I Realized It Was An Academy Game After 10 Years – Chapter 31

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“It looks so peaceful like this.”

Karina, who had been appreciating the surrounding scenery through the window after entering the camp, suddenly blurted out those words.

Renny also nodded beside her, seeming to agree with that statement.

Is it though? Maybe she’s just mindlessly nodding because she’s the type to affirm even if Karina suddenly says she’s converting.

That might be a prejudice, but based on what I’ve seen of Renny so far, that’s how she is.

Well, anyway, it’s not wrong.

If you exclude the zombies that are knocking on the wall trying to come out of that dungeon over there, most of the dangerous elements in this forest have been eliminated.

There are no longer any bears the size of elephants or those cunning snake bastards that only use their heads in this forest.

Maybe a few of them are still alive somewhere, but they won’t be able to run amok like before. So now, it could be said that the three of us are the rulers of this island.

Though what meaning does that have?

We’re also struggling to escape from this island anyway.

If we succeed in escaping from this island, this island will become the island of rabbits.

Right? If we’re gone, the predators that catch and eat rabbits will completely disappear.

If we come back in about 10 years, we might be greeted by a barren deserted island that has turned into a bare island.

“Johann? Can’t you hear me?”

“…Ah. I was lost in thought for a moment.”

“Ah, I see… What are you going to do now? Are you going to enter the dungeon right away?”

At Renny’s question, I leaned against the wall and looked out the window. On one side was the forest with the sound of birds chirping, and on the opposite side was the blue sea with the sound of waves.

I looked at the scenery for a while, contemplating what to say, and then opened my mouth.

“We need to explore. Today’s goal is to walk around the dungeon entrance and gather information about the dungeon.”

“If we can’t find anything?”

“If time allows, we’ll come out and rest. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to rest inside the dungeon.”

It’s a simple plan: if we don’t find anything resembling a safe zone like in games, we’ll roughly estimate and return to this place once we’ve explored enough.

Careful and thorough.

That was the motto of this dungeon exploration.

“Sounds good since it’s simple.”

“Complicated plans are just a gamble.”

The more complex the plan, the lower the success rate. It’s much more advantageous for survival to make the plan as simple as possible and have clear countermeasures prepared.

We’re not some special forces who have gone through hellish training, just poor castaways who happened to gather on a deserted island.

…Though one of us is too strong to be called poor.

“Let’s store any luggage unnecessary for exploration here and depart for the dungeon right away.”

“Johann, can’t we rest a bit before going? I’m a bit tired from using magic…”

Ah, if our precious healer wants to rest, then we should rest. I immediately nodded and sat down on the floor, leaning against my backpack.

The two of them stared at my quick change of attitude, but I paid no attention to it. When you rest, you need to rest properly.

Still, feeling a bit awkward under their gazes, I took out some dried rabbit meat from my backpack, divided it into three parts, and held out two pieces to them while biting into one.

They bit into the dried rabbit meat, a nutritious snack from the deserted island, with unenthusiastic faces.

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“It’s quiet.”

Thanks to Karina reciting the purification spell once again in front of the newly made door, the dungeon entrance was not just quiet but completely empty.

The only thing welcoming us was the ash that used to be the undead.

I carefully examined the ash piled up on the floor like beach sand.

I poked the ash with my finger, and as for the taste… of course I didn’t check. There’s no particular smell.

It’s strange that there’s no smell at all when it’s the finely ground powder of zombies and skeletons that emit a mind-numbing stench.

It doesn’t seem to cause any problems on the skin either, so it’s not poisonous. I took out a small pouch and scooped up the undead ash.

About a handful should be enough to figure out the purpose of this ash.

I tied the pouch to my waist and got up from my spot.

“Let’s go in now.”

“Okay!”

“Lady Karina, you must not stray far from me.”

As expected of an escort knight. She’s thorough in protecting the saint.

Then I don’t have to worry about it, right?

I stepped forward, holding out a lamp that illuminated the surroundings with a faint light.

The beginning of this dungeon was a downward slope. A structure that gradually goes underground, befitting the name of a dungeon.

It’s a space where not a single ray of light enters, but surprisingly, the dungeon isn’t very dark thanks to the light sources embedded in the ceiling, whether they’re magic or gems.

However, it’s still difficult to fully secure visibility with just that.

Should I make a large number of torches and stick them in the dungeon?

It can also be used as a marking to show how far we’ve explored.

It seems like a good idea for now, so check.

“Isn’t it too quiet?”

“Because they were all swept away by the purification magic.”

“It feels a bit anticlimactic…”

When I turned my head to look at Renny, she was staring ahead with a deflated expression. For someone like that, she’s thoroughly guarding Karina’s surroundings, which is very escort knight-like.

We continued to advance deeper. Contrary to its exterior appearance, the dungeon was surprisingly long. We walked downward for roughly an hour before stopping and looking at each other.

“Isn’t this strange?”

The first to speak was Renny. As if she had grasped something with her unique animal-like senses, she glared at the dark passageway with a suspicious expression.

“What’s strange?”

“It’s too long. When I only saw the exterior of this dungeon, it didn’t feel this long.”

“I agree.”

Let’s say the undead are gone because they were all swept away by the purification magic. But it’s a bit strange for the same path to keep repeating.

As someone who wandered around this island all the time, I know that even if you walk from one end of this island to the other, it would take at most two hours.

And this dungeon is located on the northern part of the island.

If you walk just 10 minutes from the dungeon entrance, you can step on the sandy beach, but you’re telling me we’ve been walking straight ahead on the northward path for an hour?

Then are we currently exploring a cave under the sea?

…Ah, I don’t know. In times like this, we should use the Karina chance. I immediately threw a question at Karina.

“Karina, do you feel any strange energy or anything?”

“Uh… No. I’m not sure…”

Seeing Karina shaking her head and answering, it seemed she really didn’t feel anything.

This was troubling.

For now, we had to try everything we could.

“Let’s go back the way we came.”

“There’s no other choice.”

It seemed Renny had the same thought as me. We immediately turned around and went back the way we came. Only the rhythmic footsteps of the three of us echoed in the quiet dungeon.

How long had we been walking? We simultaneously stopped and looked at each other.

“…It seems like we’re trapped?”

“Th-then what’s going to happen to us?”

“If we can’t get out, we’ll starve to death.”

We should be able to endure for about a week though. What a troublesome obstacle right from the start. I didn’t expect this.

We huddled together and put our heads together to prepare for any unforeseen situations.

With our combined IQ of over 300, maybe we’ll come up with a good idea?

…As if.

“How about we each walk in opposite directions?”

“If we can’t meet up, it’s over.”

“What if I use the purification magic again? If this is caused by black magic-”

“Can you endure it after using it?”

“…I don’t think so. I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay. Don’t blame yourself too much.”

I noticed earlier that she got noticeably tired after using it once. No matter how much of a saintess she was, using that level of magic consecutively was a huge burden, so it’s best to save magic as a last resort for now.

We can’t waste our only human resource capable of healing in case of an emergency, believing in a vague possibility.

When no particularly good ideas came to mind, we decided to sit on the floor and rest for a bit.

“It’s an obstacle right from the start.”

“There must be a way out.”

It’s a baseless glimmer of hope, but it’s still better than nothing. As I was sitting on the ground, chewing on some jerky and looking down at the floor, I used the shovel as a cane and got up from my spot.

The shovel stuck deep into the ground…

Shovel?

Will it work?

Could it work?

It’s worth trying out, right?

I gripped the shovel and immediately thrust the blade into the pitch-black wall. Fortunately, the shovel blade stuck into the wall.

It didn’t seem to be an indestructible object like in games. Although it was a bit tough, the wall wass gradually being dug out.

Once, twice, thrice.

As my digging continued, the inside of the wall began to be dug deeper and deeper. Renny quickly took the lamp and illuminated where I was digging.

The wall made of an unknown material was being dug out, revealing the contents inside the black wall.

Black soil. A foul stench of rotting corpses flowed out from the soil.

“What’s this smell again?”

“I don’t know how, but this is…”

It was the moment I was about to say my guess. Suddenly, with the sound of the wall shaking, my shovel that was stuck in the wall was pushed out.

And in the place where my shovel was pushed out, a human head appeared through the soil. A woman with red hair and red eyes.

The red-eyed woman rolled her eyeballs around and then made eye contact with me.

A gaze that seemed dissatisfied with me.

Before I could question that gaze, the head shouted,

“You, that’s against the rules!”

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