Fake Professor, Misunderstood As Strong - Chapter 108

Chapter 108: The Artificial dungeon test… Part-1.
University, Basement.

Mark and the other students walked through the corridor, arriving at a massive underground basement.

The entire basement was empty, and only a massive door locked with strong magical barriers was located there.

All the students walked over to the door under the guidance of the assistant professors and started to explain everything to them.

“Everyone! An artificial dungeon is located behind this door; your physical combat test will take place inside this dungeon!”

“We have given a wristwatch to each one of you, and we will track your health and other physical conditions with that wristwatch; don’t worry about it breaking or getting lost…”

“It’s been enhanced with magic; you don’t need to worry about its safety… Instead, it will activate teleportation magic if your health drops below a certain limit…”

Every year, the students have to go through this compulsory test, as this exam gives them actual combat experience by making them fight real monsters.

All the monsters inside this artificial dungeon are either supplied by the army for educational purposes or are donated by summoning magic using mages to gain the university’s favor.

Most of the students that study at this university come from wealthy families, and some of their parents are summoners. They donate magic beasts to the university to get a guaranteed seat for their children there.

Those children don’t even have to give entrance exams; they just get selected on the spot.

Corruption runs rampant in this world; there’s no point in blaming those parents for trying to make better choices for their children.

Most parents do their best to create a brighter future for their children, and they try to give them as many opportunities as possible.

There’s nothing strange about it, and the university has accepted this fact too.

…

The assistant professor opened the magic lock on the dungeon gate, and the gigantic door opened all by itself.

A huge rainforest appeared and became visible from the other side of the door.

Seeing the shocked look on the students faces, the assistant professor smiled and said,

“What you see is the masterpiece created by the greatest illusion mage, Ivan, ‘The King of Illusions’. He was the one who personally created this artificial dungeon and crafted this illusion in the artificial dungeon…”

“The previous principle, Principal Nathan, established the academy in this place, exactly because of this artificial dungeon’s existence here…”

Nathan wanted to study the concept behind this massive illusion-filled dungeon, so he created the university to have a legitimate reason to stay here.

Originally, he used to send the students as death squads in this dungeon, but as it turned out that the dungeon was actually much safer than expected, the dungeon became a tool to test the progress of the students.

The university’s name, ‘Ivan’s Higher Arcane University’ was also created because of this dungeon’s existence.

“The exam pattern will remain the same as the previous years; once you enter this dungeon, you will be teleported to a random location inside it and will get trapped in the illusion..”

“You need to clear out all three floors of this dungeon before the time limit of 5 hours!”

The assistant professor also explained various other things, like the basic geography of the illusion and the three floors.

Every floor have a boss monster sitting in it that you must defeat to go to the next floor.

But that’s not all.

“Out of the twelve professors, three will be working as the boss monsters and will be guarding the stairs to the next floor…. You need to pass their trails to succeed…”

Jareth has been promoted to the role of vice principal, so the number of professors has gone down from thirteen to twelve.

“Even we assistant professors don’t know which of the professors will be in charge of guarding the boss rooms, so you have to prepare according to the situations…”

Hearing the words of the assistant professor, the students felt quite nervous.

The assistant professor smiled at those nervous students and said,

“But that’s not all; aside from those three whom you ‘must’ fight to go to the next floor, the other nine professors will be wandering in the dungeon at random…”

“You can consider them as mini-bosses who you might encounter if you are unlucky enough… So make sure you keep your mana detection up at all times…”

“Three of them will be wandering on each floor at random; if you don’t want to get eliminated early, it’s better to avoid them as much as possible…”

The rules of the test were simple: the longer you survive the test, the more points you will get, and if you somehow passed all three floors and exited the dungeon safely, then you will get full marks in the test.

In the past two decades, there has not been a single student who has passed all three trails and obtained full marks.

The original Jareth barely passed this test in his university days because he had a good brain up his sleeve.

You don’t necessarily have to fight the professors; you just need to pass the trails that they might give you, and Jareth was always good at things that were not related to direct combat.

…

While everyone was super nervous about this test, only a few were still calm and relaxed, like Mark, who had already clenched his magic staff and was ready to enter the dungeon at any time.

‘If Vice-principal Jareth is not taking part in this exam, then I don’t have anything to worry about…’

In Mark’s opinion, everyone else aside from Jareth are just decorations in the name of mages; he will surpass them eventually in a year or two, and only Jareth can be considered to have the power to intimidate him.

Risa glanced at Mark and spoke in an excited tone.

“Let’s make a bet; the one who gets fewer points will massage the shoulders of the other party…”

Mark smirked a bit at her words, and said,

“Hoh, don’t end up crying after I win, then… I will make you massage my shoulders for hours!! Ehehe!”

Risa wasn’t intimidated by his words at all, though; her shadow magic has the advantage when it comes to moving through dangerous terrain.

She can easily bypass all monsters and obstacles; all she needs to be careful of is that the wandering professors don’t discover her.

If she can manage that much, she will have an overwhelming advantage over Mark.

Earth magic is obviously slower and more rigid than her shadow magic, so Mark is at a disadvantage from the start.

Unless, of course, Mark could do something so shocking that everyone couldn’t help but feel shocked.