Chapter 356: Jokester

Chapter 356: Jokester

.r016937ea8121445fab058abb5979c2f1{ display: none; }

Sofia and Astelia stood over the spot where the bone bunker was buried with the students and skeletons inside.

Should I teleport you inside? Astelia asked, aware that Sofia had no mana left to spare to use the graveyard again.

No, I have a funny idea, Sofia answered, laughing ominously.

Only about forty seconds left on the demon form So short.

The students were waiting in the enlarged safe room, safely buried a few meters deep under one of the dungeons corridors, a few hundred meters away from the boss room. Some were sitting, some walking around in circles, impatiently waiting to be let out of there.

The safe room shook with the distant noise and vibrations of a muted impact, as if a wall fell down somewhere far in the dungeon.

The students looked at each other.

Was the fight not over? one of the boys asked.

It was silent for a while Lola answered, sticking her ear against the wall, And its silent again.

Could there be a second boss? Shaily suggested, right as the room shook again.

Lola and Opal were surprised by the stronger tremor and both lost their footing, getting caught by En and Topaz respectively.

Opal seemed the most worried of the group as she knew something the other students hadnt realized yet. The second tremor had come from much closer, she could feel it. Since she couldnt talk, she tended to listen to things around her a lot more and had developed a very sensitive sense of hearing.

Nevertheless, the casual discussion in the safe room turned back to the hushed whispers it had been when the teachers had been fighting the boss.

A third tremor hit the room, this time much closer, enough that everyone noticed. The atmosphere was already getting tense but it suddenly got much, much worse when Pareth activated his armor and weapon, taking a fighting stance in the middle of the room. Bookie panickedly signaled to the students to sit on the floor and be silent with hand gestures.

The room was so silent one could hear a fly land.

Next came the sound of floor tiles cracking, then of the stone around the safe room getting crushed. Something was digging, and it was coming straight for them.

Some were too terrified to do anything, some instinctively prepared to use a spell, but they all knew that if the skeletons guarding them couldnt protect them then they would have no chance to do anything.

Sofia laughed awkwardly and apologized, Sorry, sorry, I just couldnt help myself. Since you bunch could not watch the boss fight I thought you deserved to at least see one monster, right? We did clear the dungeon by the way, Astelia got some cute magic earrings and I also got a good chunk of Orichalcum. Ill melt the thing into ingots and youll get one each as an apology for the scare, how does that sound?

The unexpected reward instantly lightened the mood in the safe room, and the students started asking a lot of questions to both Sofia and Astelia about the items and the boss and the demon form all at once. First, however, they were interrupted by Pareth tapping on Sofias back; she was still sitting on him.

Oh! Sorry, she apologized with a rare slightly reddened face; she stood up and lent Pareth a hand to get up.

I guess there was nobody else going after us I still cant shake this weird sensation that somebody is watching me though. Maybe I really need to take more time to relax

Waiting for the Academy to send someone to retrieve them from the dungeon, everyone was having a fine campfire meal in a clean room they had reclaimed from all the rampant vegetation.

Sofia was just getting done recounting the events of the boss fight to her class while Astelia was giving out the scores to her own students.

Right, let me give the scores for this event, I have been keeping track, so lets see. I wont give the detailed breakdown, but overall, you all did very well, Im proud!

The students intently waited for the scores. Four of them were actually trying to compete for the first place, with only Topaz being uninterested. However, tokens were still worth one gold each, not much to the princess of an Empire, but even she wouldnt say no to more money to spend on new weapons.

So, do keep in mind that everyone shared a singular pool of token since it was a cooperative event, but there were a few bonuses up for grabs and that did create a small leaderboard. Everyone got at least two bonuses which is pretty good, and the overall performance throughout the dungeon was very good with minimal injuries and issues. I only had to step in once, so thats a single penalty. Now, then. Equal in third place with the exact same number of points, we have En, Topaz, and Shaily, getting 180 tokens each.

So much?! En asked, her tails standing up.

Yeah, the events are really going to be the main source of tokens along with duels. For comparison you only get four-hundred something for stealing my teachers pouch so its both a lot and not so much. Anyway, second place goes to Opal! You barely ever missed a spell, never actually hit an ally despite the large area of effect of most of your spells, finished off a lot of monsters by yourself, overall great performance. 220 tokens.

Opal looked embarrassed by the compliments and tried to redirect the attention to the only person left who was obviously first place, Lola.

And indeed, Lola, congratulations on getting the most bonus points. You have improved a lot since our first class two months ago. You still have areas to progress in. I continue to think you could have some great success by fighting side to side with your guardian like I do with Pareth, but its good to take it step by step like you do. Im very proud of how far you have come already. 250 tokens! Sofia announced, clapping for Lola.

The other girls also clapped and congratulated her. Shaily looked very happy to see her friend progress so much, she had the brightest smile out of the entire group despite scoring lower.

Evan in the other group stood up during this, Two fifty?! he exclaimed, getting entirely ignored, before sitting back down. Ill admit its deserved he mumbled, sighing defeatedly.

Evan got 220 like Opal, Sofia informed them, So Lola is actually first for the whole dungeon. As I said, well done. Hard work pays off.

Saint Tartaros appeared around the time everyone was finishing their celebratory meal.

I see that besides the student who had to be evacuated, nothing has gone wrong, the tall Saint observed as his eyes scanned everyone in the room. Very well, I will now distribute the tokens before we head back. I will ask the students to quickly regain your dorms, as I need to have a talk with your teachers. The next two days are off, and there will be no duels during this time, so sleep well and recuperate. Building strength requires proper rest.