Free Web NovelChapter 31: Investment 31— The Letter
Adept silence claimed the auditorium for a fleeting instant. Then Prince Leonard spoke.
"I know this may be shocking to all of you." A smile crept across his pristine face. "But it didn’t come as a surprise to me." He pulled the classic hero move, nothing calms the masses down more than when the leading figure has a handle on the situation.
"Because it was very obvious to me that our instructors wouldn’t just up and vanish on us."
Though as self-centered and self-serving as those words sounded, they gave a huge burst of hope to the terrified students who thought they were currently on their last limbs.
"So everyone, I will be reading the letter now, ensure to listen carefully."
He talked to them like a shepherd leading a flock of lost sheep to salvation. He tore up the seal from the front of the letter and opened it with one hand at the bottom and the other at the top.
He spread the piece of paper apart at his eye level, small golden pupils dilated with relief. Whatever he had seen gave him a rest of mind.
"Firstly, our food supplies have been placed by that corner over there—"
Before he could finish, the students shouted in joy. The others standing by the rocks leaned forward in excitement. The main thing that they needed to keep them alive had been made available. They were truly in bliss. (A hungry man was a dead man after all.)
Leonard quickly continued the speech using a high pitch to regain his control over the crowd.
"They are to be shared evenly amongst all the teams."
The instant he uttered those words, some students began to murmur.
"Are you sure it’s going to be enough?"
A disheartened student sighed loudly.
"Don’t worry everyone, there’s enough to go around. This is the Adonite Academy after all."
He quickly calmed the tension. At just the mention of Adonite, the students were reminded of what their fears made them forget. They were students of the richest and most prominent academy in the 12 great kingdoms. (Having little amounts of food was completely out of the question.)
Leonard clapped his hands and the other members of the student council used levitation spells to float the food supplies out of the corner. A mountain of food lay before their ravaging eyes.
The mere presence of the food supply was evident enough that they were no longer hanging on thin threads and served as a confidence booster that they could actually survive.
After a transient moment of cries and tears of joy, the students redirected their attention towards the shepherd they once forgot in their moment of joy. freёwebnoѵel.com
Leonard didn’t mind. He was rest assured that they would pay attention to him soon enough, after all he had more shocking news to deliver.
"Secondly, all teams are without exception supposed to be composed of five members regardless of year."
This wasn’t new information as, for the first years, Professor Dermiurge had already addressed them about the unique requirement to enter the dungeon underneath the Adonite Academy dubbed as the Dungeon of Unity. Named after one of the twelve aspects engraved into the seal that binds the darkness till this very day.
But Leonard, being the shepherd that no one asked him to be, decided to explain it all over again. He pointed a hand towards the rune stone platform.
"As you all can see, there are five slots in the teleportation platform. Without five people present on it, the teleportation to the first floor will remain nonexistent."
The other student council members nodded their heads in agreement. They had to give him their utmost support. They were more supporters and fans than colleagues.
"Lastly, our instructors stated here that they will be waiting for us at the resting point between floors 5 and 6. And also—"
He turned his head towards a student council member that seemed to be dozing off. The friend of the dozing member hit him on the chest.
"Dude wake up. Leonard is looking this way," he whispered with a low tone so Leonard wouldn’t hear. Which was of no use since he heard anyways.
Leonard’s look was a signal to Futaba to hand him the black bag that they found in the corner along with the food supplies. Futaba carried herself with the usual elegance which was always expected from her as the vice president.
She dropped the bag on top of the pulpit. "Hurry up, your speech is getting boring." She alerted Leonard of the mumbles of students that he couldn’t hear. They were getting bored and he wasn’t one to enjoy giving boring speeches. (They thought he had begun to sound like Professor Dermiurge.)
He hurried to quickly wrap up. He brought out a pristine deep blue coloured stone from within the bag.
"These are tracing stones. They will help the instructors monitor our movements. So everyone should place one on their bodies."
He handed the bag to the student council members to distribute amongst the students.
"In that light, after all the teams have been accounted for—"
He paused for a moment as August walked up to him and placed his mouth by Leonard’s ear. "We are currently numbering 199. There’s one person missing and it’s on our team."
His words hit Leonard like a blow to the chest. He pummeled into a sea of panic as he broke into a cold sweat. Barely maintaining his charisma from the twitching of his eyes, it was clear to some who paid attention that something was wrong.
A timid-looking male student raised his hand up. He shifted his head towards the wall to avoid any direct eye contact with anyone.
"I-I, don-don’t know if it’s too late to join a team. I was a bit sick last week," the green-eyed boy stuttered. He simply couldn’t stand being around a crowd.
Leonard didn’t stop to think if it was some kind of scheme. He was just glad that a bail out for him had shown up. August ensured to count everyone properly but for some reason he missed this one person.
More weirdly, that person happened to show at their dire time of need. (How very convenient for them.)
The other students didn’t seem to recognise him at all but they all rubbed it off as due to their large population. Now and here, if they had just paid attention to the glaringly horror movie-themed imposter signs. "Oh well, all things that start good end good. Right?"
So they thought in their minds with full confidence in someone they didn’t even know.
"Of course it isn’t. You can join our team."
Leonard smiled brightly at the timid green-eyed student. The other students began to complain about how some guy that just showed up was getting allowed to join the core members of the student council’s team just like that. Well it wasn’t just like that, he was currently their only hope to enter the dungeon.
"As I was saying earlier. Wish you all the best of luck."
He ended the long speech and stepped off the stage. The students lined up by the rune platform and team by team they stepped onto the platform, each team getting beamed away to different parts of the first floor.
Finally, it was Elliot’s and the Four Seasons’ turn. They stepped onto the platform and just like the other teams before them, blue light emerged from the rune stone and teleported them away.
(What could possibly go wrong?)
The moment they opened their eyes, they found themselves in a desert-like region. If that was all then there probably wouldn’t have been any problems. Then for some reason the sand beneath them began to rumble.
Yes, everything could go wrong. They were welcomed by a horde of black-tinted desert crabs that were ten times their size and it wasn’t just them.
The student council that went in last were faced with "red-eyed, ready to eat you whole, super hungry Minotaur." (This is why you never go last.)
