[James's Pov]
"So? Did she sign the contract?"
"Yeah... She did. So now, there is nothing else for me to do before they dive into the Labyrinth."
Although I had no idea why Erzal was standing behind the armchair I was sitting in, with her arms around me, I had too many emotions that I had to repress to care. In the end, even if I had to ruin my mind, I had to forcefully make a difference in how I felt and what I had to do.
As her hands started stroking my chest, I was now sure that she had some sort of succubus thing happening, so I just let her do as she wanted. After all, she had already done so much for me that it only felt fair. Not that it felt pretty amazing when her huge chest touched the back of my head.
To be honest, I was a very brave man, as it felt like my head could get swallowed at any moment in her cleavage, suffocating me.
****
[Arthur's Pov]
"Listen up! Today will be your first real day in Kurat! As you know, we will not be giving you any information about the dungeon. It is up to each and every one of you to use these three days to the best of your ability and gather your own info about the Labyrinth!"
With the sun warming outside of the castle, Mr. Brown was just about to let us go our own ways to prepare for the dive that would happen in a couple of days. Unlike before, the final assignment during our school year was meant to simulate a normal dive a lot more than the previous dives.
This meant no teachers in the vicinity, no prior knowledge of what was to come, and no safety button to press in case things went badly. So basically, we were on our own.
Thankfully, it was only a [D]-rank dungeon that we were going into, so with me already having reached [C]-rank, I wasn't too worried.
These last months, I had made some huge leaps in power, urged on by the fact that I felt like I had to take the lead now that Sophie wasn't in the right state of mind. As I already had quite a good idea of what we needed to do, I allowed myself to zone out and check my status for a second.
'Status.'
===Status===
Name: Arthur Luminary
Rank: C
Strength: C+
Agility: B-
Stamina: C+
Intelligence: C
Mana Capacity: C
--> Main Manual:
[Sword of Light - ★★★★★★★] - Medium Understanding.
-Core Skill: [Ascension]
-1st Skill: [Arc of Light]
-2nd Skill: [Rebirth]
--> Side Manual:
[Swordsman - ★★★] - Medium Understanding
-Core Skill: [Sword Aura] (Affected by [Sword of Light] Manual)
-1st Skill: [Double Strike]
-2nd Skill: [Quick Stab]
--> Elemental Affinity: Light
->Elemental Skills (Affected by [Sword of Light] Manual): [Arc of Light - Strengthened]
==========
My status was still almost completely balanced, with my physical abilities having a slight edge over my magic-related stats, which was quite natural as I was a melee combatant.
Now that I had combined my Main Manual with the [Swordsman] Manual, my fighting strength had increased by miles. Just the fact that I had some physical strikes that my body had now ingrained, meant that I didn't have to focus on both holding up my enhancement while at the same time launching attacks.
Not to mention the fact that [Double Strike] and [Quick Stab] were incomparable to normal attacks, as their power exceeded them by a lot.
Complemented by the fact that the innate progress of my rank had been incredibly fast, I had completely cemented my position as the strongest freshman of Ainu, and this was something I was well aware of.
I was aware enough to know that I was now the representative of all of my classmates, as if the strongest couldn't perform well, how would that reflect on the others? In other words, I had a sense of responsibility to meet the expectations that were indirectly put on me.
However, having met the king yesterday, I got a feeling of just how small I still was, how far I still had to go before I could go up against the truly powerful people. And from the research I had done in the library, even that amount of power wouldn't be enough if the most powerful demons managed to make their way to our world.
So even if I had come a long way relative to the time I had spent, I still had such a long way to go.
"Now, get together with your groups and the planning stage will officially start. You may leave!"
As my group was already assembled, it didn't take long until the squishing sound of us stepping through the mud could be heard as we walked toward the inner city. If this had been before all of the things happened with James, we would surely have been happily chatting away, with Sophie being one of the lead actors.
Now, however, we walked in silence, with me and Sophie in the front, with Anna and Sarah behind us. 'This place really hasn't developed like Mensch...'
When taking into account that this was the capital that we were walking through, it truly was incomparable to the modern capital of Mensch. Replacing the tall skyscrapers and asphalt roads were burly stone buildings and muddy streets,
Knowing that I now held the position of a leader in my group, I broke the silence, "So, where do you think we should start? From what I heard, there is no such thing as a hunter's office here, so where do you think we could find information?"
Turning her head, Sophie was the one to catch the ball I threw out, "Hmm... Maybe we should start by asking around in some tavern or something?"
With no one disagreeing with her proposal, our final assignment had officially begun, and our first destination would be a bar.
****
[Sebastian's Pov]
'This time! This time I won't fall short!'
Having spent the entire day searching for information about the Labyrinth with Peter, Adriana, and Bellatrix, I was now sitting in one of the lounges in the castle with my group, trying my best to visualize my success.
Having carefully gathered a group that I felt would be incredibly effective in dungeons, I knew that if there was one time I would be able to excel and prove myself as the best, it would be now.
Though the party in itself wasn't the best of friends, it didn't matter as long as there were no problems during the dive. With Bellatrix having already matured more than what anyone thought would be possible, the only unknown factor I had to deal with was Peter.
Honestly, I was truly disgusted by his personality, how he spoke and how he moved, but there was nothing I could do about it. In terms of potential, while fighting monsters, he was truly amazing. It had been hard to accept that in terms of efficiency in slaying multiple enemies, he was a lot better than me, but, now, I could use it to my advantage.
Interrupting my thoughts was a certain elven princess, one of the candidates I had in mind when thinking about a potential partner, "So, are you serious about us trying to compete with Arthur's group? Even if three of us are in the top 5 rankings, we all know what kind of monster Sophie is when she tries her best."
Opening my eyes, I took a moment to think about what Adriana said, knowing that it was at least partly true.
Sophie's rank had only fallen because she just hadn't done anything remarkable. When everyone else was trying our best to show off our proficiencies, she had just been hiding in the shadows, refusing any and all duels while at the same time not going all out during dives.
However, there was no doubt in my mind that if that was the mindset she had during our assignments, she probably didn't have much energy for training either. Therefore, I had already concluded that she must have fallen behind, and that wasn't a fact that would just change.
"It's fine. We are all stronger than her now, as she hasn't even been able to move on from when James died and summoned that demon. Someone that weak is no threat to us, sympathizing with someone as pathetic as him."
Surprisingly, just as I finished talking, another person interjected in our conversation, "Do you truly believe James made himself get executed on purpose? Does that seem like something he would do?"
Standing up from the couch she had been sitting in, the heir of the Rue family wasn't too keen on just listening to me insulting our former classmate. This, even though it was already officially recognized by the general population that his body was now inhabited by a demon, meaning that if someone heard her, she would have been painting a target on her back.
Still, I couldn't truly refute her words, as I had already gotten a taste of how shrewd that man could be, and I as well couldn't believe that he would just get himself killed.
"I guess I don't."