The Sky God Mountain was deemed as one of the most difficult dungeons in the entire game. This wasn’t just because of where it was located or the sheer scale of it.

What made it dangerous were the kind of monsters inside of it.

Liam had forgotten the dungeon’s name since he only heard about it years ago. It only popped up in a conversation between his guildmates. Even the name that Selia mentioned didn’t ring a bell. People forget a thousand things every day. It was unfortunate that he had to forget about the dungeon that got many players killed.

“Vice-director!” Arnold stood up and shouted.

“!?” The vice-director’s shoulders jerked up when he was in the middle of speaking, “W-What?”

The students turned towards Arnold, bewildered by his exclaim.

“We need to get them out of there!”

‘This isn’t good. They didn’t enter that dungeon in the game. The dungeon in the game was only A-rank.’

The Sky God Mountain dungeon was deleted from the game later in the storyline. This was because its existence caused outrage amongst the fans because of its difficulty and the risks of clearing it.

Not even a Star-Class Item could guarantee 100% success rate.

Liam only knew of two people who had beaten nearly half the monster bosses in the dungeon. Of course, who else other than Bardolt and Alecs would be strong enough to solo such a dungeon.

“Why should we do that?” The vice-director got his composure back, “And who are you to order me?”

“Are you fucking stupid!? Many people will die! No, all of them will die because of your stupid decision to let them go there!”

“S-Stupid!? You little--!” the vice-director squinted his eyes and realized who it was, “T-The eldest son of the Berkley household…”

“What do you mean by we shouldn’t have let them go there, Arnold?” Celeste asked. She looked at Arnold with an amiable smile.

“Monsters… The monsters will flood from that dungeon… and kill us all…”

Arnold looked around and noticed everyone looking at him with confused expressions. Some laughed at his ridiculous words.

“But we clear dungeons especially because we want to kill the monsters. This is to ensure this continent isn’t overrun with deviant monsters. I don’t understand your worry.” Celeste said warmly, “And please don’t underestimate the seventh year students. I know firsthand how capable they are.”

“That won’t be enough! The Star… The Star Beast’s children will kill us all!”

What frightened Arnold wasn’t just the monster bosses which ranged from level 79-95. What scared him the most was the offspring of the Star Beast. They were randomly spawned in the dungeon. You wouldn’t be able to accurately guess where since there was a lot of them. The dungeon being so ginormous—even larger than half the continent because of the law of dimension transcendentalism—only complicated things further.

Dimensional transcendentalism was the state wherein an object's interior was bigger than its exterior, an effect made possible by transdimensional magic. This was a common occurrence in dungeons being bigger from inside than they seem outside.

The Star Beast was a single species. That meant that it had no brother and sisters or a family for that matter. It was a single organism. The first and last of its kind. That was why it came up with a plan to guarantee the survival of its species.

Impregnate females from other races.

It was an impossible task on the surface.

But.

It succeeded—well, somewhat. It managed to breed with many species of monsters and animals. The children couldn’t mature but they lived and they had a fraction of the Star Beast’s power.

Even the bigger ones could kill any of the Testaments or Great Nobles.

Luke and the other main characters weren’t ready for such a disaster on this world. Not yet.

“Star… Beast?”

“What’s that?”

“Maybe a monster?”

The students and professors alike were completely at a loss.

“You have to tell them to come back!” Arnold shouted at the top of his lungs, “We’ll all die!”

He wasn’t acting. Beings like that shouldn’t be woken from their slumber. They probably thought that there weren’t any other living beings outside the dungeon.

What madman made this dungeon and the monsters, was what every player wanted to know.

Arnold realized that he was only making a fool of himself by saying something without evidence. No one even knew what the Star Beast was. No, these were just kids so it was obvious that they didn’t know a lot about the world’s ancient monsters.

“…They’ll all die… We’ll be next…” Arnold sat back down as everyone stared at him. He clenched his fists.

The vice-director cleared his throat, “Please rest assured everyone. We have 7th star mages and knights to protect the students. All of them together are strong enough to take on an army.”

But the question was how large was this army? Which races were part of this army? And how strong were each of them?

The vague words of the vice-director managed to fool the students into thinking everything would be alright.

‘Fuck…’ Arnold could only lower his head. He couldn’t say anything in response at all.

“Thank you, sir vice-director,” Celeste was given the chance to speak, “To those who don’t know me, I am Celeste von Penston.”

Many of the students—the boys especially—sighed in awe as Celeste’s beautiful visage came into the light. She had been standing behind the vice-director and hadn’t stepped into the light even when she questioned Arnold earlier. But now the entire academy could feast at this beautiful sight.

“Firstly, I would like to say a farewell to our final year students since they won’t be coming back next year. Although most went to the dungeon, the non-combatants are still here. They have also faced many hardships.” Celeste pointed at the second floor of the school hall.

The final year students waved at all of them when they looked up.

“Secondly, I would like to assure all of you—Arnold von Berkley as well—that we have safety measures if anything went south during the expedition.”

Of course, whatever those safety measures were wouldn’t be able to stop a horde of demigod monsters. It also wouldn’t prevent the death of millions.

“We will put together a rescue team in due time if we don’t get a message from them. We usually receive one every two weeks. This is to let us know that they are still alive. But, like I said, I know firsthand how capable those people are. They are a group of geniuses who faced and overcame the seven years of difficulties at this academy.”

The professors seemed to agree as they nodded confidently.

Arnold wanted to rip his own hair out. How could he convince them to tell the expedition group to come back? If those monsters knew that other beings were outside their world then they wouldn’t just stay in the dungeon.

Any living thing—be it man or beast—would be curious about the outside world that was different from the world it came to know.

Dungeons have a mechanism which prevents the monsters inside from escaping. Its phenomenon was related to magic so it was unknown what it was exactly. The monsters or any other being inside it each had a core which acts as an activation that stops them from leaving the floor they were born on.

They were basically prisoners.

But those offspring of that absolute monster could go against the laws of common sense. They were almost like the deviant monsters. These are monsters without cores that can roam freely. It didn’t matter how, they would figure out a way to escape that dungeon and enter this world.

If that happened then this entire continent is doomed. Their only option would be to migrate to another continent.

Of course, this world being so vast in comparison to earth, there were many places they could go to. But what if those monsters followed them? Then the entire world is doomed unless the powers of the world stood against those monsters.

The powers of the world referred not just to the Great Nobles but to the Dragon Lords, and even the Demon King. The Star Beast’s children couldn’t pose a threat to the demons individually but an entire army could completely decimate them.

Arnold thought about all the things that could go wrong as Celeste was talking to the students. Nothing she was saying was registering in his head at all.

He realized that the story had gotten too big for him alone.

It felt like a void crept back into his heart as he sat in a bubble that blocked out all noise.

Where were the other players? Was there even more people like him?

If he really was alone then he had to push through the hardships awaiting him. If others couldn’t do it then he had to do it.

It was his responsibility as a player of the game to make sure nothing happened that could endanger his life as well.

It was selfishness and self-centeredness at its highest…

◇

The school hall was adjourned. Randomly this time instead of year by year. As a result of this, all the doors of the school hall opened which caused students to walk like sheep strewn across the grasslands.

Arnold ignored the stares he was getting. Those who mocked him shrieked when he looked at them. They must’ve been thinking that Arnold would do the same thing he did to them as he did to James Caervil.

Arnold didn’t have a destination in mind so he only wandered wherever the paved path took him. Classes wouldn’t begin until tomorrow since the teachers had to prepare everything first. The students could leave the campus if they needed to but they had to return before dinnertime.

Arnold was considering leaving the academy grounds to go find a way to get those students out of the dungeon. But he didn‘t know what to do yet.

‘Should I ask Lyra for help? No, I only met her today. It would be strange of me to ask her something.’

If she could help then it would only be her knowledge that would be useful. She was stuck in that library, after all. She hadn’t even seen the real world yet.

Arnold’s brain went into overdrive as he tried to think of a solution. Then it hit him:

‘Maybe Lunaria would be able to help me. Why didn’t I think of this before? I’m so stupid…’

But how would he return to the city in such short notice?

“Hey!” the person he was thinking of appeared at just the right time.

Lauran jogged towards Arnold with sweat dripping down her face. It seemed that she missed the opening ceremony.

“Where have you been?”

Lauran arrived, “Haa… Haa… Her highness wouldn’t let me leave her dorm room.”

“Why?”

“She said that she was interested in seeing my spells. She heard that I was made the first lady’s assistant.”

“Did she now…”

Arnold had suspicion on his heart that that wasn’t the only reason she kept Lauran their.

“Listen to me, no matter what offer Olivia makes, you will not leave Luke’s side as his personal maid. Understand?”

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

Olivia was probably setting her eyes on a valuable piece for her future to rule the empire. Intelligence wasn’t the only weapon she could use, after all. An Archmage-level magic user would be a very valuable ally.

“Just don’t accept whatever offer she brings you. I’m being serious, Lauran.”

“O-Okay.” Lauran nodded obediently.

“So why did you come running towards me? You should go mingle with the other first year students. They’re going to put each student in their respective classroom to prepare for tomorrow.”

“Uh, about that…” Lauran fidgeted, “T-The young master just arrived on the campus.”

“What? He’s done already?”

‘I thought it would’ve been a while before Luke was able to complete Sebas’ training.’

Two months couldn’t have been the only time needed to finish Sebastian’s hellish training. There was also learning swordsmanship from Flora but how could he have done both?

“He asked where you were so I came looking for you.” Lauran grabbed Arnold’s hand, “We need to go see him.”

“I have some other business I need to attend to.” Arnold smacked away her hand and straightened his tie, “Coincidentally enough, I need your help with that business.”

“Um, but…” Lauran looked uncertain.

“I’ll go see Luke once I get back. I promise.”

“….”

Lauran still seemed unconvinced but she nodded, “How may I assist you, young lord?”

“Teleport me back to my city.”