I've uploaded several manga reference images in the activity report, so please check those out if you'd like.
On the way back, Masha suddenly let out a scream.
"Hey! I was just casually checking the bracelet's functions, but my score is all weird! Somehow I have 44 points! Why is that?"
Her voice drew everyone to check their own scores.
"Whoa! I've got 19 points!"
"Mine is 26."
"I only have about 15 points, though..."
George and the others reported their scores to each other one after another.
The second-highest after Masha was Mondo.
Huh? I figured even if today's activities earned points, it would only be by single digits...
I hurriedly checked my own score and was surprised to find 41 points displayed.
When I brought up the score breakdown, monster subjugation was 33 points and rescue operations were 8 points.
Come on, do fish count as monsters too?!
Wait, were the 8 points for rescue operations because I made fishing rods for everyone individually?
Two points per rod for four people, something like that? That masterpiece being worth only 2 points is actually the bigger shock.
Still, this scoring system is way too loose... I was exasperated at myself.
And then I caught wind of George and Mondo's conversation.
"A 2-point alert action bonus, huh — so we get a full point just for catching those fish!"
"That's right! I'm pretty sure I caught 24 of them, so that checks out!"
"Don't get cocky just because you won at fishing, Mondo. But this clinches it. I remember catching 17 of them, so one point per fish has to be the right calculation."
This was bad.
They were racking up points way too easily.
I panicked internally.
"Hahahaha, are you serious? Getting points this easily means whoever set this up is an idiot! Those guys in the Desire Clown Troupe or whatever — what a bunch of morons!"
"Right~ I think so too~. I was expecting it to be really tough, but this feels like a breeze~?"
George said that with a laugh, and Aina nodded along cheerfully.
Their laughter stung my ears.
Because I was the one who'd set it up.
Slightly — no, extremely embarrassing.
Since 30 points was the passing mark, Masha had already passed.
Mondo only needed 4 more, and even Aina, who had the lowest score, had earned half.
*My, my. Everything is going according to plan, Master Rimuru.* As I was starting to feel dejected, Cielle spoke to me in a cheerful tone.
What's going according to plan? I asked, and Cielle answered with an air that practically said "I already know."
*With today's activities, the evaluation of Mondo — the underperforming student — will improve. And for Masha, who has a natural gift for magic, you must be planning to assign her a different role, correct?* Wh-what did you say!?
So this grouping was indeed inappropriate after all. I'd just lumped together the most problematic students.
That aside, the real issue was Cielle's words.
—A different role for Masha, she said?
*My, my, you're being modest. Keeping it a secret from even me — just what are you scheming?* Cielle answered with great enthusiasm.
Ha ha ha, she seemed to think I was plotting something.
Needless to say, nothing was going according to plan, and I wasn't scheming anything.
It was all Cielle's misunderstanding, but... I figured I might as well use that to my advantage.
—Heh, as expected of you, Cielle. Nothing gets past you, does it? Mondo seemed a little lacking in confidence, so I gave him a gentle nudge.
*So it was as I thought. But you're being too soft. If you use up a secret technique I carefully saved for something like this —* Oh, um, yeah.
This wasn't some secret technique I'd been saving. I hadn't even noticed the setting myself.
I mean, I never imagined the "1 point for Rank E and below" rule would apply to fish too.
There aren't fish in the dungeon.
Even if there were, they'd be man-eating fish or demon fish that live in swamps.
I did exclude tiny creatures like mosquitoes and fleas, though.
The ones inhabiting Rimuru's... er, the Domain are a different story...
It was entirely my own mistake, but Cielle seemed to take it as one of my calculated stratagems, so my dignity remained intact.
I considered using my Superior Authority to change the bracelet's settings, but decided against it.
If I did that, the scores we'd just earned would look unnatural.
Besides — today was an exceptional haul for fish. Starting tomorrow, the catch would surely drop off.
It was like a one-time bonus stage.
Just as Cielle said, it was like a secret technique.
Even if other students tried to replicate it, it wouldn't be easy.
For starters, preparing fishing rods wouldn't be simple.
Schools don't teach that kind of thing, and it's not the sort of skill you can pick up just by watching.
No one would go so far as to say "you never know" and bring fishing rods along.
And above all — these were rods that I, a gentleman who loves fishing, had crafted with the help of Teacher Cielle's computational abilities. That's why the catch was so impressive.
There was no need to worry on that front.
And so, having achieved a grand catch of 123 fish and amassed a massive haul of points, we made our triumphant return.
◇◇◇ What awaited us back at the meeting point were the haggard, exhausted faces of the other students.
Fruits that looked delicious turned out to be poisonous when appraised with magic.
Hunting wild animals was nearly impossible without proper tools or weapons.
One group had dug a pitfall trap and waited patiently, but the prey never fell in.
Another group had been running appraisal magic on plant after plant, nearly exhausting their mana, and managed to gather only tiny amounts of food.
Yet another group had encountered low-ranking monsters and, far from gathering supplies, had been fighting for their lives.
Every group's results were meager — only a handful of points at best — and they looked quite dejected.
Without question, my group had achieved the best results.
"How come? How is Mondo being so useful!?"
"Shut up, Billy! I was the group leader, so of course he followed my lead!"
One exhausted student, jealous of Mondo's score — someone who normally made fun of him — tried to pick a fight, but George kicked him away.
After that, everyone was shocked by how high our group's score was and demanded to know exactly what we'd done.
Faced with my 33-fish catch and the 8 points from crafting fishing rods totaling 41 points, the students from other groups could only fall silent.
Though the highest score was actually Masha's 44 points.
Masha's magic assistance apparently counted toward the bonus — 39 fish caught plus 5 bonus points for 44 total.
Losing on points didn't bother me, but losing to a fishing beginner on her first time actually catching fish? That I couldn't accept.
Okay, sure, in the second half I'd been crafting fishing rods the whole time... but I was going to have to show her what real skill looked like next time.
Anyway, enough about that.
George, Mondo, Aina, Masha, and the rest explained in detail to the others what we'd done that day.
And so, back at our base, we found fifteen tents already assembled.
They were简易 tents, so apparently they hadn't been too hard to set up.
It looked like everyone had received 1 to 3 points as well, and judging by those scores, you could roughly tell how hard they'd worked.
"Store anything that could be damaged by moisture inside the tents!"
A teacher's voice called out.
They were probably using a large tent as shared storage.
There was even a meeting tent and what was clearly a luxury tent reserved for nobles.
Give me a break — that thing was so extravagant it practically screamed "this is against the rules!"
Well, whatever. I certainly didn't want to sleep on the bare ground, so having tents was a blessing.
It was probably prepared for future camping training and someone had simply forgotten to put it away, but that was a minor issue. Having a luxury tent was hardly something to complain about.
I briefly considered using a gust of wind to blow it away, but that would earn me obstruction penalty points.
Before the night was over, I'd have to think of something to improve the interior of the tent I'd be sleeping in.
As I stared at the assembled tents, the students took a brief rest before diving into dinner preparations.
Our group started working too, so I decided to pitch in.
"So, should the remaining group handle the exploration team's share too?" I asked.
"Let me see... I'd like to, but I'm not very good at cooking..." Masha answered in a heavy tone.
"Not very good? It can't be that bad —"
"Did you have something to say, Mondo-kun?"
Mondo started to open his mouth, but the Intimidation Masha let loose shut him right up.
George was already briskly arranging stones to build a cooking stove, pretending not to have heard any of it, and I decided it was wiser to do the same.
"Aina —"
"What is it, Satoru-kun~?"
Dangerous.
I was about to step on a landmine myself.
I could see George shaking his head in the distance, and I understood that these two were off the battlefield too.
"No, I was just going to ask if you and Masha could gather some dry twigs that could be used as kindling. Would that be okay?"
"Sure!"
"Collecting dry twigs is easy enough~ — combined, our two magic spells make it a breeze~"
George had been signaling for me to make sure they didn't go out of sight.
The area was surrounded by hills, but the forest entrance was clearly visible from here.
Other groups were also going to collect branches for fuel, so two girls together should be fine.
It felt a bit like the traditional gender roles were reversed, but with magic available, division of labor wasn't based on raw physical strength.
So without pressing the issue further, we got to work on our own tasks.
After sending the two "non-combat" girls off, I set about cleaning the fish.
I didn't have a proper kitchen knife, so I used a small survival knife for the prep work. Then I used sticks to quickly remove the internal organs.
My Appraisal Analysis showed everything was fine, but I had the appraisal magic double-checked for toxins and parasites anyway, just to be safe.
"Yup, looks good! No problems with these!"
Mondo said to me in an upbeat voice.
He was probably excited about getting to eat something other than battle rations. I could hear his stomach growling from earlier, so I didn't need to ask how much he was looking forward to it.
"Alright, now all we have to do is grill them."
I nodded and looked up — only to find students from other groups had come to watch.
The academy students had experience with camping training, but apparently none had ever done survival training. So even when handed fish and wild herbs, they had no idea how to prepare them.
I guess that made sense.
"I'll demonstrate one more time, but you lot need to handle your own cooking."
The moment I said that, the students who'd been watching with anxious looks visibly relaxed and hurriedly started cleaning their own fish, fumbling through by imitation.
We'd just finished prepping the exploration team's share when a major problem arose.
There were no seasonings.
Seriously!? We had a survival kit, but what was this teacher thinking!?
I nearly shouted in frustration.
When doing outdoor activities, it should be a cardinal rule to prepare things in advance that can't be obtained naturally.
"I'm terribly sorry! The Space Storage in the tent is quite compressed, you see..."
Teacher A — who wasn't even a student — apologized profusely to me.
I didn't know his name, so A was sufficient.
His hands and head were wrapped in bandages, so he was probably one of the teachers who'd confronted
He'd been the one who brought the tent along, but to me, seasonings were far more important.
"Seasonings should come before tents!"
"I-I'm sorry! During camping training, we normally make do with battle rations, so..."
"You mean you have nothing at all?"
"Well... there's a little salt, if that helps..."
"There's salt? Then that's fine."
That was a relief. A genuine relief.
Salt was versatile enough to avert the worst-case scenario.
There were also some citrus fruits, so salt-grilled fish with a squeeze of juice would be more than sufficient.
Teacher A, still looking sheepish, handed me the salt.
I accepted it with a smile.
Seeing that smile and apparently deciding my anger had dissipated, the brazen Teacher A joined the students and started imitating my preparation technique.
I'd let him off the hook on account of the salt.
The students had been listening to our conversation with worried looks, concerned that the fish might not be edible after all.
But seeing that my anger had subsided, they seemed to relax, figuring it wasn't that bad.
"That kid is scary."
"Totally intense Intimidation, right? Wasn't Mr. Peter terrified?"
"O-of course not! There's no way a teacher would be scared of a civilian, let alone a child!"
I could hear that conversation, but I was in too good a mood to care.
The real problem was the salt.
There was so little of it that it would run out quickly.
Worst case, we'd have nothing left for tomorrow.
As I pondered how to deal with that, I continued my work.
◇◇◇ Dinner was barbecue-style.
Or rather, with no cooking utensils available, our options were limited.
The exploration team had brought back some edible monster meat, so I butchered and portioned that as well.
The students handled that part themselves. Apparently they'd been taught how to butcher monsters in class.
They also knew how to identify what was edible, so there were no concerns on that front.
However, just to be safe, I carefully ran Appraisal Analysis on it and found the processing was far from perfect — the meat had been pounded flat with swords, making the quality close to the worst.
But beggars can't be choosers.
I seasoned it with chopped herbs and salt and laid it all out.
While acting as though this were the most natural thing in the world, Magnus casually sidled up and joined our group.
He looked around, spotted me, and headed over.
An annoying guy, honestly, but I was starting to see him almost like a dog the more time I spent with him.
"Hey there, Satoru-chan! You prepared our share too, didn't you!"
Overly familiar.
And the stares from everyone around were irritating.
He also insisted on calling himself "boku" while trying to act all innocent, which was pretty gross — but dwelling on it was exhausting.
"Not specifically for you or anything."
"Oh my. Could that be what they call 'tsundere'?"
Shut up.
Maybe I'd need to drag him behind the latrines and put him in his place someday.
As I mulled that over, I started grilling the fish I'd caught.
A savory aroma drifted through the air, stimulating our appetites.
With the ultimate seasoning of genuine hunger, combined with the thrill of catching the fish myself, it looked absolutely delicious.
Now, if judged objectively,
"This is incredible! What is this?! This is insanely delicious!"
Magnus, who'd been pestering me, took one bite and shouted.
"You're exaggerating, idiot."
I said that, but I took a bite too.
Delicious!
Seriously!? I couldn't believe how good this fish tasted.
All I'd done was gut it and grill it over fire. The ingredients must have been truly exceptional.
Cheers rose from all around, proving that I wasn't the only one who found it delicious.
Mondo, for instance, was eating with single-minded devotion. Tears even welled up in his eyes as he savored the bliss of having his hunger — which had persisted since that morning — finally satisfied.
Watching us with contempt were the noble young lords, dining at their own table laden with high-end cuisine.
I had no idea how many days' worth of provisions they had, but once again, they seemed to be on a separate menu.
Well, whatever for now.
The monster meat wasn't particularly tasty, but it was edible.
With no seasonings, this was about all you could expect. No need to complain — it was more than enough to fill our stomachs.
And so, we enjoyed a more balanced dinner than I'd expected.
After dinner.
"So, how did the exploration go?"
Now that everyone was full, I asked in the manner of casual conversation.
"It went better than expected. That arrogant guy — Julius, his name is — is surprisingly competent. Being nobility, and royalty at that, he's quite skilled at delegating. Thanks to that, we managed to cover a good distance without a single dropout. Give it another three days and we should be able to see the coastline."
Julius had apparently impressed even Magnus.
If he dropped the whole chosen-people mentality, he might turn out to be reasonably decent.
He seemed to admire Masayuki, so maybe a quick call later to give him a talking-to could straighten him out.
"Hmm, is that so? Strong monsters might show up, so make sure you stay vigilant."
The exploration hadn't encountered any problems today, so I left it at that advice.
I didn't expect any, but I wanted to avoid anyone getting careless and someone getting hurt or killed.
"Heh, you're worried about me."
"Unnecessary concern! There is no way Magnus-sama would ever fall behind against mere monsters!"
The girl who was always at Magnus's side bristled.
"Sure, sure. Just don't let your guard down."
With those words, I stood up.
"Yeah, I know. Rosalie, calm down already."
"I am perfectly calm!"
With those voices at my back, I left to handle the cleanup.
◇◇◇ That night.
I felt the activation of a sleep spell and opened my eyes.
Since I now had a Physical Body identical to a human's, it was possible to simulate sleep by dulling my consciousness, but a sleep spell had no effect on someone who truly never needed to sleep.
That said, the spell's targets weren't me — they were the female students sharing my tent.
I'd been assigned to the same tent as Masha and Aina, along with two others.
I'd said it was fine to put me in the boys' tent, but everyone had shot that down.
"But I'm a man, you know —"
"Even if you're a man, that's not okay."
They'd told me they were more worried about my safety than their own.
Even George, Mondo, and the other boys tried to persuade me, and it became such a hassle that I gave in.
More to the point, I'd gotten so used to being doted on by Shuna and
So there I was in a tent with the girls — and that was when— Someone was approaching. Not a nighttime visitor, it seemed.
"Satoru-dono, are you there?"
A small voice called to me.
I'd been planning to go out myself, but apparently they'd come to me instead.
"Yeah. I'll be right out."
"Heh heh!"
I responded to the summons and quietly slipped out of the tent.
Waiting for me, kneeling respectfully in a show of deference, was a man who introduced himself as William Lowers — an elderly magic instructor from the Ingracia Integrated Academy.
"You noticed?"
"Naturally. I knew the moment I laid eyes on you. However, Lord
As we moved to a different location, he explained: this teacher William was a cooperating agent connected to Souei's network.
Not a spy himself — more like a subordinate of a subordinate of Soka's underlings.
It seemed that when I'd tasked Souei with investigating the academies, the intelligence operatives planted in various nations had sprung into action.
That said, these operatives were focused on monitoring national-level movements, so something like investigating an academy was beneath their usual duties.
They dealt with larger, country-scale incidents — gathering circumstantial evidence of internal corruption, exposing wrongdoing, and certainly not something like pedagogical policies for individual schools. For that, each academy had its own set of cooperating agents.
William was one of them.
"When I received a direct Thought Communication from Lord Souei himself, I thought my heart would stop."
He shuddered as he recalled the memory.
I could imagine.
A low-level operative suddenly being contacted directly by their superior's superior — someone on a completely different level — would certainly be terrifying.
He seemed more afraid of Souei than of me.
No, that was probably the correct response.
Souei — no, the entire intelligence division, including Soka and the other close aides — was particularly harsh with subordinates...
The phrase "just in case" likely didn't exist in their vocabulary.
Failure equals death — other departments feared them for exactly that.
He led me to the teachers' tent.
Inside, several teachers were kneeling.
At the forefront was Brown — the combat instructor who'd been the first to lose to Laplace — along with Puri, a school nurse, and Bram, a portly magic instructor.
There was also the beautiful doctor who'd treated the injured teachers, and the older man who'd analyzed the bracelet.
Then there was Heinrich, an intellectual-looking researcher — the one who'd pointed out the Magicule storm blanketing the island.
And — trembling violently, shaking from head to toe — Peter-sensei, Teacher A, the man who'd given me the salt earlier.
"Oh? It's you, Peter-sensei."
"GAH! P-please forgive me!"
It was a magnificent prostration, I had to admit.
An exquisitely performed jumping prostration from a kneeling position — genuinely spectacular.
I'd never seen anyone literally leap into a bow before.
"I'm not going to do anything to you."
"R-really!? Then... you'll let me off!?"
Let you off for what? I thought, but his reaction was way too suspicious.
"Before I decide that, why don't you tell me what you did."
His attitude toward me alone wouldn't have been enough to make him this terrified.
So I asked, and out it came — a litany of laziness.
The tent, it turned out, had been left as-is simply because tidying it up every time was too much trouble. A trivial offense, but there were many of them.
I cut short the confession of these utterly pathetic transgressions.
"Got it. Three months' pay reduction."
"Wh—eh? Ha, haha!!"
"But don't slack off from now on, okay?"
"N-naturally!"
"That's that."
Deciding that pressing further would just be ridiculous, I let Peter off with just the pay cut.
And then.
Each person formally introduced themselves.
The teachers present were all cooperating agents under the intelligence division's surveillance — meaning they were dedicated, uncorrupted individuals.
There were some like Peter, but his laziness was a personality trait rather than corruption.
All three Tempest teachers on the island were here.
As it turned out, Peter himself was a combat instructor at the Tempest Human Resource Development Academy.
I was relieved that none of the Tempest teachers under my own roof were corrupt.
Back in the homeland, Souei and his people were probably already making their moves, and I had no idea how things stood there. But at the very least, it was a relief that none of the corrupt ones were here.
From the Ingracia Integrated Academy, there was Teacher William and the portly Bram.
From NNU Magic Science Research Academy, only Heinrich.
These were the cooperating agents.
In any case, these six could be trusted.
I decided to bring them all in on my plans and began consulting with them about what came next.