"Hey... Aria, you saw that, right?"
Soren whispered, low enough that only Aria could hear. By now, Evan and Sylvia were arguing about the upcoming fight, and Aurelia was lost in her own world, constantly on alert.
Soren figured it was time to change his target.
"Hmm? W-what do you mean?"
Aria raised her head to look at him, only to see him subtly signaling at Sylvia's back with a certain gesture of his hand.
For a moment, she was confused, but she immediately understood what he meant after seeing his sly smile, which made her flustered all over again.
"I-I didn't see anything."
She never thought Soren would bring up that incident on his own. The three of them had acted as if nothing had happened all this time.
Why would he suddenly bring it up, making her feel ashamed?
"Hey, don't lie. You were right there, gawking at us with wide eyes. How can you not see?"
"I-I wasn't gawking at you two."
"Still, I know you saw me do that."
Soren pressed Aria with his intense gaze, making her clutch the edge of her dress nervously.
She felt as if he were accusing her of peeking at their intimacy. She had never been good with words, and under his suffocating pressure, her mind went completely blank.
Unable to argue further, she slowly lowered her head and apologized, her green eyes shimmering with quiet grievance.
"I-I am sorry."
With her head bowed, lashes trembling over her guilt-filled eyes, and lips forming a faint sulky pout, she looked unbelievably cute.
To be honest, Soren felt his heart skip a beat at the sight.
"Cough... why are you saying sorry? That's not what I meant."
Soren couldn't deny that it pained him a bit to deceive this innocent girl. But perhaps because of that, his urge to tease her was even stronger than with Sylvia.
So, he lowered his voice even more:
"Aria, can you please keep that incident a secret for us? I don't want anyone to know what I did."
He wishpered to which Aria immediately nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.
"Okay, don't worry. I won't tell a soul."
She seemed relieved. In the first place, she wasn't going to tell anyone.
Unfortunately for her, Soren wasn't finished.
"But I'm still afraid you might let it slip."
He ignored her innocent look, put on a serious expression as if thinking, then suddenly smiled as though he'd found a perfect solution.
Leaning slightly closer, he once again whispered in her ear:
"Okay, how about this? In return for keeping my secret, I'll teach you archery."
"Archery?"
"Yeah. You're an Elf, after all. Archery is in your blood. Who knows, maybe you'll even awaken your dual class?"
Soren wasn't exaggerating. In Lover's Labyrinth, she really did awaken her secondary class later.
After all, he was a useless nutjob in the game, and someone had to have the power of ranged attacks to clear certain dungeons. The developers conveniently gave her the second class, and being an Elf, it made sense.
"N-no... I don't need—"
"Shhhh... It's decided. I'll teach you archery once a week, starting tomorrow. Meet me at 5 o'clock at the training ground. Don't be late."
Soren gave her no chance to refuse.
He had conveniently invited her alone for training she hadn't asked for, all while masking his true motive.
Poor Aria could only bite her lip anxiously, finding no way to protest.
The situation became even more awkward when…
"Hey, Soren, we're finally out. Now, can you tell us your plans?"
Evan shouted as they emerged from the Blazing Falcon's territory. In an instant, everyone became alert, their eyes fixed on Soren.
After all, he had promised a plan that would allow them to defeat monsters with less risk than before.
***
"How many students are severely wounded? Are they alright?"
Floating high above the training ground of the Elite Hunter Academy, Principal Logan asked Professor Lyra.
His face did not look good.
He knew that this batch of students was new and had almost no prior experience dealing with real dungeons.
But still, he never thought they were this inexperienced. Didn't they even do any thorough research before stepping inside a dungeon?
It seemed that because everyone thought they were inside the Elite Hunter Academy and nothing would happen, they never took it seriously.
They were just excited about their first hunt, nothing else.
"A few dozen were seriously injured because they landed right next to monsters. But with Professor Lysandra around, everyone has already recovered."
Professor Lyra could sense the principal's mood and explained lightly.
Then, feeling that he was taking it too seriously, she added,
"Principal, they are just newbies. Aren't you taking them too highly? Isn't it our academy's role to make them elites?"
To be honest, she could not understand why the principal was so serious. In her opinion, this result was not that different from what she expected.
"Sigh... you are right. Maybe I am thinking too highly of them. Haha..."
Principal Logan seemed to have something on his mind, but he did not show it. Rather, he laughed and asked,
"Are all students out? If so, you should probably close those portals to the E-rank dungeons."
Even though Professor Lyra was an S-rank Space Mage, it still took a tremendous amount of mana to teleport so many students from F-rank to multiple E-rank dungeons.
"Hmm? No, there is still one team tackling one right now. Should I teleport them out, too?"
Professor Lyra spoke while lightly waving her hand. In an instant, a large screen materialized in front of her, showing the exact scenario inside the dungeon.
"Hmm? There's still one team? Are they overestimating themselves or what?"
Principal Logan was about to leave when Lyra's words stopped him in his tracks. His eyes were fixed on the screen showing the team fighting on a steep cliff.
At first, he thought they were just struggling against a monster they encountered in the dungeon. But when he looked carefully, he was completely surprised.
"This..."
Not only Principal Logan, but even Professor Lyra stopped suddenly, looking at the fight happening right in front of them.
Clearly, their assumptions were wrong. Rather than defending against a monster, this team was actively hunting it.
The team's method was deceptively simple, yet brilliant.
Under the archer's leadership, the team used the dungeon's landscape to their full advantage.
They baited and deceived the monsters, drawing them into traps or forcing them to make mistakes. Whenever a monster became enraged or distracted, the Sword Master struck with precise melee attacks, dealing heavy, punishing blows to its wings.
Every move was coordinated. Ranged attacks, summons, and elemental magic manipulated the battlefield, while the healer ensured the team could sustain the pressure.
It was a seamless combination of terrain, strategy, and timing that made killing those E-rank monsters too easy.
"Do you think they can kill that Crimson Wyvern?"
Principal Logan could not help but ask, his eyes shining slightly. He never thought that at this moment he could be so surprised.
In half a day, this team had already killed more than ten Blazing Falcons inside the E-rank dungeons, with levels as high as 28, and none of them were severely injured.
Now they were even confidently heading toward the boss's location.
Clearly, they were trying to conquer the E-rank dungeon. He never thought he would see such team coordination on the second day.
To be honest, even though it was just low-ranked hunters clearing a low-ranked dungeon, he seemed faintly excited, his eyes flickering with an unknown meaning.
"I-I don't know."
He was not the only one surprised, though, as Professor Lyra looked the same. However, her gaze was mostly on the archer, who was clearly leading the team.
And from his movements, she knew who he was.
'Interesting... even though he is just a B-rank archer, he clearly outshines all his S-rank teammates with pure skills and strategy.'
The more she looked at Soren, the more interested she became. Maybe because of the subject she was in charge of, she liked this kind of student more than others.
'It seems I need to give him more attention in future classes.'
Professor Lyra smiled, feeling that she had found a very good student in this batch, totally unaware that her strong interest had already made someone sweat bullets inside the dungeon, nearly blasted by the fiery inferno.