Chapter 42: Segregation
The howl of beasts echoed loudly in the forest. Their voices were loud and resonated through the whole forest, causing a gripping fear to latch onto every student as they understood that this situation and this test weren't about grabbing a flag, but also about surviving the monsters and beasts in this forest.
"This is pretty bad," Hoyo said as he looked around. "We don't know what's going to happen right now, let's stick together," he advised.
"Fellow Students!" one of the guys shouted out, "Please gather around!" he called out.
The group of students all followed in as they made a circle around him. The young man was the same age as Ludwig, and he had a noble crest on his robes making his affiliation known.
He was of a tall enough height, handsome of appearance, and had a red head. Yet he seemed to be fully decked out for this dungeon. After all, he had a small wand strapped to the belt to his side. And the boots he wore were designed for long marches and hikes. Though Ludwig didn't know if it was his normal attire, this seemed awfully too coincidental with the day of the exam.
Not to mention a waterskin and a small bag on the other side of his waist.
"Right, we all understand that this test was made to catch us off guard, and professor Olim Rambaldi got us good, but if you all listen to me well, I'm sure we'll all manage our way out of this exam with good grads."
Ludwig was a bit skeptical, after all, who is he to be able to harness the attention of every student?
"As you all know, I'm Bron Steelheart, our family is of enough renown that even the Imperial family has assigned several of our family members to be Mage Commanders in the imperial army, not to mention the Kingdom of Lotostra. Where we're pretty much the strongest noble force of the kingdom, with that, I would hope that my fellow students trust me to lead us out of this perilous situation," the young man said.
"I agree, if we have a Steelheart with us, this exam is as good as cleared," someone said.
Several other students were nodding in agreement.
Ludwig wasn't someone who'd personally go out of his way to contradict or ask why this man who was taking the lead was already decked out as if he expected this to happen, so for now he went with the flow and didn't interrupt.
"So now we'll split into two groups, one group will handle scouting and reporting, and the other group will be responsible for battle."
"Keep calm," Ludwig said as he noticed Hoyo about to ask something as he was raising his hand.
Though Hoyo dropped his hand, it didn't skip the young man's notice, "Seems like you had a question, your name was Hoyo right?" the young man said. Though he had a smile on his face, his eyes didn't smile.
Seeing that it was too late to stop the interaction, Ludwig simply sighed in defeat.
Hoyo gave an apologetic look to Ludwig and answered, "Right, I was going to simply ask how are we going to be split up, not to mention we don't know how long this test is going to last… and most of us didn't bring any food or drinks," Hoyo said as his eyes pointed at the waterskin on Bron's side.
"Simple, we'll handle it based on social norms," he said shrugging.
Ludwig's eyes looked as if they scowled, 'social norms? That basically means that nobles get to sit down and relax while those of non-noble origin do all the work.'
Hoyo immediately spoke out, "That's not fair though!"
"Nothing in life is fair," the man shrugged, "Not to mention the nobles in our class have superior firepower, and we can't risk them exhausting themselves doing scouting. While you three, and a few behind you are all known to be pretty weak or new."
'this is blatant discrimination…'
Ludwig sighed, but he also remembered this isn't the same world he came from. And discrimination based on race, origin or color is pretty normal here. And they could do nothing about it, not to mention the nobles were of a superior number to those who are not.
The Black Tower Academy was after all an academy of magic, and only a select few can learn it. Nobles have access to mana-amplifying options since they were born, while most commoners can only dream of being a mage or a powerful knight. Besides a few exceptions. Ludwig wasn't a noble, but was admitted through special means to the academy. And Kassandra seemed to be someone who is smart though her robes and her current physical state meant that she was definitely of a poor background. Hoyo though comes from a noble family, his family has fallen, and several other students behind Ludwig who had their head pointing down in shame were all in the same boat. Commoners who only earned the right to attend the Black Tower academy because either they were of a special race, or had happened upon an opportunity that allowed them to enter the academy, either by birth or by luck.
"Bron is right," one of the pompous kids spoke, "You're lucky you're even here with us, if you were by yourselves you'd never clear something like this, so just do your job of scouting."
"Right, and since you mentioned it, while you're scouting do some foraging and hunting, we need to stay in top shape if we want to help you clear this stage," another said.
The nobles seemed adamant about applying their 'social' pressure onto the commoners and the latter couldn't refute or deny anything.
Hoyo was about to argue, but Ludwig held him once more, "Sure, I agree to that," Ludwig said.
"Ah, we have a sensible person, on our hands, who are you?" Bron asked.
"Call me Ludwig, regardless, to do scouting I would need a few things, I suppose you have something we can use as weapons, right?" Ludwig asked.
"Why would you need a weapon?" Bron asked.
"Why else? If we're scouting we need to be able to defend ourselves, what if we go to scout and die, then who will provide you any sort of information?" Ludwig shrugged.
"You do have a point, but what do you mean by weapon? Most of us here are mages, we don't carry weapons." He added.
"Then it will be a bit difficult to do that task, I mean without a scouting party it'll be pretty difficult for any of us to progress in this test."
"Is a short sword good enough for you?" one of the nobles asked.
Bron gave him a stern look, but Ludwig immediately interrupted, "Yes, it would be fine, I've been training the Imperial Art lately with professor Joana."
Bron sighed, "How come you have a sword when you're a mage," he shook his head at his fellow noble.
"It's a ceremonial sword of my family, not that I need it or anything, but if it makes him do a better job at scouting then lending him the sword is enough," he said as he approached Ludwig and pulled a sword from a ring he had on him.
"I don't suppose you guys have any other weapons for the rest of our scouting group?" Ludwig asked.
Bron shook his hand, "Fine, as long as you do a good job of scouting and reporting. Our fellow nobles are generous enough to give you their weapons. Just don't be too lax and relaxed, we need you guys the same as you need us," he said.
A few of the nobles pulled out some weapons, daggers mainly and a couple short swords, none of them looked worth using in an actual battle, but Ludwig had a plan in mind after all.
"I suppose you'll be leading the scouting party?" Bron asked.
Ludwig turned, "I see no one refusing or wanting to step up, so I guess I am," Ludwig said.
"Good, then report to us once every two hours, and we'll set up camp here," Bron said as he dismissed Ludwig.
Ludwig turned and saw that only ten of the people from the whole class were actually commoners. He, Kassandra, and Hoyo included.
He distributed the weapons he was given to the group and had a couple of spare daggers left that he kept for himself.
"What are you planning?" Kassandra asked as she was looking at the dagger in her hand.
Ludwig smiled at her and said, "We'll clear this thing before they even realize it," Ludwig said to her smiling.
After all, only he was able to see the content of this dungeon. The notification in front of his eyes was clear as day.
Chapter 43: Plans Within Plans
[This Instanced Dungeon is partially artificial. To clear the Dungeon you either have to defeat the boss of the area who is sealed at the northern part of the dungeon, or leave by touching the flag post at the eastern side of the dungeon. Beware, the creatures in this dungeon have been afflicted with a temporary weakness Debuff.]
The notification was like a blessing for Ludwig because it conveyed a lot of information to him. First thing first, this whole dungeon is modified, as in it had already been in control, and it was probably Teacher Rembaldi's doing.
The weakness on the creatures in the dungeon could tell that they are at the level where students can handle them to a point. As for the leaving, he could do one of two things. Either go to the north of the map, and defeat the boss of the dungeon, or head to the east and touch the pole.
The first option wasn't something he was planning on doing, Ludwig had no idea what this 'Boss' Monster was capable of, and he had no plan on fighting it. So, for now, they can simply group up together and head to the flag that is in the east.
"Let's move," Ludwig said as he began moving deeper into the forest, he made sure not to make his movement known for the rest of the group of nobles behind him.
Bron noticed Ludwig and his group of ragtag moving deeper into the forest and smiled as he turned to the rest of the nobles.
***
"Good, they left, we'll give them an hour start before we head east," Bron said.
"East? Why?" another member of the nobles asked.
"Because that's where the flag is, don't ask me how I know," he said.
"Then why not move right now?"
"Because the commoners need to be a bit away from us. Although I wouldn't have minded breaking a few of their legs and go to the flag myself, the teacher forbids harming one another directly. So we'll wait a bit, at least an hour, and once they're far enough we'll move. Even if one of them comes back to report on their scouting they'll find no one," Bron said.
"I like your plan, but that really doesn't do much no?" a female student asked, "they can still find their way out later, if any of them is good at tracking and they can just leave after ward. Granted they won't get any good scores since they'll be later than us… but they'll still emerge out of the dungeon eventually," she said.
"That's where you're wrong," Bron waved a finger, "A small bird told me that the creatures in this dungeon are weakened, and by the time they figure out what is going on, the creatures will have returned to their peak form. The teachers are forbidden from interfering with the stage, and all we need to do is just leave and make sure no one else leaves after us," Bron said.
"You don't think you're going too far with this?" one of the lower nobles of the group asked.
Bron flashed him a vicious glare, "You, for someone who's the son of a baron, you're awfully chummy with those commoners!"
The young man stammered but kept quiet, "I don't like to have filth like them mingling with us. The commoners are to obey and serve. So don't have pity on them, lest you become one of them," Bron said.
"No need to get angry, let's calm down for now," the same female student from earlier intervened, "I agree with Bron, the commoners really did lower the level of this academy. You won't find a single commoner in any of the other towers. So we need to do our cleanup ourselves."
"At least there is someone sensible here, regardless, I'll need to keep track of them," Bron said as he pulled a small mechanical bird like creation.
"Whoa, a Spy Bird, those are really expensive," one of the students said.
Bron smugly smiled, "Nothing is expensive for a Steelheart, This will keep track of them and tell us of their current location, I don't want them to luckily stammer their way to the flag," Bron said as he flung the mechanical bird high up.
The small thing flew up and began flapping its wings and headed toward the general location of Ludwig and his company.
***
Ludwig was making sure to be as far away as possible before changing direction to the east where the flag was. And after a good time moving, Kassandra spoke up, "You seem to be moving with purpose, do you know something we don't?"
'Sharp', Ludwig thought, "Not really, but I have a feeling that we should head east." He said.
"Why?" Hoyo asked as he was looking around.
"Because that's where the sound of the beasts we heard came from. Or at least most of them," Ludwig said.
A student then asked, "Doesn't that mean we should be as far away from that?"
"No, that means that that direction is where the 'test' is. Regardless, it's not like we can go anywhere else," Ludwig said as he pointed forward.
Looking at where he pointed, a whole new scenery revealed itself to the group of students.
They were at the edge of a massive cliff, heading anywhere but north or east meant falling down to their death. The cliff overlooked a massive sea of clouds that seemed to expand endlessly.
"I guess we'll just have to go east then," Hoyo said.
"Not much of a choice we have," Ludwig said as he turned toward the direction of east.
"Weren't we supposed to be scouting?" one of the students said.
Ludwig turned to him saying, "Do you honestly think that they sent us to scout because they needed it?"
"W-well, Bron said so…" the student replied
"And you believed him?" Ludwig tilted his head, "Why would they even need to scout? They already know where the exit is in the first place," Ludwig said and that instantly put the whole group on alert.
"What do you mean they know?"
"That Bron guy, he was awfully ready and geared up for this, so trust me when I tell you, in situations like this they already know well the road they need to, after all, for a noble getting a favor from a teacher isn't that hard," Ludwig shrugged.
"Your reasoning is somewhat flawed," Kassandra said.
"How come?" Ludwig asked.
"Why would they ask us to scout if they had the map then?" she asked.
"Simple," Ludwig shrugged, "Because they don't want us commoners to make it through the test, remember we're like a sore thumb in an academy full of snobbish nobles."
"Then couldn't you have said something!" one of the students said shouting, "We could have stuck to them, or refused this scouting mission? I'm going back!"
A few students seemed to agree with him, to the point of antagonizing Ludwig.
This made him quite annoyed, after all, they couldn't and wouldn't say anything if a noble was speaking, but since he is just a commoner like them they could bitch about him all they want.
"Don't be an idiot," Ludwig said, "Saying anything there would have just made us a target."
"Then what are you planning?" Hoyo asked, "If scouting is a ruse we got pulled into, we should go back to them no? They have a map that can guide them to where the exit is like you said, shouldn't we follow them from behind?" Hoyo finalized.
"I thought about that for a bit," Ludwig said as he glanced up, "But I don't think that's possible," he added.
"What do you mean?" Kassandra asked.
"I'll tell you if none of you make it obvious," Ludwig said.
Seeing the group frown confused he added, "Don't look up basically, but there is a Spy Bird above us, they sent it to keep track of us. If we backtrack or follow them they'll figure out that we're going to track them."
Ludwig's eyes were glowing as his [Inspect] had been active.
***
[Spy Bird]
Type: Mechanical Creation
HP: 1
A small recon mechanical creation shaped into a bird. It has intricate magical circles and advanced engineering systems that allows it to fly and report via magic transmission on the target it is currently spying on.
***
The students had a hard time not looking up, but thankfully everyone understood what was going on.
"If it's above us, we need to take it down to move in stealth," Kassandra said.
"I thought about that, but we can't male it obvious, I don't think I can accurately shoot it down," Ludwig said.
"But I can," Hoyo said as he moved back under the shade of a few trees.
He had a small rock in his hand.
"You know you can't miss," Ludwig said.
"I'm pretty accurate with my throws, check this out," he said as he flung the rock incredibly fast toward the moving bird.
A loud clang echoed above them and the bird fell to bits right next to Ludwig's feet.
Ludwig collected the bird's remains and said, "Good job, but this is still a problem for us," he said.
"What is?" Hoyo said.
"Though there is a chance that they can't figure out what happened to the Spy Bird, they should already know it's down, meaning that they'll move faster."
"Doesn't that make our situation worse? Now they know we're going after them," one of the students stated.
"They might, or might now, and in the worst case if they know, they don't know where we currently are and how far we are from them, so let's head east and follow after them. Our job was scouting anyway, so might as well do it for real this time," Ludwig said as he moved ahead.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
165 Power
stone 
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