Letting out a deep breath, Carl took in everything in front of him, feeling the fresh air outside the dungeon.
The exit of the dungeon behind him quickly began to fade as soon as he stepped out completely. Yeah — once the final candidate left, the dungeon had no reason to exist anymore.
He glanced back at the fading gate one last time before turning forward, toward the place where many others were gathering, heading to the academy.
"Let's go…"
Carl pulled up his hood, hiding his face before merging into the crowd.
About ten minutes later, he finally reached the academy gate.
But Carl felt uneasy and frowned a few times.
"Damn! Do I have to go through a gate like this again?"
He sighed.
"Hope I don't run into another bastard…"
And just like that, he waited for the gatekeeper to call him.
"Candidates from Dungeon 61, are you guys here?" the gatekeeper asked lazily, scribbling a few lines in his book.
He looked gentle enough — a relaxed, professional guy when he focused on the book — but in truth, he was sneaking glances at some nearby girl and sketching their butts and boobs in his notebook like a pervert.
"I pick you, my girl…" he muttered, flicking his tongue, a bit of drool sliding down his lip as he ogled a commoner girl who had just stepped through the gate.
Because this was just the gate of a low-rank dungeon, he didn't bother doing his job carefully. He just enjoyed the view, let the girls through with a wink and a promise of a "date," while the guys had to cough up ten gold coins to pass.
"Don't blame me! … Just blame yourselves for being reborn as insects."
While he was lost in his perverted thoughts, a cold voice rang out, snapping him back to reality.
"Might you let me in?" Carl asked politely, lowering his head as much as possible, hiding his face.
Carl gritted his teeth.
"Fuck! Why did I have to run into him here? That bastard would never let me through if he knew who I was."
Carl shot a quick, unpleasant glance at the gatekeeper, sizing him up for a moment before recalling the last time he saw him.
"Still the same perverted face…"
The gatekeeper scowled, his mood ruined by some commoner interrupting his little daydream. He spat on the ground, swearing to himself that he wouldn't let this guy through easily.
He breathed hard through his nose and spoke coldly:
"Thirty gold coins. No more, no less. If you're short even one, get out of here."
Carl's face darkened.
"Thirty gold coins? Since when do I need to pay just to get through the gate? I cleared the dungeon!"
The gatekeeper smirked and shrugged.
"You can ask the other candidates. They already paid their little fee to get in."
Carl glanced at the others and saw none of them complaining or arguing — they just accepted it like helpless commoners.
But Carl wasn't about to accept it. He didn't have a single coin on him. A wave of regret hit him for not taking Wilbur's money before burning him to ashes.
"Damn it! I was such an idiot to forget those coins."
"Now then, can you pay or not, commoner?" the gatekeeper asked angrily. He eyed Carl up and down, then added:
"You can trade something instead… I know some commoners grab a few treasures from dungeons before they come here. Asking for a few gold coins might be hard for a poor guy like you. But hey, I'm a generous man."
He crossed his arms, smirking as his eyes locked on Carl's sword.
Carl froze for a moment, then sighed and looked down at the weapon hanging from his belt — his wife's gift.
"Everyone wants you, my wife…"
Carl smirked and drew his sword in one swift motion, fast enough to make the gatekeeper instinctively step back the moment he saw Carl's sudden draw.
"Take it."
The gatekeeper quickly put on a confident front again, but the drops of sweat running down his face were hard to hide.
He was overwhelmed by Carl's sword-drawing technique.
"Hah, some genius exists from the garbage, huh? But I guess you should know your place in the academy… one wrong move could ruin your future growth."
He slowly reached for Carl's sword… but before he could touch it, the black blade simply vanished — as if it had turned invisible — and in the next instant, a thin red line appeared on the gatekeeper's right arm.
Half a second later, crimson blood began to pour from the wound, and to everyone's horror, the arm fell to the ground.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" The scream ripped through the air, deafening and raw.
Carl just chuckled, casually swinging his blade to fling off the filthy blood away, which stuck on the sword's surface after cutting off that violating hand. Then, he slowly looked down at his sword, now completely wrapped in pure darkness mana.
"Whoa… first time using this ability. Must be the resonance between Cobb's mana and my sword."
"It's a unique ability, a gift from a holy creature." Carl clicked his tongue and turned his gaze back toward the source of the scream.
The gatekeeper was clutching his severed arm, sobbing, frantically pouring mana into the wound to heal it — but something was wrong. No matter how much he tried, the blood just kept gushing out…
"D-Damn it! My mana just disappears the moment it touches the wound…! And it hurts like hell!"
He roared in fury.
"What the hell did you do to me, you bastard?!"
Carl grinned and stepped forward, pulling back his hood and revealing his face.
A wave of shocked murmurs rippled through the crowd outside the gate.
"Carl Ryan!"
"It's him… the heir of the Ryan family!"
A guy nearby muttered, "I thought he'd been expelled by his family? Wait… there's something even stranger going on."
"He passed the academy's entrance exam… that means his mana core was restored."
"Awesome! I get to watch a fight between those two! His sister is still at the academy too!" a girl shouted, excited.
"But he's in serious trouble… Cutting off the gatekeeper's arm is a huge crime. It'll be really hard for him to stay in the academy after this."
Several of the candidates seemed to share the same thought.
Carl, however, ignored all the chatter and looked up at the glowing strings of text in front of him.
[Side Quest]:
-Show your power before them.
-Reward: 2000 golden coins
[System Notice]: It's my fault for letting my husband end up so poor.