"Does anyone have an idea where we are?" asked rlin, picking up his glasses that had fallen off.
It wasn't just him confused about what dungeon we were in. Forget Arthurr who had only just recently arrived in this city and knew very little. Forget Sarakit, who would much rather spend her ti brewing potions than being here.
I, soone who had read the novel, wasn't aware of this dungeon.
I had information that no one else had, plus I had done my own research about dungeons within a thousand-kiloter radius of where I lived.
This dungeon was not one that I recognized.
Everyone shook their head.
Quentin entered a few seconds later. There was a cigarette between his lips.
"Next ti, could we get a warning before you throw us into a dungeon?" asked Sarakit, a little shaken up.
"Will the demons warn you when they attack?" he asked.
"..."
"Exactly. Now, gather up. We're here to train and get stronger, but there are a few things that we have to go over first," he said.
We did as he asked.
The four of us stood in front of him, waiting to see what instructions he had.
"Don't lose. Alright. Go!"
"...Is that all?" asked rlin, tilting his head.
Sarakit looked like she had a raincloud above her head. She was probably regretting her decision to accept my offer to join my team.
Arthurr was the only one who had a positive reaction. Nodding, he reached into his inventory and pulled out a saber.
I on the other hand, I had already assud that Quentin was going to say sothing like that and had unwrapped the bandages around Gon.
'Master, it's good to head back into battle,' Gon said, having woken up earlier this morning.
It was good to hear from her but a part of was a little confused as to why Quentin was letting us use actual weapons rather than forcing wooden weapons on us in order to train.
Was this an indication of how difficult the dungeon is?
"Don't worry about dying. I'll be sure to rescue you when you're… six or seven milliters away from death," Quentin laughed as he took a few steps backward and disappeared into the shadows.
His presence completely disappeared.
Reaching into my bag, I took out a new pair of glasses. The one from before had broken during the battle against Selgaath.
The mont I put them on, the dungeon went from looking like I was in soone's poorly lit basent to looking like I was standing outside where the sun was directly above my head.
The dungeon revealed itself to . Every dungeon looked different from the others. They sotis shared similarity but if you looked closely, you could tell the differences.
The walls in this dungeon weren't stone. At least, not a normal stone that I've seen before.
It was a dull, pale gray color that was smooth as if it had been polished over centuries.
Yet when I looked more closely, there were faint veins of a darker material running through the gray. The floor and ceiling shared the sa color, material, and flawlessness, with no cracks or dust specks.
There were barely any torch and each one just gave enough light to see about a third of the dungeon.
The passage we were in stretched far ahead of us.
Although I could see with my glasses, for the others, I asked, "rlin, can you throw a fireball down the passage?"
"Yep," he responded and obliged. rlin's natural elent was fire and that's how he first made a na for himself. So when people saw him use other elents during battle, their first reaction was that it was the ability of an artifact or maybe codes.
But no. He had invented a new technique that allowed him to beco the greatest wizard alive.
The passage was at least a hundred ters straight, maybe more. There were no turns, no doors, just a long open line that dared us to walk down it.
"This place is weird," Sarakit muttered. "Where are the monsters?"
rlin, adjusting his glasses, nervously gulped.
We began moving. Arthurr and I took the front naturally as we were close-range attackers.
I was at the very front with Gon by my side and Arthurr was maybe a step or two behind on my left.
Behind us, Sarakit and rlin stayed close together.
I knew that rlin was a paranoid person, so I wasn't surprised when he kept looking behind us every few seconds as if he was expecting sothing to crawl out of the walls and ambush us.
Sarakit had her bag that hung over her shoulder open. Her fingers were hovering near the vials and potion bottles inside, ready to pull one out to either buff us or harm the enemies.
"How long is this thing?" Sarakit whispered.
It was like those words were the keyword because as soon as she asked that question, the ceiling above us opened. It didn't crack or shatter. It peeled apart as if it were living flesh.
Dozens of monsters dropped straight down.
"Enemies!" Arthurr shouted. Without a sound, the monsters hit the ground, and the ones that were dropping above us were propelled away by Arthurr's spatial magic.
One of the first things that I noticed about these monsters was that they looked like they had no weight to them.
When they were falling, they unfolded themselves midair and landed on all fours.
The monsters were tall, each one standing nearly three ters tall. They had these elongated, insect-like limbs that bent the wrong way at the joints.
Their bodies were thin and plated, layered in overlapping sheets of the sa pale gray material that made up the dungeon walls, except theirs had this strange, faint pulse. It was like sothing beneath the surface of their plates was breathing.
They had no faces, and where a head should've been, there were these smooth, oval do split by a vertical slit that slowly opened.
Inside was a blinding, white-gold light that throbbed like a heartbeat.
"...What the hell are those?" Sarakit asked as she reached for a vial, uncapped it, and splashed it all over the four of us.
I couldn't answer Sarakit. I'd never seen these before and they didn't fit the descriptions of any monster in the novel.
We would later discover that the na of these monsters was Seamwalker. They were monsters that were native to this dungeon, at least that's what was believed, since they hadn't been seen in the outside world before.
"I'm not sure," I said quickly.
The Seamwalkers moved towards us. They were fast.
Arthurr reacted instantly and took to guard our wizard and alchemist by heading over to the other side. Those two were now in the middle of the sandwich.
Slashing his saber upward, it screeched as it connected. Sparks flew and his blade bounced off.
"The shell is hard," he barked before punching it with a fist that was coated in fire.
I had also already moved.
Gon sang as she cut through the air, my strike aid for the joint where the Seamwalker's arm t with its torso. The blade sank in as the monster scread. The sound of it screaming was more akin to pressure rather than vocal cords.
The shockwave of its scream slamd into my skull like a hamr.
I winced but that was about it.
It wasn't the sa for the two people behind .
rlin cried out in pain, and Sarakit stumbled.
"Use your mana to block your ears!" I shouted to the two of them.
The two of them didn't hesitate and although they lost one of their most important senses, the tradeoff was worth it.
rlin had a staff in his hand and he thrusted it forward. Mana surged and a phoenix-shaped fireball roared down the passage, its wings spreading wide as it slamd into a group of Seamwalkers.
The flas ate into them and the gray plating blackened, cracked, and then the monsters collapsed, folding like lted wax before evaporating into beams of light.
Fire seed to be pretty effective as Arthurr's sun magic and rline's fire magic began cutting down their numbers.
But just when I thought things were getting better, more dropped from the ceiling.
Crash-shatter!
A glass shattered in front of and I was hit by this surge of energy. I took a glance behind and it was Sarakit who had splashed with one of her concoctions.
"Damage boost," she said in a strange voice due to being unable to hear what she was saying.
❖ ❖ ❖
[rlin]
When Bell invited to join his team, I didn't know what I did to deserve the invitation. I didn't even know that he knew who I was even though I shared a few classes with him.
I didn't stand out. I had no accomplishnts to my na and I wasn't particularly one of the strongest First Class students. I did have high firepower, but many other students did as well.
Why ?
Most people only rember for being the scrawny kid with glasses that had ssy blonde hair that made it look like I hadn't showered in days.
So people even comnted that if they sneezed around , I'd be carried off into the wind.
So when Bell first asked , my first thought wasn't happiness or feeling prideful that I was the one he chose. It was fear.
Fear that I was going to disappoint.
Fear that he was making the wrong choice.
Now, as I stood in the middle of a dungeon with my lungs burning and trembling legs, that fear was feeling quite painfully justified.
The run earlier had nearly killed .
That wasn't an exaggeration.
Even now, my muscles still scream at , lactic acid clawing through my calves and thighs with every slight movent that I make. My arms feel hollow, like the strength and energy in them had been drained out.
At so point during the run, my body had stopped asking why I was running. Instead, it was begging to just stop.
I'd never run that far at maximum speed in my life. Especially not with the aid of mana.
Many tis I wanted to give up but after seeing Bell take my bag for , it felt like I would be slapping him on his face if I chose to collapse after he extended a hand towards .
Even now, my hands shook as I gripped my staff and cast fire spells.
But whenever the thought of giving up crosses my mind again, I see Bell move and feel compelled to shake off that thought.
Lightning snapped around his blade. He didn't use lightning and his weapon seperately but rather, the two worked together and it was like his sword was a conduit for lightning.
It started slow at first, but once he began understanding how the monsters functioned, with every cut, one of them would co apart and turn into a beam of light.
So this is the young hero Bell. This is what it's like watching him firsthand…
Sothing in my chest was twisting the more I watched him.
To be honest, I was a little skeptical about the stories. Did he really defeat the demon? Did he really save Finneapolis from a dark magic user?
Everything sounded too good to be true.
But I was wrong.
This person in front of looked like a hero. The one that I've read and heard stories about before.
Another Seamwalker scread and even with my hearing blocked, I felt a little bit of the pressure, causing my knees to buckle for a split second.
Bell didn't flinch. Lightning surged again and his weapon made quick work of the monster.
The more I watch him, the more foolish I realize my past self had been.
I can spend my entire life in books and formulas, telling myself that preparation would get to the top. That was true — to an extent. The brain can only triumph over brawn so far. There was also room for improvent by just tossing myself into the mouth of a lion.
That must be what Bell has been doing. That's why he's so strong.
That realization gave chills because I could only imagine just how far Bell had pushed himself in real life-or-death situations that have allowed him to grow this far.
I… I want to be like him.
My staff grew hot in my hands as I planted my feet and shot out another fire spell.
Then, as soon as the spell finished casting, I imdiately began another spell, not resting my mana circuits for one second.
If I'm going to be here on this team that he's chosen to invite to…
I thrust my staff again, and a large fireball shot out before splitting into three smaller fireballs, striking three different Seamwalkers.
…I'll need to make sure that he never regrets his decision.
Bell was soone people would follow. I could see that he was a natural leader and soday, he would be one of the people who would lead mankind.
If that's the case… I want to make sure that my na is ntioned alongside him in the history books!
Not as baggage. Not as a weak link.
But as the greatest wizard on his team.
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