Just then, Kaelen slowly raised his hand from behind, looking a bit confused.

"Yes, Kaelen?"

"So all those tasks you gave I mean telling them to make funny faces, You did that just to bring their confidence back? You mean there is no actual illusion in this wall at all?"

"Hmm, you are half right," Lucian replied with a faint smile.

"There is illusion magic in this wall, though it only activates the exact moment your confidence breaks — even just a little bit. If you want to shatter that illusion, you simply have to do something that completely diverts your mind. Like making a stupid face. Once your fear is distracted, your natural confidence automatically returns."

Just then, Elira’s face grew a bit smug as Lucian finished explaining,

"Hmph..."

A clear, proud shine was visible on her face, as if she was internally boasting:

Yeah, that is my beloved husband. Look at him, you people from other academies... see how much of a genius he is.

Sera crossed her arms, clearly getting impatient.

"Okay, fine. But why did you let all of them cross before us? We are now falling behind because of that."

Lucian let out a low chuckle. "Well, to answer your question, my girl..."

Sera blushed slightly.

"This is only the first floor. A floor where almost no one realized the real test wasn’t about strength, but pure confidence... Right? And as you already know, on the second floor, we have to take the academy badges from the instructors. That means combat abilities will come into play."

He smirked slightly.

"Right now, every single team that rushed ahead is thinking the exact same thing — that they simply have to beat the instructors to get a badge. Some teams might even be pairing up to try and do exactly that."

"But The funniest part is that our instructors want us to fight them. They are deliberately building pressure so that we focus entirely on using our abilities to beat them, completely forgetting about mere survival."

Hearing this, the tense expressions on everyone’s faces slowly melted away, replaced by looks of dawning realization as the logic finally clicked in their minds.

"Now, whoever is smart will solely focus on cleverly snagging the badge instead of trying to beat the instructor because they know the real combat fights will only start on the third floor."

Sera still wasn’t satisfied. "Okay, but that still doesn’t make sense. Why did you help all those other students?"

"Ah, that? I was just feeling exceptionally generous today. No reason at all..."

Suddenly, Sera and Elira closed in on him from both sides, leaning directly into his personal space.

"LIAAAR!" they both shouted in unison.

Sera glared at him. "There’s no way! I know you’re lying!"

Elira crossed her arms, nodding rapidly. "I completely agree with her! Darling, you would never, ever help anyone for free. So tell us now, What’s the scheme?"

"Heh... come on, what’s the harm in helping out your fellow students? ?" Lucian chuckled, taking a small step back.

A few feet away, Lyria gracefully snapped her fan open. She didn’t say a word, however, her eyes held absolute certainty. Lucian didn’t have a single bone of ’generosity’ in his body. He was definitely going to use every single one of those students in some way.

A little while later, Kaelen went over to wake up Zeri. When she didn’t budge after a few light nudges, Lyria simply sighed and instructed him to use a different method. Taking the hint, Kaelen woke her up with a lovely little electric shock.

Bzzzt!

Zeri bolted upright, her hair slightly frizzy from the static. "K-Kaelen..." she whined, rubbing her eyes. "You could have just patted my head..."

In reply, Kaelen just gave her an absolute deadpan stare.

Once everyone was ready, Elira stepped up to the wall. With her overwhelming confidence and created a massive gap with a single brute-force punch.

The whole team crossed over and headed down the stairs toward the second floor. Along the way a few slaves glanced at them, though their dead eyes didn’t react this time either.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, what they saw wasn’t a giant door leading directly to the arena where their next test would start.

Instead, they stood before five gaping, pitch-black cave entrances.

The team halted, scanning the ominous darkness. Everyone except Zeri.

Yawnnn...

While the rest of the team stopped in their tracks to look at the caves, Zeri just stretched her arms and sleepwalked right past them, heading straight for the nearest pitch-black tunnel.

Sera shrieked then sprinted ahead, practically tackling Zeri from behind. Hooking her hands under her armpits while dragging the sleepy girl backward.

"Hey, hey... wait, wait, Zeri! We haven’t picked a cave yet, you idiot!"

In the back, Lucian was already reading the system prompt.

[ Listen carefully, boy. Deep inside each of these caves is a gate, controlled solely by the instructor waiting inside. As of right now, caves one through four are locked down. The fifth cave is the only one open and you know that You don’t have a choice. ]

Ah. I see exactly what is going on here...

He looked toward the fifth cave. Just then, observing him from so closely elira also pointed at the exact same one and spoke.

"We should go into this cave..."

Sera whipped her head around and yelled.

"What? Why? Did you suddenly become some kind of oracle who can tell whether there is a trap or not?"

Lyria tapped her chin, murmuring, "Seraphina makes a fair point. We should probably scout it first..."

Just then, Lucian stepped forward confidently, agreeing with Elira.

"No, she is right. There’s no need to check. Let’s go, there are no traps in there."

Elira immediately flashed the most smuggest smile imaginable.

Sera lost it. Her eyes bulged as she lunged forward, pointing a shaking finger at her. "You witch, don’t flatter yourself! I’ll fight you right now! Let’s take this outside—!"

"Hmph,"

Elira snorted while cutting her off; she ignored her and slid beside Lucian.

Following his lead, they started walking inside the dark cave...

"H-hey guys, Shouldn’t we... at least use a little light magic? I can’t see a thing..." Kaelen stammered nervously, looking around in the pitch dark.

Taking advantage of the pitch-black darkness, Zeri sneaked up from behind and suddenly clamped both her hands onto Kaelen’s shoulders to get her revenge.

"Yeeeppp!"

He immediately flinched.

"Hahahaha... consider us even for the shock, scaredy-cat!" Zeri snickered.

"Both of you, shut it and keep walking," Lyria hissed.

Instantly quieted, both of them meekly followed.

A few moments later, the dark tunnel ended at a heavy wooden door. Lucian placed his hand firmly on the knob. Before pulling it open, he looked over his shoulder at the group with a dead-serious gaze.

"Get ready."

Elira, Sera, Lyria, and Zeri all nodded confidently.

Except Kaelen, who audibly gulped and rapidly shook his head instead.

Ignoring him, Lucian twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

A sudden, blinding flash of light washed over them. As their eyes adjusted, the scene revealed inside was exactly what Lucian had anticipated thanks to the system.

And yet, the expression that formed on his face was telling a completely different story.