Loki was a third academy student. Slender, tall and with jet black hair, he often went unnoticed, blending into the background.

As for his variant class, it was a peculiar ability to switch two objects of equal size or mass. It started out weak, only able to switch two objects about the size of an apple – but as his powers grew the ability gave him the power to switch humans. Unfortunately, it was still a long way from being useful in combat, so he could only rely on his cunning to get himself some exp, and today, his craftiness in speech-mastery had paid off – he and some other weaker students were given an escort through a dungeon: Smiley, aka Matheson.

“Just wait a second.” Smiley glared at some weaker adventurers with him, making them stop in their tracks right before a dungeon entrance.

Smiley was still trapped inside mirror reality 34, and had not given up on his escape.

Every day he tested ideas, tested people, and questioned students. He was slowly cultivating a wealth of knowledge, listening and secretly learning, and after ‘good behavior’ he was granted access to various classes offered to the students.

The ‘good behavior’ he was practicing? He asked if he could help students through dungeons.

Because he was trapped here, and had a paralysis parasite attached to his spine, they gave him a lot of free reign, so his request didn’t raise any red flags.

To protect him from the students he was given a special position as a trainer-assistant, leaving him with authority somewhere between a student and a teacher.

Unfortunately, because some students couldn’t use their powers during sword training, they were left vengeful after he crushed them, and a few small things had already happened which kept his senses heightened and alert at all times: The students began to curse him.

He found that he kept tripping when he walked up stairs. No matter how slowly or carefully he placed each foot, he would trip on at least one step whenever he tried to ascend a set of stairs. Another changed his hair from golden blond to a deep blue color whenever he ate food.

The curses were annoying at first, but quickly grew much more insidious, such as when he picked up a blade he would have a strong desire to cut himself with it, and the desire would only go away once he drew blood.

It was as much a test of his will as it was his sanity, but despite the curses, his anger didn’t flare up. He learned to remain calm, calculating and cold while he stored up his wrath for two things: working out and sword training.

The mirror reality students were as much of a test as any dungeon, and little did they know that they were slowly forging him into something stronger. Something that looked nothing like Matheson a few months ago.

Today would be the second time he took a group of three students into a dungeon.

One of them sighed, “Come on. You know we had to beg Evelynn to get you, let’s get this over with.” An adventurer asked.

“Loki, just be quiet and wait.” Another one said, holding their hand up as they watched Smiley thinking.

Loki glanced at the third adventurer with them, who said nothing and looked away, then glanced at Smiley.

Smiley was scratching his chin, stepping into and out of the dungeon entrance. Loki noticed that his eyes were not just looking at the dungeon entrance notifications, but darted to the side, like he was trying to see something in the air around them.

“Is there something wrong with the dungeon?” Loki asked.

“Be quiet.” Smiley said, ignoring them all as he thought to himself.

A dungeon entrance in a mirror reality… they can’t have copied an entire dungeon… so is the dungeon a copy or will this take me through the dungeon entrance in the real world…? He wondered, then pointed to one of the students.

“You. Go in first. The rest of you wait.” Smiley demanded.

One student stepped forward and accepted the dungeon invitation – a black void surrounded them and they suddenly disappeared into a silver shimmer of light.

All of them watched the student disappear, except for Loki, who watched Smiley’s eyes widen for a fraction of a second.

Smiley found a clue.

The other dungeon entrance did the same thing – they disappeared into a black void followed by a silver shimmer… so this is a portal to the real entrance… Smiley thought.

Loki patted the other student on the shoulder and smiled, “You can go next,” and then turned to stare at Smiley’s reaction again.

This time, as the student disappeared, Smiley’s lips slightly curled.

Loki raised a brow – he didn’t even think this person had emotions; Smiley was more like a cold stone than a human.

“You discovered something.” Loki said slowly, removing his fake smile that he used on other adventurers.

Smiley looked back at Loki, right into his eyes with an unblinking stare.

“Go in.”

Loki said nothing as his eyelids slightly lowered and his shoulders slouched, and he disappeared into the dungeon entrance.

“So they can’t copy dungeons…” Smiley whispered, his lips slightly curled, then stepped closer to the entrance.

But will it teleport me directly into the dungeon, or to the dungeon entrance, and then into it?

Smiley kept his eyes wide open during the portal teleportation, hoping to see a glimpse of the outside world before entering the dungeon.

Unfortunately, the black veil of void wrapped around him, and there was nothing except darkness before he found himself inside a dungeon.

Smiley sighed as he found himself in the dungeon. Two students were looking around the dungeon for threats, but Loki was looking directly at him.

“What.” Smiley glared.

“Nothing…” Loki looked away.

Together, they began to go through the dungeon. Smiley didn’t give much guidance, or really seem to care. He waited at the back of the party and let them fight for a while, but became annoyed and began to fight through it himself.

The monsters in this dungeon were bamboo demons, but were very low level and could only take on forms that resembled humanoid stick insects – easily cleaved apart by Smiley’s sword mastery.

Smiley did some observing and watched the students fight, and even felt some pity of Loki.

Loki’s skill was hardly threatening, and didn’t contribute a lot to the team, as all he did was swap nearby trees with the bamboo demons. The bamboo demons were swapped away before they could strike his allies, and while it was useful because it bought a second in combat, a shield would have done the same.

It’s no wonder he’s here. What a useless ability… but there’s nothing stopping him from learning how to use a sword – he just won’t put in the effort to become stronger, replying on his class instead. It’s a wonder they labeled him a variant in the first place. What a pitiful person, Smiley thought, watching Loki with a disdainful frown.

They reached the end of the dungeon and fought through a few waves of enemies while they protected something called the ‘moon altar’, and finally, the dungeon was over as a portal appeared.

Similar to last time, Smiley sent the students out one by one, as he keenly watched the portal, and like last time, Loki went last.

But as the other two disappeared, Loki stopped.

“You’ve noticed something about the portal? I see the way you look at it. You put less concentration into fighting the demons.”

Smiley glared, then tilted his head towards the portal, gesturing him to enter.

“I can help you… I know you have restricted access to a few areas of the academy, but I don’t.”

Smiley raised a brow.

“Just think about it.” Loki said, then disappeared through the portal.