Chapter 51

The examiner had fled.

Having no choice, we decided to return to the original examination venue on foot.

On foot.

We, the ones without skills, had no other means of transportation.

"But we were forcibly moved to the dungeon by a skill, so we have no idea which route to take or how far we need to walk. What should we do...?"

"Leave it to us, Hya-ha!"

Mohican-senpai!

Reliable as always!

"We said we have exploration experience in that dungeon, right? We have the surrounding geographical information firmly memorized!"

"The original venue, the Colosseum, is well within walking distance! We'll lead the way, so you guys follow us!"

"Let's walk in two columns so we don't cause any trouble for the locals! Watch out for carts and children running around!"

Thanks to the excellent leadership of Mohican-senpai and the others, we were able to return to the arena without any minor traffic issues.

Upon arrival, the brawl that had been visible through the Abinion had completely subsided, and the crowd had thinned out.

The crowd that had numbered in the hundreds before we were sent away was now less than twenty.

"Oh, you guys?"

The examiner who noticed us entering was the leader-type examiner.

He was a current A-rank adventurer named Soaides, if I remember correctly.

"You guys are the ones without skills who were sent to the Sentence, right? What are you back for?"

"To continue the exam..."

"Returning means you've given up and failed, right? You could have disbanded on the spot, but you came back, how diligent of you."

He didn't even listen to our explanation.

"We just finished the first round of the exam and sent the dropouts home."

"So that's why there are fewer people...?"

"This year's candidates are all disappointing. To have only this many left after the first round... The only saving grace is that there's at least one person who seems sure to pass."

He directed his gaze towards Noem.

She had also passed the first round. I confirmed it on the video feed.

"Well, that's none of your concern, you who failed. Now, you should leave without lingering. You incompetent ones need to hustle to earn your daily bread, or you'll run out of savings tomorrow. Enjoy your meaningless daily lives, as befitting your incompetence."

"We passed."

"Huh?"

"We passed the preliminary exam. That's why we came back. Let us take the main exam."

Soaides sneered in response.

"Stop making jokes. ...Really, what is the Sentence doing, making me deal with such incompetents?"

"That skinny examiner fled early."

"Fled early...?"

"The dungeon collapsed during the exam, and he didn't want to take responsibility, so he ran away. He told the chief examiner, 'You take all the responsibility.'"

"What...!?"

Soaides' face changed.

He let out a dry laugh...

"No way... No way! A dungeon can't collapse... It must be a mistake, a misunderstanding, or a misjudgment?"

"No, it definitely collapsed."

"Don't be ridiculous! Incompetents like you can't do such a thing! Don't make up stories to cover your incompetence!"

It's fine if he doesn't believe me.

"...No, whether it's possible or not doesn't matter anymore. If you say you did it, you'll receive the punishment. Someone! Restrain this person!"

"Are you going to restrain me for something I didn't do?"

That doesn't make sense, does it?

"Shut up! This dungeon was owned by the Kingdom of Rubrum! Don't you understand what that means!? By the goodwill of this country, we are allowed to use the national dungeon. If a dungeon collapses under our management, all the responsibility falls on us!"

He grabbed my collar.

"The Adventurer's Guild will have to pay a huge compensation to the Kingdom of Rubrum! Other countries will be afraid of their national dungeons being destroyed and will stop lending us venues. The A-rank promotion exam will no longer be held!"

"You created the situation."

"Shut up! In this case, it's best to make you take all the blame and punish you! The life of one incompetent without skills will resolve the matter! Be grateful for the chance to serve a purpose and die!"

His attitude was making me angry.

Actually, I didn't take the destruction of the dungeon that seriously.

That's because just before we executed the plan, Abinion told me:

"Actually, the dungeon core is created by us, the Demon Spirits."

Demon Spirits, a type of Transcendent Being, can easily create dungeons with their supreme power.

When we first met Abinion, the castle he inhabited was a dungeon in a broad sense.

"If you wish, I can create a new dungeon core. After all, I will do anything to fulfill your wishes."

I took advantage of Abinion's words and destroyed the dungeon core, thinking that a new one could be brought in to restore the original state.

However, seeing their attitude, I lost the desire to explain and reassure them.

"First of all, didn't the problem start with you setting an impossible exam task?"

Before I knew it, I was arguing back.

"You never intended to pass us, the ones without skills, from the beginning. So you tried to fail us with an unreasonable exam. It's only natural to respond to unreasonable trouble with unreasonable measures."

As a result, why should we care if you end up in a difficult situation? We were the ones who were put in a difficult situation from the start.

"It's your problem, and you should solve it. You're a current A-rank adventurer, right? Use your excellent skills to solve the trouble gracefully. Show the overwhelming difference from the incompetent."

"You...!"

The enraged examiner was restrained by a large man.

"Soaides, leave this to me."

"Grind?"

One of the four examiners who stood on the platform at the beginning.

The most muscular of the group.

"The point is to push all the responsibility onto this guy and crush him, right? There's no need to trouble the leader with such a simple task. This A-rank adventurer, Grind, will take care of the garbage disposal!"

By the way, scattered around were weapons and armor from the adventurers who had been dispersed during the first round brawl.

All made of metal.

They began to move on their own and gather at a single point.

That point was the large man.

"This is my A-rank skill, <Steel Exoskeleton>! I gather metal and wear it as armor! But it's not just any armor! The metal is broken down and reformed into fibers, becoming as strong as muscles! I am a man literally clad in steel muscles!"

If his explanation is true, his defense and attack power would increase in proportion to the amount of metal he gathered.

"Be proud to die from the punch of an A-rank adventurer! Taste my ultimate Iron Knuckle!"

A fist as large as a boulder charged at me and hit.

Both of us felt the impact.

"Ugh? Ughhhhh!?"

The one who groaned first was the other side.

"Ughhhhh!? Why!? Why is my steel-covered fist the one that shatters!?"

"If you use a skill to gather metal and form a steel-hard fist, the only way to counter it is..."

For my bare flesh to be harder than steel.

This time, I punched him with my ordinary, unarmored fist.

It was just a fist that had been trained to be harder than steel.

The moment it hit, he scattered the steel muscles covering his body and flew through the air.

"Ughhhhhh!?"

"Grind!? No way!?"

The leader-type examiner looked at his flying comrade with an incomprehensible expression.

"Didn't the first round involve directly facing off against the examiners? If you show a certain level of skill, you pass, right?"

If that's the case, I should be considered to have passed the first round by knocking out one of the examiners.

"And if I knock out the strongest of the examiners, I should be officially qualified as an A-rank adventurer, right?"