an illusion of mind

"Clubs will be opening up, so you will be given the next few days to join the clubs you are interested in, keep in mind you are required to join at least one club." the professor finished closing his book and walking out, "that's all for today, you are dismissed."

"Club activities?"

"I know what club I'm joining, what about you guys?" Arron said turning towards the others.

"I'm gonna join the adventurer's club, what about you?" Adam said, he had been hanging around them for a while now, after he chose to stand up against Regina, they sort of just accepted him in their group.

"same." Rica spoke up.

"yeah, me too." David turned towards them.

"are we all just gonna join the adventurer's club?" Arron said frowning a little.

"it's a fairly popular club don't blame us." Rica shrugged.

"hey, guys, what clubs are you joining?" Amanda said walking up to them, Suzi walked next to her, she looked about normal now, she had two weeks to recover after all.

"we're gonna join the adventurer's club, and you?" Rica responded, as a noble she was pretty tense around the princess at first, but she had warmed up to her after all.

"then let's go together, we're also joining." she said smiling with one hand on her hip.

at the Club room, they stood in front of the club leader who was sitting on a wooden chair with a couple of papers on it.

his name was Edwin blackwood and he was a senior in the royal class of the third years, he was the son of the guild master of the adventurer's guild, his sister was also in the freshmen Royal class.

"so you are the nineth royal class applicant..." he said writing down Amanda's name.

"nineth?" she said turning around and looking at her friends, they were only seven, "were there others?"

"yeah, there was the archduke lumine's daughter, and another blonde girl with red eyes." he replies, not taking his eyes off the papers.

"Evelyn? I didn't expect her to be here, and also blonde with red eyes? Regina?" hearing Regina's name Suzi peeked from over her shoulder and gritted her teeth, "her? damn it..."

"why is something wrong?" Edwin said taking his eyes off the papers, looking up at her.

"well... Suzi and her got into a fight... and it didn't turn out too well..."

"I see, if that's gonna hinder club activities you better have it sorted." he said turning his eyes back to his papers.

"n-no... it's fine, it might be a little annoying to deal with her but I won't cause trouble." Suzi said gritting her teeth.

"that's great, then now that your names are written down please sign this if you intend to join the dungeon dive next week." he handed them a piece of paper smiling.

one after another they sign next to their names.

"thank, you now all of you can leave, I'll see you next week."

they left the club room one after another.

"are you guys ready?"

Edwin's eyes roamed over the fresh men, they were split into teams and they wore basic armour and had basic equipment, they stood in the middle of a forest among the trees, a big rocky stump which was the entrance to a dungeon.

"let me go over the rules one more time." he spoke holding up a finger.

"combat is allowed considering this is a competition after all, the teams that gathers the most points wins depending on the difficulty level of the monster, F- rank monsters are worth 1 point, E ranks are 3 points, D- ranks are 5 points, there are no C- ranks in this dungeon considering the high difficulty level of those types, you are permitted to steal other team's points, and of course you will have to provide evidence to confirm your kills, and other than that, have fun." the club leader said finishing and finally gestured for the first team to enter.

there were over 7 teams that had 7 teams each, Amanda, Adam and Arron ended up in the same team, while the rest were scattered through the other teams, Evelyn and Regina were also present which grated at Suzi's nerves.

the first team walked up to the cave and entered, they were instructed to enter five minutes apart so as to not run into each other and start fighting right off the start.

Amanda's team was up right after that.

after all the teams entered the dungeon Edwin waited outside sitting on a wooden chaired previously placed there and simply waited.

in the dungeon.

Amanda's group walked through the dark cavern with a torch in hand, she lead the group deeper into the dungeon, making sure to mark the walls with slashes from her rapier.

"princess? are you sure about this?" a short male student said, walking hesitantly behind her.

"just relax and trust in our princess, she's a royal class student for a reason~" a skinny male student said wrapping his arm around the short student's neck in a reassuring gesture.

they were all interrupted by a loud roar that shook the cave, and a claw emerged from a turn in the cave and a monster emerged, it had dark green scales that covered it from head to tow, except for the stomach, neck and chin which were in a beige colour, it's thick tail swayed from side to side as it looked at it's prey with predatory eyes, the princess froze, it is her first time seeing a monster.

she looked back at her team and they shook in their boots.

"i-it's a krokodis... it's a D rank monster..." one student with glasses said as he took a step back.

"stay back I'll handle this." the princess took a step forward and took position, she pointed her rapier towards the monster, Arron also stepped beside her his sword at the ready, while Adam stood besides them his daggers at the ready.

"you too, I want to fight it. alone." she spoke her voice serious as she looked back at Arron and Adam.

"w-what?! princess, fighting a D rank monster alone is dangerous we shou-" a student protested but Amanda ignored him and rushed at the monster, her rapier encased in shining golden light, she lunged for the monster her body glowing brightly.

the monster roared slightly blinded by the light it's eyes were used to the darkness of the cave so sudden light like that would stun it, it swiped it's claws forward blindly.

and Amanda took advantage of that, she ducked under it's swing before jumping next to it's face and slashing with her rapier mid air.

a loud thud reverberated through the dungeon and Amanda looked down to her feet, she jumped back when she saw the monster's head there, what? why is it... before she could finish her thoughts another thud was heard as the monster's body fell after it's head with delay.

the other students looked on in awe at the princess's prowess.

"looks like D rank isn't too hard I guess." Arron said looking at the monster's corpse.

"no, you fool, it's the princess who is strong not the monster who is weak." Adam said explaining.

"there is no way a normal rapier would have slashed that krokodis's head off so easily, she must have used man coating or aura, I heard the princess has magical capabilities so the former is probably right." Adam said a hand on his chin.

Arron was too fixated on Amanda, "nice work Amanda!" he said loudly which stole Amanda's attention, "thanks? I expected at least a little struggle but I guess it was easier than I thought."

several other loud roars reverberated through the cave.

three more krokodis appeared this time accompanied by several lizard creatures that were E grade monsters, they were big lizards who's height reached an average human's knee, but their length is quiet big.

the princess knew she was going to be busy for a long time.

Regina walked through the dungeon along with her group, she walked confidently with a big smile on her face, nobody from the royal class was with her, the other normal students followed after her quietly, she abruptly and suddenly stopped to turn towards them with a big smile.

"...is something wrong?" one broad shouldered student asked.

"no, but I will be leaving to go alone from here on." she said simply and the other student's eyes widened.

"you can't do that!" one female student with long pointy ears said her voice tinged with concern.

an elf? come to think of it don't we have an elf in the royal class? wasn't her name Liluth?

Elfs were always like this, they were always concerned for the well being of any living being, weather it be a human elf or dwarf, but that is a weakness in my opinion.

"you can't stop me, I'm leaving." she said simply turning away and walking into the dark cave.

"wait!" the elf yelled at her, but another student put their hand on her shoulder, "don't bother, royal class students are always this arrogant, let her learn her lesson the hard way." he spoke simply.

the elf just looked at Regina walking away and stepped back reluctantly.

time to have fun~