Arriving at the location where the screams emanated, I hid in the bushes and observed five students, three of whom were badly injured while the other two were fighting an ogre. I recognized one of the two fighters; his name is Earl, right? He's the Young Master of the Spear Clan, the guy that irks me. Forget about that. Why would an ogre be in an E-rank dungeon? And not just one, but three of them!
The ogre is one of the most dangerous D-rank monsters due to its regenerative ability. It can easily heal itself, and its large body makes it hard to land a fatal blow. The quickest way to kill it is by overwhelming it with sheer force, but with just two of them, it's not enough. Upon closer inspection, there are five of them, so one must be a third-year senior. Most third-years are D+ rank, and having only one of them is insufficient. There should be communication between seniors, but why isn't he contacting them? Is it the same situation for them all, or is something really wrong here? I could easily kill that ogre, but I need to understand what's truly happening here. Accustomed to high mana density, I didn't initially notice that it's not an E-rank dungeon after all. Dungeons can't rank up in a flash; they need time and mana to do so. Yet, seeing the color and mana leaking out of the dungeon before we entered, Ms. Camille didn't notice it at all. Using my detection skill, I scanned the entire dungeon and noticed that there were only six seniors. There should be two seniors on standby in every team, but there are only half of them present. While scanning, I also noticed that there's a total of 233 ogres in this dungeon. Can it be called an artificial dungeon? It seems too little if it's really a naturally formed dungeon.
After thinking of all kinds of possibilities, I came to the conclusion that this is the work of humans. But why are they doing this? Just knowing that they don't have good intentions is enough to worry me. As I interact with my thoughts, a scream from a student interrupts me. Looking back at them, two students are battling the ogre. I noticed that the senior is not giving his all; it feels like he's waiting for something. He could easily kill it if he put his mind to it, but why isn't he doing it? Realizing something, my mouth curved into a smile. So, that's the reason Huh… they're part of a cult, Their organization is becoming larger and stronger, and now they're targeting the Sword Academy. So, there's a traitor from the start. Should I standby to know what they're planning, or should I just kill them all? There are probably a lot of students in danger fighting for their lives. I can't just show up and kill them all. I need someone. After looking at the two students battling the ogre, an idea came to my mind. I just need to wait for a little while so I'll have my scapegoat.
***Earl Grey POV***
In a dark forest, there's a firelight under a tree in a campfire. A black-haired guy is sitting there.
"My team is so weak; I can already tell what they're thinking. I already heard them saying it's an easy trial because they have me, the heir of the Spear Clan. I already know that they're just going to leach on me." Before I close my eyes, I feel like the ground is shaking. Realizing that it's a monster, before I wake up, the two of my team sleep. I heard the guy in charge of the night watch screaming, "Hey, wake up! There's a monster coming this way!" He said with a scared and panicked expression.
After the two sleeping beside me woke up, one of the guys that just woke up said, "What's the panic? It should just be a weak monster; we're in an E-rank dungeon after all." He said with a sleepy expression while rubbing his eyes.
"No, it's not. It's an ogre!" answered by the guy in charge of the night watch with a panicked expression.
After saying that, the two sleepy guys widened their eyes for a moment.
"We should check if it's true," I suggest with a little irritated tone.
"Yeah, he's right. Maybe what you saw is just a big goblin," the other guy said.
After that, we took our weapons and ran outside, and then we saw an ogre. Noticing it running towards us with its big club in a fast pace, before I realized what happened, it was already beside us. It was going to swing its club; I tried to block it with my spear. After the club contacted my spear, I flew and crashed into a nearby tree. Looking at the ogre, it charged at my team and swung its club. It hit them and threw them like me in different directions.
"Tsk, what are they doing, a bunch of weaklings?" I said, spitting blood from my mouth. I tried to stand, but it was hard. After standing, I tried to fight it, but I noticed my smartwatch. I remembered that this device can send a distress signal. After that, I sent it and looked at the ogre once again. It tried to attack one of my teammates, crying because of his broken bone. He was crawling to the group while calling for help.
I looked at it with a little fear. How can a D-rank ogre be inside an E-rank dungeon? I mumbled in disbelief. Waking me from a daze is a scream of the guy charging towards the ogre; he's probably a senior that received the distress signal. After hope returned to my eye, I rushed towards the ogre to help the senior fight it. But the battle is not as easy as it seems; even the two of us are still struggling to defeat it. After a long, tiring fight, we finally defeated it. Looking at the senior holding his sword, I'm about to say my thanks, but I expected him to look tired. However, he's looking at me with a creepy smile. I'm about to step back, but he walks closer to me with a creepy smile and—
"HAHAHA! This is high-quality material! At first, I thought of sacrificing you to the cult, but now, after seeing how strong you are, I can finally have some good materials! AHAHAH!" He laughed while screaming with a smile on his face.
"So, all of this is because of you, dirty cult bastard," I said, spitting.
After that, I felt like my body lost its energy, and I slumped to the ground. I looked at my team; they had already lost consciousness. What's happening? I looked at the mad guy walking towards me while laughing. I looked at the ground; I was about to lose consciousness, but the laughter stopped. I looked at the mad man's face again, but the only thing I saw was a headless guy. There was a guy with black hair and black abyss eyes. After that, my eyelids became heavy, and everything darkened, and I lost consciousness.