The lights flickered in the Demon Academy corridor, their dim yellow glow falling across the walls on either side and casting mottled, indistinct shadows.
Cornelia was carrying Dekan down the corridor.
Dekan had his eyes closed, resting.
Aside from a slight throbbing in his head, he had basically recovered.
However, Cornelia seemed to notice something and furrowed her brow slightly.
"Dekan, I think there's something moving."
Cornelia lowered her head slightly and whispered into Dekan's ear.
Dekan said, "Use Echo Location."
Cornelia then activated the Spell Card [Echo Location] that Dekan had given her earlier.
[Echo Location]
[Type: Spell Card]
[Rarity: Blue Precious]
[Rank: 1]
[Effect: Detects the location of individuals within a 100-meter radius once.]
[Note: Cannot be blocked by visual camouflage skills.]
Since Dekan had no abilities suited to a close-combat role, Cornelia had to fill several positions in their two-person team, including front-line tank, scout, and DPS.
Although her role clearly wasn't that of a scout, her terrifying physical prowess and keen senses made her, in some ways, the equal of a scout of the same rank using a detection skill.
On top of that, she could pick locks.
And her assassination skills... were excellent, too.
With a few low-cost, utility-focused Spell Cards, she could easily double as a scout.
"It's not the Dean. There are two people following us."
Cornelia relayed the situation into Dekan's ear.
"Keep walking. Pretend we haven't noticed anything."
Dekan instructed her.
He thought for a moment, then softly asked Cornelia a few seconds later, "Are they still following us?"
Cornelia checked again and replied, "Yes."
Dekan had set the school to class time, so there shouldn't be any Demon Students in the halls besides the Dean.
Of course, no demon would be bold enough to follow them.
The two people behind them had to be the last two challengers.
Dekan guessed they were probably one fifth-ranker and one third-ranker.
At least one of them would be fifth-rank.
Whatever their strength, Dekan didn't want to meet them now.
If they had something to discuss with him and Cornelia, they should have approached them earlier, while they were still exploring the dungeon.
Now that the boss was defeated and they were close to clearing the stage, they had suddenly shown up.
Anyone could guess what kind of people they were.
They were most likely up to no good.
Did they want to make friends? Or perhaps they had something important to say?
They could simply call out to them. There was no need to sneak after them like this.
As for how they had found them, that was easy enough to explain.
They might have discovered the boss room's location long ago but hadn't been ready to challenge it.
Then they saw the exploration progress shoot up and realized the boss room had been cleared.
They'd hurried to the area around the boss room, used a few tracking skills, and naturally found Dekan and Cornelia.
Dekan felt his scalp prickle.
Why did he have to work overtime again?
They'd just finished the PvE, and now they might have to fight another PvP battle.
Of course, he wasn't afraid of PvP. He just didn't particularly like fighting.
"Cornelia, the moment they show themselves, no matter what they want, beat them to a pulp."
He was ready to summon the Ruined Poet and the Cursed Doll at any moment.
"All right," Cornelia said.
After Dekan and Cornelia disappeared around a corner,
two figures emerged from the shadows at the other end of the corridor.
They were dressed like Demon Students, but in reality, they were human challengers.
One had his face wrapped in black gauze, concealing his features. Only the faint outline of his eyes could be seen, their dark pupils ringed with bloodshot veins. An evil, uncanny aura clung to him.
The other was short, with bulging eyes, cracked lips, and a sinister smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
They communicated using a peculiar sign language.
"Did they notice us?"
"Not at all. We can make our move soon."
There were five hours and three minutes left on the mission countdown.
In three minutes, the next recess would begin.
Even if they made a move and caused a huge commotion then, it wouldn't draw the Dean.
"According to the matching rules, they can't be higher than a fourth-ranker and a third-ranker. They might even be lower. How did they clear Olive's stage so quickly?"
"Those two are probably puzzle-solving experts. You could tell from their performance in the exam hall."
"For the sake of our doctrine, for the world's rebirth, we can't let people that good at solving puzzles grow stronger... Besides, they must have plenty of good cards."
The short man could no longer hide his greedy grin.
Young prodigies like these were often elite talents whom their countries poured resources into. They were bound to have plenty of rare cards.
"Those cards may be good, but they're still just a couple of kids. They have too little combat experience. After exploring at such an intense pace, they must have suffered heavy losses. I detected that one of them is severely injured and can't even walk."
"Heh, what a pair of juicy targets. We've kept our strength in reserve the whole time. There's no way they can handle our ambush."
But as they continued following them forward,
"Don't you feel like something's off?"
The man with the gauze over his face furrowed his brow and signaled with his hands.
"Do you?"
"Why does the air feel... different?"
Before they could work out what was wrong, flames suddenly flared. The dim corridor lit up in an instant, and a violent explosion thundered through it.
The blast engulfed them both, their blurred figures looking utterly battered.
"Cough, cough... A delayed third-rank fire spell?"
As the smoke cleared, four enormous, oddly shaped masks appeared beside the gauze-faced man, shielding him and his companion.
The explosion had done little more than damage their clothes; it had caused almost no real harm.
But right after that, the short man he had shielded stumbled, nearly losing his balance.
"Hold your breath!"
The gauze-faced man shouted.
After the explosion, a colorless, odorless gas began to fill the air!
If they inhaled too much, they might pass out!
"Damn it! Those two spotted us. We have to get out of this corridor!"
The corridor wasn't completely enclosed, after all. They could avoid the gas by moving somewhere else.
But as they prepared to move forward, they saw scattered spikes covering the floor around them.
The carpet was visibly being eaten away by the spikes.
Those spikes had to be coated with poison, too.
"Those bastards! Which school taught them to use cards like this?!"
The short man roared in fury. If the gauze-faced man hadn't shielded him just now, he would probably have been covered in spikes by now.
And he was now certain of one thing.
Those two young people were definitely no good!
Before you continue