Chapter 9

Chapter 9

“Buy me some time, I’ll handle it, so hurry.”

I aimed the burning sword at the monster.

Before long, I heard the sound of Nixie running toward the sword.

Krrruk……

Just as the monster tried to move toward Nixie.

I pointed my sword at it as if I would strike at any moment, glaring at the creature.

“Stay still.”

Kiiik!

One step at a time, slowly.

Every time I advanced, the monster backed away.

The plant-type monster, One Head Plant, sensed my killing intent and stayed on guard.

From the look of it, the current situation was clearly in my favor.

However, I could not allow myself to get carried away.

I had to think rationally.

This advantage would not last long.

‘I don’t know how long this flame will last.’

The flaming sword in my hand.

Cost 3 consumption – Borrow the Young Salamander’s fire for a short time.

Just as the description said, there was clearly a time limit.

Since it was a skill that could be used once every 30 seconds, it was most likely a single-use ability.

‘If I try to attack and the fire goes out, I’ll be in trouble.’

If I were a swordsman class, I would have charged in already. I could have finished it off right away.

But me, right now—Villed’s physical abilities were absurdly at the lowest level.

‘I can’t even swing a sword properly right now.’

If I recklessly approached within striking range and got counterattacked, it would be over.

No matter how favorable the elemental match-up, without enough Health or the right class, my attacks had little chance of working.

‘So for me right now, the flaming sword is nothing more than a threat.’

It was merely camouflage to make me look strong.

‘Even so, it’s not impossible to take it down.’

I still had another option.

Cost 2 consumption – Temporarily summon Young Salamander. It breathes fire and returns to the card.

The method to summon Hwayo.

It could breathe fire.

Of course, the exact range was unknown.

‘Hwayo’s level is 3.’

That was very low.

It couldn’t be expected to have the long range of a gun or bow.

That needed to be calculated in advance as well.

‘So for now, I’ll keep it in check and watch the situation.’

In conclusion, moving rashly would bring no good—that was my judgment.

Clink.

From far away, I heard Nixie picking up a sword.

Krrruk!

Now, at last, the monster was wary of both Nixie and me.

‘I need to make it focus only on me.’

It was an awkward position for Nixie to launch a surprise attack.

If Arowell’s shield was available in this situation, it would be worth a try.

Perhaps that was why Nixie shouted to Arowell.

“Arowell, can you do it now?”

It seemed like she was asking if Arowell could use defensive magic.

I answered instead.

“She probably hasn’t gathered enough power yet.”

“Yes, that’s right. Not yet……”

As expected, I couldn’t count on Arowell’s protective ability right now. The MP consumption was quite high.

Nixie and I would have to take it down together.

‘Huh.’

The flame of my sword was starting to weaken.

Ten seconds had passed. I could see it would go out in a few seconds.

‘So the duration is about 15 seconds.’

Keeping that in mind, I replied to Nixie.

“When the flame goes out, the monster will attack me.”

Nixie stayed silent, listening.

Fwoooosh!

The flame was about to vanish. I spoke quickly.

“When it’s focused on me, strike immediately.”

Three seconds remained.

With my left hand, I gripped the card and took a deep breath.

“If you hit the top of its head, it’ll die in one blow.”

I didn’t forget to point out its weakness.

“That means you’re using yourself as bait.”

Nixie shouted urgently.

I had no time to argue.

And I didn’t feel the need to explain my strategy in detail.

Instead, I immediately thought of one line that would make her comply.

“Since when did you start worrying about me so much?”

As expected, Nixie fell silent.

Her silence meant we were proceeding with my plan.

And at that moment, almost as if on cue—

Whoosh!

The explosive firepower disappeared in an instant.

All that remained in my hand was a burned-out stick.

Krrrrrk!

The monster pounced on me as if it had been waiting for this.

I had indeed made myself the bait.

But that didn’t mean I intended to just take the hit.

As the distance between us closed—

The cost gauge filled perfectly to 2.

‘Hwayo!’

When I held out the card, a golden magic circle appeared in midair.

Crackle!

Tearing through the magic circle in the air appeared a lustrous, blue lizard.

Just as its name on the card, it was the Young Salamander.

It was the young lizard, Hwayo.

The moment it appeared, it opened its mouth and shone brightly.

Paaaah!

When I saw that brilliant flame, a scene replayed in my head.

It was from just a few days ago.

The day I first met Hwayo.

Back then, it had breathed fire at me.

‘It was just enough to burn my hand.’

But compared to the sight now, that had been cute.

I could sum up the current situation in a single word.

‘Explosion.’

Paaaaaaaaah!

The space exploded.

A size dozens of times greater than Hwayo’s own body.

A pillar of fire about 1.5 meters high and 5 meters long swallowed the monster whole.

Krrriiiiik!

The monster’s entire body caught fire.

It flailed, unable to come to its senses.

“Nixie!”

At my signal, Nixie’s red eyes gleamed.

Slash!

As expected of the best attacker, Nixie split the panicked monster’s maw clean in half.

Krrriiiik……

Its stem drooped, and the monster stopped moving.

A few seconds later, it disappeared along with black ashes.

Hwayo’s figure had long since vanished as well. It seemed the method was to breathe fire once and then return into the space of the card.

“There, we got it!”

In the silence, Arowell was the first to cheer.

I too felt a surge of excitement at this unexpected ability, but only for a moment.

We were still in the middle of the exam.

It was too early to celebrate.

“Just because we got this one doesn’t mean the test is over.”

Let’s move quickly.

I said so, and promptly set off.

The next to speak was Nixie.

“You… don’t take fire-type classes, do you?”

A question.

Nixie had a reason to be puzzled.

It was a lecture taken by all students who had fire-element abilities.

There was no point in hiding such a power. It was a loss to the student themselves, so it wasn’t strange for Nixie to be suspicious.

I found it troublesome to answer, so instead I showed her my watch and spoke.

“I don’t have time to explain all that.”

Looking at the watch, I saw that 10 minutes had passed since the start of the exam.

The cut-off time for the top 10% was 14 minutes.

‘So about 4 minutes left.’

If we took the shortcut now, we could still make it.

“Ten minutes left. Hopefully we won’t run into any more monsters……”

“If we do, we just kill them.”

I didn’t bother to say we wouldn’t encounter any more.

We kept walking forward.

Before I knew it, I was leading the group.

Moving quickly, we soon reached a four-way junction.

Faced with four options, Nixie again reached for the water bottle at her waist.

‘Let’s just tell them.’

It was frustrating, and we had no more time to waste. Before Nixie opened the bottle, I spoke first.

“Follow me.”

“Ah!”

I entered the second tunnel from the left first. Arowell followed right after, and Nixie eventually came without a word.

Neither of them bothered to argue against my choice.

“…How did you know this was the right way?”

Nixie alone held a question for me.

The map of this labyrinth was in my head. But I couldn’t exactly say I’d learned it from a game.

Then something flashed in my mind.

“I looked at the terrain.”

Improvisation.

It was an answer Nixie could accept without difficulty.

“By observing the terrain, I could tell this spot was different.”

Nixie said nothing more after that.

At the next five-way junction too, they accepted my words.

Thanks to consecutively taking the shortcuts, we reached the end of the labyrinth.

Ever since his days at the Ivory Tower, the intermediate-level academy, Villed had been infamous.

Nixie was also from the Ivory Tower. She had never spoken to Villed, but after watching him for three years, she knew well about his conduct and abilities.

A man incompetent yet arrogant beyond measure.

A man who looked down on those he deemed beneath him.

A man who stole others’ achievements as his own.

A man who would betray even close comrades without hesitation if he deemed them unnecessary.

A beast.

The man called Villed could be summed up in a single word: ‘beast.’

Simply because he was the child of a high-ranking noble, he graduated from the Ivory Tower with high marks and entered Yggdrasil.

However, in Yggdrasil, where skill was everything, his true abilities were bound to be exposed.

Moreover, he seemed to try to seize power like he had at the Ivory Tower, but he chose the wrong opponent.

He never imagined there would be a Princess among his peers.

Villed had failed completely from the moment he entered Yggdrasil.

Now, he had fallen so far that he managed nothing more than tending the stables.

Karma.

This was the price for his vicious deeds. Yet he would never repent for his entire life.

Because that was the kind of ‘human’ he was.

But something was strange.

Even after seeing Villed’s actions with her own eyes, she could not understand them.

‘He tried to protect me?’

When the plant-type monster had tried to attack her.

When she had lost her balance and could not run away.

She thought she would take a perfect critical hit, but someone protected her.

Was it Arowell? No, far too tall to be Arowell.

Then who could it be? The teaching assistant who was watching? A professor? Or her missing father?

None of them were correct.

Half-wavy, messy black hair.

Skin white as jade, a thin body without an ounce of muscle, and a tall, lanky frame like a pole.

There was only one man like that in all of Yggdrasil.

‘Villed.’

The person she thought furthest from the answer was standing in front of her.

Her breath caught in her throat.

She couldn’t think of anything.

‘Why.’

Boldness.

And daring.

He rushed in, risking danger, to stand before her.

As if to take the attack in her stead.

Even Nixie knew that was something called ‘sacrifice.’

But it wasn’t just boldness and daring.

Fwoooosh!

He had ability as well.

A sudden eruption of flame.

Not something one could see from an ordinary torch—lustrous, powerful firepower.

With this ability, both Nixie and Villed were saved from the monster’s attack.

As far as she knew, Villed could not use fire-type magic. How had he done it?

‘Why Villed?’

It was so unbelievable that her mind was in confusion.

In that moment, she heard Villed’s voice.

“What are you doing? Hurry and pick up your sword.”

Rational judgment.

His voice snapped her back to her senses in an instant. She sprinted at full speed toward where the sword had flown.

While Nixie retrieved the sword, Villed faced the monster and quickly gave the strategy.

“When that thing focuses on me, strike immediately.”

Once again, he tried to use himself as bait to sacrifice.

Why had this man changed?

She couldn’t believe it and asked why he was trying to sacrifice himself.

“Since when did you start caring about me so much?”

Quick, precise judgment.

It was a roundabout way of saying, Shut your mouth and follow my plan.

Hearing those words, Nixie reflected on herself.

It was a tense battle—she shouldn’t have been making irrelevant remarks outside of strategy.

In the end, she decided to follow Villed’s words.

Following his strategy, they took down the monster.

In truth, even if Nixie hadn’t stepped in, the monster would have burned to death.

Villed could have claimed credit for the feat. He could have boasted. And she thought he had every reason to.

But—

“Just because we took down one doesn’t mean the test’s over. Let’s move.”

From the start, he had been expressionless.

In Villed’s deep eyes, achievements didn’t seem to matter at all.

Villed took the lead and, with quick steps, they reached a four-way junction.

Nixie wet her finger to find the correct path from the wind direction.

But Villed moved first.

“I looked at the terrain.”

At his words, Nixie’s eyes widened.

The moment from early in the exam crossed her mind.

“The wonders of nature are so beautiful.”

At that time, Nixie had thought Villed was just a naive noble boy admiring the cave.

But that wasn’t it.

“By inferring the terrain, I could tell this place was different.”

He hadn’t been sightseeing—he’d been analyzing.

From the very start of entering the dungeon.

‘All correct…’

Through analysis, Villed had chosen only the shortcuts.

Thanks to that, they encountered no more monsters and reached the exit without issue.

But both inside and outside the cave, Villed stayed silent.

He never once put forward his own contribution.

Naturally, the credit flowed to herself and Arowell, the honor students.

Villed was heavily criticized for clinging to the honor students to get a good score.

But Nixie knew the truth.

She had done nothing at all.

If Villed had gone in alone, he would have escaped the dungeon even faster.

‘I…’

Nixie stared at the sheet with their score and fell into thought.

「Team F4 - 13 minutes 47 seconds, 19th place」

That was what was written there.