Otherworld Adventure

After the demonstration, a week slowly passed by. During the week the Little Kings were put through Cecil's even stricter training regimen. They also gathered the 2 remaining ingredients and Lucius had begun concocting the potions.

Today was a normal school day, Cecil and friends were currently attending classes. However, everyone in class was constantly sending their group strange glances.

Well, it was something to be expected... since everyone except for Cecil and Lucia were looking as pale as a ghost. Their complexions were horrible that everyone was concerned for their well-being.

Just what in the hell were they doing every day to warrant such an adverse affliction to their health? The only person among the 4 people who had it better was without a doubt Fina. She was currently cuddling Silver in her arms and her complexion wasn't as pale as her 3 other friends, but nonetheless her complexion was still a little out of sorts.

Velicia was sitting with her other friends in front of the class and they were concerned about her as well. Velicia only brushed it off as having done too much training.

"Hey... Cecil. No rest for today?" Ainz asked bitterly.

"Eh? No, today's a rest day. I can't have you 4 die on me."

"...die, huh..." Ainz responded with a rueful look on his face.

"Don't worry! I'm only training you guys to the limits of each of your bodies can take. It's not going to affect you guys in anyway. Actually, the process of training you until near collapse and recuperating will only serve to help improve your physiques and stamina!" Cecil responded in a low voice.

"..."

The 3 people ahead only responded with silence while Velicia who was in the front row had a chill run down her spine, she quickly turned her head back and saw Cecil who was smiling and immediately paled even further.

"N-no... that... that evil smile," Velicia hugged her arms and immediately began shivering.

"V-Veli?? A-are you okay? Are you sick?" Her friend asked her.

"The...the devil's coming... he's coming..."

"Huh? Devil?"

DING DONG DING DONG

"Alright class. Remember that today's materials will be on the end of the week's test! So you better remember this! Also, don't forget to do the assignment! I've already sent the party configurations to your MIDs so make sure you get the assignment done and hand in the report by next week!"

After the practical combat instructor Mr. Suo, a highland giant, reminded the class of their assignment, he turned to leave the classroom.

Everyone immediately began checking their MIDs and found the party configurations that the instructor had sent.

"...it looks like we'll be separated this time." Ainz said while taking a look at his MID.

"Yeah... but it's alright. At least with this we'll be able to interact with our classmates." Eli added.

"...I'm not with Cel..." Lucia replied dejectedly after seeing her party.

Cecil took a look at his MID and found that everyone in their party, Little Kings, was indeed separated from each other. In fact, the party leaders of the class' first 5 parties were them, except for Fina who was in Cecil's party.

Cecil stretched his body and stood up to look for the other members of his class' party.

"Uhh... party number 1? Gather here please." Cecil called out while raising his hand in the air.

It was somewhat unexpected and everyone lagged in response. Fina checked her MID and saw that she was with Cecil, so the girl quickly stood up and went towards the side of the class where Cecil was standing. Cecil called out once again and immediately the other 3 members walked over.

"Alright everyone, since we're all in a party; please take care of me," Cecil said while taking a look at the rest of his party members. "I'll be acting as the captain so let's get this job done."

Seeing Cecil quickly gathering his party members, the rest of Little Kings began to do the same. Once everyone gathered, the party leaders brought them out of the class to have their own discussions.

Inside S class' classroom, Cecil wanted everyone to reintroduce themselves to one another.

"Well, I'll start. I'm Cecil, and as you all know I'm a magic swordsman."

"Fina here! I'm a support-type mage and healer." The merfolk girl exclaimed while hugging the pet form Silver in her arms. Silver looked at everyone and gave a cute bark.

"...Light Moonclaw... mage. Former 4th rank, I guess I'm 7th ranked now?" A gloomy white haired tigerkin said. He took a long pause before continuing, "It's an honor to be... in the same party as our first rank..." He was smiling slightly, but his droopy eyes were blank with no emotion.

"Lu Garulle. I'm a shield warrior. 25th ranked in the class." A large ape-kin teenager said. He had dark skin and his face had white tribal markings on them. His large size almost made him look like an upper year student, but the boy was only 15.

"Nice to meet you guys!" Cecil said while stretching his hand out for a handshake. The two boys each took his hand and smiled at his friendly demeanor. They also shook hands with Fina and one another.

Cecil turned towards the last person in the group. It was a female elf who had her arms crossed the entire time.

"Uhm... how about you?" Cecil asked carefully. He saw that the girl had been frowning the entire time after they had gathered.

"...Ghina Windfall... magic archer. Former 7th ranked... I'm 9th ranked now..." The elf girl lightly introduced. Cecil stuck out his hand and Ghina was surprised, she hesitated a bit before shaking his hands lightly.

Cecil smiled at this and Fina also quickly moved up to shake her hands as well. The serious looking elf was helpless seeing the cute little merfolk girl. She had no choice, but to quickly shake her hand as well. This was followed by the Lu Garulle and Light doing the same.

"Okay, since everyone's been reacquainted. Let's discuss how we'll do our assignment!"

"Okay!"

"First of all... what exactly was our assignment again?" Cecil asked dumbly.

He was never paying attention in class. He was always busy doing his own things and he only relied on Lucia to help him with his homework and assignments.

"...what are you doing in class all the time?" Ghina asked with a confused and almost annoyed tone.

"Ah, sorry... I was always busy with... other stuff."

"Busy? With what?" Ghina snapped back in response.

"Eh? Well... rune engravings... rune enchantments, forming training regimens... stuff like that."

"Huh? Rune engravings? Enchantments?" the elf girl looked backed in confusion.

Light who was silent opened his mouth and addressed Cecil's earlier question.

"It's about our dungeon exploration assignment... the combat instructor wanted us... to right a report about our experiences... inside a dungeon..."

"Oh... dungeon huh... how boring." Cecil replied with a bored look.

"Boring? How is it boring?" Ghina asked back.

"Well... Uhh..."

Fina was the one who answered instead of Cecil.

"Ah, you see. In the past I heard that when Cecil and Lucia were still active as adventurers before they became students, the two had dived into a dungeon once."

"What? So you already have experience in dungeoneering?" Lu Garulle asked with surprise.

"Well... yeah... honestly it's nothing special... in fact, it was so boring that half the time spent in the dungeon was for traveling in between floors and observing the scenery..." Cecil said with a bored look.

"...just what in the world were you two doing before this?"

"Hm? Didn't Fina say we were adventurers? Anyway, the dungeon isn't anything special. The only conclusion I got from the dungeon was that it was just an oversized mystical mine. Let's just head over to Anglaria Kingdom's dungeon and get the assignment over."

Cecil quickly began giving out arrangements and preparation instructions to his teammates. Once everyone received their tasks, they couldn't help but admire their young friend. He was the same age as them, but he had much more experience than all of them put together.

At least now they knew that this indeed wasn't his first time dungeon diving. In fact, his meticulous preparations and arrangements gave him the air of a veteran in the adventuring business.

Fina smiled seeing the admiring looks the rest of her teammates gave to their leader. She felt proud that she was a member of Little Kings. Everyone in the year knew that their little group of troublemakers had formed a party, but what they would never expect was that they had created an official party that was also ranked high amongst the various adventurer parties in the kingdom.

As of now their party, Little Kings, were officially ranked 20th among the 30 platinum ranked parties in the Kingdom. Of course they did start at rank 30, but after their constant feats of performing mid to high ranked platinum ranked quests, they steadily climbed up the rankings.

They were only low on the list because their party was relatively new. Cecil planned to make their party rise up to 1st place in the rankings and then take their advancement quest into Diamond Ranked.

"Alright everyone, here's a list of supplies that you should go buy later. We'll set off tomorrow morning. Meet up at the academy's district gates in the morning at 8." Cecil made sure that his teammates had registered his instructions before continuing.

"We'll head out early so we can come back early as well. Even if tomorrow's the weekend, I'm pretty sure everyone here has their own preparations and plans for the tournament, right?" After saying that, his party members began nodding one by one.

"Okay, everyone's dismissed! I'll see you guys tomorrow."

'Waah, his way of dismissing everyone is the same as usual' Fina smiled wryly.

Cecil was so used to leading that he just naturally took up the leader's role. The aura he exuded while acting as a proper leader left no room for objections that even his new teammates could only nod seriously in response to his orders.

When everyone dispersed, Cecil quickly went back to his desk and packed his books into his ring, he turned towards Fina who was waiting for him and said, "You can go back first Fina. I'm gonna drop by Lucius's place and see if the potions are ready or not."

"Oh...okay Ceci– actually, wait. Let me go with you."

"Hm? Okay. Let's get going then."