Chapter 32: A free dungeon?
Some minutes later, taking to compose herself, Ceillia cleared her tears, asking Carl in an unfriendly voice.
’’What do you mean?’’
Carl clasped his fingers tightly while looking at Ceillia, serious.
’’I want a duel. Do you understand? You’re in a tough situation with the student council president. Your weakness’s been caught by Hanely.’’
Carl’s voice rang out deeply.
’’I’m trying to help you. If a public duel happens under the students’ witness and I lose, the rumors will definitely spread further and overshadow the previous ones. There’ll be no chance for Hanely to use your weakness.’’
Ceillia looked at Carl suspiciously with tearful eyes. She wiped the remaining tears and asked,
’’How can I believe you? What if you trap me with some trick again?’’
Carl sighed and tried to reason with her, convincing her to agree to his offer.
’’Don’t worry. I’m not scamming you. Moreover, do you think I could even cheat in the actual match if you use all your power from the start?’’
Ceillia asked,
’’So what’s your actual intention?.. If you let it happen, Hanely won’t forgive you, and you’ll be expelled by the student council. So why are you doing this?’’
Carl lightly shook his head and looked around, nowhere in particular.
Ceillia’s question was valid. All of his actions seemed like a betrayal, a bite at Hanely’s back, even after he earned a position in the student council.
His mission would be far from accomplished if he did such things.
’’So you’re worrying about your big brother?’’ Carl chuckled, teasing Ceillia.
But in return, Ceillia’s cold eyes quickly hushed Carl. It was clear she didn’t like his question. She just wanted to make clear Carl’s concealed intention.
After all, Carl was a really sly one who had tricked her many times in the past. She had to admit she was less clever than he, even though she was among the top students in the academy with the highest scores.
’’Hanley won’t do anything to me, not even touch me. I assure you of that. I just hope you’ll let me stay there as a normal member of the student council without attacking me for no reason.’’ Carl smiled.
Ceillia gazed at Carl for a moment before grimacing and nodding.
’’I have no reason to refuse your condition.’’
Carl sighed as if a weight had been lifted off his chest when Ceillia said that.
’’Tomorrow, in the arena of the academy, we’ll have a duel. I’ll be the one to send the challenge to you.’’
***
’’Finally, she agreed to my offer. She was really stubborn.’’ Carl smiled weakly while preparing the various jewelry on his bed.
Gold rings, gold bracelets, gold necklaces, and gold anklets.
He had bought them in the afternoon, all just for his hunting night.
’’They won’t resist the lure of greed. It’s just human instinct.’’ Carl smirked as he equipped all the jewelry on his body.
He would depart for the dungeon in the lawless land, located near the academy. It was a perfect place for his hunt.
’’Alright! Let’s go.’’
Carl clicked his tongue, assessing himself. From head to toe, he was covered in gold. He guessed no one in the dungeon of the lawless land would resist those priceless pieces of jewelry.
Turning his attention to the window, he glanced at the moon above.
He lightly opened the window, took a long breath of fresh air, and then jumped out.
’’Best of luck!’’
***
’’Over there...’’ Carl muttered, then quickly ran over to the gate of the Rank F- dungeon.
This place was lawless, so all the people here were unfriendly, uncontrollable, and deadly. Of course, with no one under the power of a high family, they could do whatever they wanted—but that also meant that this dungeon was poor in quality and far from safe.
Yeah, this whole dungeon was terrible. But for Carl, basically, it was perfect—he was weak and low rank.
’’Perfect for me. I can do anything here.’’
Carl licked his lips, eyeing the killers with greedy anticipation.
He stepped leisurely toward the dungeon gate, proactively jingling the rings on his body, sending waves of sound to all the robbers, as if he were a master fisherman.
’’Come on... come here, with your father.’’
Some killers started noticing Carl, staring at the gold on his hands and legs. They licked their lips and began scheming how to kill and steal from him.
...However, this wasn’t really the place for that. They’d have to wait until inside the dungeon, where they could actually take the gold.
Carl just smirked at the greedy eyes staring at him and stepped through the dungeon gate.
Stepping out of the vague space and landing safely on the uneven land of nowhere, Carl blinked and yawned in excitement.
’’Please, my wife, give me some mission.’’
His loving voice drifted through the air, immediately picked up by the system, with the sound feedback adding the strings on the screen.
Ting!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Side Quest]:
– Join the students council.
– Reward:??
– Clear the abandoned dungeon
– Reward:??
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Carl frowned.
’’Huh? Just like that?’’
He had expected his mission to be much bigger—something like: Kill 100 murderers, or kill 1,000 goblins, or something similar—not this.
[System notice]: This dungeon is almost useless... This place is just for beggars, killers, and the poor—those at the bottom of the realm of stoker and lawless people. In short, you just kill some people here and defeat a few dozen monsters there, and you can finish it without wasting much energy.
Carl rubbed his chin and listened to his wife’s explanation.
That was right. A wretched place for the lower tier of the world. One side full of weak people hoping to change their fate, the other side full of killers, scoundrels, and the like.
’’Understood... what did I expect from a free dungeon?’’
But at this point, a sudden rough voice cut through the dark atmosphere, reaching Carl’s ears.
’’Hey, Rich kid. Why don’t you take off your jewelry? Maybe I’ll make space for your lowlife.’’
Carl scoffed and turned to look behind him, toward the source of the threatening voice. He barely showed any astonishment or fear—he had sensed their presence minutes ago thanks to his [Dragon Sense] skill.