C-Rank Dungeon (1)

Pointing his middle finger at the audience, Matthew's eyes glinted with a deep black hue.

Honeslty, he was quite frustrated at this point, and the idea of being a villain sounded much more appealing to him.

Especially when he could do anything he wanted and didn't have anyone to interrupt him.

And he himself already had a ton of ideas for how to use his new organization.

'Pearl.' He spoke inwardly as the tattoo on his hand started shining lightly.

{Yes, my Lord?}

'Warn the Hero Association, and do not hide your intentions. You can simply tell them not to "anger" me or force me to do anything for their benefit.'

'Make it very extreme, even if you have to blow up the entire building.'

{I will obey your instructions. But, my Lord, why do you keep going to the academy? We can give more and much better resources.}

'About that... let's just say, I have some unfinished business, but I'll probably end up leaving it at the beginning of the 2nd year.'

'Also, I'll leave a mark from where the attack should start. Just follow my blood.'

{Mhm, okay. I'll prepare the attack now.}

Glow....

As the glow from his tattoo faded, Matthew drew his sword and nicked his hand, allowing droplets of blood to fall to the ground.

'...If I didn't need to be close to Stacy to try and absorb bits of her luck, I wouldn't fucking be here.'

'Hopefully, they stay away from me because of this warning.' Matthew grinned inwardly.

'After all, I still have another goal besides Stacy; I just need a bit of help from her so-called Male Leads.'

Leaving the arena, Matthew made his way towards the entrance of the building, where his classroom was waiting for him.

One of the things that Stella had told him was that after the 'punishment' was done, he'd need to go to the entrance of the building.

Because the real "purpose" of this trip to the hero association was to experience being in a real dungeon.

And the training from the past few days was to prepare for it.

"Matthew, you've finally arrived." Lilian spoke as her eyes narrowed, smiling faintly.

"Um."

He passed before her and made his way towards Kennard, who had a quite strange yet confident aura surrounding him.

"What are you so happy about?" He tapped Kennard's shoulder.

"Ah... Matthew?" Kennard turned his head, and instead of being fierce about Matthew touching his shoulder, Kennard simply smiled and replied.

"My class just evolved to its second phase!" He said proudly.

Hearing this and seeing his actions made Matthew confused, which he did not show.

'The fuck? And here I was thinking that I was progressing fast and there's this motherfucker who already evolved his Class?' 

'However, what changed the most was his character. I thought he was going to get a bit fierce from me touching his shoulder so casually.'

"Really? Since you're a knight, what's your strength status?" Matthew threw a question randomly.

"Oh! Strength is really my strongest status; it's at C-rank!" Kennard smiled.

"But it should be nothing compared to you, right? Maybe your strength has already reached the B-rank, or perhaps even higher!"

"I really want to fight you again!" He spoke with a deep flame in his eyes. One could easily see the burning spirit in them.

'Agh...!' Matthew felt an arrow pierce through his heart.

He had combined the three basic attributes of strength, dexterity, and stamina into one, and he was still behind Kennard.

[Physique—E+ Rank]

'Besides... who the fuck is this guy? He changed completely! It's like he's a completely different person!' Matthew exclaimed inwardly.

'Also, aren't you overstimating me a little too much? Wait... if Kennard evolved this much, won't Stacy simply...'

"But now I wonder... Who's stronger between you and Stacy?" Kennard suddenly spoke with a thoughtful expression.

"After Stacy awakened her class, her growth speed increased by a lot! And she even told me her Holy Power just reached B- rank the other day. She also manifested her 4th circle!"

"Ahh... she's still getting more beautiful as the days pass... sigh...!" Kennard blurted out as his eyes fell on Stacy's figure.

Meanwhile, Matthew just got his chest pierced multiple times by his words.

'Don't tell me she really surpassed me in just a few days!? Well, with the help of the Light Church, it really wouldn't be a problem...' Matthew scratched his head in annoyance.

'For me, all I have to do is wait for the requested materials. They were probably already sent to my room by Pearl.'

'But really... B- rank while my magic is at the D-rank? She's worthy of being the protagonist.'

'Also, thinking about it... we should probably be in the 50s chapters of the novel, right? From what the reviews told me, the novel was 50% plotline and 50% romance. So, there's a pretty high chance.'

"Well, it is nice to see that you still have some of your former self." Matthew patted Kennard's shoulder.

His infatuation with Stacy remained the same.

"Attention students!" Lilian clapped, gathering the attention of everyone.

"This is going to be your first dungeon experience, I presume, so I'll explain things briefly. This dungeon is declared at C-Rank, which shouldn't be a problem for your class since all of you have evolved quite a lot! Especially you, Stacy; you rose from the bottom of the class, and now you should be one of the strongest students!" Lilian smiled faintly, feeling happy that her students were evolving at such a rapid pace.

"Going on, this dungeon is called [Sea of Demons], where water-demon monsters will be appearing. There are two floors; the first one, where you'll obviously start, is full of ground monsters, like Drudes and Lycanthropes. The most dangerous part of this first floor is the boss, which is none other than a Succubus."

"The second floor is full of sea-kin monsters, like Sea Serpents and Blood Squids, however, the big problem is the boss of this last floor."

"It's a very rare species, and I've contacted the Hero Association myself just to get his dungeon because it could be a great opportunity. The boss is none other than a Water Fairy Spirit, a high-grade species."

Upon hearing Lilian's words, the students started whispering to themselves, and they instantly knew why this could be considered a great opportunity.

Because when it comes to contracting a spirit, the spirit will choose its own master, however, if there aren't any people worthy of it, she'll simply kill them.

"Alright, with everything explained, feel free to access the portal." Lilian declared.

And immediately, a group of students entered the portal. The students were quick-witted and formed groups for themselves.

So, as always, Stacy was shining with her group, which had the entirety of the high-ranking students on it, while Matthew was alone.

She resembled a light that concealed a shadow in between.