The only reason Misa approached Ray was because she felt guilty about spying on him. When she saw him training that day, she thought that the best way to relieve her guilt will be to help him train, since she knew from her reports that Ray's fighting skills weren't good. It also helped that the second stage of Brahma Sword Art was controlling the mana in the environment, something she was quite good at with her skill 'Voice of the World'.

After the day that Ray Ranked up, she helped him to train for a week. He was a fast learner, so it was a mystery how he was still at C+ Rank, which was the rank for the average third year student at the Academy.

She had read reports that Ray was researching something before he came to the Academy, but the research failed and never saw the light of day.

‘Just imagine if he trained in that time. He could have surpassed his brother by now.’

But soon their daily training had to stop. It had been four months since the semester had started in February and it was now time for the midterm exams. Ray was busy with setting the paper for the first years and Misa was busy with her classes. She had to guide her students through several artificial Dungeons that the Academy had created. As it was for training, the monsters inside were robots and were much weaker than their real-life counterparts.

One evening, she found Ray roughly searching through something on his laptop. She sneaked up behind him, to see what it was, and found him, trying to apply for Capital City ID cards.

“Hmm. What are you searching for here?” She spoke up.

Ray flinched, looking back at her in horror. “Misa, you almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Well, then you just need to work on your Perception.” She replied, giving him a coy smile. “By the way, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, this?” He hesitantly started. “Well, you remember the trip I took a few weeks back? Well on the Island I had gone to, I found this boy who had just newly Awakened. I promised that I would bring him and his guardian to the Human Continent, but getting them new IDs is proving quite difficult.”

“IDs?” She gave it thought. She knew people at the Hero League who made identity cards for the new Awakened. “Well, I can call in a favour for you at the League. When you decide to bring them here, tell me. I will take you to the Hero League HQ for registration.”

“Thank you very much for your help.” A big smile of relief appeared across his face.

“I am just helping you in registering them. You will have to take care of them, while they live in the Capital City, you know.”

“I have already readied their accommodations. The registration was the last problem.”

“I doubt it is. How old is the boy you are bringing here?”

“I think he’s about sixteen years old.”

“Sixteen? Then wouldn’t he need to attend high school here? Have you picked one for him?”

“High school?” Shock flashed through his blue eyes. Looks like he hadn’t given any thought to that.

“Ray, you live on Cobalt Road, right? I know a few good training schools in that neighbourhood.” Thus, a promise was made, that after the midterms they would go school-hunting.

“Thanks for helping to unburden one problem from my shoulders.” Ray kept thanking her as they went back to the teacher dorms. As Ray was getting off the elevator on the 4th floor, he turned around and asked.

“Misa, how did you know that I lived on Cobalt Road?”

Misa was instantly flustered. She completely forgot that the only reason she knew this information was that she was investigating Ray.

The documents of the staff are kept under strict security since most of them are quite famous high-ranked Heroes and their private residence is an important secret, to avoid attacks from the Chaos Alliance. Even fellow staff members aren’t privy to that kind of information.

“Oh, well, I was looking for a house to buy in that area, and I incidentally found out that you lived there.”

She quickly made up an excuse on the spot. Thankfully, Ray seemed to buy it.

Leaving Ray, Misa went up to her apartment on the 45th floor. Every apartment in the Teacher’s dorm had the same layout. Though most teachers decorated their apartments fancily, Misa liked to keep hers as simple as possible, since this place was more work-oriented.

But even this house had her guilty pleasure. After taking a shower, she went to the bookshelf in her office and pulled out a seemingly ordinary textbook. But the cover was only a diversion. Hidden in it was the romance novel she had recently reached the climax of, “The Untamed Wolf Visits Her At Night.”

She took the book and jumped into her bed. Sipping wine in her pink bathrobe, she turned the page, ready to sink into her relaxation phase. The past few days had been quite hectic because of all the preparations she had to do for the midterms. She envied those who only had to set exam papers for the exam.

Since the physical part of the test consisted of going through a Dungeon, Misa had to scout it dozens of times to make sure it was completely safe for the students. She was mentally drained and quickly lulled into sleep, her book slipping out of her hands onto the floor.

Two days later, Misa found herself in front of the Portal Station, waiting for Ray to bring his guests. The glass doors slid open, and Ray walked out with two people behind him. One was an old man, who looked like he belonged to the cloth. The other was a tall copper-skin teenager with dark features.

But something seemed off from Ray. Her Perception was 15.3 but even then the change she felt was so subtle that if she hadn’t been hanging out with him for the past few weeks, she wouldn’t have noticed anything. She secretly checked him out and she saw some movement on his right arm. She was about to see what it was, but before she could do so, Ray greeted her.

“Misa, sorry for the trouble. This boy here is Mikael Harpoon and this man here is Father Jacob.” Ray introduced them.

“Hoho. I am no longer a man of the cloth. Feel free to call me Jacob, Miss Misa. I have heard quite a few things about you on the news.” Jacob lightly shook her hand.

“Wow, is this really the S+ Rank Hero, Misa Amore? I have read so many articles about her.” The boy's eyes sparkled as he shook hands with her, like a fangirl shaking hands with her favourite idol.

“Well, let’s not waste any more time and get you both registered.”

The four of them took Misa's car to the League and Misa lost her opportunity to check what it was on Ray’s arm.

Soon they were inside the Hero League Headquarters. Although it looked grand from the outside, it was much larger on the inside, thanks to magic engineering. The entrance hall was made with fine white marble that glimmered when light struck it.

At the reception desk, a hostess quickly greeted them, when she saw Misa. They took the elevator to the tenth floor where she directed them to the waiting room.

“So, how did you two meet Ray?” Misa asked them as the group waited in the room.

“Oh, um that… is…” Ray hesitated to speak up.

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“Mr. Ray helped us close a Dungeon that almost destroyed our town.” Mikael quickly began to pour out all of Ray’s achievements.

“You are much more heroic than I expected Ray.” Misa gave him a teasing smile.

“Um, well that’s…”

Misa could understand why he was so flustered. When the Hero League was first established they made various rules regarding Dungeons. There were many new Awakened popping up every day, and they all wanted to get their hands on the fantastical items found in Dungeons. Many low Ranked Heroes would enter high Ranked Dungeons and steal the rewards from a tired Hero. Such conflicts led to many casualties among the Awakened.

So the Hero League established some rules such as the only Dungeons Heroes can enter are the ones that are of their Rank or below. Though a party can enter a High Ranked Dungeon if they are accompanied by a Hero of a similar Rank. Also, if a new Dungeon is discovered, a Hero has to report their findings, such as the monsters found and the possible rewards, so that other Heroes that enter the Dungeon are aware of what they will be facing.

But although such laws have been placed, not everyone follows them. For Guilds, information about a Dungeon and its inhabitant monsters is far more important than anything else.

Ray glanced nervously at Misa. Mikael, who innocently revealed that Ray was a potential criminal, looked at them in confusion.

“Don’t worry, Ray. The Hero League doesn’t care about some random Dungeon that opened up in Sanskriti Archipelago. Heroes are allowed to enter them without having to inform the League since they have more or less abandoned the Dungeons at the Archipelago.”

“I would still like it to be kept quiet about.”

Misa nodded at him, promising to keep his secret.

The hostess who had brought them to the room entered once again.

“Mikael Harpoon and Jacob, please follow me. Your identity cards will be prepared now.”

The two of them got up to follow her, leaving Misa and Ray all alone. Misa stood up as well. Since her work here was done, she was ready to leave.

“So, what are your plans for now?” She asked Ray

“Well, I will take them to my house after this. The midterm papers have already been submitted, so I have some free time now. I can help Mike and Jacob settle down.”

“The Dungeon test is in three days. Since you are a supervisor, remember to come back.”

“Don’t worry.”

The two of them bid their farewells.

The next day, the midterms began. The first half consisted of theory exams while the second half consisted of a Dungeon raid, where a point was given for each monster killed. Killing the boss monster rewarded the student an extra ten points. The written exam consisted of 40% of the final score while the remaining 60% depended on how well you did in the Dungeon.

The first two days, students were escorted to their assigned rooms where they gave a pen and paper test.

For the third and final day, the training ground was completely emptied for the Dungeon raid. At 8 AM, all 1500 students assembled for their exam. Each one of them was armed with dummy weapons provided by the Academy.

The artificial Dungeon that had been provided by the Academy for the exam, was a maze-type Dungeon, with monsters roaming its corridors.

Misa, along with the other teachers were also waiting in various sections of the maze, ready to take any injured student back to the infirmary.

“Be careful during the exams.” Ray told her as he went out to supervise.

‘Well, I doubt anything in a first-year exam can pose any danger to me.’

Nonetheless, she did find it cute that he was worried about an S+ Rank, like her.

Misa stopped in her tracks. What was she thinking? Cute?

It’s probably just all the romance novels that she was reading at night, meddling with her thoughts. Anyway, Ray Laxon was the last person she would choose to date. The entire Laxon family was under investigation right now, for secretly colluding with the Fallen. Ray could very well be on his way to being branded as a criminal. Even if he wasn’t part of it, just because Ray was from the Laxon family, the Hero League would probably eliminate the entire family, just to tie up loose ends.

She had gotten close to Ray in the past few weeks and he genuinely seemed like a good person, but she had no voice in the decision that would befall his family.

Misa shook off the stray thoughts from her mind. Right now, her duty was to make sure that the exam proceeded without any problems. She could feel the air inside the Dungeon change, ready to prey on any student that fell victim to its traps.

‘Looks like the first batch of students has already come through the portal.’

She sneaked through the dark corridors near the entrance, scanning the students that had entered. The students entered in groups of hundred, from the last to the first rank, at intervals of two minutes. As the groups entered, the instructors' eyes followed them like a hawk’s.

When the third group entered, she felt Ray’s Aura disappear from the entrance. Before the group disappeared, she noticed a boy hanging out at the very end, clutching at his staff in fear. He was the same boy that got beat up during her class. Rohan Claeg, if she remembered correctly. But he quickly disappeared from her sight and Misa turned her attention back to the entrance.

The number of students inside the Dungeon was slowly increasing. After half an hour the last group entered. It consisted of the strongest first-years, including Rhian, Luke, and Rachel. Many of the students were still near the entrance since they weren’t able to get past the initial monsters.

The three of them quickly overtook the battling students, slicing down the E-Rank Spyder monsters in their way. Once the path was clear, the three glanced at each other and then took separate paths to make sure that the others were not in their way.

Misa came out of her hiding spot and went down the corridor Rhian had chosen. Black spiders, as big as cars, were crawling on the walls, but Rhian slashed them all down. Since the monsters were all training dummies, they disappeared into pixels the moment the sword killed them, leaving no bodies to be cleared up later on.

“Whoosh”

Misa sensed two other students sneaking behind Rhian. Looks like they were planning on piggybacking Rhian to the end of the Dungeon. Too bad for them that this test would be evaluated based on how many monsters they killed and not on reaching the end of the Dungeon.

As opposed to his stalkers, Rhian passed through corridors with a laid-back attitude, as if he was strolling in a park, cutting down any monster that dared to cross his path. Misa smiled at his arrogance.

Well, he wasn’t the #1 First Year at the Star Academy for nothing. Many Guilds would have already scouted him if not for the fact that they aren’t allowed to scout students unless they were third-years when the internships begin.

“Aaaah. Somebody help us.”

The screams behind her made Misa turn around. The two students that had been trailing Rhian had gotten caught in one of the Spyder’s Web. Their webs were strengthened by mana and renowned to be as tough as steel. It would be quite difficult for those two to get out of it by themselves.

Misa hid nearby, ready to take action if the students ended up in some sort of mortal danger.

Unsurprisingly, their screams ended up attracting all the Spyders in the vicinity. The monsters started crawling towards their newly discovered prey. The two of them swung their swords in an attempt to drive the predators away, but the arachnids stealthily dodged their attacks and shot more webs, pinning their arms down.

The two of them squirmed inside the web, trying to get free but to no avail.

Now that Misa judged the situation to be irreversible, she came out of the shadows.

“Burst!” Her voice, coated with mana, spread through the corridor. The Spyders surrounding the two students burst open as if they were stuffed with explosives.

Her skill, ‘Voice of the World’ , takes control of the target, human or monster, and makes them submissive to her commands. Their bodies would move without them even knowing what had just happened.

Misa was ready to command the web off them, but she noticed something weird. Only half of the monsters that she had just killed were dissolving into pixels.

This wasn’t possible. All of the training dummies were supposed to disappear after being killed. But there were some bodies left, leaking green blood, like normal monsters would.

Noticing something wrong, she quickly opened up her smartwatch and sent an emergency signal to the staff.

“Attention all students. You are requested to find the staff member nearest to you and promptly exit the Dungeon. I repeat…”

“Come off.” Misa quickly commanded the webs to come off. The students quickly stood up. Misa and the two of them quickly began to run. Many Spyders blocked their paths but they were destroyed by just one word from her.

“Hahahaha.”

Female screeches came from behind them. Misa turned around to find ghosts floating behind her.

The ghosts were old hags with transparent, cracked skin and thin, long hair.

Faydes.

They were flesh-eating D-Rank ghouls that could read your worst memories and shapeshift into the thing that their opponents feared the most.

“Don’t look into their eyes. They will read your mind and haunt you with your worst nightmares.” Misa warned her students.

Something was wrong with the Dungeon. The only monsters that should be roaming the labyrinth were Spyders and the boss monster, Arachne, not to mention all of them were just training dummies. But now she was being chased by ghouls and the monsters that she killed were spilling guts instead of data pixels.

“Get lost.” Misa shouted at the ghouls. Since Faydes didn’t have tangible bodies, the only thing she could do was confuse them with her magic.

Misa had the entire Dungeon map memorised, and according to it, there should be an exit nearby. Her plan was to let the students out and then use stronger commands to kill the monsters. She couldn’t use more force right now, since the E-Rank students with her may also get affected by her powers.

“The exit is 50 metres ahead of you.” A hissing voice informed her.

Misa’s head jerked toward the direction where the voice had come from. She couldn’t sense any presence near her.

“Screech!”

The Faydes had started to get back their lost sense of direction and were now starting to approach their group. Misa decided to forget about finding the owner of the voice and moved toward where the voice had instructed.

Sure enough, a door was carved on the wall ahead. She quickly opened it and pushed the students out of the portal.

Now she could use her full powers without any hindrance. She turned around, ready to fight the monsters.