Leveling Up With Traps

Leopin had gone and created a base.

That fact completely crushed the principal and vice principal.

“I–it’s real… there really is a base…”

“The plan was for our academy to establish a base two years from now…”

The principal snapped back to his senses and sprayed spittle at the vice principal.

“V–Vice Principal! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! At a frontier academy, the fastest record for establishing a base is 793 days! If a base was established in only two days, that is a massive new record! If we submit this, our demotion will be erased!”

“Th–that’s true, but… We can’t exactly submit a base established by trash from the ‘Special Training Class’…”

“Ggh… that’s right…!”

As if he had forgotten the most important detail, the principal clutched his head.

Then the vice principal cried, “That’s it!” like a brilliant idea had struck him.

“Principal! Then we should move up our schedule and make the students prioritize base building! If unemployed trash can build a base alone, then if we have a large group of excellent students do it, they can do it even faster!”

“T–that is true as well! Then we shall choose a project leader from among the students and put them in charge!”

They waited until early the next morning and summoned a certain student to the principal’s office.

“…Did you need something from me?”

“Oh, Weiss-kun! How are you feeling?”

“Yes, thanks to the nurse, I’m completely recovered. Um, about the demotion incident—this wasn’t my fault—”

“Now, now. What is done is done! More importantly, there is something we want you to do!”

“That’s right! Weiss-kun is a Sage! Use your abundant Intelligence and Knowledge stats to turn the residential district into a base!”

“A base? But building a base was supposed to be much later…”

“No, no. If a student as capable as you takes command, it is more than possible even starting now! By special authority, I hereby appoint you as Base Committee Chair!”

“And you may use students from other classes to build it as well!”

“Hmph. I understand. With current manpower and supplies, building a base would be difficult—but for me, it is possible. No, it would be fair to say that no one but me could do it.”

“Then you will accept!?”

“Yes. But in return, I have a request as well. If the base is successfully established… I want you to appoint me as student council president.”

“Oh, that much is easy enough!”

“That’s right! If you break the record for the fastest base establishment, that is more than enough justification to appoint you as student council president!”

I woke up pleasantly, bathed in sunlight streaming through my window.

“Mmm… slept great. And there wasn’t any prank like yesterday where someone stuck black paper on my window, so I didn’t oversleep.

Yeah—building a fence around the house really was the right call.”

Stretching, I peered outside through the window.

And there, hanging from a tree in the yard, was a gigantic cocoon.

It seemed someone had gotten caught in my wire trap, struggled to escape, and only ended up getting even more tangled.

The cocoon slowly rotated to face me.

I locked eyes with a familiar face.

“So it’s Shinobuko. You were trying to sneak into someone’s house again.”

Shinobuko didn’t answer—she just stared at me with her usual resentful, unblinking gaze.

Only her lips moved silently: Help me.

“Good grief. Let this be a lesson—don’t try sneaking in again. If you have business with me, come in normally through the gate.”

I pulled a Gisu Shuriken from my pocket and flicked it toward the thread.

The thread snapped, and Shinobuko dropped to the ground with a thud.

Still wrapped up in wire, Shinobuko wriggled away like an inchworm.

When she reached the gate, she rolled over and looked back.

“Next time we meet, it will be a fight to the death!”

Spitting out her usual parting threat, she dragged herself away.

Then immediately after that, I heard a groan from below the window.

“Ugh…”

When I looked down, the pit trap had collapsed.

I leaned over and peered into the bottom—and once again, I met a familiar face staring back up at me.

“Vice Principal, what are you doing?”

The vice principal was sprawled at the bottom, positioned so he barely avoided being skewered by the wooden stakes I had planted.

With a face like he was about to die, he begged,

“H–help me…”

I started to feel sorry for him, so I went out into the yard and used the Gisu Ladder I had made earlier to pull him out.

He seemed to have twisted his ankle from the fall, but he looked remarkably energetic.

Because the moment he noticed his suit was torn to shreds and caked in mud, he screamed,

“Gyaaaah!? My custom-made suit is ruined!? A suit commoners couldn’t buy even if they stood on their heads! I haven’t even finished paying it off yet! And after that demotion, my salary is going to drop too! And yet— and yet— uuuuuuh!?”

He collapsed on all fours, pounding the ground in frustration.

“Vice Principal. Let this be a lesson—if you need something from me, please come through the gate properly.”

The vice principal glared at me.

“There’s no way I would ever have business with a student from the ‘Special Training Class’…”

“Then why were you in my yard?”

But he didn’t answer. Using a fallen branch as a cane, he started hobbling away like an old man.

And just like Shinobuko, when he reached the gate, he looked back.

“There are no classes today. The entire school has free time for frontier work. Dig holes or whatever and amuse yourself.”

He delivered a message that wasn’t even clearly a parting insult, then staggered off.

As I watched his back, my body began to glow, like morning dew catching sunlight.

“Leveling up by trapping a classmate and a teacher… I might’ve done something a little bad.”