Chương 242: Lie Detection

"First I want to assure you, none of you are disqualified," Headmaster Sorin said as he and Professor Moretti strolled into Damion's campsite late in the evening. They had waited until the evening so that Thomas' group could return as well as Inara from her solo hunting.

"Since you aren't here to disqualify us, are you here to let us leave early?" Geoffrey asked.

"Just one of you," Headmaster Sorin said looking at Damion.

"Just me, or Phil as well?"

"The Snow Hawk as well. The two of you have demonstrated that this course is too easy for you. And since you will no doubt take first prize, I would like to offer you an alternative."

"And that would be?" Damion asked suspiciously.

"The chance to enter the Holy Forest dungeon in Argentum. You will have one week to clear it or to survive inside. Once either of those conditions are met, I will considered you to have passed the Wilderness Survival class." Damion eyed Headmaster Sorin closely. The chance to enter the Holy Forest dungeon was exactly what he had been wanting to do for the last few weeks. The B Rank dungeon was one of the chief sources of Light and Holy affinity materials.

However, there were a few hurdles to him being able to enter it. For one, it was a B Rank dungeon, and he was only C Rank. Another issue was that dungeon runs were scheduled months in advance for this dungeon and from what he had learned about it, people were typically limited to a four-hour time slot. If you did not clear the dungeon in that window, the Adventurer Association sent in a Peak B Rank knight that knew exactly where the guardian was and how to kill it.

That knight would destroy the core and clear the dungeon, kicking everyone out. On top of not clearing the dungeon, teams that had to rely on the Association for the clear also lost the right to any of their spoils. For Damion to be given the run of a B Rank dungeon for a week was insane. There was no way the Adventurer Association did not ask for something in return from Headmaster Sorin.

"And what will this weeklong excursion cost me?" Damion asked cautiously.

"As I said, this will be your exam. The rules of the exam apply to you in the dungeon the same as they did here in the exam area. And you will be able to keep all your spoils or trade them for points." The Headmaster's offer was getting more and more tempting to Damion. If he could keep all his spoils then there was a good chance that he would be able to acquire the materials he needed to complete his artifact.

The problem was, he still did not believe Headmaster Sorin was doing this out of the kindness of his heart. The man was up to something, he just did not know what.

"If I'm already taking an alternate first prize, why would I want to turn valuable Demonic Beast materials in for a few school points?"

"It is entirely up to you what you do with your spoils. Turn them in for points, keep them, sell them, doesn't matter."

"Well, I can't really pass up the opportunity to explore a B Rank dungeon," Damion told the Headmaster.

"Excellent. First, we need to take a moment and divide up the items you have been carrying for the others. Since this will directly relate to their points, if you would please bring them all out. Professor Moretti will calculate them, and award points should they want to turn them in." Damion moved away from their tents and began pulling out all the carcasses he had stored over the last few days and what the group had killed in the Breach.

When the C Rank carcass of the Rhampholeon was dropped on the shore of the pond with the D Rank remains of the Emperor Chalco Beetle, Professor Moretti and Headmaster Sorin were both quite shocked. Neither Demonic Beast was easy to kill, even if their group had a C Rank mage and the help of a C Rank Ferocious Beast, it should have been quite difficult. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Professor Moretti, why don't you calculate the split, and remember the agreement the young mages made. I will take a moment to interview them on the events inside the Breach." Headmaster Sorin began interviews with each student in turn, starting with a terrified Ronald and ending with Thomas, before Damion was called over.

"Please run through the events from the time you entered the Unstable Breach to when you exited," Headmaster Sorin told Damion. Damion broadly narrated the events of the Breach and Headmaster Sorin never asked for more information or for him to clarify anything. This made Damion think the Headmaster was not interested in what they did in the dungeon so much as who they met at the end. The B Rank Iblis.

When Damion reached that portion of the tale, he mentioned only that the creature spoke a language that Thomas seemed to speak as well and then they departed, with Damion exiting last, to make sure the creature did not attack anyone at the last moment.

"And you have no idea what the creature wanted?" Headmaster Sorin asked pointedly. Unknown to Damion, the Headmaster had brought an artifact to detect lies with him. Or at least the Headmaster thought the young Ice mage was unaware. With True Sight at B Rank, Damion could see the Rank and affinity of people, but for artifacts, he could see the Rank and effect of artifacts. The passive spell did not give him detailed information on how an artifact worked.

But when he saw the message above the Headmaster's ring that said, A Rank – detects falsehoods, Damion made sure to be very cautious in his answers.

"It spoke to Thomas, I'm sure he told you what it said."

"Do you know what a true mage is?" Headmaster Sorin asked.

"I don't think that term has been used in any of our classes," Damion answered honestly.

"Is it a mage that has reached a certain Rank?"

"Something like that," Headmaster Sorin answered. When the Headmaster answered the question, Damion noticed a small pulse of mana from the Headmaster's lie detection ring. The pulse was almost imperceivable, but Damion had the sudden realization that the mana pulse was a signal to the wearer that the person speaking had lied. If he had not been focused on the ring, he was sure he would have missed the small pulse.

In fact, without True Sight, which enhanced his vision as well as let him identify things, he was sure he would have missed it.

"The creature that confronted your group at the Breach opening. Did you understand what it said?" Headmaster Sorin asked.

"It spoke several languages. You could tell because they sounded quite different. Thomas apparently spoke the third language as he and the creature had an exchange."

"When you came out of the Breach, the recon drones showed that you were not as interested in learning what Thomas said as the others. Why is that?"

"I would be interested in understanding what the two of them were talking about. Since we were able to leave without being attacked or robbed, it did not appear that the creature meant us any harm, so I was not too concerned about it. It was a B Rank after all. It could have killed us in an instant if it wanted."

"Quite right. In any case, the creature was simply warning you all to stay out of Breaches that are beyond your level."

"Not to get off topic, Headmaster, but I was wondering if you had any success in finding out who was behind trying to kill me?"

"The Justiciar's put their investigation to bed with the Fontane Brothers. They were the ones who paid everyone else," Headmaster Sorin said. Damion detected no pulse of mana from the lie detector artifact, but he already knew it was possible to skirt the truth by not directly answering the question.

"So, you didn't find that anyone else put them up to it or encouraged them to do it?"

"No," the Headmaster answered, but this time, Damion saw the slight pulse of mana. Headmaster Sorin did know more. Unfortunately, there was not enough time for Damion to wring any answers out of him.

"Excuse me, Headmaster, Mage Wells," Professor Moretti interrupted them.

"The calculations are done. Would you like to turn any of your spoils in for school points?" Damion considered it for a moment. He could shove everything back into the Magic System Inventory easily enough, but he was faced with the problem of, none of these creatures that he had killed were useful to him. All he really wanted from them were their cores. Once the Magic System reached level 3 he could trade those cores for store credits.

Just turning them in for points was a complete waste, but it was also suspicious for him to keep carrying literal tons of dead Demonic Beasts around.

"Would it be possible to keep their cores if I turn them in for points?"

"You just want the Demonic Beast Cores?" Professor Moretti questioned.

"Yes, but I don't have the time to extract all the cores at the moment. If I can't turn them in and keep the cores, then I'll just sell them to a store in town after my dungeon run. I'm sure there are plenty of shops that will extract the cores for me." The proposal meant a profit for the school. They could extract the cores and sell or use the rest of the materials, all for just awarding Damion a few points that he would not be able to use once he graduated.

"I think that can be arranged," Headmaster Sorin said.

"But understand, you won't get as many points as you would if you turned in the entire Demonic Beast corpse."

"I understand," Damion answered. He did not care about the points. There was no way he was going to get enough school points to be able to access the tier 4 Repository and there were very few things of real value in the commissary. But the magic cores, with those he could get closer to that 100, 000, 000 credit Anti-Regression potion.