Chapter 527: This Is What Happens When I Become Serious

There was one day left before the Assessment Test ended, and everyone was scrambling for points. Aside from the Class Rankings, there were also the individual rankings.

Anyone who stood at the top of the rankings would also gain several benefits and even have a chance to get a medal from the Emperor of the Kraetor Empire.

This was something that every student strived for. As long as they were able to get the Emperor’s recognition, it was not impossible to acquire a good position in the Empire after they graduated from the Silverwind Academy.

“Prince Jason, I’m sure that you will once again snatch the top spot for the Fifth Years,” a brown-haired young man said in a flattering voice.

“That is only natural,” another young man commented. “Afterall, Prince Jason is one of the Top Three Prodigies of our Empire. He already got this in the bag.”

Prince Jason and his party was currently at the 26th Floor of the Mirage Caverns. Among the students of the academy, they were one of the few that had made it this far in a short period of time.

It took them five days to reach their current floor.

However, before they challenged the Dungeon, Prince Jason first took the written exams for the different subjects of the academy. This took a day of his time, so he didn’t know that William had gone to the Dungeon ahead of him.

Prince Jason was quite satisfied with his progress, because he believed that no one could explore the dungeon as fast as his team. He had personally handpicked his members and only took the best students in his class based on their individual specialties.

300,558 Merit Points

That was the amount of accumulated Merit Points that Prince Jason had collected over the past few days. The record of the academy for the individual rankings was over Five Hundred Thousand Points.

This was the record that the First Prince of the Kraetor Empire had set when he was still studying in Silverwind Academy. Since then, no one had been able to beat his record.

Prince Jason wanted to make a name for himself in history, so he was doing his best to collect as many points as he could before the time limit.

“If we continue this pace, we will be able to clear the 30th floor by tomorrow,” Prince Jason said. “After fighting the boss monster, all of us will return to the academy and submit our bracelets.”

“Your Highness, should we also have a victory celebration when we return? It will take the academy two days to process the merit points of the entire academy.”

“That sounds like a good idea! Your Highness, I think it is fine if we celebrate, right?”

Prince Jason nodded his head. “Very well. Let’s head to the tavern tomorrow and have fun. This is my reward for all of your hard work.”

The Prince’s party members cheered as they did their best to flatter Prince Jason. Forming a connection with him was a very rare opportunity, so they were doing their best to leave a good impression.

Prince Jason carried himself with grace, while thinking of the Half-Elf who was nowhere to be seen. He still couldn’t accept that the Half-Elf had managed to make Princess Sidonie his fiance, by using the slave collar that he always carried around.

If not for the fact that he couldn’t forcefully take it off his cousin’s neck, the Prince would have already done so back in the Southern Continent.

‘Just you wait, I’ll show you what I can do when I’m serious,’ Prince Jason thought as he set his sights on the entrance of the 27th Floor.

——

‘Hahaha! This is what happens when I become serious!’ William laughed internally as he looked at the bracelet on his wrist.

The bracelet showed that his merit points had exceeded Four Million Points

They had arrived at the 49th Floor some time ago and were merely taking a short rest before going to the 50th floor to challenge the Final Boss of the Dungeon.

Chiffon looked at William’s bracelet with a dumbfounded expression. She couldn’t believe that William had accumulated so many points in a short period of time. Every time they reached a different floor, William would take them to the Safe Zone before leaving for a few hours.

At first, Chiffon didn’t mind because they were making good progress. However, whenever they began to move to head to the entrance that led to the next floor, the passages would be free from monsters.

Once was luck, the second was coincidence, and the third time was a pattern.

Yes, it was a pattern.

They would go to the next floor then they would immediately head to the Safe Zone, while killing the monsters along their way. Chiffon had somehow fallen into this pattern, and thought that it was a normal thing when conquering dungeons.

However, when he saw the merit points on William’s bracelet, that was when she started to get suspicious.

“Did you tinker with the bracelet?” Chiffon asked. “Big Brother, this is not good. If the Academy finds out that you are cheating, you will be severely punished!”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head over this,” William patted Chiffon’s head. “I’m not breaking any rules. This bracelet is working fine.”

“B-But, how?” Chiffon inquired. “How have you done it?”

“Chiffon, remember this,” William replied with a serious expression. “Your Big Brother is an awesome individual. As long as you stick to me, all you need to do is smile and wave.”

“S-Smile and wave?”

“Yes. Smile and wave. Um, I forgot that your smile is horrendous. Okay, forget the smiling part. Just wave.”

Chiffon pouted and turned her head to ignore WIlliam. She had tried her best to practice how to smile, while resting in the safezone, and William saw it by accident. The Half-Elf chuckled at the little girl’s attempt, which earned him a nagging from Ian.

William had already told Ian that Chiffon couldn’t smile. At first, Ian was skeptical because how could someone not know how to smile. However, the more she interacted with Chiffon, the more she realized that William was telling the truth.

This was why she took it upon herself to teach Chiffon how to smile whenever William left them to hunt the monsters on the floor they were on.

“Will, stop teasing her.” Ian glared at her lover, while patting Chiffon’s head.

William raised both of his hands in surrender as he checked the time on his status page. There was still a day left, but William wanted to beat the dungeon as soon as possible.

“Let’s go,” William said. “It’s time to clear the last floor and meet the boss of this dungeon.”

Although he still couldn’t add the Mirage Cavern into the list of his conquered dungeons, he could leave a waypoint on the Dungeon Core Room.

This waypoint would allow William to instantly travel to the Dungeon Core without challenging the floors of the dungeon a second time. To be perfectly honest, William didn’t plan to take the Mirage Cavern as one of his new dungeons.

He was in a relationship with Princess Sidonie, so he didn’t want to create any disagreements with his future in-laws. However, that didn’t mean that William wouldn’t create a backup plan, just in case the other party suddenly turned hostile.

In short, William was planning to take the dungeon cores located in important Dungeon Cities as hostages. This would give him ample bargaining chips to use to force the Kraetor Royal Family to compromise with him.

This was the advice that James had given him before he left for the Central Continent. William understood what his grandfather was trying to tell him.

His father, Maxwell, had saved the Elves from the Demonic Invasion. But, instead of repaying this kindness, the Elves decided to launch an invasion on the Southern Continent.

William realized that the only way he could protect the peace in his life was to ensure that he had the power to threaten the peace of others.

This was quite similar to owning a Nuclear Weapon. If the enemy knew that their opponent had the power to erase them from the face of the Earth, they would think thrice before provoking them.

‘I’m sure that Sidonie would approve of this method,’ William thought as the image of the beautiful Princess appeared in his mind. ‘I hope that the treasure chest in the Boss Room is good. If it is, I will give it as a gift to Sidonie and Morgana on their birthday.’

William chuckled internally because Morgana had taken the liberty to remind him that they were expecting a gift from him. The Naughty Girl also added that if William wanted to make her happy, he would allow her to tie him to the bed.

Honestly, William was also helping Princess Sidonie control the Power of Lust that was slowly awakening in her body. The two would often spend some time together inside William’s Thousand Beast Domain in order to curb her cravings.

That was the only way to keep the power of Lust at bay. He was afraid that if he allowed its power to grow unimpeded, a disaster would befall upon the land due to the beautiful princess’ craving for his Love.