“I-It worked!”
Silvia lowered her hands and let out a gentle sigh of relief, a soft, serene smile gracing her lips once more.
“...”
Catherine once again discarded her doubts about the intelligence.
“I knew it! I knew you wouldn't let me down!”
Victoria happily patted Silvia's shoulder. The latter's body stiffened slightly, but her smile quickly returned.
With the threats on both flanks cleared, Victoria could focus on dealing with the largest swarm of undead rushing in from the right.
Her eyes burned with high spirits for battle.
“Earth, hear my call! Impale my enemies!”
The ground shook as several hard Rock Spears—each as thick as an adult's arm with a sharp tip—erupted without warning from the soil beneath the undead horde!
Wet squelches rang out in succession as seven or eight undead were impaled on the Rock Spears like skewers of fruit. After a few brief struggles, they went completely still, their soulfire extinguishing.
Catherine felt surprised once again.
It was understandable for Silvia to achieve an overwhelming result using light magic, which naturally countered the undead.
However, Victoria had merely used ordinary elemental magic with no special bonuses against the undead, yet she had achieved a similar room-clearing effect.
“This means her strength has already reached the level of an elite second-year student—or perhaps even higher in terms of practical combat application.”
“Yet she clearly didn't display this kind of power during the Placement Exam, or she wouldn't have been injured and hospitalized...”
“Could her rapid growth also be related to Greg Sass?”
Aside from him, Catherine really couldn't think of any other variable.
She felt that the mysteries surrounding that man truly seemed to multiply and become more complex with every step she took toward him.
“Alright, let's hurry and keep moving inside! The other teams have definitely reached the deeper areas by now.”
Victoria briskly picked up a few soul stone fragments dropped by the undead, stuffed them casually into her waist pouch, and strode off in the direction of the thicker mist.
Although Silvia remained deeply reluctant to venture deeper into this creepy cemetery, seeing Victoria march forward into the verge of being swallowed by the dense mist made her worry for her friend overcome her fear of the undead. Biting her lip, she quickly hurried after her.
Catherine looked at their backs and sighed silently.
Though full of reluctance, things had come to this, so she could only step forward and follow them.
...
As they ventured deeper, the mist grew even denser, and the frequency and strength of the undead increased, though traces left by other teams also became visible.
Victoria didn't stop her pace, and soon enough, they encountered another team of students.
It was a six-person party consisting of three male students and three female students.
The three male students wore high-quality robes and held staves, their faces bearing clear arrogance as if taking a stroll in their own backyard.
The three female students were dressed up in glamorous attire, clinging closely to the males. Whenever one of the males casually took care of a stray undead, they would immediately shower him with exaggerated praise.
“Senior Alan is so amazing! The power of that Fireball spell was huge!”
“Senior Mike's swordsmanship is so cool! He defeated that zombie in a single move!”
“As expected of elites from the Student Council! They're so different from ordinary students!”
Watching this clumsy flattery and cringey interaction made Victoria's mouth twitch. She wanted nothing more than to detour immediately and spare her eyes the sight.
However, the three male students had clearly noticed Victoria's trio.
A vibrant gray-haired beauty, an endearingly delicate pink-haired beauty, plus a blonde young lady whose refined aura remained unmarred even in filthy surroundings.
This high-beauty-value trio was practically a striking line of scenery in this gloomy cemetery.
The three male students exchanged glances. The brown-haired student called Alan straightened his collar, slapped on a smile he thought was dashing, and walked over on his own initiative.
“Beautiful ladies, are there only three of you? The depths of this cemetery are far more dangerous than the outer areas.”
Alan spoke with a sense of superiority:
“Why not join our team? With our protection, we guarantee you can complete the mission safely and reap even greater rewards.”
“Protection?”
Victoria raised an eyebrow, glanced at the three male students and the three female students behind them, and shook her head flatly:
“Forget it. The three of us can handle it; we don't need your protection at all.”
Her refusal was clean and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
The smile on Alan's face froze.
The two male students behind him also frowned.
The three female students instantly showed expressions of discontent mixed with jealousy.
“Hey! How can you be so oblivious?”
A girl in a pink dress with heavy makeup screeched, speaking up in defense of her idols:
“Do you know who Senior Alan, Senior Mike, and Senior Rhode are? They're official members of the Student Council! People usually line up just to curry favor with them, so inviting you on their own initiative is your blessing! Don't be so ungrateful!”
The three male students puffed out their chests in unison, arrogant expressions returning to their faces.
They were indeed ordinary officers of the Student Council who held minor privileges in the academy and were accustomed to being flattered.
The main reason they had run over to take on this dirty, miserable mission was that after provoking Greg in the Student Council office last time, President Vivian had punished them by making them stand in the hallway for an hour in public. Having lost massive face and harboring a burning frustration inside, they wanted to vent their anger here.
They had thought that once they brought up the name of the Student Council, these Juniors would be overjoyed and happily accept their protection.
But they never expected...
“Oh, the Student Council.”
Victoria's reaction was surprisingly flat, with no reverence to be heard in her tone:
“So? Is that supposed to be impressive?”
If it were in the past, Victoria might have thought it was somewhat impressive, but now... even a bastard like Greg could slip in to become a Disciplinary Committee member.
So to her now, the Student Council didn't seem like much of a deal anymore.
Victoria clicked her tongue internally, completely losing any interest in conversing, and turned around to keep going.
Seeing her act with such an attitude, the faces of the three male students immediately darkened.
Being ignored like this by a lower-year student made them feel like they were losing face.
Alan's gaze turned cold, and just as he was about to say something to make her realize the weight of the words “Student Council”—
“Aaaaaah!”
“Help! Run!”
“There are so many! So many behind us!!”
Suddenly, the dense mist ahead churned violently. Accompanied by chaotic footsteps and terrified screams, a large group of students bolted out of the fog like frightened sheep, looking terribly disheveled with faces full of horror as they fled back the way they came without looking back.
“What's going on?!”
Alan and his companions were stunned by the sudden chaos, failing to react immediately.
“U-Undead... so many... super strong undead...”
A male student running past them shouted incoherently without stopping his feet.
“Tch, a bunch of cowards. Frightened to death by mere undead.”
The male student behind Alan named Mike spat disdainfully, turning to comfort the three pale, terrified girls:
“Don't worry, we're here—”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the simultaneous screams of the three girls.
“Aaaaaah!”
The three girls pointed trembling fingers at the thick mist behind Alan and the others, their faces as pale as paper, nearly swooning:
“B-Behind... Undead... It's Necromancers! So many Necromancers!!”
Alan, Mike, and Rhode felt their hearts sink as they whipped their heads around.
Within the dense mist, figures shrouded in dense death mana, clad in tattered robes, and wielding bone staves slowly emerged.
Ghostly blue soulfire burned inside their eye sockets as their shriveled lips opened and closed silently, causing death mana in the surroundings to surge violently.
At a rough glance, there were no fewer than fifteen or sixteen of them!
Furthermore, judging by the mana fluctuations radiating from them, their levels were generally around LV20!
These were no longer the weak skeleton undead under LV10 that they usually bullied!
These were mid-tier undead units capable of casting spells and possessing a degree of intelligence—Necromancers!
And there was a whole horde of them!
Rate on N.U.
