Free Web NovelChapter 23: Chapter 23: Tasty food and a dungeon
After consulting with Lucy, Night decided to push his newfound skill further. He pulled up the System interface, focusing on the knife proficiency.
[Basic Knife Proficiency (Lvl. 2) - Cost: 20 EV]
Feeling confident, he intended to push the skill all the way to Level 10. The prompt shifted, calculating the required energy.
[Basic Knife Proficiency (Lvl. 11) - Cost: 1100 EV]
Night stared blankly at the floating text. The cost scaling was absolutely brutal. He checked his remaining reserves with a heavy sigh. freёweɓnovel.com
[Energy Value (EV) - 897]
Still, even without pushing it to Level 11, he decided to test his movements. Gripping the simple black knife, he fell into a fighting stance.
The difference was night and day.
There was a clear, undeniable improvement in how he wielded the blade. The awkwardness of a beginner was completely gone, replaced by lethal fluidity.
If before he had moved like a seasoned master, now he moved like a literal beast with a knife.
Every slash, thrust, and parry felt deadly and lethal.
Looking out the window, he noticed it was already mid-afternoon. He decided to head to the administration office.
He unsummoned his friends and stepped outside. Looking around, he noticed other similar yellow houses lining the street, but his was situated right next to a massive house that was basically a mansion.
That must be Sara’s residence, he thought.
He walked while navigating via the map in his mind. Along the way, he saw various teachers and students. Most of them looked older than him, with only a few appearing to be his age.
The Academy grounds were vast and impeccably maintained.
One thing stood out to him immediately: unlike the bustling city streets outside the Academy, he didn’t see anyone walking around with a summoned beast. Perhaps it was against Academy regulations to have summons out in the open, or maybe the people here simply relied on different Aspects.
He soon reached the administration building. It was a wide, imposing structure located just past the residential area. According to his mental map, the entire first floor was dedicated to the administration department.
Night walked through the grand double doors, but as he stepped into the busy lobby, he froze. He had just realized a rather crucial detail.
How exactly am I supposed to confirm my identity? he thought, panicking slightly. He didn’t have an ID card, a registration form, or even a basic background profile. To the rest of the world, he essentially didn’t exist until a few hours ago.
He spotted a young man wearing a crisp grey uniform with a golden shield logo printed near the left chest. The young man looked like a clerk. Night walked over, preparing to ask for help or explain his situation, but before he could even open his mouth, the clerk looked up.
The young man took one look at Night’s face, his eyes widening in sudden realization. Without saying a single word, he respectfully pointed toward a heavy wooden door down the hall—a private cabin.
Amused by the silent VIP treatment, Night walked over and knocked on the door with his knuckles. Before he could wait for a response, the door swung open on its own, propelled by a gentle wave of mana.
He walked in and found himself in a plush, well-lit office. Behind a large desk sat a plump woman wearing a highly formal pink dress, her hair tied back in a strict bun. Beside her stood Sara, leaning against the wall with a relaxed smile, looking as if she had been waiting for him for quite some time.
"Ah, you made it," Sara smiled warmly upon seeing him. "Night, this is Sherlyn. She is the Head of the Administration Department for the Academy."
Sherlyn stood up, her posture rigid and professional. "You must be Night. Since you come highly recommended by the Headmaster; specifically as a reward for providing vital clues regarding a group of Devils that have been terrorizing the city unnoticed; we have decided to bypass the standard protocols. We are formally confirming your residential stay and your monthly allowance."
Is this what it feels like to have a ridiculously powerful friend? Night thought. In his past life, bureaucracy took months.
Here, it took knowing the right Witch.
Sherlyn opened a velvet box on her desk, taking out a black metallic ring engraved with the Academy’s golden shield logo. She handed it to him.
"This ring serves as your official student ID and contains your allowance," Sherlyn explained. "Furthermore, it is a spatial artifact. You can use it to store your personal belongings."
Night thanked her politely and inspected the ring, slipping it onto his left hand ring finger. It fit perfectly on he finger.
[Storage Ring (Lvl. 20)]
[Description: Created by a talented young forger. Can be used to store non-living things. The flow of time inside is stagnant, meaning items kept inside will degrade very slowly. Space: 3m × 3m]
It was definitely a useful item.
Sure, he could use his [Nightmare Domain] to store things indefinitely, but having a spatial ring for show was an excellent form of camouflage.
If people saw him pulling items out of thin air, they would assume it was the ring, keeping his Unique Skill a secret. It was a very timely and thoughtful reward.
Sherlyn picked up a glowing crystal tablet from her desk, her brow furrowing slightly. "Looking at your preliminary file... I was informed that you haven’t received your Class yet."
"No, I haven’t," Night admitted. "I haven’t reached Level 10 yet."
Sara chimed in, pushing off the wall. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
"At Level 10, the System gives you a Class automatically. But there is a way to receive a Class before reaching that threshold. Did you notice the kids on your way here? Most of them aren’t Level 10 yet."
"Gaining levels passively by absorbing ambient mana or eating natural treasures is a painfully slow process, and most families cannot afford to spend a fortune on high-level resources. But all of those students walking around already have their Classes."
Night listened intently. "How?"
"In the Academy, we possess a Divine Treasure that lets us temporarily defy fate and awaken a Class early," Sara explained casually.
Night was genuinely shocked. A Divine Treasure? Just casually sitting in a school?
Seeing his dumbfounded expression, Sara laughed softly. "It’s not actually that special. It’s the most common type of Divine Treasure, to be honest. Every major city has one. It was a System reward distributed to humanity for clearing a World-Level Quest years ago."
"I’ll take you there tomorrow and let you choose a Class."
"I’ll also come by your place tonight so we can sit down and I’ll guide you through the various Class options you should look out for."
"That would be great, thank you," Night said.
Sara suddenly paused, looking at him closely. Her eyes drifted down to his stomach. "Wait... you haven’t eaten anything yet today, have you?"
Night flushed, looking utterly embarrassed. "Yes. I mean, no. I haven’t."
Despite having an Energy Value, his physical body was still that of a mortal boy. He was practically starving.
Suddenly, Sara’s expression shifted. The playful demeanor vanished, replaced by a sharp, focused intensity. She had sensed something through the city’s magical arrays. She turned to the plump woman at the desk.
"We will be leaving now, Sherlyn," Sara stated, leaving no room for argument.
Sherlyn looked confused by the abrupt exit but simply bowed her head and nodded.
Sara stepped close to Night, she placed her hand gently on his shoulder and the two of them vanished completely from the office, leaving behind nothing but a faint breeze.
Left alone in the quiet cabin, Sherlyn slowly sat back down, the professional mask melting off her face, replaced by a deep scowl.
The Headmaster seems unusually close to that boy, she thought, tapping her manicured nails against the desk. Bringing him in directly, bypassing all exams, giving him a VIP residence... Should I inform the Family?
She stared at the blank spot where they had just been standing. Then, she scoffed bitterly.
Why bother?
They had banished me here to the Desert City to do this tedious, thankless administrative job, all under the guise of sending back intelligence on ’The Witch’.
They treated me like an outcast, a pawn to be used and discarded.
Sent here to work like a donkey and expected to fly back and forth with messages like a carrier pigeon, Sherlyn fumed internally.
They can rot in Hell.
Let them figure out what Sara is planning on their own.
She looked back at the towering pile of holographic documents on her tablet, let out a long, heavy sigh, and immediately got back to her work.
Night appeared in a secluded alleyway. He looked around, but he was the only one there.
Realizing that Sara hadn’t teleported all the way with him, he stood still, waiting patiently.
About a minute later, there was a familiar flash of spatial mana, and Sara materialized in front of him.
She was holding two large, steaming plates of food that looked remarkably like noodles.
She handed one plate to him with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about that," she said. "I took a quick detour to get us some fast food before you have to enter the dungeon."
While a warm feeling bloomed in his chest that she had gone out of her way to bring him food, he was stunned by the second half of her sentence.
Night took the plate, the aroma instantly made his mouth water. He asked, "Wait, where is the dungeon?"
Sara pointed to the empty space at the dead end of the alley. "It will appear right there in about five minutes."
Night blinked in surprise. "We can know where they are going to appear before they actually form?"
"Yes, but only within the city limits," Sara explained, taking a bite of her own food. "The city is built upon a massive network of magic arrays. When spatial fabric begins to thin, the arrays detect the anomaly before the tear fully opens. But outside the city walls in the wilderness? You have no warning. They just pop up."
She continued her briefing between bites. "This is a Level 5 dungeon. It should be relatively easy for you, especially since your summons are powerful enough to kill a Level 10 human without much trouble. However, just in case you encounter any real, life-threatening danger..."
She pointed to the ring on his finger. "...Use the red talisman you received in your spatial ring. It contains a high-tier offensive spell. It will finish off whatever is threatening you."
She then produced two silver forks from her own spatial storage, handed one to him, and fully focused on eating.
Following her lead, Night eagerly dug in. The food smelled amazing, and the taste was even more mind-blowing.
He couldn’t quite describe the flavor profile, as it was so fundamentally different from anything he remembered from Earth before the System.
If he had to put it into words, it was a perfect harmony of sweet, spicy, and salty all at the same time, hitting every single taste bud perfectly.
The end result was him devouring the entire massive plate in less than two minutes flat, eventually staring down at the empty dish with regret.
Sara finished hers just as quickly, looking satisfied. She delicately licked her lips and said, "It’s made from the meat of a Level 20 beast. The pure energy contained in that single meal should be more than enough to sustain your body for an entire day."
Night looked up at her with puppy-dog eyes. "Can I have this every day?"
Sara giggled, amused by his eagerness. She teased him, saying, "It’s definitely not cheap. With the basic student allowance you’re getting, you could only dream of eating this."
Seeing Night’s mood visibly drop, her eyes softened into something incredibly fond and motherly. She reached out and lightly tapped his nose.
"But... maybe every time I visit your residence, I can bring some food like this with me. My treat."
Immediately, Night’s mood lifted all the way to the heavens.
Before he could thank her, the surrounding ambient mana suddenly shifted violently. The air pressure in the alleyway dropped, making Night’s ears pop.
Right where Sara had pointed, a swirling blue portal, roughly the size of a grown man, tore open in the middle of the alley.
Its very appearance seemed to enhance the density of the mana in the air, creating a soft, wind that tugged at Night’s clothes.
It looked to be slowly but steadily growing in size, the edges of the spatial tear crackling with raw energy as the seconds ticked by.
The Level 5 Dungeon had arrived.
