Chapter 63: Ants

Zach was the only student feeling despair. The rest were, contrary to their initial reactions, excited.

Setting aside the increased level of danger coming in contact with the Underworld meant, wasn't this a chance for them to excel? If they did well and found out a lot about the Underworld, couldn't they get a lot of extra credit and scores?

If things ended up being as violent as it sounded they would, it was also a great chance to farm levels.

It would be dangerous to match the level of opportunity. But so what?

The students had already brushed up against Death's hairy ass multiple times during the field trip. Danger was no stranger.

The students were confident in themselves. Their self-confidence was slightly inflated since Zach and Yanael had done a lot to keep everyone alive and safe in the first half of the field trip.

But during the second half, Zach hadn't helped more than when he stumbled upon classmates in trouble when they were outside the camp hunting monsters.

The students knew how to take care of themselves.

However, their self-confidence also stemmed from ignorance. They didn't know how powerful the Underworld was or what threats lay below the surface.

All they knew was that the Underworld had kidnapped Zach, Dukiel, and Julius. The three had made it out with minimal injuries. That had also been the trio's first encounter with real combat, so it was understandable they were injured.

Jarron had said it himself. He and the principal believed the student would be able to graduate in four years. They believed the students could kill the King of the Underworld.

If the principal believed it, it was possible. But for the students to be able to kill the King of the Underworld in just four years…It could only mean that the King of the Underworld wasn't as great of a threat as Zach made him out to be.

He would be powerful, no doubt about it. But if a bunch of students could catch up to him and kill him in four years, the King of the Underworld was certainly a chum.

The students were ignorant.

But they were hardworking and dutiful. As soon as they could, they started teaming up in the groups they had moved in during the field trip. They applied for permission to enter the forest.

Some started looking for clues about the Underworld by following the only lead they had, the Giupusta Locale's location. Others focused on hunting high-value monsters and bringing back precious materials the Academy could use or trade with the outside world: the more dangerous or precious the monster, the higher their scores and results.

The students were diligent and checked the board in the classroom for information on what monsters were precious or sought after. They also looked at what information about the Underworld would be valuable, but no one had even gotten close to finding an answer to the simplest question about the Underworld.

The only exception was Zach and his two buddies.

They had learned a bunch from the tasker and the Great Ugor directly. Then, the principal also confirmed and told them things about the Underworld. They answered as much as they could with that before moving on to the library.

Zach's greatest advantage in the class' race and battle for information about the Underworld wasn't Yanael's superior strength. It would have been the greatest advantage if he was on the field.

But that would have been reckless and short-sighted.

Zach's greatest advantage was his mostly unrestricted access to the Academy's library. Now that he knew some higher-classed information, it was easier to look for more.

Zach, Dukiel, and Julius were continuously awed at how much more he could access than the other students, who had noticed Zach monopolize the questions about the Underworld by now.

The other students were continuously rebuffed by the pixie in the reception and could only look for standard information about the monsters in the forest instead.

The other students thought it was unfair.

Zach offered to drop a chandelier on their heads whenever they complained within earshot.

The students still thought it was unfair. But they kept those thoughts to themselves.

Secretly, Zach also thought it was unfair.

He had gotten access to all this information because he almost got crushed by the chandelier. He almost got crushed by it because he was chosen as the freshman representative. He was chosen as the freshman representative because he was the only S-rank. He was the only S-rank because of extraordinary matters the other students could do nothing about.

He had received the privilege because he was better. It was as simple and unfair as that. seaʀᴄh thё NôᴠeFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

As Zach learned more and grew stronger, he also realized that it wasn't quite that simple.

If the principal or another instructor had stepped in, which they very well could have done, Zach wouldn't have gotten to ask for such a useful privilege. It was only because he dealt with it himself that the principal didn't refuse the request.

Zach wasn't sure why they didn't, but the principal and instructor Kami could easily have stopped the chandelier from falling on him. His only guess was that they had noticed Yanael move almost as soon as the chandelier started falling, and they didn't do anything but stop the crashed chandelier from harming any of the other students.

It was impossible to tell why they did that, but Zach couldn't complain, even if he had been scared half to death. The gains far outweighed the losses, and not only when it came to information about the Underworld.

Thanks to his special access, Zach also got to read about more secret information regarding the monsters. He could read detailed bestiaries telling him how to hunt, dismantle, and extract the most worth out of even the most secretive monsters in the nearby forest.

The other students had to make do with vague descriptions of the monsters and their possible whereabouts before they set off.

Weeks and months passed as the students worked like ants and grew like bamboo shoots.

Finally, Zach, Dukiel, and Julius had located the likely coordinates of another Underworld Locale in the forest.