Chapter 24: 22: Unexpected encounter
"To achieve something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done."
— Thomas Jefferson
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Squash —
The wet sound of Rachel's saber piercing the salamander's flesh resounded throughout the room. The blade slid through the thick flesh, and when she withdrew it, hot blood sprayed and spattered the metal. With a firm movement, she cleaned the blade, restoring its shine. The salamander fell with a heavy thud, its eyes losing their shine as life completely drained away. Rachel confirmed the death with a cold, satisfied look; the work was clean and casualties were minimal.
When she turned around, she noticed the group's admiring gazes on her. Some cadets from the other team watched her fascinated, the way she finished the creature left them impressed. One of them murmured in astonishment: "I never thought something like this could be so... beautiful."
Chae Nayun, the leader of the other group, furrowed her eyebrows in a look of disapproval upon hearing the comment. When the two groups met, everyone was surprised as they did not expect to meet.
The situation was problematic for both sides. Each group in each room had four students by obligation, when one room joined the other to enter the dungeon, the group increased to eight people. But in the group of two, Rachel and Nayun, four people were missing.
With this problem, the two came to a silent consensus that it would be better for them to come together to complete the path they both chose. Leading up to now.
Nayun's voice cut through the silence with a touch of irony: "Can we continue at once, leader Rachel?"
Rachel did a quick inspection of her group. Despite the accumulated fatigue, everyone seemed capable of moving forward. With a nod of confirmation, she replied, "Yes, we can."
As they arranged their formations, Rachel took one last look at the dark, uneven path ahead. The group's footsteps echoed off the dungeon's stone walls, which seemed to close in around them. Every shadow and crack was watched carefully, and the tension grew as they advanced to the next stage.
"We're reaching the boss," said Lee Hana, the main tracker, with a confident tone.
"Good job," praised Rachel, which made Hana give a discreet smile of satisfaction.
Shortly afterwards, sounds of battle echoed throughout the dungeon: shouts of orders, explosions and falling debris mixed with insults exchanged between the combatants. Nayun commented to herself, intrigued:
"Another group? And faster than us?"
Impatient, she began to run, taking the lead. Rachel and the others quickly followed her towards the combat that was unfolding ahead. As they approached, the sounds of explosions and clashes against rocks grew louder, resounding through the floor and walls of the dungeon.
The dark passage opened into a vast chamber lit by an orange light. In the center, a colossal sphere-shaped stone monster loomed large, radiating heat and power. Rivers of lava crossed the floor in various directions, illuminating the dark rocks and the uneven ceiling of the chamber, which seemed like an environment forgotten by time, with cave-ins and blocked passages all around. The hot air rippled, filled with the suffocating smell of sulfur.
"A Flaming Boulder…" muttered Rachel, apprehensively. The creature was a formidable challenge.
The creature was about thirty feet tall, its stone surface was rough and cracked, and two glowing cavities, like hungry eyes, stared at the group. Although his arms were disproportionate and short, every movement made it clear that his strength was devastating.
Then, a frustrated scream echoed.
"Giant ball from hell! Stop focusing on me!" shouted Oreki, dodging a Blazing Boulder attack that, frustratingly unexpectedly, was faster than its heavy mass would indicate. He almost tripped as he avoided the blow, but the monster seemed to not rest as it chased him. He ignored all the other cadets as if they were irrelevant, even those who had just arrived.
The creature's insane obsession was solely directed at Oreki.
"What did I do?!" He grunted, dodging a fireball that exploded next to him, kicking debris and dust into the air. He coughed irritably as he easily maintained his balance. He knew very well that if it weren't for his art, he would have left a long time ago.
On the other side of the chamber, Jin Hoseung advanced with his axe, the dark-skinned cadet who accompanied Oreki advanced with his axe, aiming at the monster's back with precision.
A shout from the warrior in Rachel's group revealed the name of her ally. But the attack failed: the Flaming Boulder moved with supernatural agility, rising to the ceiling and hanging above the two, swaying before noticing us with its orange eyes.
In an instant, the monster began to ricochet across the chamber, each deafening impact echoing and shaking the ground. The creature finally froze and, staring at us with a menacing gaze, opened its mouth.
"Get away!" Rachel and Nayun shouted in unison. Everyone dispersed to avoid the fire projectile that came with destructive force, the explosion reverberating off the stone walls and muffling the sound for a moment.
As the dust settled, the Flaming Boulder roared in excitement, its massive presence bathing the space in an oppressive reddish light. The surrounding rocks vibrated with the unbearable heat, and the only exit had been blocked—now fighting was the only option. Nayun quickly pulled out an arrow imbued with greenish mana and fired it, aiming for the monster's arm. The arrow grazed it, opening a small crack.
"It's not possible that this is just bad luck..." Nayun muttered as she prepared an arrow.
The monster paused for a moment, as if it wanted to mock Nayun's attempt, but its arrogance was interrupted. Two blue projectiles fired by Oreki hit the crack opened by the arrow, making the monster shudder. A thin layer of ice began to spread over his arm and then covered more of his body.
"Ice?" Rachel murmured in surprise, being heard by Sven beside her.
Sven wasn't even paying attention to the monster, leaving the opportunity he had confidence in to finish off the monster quickly with just a single attack. He was looking at Oreki with an irritated expression, as if he was a hindrance.
Oreki continued shooting some bullets at the monster to annoy it, and with an intense look, he took a quick look at everyone. "Stop standing still and attack. This won't last for long."
Rachel quickly composed herself, commanding: "Attack! Your movements are limited!" The order woke everyone up, and the group moved in a coordinated formation. Sven charged forward with his sword glowing with Qi, while Jin Hoseung, shouting with fervor, used his ax to attract the Flaming Boulder's attention, allowing the others to attack without much risk.
Sven, with almost supernatural speed, positioned himself next to the monster and attacked with his sword, moving with precision and grace, as if he were dancing. His blade glowed with a light that did not come from his Qi, but seemed to amplify his strike with a mysterious power.
Cracks began to form on Boulder's back, but he reacted with a monstrous leap, crashing through the cave's ceiling and latching onto them above them like a giant spider, wobbling before casting a menacing glare. It opened its colossal mouth and released a fireball with uncontrollable fury.
Oreki fired fervently as he ran to dodge the monster's attacks. With each bullet that hit the monster, the Flaming Boulder roared and pursued it with even more intensity, as if it recognized Oreki as the biggest threat — or simply hated its existence.
He could very easily finish off the monster if he used his Aether or switched several times with Blood, but it wasn't in his plans to show it so easily, even if no one could notice.
The fight continued, until at a certain point the monster stopped going at Oreki almost every time, realizing that the others were a threat too.
"Spread out!" Nayun shouted, and the group split up. The projectile exploded against the ground with devastating force, generating a shock wave and flames that nearly pushed them back. As the dust and smoke began to clear, the monster let out a roar, filling the room with its hellish presence.
Nayun reacted quickly, materializing a huge arrow of mana and firing it at the monster. The arrow collided with the Flaming Boulder's rocky body, opening a crack that exposed a thin layer of internal lava and knocking it to the ground.
Hoseung did his best to attract the monster's attention, shouting and delivering powerful blows with his axe, while other cadets used their weapons — swords, crossbows, spears — to wound the monster in vulnerable areas.
Rachel waited patiently until Hoseung created an opening. Then, his rapier pierced through the crack in the monster's body with deadly precision, and a deafening roar echoed out. The Flaming Boulder weakened with each strike, with more cracks spreading across its red-hot carapace.
Oreki, with a calculated look, fired again, the projectiles this time imbued with water, which caused the cracks to expand even further. The dry sound of rocks giving way echoed through the cave, as the monster began to show signs of fatigue, the constant advance of the cadets, each with their own skill and strength, tightening their siege against it.
This gave Oreki the opportunity to help Nayun with the final blow. He wanted to make sure he killed this "Flaming Ball" in one fell swoop.
Oreki raised his voice, firm and authoritative. "Get away!" he shouted, drawing the attention of everyone around the monster. Storing one of the revolvers in his inventory without anyone seeing, he quickly moved towards Chae Nayun, subtly touching her bow. The movement looked suspicious, but soon an arrow began to form, enveloped in dense, watery mana energy.
"Stop rushing me!" Nayun replied in an irritated tone, as the concentration of mana in her arrow grew. In his hands, the arrow already looked more like a mana pillar than an ordinary projectile.
Without question, the group retreated, moving away from the Flaming Boulder, which was gradually freeing itself from the ice that Oreki had conjured, still slowed down, but free enough to advance.
The monster, even weakened, was able to move fast enough to escape the arrow, which would still take a few seconds to fully form.
"It gets cold there." He snapped his fingers, and ice exploded from inside the monster. This was caused by the second bullet he fired at the start of the fight bursting into ice, making the monster unable to move.
Nayun's arrow, bluish and bright like a comet, tore through the air and struck the monster's mouth with devastating accuracy. The impact exploded into a wave of water and mana that spread throughout the chamber, forcing the monster back with a deafening roar of rage and pain. The watery energy seeped into every crack and crevice of the Flaming Boulder, penetrating deep into its now vulnerable rock body.
The creature staggered, its orange glow pulsing erratically, and the cracks all over its body expanded. In a desperate effort, the monster writhed, trying to keep itself together.
"He still endured this!?" Hoseung exclaimed, impressed and afraid of the monster's resistance in being able to withstand this pillar flying towards him.
"He couldn't stand it."
"He couldn't stand it."
Chae Nayun and Oreki spoke simultaneously, their voices creating a curious harmony.
"Hmm?" Nayun gave Oreki an accusing look. "Why are you imitating me, huh?"
Oreki responded with a childish gesture: he stuck out his tongue, his eyes shining with provocation.
There was no other reason other than wanting to anger her with this action.
Nayun looked at him angrily, even though she had quickly gotten used to his irritating personality, he still made her angry.
"Idiot," she muttered, still unable to move due to momentary exhaustion. "I'll fix that later…"
Meanwhile, the Flaming Boulder finally disintegrated into a cloud of dense, scalding steam, raising the suffocating temperature of the underground chamber even further. The saturated humidity caused beads of sweat to run like small waterfalls on the cadets' tired faces.
"He finished?"
Sven's voice, low and almost hoarse, broke the muffled silence. It was the third time he had spoken since the dungeon had started. The entire group stopped, looking at him as if they had just witnessed a rare event.
Sven, in turn, seemed oblivious to the curious looks, his arms crossed as he analyzed the monster's remains. His countenance held the same air of superiority that others had noted from the beginning—a posture that said he rarely bothered to speak to people he considered unworthy.
This, of course, caused some strangeness from Oreki, who partly knew Sven.
"I don't think so." Oreki was the first to speak, keeping his eyes fixed on Sven. "There was no indication of that." He continued, taking the opportunity to use his gift to discover what this 'entity' that inhabited Sven's body was.
===
Name: (Blocked)
Origin: Earth 20
Current situation: Transmigrated into Sven's mind (Not awakened)
Skills: (Locked)
Weaknesses: (Blocked)
Possible future: You may wake up in two days.
===
A blue screen appeared in Oreki's mind, showing all the information that was possible to obtain at the moment. This further increased his distrust of Sven.
He quickly 'read' all the information, quickly understanding everything and already thinking a little about what he was going to do in the next few days. But the Origin that appeared made him curious. "Has it become a HQ now?"
Sven maintained eye contact with Oreki without wavering. "Then we must continue."
They maintained eye contact, as if they had been mortal enemies since birth. Lightning seemed to be coming out of both of their eyes.
Rachel nor anyone else decided to intervene in their interaction. Everyone was looking kind of from afar so as not to get caught in this 'clash' that the two of them were having.
But there was one who didn't like the way they were talking.
"Hey, why do you think you're the leaders?" Nayun intervened in the intense exchange of glances that was happening between Oreki and Sven.
They continued to look at each other, but the first to break eye contact was Oreki, looking like that exchange was no longer important to him.
Oreki looked around to see if he could find a way to return to his group, meanwhile, he thought about Sven's change. "He will not become a djinn. One less problem, but another appears in its place. If his personality is taken into account now, this will only be annoying rather than problematic."
"Don't forget that you are unlucky"
"Hoseung." Spotting a trap that would be possible to take him back, Oreki called his companion, who looked at him. "Come on. I've already figured out how to get back on our way." He almost ordered him to go quickly, not even seeming to have any patience with Hoseung.
Hoseung walked over to Oreki, staying by his side. "Lucky I have you here, Oreki."
Oreki just nodded, not paying any attention. "Good luck on your way." He, together with Hoseung, started walking towards one of the passages that were in the chamber.
They were heading towards a specific passage that Oreki's gift managed to discover another secret passage that created the same vacuum that brought them to this boss room.
The two were already at the entrance to the passage, with Oreki ready to activate the trap that would take them to the same path as Yoo Yeonha and the others. But he decided to make a slight advance in his relationship with one person.
"Rachel."
The girl called by Oreki looked at him, curious why he had called her so suddenly. "Yes?"
"Learn how to observe someone without them noticing. It will be a good skill for you."
Rachel thought, trying to figure out what exactly he was talking about. But the answer came to her mind as quickly as she started thinking. "I…" She started to blush a little in embarrassment as she realized she was caught.
Everyone looked at her, kind of interested in knowing why someone would say that, and also amazed at having seen the princess blush.
"That was it, Sayōnara." Oreki said and activated the trap to be sucked, with Hoseung by his side, into the same vacuum that brought them to this strange encounter with another group.
The large hole that opened and pulled the two in closed soon after, leaving everyone there curious as to how Oreki could discover so quickly that there was a trap there.
While he was still on the path, still being sucked in by the force that was taking him his way, he thought about what he saw exactly with Sven. "It may be that this entity has not been awakened, but it still influenced some of Sven's things."
"It will be better to leave him alive." Blood decided to speak his opinion on the situation. Even though he is looking forward to the fight, he knows very well that at this moment, it is best to wait.
Oreki thought about the situation for a while and decided. "At least until he shows some indication that he's going to get in my way." He glanced at Hoseung, who was trying to balance himself so he wouldn't fall flat on his face when they stopped.
"Try."
***
The situation at the moment was not good.
"Yoo Yeonha-ssi, Igenerato is trying to escape." The archer from Jayden's group warned me at the same moment he saw the boss move away. He shot some arrows towards the monster to delay its escape.
I nodded at him. "Hazuki, delay him." I shouted an order to Hazuki, the swordswoman in my group. And also the only one fast enough to be able to catch up with the mouse and disrupt it again and again.
From the moment Oreki and Jin Hoseung were sucked into the vacuum the trap made, we still continued advancing through the artificial dungeon.
Which hurt us a lot.
Monsters catching us off guard, traps we didn't notice, the slightly greater difficulty of taking care of the monsters. And especially the scorching heat.
And now we arrive at the boss room, which was Ignerato. A giant fire rat bigger than a car.
All of this made me realize that Oreki's participation, especially in relation to the heat, was necessary to have fewer problems.
Even though we didn't necessarily need it to complete the test, it still helped a lot to make passing easier.
I, Yeonha, couldn't leave my position to hit Ignerato, since at the moment, I was the one best able to take care of the miniatures that the giant rat released.
"Right!"
Receiving the order, Hazuki went towards Ignerato, the boss we had been facing for just two minutes.
He was a giant rat that had reddish fur, his eyes were pure fire, which was strange about the way he saw. Every time he exhaled with his mouth, a light flame would come out of his mouth, which even though it was small, would easily burn anyone caught in that flame.
Hazuki passed by all the miniature faces that came out of Ignerato's body, jumping and stepping on some, feeling her foot getting hot with each step on the rats, even though she was on the shoes.
The giant rat was running away, distancing itself even further from the speedy Hazuki, who was being delayed by the small rats. There was so much that it was almost impossible to see the stone floor.
Chasing the rat, Hazuki managed to get close enough, but didn't have enough position to hit the main rat with his blade.
I looked at her situation, realizing that I could help. "Let's go."
With Hazuki still in the air, I moved my mana-imbued whip across the ground, destroying and finishing off a large portion of the small rats that were hindering Hazuki from attacking.
"Thanks."
Landing on the ground, Hazuki thanked me for my help and took a strange posture.
She, with her katana still sheathed, leaned her torso forward and dragged her left leg behind her. Standing with your torso forward, as if you were going to push yourself with all your strength.
I had to take my eyes off her, to continue finishing off the small rats, which, with the help of the others in the group, began to reduce the massive amount there was. Even so, I could hear the sound of an exhalation, which sounded more like a sizzling kettle.
"First way: Hekireki Issen."
That was what I heard last coming from Hazuki, and then, faster than in the blink of an eye, I heard Ignerato screaming in pain.
Or that's what I thought.
"Again!?" Hazuki's scream was broken, but I could still feel the anger in her voice.
The mouse managed to react in time and had once again released a swarm of the little mice just as he was about to be killed. This was the third time we missed the chance to kill him.
The first attempt was with Jayden going to cut his body in half, but he managed to narrowly deflect the blade with the rats he was going to release from his body. But at least we had managed to hurt him.
The second attempt was when we managed to create an opportunity for the archer to prepare an arrow that would kill the boss instantly. But by a twist of fate, the mouse managed to dodge the arrow without any injuries.
And now this.
I lightly bit my lower lip, irritated by the situation. We missed three chances to kill him, and I couldn't do anything other than take care of the little ones.
Maybe because I'm not strong enough? No, I just need to become strong and powerful so I can do what I want.
Am I not a good leader? No, I definitely am. I've been able to lead the group easily so far and I'll only get better as I practice this.
"Why would I be thinking about this now? I have to focus on the fight."
Now was not the time to reflect on life.
"Jayden," I called out to Jayden, who was the freest one at the moment. "Chase Ignerato. Don't let him get away."
He nodded and immediately headed towards the giant rat, cutting through or passing through the small rats that were in his way.
Ignerato was very injured at the moment, both from the previous attacks and from Hazuki's attack. So even if Jayden was being hindered, he would certainly come and kill him once and for all, ending this thunderous effort we were making.
As Ignerato had now just released his barrage of rats, it would take a few minutes to do so again.
"Nah, leave it to me."
I heard that voice. That voice that was always in just five tones: confident, indifferent, arrogant, ironic or calm.
Soon after, three blue beams flew towards Ignerato, who was almost running away through one of the several holes in the room we were in. These beams accurately flew at the rat's vital points. One on the head and the other two in the abdominal area.
Ignerato fell to the ground, finally dead. Which also made the little mice disappear.
Everyone sighed in relief.
"You're late, Oreki." Hazuki was the first to talk to one of our companions who was caught in the trap.
"Unfortunately in skin and bones."
There's your ironic tone again.
"I'm here too, just to let you know."
When I looked at them, I couldn't help but laugh a little.
The same for the others.
Jin Hoseung was carrying Oreki like a sack of potatoes on his shoulder.
Oreki looked at everyone with his naturally tired and lazy look. "That's not funny."
No matter how many times I see him, or hear him speak, his voice and his eyes will always contrast. No matter which of his five usual tones he uses, be it confident, aloof, arrogant, ironic or calm, they will always contrast with his lazy eyes.
"Haha."
"Stop laughing, Hoseung. You were the one who activated the trap, but I was the one who took it. This situation is your fault."
I could see that well. Oreki and Jin Hoseung became closer and friendlier to each other. This calmed me down a little, since Oreki has been watching Hoseung too much for a while now, seeming to see him as suspicious.
"At least we won't have any desynchronization with the two of them from now on."
— "Emergency alert. All cadets must leave the dungeon immediately. Once again, all cadets must leave the dungeon immediately."
A warning sounded from the ceiling. The dungeon trial has ended.
"It took too long. It's been a while since the monsters started to come to life."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone