After obtaining approval, the city hall and the Adventurers' Guild provided Shane and the others with extrely reliable supplies.
Even the "expensive" equipnt he could never afford before was now free to pick at will—honestly thoughtful!
Of course, Shane wasn't the kind of person to exploit things to the extre.
So he only took 10 standard longswords, 10 shoulder guards, 10 chest armors, 10 leg armors, 10 wrist guards, 10 pairs of small sheepskin boots, 10 kunai and shuriken, 10 refined iron marbles, 10 sets of tailored clothes, 10 sets of bedding with varying thickness… plus so tea sets, cookware, tableware, and stationery…
Frieren was completely stunned.
"Alright." Shane patted his half-filled backpack with satisfaction. "Gotta leave half the space empty— I still need to scavenge for junk in the dungeon."
With everything ready, the two officially entered the dungeon.
…
The mont he stepped inside, Shane understood why this dungeon instance was called the Inverted Land.
They had entered another Gostan City.
He glanced back. Like a reflection on water, the dungeon was a mirror of the real world.
The difference was—outside it was day, here it was night.
And there were no residents.
A faint breeze swept through the empty streets.
The entire city was silent.
Shane edged a little closer to Frieren. The eerie sense of a "ghost town" made him think of too many unpleasant scenes.
The two slowly walked along the streets, trying to find so useful clues.
After several blocks, they found nothing.
No traps.
No monsters.
It seed to be nothing more than an ordinary empty city.
But Shane knew better. A high-risk dungeon that could swallow entire adventurer parties couldn't possibly be this simple.
If it looked ordinary on the surface, then sothing inside had to be anything but.
"Frieren, give it a shot."
"?"
"I an—try destroying the surrounding buildings. Make so noise, see if we can draw sothing out."
Boom—
A massive beam of magic shot across the street, instantly flattening a row of houses in front of them. The explosion echoed loudly through the empty city, jarringly out of place.
They stood there and waited for a while.
Nothing happened.
"Let's go. Try sowhere else."
Shane turned around—
And nearly exploded on the spot.
A figure had appeared behind them without warning.
Tall and imposing, with a pair of curved goat horns. Dark gray skin etched with strange black patterns. Beneath thick white fur, a face twisted like a demon—full of fangs, terrifying to behold.
It was the "Corrupted Sage Qual"!
Frieren hadn't sensed anything behind her. By the ti the target appeared, it was already too late to react.
Qual grinned viciously as he looked at Shane and Frieren. "Two more test subjects."
With a snap of his fingers, magic activated instantly, dragging both of them into darkness.
"Co, try my new invention—magic that inverts 'miracles.'"
"Unlike Miracle Magic that brings people into paradise, this one lets them taste the deepest fear in their hearts."
"Let see how you tremble."
…
…
"Beep—"
"Fifteen minutes remaining until the end of the exam."
Shane woke up to the sound. Groggy, he opened his eyes—and found himself sitting in a classroom.
On the blackboard in front of him was a line of large text: Examination Room No. 35, College Entrance Exam Mathematics (National Paper) — 15:00 to 17:00.
What?
He looked down—and saw a pristine test paper on his desk. Not a single word written, and a large patch of drool staining it.
In an instant, it felt like he couldn't breathe.
"I fell asleep during the college entrance exam? Everything before… was just a dream…"
No.
No.
No!
This is the dream! Wake up!
Slap.
Shane used all his strength to slap himself.
The blow was so hard his face swelled imdiately, his ears ringing.
…
…
Fire surrounded her.
Yet Frieren felt her body growing cold.
The village she had grown up in was destroyed. Everywhere she looked, there were ruins.
The demon general before her was laughing wildly, holding the severed limbs of her companions.
She wanted to stand and continue fighting—but her magic was completely drained. She couldn't even move a finger… Was this how she would die?
A low chuckle echoed ahead. The demon general turned into the Demon King, stepping forward through the sticky blood on the ground, gripping her throat.
"Overestimating yourselves."
Frieren looked at the corpses of her companions at her feet and said nothing.
Yes… they had overestimated themselves. They lost to the Demon King. Humanity had lost hope once again.
She should have stayed in the forest. This outco… was only fitting.
Then—
Flam's voice sounded behind her.
She asked, "Demons cannot understand humans. Then Frieren, as an elf, do you understand human emotions?"
The question was like a stone dropped into deep water, sending ripples outward.
In an instant, Flam's smiling face transford into countless others.
The grandmother who took care of her in the elf village. The old man who invited her for a ride by the roadside. The child who gave her flowers. Himl, who praised her magic. Heiter, who liked patting her head. Eisen, who was just as indifferent as her…
So many faces.
They aged, died, disappeared—until finally all froze into a single blank face.
Empty. Hollow.
A surge of indescribable guilt and self-reproach rose within Frieren.
"Flam… in the end, I still learned nothing…"
Boom—
A light as bright as day pierced through the darkness in her vision.
In an instant, it shattered everything around her.
Shane's voice rang in her ears:
"Frieren, straight ahead!"
Her vision was completely white. She couldn't see anything—but she didn't hesitate. Raising her staff, she fired a spell straight forward.
Crack—
Sothing shattered.
At the sa ti, Qual's hoarse roar echoed: "Impossible! How could the experint fail?! No—!"
At that mont, Shane activated [Sprint] and appeared in front of Frieren. In a single instant, he pulled her into the Goddess's Barrier.
Seeing that she was safe, he finally let out a breath of relief.
Thanks to the strong resistance of [Occluncy] against ntal magic, he had awakened shortly after falling into the illusion. But no matter how he called her, she didn't respond—that had terrified him.
There was no way he could fight demons alone!
Fortunately, [Electrocution] and flashbangs ca through again.
Seeing Frieren had recovered, he glanced at the situation outside the barrier and asked seriously:
"Frieren… can you handle nine Quals?"
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