The Celestial Maiden’s Young Master in Another World - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 21. Infinite Descent Battle
At the Baptism Ceremony, an angel descended.
Just moments before, holy flames had blazed up in a rush.
The story that Lian had been chosen by an angel had circulated fairly often already.
‘He must have been taught the angel’s script!’
Rahil Runstia was a professor researching ancient holy magic.
The ancient holy magical circles he was currently studying contained things impossible to tell apart—whether graffiti or actual writing.
He had come to believe those were the angel’s script.
What was drawn on Lian’s Steel Pipe looked remarkably similar to them.
‘The materials are damaged and I can’t make out the details clearly. I should just ask Lian about it!’
Almost at the point of certainty!
A strange misunderstanding was swelling.
***
Individual testing was finished.
Corin would have passed even blindfolded.
Lumiel and Adrian were both drinking the bitter cup of failure in tandem.
Now they had to choose their second preference.
“Come to Zerotil.”
I spoke for Corin, who was hemming and hawing without getting a word out.
It seemed like Corin wanted them all to go to the same dormitory together anyway.
“Think about it. Right now the top three from the Baptism Ceremony are all in Zerotil.”
“….”
“This year will be different, I’m telling you.”
It was a reasonable prediction.
Because.
‘I’m going to make it that way!’
-Where’d I get all this confidence?
‘Born with this face, you just end up being born with confidence too, I guess.’
And then there’s Lionel Londoa.
Londoa had always been quite popular.
And from what I saw earlier, his skills were outstanding.
‘His swordsmanship was pretty solid.’
Lionel’s score was eighty-eight.
At least I’ve got the reincarnation buff. That guy is just a natural-born monster.
Lumiel, caught in deliberation upon deliberation.
Finally.
“Fine! Okay. I’m going to Zerotil.”
“Yay! So we’re all getting back together in Group 13?”
“Since when was Zerotil your second choice?”
“I was planning to go to Zerotil the moment I failed anyway. If I can’t go to be a battle priest, I might as well be with friends.”
Adrian naturally fell in line with the Zerotil crowd.
“Yay!”
Corin’s face bloomed with joy.
Felt oddly proud about that.
Lumiel and Adrian both made their second-preference choices.
“Next, we will hold the Dormitory Competition. Please gather at your respective dormitory locations.”
The time had come to raise Zerotil’s standing for real.
Zerotil Dormitory.
Having been last in first-choice applications for years, the children’s faces had always worn a dull expression.
This year was subtly different.
‘The top three from the Baptism Ceremony are all here…?’
‘What’s this? Is there some trend I missed?’
Suddenly the upper-ranked students from the Baptism Ceremony had all gathered in Zerotil, making their chances very high!
‘Even though we came here after failing first selection, maybe this year could actually work out?’
‘Since the rookie is here in Zerotil, maybe this year could actually be okay!’
The defeat that had always marked the children’s faces wasn’t visible this time.
And that was rather remarkable.
Because they weren’t losing the battle before it even started!
“I think there were prizes for the Dormitory Competition.”
“Yeah. The winning dormitory gets some benefits.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You seriously didn’t read the academy entrance requirements?”
‘It’s basically a Korean national pastime to skip instruction manuals.’
-But you’re not Korean anymore, Lian.
My soul is, though.
Osten Academy held Dormitory Competitions every semester.
When you first enrolled, they gave you a preview version to try.
But apparently, in the competition held during the entrance ceremony, all members of the winning dormitory received coins.
“Coins?”
“You really came in here knowing absolutely nothing, didn’t you….”
“I thought this was an academy, so I was just going to study and try to get good grades.”
Lumiel clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
What’s the issue?
“You need Osten Coins to study properly in the first place.”
Excuse me?
“You earn them through your academic performance and activities. Any lecture besides the mandatory courses can only be taken if you buy them with these Osten Coins.”
“Huh?”
“And on top of that, the competitive classes even use an auction system.”
“Huh?!”
That can’t be right.
‘That’s insane. So I absolutely have to win this Dormitory Competition!’
“Originally, first-year students in their first semester don’t have coins, so they can only take mandatory courses. Only students who win the Dormitory Competition can sign up for elective lectures.”
Beyond that, everything from library checkouts to weapon repairs all cost coins, apparently.
The only thing you get without coins is the basic meal plan, I think she said?
‘There’s no way around doing well academically.’
Ruthless academic supremacy!
‘Isn’t this even worse than Korea?’
-It couldn’t be.
But it really does seem worse.
“So what exactly do they do in the Dormitory Competition?”
This was the important part.
“Normally the Dormitory Competition includes both Monster Subjugation Battles and One-on-One Combat, but during the entrance ceremony they only do the subjugation battle.”
“Why?”
“Because they need to select which students participate in the one-on-one matches, so they can’t do that right away.”
From what I gathered, it was a five-on-five setup.
‘Five on five…?’
I’d been too naive thinking it was something like basketball.
“So the subjugation battle is a team event?”
“Yeah.”
Hmm.
After the entrance ceremony, I should probably read those entrance requirements properly.
There were quite a few unexpectedly interesting parts to all this.
“What you’re entering is a Labyrinth with an endlessly descending structure. Your goal is to go as deep as possible.”
The Infinite Descent Battle.
Apparently that was the name of the Dormitory Competition we were about to do.
“So the entrance ceremony really does use the Infinite Descent Battle.”
“There are other types?”
“Yeah. There’s the Speed Trial and the Survival Defense Battle. Among them, the Infinite Descent Battle is the easiest and safest, so they pretty much only use it for the entrance ceremony.”
Was all of that really in the entrance requirements?
Or had Lumiel just done a lot of research?
‘Well, I’ve got someone right next to me to explain everything, so it’s convenient either way.’
Inside the Labyrinth, there was an exit on each floor, so if you felt like you’d reached your limit, you could escape before descending to the next level.
The deeper you went, the higher the difficulty climbed, and as each new floor approached, more people dropped out.
It was structured so the probability of clearing the next floor dropped exponentially!
‘And if you wipe out completely, you get zero points.’
After clearing a floor, you had to assess your team’s condition and decide whether to evacuate everyone or attempt the next level!
“So as long as you don’t get wiped out, your score keeps climbing.”
“But you can’t break through with just one or two people.”
“Well, you’ll know once you’re actually in there.”
Just as I was about to focus on the warnings that were coming up next.
“Heh—”
A laugh drifted from somewhere nearby, cutting straight through my ears.
‘That’s unsettling.’
Lumiel and the other children around me didn’t seem to hear it.
I tilted my ear toward the sound.
“Hey, look at those Zerotil kids’ faces. You think they actually believe they can win?”
“There are still kids out there who think Baptism Ceremony grades reflect actual ability.”
A mocking voice reached my ears.
‘Hm… for future clerics, that’s pretty harsh talk.’
I glanced over—the voice came from a child standing with Delusel’s group.
Brown hair and brown eyes, the most common coloring in this country.
“There’s nothing worth seeing from Zerotil anyway. Isn’t Lionel Londoa all hype? Isn’t Lian Luderstsk just as much?”
The mockery seemed to radiate outward from that child as its center.
Well, I agree that Baptism Ceremony grades don’t reflect actual strength.
I mean, Corin came in last, didn’t she?
‘Still, I think you lot could actually lose if you put in real effort.’
Come on, let’s see how you fare when skill is on the line.
I smirked and turned my head away.
Once the orientation concluded,
we lined up in front of the portal leading into the Labyrinth, each carrying our personal equipment.
Zerotil Dormitory had twelve members total.
That was a significant gap compared to the other dormitories, which had fifteen or fourteen.
“But we have fewer people. Doesn’t that put us at a disadvantage?”
“Teams that don’t reach the maximum number of members receive bonus points calculated from each missing member’s contribution, I’m told.”
Ah.
Since no one voiced complaints, they must have all known this already.
Looking around at the twelve lined-up children, I recognized only the familiar blue-haired one; the rest were strangers.
‘Even so, these seven-year-olds manage not to cry and stand their ground pretty well.’
—Probably because of the Blessing.
The Blessing?
—The Blessing given by this world’s main deity is powerful enough that children can be brave.
That would explain it.
It makes sense now why the children so readily believed in God and carried themselves with such composure.
‘I was worried they’d give me strange looks. But since everyone’s strange together, it should be fine.’
—You look like an ordinary seven-year-old, so don’t worry.
‘That feels a bit odd to hear, honestly.’
I passed through the portal while chatting with Eli.
Whoooosh—
After passing through a tingling sensation, I emerged into a corridor surrounded by brick walls.
“It’s like a tower structure?”
“Come on, let’s go!”
The children walked forward carefully, half curious and half tense.
The wide corridor would have seemed like a public space if not for the way it only opened forward.
“Kee-eeek! Kee-eee-ek!”
“There’s a sound up ahead!”
An unidentified noise echoed from the far end of the hallway.
What emerged from the darkness was—
“A one-horned rabbit.”
A Danger Level 5 monster.
A rabbit with a single horn on its head, reaching up to the waist of a seven-year-old child.
“A monster… it’s a monster!”
Tension settled over the children’s faces.
‘Tension… over what?’
Over a one-horned rabbit?
As I made a dubious expression, Lumiel jabbed my ribs with her elbow.
“Hey. Most kids don’t train with monsters before entering the academy, you know.”
“I did.”
And it was with a Level 4 Silver-Maned Wolf.
“That’s just you being unusual.”
But you all came to my house and sparred with them regularly anyway.
Only Squad 13 showed no fear at the sight of the single-horned rabbit.
‘Wait, that one’s not nervous either.’
The blue-haired figure standing at a distance.
Lionel Londoa didn’t look particularly tense either.
Well, since he came from a Paladin Order household, maybe he’d actually trained against monsters before?
I tapped Adrian on the shoulder, and he nodded with grim determination.
“Combat is all about momentum! Let’s go!”
Adrian burst forward first, ahead of the hesitating children.
Still towering a head above the others, he stood out clearly.
Thud!
Adrian’s shield struck two single-horned rabbits simultaneously.
The shield glowed softly with a golden light.
‘Nice.’
In one motion, he’d successfully channeled destructive power through the shield—I could see the tip of the rabbit’s horn shatter.
The shield cracked into the ground with a sharp sound.
“Attack!”
The moment Adrian gave the order, I surged forward.
Crack!
“Shriek!”
I swung the Steel Pipe at the rabbits swarming Adrian, and they scattered back smoothly.
At the same time, Ice Magic from Lumiel flew in from behind!
Sharp ice shards cascaded down on the single-horned rabbit.
Though they didn’t pierce through, they dealt enough damage.
Corin’s Healing Attack poured down on the wounded rabbit!
Boom! Bang!
The rabbit’s skin ruptured outward from the tiny wounds.
Sizzle.
After practicing together so often, our movements were perfectly synchronized.
‘So these really are actual monsters.’
When I defeated the demon created in the Labyrinth during the Baptism Ceremony, I’d felt a subtle difference in quality compared to the lesser demons. Now, that difference was gone.
There was real Mana flowing from these creatures.
I could sense it directly.
If I only channeled it through holy power, mimicking the feel of Mana, it wouldn’t be real—I wouldn’t be able to absorb it.
But now, through the Prophet’s Eye, the Mana was being absorbed directly.
That was proof: what stood before me was no illusion from the Labyrinth, but a genuine monster.
“Adrian, shield again!”
“You got it!”
Adrian raised his shield again, drawing aggro from the single-horned rabbit ahead and striking it.
“Everyone together! Attack!”
“Hya, hya!”
“Let’s go!!”
The other children finally moved at the sight of us fighting.
With their morale rising, the single-horned rabbits posed little real threat.
Even if we stumbled in the first selection round, everyone here was a future priest.
We had the ability—that much was certain.
We cleared the first floor without difficulty.
And naturally, no one was left behind.
I’m not sure if calling it the basement was even accurate.
In any case, we descended steadily.
The creatures multiplied as we went deeper, but down to Floor 6, we only encountered single-horned rabbits.
The anomaly began on Floor 6.
“What? Three-horned stags!”
Mixed among the single-horned rabbits were stags with two horns on their heads and three more jutting from their backs.
Three times the size of the rabbits, they attacked using the spines along their backs.
If those horns grazed you, weak paralysis set in—your hands trembled, your legs shook.
“Ugh!”
Adrian’s shield didn’t trigger an attribute conversion as he charged forward.
The casting probability was only fifty percent; it couldn’t be helped.
“Aaaaah!”
Crack-crack-crack!
The three-horned deer retreated a step, then twisted its body and struck its back against the Shield.
Stripped of enhancement, the Shield transmitted the full force of the blow straight through to Adrian.
Adrian’s hands trembled violently!
Scritch—
The Shield, woven of wood and steel, scraped against the deer’s antlers.
Crack—
Whoosh— Ugh!
The Steel Pipe connected cleanly with the deer’s face, snapping its head sharply to the side.
‘If it gets distracted by aggro, it’s mine to hit.’
Right on schedule.
Easy.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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