Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 48
Only Noblemtl
Field trip (2)
Even though he was old, Professor Oros, who was full of muscle, had no intention of leaving. He brought a folding chair and sat down in front of Alan, and kept asking him questions as if he was curious about something.
Carlson, who had been rolling his eyes here and there, joined the conversation.
“Professor, it’s time to eat.”
“Oh, I see. Thanks for letting me know.”
As I was answering Oros’ questions, it was 7pm. Professor Oak didn’t go back and just naturally joined the meal.
“It tastes better if you put in a little effort than just boiling it and eating it.”
As he spoke, a solid energy biscuit crumbled in Oros’s hand. The solid food, which could break your teeth if eaten raw, was easily broken with just his fingers.
‘Is it because the students I brought here are so polite, because they respect their professor, or because they instinctively feel intimidated?’
Alan ponders the relationship between the soup and college students, whose ingredients are invisible.
Anyway, the soup tasted good. I don’t know if it was because the broth soaked into the finely crushed biscuits, or because of Oros’s touch.
While Alan warmed himself with soup, Carlson’s lips moved busily.
“···And then we met again today.”
“So that’s what it was like. He’s someone who can even guard the goal by himself.”
He didn’t say anything on purpose, but Carlson confessed that he had taken over the goalkeeper. Oros’s gaze, which had been fixed on Carlson, moved freely again and looked at the leopard.
“Did you modify it yourself?”
“yes.”
Although he was at a loss for words with such a short answer, Oros moved on flexibly to the next question.
“This is an automaton that feels original. The magical tools made by students of the Department of Magic Engineering don’t have a sense of challenge, but this is different. It even has good performance, right?”
Who doesn’t like compliments? Alan’s expression didn’t change, but his shoulders rose slightly.
Oros, who had been asking casual questions, asked a sharp question.
“But to achieve this level of performance, there must naturally be a corresponding amount of consumption. So there was a reason why the Alan Explorer grew so quickly.”
“···.”
Alan kept his mouth shut, and Carlson pricked up his ears, pretending not to care.
“It would be more important to prioritize exploration and learning over profit. Go as deep as your skills allow, and invest all the profits from exploration into magic engineering. Since magic engineering is your hobby, it would be possible. Am I right?”
Alan nodded. In fact, it was due to hyper-power, so there was no problem with the power supply, but since he had mistaken it without any persuasion, he just kept his mouth shut.
The word hobby was also right. If you do something you enjoy, you will have the strength to stay up all night.
Oros, who had emptied the bowl cleanly, washed it in the corner and came back again.
“Were you planning on coming back?”
“I stayed on the 9th or 10th floor for about two days and then tried to go up.”
“Then how about changing your schedule and joining us? I would like to hire you at the average wage for a magic engineer.”
Alan asked after a moment’s pause.
“How far down do you plan to go?”
“If it goes according to plan, it’s the 13th floor.”
Alan thought for a moment. He had turned back at the 13th floor before, but he had moved too quickly and had not had time to properly study the cave.
Oros added, perhaps noticing Allen’s thoughts.
“If Alan Explorer joins, I plan to go down to the 14th floor. I also want to shock the students who are trapped in the delusion that the city university is the best.”
Alan looked at the professor for a moment and then agreed. Since he was already here, he wanted to see how the magic bullet would perform against the underground people, and he was also curious about how the university, and especially the professor, explored and investigated the labyrinth.
Oros stood up, saying he had to tell the other side. Carlson followed suit.
“Student Carlson, haven’t you had enough time to think about the topic we discussed last time?”
“Professor, my family is against graduate school…”
“So does that mean the positive response was fake? Isn’t Carlson an adult? Should his will to learn be influenced by others?”
Alan, who was packing his luggage, heard their conversation.
‘Graduate school? Wouldn’t it be better to learn more?’
*
Fifteen city university students participated in the field trip, five escorts, and including Allen, a total of 21 people went down into the cave.
“There are only 14 students in one department? I heard it’s flexible, but there are fewer than I thought.”
“You’re not interested in college at all? That’s impossible. Field trips are voluntary, so some students don’t participate, and some students follow other professors. And if there are too many, it’s too complicated.”
“It’s crazy when it’s crowded, so it’s better to do research in a quiet place.”
Carlson nodded at Alan’s words.
Carlson stood between Alan and the students, or rather, blocking their view with his body.
The students looked at the magic engineer who had suddenly joined them with cold eyes. It may be that he had proven his skills or was experienced, but since he was their age, they were not impressed.
Still, no one complained openly because the professor had hired them.
‘As expected, educated people think differently.’
Alan was impressed by their self-control. If they were explorers, he would have told them to come forward and prove their skills at the moment of doubt.
Of course, that wasn’t a bad thing either. In a labyrinth, you have to entrust your lives to each other, so how could you have a clumsy person as your comrade?
So, rather than judging their merits and faults, Alan simply assessed the elegance of their approach.
Carlson observed the mood of the students and asked Alan how old he was.
“How old are you? I’m 20 and a third-year student.”
“I’m 18 years old.”
“I thought you were young, but you’re really young. Do you know what I mean? I’m not ignoring you because you’re young, I’m admiring your skills.”
“I don’t really think about it.”
“The bluntness remains.”
There was a pause, and the sound of footsteps trudging across the cave floor was joined by a disparate harmony.
While the students were looking around, Alan silently drew his weapon, and Oros nodded as if he knew what he meant.
“You came at an opportune time. If nothing had happened, I would have been bored.”
The solid wall shook and the underground people burst out, like animals breaking out of an egg.
The college students looked at him with disgust, but Professor Oros was delighted.
Professors are people who teach college students, but fundamentally, they are people who study academics. That kind of reaction was completely natural.
The enemies that appeared were two underground people and three automatons.
The man who was the captain of the guard looked at the enemies and raised two fingers.
Two people responded to the captain’s orders. Blue light flowed down from each of their weapons.
‘One is Manasod, the other is Orone.’
Alan realized that the escorts were very skilled. So, five people would be escorting fifteen people.
The automatons and underground people were quickly dealt with without Alan even having to step forward.
As the two guards swung their weapons, a blue line appeared, and the bodies of the enemies along the trajectory disintegrated. The underground people who jumped out with interest fell without even being able to put up a proper fight.
“It’s very strong.”
“That’s all the tuition,” Carlson whispered, continuing as if he hadn’t said anything.
“Please come down knowing that students can get hurt to some extent. But it would be a bit difficult if they get seriously hurt.”
“Do students also participate in combat?”
“Some people are like that, and some aren’t. Look over there, are they shivering? You have to help those kids by keeping them still. He’s a freshman, the same age as you.”
“It will change as you gain experience.”
“That’s right. I was like that when I first entered the labyrinth.”
It is a well-known fact that labyrinths drive modern civilization, but that does not mean that anyone has explored them. Labyrinth exploration is obviously difficult, dangerous, and dirty.
Oros placed the dead underground man on the floor and called the students together. Among the students gathered around, there was an underground man lying upright.
“You did a really neat job of blocking the breathing.”
After finishing speaking, Oros stuck the tip of a rather large scalpel into the stomach of the underground man.
“Some students may have encountered it as a textbook or as samples brought by explorers.”
Before he could finish speaking, his hands moved from top to bottom. The thoughts of the underground man were engraved into the students’ pupils without any filter.
Some students made disgusted expressions, pulled up their masks, or even turned their heads away. Regardless, Oros continued his explanation.
“If you look inside, the internal organs, the skeleton, and all the other parts are almost the same as ours. Student Milliam? What did I say when I pointed to the anatomy diagram of the underground before?”
“They said that our genes are so similar that it wouldn’t be strange if we and Ise were created. But strangely enough, they also said that it would be impossible.”
“That’s right. It’s because the creator of the labyrinth used an unknown mystery on the underground people. To be exact, it’s only assumed to be a mystery, but no one has figured out what it is. Maybe it’s a mystery so great that you can’t recognize it even when it’s right in front of you.”
Even for Alan, who was only interested in automatons, this was interesting information. I thought they were just monsters modeled after humans, but I didn’t know that their genes were similar.
Oros stood up, wiping the scalpel with an alcohol swab.
“Some say that the underground people are ancient people who walked this land in the past, or that they may still be alive somewhere today. However, it is still just a hypothesis because it has not been proven. I hope that you will be the scholar who makes the discovery of the century.”
“If you are a professor, you can do it.”
“Haha. More than that, I’d like to know who created the labyrinth.”
While he seemed to encourage the students’ dreams, Oros himself had even grander dreams.
That’s what a scholar should do. It’s certainly welcome to discover others’ discoveries, but wouldn’t it be better if the subject were oneself? Alan was the same.
The exploration continued, and one of the escorts who had gone out to scout returned and reported something to Oros.
“There’s a defense base in the vacant lot? The number is ten···.”
Oros looked around at the students and relaxed his wrists and shoulders.
“It would be a waste to call it a field trip if you just look around. Prepare everything.”
A bolt from the blue had struck, calling them to go into battle. Everyone must have mentally prepared themselves as they came down, but when they actually saw it in front of them, it was different from what they had expected, and the number of students who were squeaking increased rapidly.
match!
The sound of Oros clapping his hands was particularly loud. The students who had been confused because the sound waves contained mana also turned their heads.
“There are escorts and I, so what are you worried about?”
As he said that and put strength into his arms, his exploration suit bulged. The students who witnessed his arm muscles as big as a child’s torso finally let out a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Carlson was glued to Allen, watching him load his rifle.
“It’s a bit different from the bullet I saw at the gun shop. Did you make that one yourself?”
“That’s right. What I’m holding right now···.”
“Just a moment, let me guess. As expected, each person’s rune shape is slightly different. The ones loaded are [Condensation] and [Immersion], and the magic bullets I’m holding right now are [Freeze] and [Binding]. Right?”
“That’s right. [Explosion] can be used to quickly clean up, but it has the disadvantage of damaging parts. That’s why it was made separately for capture.”
In front of the defense base that we had already arrived at. The noise of so many people moving together was quite loud, so the underground people were pointing their thorns in this direction.
As the students braced themselves for the impact, breathing heavily, a light sound was heard from behind.
container!
A drizzle fell on the students’ heads. The spinning bullets flew by, spraying water in all directions, like a wet dog shaking its body from side to side.
The slow-moving bullet landed with a thud. It had a completely different sound from other bullets.
The water rose just short of the Underground Man’s feet. Alan fired a second shot before the water had completely dispersed.
This time, white snowflakes fell along the path of the flying magic bullet. The magic bullet that fell in the middle of the puddle changed the nature of the water, and white frozen shackles were placed on the legs of the automaton and the underground man.
The students looked back. At the end of their gaze, Alan pointed ahead and spoke in a calm tone.
“Are you just going to watch? Oh, if you’re going to do it, just attack the legs. Yellow-haired student, the butt plate is something you put on your shoulder, not your face.”
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