Due to the lack of an excavation spot, it seed that the researchers on the mountain had missed this dungeon, so when it "erupted," no one was there to report it or kill the beasts.
Keeping the general location of the spot inside my head, I silently gazed up as the four students discussed their plans on the mountain.
From beside , Nico curlosly asked while looking up at the mountain’s peak, which was currently out of sight.
"How long do you think it’ll take to get up there...?"
Seemingly already having calculated the answer, Mira raised five fingers and said.
"Five hours if you keep a normal pace of walking for an Imperial student."
She was technically right, but unfortunately, Mira didn’t account for the beasts that would break out of their dungeons, slowing down their climb by hours.
Finally, as the glass elevator ca to a halt near a cliffside, I learned backward and looked down through the floor at the countless dormant dungeons below.
I was here already, so I might as well make the best of the situation, perhaps even gather so magical artifacts through dungeon chests, not vendors.
When the elevator fully stopped, the opposite wall to the original suddenly opened, and in front of us, lay the dry and barren mountain ground.
A small civilization had been established as so tents were pitched up, surrounding a house where soone important clearly lived.
Being the first, I quickly stepped off the glass elevator and onto the ground, eager to escape the conversation within.
However, upon fully stepping out of the elevator and entering the mountain, a weird phenonon occurred.
As I stared at my hands, I felt...my mana?
Without the help of my ti elental particles at all, I could visually sense, but not directly, the mana particles within my body.
Additionally, they were moving at more than double their original speed as they spread out throughout my chest.
Looking back, I tried to see if it wasn’t just experiencing this sensation, but everyone else simply acted the sa.
Perhaps, it had sothing to do with my elent?
Shaking my head, I simply accepted the massive increase in power and walked toward the dozens of pitched tents in the distance.
A few ters away from the cliffside the glass elevator had taken us, an overhanging ford as a large rock, most likely man-made, stretched forward above the tents, blocking out the sun.
Hiding myself from the sun under the shadow of the massive rock, I strolled through the encampnt, seeing tens of enlightened people doing mundane things like cooking or reading.
With the power of being enlightened, one could beco a famous hero or rise to riches through the adventurer’s guild, yet these people had decided to live the mundane life of a scientist on a mountain, isolated from society.
Truly, they were living the dream.
It seed that visitors were common as the locals paid no attention to strolling through their area, and a couple of them even warmly greeted , offering a free plate of food.
In the rock wall behind all the tents, I could see a small upward staircase carved, leading further up the mountain.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t planning on heading up.
Leaning against the wall, I shut my eyes, embracing the darkness that followed, and reached my hand into my backpack,
With my hand concealed within the backpack, my palms gripped one of the orbs inside, causing a course of energy to suddenly flood through my body.
Steeling my mind, I fully concentrated, forming a visual picture within my head to aid .
I was like a vaccur clean sucking up a large piece of trash.
I couldn’t suck in the entire trash at once, or else my body would beco clogged, unable to use mana.
Instead, I needed to whittle down the piece of trash, slowly absorbing small bits until the original one was small enough for to absorb.
Being able to sense my mana greatly aided this process as well.
Usually, it would have taken over an hour to absorb one orb, but now I could easily do it within five to ten minutes.
As new mana particles from the orb entered my palm, I slowly pushed them through my arms using ti elent particles, freeing up more space for more particles.
When I had finished completely absorbing the first orb, its color had turned grey and dull, looking like a regular piece of stone.
Taking the stone out of my backpack, letting it drop to the ground, I was about to begin the absorption of another mana orb when a voice suddenly interrupted my focus.
"Are you guys ready to go up?"
The second elevator had long arrived and went back down, causing a massive group of four Imperial students and five Worldly students to form.
Evangel, Nico, Mira, Charlotte, Coal, Levi, lissa, and Chae.
"..? That’s only fou-"
"Are you done?"
Interruping my observation of there only being four Worldly students out of the five that should have entered the elevator, a voice suddenly sounded from my right.
Without even looking right, I sighed and zipped up my backpack before asking.
"How long have you been there?"
"Long enough to see everything."
"What is ’everything?’ "
"Everything."
As the group 8 headed up the staircase carved in the back wall, Sage turned to and curiously questioned.
"So where to?"
"To t-"
However, before I could even get out more than a word, her voice interrupted once again.
"Wait! Wait! No! Let guess!"
After thinking for a mont, Sage suddenly smiled and said.
"Everyone wants to go up, right? So, why wouldn’t we go down?"
Acting as if she had just solved the hardest case in the world, she excitedly looked upward, patting her own head.
Ignoring her, I walked toward the back wall and responded.
"Are you stupid? The extra credit is at the top of the mountain."
"..."
Instantly, her confidence dropped to an all-ti low as she stared at with jer eyes wide open and an expression that said, "Really...?"
Seeing my serious expression, she dropped her head and followed toward the back wall, not even scanning her surroundings.
Instead of walking up the stairs, I suddenly made a detour to the right, where a smaller hole appeared in the back wall.
With any hesitation, I jumped right into the hole, instantly descending and feeling my back hit a hard surface.
But then, I began to slide down at a steady pace, escaping the encampnt above.
It was a slide!
Over the edges of the rock side, the beautiful view of the countless mountains in the range ca into view on one side, while a massive forest appeared on the other.
Eventually, after a couple of monts, the slide below flattened, and my figure ca to a stop, prompting to stand up and walk forward.
Looking upward, I could see the bottom of the encampnt was just a couple of ters above, and a small...but very loud figure.
"AHHHHHHHHHH! HEL-AHHHHHH"
Should I have warned her?
As Sage reached the flat portion of the slide and stood back up, her gaze imdiately fell on .
"Didn’t you call an ’idiot!?’ "
Shaking my head, I turned around and began walking down the hiking trail up the mountain that had been created before the glass elevators.
"You’re still an idiot, but I never said you were wrong, though. Haven’t you heard the saying, ’a broken clock is right twice a day?’ "
"But, I was only right once, no?"
"I guess that ans you’ll be right one more ti today."
Smugly smiling, Sage followed after and asked.
"So, why exactly are we heading down?"
"You have one more chance to be right, today...why don’t you take another guess?"
Hesitating and looking around the mountain, Sage answered.
"Is it because you want to leave the mountain range completely and head to the town of Reinhard?"
"...?"
How could she predict my possible actions with such ease!?
Letting out a dry cough to mask the surprise on my face, I shook my head and held up a thumbs-down.
...
...
...
After about another thirty minutes of walking downward, Sage guessed once again.
"Are we going down because there is sothing in the forest you want to find?"
"Nope."
...
...
...
"Are we trying to find so secret hidden artifact that you know the location of, despite researchers who have lived on this mountain being clueless?"
Halting and turning around to face Sage, I held up a thumbs-down and responded.
"Stop with the speculating, will you? I am not so omnipotent being who knows everything!"
Sticking out her dry tongue, Sage simply mocked and continued walking forward, going in front of .
...
...
...
Surprisingly, throughout the entire trip, Sage did not complain once or slow down.
In fact, with her annoying jokes and antics motivating to move faster, I think the trip downward was even faster with her than alone.
Perhaps, she was trying to pay back as I had waited for her?
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