“Since we’re here, why don’t we go in? It’s going to be more exciting than the Giant Drop.”
Is he trying to seek revenge from the Giant Drop?
Senior Valefor Wasabi gritted his teeth and checked for chances to deal damage.
“It’s okay! We just want to eat lunch first.”
“Y-Yeah! At this rate, I could eat two bowls!”
“…As long as it’s not over there, I think it’ll be fine.”
Anyway, I just don’t want to go in there!
But we overlooked one thing.
Professor Sadako, despite always creating terrifying tests, somehow managed to shove us into them every time.
If it’s self-study, she probably thinks we’ll all skip it.
So how does the professor make students engage in self-study?
The answer is remote monitoring.
If she’s not around, she sends a substitute.
“Ghel ghel ghel!”
At the sound of an evil laugh echoing from somewhere in the underground prison, Titosso’s hair stood on end and a shuriken was somehow lodged in Jiang’s finger.
There was no way this sinister entity that instinctively made academy students tense and take battle stances was anyone other than the one we knew.
“Finally, you’ve come, little bloodlings.”
“Skeleton Instructor!!”
Titosso looked like he was about to cry.
“Why are you here?!”
“If there’s no skeleton candidate where folks walk in on their own, where would I be?”
“Huh? Don’t you teach at the academy?”
“Don’t worry. I only commute here on weekends!”
Ah, so he commutes.
It seems that the negligent idea of going out on weekends to avoid lecture schedules led to this disaster.
“I was actually quite bored. I started with a few undead that keep respawning whenever a bunch of village priests come in screaming and running away, and I lost count of how many times I’ve seen them hit the emergency escape button and disappear in holy orbs!”
“T-There’s an escape method, then…!”
“Come here quickly! Huh? Why does the life response keep getting further away…?”
“Isn’t this the way? If we go around a bit, we should get there!”
The ominous audible magic from the Skeleton Instructor entered our ears as we nervously backpedaled.
“Oh dear, you’re lost!”
“Yes, yes! We’ll find it and head there!”
The Skeleton Instructor cheerfully declared, despite Titosso’s polite refusal to ever find it on his own.
“Then I’ll bring you!”
“Eek?!”
Suddenly, the entire underground passage filled with pitch-black darkness, and the ceiling lights shattered with crack crack sounds.
Bang bang bang
A chilling blue spirit rose up in the middle of the hallway, pointing arrows at the directions we needed to go at each crossroads.
“Hey!! Purification Solar Beam!!”
Angry Titosso turned on the light stand and revealed his true colors as he obliterated the spirit.
“What kind of deed is this? Emitting malicious noble resonance from the light stand!”
“I’ve been through enough at the academy, so I can’t let it happen outside too!”
“Oh, I see. You want to play hide and seek with me!”
The Skeleton Instructor’s voice seemed to relish the situation.
“Aww man, dimwit Titos! Why provoke the instructor?!”
“W-What did I do! But that doesn’t mean we can just go to him!”
“Do you know what happens when you provoke the instructor who comes to make the Death Field?”
“The angry instructor chases after us…?”
“The Death Field will spread underground!”
Just as my shout ended, a dimensional door that blurred the line between the living and the dead opened.
A space where the power of the dead grows stronger.
Now this place would gradually lose the vigor of the living as the nature mana was depleted, and all sorts of undead would spawn naturally, turning the dead into undead when they die.
To put it simply, Domain Expansion occurred.
A domain expansion that only a master can handle.
Of course, the Skeleton Instructor was overwhelmingly powerful, and we were trapped in the domain of the strong.
“No, Death Field Director! How can you carelessly expand your domain into civilian territory? I will formally protest this to Professor Sadako!”
“Ghel ghel ghel! If you can, go ahead. If there’s no living thing here, no one can protest!”
At the shout of a retired former Thief Guild member and current security consultant, monsters began to crawl in through the walls and ceiling.
“Eew! How can you provoke the instructor and make it more dangerous?!”
“No, didn’t Titos put us in danger first?!”
“Enough. Causing internal discord in a crisis situation isn’t wise.”
The assassin Jiang maintained some calm.
“Oknodie. You, who always scored high in Professor Sadako’s lectures, should be able to find a way to escape here, right? Share your thoughts.”
“Um. Sorry! It’s my first time in this theme park, and the Death Field Maze ride is a new event, so I don’t know anything!”
“Isn’t that so! My goodness. To be in a more dangerous situation after retiring than being chased by the rageful domain knights when we got robbed while working at the Thief Guild!”
“Wow. Uncle also had a legendary past, huh? What did you steal?”
“Nothing too grand. Just the lord’s embezzlement records, records of bribing the director, records of selling the territory’s citizens into slavery, records of the slaves from the underground prison, hidden slush funds, and the lord’s daughter.”
“That doesn’t sound like a big deal at all!”
Being trapped in the Death Field for such minor petty crimes seems too harsh, no matter how you think about it.
“Skeleton Instructor! This person is too innocent and pitiful; can we just let him go?”
“Ah, I see. If I turn a good human into undead, the discipline within the undead legion will weaken and the cruel cracks will fail. Such a kind-hearted fellow does not deserve to become undead!”
“Eew. I’m kind too. Let the good child Titos go as well!”
“Ghel ghel ghel! A naughty child pretending to sleep in class isn’t a good child!”
“…Was pretending to sleep in class worse than the previous theft?”
Regardless of Jiang’s outrageous conclusion, the instructor showed mercy and wrapped the retired thief uncle with a crystal ball and sent him flying outside.
“Come on, let’s follow him!”
And I started to follow the path of the crystal ball’s teleportation magic.
“Oh, for a student, you are quite clever. If you’re a Class 981 student, you should be in your second year.”
“I’m in my third year. I skipped a grade!”
“Now it makes sense why I thought you had remarkable sense; being a third-year fits.”
Senior Valefor Wasabi admired.
“…Senior, this isn’t the time to be amazed. The speed of the ball is faster than I thought. Lend me a hand.”
“Phew. Might as well help since we’ve gotten caught up in this maze anyway.”
As Wasabi extended one hand, the wall that had surged up before us was punched through by a palm-shaped indentation.
“Whoa, Tathagata Palm!”
“My technique is not called Tathagata Palm. It’s Wasabi Style.”
“What kind of horrific path is this Wasabi that can punch through walls…?”
Even as the maze appeared to block the thief uncle’s path, the senior’s technique smoothly demolished the wall.
“Wasabi is originally a super poisonous demonic seafood, developed to melt and create a culture medium for unpalatable flavor that was utterly inedible.”
“…Isn’t that the thing that goes in sushi?”
“Since we can’t use the ancestor’s Wasabi as is, it’s made for the public at a level that adds umami to food, which is today’s Wasabi.”
“That doesn’t sound like a reason to become one of the three great traitor families. Eating a Wasabi bomb just seems to numb your taste buds! Why did your family become traitors?”
“Sadly, my ancestors attempted to wipe out the noble families of the western territories using Wasabi as poison. Luckily, they didn’t manage to achieve the same level of power as the ancestor’s Wasabi, so they only attempted murder, and that’s why I’m alive.”
The moral of the long story was simple.
Senior Wasabi’s Wasabi Technique was extremely strong.
But using only the Wasabi punch had its limits for escape.
“Step back. This wall is different.”
“Ghel ghel ghel! The maze of Death Field cannot allow cheating to pass through the maze. The damage you inflict on the walls will all be analyzed, generating a reflection barrier that prevents passing through the walls!”
“…!”
When the senior tried using the Wasabi Technique for a test, the outer wall, coated in the same poison, absorbed the power of the Wasabi technique entirely.
Then, the overflowing power bulged out from the wall and flew back at us.
“Hyah!”
“Crap. Move back, Titos.”
Jiang hurled four daggers while swiftly casting a magic spell amidst the daggers.
A viscous adhesive substance attracted mana and absorbed into a small gathering formed between the four daggers, enclosing the entrance like a bag.
Thud.
With a sound of gooey matter hitting the ground, green smoke slowly began to rise.
In correlation, the ground began to take on the poison of Wasabi, and a few skeletons that were forming and collapsing from the ground turned green and became Wasabi Skeletons.
“Eew. Oknodie, what are we going to do? Outside the academy, the instructor might really turn us into undead!”
“Don’t seniors have ways to get out since you’re graduates?”
“Phew. In my position serving VIPs, if the client gets hurt, it’ll also affect me. I never expected to encounter someone of such strength in a place like this… Maybe it’s time to get serious.”
Professor Sadako’s exclusive instructor.
Director of the Death Field, Skeleton Instructor.
Gift Academy graduate of 972.
Senior Valefor Wasabi, receptionist.
As a grand fight was about to unfold between the two strong ones, I quietly tugged the sleeves of Titosso and Jiang and called out to them.
“Of course, Oknodie! I knew I could count on you. Do you have a teleport scroll or something?”
“Maybe an assassin’s cloak? I remember lending it to Hestia. Should we put it on and escape together?”
“Huh? No. I was going to ask if we should have honey butter popcorn or chili sweet popcorn while watching the show?”
The expressions of my friends became filled with betrayal at the sight of the popcorn I pulled out of my backpack.
Did I do something wrong…?
