48 Caught in the Act

"This should be a good place. Linda and Ash will stand guard here while the two of you check out the cave to make sure it's completely safe." Ray said as they entered cave. He and Lucy didn't wait around before leaving to carryout reconnaissance.

For now, the plan was solid and everything was going well without any hiccups. Since the environment looked very swampy and all, Ray and Lucy were ready for an attack from under water creatures and monsters, so they made sure to keep a good distance between them and the water below, instead they ran around on the trees jumping from branch to branch, luckily these weren't giant trees with branches far apart from one another.

"Use this so we keep track of where we're going." Ray said, handing over a roll of red ribbon to Lucy to attach to the trees so they can keep track of where they had passed through.

"Just to be safe, I'll also leave markings on the trees alongside the ribbons." Well, she was being extra careful so it was welcome.

Lucy led the way as they went through the swampy forests. There was totally no place without water no matter which direction they faced. "What's weirder is that we haven't encountered any monster yet, or even spotted signs of any animate living thing except us." Lucy sounded a bit worried, but perhaps the most concerning thing was the fact they still hadn't received any notification from the dungeon giving them a clear condition or objective. If for no other reason, that was the first indication that this wasn't a normal dungeon.

"We should find some high ground and get a general view of the entire place, maybe that's help point us in a general direction." Ray said, to which Lucy agreed to.

After roaming around for some time, they finally found a tree that was obviously taller than all else around them. After climbing to the top, Ray and Lucy spotted a part of the swamp that seemed to be the least swampy, at least that was how it looked.

"It looks like something out of an old Egyptian ruin…" Lucy stated.

"Yeah, like some that'll be laced with bobby traps at every turn."

Apart from that, it looked like they were approaching the ruin from the edges of the forest while the ruin itself was at the middle. Also, they could spot similar trees with the same height at the distance, probably forming a circle if lined up. It looked very peculiar in design and all. That aside, they now had a direction to go, so they returned to the rest of the team.

. . .

While the others were inside a never explored before dungeon, Ren was getting ready to go raid the new dungeon that had appeared recently. It was in such a location that no one would find out about it for a long time. Even though he had no reason to rush there so soon, he didn't really have much else to do, so he thought it would be better to keep himself active and head there.

Ren readied all he needed and once it was night, he saw it the perfect time to move out. At this point, it had also been one whole day since Ray and the others entered the dungeon they went to raid. Of course, Ren was aware they left, but since this happened because of him and was not in the original story, he had no idea what was going to happen during the raid. 'When Ray raided the dungeon, his bloodline was already activated, so he scaled through easily, but now… I can't really say much.' Anyway, Ren was confident that they wouldn't die in the dungeon.

The hidden dungeon Ren discovered was also located in the vast forests within the academy grounds. Ren jumped out of his window as he normally does, at this point, it had been a while since he saw what the stairways of his dorm looked like.

He made his way from there, heading deeper and deeper into the forest as he approached his destination. The closer he got, though, the more he felt that something was out of place.

'Why's there light coming from there, and are those footsteps?' He decided to get closer before making any conclusions, though he was certain that his suspicions were correct.

'Damn, I can't believe the academy found out so soon, where does that even happen?' It was unexpected and it thwarted his plans, but he wasn't annoyed, instead, he was more intrigued as to how they found out than anything else. Well, the academy didn't really allow for their students to perform indecent acts aka, sexual acts, even though the students could still beat each other to a bloody pulp, somehow, bigger sexual acts like intercourse were strictly prohibited, so if a couple didn't want to stick to kissing all year round, they needed to get creative, 'in this case, I think they went primal.'

From where Ren hid himself, he could see several people around the dungeon site, both staff and students. He couldn't recognize any of the students, and from their uniforms, he could tell they weren't first years, besides, they looked more matured.

'Hm, even the vice head is here. I better lea-' Before Ren could complete his thought, Fars who he was keeping his eyes on vanished and at the same time, a hand held his shoulder. Ren didn't even try to react; he already knew who it was.

"Good 'night'? sir?" Ren said with a telling grin on his face.

"Night? Think again, better change that to morning, Ren."

. . .

Fars briefed Ren on the whole dungeon case and all, but all through his speech, Ren couldn't shake off the feeling that he was going to be involved in the dungeon's first raid.

"It's level is pretty high for normal first year student like yourself, well, you aren't like a typical first year now, are you? Haha." For some reason, Ren always got the feeling that Fars was happy to see him each time.

'Maybe I remind him of his younger days.'

After Fars was done with his explanation, it turned out to be just as Ren thought. He was to raid the dungeon later that morning alongside two second years and one third year.

'They don't like me already, now I have to raid with them… this is going to be such a pain.'