Teacher C came storming in with great fury, while the others looked at Nerio with expressions too complicated to put into words—some even cast mocking, gloating glances toward Lucian.
Lucian’s eye twitched. He glared at Nerio once before smiling at the approaching Teacher C: "Ha ha, let’s hope the punishment won’t be too harsh..."
Before he could even finish, Teacher C yanked him away. With his bulky frame, Teacher C looked like he could swallow Lucian right on the spot.
Nerio quietly wiped away his tears. Once Teacher C left, the cafeteria returned to its usual noisy state, though the restless thoughts within everyone were somewhat suppressed.
At this point, they had managed to gather some information: it was necessary to follow the school rules, and fighting recklessly would only bring the teachers down on them. Moreover, there wasn’t a single reflective object anywhere in the school.
Yes, ever since they arrived, the humans had already noticed something strange—not only in the classrooms but also in the cafeteria, there was nothing capable of reflecting an image.
The bowls, for instance, were made of rough wood.
The floor wasn’t tiled with polished stone but coarse bricks, and even the partitions in the cafeteria weren’t made of metal. This most likely had something to do with crucial information inside the dungeon.
Nerio glanced around the cafeteria, but before he could do anything, a group of adults approached them.
They were all humans who had learned about Nerio’s existence from different sources. Many of them were seeing Nerio for the very first time.
In truth, he looked a little more unusual than ordinary humans—like a stubborn child—not like a god.
Someone couldn’t help but mutter: "I didn’t hear any notification sound when Nerio appeared..."
It wasn’t that they didn’t believe in gods, but the fact that one appeared so early inevitably sparked suspicion.
Moreover, unlike the Prophet, neither Nerio nor Degenerate cared about human lives. As long as the dungeon was cleared, that was enough. So they didn’t expect Nerio to save all of them; just having this dungeon sealed off would already be more than enough.
"Leonard, everyone’s gathering for a meeting. Do you want to come with us?"
Damian came up to Leonard. Though his words were directed at Leonard, his gaze was fixed on Nerio—his intention far too obvious.
Leonard also sneaked a glance at Nerio. People often said Nerio was hard to understand, but Leonard felt he was pretty simple. Just like now, all he had to do was follow the persona Nerio had set up beforehand. Instead of probing him with cautious respect, he stood up and said:
"Let’s join the others to discuss the problems inside the dungeon. This concerns our lives."
With tears still clinging to his eyelashes, Nerio looked at Leonard and obediently nodded.
Damian, standing to the side, was at a loss for words. What a... grotesque sight. Who would’ve thought Leonard could act like that in front of Nerio?
What was even more shocking was that Nerio actually stood up obediently! Seriously now—why was it that when Nerio was teasing others, you never saw him being this obedient?!
Damian nearly wanted to shout out his protest.
By now, the others had gathered in one place.
Out of a total of 21 people, only 17 remained. One had died in the morning, Lucian had been taken away, and two more had been dragged off by Teacher C for a simple reason: they had broken classroom rules by talking during class.
The group on the first floor remained unchanged among the three groups of people that had split across three different floors.
Seven out of their six—no, all of them—wore black agent uniforms underneath their school attire, styled exactly like Liora and Thomas. Without a doubt, they belonged to the same group.
Sure enough, both Thomas and Liora were standing there, with Thomas positioned at the center, surrounded by others—clearly the leader of this group.
As for the rest, their subtle gestures made it easy to see that they had already formed their cliques.
At this moment, when Damian approached, everyone’s gazes unconsciously shifted to the figure behind him. They saw Nerio holding Leonard’s hand, walking forward slowly. His small feet bounced lightly with a playful skip, a smile tugging at his lips—entirely at odds with their anxious expressions.
"Ha ha, so this is supposed to be a god?" someone from Thomas’s group couldn’t help blurting out.
Damian glanced at them but didn’t respond. Instead, his eyes moved to the girl standing in the center.
Her long golden hair was braided to one side, shimmering like Rapunzel’s, and compared to before, it seemed to have grown longer, nearly brushing the floor. Her gentle, beautiful blue eyes looked as though they contained a warm lake within.
She smiled at Damian, then shifted her gaze to Nerio, speaking softly: "It’s an honor to meet you. I am Susan, the High Believer of Archangel Gabriel."
Nerio smiled and nodded: "It’s truly an honor to meet you, sis. You’re so beautiful that for a moment, I thought I was seeing Archangel Gabriel appear before my eyes."
At those words, Susan couldn’t help but widen her eyes slightly, as if startled by Nerio’s response.
Her face quickly flushed red, excitement flickering visibly in her eyes. Her smile trembled so much it looked almost unnatural.
After all the countless compliments she had received in the past, it was as if she had finally heard the one praise she truly longed for—and it left her completely satisfied.
"Ha... ha... You flatter me too much..." she stammered, then, unable to hold back, added: "In your world, you must see angels too, don’t you..."
Leonard furrowed his brow and stepped forward, blocking Susan’s gaze. He said in a low, steady voice, "Nerio is just a transfer student. He doesn’t know anything about this world or that world."
Hearing that, Susan seemed a little disappointed. She looked at Nerio and gently apologized: "Then I truly was being presumptuous. Nerio, I hope I didn’t frighten you."
With her sincere, gentle smile—and that holy, saintly appearance—who could bring themselves to be angry at her?
[Good grief, why is there a Susan now?!]
[Ha ha ha, this dungeon really feels like it’s full of actors, ha ha ha]
[Nerio really hit the perfect spot with that compliment. Did you see? Susan’s hands were trembling when she heard it, ha ha ha]
"Truly, Nerio, so sweet and adorable!"
At that moment, a high-pitched female voice rang out. Bella, staring at Nerio the entire time, suddenly spoke up. Her feet bounced like a rabbit’s, making her princess dress flutter, and a sugary fragrance wafted around her like candy.
Silvanus: "..." Why doesn’t the dungeon directly change their clothes for them? Many wore strange or everyday outfits with a school uniform tossed on top. Wasn’t that a little too much for a school setting?
Standing to the side, Luis couldn’t help adjusting his thick glasses, which shrank his eyes behind them until they looked rather comical. With a serious tone, he said:
"Bella, your behavior is bizarre. People will think you’re hyperactive."
Hearing this, Bella abruptly stopped, frowned, and turned toward Luis:
"I’m certain the captain will deal with you on my behalf once we get out of here, Luis."
Luis said nothing. His expression remained calm, standing so still it was as if he had been nailed into place.
[Bella is so adorable!!!] This update is available on n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
[My wife, I’ve genuinely missed her]
[Luis is just as unlikeable as always]
[I think he’s cute, though!]
[And now Bella joins too—another one who loves acting all cutesy. Seems like my only hope lies with those sudden mysterious people in black]
"Ha ha." A mocking laugh echoed out, drawing everyone’s attention.
Looking back, they saw the people in black had clustered entirely into a group. At the front stood a tall man, sneering down at them with contempt, and the others wore nearly identical expressions.
Bella raised her brows slightly, glancing toward Thomas:
"Pretty unfamiliar faces, and with that attitude... don’t tell me they’re a bunch of newly-born dark espers?"
Last time, their captain had teamed up with Captain Drake to wipe out a nest of dark espers. Many of them—even high-level dark espers—had been captured, so they hadn’t been rampaging as much lately.
What’s more, the aura these people gave off didn’t feel like dark espers at all. But Bella had deliberately asked the question that way.