How the hell was I supposed to get to the dorms now?!

Yeah… that was the exact thought I had three hours ago, right after I idiotically walked out of Morvana's office building without a single plan.

Probably the dumbest thing I had done since the negotiation itself.

This damned academy was covered in an illusory array that twisted every path and turned directions into a cosmic joke.

The only stable points were the buildings themselves, each marked by a specific mana pattern.

And of course, to find your way, you had to focus on those mana signatures.

Which I absolutely hadn't done.

Now, I could've just gone back and asked Morvana for directions… or for the mana bracelet they handed to every student like a participation prize.

Those bracelets carried faint traces of mana from major landmarks, so, in theory, you could use them to navigate.

But the traces were so weak they barely made sense. Apparently, that was part of "training," according to the geniuses who ran Noxvalen.

Which, by the way, now included my soon-to-be mother-in-law.

So yeah… maybe I shouldn't curse her out loud.

Instead, I'll curse the real bastard behind this system.

Fuck you, Ashavar.

Anyway, why didn't I just go back to Morvana?

I mean, even if she didn't directly teleport me to my dorms… I could somehow find my way through using the bracelet as well.

But, of course, fate decided to screw me the second I stepped outside.

The shift, the one that was supposed to happen at random intervals, happened right then.

At that exact damn moment everything shifted.

When I looked back, the building was gone.

There was nothing behind me except cold, biting wind and the distant, haunting calls of some weird birds echoing through the dark.

So, I did what any sane person would do.

I walked.

And then I walked some more.

Trying to find my way toward the dorms or anywhere I could finally crash and sleep because honestly, I was done.

My body was in pain, my head hurt and worst of all… I was still covered in that damn toad saliva.

So, yeah, what else could go wrong.

I didn't have a watch, but judging by the darkness, the creepy bird noises and whatever those other sounds were… I would say it was stupidly late at night.

Or maybe I had already crossed into the next day.

Who knows.

Time clearly didn't care about me either.

A little ahead, I spotted a bench by the roadside under the soft glow of a lamp.

A mana lamp, apparently, since demons hated technology.

For me, though, it was the only light source in sight. I dragged myself toward it and threw my body onto it with all the grace of a corpse.

I had seen this exact bench before.

Not once.

Not twice.

Eight damn times.

Yeah… I had been fucking going in circles.

I swear, the urge to scream every curse I knew was stronger than anything I had felt all day.

But… whatever.

It is what it is.

Honestly, if it were daytime, maybe I wouldn't be in this mess. I could have at least found something that looked familiar.

But no, the maze had to get worse at night.

Apparently, during the so-called celestial alignment, the illusion strengthens because, of course, the geniuses who built this place thought,

"Hey, let's make it even harder to escape when the moon's out."

So, I decided on the only plan that didn't require brain cells… wait till morning.

Maybe a student or two would wander by and I could just tag along and reach class on time.

Because if I didn't, I was so screwed.

I would have to go take the penalty on the first day… by going to the Cave of Self-Reflection.

In the meantime, I decided to check the shit ton of stuff I had picked up to pass the time.

I mean, back in that cursed cave in the Forest of Unmasked, I didn't exactly have the luxury of checking my rewards with the whole fighting-for-my-life situation.

So yeah, now seemed like a good time.

Lost in a moon-powered maze, covered in toad saliva, half-asleep on a random bench…

Perfect setting for an inventory review.

I had a lot to check.

First, the details of my monocles, cane and top hat—all the important things a respectable scam artist should know about.

Then, there was the Tribute skill I had received after making Seraphina my assistant.

That one needed a serious look.

And, of course, the… thing I got from that questionable skill — literally questionable, since its name was nothing but a bunch of question marks —

after witnessing the memories of that loser, Lucien.

Yeah, that dumb transmigrator I killed.

Finally, last but definitely not least, the great artifact strapped to my back.

The one that had apparently evolved and now decided to act like a full-blown tsundere. I could feel the "hmph" echoing in my head like it was actually mad about something.

So yeah… lots of things to check.

I first decided to see about my scammer kit.

Yeah, I already knew what everything did, I had refined it to my core after all but I had time to kill, and maybe there were some details I had overlooked.

So why not?

Especially the monocle which was formerly a mask, and easily one of the better artifacts in this world.

That one deserved a closer look.

The first order of business was the sleek black cane in my hand. I focused on it, and a faint shimmer appeared before me as the status window blinked into existence.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◈ Cane of Scared Soul

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◈ Description: Forged long ago by a blacksmith for his blind son, who feared the dark. The blacksmith promised that the cane would always guide his boy safely home. But after being corrupted by the mana of the Forest of Unmasked, the effect… changed.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◈ Rank: F

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◈ Traits:

☉ Always points toward the nearest source of danger.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ahh, so it was one of the man-made artifacts… or maybe demon-made, depending on which blacksmith forged it.

Yeah, definitely not dragon work though.

Those arrogant bastards would never touch a forge.

They considered their own bodies perfect weapons. Most of them wouldn't even look at metal, let alone shape it.

I mean, their bodies were tougher than most metals out there except maybe a few of the magical ones.

Anyway, even after reading the description twice, there wasn't some hidden cheat or secret effect buried in the text.

Just a plain old artifact.

A cane forged by a blacksmith for his son… that somehow ended up in the Forest of Unmasked.

Sometimes, I really hoped the universe would look at me the same way it looked at those chosen one protagonists from webnovels.

You know, the kind of guys who randomly pick up a rock and it just happens to be some world-shattering divine metal that can be refined into a heavenly weapon… which then turns into a beautiful milf for absolutely no reason.

Meanwhile, I get a cane that points me straight toward danger.

Yeah.

Totally balanced.

Still, one thing in the description really bugged me…

How the hell did it end up in Forest of Unmasked?

Still, I moved on… I mean no need to waste time on something so plain.

I picked up my top hat, held it in my hand and focused as a status window appeared almost instantly.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◈ Top Hat Of A Scared Soul.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◈ Description: Forged long ago by a blacksmith for his blind son, who feared the dark. The blacksmith promised that the hat would always protect his boy from the rain.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◈ Rank: F

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◈ Traits:

☉ Always protect the user from the rain.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I blinked at it.

"What the hell…?"

Who was this 'Scared Soul'?

And why the hell was he so terrified that his dad had to keep making him magical items?

I mean, if the guy was talented enough to forge artifacts like these then why the hell didn't he just make his kid a pair of magical eyes instead?

Boom and problem solved.

Honestly, sometimes I questioned whether these so-called "legendary blacksmiths" had common sense or were just dramatic idiots with too much mana and daddy issues.

Okay… okay, maybe I was too quick to judge.

But still, why the hell were these artifacts in the Forest of Unmasked?

Wait a second,

Could it be that the artifacts hadn't just ended up there… but that the forest itself had formed around where they once were?

I mean, sure, the forest existed before.

But it only became infamous and known as a twisted death trap it is now… after the so-called war of the gods. At least, that's how I understood and knew it.

So maybe… just maybe… These things weren't lost artifacts and maybe they were somethings left behind by whatever existed there before.

But before I could make any more crazy theories, a sudden chill ran down my spine.

My instincts kicked in and I jumped up from the bench.

I turned slowly and froze for a moment by the sheer absurdity.

A few steps away from me, stood a boy.

Completely naked except for a pair of underwear… pulled over his face.

He stared straight at me.

"What is the colour of your underwear?"

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