Cornelia trotted over to the serving cart, picked up the dinner that had originally been hers, and carried it over to Dekan to enjoy.
Dekan leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, going over the information they had just obtained.
Now that they had a considerable information advantage, he needed to carefully plan their route for the rest of the mission.
Once they had finished resting, they would have nine and a half hours left.
Although Mission Objective 2 (Rescue the Hostages) had been completed, their progress on Mission Objective 1 (Explore the Map) was only at 8.6%.
They were still a long way from the required 50%.
There were two reasons their progress was so slow.
First, Dekan and Cornelia had spent too long in this room.
Exploring the Cooking Classroom had only increased their total progress by about 1%.
Second, they still hadn't reached the BOSS room.
The BOSS room was very likely to reward them with a huge amount of exploration progress.
Fortunately, the other four challengers were making decent progress.
Their lineup was probably one fifth-tier challenger, two fourth-tier challengers, and one deadweight.
The matchmaking system wouldn't decide that a team of one fifth-tier challenger and one third-tier challenger was suitable for a fourth-tier difficulty.
Fifth-tier challengers were capable of forcibly clearing certain stages in a fourth-tier Shadow World.
The advantage they brought might take several lower-tier challengers to balance out.
So Dekan and Cornelia were there to offset the fifth-tier challenger's advantage.
Or they were supposed to be cannon fodder.
"Good thing we met such a great teacher as Batchel."
Dekan couldn't help sighing.
Cornelia glanced at Dekan while eating the dinner on her plate.
She still held back her urge to comment.
She felt that ever since Dekan had entered the Shadow World, he had completely cast off the shackles of morality.
But that was fine, too.
It made her feel even more at ease having him as a teammate.
She didn't have to use her brain at all. She could just hit whatever Dekan pointed at, and they'd clear the Shadow World with ease.
Nothing could be more ideal.
"Cheers!"
Dekan gently clinked his glass against Cornelia's.
The two of them began to drink.
After dealing with Baron Batchelor, they had realized that this classroom was actually pretty nice.
A banquet of slaughter?
This should have been a candlelit dinner all along!
If their other teammates could just pull their weight a little, the two of them wouldn't even feel like going out.
"Sigh, let's save the victory celebration for when we get back."
Dekan sighed. He was already starting to feel too lazy to move.
"We'll definitely have a nice meal then."
Cornelia leaned back in her chair, too. She felt that this Shadow World was actually quite peaceful and pleasant.
Dekan: "If we keep tempting fate like this, even the two of us might not make it back safely."
Cornelia: "What does 'tempting fate' mean?"
Dekan: "There are some lines that, once you say them, basically guarantee you won't survive. Anyway, you can't just say whatever you want, especially when so many people are watching us."
Cornelia: "Got it."
Dekan checked the time and stood up reluctantly.
It was about time to set off.
He walked over to Baron Batchelor, untied the Steel Wire Rope binding him, and rummaged through his pockets until he found the Demon Pass.
"Cornelia, sorry for the trouble, but take Baron Batchelor with you."
"Okay."
Cornelia hurried over, grabbed Baron Batchelor by the feet, and dragged him out of the classroom.
It was now after class, and the two of them walked down the corridor.
Every so often, passing students stared at them in astonishment.
The Demon Students had never seen a student dragging an unconscious teacher down the corridor before!
And there was a huge, conspicuous wound on the teacher's head.
It looked as if his skull had been dented by a blunt object.
Could those two have done it?
The students dared to wonder, but not to ask.
They were afraid of provoking the two demons, who looked like nothing but trouble.
Following the information he'd extracted during the interrogation, Dekan soon found their destination—the infirmary.
One of the few public facilities Batchel knew quite a bit about, the infirmary at this school was also extremely abnormal.
The Demon School Doctor in the infirmary experimented on injured students.
If an injured student went in, there was a chance they'd be healed, but there was also a chance the school doctor would use them for experiments.
But if an uninjured student hid inside, the Demon School Doctor would forcibly seize them and experiment on them.
Although they would suffer immense pain, there was a chance they might be enhanced.
It was a utility room that was basically a gamble on luck.
Dekan and Cornelia rushed into the room one after the other, pretending to be in a great hurry.
The room didn't look like an infirmary at all. It looked more like some sort of mad scientist's laboratory.
Darkness and decay filled every corner. Black liquid sloshed inside the jars lining the cabinets, soaking organs from creatures of unknown origin.
A row of enormous glass tanks stood against the wall, holding all sorts of creatures. Some were emaciated, while others were covered from head to toe in red tumors.
In front of the operating table in the middle of the infirmary stood a figure with his back to Dekan and Cornelia.
He seemed to have noticed his visitors and turned around.
The school doctor was a gaunt old man with a terrifying appearance, his hideous face studded with all kinds of metal plates.
And what he held in his hand wasn't a scalpel, but a saw.
A suffocating stench of rot clung to him, and he made no effort to hide the murderous intent in his eyes.
He seemed to have spotted his prey and was about to pounce on Dekan and Cornelia at any moment.
Just as he was about to activate the room's killing mechanism,
"Our teacher, Batchel, got food poisoning! Please, save him!"
Dekan shouted first.
"Baron Batchelor?"
The Demon School Doctor was taken aback, but his attention was soon completely drawn to the demon Cornelia was dragging.
He seemed to have discovered something very interesting. He put down his saw, hurried over to Cornelia, and examined the unconscious figure on the ground.
"Put him on the operating table."
The Demon School Doctor quickly stopped paying attention to Dekan and Cornelia themselves and simply gave them the order.
Cornelia carried Baron Batchelor over as instructed and laid him flat on the operating table.
Then she stepped back to Dekan's side.
The Demon School Doctor began feeling around Baron Batchelor's body. After examining him for a while, he finally seemed to confirm that this fellow really was Baron Batchelor.
"How did he get such a huge wound on his head?"
The school doctor asked in confusion.
"After getting food poisoning, Teacher went crazy and kept hurting himself. In the end, he even banged his head against the corner of a table and passed out."
"While he was still lucid, he told us that bringing him to the infirmary would save his life. He agreed to let you make any alterations you wanted!"
Dekan lied through his teeth with a perfectly straight face.
The Demon School Doctor's mouth twitched as he listened.
Damn it, you two obviously did this!
He didn't know how Dekan and Cornelia had managed it, but he didn't want to listen to any more of Dekan's nonsense.
He was already itching to modify Batchel.
Chances to modify a teacher were few and far between.
Even if everything Dekan had said was a lie,
as long as there was a plausible explanation, the Demon School Doctor could pretend not to know and modify Batchel anyway. The principal wouldn't be able to hold him responsible afterward.
"Tch, you two can leave. I'll let you off."
The Demon School Doctor hurried the two of them out, then strapped Batchel to the operating table...
Dekan gave Cornelia a thumbs-up.
Plan successful.
Their exploration progress had gone up by about 1% without them having to lift a finger.
Before you continue