Class Awakening: Working Hard Can Evolve My Classes

A while later, Psypi, Seralune’s pet cat, led them to a quiet spot. Auburn, red leaves fluttered along the wind, and the shade of the trees was darker than usual, showing a faint red hue.

Zeke looked around the area suspiciously.

Seralune sensed his wariness and couldn’t help but pout.

"What’s with you? I won’t do anything to you, Crimson. Relax, relax!"

Zeke glanced at her and spoke as flatly as possible.

"I don’t believe you."

"Hmm, why are you so distrustful..."

Seralune muttered under her breath, but then shook her head. She crouched down and petted the pink feline, showing a gentle smile.

"Thank you, Psypi. Good work."

"That cat..."

Zeke raised a brow, staring at Psypi. He looked at Seralune for a moment, but was hesitant to ask her about it.

Seralune replied softly.

"Its name is Psypi, one of my tamed beasts."

’Tamed beast? Then, her class should be the Green-quality class, Beast Tamer... or maybe a variant.’

Zeke immediately thought. He was surprised by her ready answer, as if she didn’t mind him knowing her class. Although he had only been here for a couple of weeks, he observed that people in Red Land never revealed their class voluntarily.

There was a shared understanding among everyone here that classes were a Ranker’s core secret, and one should never reveal it outright.

He thought she would at least lie about it, but...

’Then again, maybe she’s not telling the truth.’

Zeke shook his head, glancing between Seralune and Psypi.

"You want to pet Psypi, too?"

Seeing his gaze, Seralune tilted her head and grinned.

"Don’t be shy, Crimson. Psypi doesn’t bite."

Suddenly, Psypi slithered around, circling Zeke as it rubbed its head against his legs. Zeke was startled by its actions.

"Psypi likes you." Seralune widened her gaze, surprised. "That’s pretty rare."

While Seralune seemed happy, Zeke felt extremely uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to push it away. Truthfully, he wasn’t used to animals at all. He looked at Seralune and showed a conflicting expression.

"... Remove the cat from me."

"Huh?"

Seralune was startled. She blinked, observing Zeke’s expression carefully. Then, as if she got it, her lips curled up slightly.

"Crimson, could it be that you’re scared of cats?"

"I’m not."

Zeke immediately answered. But when he saw Seralune’s smirk widen, he knew she didn’t believe him at all.

He sighed inwardly and shook his head.

"... I’m not used to animals."

"I see."

But to his surprise, Seralune accepted that reason easily. She nodded in understanding before calling Psypi to come back. Even after Psypi came back to her, she didn’t push the matter at all, making her impression in Zeke’s mind quietly change.

Seralune looked at him and smiled, and for a moment, Zeke realized that there might be some truth to what people said about Seralune..,

"So, how much treasure value have you gained?"

Seralune suddenly asked, bringing back their previous topic.

"It’s private." Zeke shook his head.

"Come on, you know I can keep a secret." Seralune pouted, then her eyes lit up. "If you tell me, then I’ll share some important information with you~☆."

’Important...?’

Zeke hesitated for a moment, then answered immediately.

"Fine. It’s 1,500 treasure value."

Hearing that, Seralune was startled.

"That high?"

Zeke raised a brow. "... Is it high?"

"Yeah."

Seralune nodded seriously, then replied.

"I only have 6,500 treasure value."

"..."

Zeke fell silent.

’Is this girl bragging? Did she ask that question just to brag? The extent of her childishness... is truly unmatched.’

"Yours is pretty high, good work."

Seralune nodded seriously, as if she was really believing what she was saying.

"Get to the point..."

Zeke cut her off emotionlessly.

"What’s the so-called important information?"

Seralune smiled mysteriously.

"Did you know that there’s a hidden mechanism that no one but me knows yet?"

’Yeah, why did I believe her...’

Zeke stared at her flatly.

"This dungeon is actually shrinking every minute."

Seralune suddenly said, looking up at the sky.

Expecting nonsense, Zeke was startled. His eyes turned solemn.

"Are you serious?"

Seralune looked wronged. "I’m always serious, Crimson."

’That explains why I’ve been seeing more and more students lately...’

Zeke pondered deeply.

This also directly confirmed his initial suspicions of this exam being a modified hide-and-seek.

At first, he believed that this exam wasn’t really about treasure hunting, instead it was about hide and seek. But there were some parts that didn’t make any sense to him. Knowing this hidden mechanism, he could now confidently believe in his own suspicions.

To be exact, Zeke thought it was strange that the academy dropped its students in a forest if they were intending a hide-and-seek approach between the strong students and the weak students. It wasn’t the approach that was the problem, but the location itself.

A dungeon was large, even the smallest one was as large as a village.

But this particular dungeon they were in was a forest, and to say nothing of short to forest terrains, they were massive.

There were only 151 students in the first year. That amount may be a lot, but scattered within an endless forest, it was pitifully small.

If everyone were scattered around randomly, the chances of encountering another student would be absurdly low. If the chances of meeting were truly so low, then a hide-and-seek approach wouldn’t work at all.

Professor Xavier mentioned that this was a "modified dungeon", so he assumed that the modifications would be the answer to his confusion, it was just that he had no way of knowing it.

But he was now certain of it.

"How did you know?" Zeke asked curiously.

Seralune answered calmly. "I sent Pokopi as far as possible, but while he was flying, he suddenly bumped into an invisible barrier. I let him stay for a while, then I realized that the invisible barrier was moving forward every minute, shrinking the dungeon’s available area."

’Pokopi?’

Zeke raised a brow at the weird name, but didn’t ask about it. It was probably another one of her tamed beasts. He wasn’t interested in seeing it at all.

’So every minute, the dungeon’s available area will shrink... then in an hour, what would it look like?’

Right now, they were already encountering other students frequently. It was only going to get more frequent from here on out, until the end of the exam, where there’s only a small circle left.

’... It’s really a one-to-one battle royale design. Who made this exam? Moreover, Professor Xavier didn’t tell this mechanism during his explanation... how devious.’

Zeke thought, shaking his head. It seems like he doesn’t have a choice here. Whether he likes it or not, he would have to fight the other students. It was impossible to keep hiding forever if the available area was shrinking every minute.

While he was deep in thought, Seralune spoke again.

"Oh right, somebody is looking for you. I met with some of my classmates in 1-B and they said a guy named Franz was asking around for your location. They said the guy will give a reward to whoever manages to find you first."