seriously injured.

Huge numbers of monsters were gathering outside the castle, and demonic beasts were appearing inside the castle.

“[Wind Fang].”

Gwoooooooh!

A wind drill brutally pierced the minotaur.

Howling in pain, the minotaur wildly swung its battle axe.

“Kyaaa!”

A Knights Department student screamed as she tried to block the minotaur.

Abad began chanting.

“[Wind Breaker].”

Crash! Boom!

The minotaur, swept up in blades of wind, was slammed into a building wall, shrieked, and died instantly.

Shhhhh!

“Th-Thank you, Abad!”

A girl blushed and thanked Abad.

He raised his hand in response and looked seriously out at the wall.

‘This is a full-blown crisis. It’s not a competition anymore—we have to work together to defend.’

But holding the castle wall like this was impossible.

Demonic beasts were appearing inside the walls, too.

‘I’m sure the school is trying to solve this, but… with communication down, there’s no immediate help coming.’

Abad quickly ran through his options.

‘We have no idea how long we’ll have to hold out, and our forces are too spread out.’

He turned to look at the ruined palace keep.

The innermost keep—the final bastion—had only one entrance.

That made it easy to concentrate forces, but the entrance was also the exit, meaning there was no way out.

‘But right now, there’s nowhere else to run.’

If they abandoned the castle in this cursed land, they were done for.

‘We have to focus our strength now.’

“Everyone, head to the keep.”

“What?”

“Our forces are scattered. We need to regroup in one place.”

“But, Abad! Defending the keep is a last resort!”

“That’s only true in a normal siege. This is no ordinary situation.”

Abad raised his staff and fired a signal spell toward the keep.

Fwoosh—pop!

A bright light exploded above the keep.

“The smart ones will head to the keep now! Everyone retreat as calmly as possible!”

At his words, students began falling back to the keep.

Abad stayed at the front, helping students retreat as he fell back himself.

Just as Abad thought, he wasn’t the only one heading for the keep.

The leaders at each gate, seeing the endless swarm of monsters, realized they couldn’t hold out.

With Abad’s signal as the cue, all the remaining students quickly began heading for the keep.

Once everyone was inside, the students guarding the keep’s gate rushed to shut it.

Creeeeak—thud!

“Mages! Reinforce the gate with magic!”

The gate was sealed tightly with magic.

“Form an air defense! I saw a wyvern-type demonic beast!”

“Knights Department, guard the walls!”

They were only mid-teenagers, but they all moved quickly, proving themselves true hero candidates as they prepared to defend the keep together.

Meanwhile, a group of students gathered in front of the wall.

“What? Where’s Leo?”

Celia asked in a flustered voice, and Chen Xia replied,

“If you’re looking for Leo, he went toward the outskirts, not the center.”

“Why’d he go out there?”

Abad looked puzzled, and Eliza clicked her tongue.

“He must have his reasons. Who knows what goes through his head? But he won’t get eliminated. He’s annoyingly good at escaping.”

The other students agreed.

“Still, I’m worried. For him to join us, he’d have to get through that monster horde.”

As Abad muttered, Chelsea said,

“Don’t worry, brother. Leo will make it.”

“Right, let’s focus on our own situation first. Let’s share what we know.”

At Celia’s words, the students began sharing all the information they had.

After sharing, Juredin broke into a cold sweat.

“So, we’re really cut off in the middle of Neigrang, under attack from monsters and demonic beasts.”

The other students swallowed hard.

Then a Knights Department student raised his hand.

“This may be a crisis, but… isn’t it possible the school just set up some big surprise?”

“I wish it were just an event! But the students who’ve been hurt are in serious condition! Normally, eliminated students would be teleported to Lumene, but they’re still here!”

Carr, having helped the healers, shouted.

Aiming to become a professional supporter, Carr had also studied emergency treatment for the wounded.

At Carr’s words, a girl from the Summoning Department spoke up.

“But maybe it’s a test of how we deal with emergencies? Honestly, this competition has been weird from the start! Making us do a battle royale, then suddenly announcing the final exam on the day!”

Other students nodded in agreement.

“And there are lots of guests from outside. So maybe it really is an event.”

“If you stand out here, you’ll get noticed by all the powerful guests from other countries.”

Some students’ eyes sparkled at that.

Carr shouted in frustration.

“Have you seen the wounded?!”

“No.”

“If it weren’t for Nella, some of them might have died! Even if Lumene does surprise events, it’s never gone this far! Take this seriously!”

“What?”

The Summoning student frowned.

“Now’s not the time to argue! Whether it’s real or not, this is serious! We have to act as if it’s real! First, we need a plan.”

Listening to Celia, Chloe raised her hand.

“We should take advantage of the walls for defense—”

“No, I think now’s the time to attack.”

Emio cut Chloe off.

“If everyone works together, we can wipe out the monsters and demonic beasts surrounding the castle.”

“Rushing out to attack is a terrible idea.”

Chloe shook her head, and Emio snapped.

“Why? Isn’t attacking better than hiding? Wouldn’t it end this faster? What do you all think?”

Some students agreed with Emio.

Duran snorted.

“If you abandon the wall’s advantage without understanding the situation, the professors will love that for your grade.”

“Right. In this situation, defense is the best option.”

Celia sided with Chloe, and Emio ground his teeth.

‘Are they just siding with each other because they’re in the same class?’

Emio glared at Chloe.

‘She’s not better than me! If she hadn’t always focused on research, I’d be ranked higher! Useless on the battlefield!’

There was a running joke in the Magic Department that if Chloe tried harder, Emio would never be third.

So Emio didn’t like Chloe.

But the majority favored defending.

“First, we need to divide into teams and assign roles.”

Excluding the injured, there were 96 students able to fight.

“I think we should split into five teams and take charge of the gates and walls. What do you all think?”

Everyone agreed with Celia.

“Raise your hand if you’ve had command training since childhood.”

Four students, including Celia, raised their hands.

All four were from heroic houses and had formal command training.

“We’re one short. Anyone want to volunteer as team leader?”

“I’ll try.”

“I’ll do it.”

Chloe and Emio raised their hands at the same time.

“Put your hand down, Chloe.”

“Chloe’s the more capable one.”

At Celia’s words, Emio scoffed.

“Chloe’s from the magic tower. She’s always been locked away studying. As someone from a military family, I think I’m better suited to command.”

“Then you be the team leader, Emio.”

Chloe smiled and stepped aside.

She’d only raised her hand because there were no volunteers, so she gave up easily.

Emio looked triumphant, and Celia sighed.

With the leaders decided, they divided into teams.

Once preparations were complete, Celia warned everyone.

“Don’t forget—our goal is to endure, not to leave the walls and attack the monsters!”