Cornelia's Many Talents

The lights flickered in the corridor of the Demon Academy, casting dim, yellow light against the walls and projecting mottled, blurred shadows.

Cornelia was carrying Dekan as she walked down the hallway.

Dekan kept his eyes closed, resting.

Aside from a slight lingering prickle in his brain, he had basically recovered.

However, Cornelia seemed to have noticed something, her brows knitting together slightly.

"Dekan, there seems to be some movement."

Cornelia suddenly lowered her head slightly and whispered into Dekan's ear.

Dekan: "Use Echo Location."

Cornelia then activated the spell card [Echo Location] that Dekan had previously given her.

[Echo Location]

[Category: Spell Card]

[Rarity: Blue Rare]

[Tier: 1]

[Effect: Sense the location of individuals within a 100-meter radius.]

[Note: Cannot be blocked by visual camouflage skills.]

Since Dekan did not possess any melee class functions, in their two-person team, Cornelia had to serve as the front-line tank, scout, DPS, and many other roles.

Although her class designation was clearly not that of a scout, her terrifying physical constitution combined with her superior sensory abilities meant that, to a certain extent, she was not even inferior to a scout of the same tier using detection skills.

Plus, she could pick locks.

Her assassination capabilities... were also excellent.

As long as she was equipped with a few low-cost utility spell cards, she could perfectly well moonlight as a scout.

"It's not The Dean; there are two guys following us."

Cornelia pressed against Dekan's ear to relay the situation.

"Keep walking, pretend we haven't noticed anything."

Dekan instructed.

He thought for a moment, and after a few seconds, whispered to Cornelia again: "Are they still following us?"

Cornelia checked again and replied: "Still there."

Dekan had set the school to "class time," so there shouldn't be any other Demon Students in the hallways besides The Dean.

Of course, no demon would have the guts to follow them.

Presumably, the other party consisted of the final two challengers.

Based on Dekan's deductions, they were likely a Tier 5 and a Tier 3.

Regardless, there would be at least one Tier 5.

No matter how strong the opponents were, Dekan had no desire to engage with them right now.

If the other party had something to discuss with Dekan and Cornelia, they should have done so while they were clearing the map.

Now that the boss had been defeated and they were near the end of the run, these people had suddenly popped out.

Anyone who understood the situation knew what kind of people these were.

The probability of them having ill intentions was high.

Did the other party want to make friends? Or perhaps they had some urgent matter?

They could have just called out; there was no need to skulk around and follow them like this.

As for why they were able to find them now, the reason was easy to explain.

They might have obtained the location of the boss room long ago but hadn't been fully prepared to challenge it.

As a result, they noticed the boss room had been cleared through the sudden surge in exploration progress.

By rushing to the vicinity of the boss room and using some tracking skills, it was only natural that they would find Dekan and Cornelia.

Dekan felt a slight tingling in his scalp.

Why was there more overtime?

Having just finished the PvE, it seemed he might have to fight a PvP match as well.

Of course, he wasn't afraid of PvP, he just really didn't like fighting.

"Cornelia, as long as they dare to show their faces, regardless of their purpose, hit them with the intent to kill."

He was already prepared to summon the Ruined Poet and the Cursed Doll at any moment.

Cornelia: "Understood."

Dekan and Cornelia disappeared around a corner.

Two figures emerged from the shadows on the other side of the corridor.

They were dressed as Demon Students, but in reality, they were two human challengers.

One of them had his face wrapped in black gauze, obscuring his features; only the faint outline of his eyes was visible, his pitch-black pupils rimmed with bloodshot veins, and he exuded an evil and eerie aura.

The other was short in stature, with bulging eyes, cracked lips, and a sinister grin hanging from the corners of his mouth.

They were communicating using a unique form of sign language.

"Did they notice us?"

"Not at all. We can make our move very soon."

The mission countdown now stood at 5 hours and 3 minutes.

In three more minutes, the next break would begin.

By then, even if they caused a massive commotion, it wouldn't attract The Dean.

"According to the matching rules, they are at most a Tier 4 and a Tier 3, or perhaps even lower. How on earth did they clear Olive so quickly?"

"These two are likely puzzle-solving experts; you could tell from their performance in the exam hall."

"For the sake of the doctrine and the rebirth of the world, we cannot allow such experts in decryption to grow... Besides, they must have plenty of good cards on them."

The short man could no longer hide his greedy smile.

Young geniuses like these were often elites cultivated with the full resources of their respective nations; they would certainly possess rare cards.

"No matter how good their cards are, they are just two young brats with very little combat experience. After such high-intensity exploration, their combat resources must be heavily depleted. I detected that one of them is already severely injured and can barely walk."

"Heh, truly two pieces of fat meat. We've been conserving our strength; there is no way they can withstand our surprise attack."

However, just as they continued to follow them forward.

"Don't you feel like something is wrong?"

The man with the gauze-wrapped face frowned, gesturing with his hands.

"Is there?"

"Why does the air feel... different?"

Before they could reach a conclusion, a flash of fire erupted, instantly illuminating the dim corridor as a violent explosion thundered through the hallway.

The intense flames of the blast engulfed both of them, their blurred figures appearing extremely disheveled.

"Cough, cough, a delayed-type Tier 3 Fire Magic?"

As the smoke cleared, four giant, bizarrely shaped masks appeared beside the gauze-wrapped man, shielding him and his companion.

The explosion had done little more than damage their clothes, causing almost no substantial harm.

However, immediately afterward, the short man he was shielding stumbled, nearly losing his footing.

"Hold your breath, quickly!"

The gauze-wrapped man shouted.

After the explosion, a colorless and odorless toxic gas began to permeate the air!

If they inhaled too much, they would likely fall unconscious!

"Damn it! We've been discovered by those two; we have to get out of this corridor immediately!"

Since the corridor was not a completely enclosed space, they could simply move to another area to avoid the effects of the poison.

Yet, just as they prepared to move forward, they discovered that the floor all around them was scattered with spikes.

One could see the carpet being gradually corroded by the spikes.

These spikes were undoubtedly coated in lethal poison as well.

"Those two bastards! Which school taught them to use cards like this?!"

The short man couldn't help but roar in anger; if the gauze-wrapped man hadn't shielded him, he would likely be covered in these spikes by now.

Furthermore, he was now certain of one thing.

This boy and girl were definitely not good people!