Chapter 119: Grim News
Outside the gates of Colzen Academy, six third-year students–five of them slightly wounded, were walking in a hurry.
One of the students was carrying a bloody sack bag containing the head of an orc grunt, and had a grim expression on his face while the others had varied emotions of guilt, dejection, and worry.
These students were the Colzen Avengers squad who were in a rush to meet the deans to report what happened inside the advanced adventurer zone and ask for help regarding Shye's situation.
Naturally, the worried deans immediately caught wind of their return and didn't wait for them to arrive at the faculty meeting hall. Instead, the deans hurriedly rushed out of their offices to meet their students.
Although of different classes as adventurers, the deans somehow arrived in front of the gates at the same time which slightly surprised the Colzen Avengers.
Upon realizing that there were only six, Dean Snowcrest spoke first:
"Where's Crowley? Why isn't he with you guys?" the dean asked with a curious expression.
He wasn't worried at all because Shye's talisman hadn't sent a notification to him yet so he knew that he was still alive.
He even thought that he simply dropped by the shops or something to sell loot.
What he didn't expect was that his favorite student was in grave danger.
Feeling guilty about Shye's situation, Wendy voluntarily stepped forward and stuttered as she tried her best to report what happened.
"D-Deans…Everything is my fault…After killing the dying berserk orc grunt, we were attacked by a Hellspawn Bull-Lizard. We got lucky and somehow managed to kill the Bull-Lizard after pushing it off a cliff."
"However…While I was circling the Bull-Lizard, I stumbled upon some sort of labyrinth or tomb entrance. The two of us tried to explore around the stairways of the entrance but just when we were about to head back…A trap door suddenly opened below us…"
"Crowley managed to escape but I…couldn't…He dived back in to save me and fell down instead…If only…If only I didn't suggest checking the entrance…Or If I was capable enough to escape the trap on my own…none of this would've happened…"
After stating what happened without hiding anything, Wendy's hands were shaking and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, feeling guilty about Shye's current situation.
She didn't even know if he managed to survive the fall so in her heart, she was the one who killed Shye.
The hearts of the deans and her teammates shattered after seeing her pitiful appearance, especially the deans who were former adventurers.
They knew the feeling of losing a party member and blaming oneself for the unintended death of a party member was nothing to laugh or scoff at.
The deans thought that Wendy might be traumatized due to this tragic episode so they hurriedly consoled her.
"Wendy, don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault at all, besides, Crowley is still alive. His talisman hasn't sent any notification that he died yet so what we need you to do now is tell us where the labyrinth is so we could save him as early as possible."
Hearing that Shye was still alive, Wendy's tears momentarily stopped flowing as she looked at the deans with hope in her eyes.
She then nodded repeatedly before leading the way to the labyrinth.
They just got back from the advanced adventurer zone but they had to save Shye as soon as possible so although Wendy was totally spent, she willingly led the way, temporarily forgetting about her exhaustion.
***
Meanwhile, in an old hallway inside a dark labyrinth, a young man was locked in a fierce battle with two kobolds.
'Tch! It's hard to find an opening against these guys…They work too damn well together!' Shye complained as he slightly panted in exhaustion.
It had been a whole hour since he started fighting these two kobolds and he still couldn't kill one because the other one was just too ready to kill him once he fully focused his attention on one of them.
He tried almost every trick he currently had. Trying to tank the damage of these kobolds using [Stoic Lv.3] almost got him killed so he didn't dare try that tactic again.
However, even if he failed to get an advantage against the kobolds during the past hour, the kobolds didn't gain any on him either.
In addition to this, he already knew the attack patterns and teamwork strategies of these kobolds, thus, he already had a plan in mind.
But for the plan to work, he needed two charges of his [Boost] skill so he was fending off the attacks of the two little creatures while waiting for the final charge of [Boost] to be replenished.
Finally, after ten more minutes, his entire skill set was back.
'It's time…' Shye thought to himself as his eyes narrowed into slits, looking for the slightest opening to execute his plan.
He calmly observed their movements for quite a while but unfortunately, these two were too focused on keeping each other alive or at least taking him down with one of them.
'Tch…Since these kobolds aren't showing any openings, then I just have to create one!' Shye muttered to himself as he used his weakest and slowest gap closer skill, [Pierce Lunge Lv.1], to purposely show them an opening to exploit.
Finally, after trying to bait them tens of times, one of the kobolds fell for this one.
[Pierce Lunge Lv.1] was slower compared to [Rush Stab Lv.2] or [Dash Lv.3] so one of the kobolds thought that it could exploit this opening, however, little did he know that it was Shye's trap.
While pretending to target the other kobold, he immediately activated [Stoic Lv.3] along with two charges of [Boost] to increase the overall defense of the skill, thus, allowing him to tank one of the kobolds' damage.
His skill, [Pierce Lunge Lv.1] was easily blocked by the targeted kobold but it was all according to his plan.
Then, like an absolute beginner, he fully exposed his whole body for the targeted kobold to attack however the hell it wanted as he turned his attention towards the opening exploiter kobold.
'Got you!' A fierce expression appeared on Shye's face as he immediately used [Draconian Roar Lv.1] on the baited kobold, paralyzing it on the spot due to fear and trepidation.
He then used [Power Slash Lv.3] to instantly slash the disoriented kobold in half while its comrade desperately hacked and slashed at Shye's body in an attempt to save its comrade.
Unfortunately for the last kobold, the double-boosted [Stoic Lv.3] could fully tank its damage for around six seconds which was more than enough for Shye to end the life of its comrade.
Thus, it was now left alone, unsure if it was better to continue fighting or to flee.
In the end, it decided to flee in hopes of finding another group of kobolds to work with, however, how could Shye let the remaining kobold go?
He already considered that the last one might flee so he saved up two of his strongest gap-closer skills just for this moment.
*SPURT*
A comradeless kobold was just too easy for Shye to kill so after using his entire skill set masterfully, Shye successfully completed the execution of three kobolds.
[Congratulations on completing the quest: Hunt: 3 - Kobold Militias! You've earned 700 points as a reward!]
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