The Golden Dancer Riske hosts a feast of knowledge.
Deep in the Golden City’s Second District, the hidden puppeteer, with knowledge that reaches even into the Sanctum of Gold, clashes with those who dared to venture this far.
The adventurers, poised for battle, were already losing their confidence.
“I saw them on the way here; some adventurers were brought here from an earlier time than ours.”
“I saw them too. There were really famous adventurers, from the Triple Gold Forest explorers to those who seek the edge of the world.”
“Can the knowledge we have even hold up against that Golden Dancer…?”
Graduates, overwhelmed by the spatial distortion caused by the dense mana, pondered the images of robed sages.
“The Magic Department knowledge might not be useful at all.”
“If those people are ancient magicians, we might have to rely on the differences between ancient and modern spellcasting.”
“But if we get caught running off with records from the Great Library, wouldn’t we face charges of leaking confidential academy magic and be killed by the principal?”
“…”
They felt insecure with just the knowledge they had learned; yet, their reckless spying on the academy’s secrets could lead to becoming food for the formidable dragon principal, Omoshiroi.
“I might know a few wicked secrets from the underworld.”
“…Should we share the adventurer tales from the Warrior Party?”
“Memory. Cruel can tell about Jonnas’s daily routine.”
“Really? I want to hear that too!”
“Ugh… I still have memories from when I was a werewolf, not just as a Battle Air Golem…”
The fear of the approaching Professor Weird made Oknodie a bit composed at the mention of Jonnas.
Faced with the fear that losing the feast might lead to becoming a pinch of blood, or the dread of being found out by Professor Weird, everyone focused on their memories and began jotting down knowledge at the table.
The sentences written with their recollections quickly updated the monitor at the center of the banquet.
[Attendee – Iron Rank Adventurer Dagdag]
[Knowledge – Story of excavating the underground city]
[Assessment – 13,115 gold coins]
[Attendee – Silver Rank Adventurer Surche]
[Knowledge – Story of the maritime guild’s underwater city exploration, which almost went bankrupt]
[Assessment – 75,220 gold coins]
[Attendee – Silver Rank Adventurer Sams]
[Knowledge – A cautionary tale where the third Sams suffered a total defeat while competing for the legacy of Golden Rank Adventurer Nox and his seven children]
[Assessment – 5,000 gold coins]
The adventurers’ tales were valued, showing that generally, successful stories held higher worth, while failures ranked lower.
Interestingly, captivating stories drew significant value regardless of their success or failure.
“This is probably the Golden Merchant Avalon listening and assessing value from within some resurrection device, huh?”
“Seems so! As long as it meets the listeners’ needs, we can get good gold even if it’s not useful knowledge.”
“…If I air my grievances about Professor and get hit hard like Sams did, will I end up getting dinged for it?”
5000 gold coins isn’t a neighborhood dog’s name, but it seemed too low for it to be here.
It looked like someone pretending to carry a massive log named group project while slacking off with their hands!
As Sams’s head hung heavier, the fourth-year TAs from Professor Weird’s lab confidently placed their knowledge onto the banquet table.
[Attendee – Fourth-Year Student Nanase from Gift Academy]
[Knowledge – The teacher feeding students stones and the students’ struggle to survive]
[Assessment – 115,250 gold coins]
[Attendee – Fourth-Year Student Oz from Gift Academy]
[Knowledge – The survival tale of ancient viruses being revived when they recreated extinct creatures using modern spellcasting, causing the lab to be devastated]
[Assessment – 1,175,900 gold coins]
[Attendee – Fourth-Year Student Fin from Gift Academy]
[Knowledge – The tale where I boasted about developing a new spell in modern spellcasting, only to be questioned by the professor beginning with “I created that theory”]
[Assessment – 328,890 gold coins]
They combined information about modern spellcasting, a chaotic situation, and innovative problem-solving, presenting a higher average than those of the adventurers.
Particularly, the survival story from Oz left the fourth-years beside him astounded.
“They say one cohort got wiped out leaving only one survivor, and that survivor was you?!”
“Crazy. You threw the lab into another dimension just to erase the ancient viruses and ended up fighting against the spirit armies from there. Damn. Is Dimension Gate magic really 1-0 today?”
“Suddenly, the dimension gate summoning magic feels astonishing for solving every existing problem…”
While the fourth-years were enthusiastically praising dimension gate magic over at one table, over at the table with Oknodie’s crew, Gwakjo reported his findings with a serious expression.
“The reason the information is called [Feast] is that the Golden Magician Avalon inside the resurrection device acquires it instantly. Perhaps we can destroy Avalon by revealing artifacts that disturb the mind and share wicked secrets at this table.”
Gwakjo, the cruel tactician from the East, showing his inherent malevolence, demonstrated his wicked wisdom, having destructively ruined a nation.
“Really? That sounds fun!”
With his small hands stuffed with [Strategy Guides of Class 981 Year 1], [Strategy Guides of Class 981 Year 2], [Strategy Guides of Class 981 Year 3], and [Strategy Guides of Class 981 Year 4]…
The forbidden knowledge that enforced mental defense, curse resistance, and mana control checks, and the wicked guidebook series that annihilates unworthy entities!
Its power was vast enough to collapse the loyal servant of the imminent King of Rockets and the weakest public officials’ authority over even the subconscious spirits.
[Attendee – Dark Princess Oknodie]
[Knowledge – Forbidden Book, Strategy Guide Series of Class 981 (Complete 4 Volumes)]
[Assessment – 31,859,900 gold coins]
3.1859 million gold coins.
In points, that is an amount worth 3.1 billion.
In front of the staggering assessment, even the adventurers and fourth-year TAs, and even Oknodie’s crew were left speechless, staring blankly at the paper.
“What is that… With number artifacts pegged around 1 million points, how is there a forbidden book worth nearly 3.1 billion points, does that even make sense?”
Unable to hold back his curiosity, adventurer Sams put his hand on the paper containing the information but let out a scream before the life drained from him, crumbling into a dusty husk.
Unlike the near-soulless heroes abandoned by the high official, Sams, who had a healthy soul, bore the full brunt of the forbidden book’s impact.
Moreover, the forbidden book inflicted damage with every page flipped while the one page of paper incurred damage from all pages at once.
The frail mind of a human.
It was something far beyond a mere adventurer that couldn’t even become a hero.
“My god… a cursed knowledge that could kill just by contact… Truly the essence of a taboo…”
“Dark Princess… there is nothing lacking in that name. How wicked can this child be?”
“Professor Weird didn’t research Oknodie’s behavior for nothing.”
“To gain such a wicked dark power, they must have been conducting Oknodie behavioral studies under the guise of nutrient research…”
While the discussions of the horrified crowd surged, the Golden Dancer Riske, choosing knowledge for their knowledge duel, couldn’t conceal her perplexity.
“It seems I underestimated your knowledge level. I didn’t mean to reveal classified information up to the third level, but… I will share information of all levels without reserve.”
Riske’s left hand reached toward the banquet table where the adventurers and fourth-year TAs had gathered.
[Host – Golden Dancer Riske]
[Knowledge – The reason a certain special graduate of Gift Academy became a Demon King]
[Assessment – 20 million gold coins]
Before the singular piece of knowledge displayed by Riske, even the extraordinary gold-ranked adventurers and the battle-hardened fourth-year TAs found themselves instinctively bowing their heads in despair.
The birth tale of an existing absolute being carved itself into the minds of everyone at the banquet.
They slowly realized that among the powerful beings who visited this city long ago, there were even a few that belonged to the Demon King’s army or were early graduates of Gift Academy.
“We stand no chance in this…”
“This feast… Do we really have to compete in knowledge against the cumulative sum of everyone’s intellect who has sat at this table?!”
“Are we really asked to match our knowledge against that of all previous graduates without leaking any internal confidential information? That’s impossible!”
Though the adventurers’ spirits were crushed, the fourth-year TAs felt a despair rooted in their realization that they had a glimmer of survival.
They understood now that they had to betray the academy by leaking classified information and break taboos to survive.
The more seniors who had survived using this method, the greater the taboo level and the information leaks they would have to commit.
Their path was settled.
There was only one way to survive.
To yield to the temptations and seductions of the evil high officials of the great nation and face the same fate as industrial spies who lost everything—money, honor, reason, and future—leading to their ruin!
“Dark Princess… Could you be different from us?”
With a sense of injustice and outrage, even that detestable Oknodie incited a desire to cheer for her in their minds as the fourth-year TAs blinked dumbly at the banquet table.
[Host – Golden Dancer Riske]
[Knowledge – Forbidden knowledge regarding the time remaining until the world’s doom and the tipping point for its destruction]
[Assessment – 0 coins]
“What?!”
What is this, a bug?
Surprise tinged Riske’s face.
“Whew!”
At the same table, Gwakjo trembled, his face shaken with fear.
“W-we almost died. Attempting to attack Avalon’s mind with a taboo, we received an even greater taboo backlash; had we raised knowledge following Oknodie, we would have shared that malicious knowledge collectively as the
Gwakjo and Rosinante trembled in unison, and even Alpha from the previous hero party, terrified by the ominous speculation, clenched his hands in sweat.
Even the usually expressionless Cruel’s face slightly contorted at the thought of predicted outcomes.
However, the individual bombarded with all that information, Oknodie, remained entirely unbothered.
She didn’t even seem to have any emotional response.
Is it really a bug?
Did the information not transmit?
Before curiosity could lead Rosinante to open the cockpit of the Battle Air Golem to consume the paper for a closer look, Alpha smashed it with his fist.
“Do you want to experience the same fate as that dumb adventurer that meddled in the Dark Princess’s information?”
“Ugh… this hurts so much…”
While the foolish Battle Air Golem could be excused, why was the Dark Princess completely unfazed?
With behaviors reminiscent of the previous Hero Ni’alatotep, Alpha revealed his curiosity.
Noticing the gaze directed at her, Oknodie smiled brightly and replied.
“It must be because I already know all this information! Knowledge is most valuable when it’s unknown, isn’t it?”
Oknodie gained 100 experience points as an Evil Child.
