The mont I stepped into the dungeon for testing, the surrounding scenery transford.
It took on the appearance of a quiet mansion.
The scene unfolded just as I had envisioned.
The various paintings hanging on the walls,
the slightly dark, heavy atmosphere naturally ford,
and the reverberation that spread and echoed with each step I took.
All of it made smile involuntarily.
I had said the dungeon studies professor would be surprised, and it really was true.
The feeling when I stepped into the dungeon created by the academy was completely different from that of stepping into the one I designed.
As I walked down the corridor with a racing heart, enjoying the sounds around , an old man expressed his astonishnt with a slightly raised voice.
‘Are you referring to the background of the dungeon that I drew?’
‘A five-year-old can't draw that kind of thing?!’
My drawing skills aren’t that great, but I’m better than a kid who just runs around without any thought!
At the very least, I know about perspective! I understand depth! I can do detailed descriptions!
Of course, I don’t know the details well enough to put them to use, but still, I’m not to be compared to clueless little kids!
‘...Isn’t that person a crazy genius?’ ‘If you set that person as a standard, most people in the world would be worse than a five-year-old?!’
As I countered the old man’s unreasonable claims, I engraved the scenery of the dungeon in my mind.
Once the excitent settled, I started noticing the finer details.
There were slight shortcomings in the intricate parts.
Especially the year written beneath this final portrait, which needs to be accurate as it will be one of the clues later on.
I should jot it down in my notepad so I can request corrections later. After walking through the corridor for a few minutes, I reached a dead end.
I headed toward the empty cradle in front of the wall and picked up a piece of paper contained within it.
To escape the maze, you must find the exit.
As soon as I read the phrase that soone would nod along to, saying, "That's because it's a maze," the scenery of the mansion crumbled and was replaced by sothing else.
Where there had been carpet, bricks erged.
The scarlet walls scattered, revealing a training ground that could be sowhere nearby.
Where the portrait had been, nurous soldier faces were engraved.
The transition of the background was neat. It gave the impression of moving to a new space. A student seeing this for the first ti would surely gasp in awe, right?
Hehe. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be sure to ask Joy how it was later.
“Hey! You there! No ti to dawdle!”
While I imagined Joy’s flustered appearance, a rough-looking knight from afar raised his voice.
“Do you think you’re the only one taking the test today?!”
As he called out, a soldier appeared before .
He had a commanding presence, with muscles that suggested rigorous training.
Calloused hands gripping a spear.
An aura of martial prowess exuded from his movents.
Anyone could sense that this soldier possessed outstanding skills, and as he took his stance, the knight in the distance shouted again.
“I’ll begin imdiately!”
‘Excuse ...’
“Hey, you loud-mouthed idiot knight. What test are you talking about?”
“If you’ve already forgotten what I just told you, it’s better to fall! Figure it out yourself!”
Alright. The tutorial is going just as I imagined.
It’s amusing that they’re conducting a test without revealing the content.
That knight will not disclose the details of the test no matter what. Therefore, those who ca to conquer the dungeon must discover the test’s contents for themselves.
While I pondered over the intricate details, the soldier before smiled.
“Looks like you’re ready. Are you prepared?”
‘Yes. Of course.’
“Why would I need to be prepared to deal with soone like you? Co at . I’m not afraid of a little girl like you.”
As the soldier clicked his tongue and charged at , I pulled out my shield from my inventory.
The spear being thrust from afar looked sharp enough to pierce my heart the mont I let my guard down.
However, the power it should possess to be effective is lacking.
No exceptional skill is needed to block that spear.
Just extending the shield is enough.
Clang! The tip of the spear struck the shield but failed to penetrate, bouncing upward.
With that, a massive opening appeared in the soldier's defenses.
Hmm. Even though this is just a tutorial, isn’t the opponent a bit too weak?
At this rate, who would bother to figure out the conditions of the test? They’d probably just crush the soldier and move on.
This tutorial, ant to teach that you have to figure out the gimmicks to break through, is going to be troubleso if it continues like this.
I’ll need to raise the difficulty a bit.
With that decision made, I dashed toward the bewildered soldier and smashed the wooden panel affixed to his right armor.
“The first test is over! You’ve passed magnificently!”
The knight, who had initially been shouting haphazardly, announced the end of the test.
Although I had only entered the beginning of the dungeon, it seed the overall structure was properly established.
If I just fix the details a bit, I can recreate the dungeon I envisioned perfectly.
“Now, we’ll proceed to the next test!”
The following tutorial was not significantly different from the first one.
The gimmicks were functioning normally, but the soldiers were too weak.
Even though this was a dungeon ant for first-years to conquer, isn’t this a bit too easy?
It feels as if the dungeon’s creator is looking down on the first-years.
‘What do you think, old man? Isn’t it too weak?’
‘Right? My standards aren’t too high, are they?’
Once the dungeon conquest is over, I’ll have to go see the dungeon studies professor and tell him to raise the tutorial’s difficulty.
At this rate, the tutorial won’t serve its purpose.
“...Congratulations. You’ve overco the trial to beco an adventurer.”
The mont I finished the tutorial by crushing the boisterous knight, the surroundings shifted again. This ti, it appeared as a dark, gloomy cave.
The suffocatingly thin air.
The only light source was the faint glow coming from the ceiling.
I smiled with satisfaction at this ominous scenery, and upon hearing a sound from behind, I turned my head.
The red eyes sitting in the cave's darkness were so large they seed similar to my hands.
Threatening fangs that could pierce steel.
Fur that looked as tough as wire.
Claws scraping against the stone floor as if it were dirt.
Seeing the scene that anyone would find terrifying brought an involuntary smile to my face.
Oh, really.
If it’s made this well, it could be a problem.
With this, I can’t help but look forward to what lies beyond.
Originally, I intended to focus on QA rather than conquering the dungeon, but my mind has changed.
With my heart racing like this, I won’t be able to scrutinize all the details carefully!
So, for now, I’ll conquer the dungeon!
Then I’ll take my ti to review it again and supplent the details!
With that resolution, I lifted the corners of my mouth and gripped my mace tightly.
“Please! Professor! I can’t rewrite that thesis from scratch!...”
Margean, a graduate student from the Dungeon Studies departnt, woke up from his nightmare and let out a sigh of relief upon realizing it was just a dream.
It had been truly terrible. The professor had torn apart the thesis I wrote, saying it was not worthy of being called a thesis and ordered to start over from the beginning.
If sothing like that happened in reality, I would have imdiately smashed the window and jumped out.
Wiping the cold sweat off his forehead, Margean stretched and looked around.
There were people sprawled out like corpses everywhere.
They had all pulled all-nighters for several days to create the final exam dungeon.
Just a mont ago, Margean had occupied one corner of that pile of corpses, and he recalled how things had ended up like this.
The beginning of this catastrophe was the dungeon created by Lady Lucy, belonging to the Alrn family.
The dungeon she had created was so beautiful that anyone majoring in dungeon studies would be left in awe.
When Margean first saw that dungeon, he beca envious of the talent possessed by Lucy Alrn.
However, the admiration of the other graduate students vanished the mont they heard the words from their supervising professor.
“Now, you all will create this dungeon yourselves. What do you think? Isn’t it exciting to create this work of art yourself?”
The fact that the dungeon was so beautiful that those walking the path of academia would admire it also ant it was a bizarre and finicky dungeon.
“Are we really expected to create sothing like this? And we have to do it two weeks before the final exam?!”
To et that deadline, it wasn’t just a matter of not going ho; it ant sacrificing sleep entirely for the duration of the work!
Hearing the supervising professor's words, all the graduate students scread in their minds, but no one dared to voice their complaints to him.
Having lived as graduate students for a long ti, they were already accustod to being treated like slaves.
How many days had they spent cooped up in the lab, only to be scolded for thinking one hour of sleep was too much?
By yesterday, the graduate students had succeeded in completing the dungeon.
After handing it over to the professor, they all collapsed as if they had fainted.
Let’s see. Is it around 4 PM now?
I’ve been out cold for almost half a day.
But why do I still feel so sleepy?
Yawn. Since Lady Alrn, who was in charge of the dungeon’s design, said she would personally conquer it to identify parts needing revision, QA will take so ti.
So, it should be fine to sleep a bit longer, right?
Margean thought he would sleep until tomorrow morning, and as he closed his eyes again,
“Wake up, you graduate students worse than slaves.”
With the sound of the door flinging open, a clear, beautiful, and annoying voice filled Margean’s ears.
“I checked how poorly you turned the wonderful dungeon I created into garbage.”
...Already?
Has the dungeon confirmation already been completed?!
Considering the difficulty of that dungeon, there’s no way they could finish QA at this hour, right?!
“I must say, you all put in so effort, even if you’re pathetic enough to not even be able to write a proper thesis. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re pathetic, does it? I’ll tell you the parts that need revision, so engrave it in that tiny brain of yours.”
Seeing Lucy Alrn’s triumphant gaze, Margean couldn’t help but shed tears.
It seems he would need to struggle for several more days to get a proper sleep.
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