Raven leaned against the wall, burying his hands inside the pockets of his oversized black sweater.
He clearly did not intend to wait any longer in the awkward silence.
"So since we are all officially here now," Raven started, looking directly at the noble girl standing in the center of the room.
"Can you tell us why the fuck you would gather us all in a training hall at midnight?"
'He makes a very fair point,' I thought to myself, wiping a streak of sweat and blood from my jawline.
Melissa stood up slowly from the floor.
She cleared her throat, smoothed down the front of her training pants, and completely ignored the hostility between Zephyr and me.
"It is about the excavation tomorrow," she explained, her voice echoing clearly across the massive room.
"We will be entering narrow path number one once we reach the second stage of the dungeon."
Zephyr crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"More than that," Zephyr interrupted her, his tone flat.
"What exactly are you expecting to find in a basic D-rank cave?"
'Even Zephyr was doubtful because Melissa wasn't behaving like she was in the past. She was supposed to be Mary Sue and a quiet girl, not whatever this is.'
It made complete sense, honestly.
What we were heading towards in the morning was supposed to be a normal, beginner-level expedition.
It was not a B-rank or A-rank zone where hunters regularly stumbled upon hidden treasures or rare system rewards.
It was a simple school test.
Melissa smiled.
"This specific cave is directly connected underground to the one right beside the capital city," she replied smoothly.
"And?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Which means there is a very high chance the monsters from that capital cave would appear in our testing zone," Melissa stated plainly.
My heart skipped a beat hearing her explain this aloud.
It was actually true. In the original timeline, the first major arc of the novel revolved around how terrifying monsters, creatures significantly stronger than a D-rank, suddenly appeared inside the student tunnels and brutally slaughtered most of the freshman class.
Zephyr shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"Do you think the academy staff doesn't know about the connecting tunnels?"
"They know about the major leaks, of course." Melissa shrugged her shoulders, looking completely unbothered by the danger.
"But there is a problem. What the professors do not know is that there are hidden, unmapped ways deeper inside the cave walls."
She walked to the centre of the ruined hall and let out a soft sigh.
Dropping down to sit cross-legged on the floor, she gestured for the rest of us to gather around her.
"Inside the second stage, there are twelve narrow paths," she detailed, tracing invisible lines on the mats with her finger.
"Sixty of us will be split evenly into five groups. We will be entering the very first one. That tunnel connects our entry gate directly to the B-rank cave beside the capital."
Raven pushed himself off the stone wall and walked closer to the group.
"We are willingly crossing over into a B-rank zone?"
"Exactly," Melissa nodded.
Zephyr shook his head in disbelief.
"You must be completely out of your mind, Melissa. We are first-year cadets. We cannot even handle the first stage of a dungeon like that."
"Yes," Melissa agreed smoothly, looking up at the glowing golden hero.
"But we are not going in there to clear the dungeon."
She reached deep into the pocket of her training uniform and pulled out a folded, worn piece of a map. She spread it out flat on the floor between us.
"This map was marked by high-level hunters who already explored a portion of that cave years ago," she explained.
She tapped a specific red marker on the old paper.
"It is still officially uncleared. But the place we will reach once we slip through the wall cracks will be a narrow path, number seven of the B-rank zone."
We all stared down at the messy ink drawings.
"Three kilometres from that entry point, we will enter a hidden room," she continued, her voice dropping lower.
"It holds a pendant inside. We slip in, take the pendant, come right back to our original cave, and finish the school assignment together. It is a very simple plan."
Everyone in the room stayed completely quiet. The risk of her so-called simple plan hung in the air.
Raven crouched down to look closer at the map's details.
"Is that piece of jewellery really so important that you want to risk our lives for it?"
Melissa's carefree, playful demeanour completely vanished for a split second.
Her blue eyes turned cold.
"Yes," she answered softly.
My boots scraped against the floor as I stepped back from the circle.
"Wait a minute," I spoke up, drawing the entire room's attention.
Her intense gaze turned directly toward me.
The coldness faded slightly, replaced by a stare that felt too personal.
"Why do you think I would follow you into a death trap just to steal a necklace?" I asked.
My voice was flat and completely unreadable.
Melissa stood up gracefully.
She walked slowly towards me, invaded my personal space, forcing me to look up into her eyes.
"You will follow me," she whispered, tilting my chin up.
"Because there exists a cure for your little sister hidden inside that same cave."
My eyes widened instantly.
In my last life, my sister died.
She wasted away in a small bed, even after I tried so hard, spending every single coin I earned clearing caves, to find a cure for her failing body.
I failed her completely.
"Don't joke about that," I warned her.
The words came out more threatening than I thought.
Melissa didn't flinch away from my anger.
She stepped even closer, her chest brushing lightly against mine.
It was a deliberate, seductive move meant to keep me distracted and trapped in her orbit.
"Rapid blood circulation disease," she listed off in a soft murmur, maintaining eye contact.
"Your sister lacks the proper blood flow, which causes her mana core to weaken over time and fail to direct power through her body. The blue flower growing deep in that B-rank cave helps in processing and fixing that condition."
'No,' my mind started spinning totally out of control. 'I searched for a cure all my life, last time. I tore the entire continent apart looking for answers.'
My fingers locked tightly around her wrist.
"How can I believe you?" I demanded, my heart beating fast.
Melissa looked down at my large hand holding her wrist, then slowly looked back up to my face.
"Ceyloptus is the name of the flower, isn't it?" she asked softly.
My breathing stopped completely.