“I’ve read previous years question papers.”
Felix did not think much of Neo’s answer.
They reached the examination hall and met with Arthur who was waiting outside.
The group entered the hall when suddenly a professor stopped Neo.
He gave Neo a scrutinizing gaze.
“The time elementals are in chaos around you…
“You came back in time, didn’t you?”
The professor’s face contorted.
“It’s always same with you Time affinity students.
“One question wrong and you’ll regress to redo the paper. You are the fourth student today, dammit!
“Go stand in the outside!
“Regressors aren’t allowed here! You’ll receive a different question paper!”
The professor huffed.
Sensitive demigods, like the professor, could detect Time elementals if the elementals were present in high quantity.
They did not need the affinity to sense the elementals.
It was similar to how people could sense Neo’s death aura when he used a large amount of death elemental.
While the Professor was scolding Neo, Elizabeth approached them.
“Is there any problem?”
“Yes, listen to this Professor Anna….”
Elizabeth, disguised as Anna, had become famous as a strict and impartial professor during the past year.
She did not hesitate to punish the God clan students when the need arose, and treated the God clan and non-God clan students the same.
Listening to the professor’s explanation, she nodded.
“Let me help you, Professor Frank. I’ll go print the new question papers and give them to these regressors.”
“Thank you, Professor Anna.”
Five students, including Neo, were taken to a different room.
All of them were regressors.
Unlike Neo, they travelled back in time themselves and they could return only a few minutes into the past.
Elizabeth bought them question papers.
The students groaned when they saw the new sheets.
“Noooo! This is a different paper!”
“I used all the Time elementals I saved to go back by one hour! I can’t do it again! What’s the use of my sacrifice!?”
Neo checked his own sheet and frowned.
It was the original question paper that was given to non-regressor students.
He was not given a different paper.
Elizabeth was helping him.
“Good luck,” Elizabeth said to all of them and sat behind the desk.
Neo smiled.
He answered the questions easily, since he had read the question papers during his previous rounds.
Finishing the test, he stood outside the examination hall to thank Elizabeth, only to notice she had left already.
Arthur, Felix and others approached him after their test.
“Why were you taken away by the professors?”
“They wanted to give a different question paper to regressor students.”
“Oh, that’s…. Wait, what!?”
Felix grabbed his shoulder.
“Y-you! You awakened your Time element!?”
“Not yet. It’s Professor Daniel who sent me back in time to help me with Immersion Awakening.”
The group was shocked.
Felix and Jack looked at Neo enviously.
“I wish I had Time affinity too.”
Neo shrugged.
They visited the cafeteria for lunch and returned to their rooms.
“I have five months until D-0.
“I’ll grind some stats until then.”
The academy classes and events were useless for Neo.
He had skipped a large portion of curriculum and was far behind his peers.
The next day, Neo visited the mission hall.
“What mission do you need?” the receptionist asked.
“The Labyrinth.”
“…!?”
The receptionist flinched.
“It’s an SS-rank mission. We can’t give it to you….”
She stopped speaking when Neo presented his ID card.
[Neo Hargraves]
[Team: Umbra]
[Team’s Rank: 7th]
[Position: Team Leader]
“You are the leader of Team Umbra… You are that deadbeat Ruler?” the reception spoke in a daze and suddenly realized what she had said. “I-I’m sorry.
“Yes, you can take the SS-rank mission. Team Umbra qualifies for it.”
She changed the subject and gave him a golden key.
The key could open the chamber where Minotaur was imprisoned inside the Labyrinth.
This mission was different from the S-rank mission his friends took.
The SS-rank Labyrinth Mission was to defeat Minotaur and close the Labyrinth, unlike the S-rank mission that was to rescue a person lost inside the Labyrinth.
Neo took the key.
He left the Academy and travelled to the Redwood City through the bullet train.
The city was lively and filled with adventurers.
Adventurers were demigods who went into the Labyrinth, hunted monsters and sold monsters’ body parts or other valuables found in the Labyrinth.
Neo took a look around the city.
He entered the Labyrinth.
The entrance was filled with hundreds of demigod.
Neo had to go further inside to find an empty place.
He took out the map he had found inside the Window #12862.
It seemed like a useless object when compared to the key Jack found alongside the map.
After all, the key allowed Jack to open and close Shadow dimension Windows.
However, only Neo knew, the map was just as valuable as the key if not more.
He opened the map.
The ordinary paper suddenly glowed.
It started to suck the ambient Divine Energy present inside the Labyrinth. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Lines, corridors, and doddles of monsters appeared on the map.
“Thank god this thing works. I was worried I need Jack to activate it.”
The Living Map, created by Daedalus, had many purposes.
Its main purpose was to defeat the Labyrinth of Greenwood, where Minotaur was imprisoned, by mapping the entire Labyrinth.
Labyrinth of Greenwood, or Labyrinth for short, birthed monsters.
It was ever expanding and its path continued to change every day.
The Labyrinth had not been closed by high-level demigods.
Because it generated a good amount of revenue and it served as a training ground for low and medium level demigods.
Of course, there was no rule against closing the Labyrinth.
It was why the academy had put an SS-rank mission to close the Labyrinth.
Neo used the Living Map to locate Minotaur’s chamber.
His current rank was too low for him to reach the Minotaur.
He killed monsters and devoured them until D-0 day and returned to Professor Daniel.
“Come inside.”
Professor Daniel opened the door of his office.
His nose scrunched up when he noticed the blood and dirt covering Neo.
“You are dirty.”
“Ah, sorry. I forgot about it.”
Neo used the Darkness to devour the filth.
Cleaned, he took a seat.
“I time slipped in the beginning of this round.”
“How many days did you slip through?”
“Ninety days.”
Professor Daniel nodded.
He had expected it to happen after Neo heard the voices of Time.
“This time, I’ll send you one year back. Can you handle it?”
“I’ll try my best.”
Arriving in the past, Neo Time Slipped to D-150.
“I returned to the same day.”
His face hardened.
Last time, he regressed to D-150 after Time slipping and it happened again.