Reincarnated into a Doomed Novel as an Unknown Extra-Chapter 163: Exam [1]

"30 minutes! You are a whole 30 minutes late!"

"Man, it's not a big deal, is it? I was just testing—"

"Do I look like I care? And speak politely for once in your life!"

In the dungeon room, Butto was yelling at Zephyr and Celestia, who had ignored all his calls for 30 minutes before finally arriving.

'It's definitely Zephyr's fault. Celestia would never ignore a teacher.'

Several times, Butto almost went to Zephyr's suite to drag him here.

If not for Yami, he'd have lost his patient long ago.

As he was yelling at Zephyr, I scanned the room for one last time. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

At this moment, all the first-year students were gathered together, whether they chose this profession as primary or secondary.

That was because, unlike the ranking test, the exams at the end of the semester weren't optional. But at least they were made to suit the students according to their capabilities.

For me and the students who chose this profession as primary, our exam would be significantly harder than the others.

"Ahem," Butto cleared his throat. "Now, let's talk about your exam."

Behind him, there were 4 different doors. He pointed at them and said: "Each one of these doors lead to a different dungeon. Two of them are Tier-3 dungeons, with one of them being harder than the other for the ranked students, and the other two are Tier-4 dungeons, also with one of them harder than the other.

The few students who are still Tier-2 will enter the Tier-3 dungeons, and all the remaining students will enter the Tier-4 dungeons.

Your task for this exam is to survive as long as you can and hunt beasts."

Pausing for a moment, his ring shimmered slightly, then hundreds of rings appeared.

'Spatial rings inside a spatial ring?!'

How did his spatial ring contain other rings?

To do that, one had to know how to make a stable space inside another space while preventing them from collapsing. As far as I knew, Lunara was the only person who could do that.

But even if I considered her, she wasn't an artificer to make such an artifact.

'Maybe it's a relic? Or maybe an ancient artifact made by someone who is already dead.'

Well, I might be able to do this in the future.

I had a skill book that contained ancient knowledge about runes, the best space user as my teacher, a cosmic entity as my spirit, and a dimensional storage within me.

As I was lost in my thoughts, Butto simply clapped, causing a shockwave that sent a ring to each student as he continued:

"Whenever you kill a beast, your ring will automatically store them. By the end of the exam, we'll use the monsters you hunted alongside your surviving time to determine your score out of 100."

I nodded silently, thinking of the benefits of this score.

In the next semester, my score would determine my new rank, give me some rewards, and attract the attention of the teachers.

Of course, I didn't care about any of that at this moment.

After pausing for a moment, Butto continued: "Remember, some teachers and a lot of staff members will be presenting in these dungeons, including me, so you don't need to worry about your safety. You might get harmed, but we will ensure that you stay alive to see my face again in the next semester!"

"Anyway, in case you were too lazy to read the rules, I'll list a few things you must keep in your mind. One, you are allowed to steal the other students' rings. Two, you are allowed to form teams and betray them if you want. Third, we believe in quality over quantity! Don't hesitate to hunt the bosses in the dungeons to earn yourself a higher score!

Four, the exam will end in 24 hours, so you better go into your dungeon early for more survival time. And lastly… you aren't allowed to use any artifact with a tier higher than five!"

I can swear that on the last note, he gave me a side glance!

'I have only two, and one of them is purely defensive!'

As he finished speaking, Butto suddenly disappeared with Yami, leaving all of us in front of the door.

"This time, I'll surpass that filthy bird!"

"Is there anyone here who could take the rule of a tank? We will be separated, but we can meet later inside."

"I-I'm a healer with light affinity. I'm only a Tier-2 Exalted, by the way."

"Don't rush, let them go first and exhaust each other while we harvest their loot, keke."

Some students rushed to the gates without thinking — including Zephyr — some started searching for teams and preparing themselves, others simply waited while doing random stuff.

'That's all meaningless, anyway.'

I looked at my right, seeing Selene lost in her thoughts.

"Should we go now or wait a little more?"

I shrugged: "You can do whatever you want. I'll go first and explore the place so I can find you and the others easier there. I recommend you wait a little before you enter the dungeon."

Before she could say anything else, I gave her one last head pat before teleporting to the biggest door, which barely had any students surrounding it.

To prepare for the potential incident, I decided to try to explore the dungeon early and search for the other students. I had to somehow make them form a big team.

My acts would look suspicious to the observers, unless they knew about the future and my reincarnation, but I didn't have the luxury to care about that.

As I moved to the door, I gave a last glance at Liora, who was discussing her plans with Arthur and Elara.

'She became too close to them…'

I couldn't help but wonder if she had really cared about them or had done all that for the sake of the future she wanted to achieve.

Maybe… maybe she herself didn't know the answer.

As I entered the room of the hardest dungeon, I tried to use my spatial awareness on the gate for a moment, but I failed to find its path or see the place inside.

'This is really hard. How the fuck did Lunara do that?!'

Thanks to Liora, I finally understood why the dungeon gates were more special than the other spatial gates.

'They are space-time gates!'

Apparently, these gates not only lead to different places but also different past timelines. That was probably why the academy was too generous regarding any knowledge from the dungeons.

'Well, I can't waste more time, can I?'

Without hesitation, I finally stepped into the gate.