Chương 81: Chapter 81 - Widow's Crypt I
[Tessia Eralith POV]
I had woken up very early that Sunday morning, it was dungeon trip day! Everything was already well arranged in advance, with my winter uniform on top of a chair, along with the accessories I was going to wear.
Above the shelf where I kept my makeup was a dimensional ring and a small backpack that I would be taking there as well. In one part of the backpack there were some cookies, a canteen and a small bag with jerkyfood, in the other part there was a complete change of clothes for me, in addition to some fire stones.
It sounded like a lot, but it was all recommended by Professor Vanesy. After all, the idea was to practice the theme of our classes, in addition to experiencing what it's like to spend a night inside a dungeon. There would be no danger, as the dungeon chosen was the one that had very weak mana beasts, but not completely fragile, due to the level of combat that was taught in Team Fighting Mechanics.
I was just getting dressed when I heard someone knocking on my bedroom door. "Tessia! Are you ready yet?"
It took a few seconds for me to recognize the voice, it was Claire's, I just sighed and answered her. "If you want, you can enter, but only if you're alone!"
Soon she quickly opened the door, entering my room and closing the door soon after. She was fully dressed in the winter uniform that Xyrus Academy has standardized on, but her coat was still open, as it wasn't that cold at the moment. I, on the other hand, still needed to put on my coat, fix my boots and my hair.
"Need some help?" She said looking around, possibly having never entered my room.
"No need, thanks." I say, putting on very thin gloves, with space for a magic stone in each.
"Great. I just left Feyrith, Kathyln, Theo and Elijah with the committee's emergency plans. Since three people from the group, including myself, will be on this trip. Doradrae, on the other hand, is still sleeping." Claire said while looking to analyze my staff-like sword that was on the bed, it was very simple, completely white in color, but with a great weight for soft and light attacks, as I normally use Lance Alea's fighting method.
"Three? Wasn't it four?" I asked as I finished putting on my long socks and boots.
"Lulu doesn't count, after all, he's on a different ride." She gave a light laugh.
"Lulu?" I knew who she was talking about, but I was confused by the nickname.
My gaze made her face start to turn really red, and I just chuckled at it, standing up and putting on my ring, as well as smoothing my hair. It looked like everything was ready, until Claire handed me my sword and I stowed it away in my dimensional ring. She kept looking at me, clearly not going to answer that question.
"Anyway, what about the student council?" She asked, already opening the door when she saw that I was all dressed up.
"As only Clive and I are going to be out for today and tomorrow. I've left Lilia and Fable with the responsibility of acting if anything happens. Jarrod, unfortunately, is still pretty wrapped up in winter party paperwork." I answered her as I walked through the door and Claire closed it for me.
"But didn't Lilia go to her house yesterday?" she asked as we walked out of the student council sector.
"She said she'd be back this afternoon, but I don't think anything's likely to happen until she arrives. I mean... It would be very bad luck for Fable." Claire ended up chuckling at my answer.
We walked a little further, leaving the SC/DC building, until we saw some carriages in the front area of the academy. It looked like an academy employee was called to indicate who would be in which carriage, the division was mostly done by the person's gender, so when Claire and I were noticed, they took us to a carriage to be together. Before I got in, I saw that Clive had been put in the carriage ahead of mine.
The carriages we had were very simple, they had places for a maximum of six people in each, but on top of them, one person was also allowed, in case the carriage was full. Professor Glory's class consisted of a total of 16 students, of which 6 were girls and 10 were boys, but Luz, Arthur and Curtis were not with us at the time, that is, only 3 carriages were enough for everyone present.
"Are you excited?" One of the girls, who was in the same carriage as me, commented.
"Of course we are, a trip to dungeons... Wow... I know it's a place full of dangers, but having heard so many things about Beast Glades, I'm delighted to even walk through the calm and open fields that can be found there." I answered her and everyone who was there agreed with that.
"It's definitely nice to have the calm clearings there, they're not that rare, but they're not that easy to find either." Claire commented as the carriage began to move.
"Oh.. True, the leader of the adventurer's guild is your uncle, isn't he?" I asked Claire, who simply nodded.
"You must have seen many famous adventurers, haven't you?" Another girl in our carriage asked.
"Yes. And some were even kind enough to teach me a trick or two." Claire said with her nose in the air and everyone else was jealous of how lucky she was, but I knew very well who the redhead's favorite "adventurer" was, that thought made me smirk.
After a few minutes, we finally arrived at the portal to Beast Glades. Passing by it I could see a beautiful field covered by snow, without so many trees nearby. The sky in that region had no clouds, showing that that much snow was possibly a blizzard that happened the day before.
Before getting out of my carriage, I ended up tightening my scarf, feeling all that cold. Claire helped me down the steps while I slung my small backpack onto my back.
"Ooh, what a nice chill~" One of the girls, who was with us, said after stepping into the snow.
I always thought the snow itself was amazing, if it weren't for the amount of people and the reason we're here, I would have thrown myself into that fluffy white layer we're stepping on right now. I noticed some students heading towards something, so Claire and I followed until we could see Professor Glory.
"Apparently nothing happened along the way, did it?" She said waving to everyone.
"Yo! Tess, Claire how are you?" Then I looked to the side, noticing Curtis approaching us.
"We are fine." The one to answer was Clive, which made me laugh mentally, after all, his existence was completely ignored by the prince himself, but my face remained calm and serene.
"Fine. I arrived a little early and was having a chat with Professor Glory, apparently we will all be divided into groups, and she will handpick those groups." Curtis said, but was soon slapped on the back of the head.
When I went to see who slapped him, it was Vanesy Glory herself. "Shhh!! We will be doing that when we are all okay to go, and we'll have to wait for everyone to arrive." she said with an infectious laugh.
"I think the only thing missing is that commoner, so why don't you make the groups soon?" Clive asked, making the rest of us look at him oddly.
"Does he really still see Arthur as a parasitic commoner?.... Oh my god." I kept that thought to myself, but I feel like the members of the disciplinary committee were thinking the same thing.
But as if it was karma wanting to attack my vice president, another carriage came out of the portal, it was very simple and without many decorations, with the symbol of the Helstea family on both sides. From inside it, Art came out, all bundled up, with a backpack on his back, Sylvie on his right shoulder, and apparently carrying a kind of small box in one hand.
"Arthur!" Curtis said loudly, waving at him, then Art seemed to wave and move closer to us.
"How was your trip back home? Did you get catch up with your family?" Claire patted his head when he came near us, but he was looking at me.
"Yeah, was all good, at dinner... Luz had a full problem by going here in Beast Glades, I had to help my dad to calm my mom.. She was a beast because she wasnt informed that his trip was exactly starting yesterday..." He said, making we all laugh at this, thinking in that cute and sweet woman I had meet in that day at the academy's hospital wing, being mad as a beast? This is really difficult for me.
"So what's that box over there?" Curtis asked, but before Art could answer, Professor Glory approached us.
"Good, you made it on time! We can start heading out now." Glory said and we all started to follow her.
"Finally! I couldn't wait any longer because of someone like him!" I looked around to see who had said that and saw it was Lucas, I took a long breath at this situation.
We started walking following Professor Glory as she spoke. "Anyway folks, now with the full gang here, I can welcome you to Beast Glades, I bet for many this is the first time stepping into this region of Dicathen."
Everyone agreed with her, but soon I could hear the Wykes' son's voice speaking again. "Hmph. I have being here countless times. I was an A-Class adventurer after all." With that, several murmurs occurred among the other students, filling the blond noble with an unparalleled ego.
But that fell apart when Professor Glory replied. "Ah, yes. I've heard from Director Goodsky that you were indeed an adventurer. I've also been notified that you had your license revoked due to classified reasons." All the other students were now looking very curiously at the situation.
"Cough cough, betrayal, cough cough." Someone faked a cough and then said that word, right next to me, loud and clear for most to hear, seeing who it was, it had been Arthur himself.
"What are you talking about, idiot?" Lucas said, clearly irritated by that.
"Hm? What do you mean Arthur?" Professor Glory asked curiously.
"I heard about this from a friend of my family, Jasmine Flamesworth. She was in a dungeon with Lucas, and according to her, he was so scared of the Boss there, he hitted everyone with fireballs to make them stay behind and so he could run away." Arthur said it calmly, as if it were a normal conversation.
This caused everyone to stare in amazement and in Lucas' direction, who stared in disbelief at what he heard coming out of Art's mouth. I could hear several whispers around me, most talking bad about Lucas, and others talking about how interesting it was for the name of the house Flamesworth to be mentioned. Nor did I understand how this name was known to Arthur, after all, I only knew about this name because this house of human nobles was responsible for giving most of the fire element support in the war between Sapin and Elenoir.
"Excuse me..what....?...." Lucas asked, seeming to want to understand how Arthur knew about his sins.
"Jasmine Flamesworth is a friend of my parents, after all, she is part of a group of adventurers that my father was the leader before he married my mother." Arthur continued to speak as if it were a common topic to talk about at a picnic.
Lucas was going to complain, but soon Professor Glory grabbed him by the scarf. "Keep walking." Her voice seemed to be a little more serious than before with the revelation of those facts.
We continued to follow her, until I poked Art on the shoulder, wanting to talk to him about something, he soon realized this and seemed to activate a sound spell so we could talk quietly without being overheard. "Are you crazy to mention something like that?" I said, still maintaining a calm expression, so that people who noticed we were talking wouldn't be able to read my emotions.
"Oh... I'm sorry, I just wanted to take the best time possible to burn the image of this pest." Arthur spoke, using the same method as me of keeping a calm expression while talking.
"But didn't you have to go to a guild judge and then make a deal to never talk about it?" I asked, looking away, wanting to give the idea that I was talking about the weather to other people.
"Yes, Note and Diamond did this deal, but Jasmine wasn't involved in it, so I, Arthur Leywin, say that a family friend, Jasmine Flamesworth, commented with my parents and I about one of the more intense dungeons that she went through without being with her group... I think that these circumstances all together make me calmly have no problems with it. Besides, the Flamesworths are well-known nobles, I don't think Lucas will have the courage to complain about this to his parents... So that isnt like that another noble family is attacked for pure gossip." Arthur argued as he handed me that box that had been in his hand all this time, it was dark green and had a little yellow bow, with a flat rectangular shape, it was a gift.
"Hm? What is this?" I said as I tried to open it, but he soon stopped me from doing so.
"A gift for you. Given the situation we're in, I recommend you store this in your dimensional ring and then open it after. Maybe when we camp inside the dungeon. What do you think?" He said smiling at me and soon I felt my face turn red, but soon my mind returned to reality hearing someone else's voice.
"Are you done with the flirt?" Professor Glory said, making Arthur and I blush hard as he broke the sound barrier.
"I'm sorry Tess and I were just talking about some stuff involving the disciplinary committee and the student council." Art replied, still blushing.
"While giving her a present?" She smirked.
". . ." Art was deadpan, making Professor Glory's smirk going down, actually believing in what he just said.
She gave a little cough "Okay! Let's split up into some groups so we can practically learn to work as a team!" so she got everyone's attention.
"But first, I'll explain a little about the dungeon we're going into. It's called Widow's Crypt, it's a Rank D dungeon, it's pretty straight forward, no traps or labyrinths. There's only one type of mana beast inside the dungeon, they are called Snarlers... Among them, there are two categories, Minion Snarlers and Queen Snarlers. You will face minion snarlers, as they can be found on every floor, while the Queen Snarlers will be something you won't be able to see, as they are found on the lower floors, and those floors arent in my plans for this school trip!"
"Talking back about the teams, due to the fact that one of our students cannot come because he had another field trip to attend, we are left with the perfect number to divide the class into 3 groups of 5 people. I will be watching you, however. I won't help AT ALL... Only when it's completely necessary, so don't even try to ask me for help, we're here for you to learn from your mistakes." Glory said that, before starting to call the first group. "Curtis, Claire, Owen, Dorothy and Marge, you will be one of the groups."
I soon hear her calling 5 more students from our class, making me realize that I took the rest. I was happy because Arthur was in the middle, but then the thought came to me...
"That leaves Arthur, Tessia, Clive, Lucas and Roland as the last group!" She said, officiating the group I was in.
Everything would be good, though... With Lucas?
"Is she kidding around with us? He's a complete greedy guy that almost killed Arthur..." I thought, it was obvious that she couldn't possibly know that Arthur was an adventurer, or that he had been attacked by Lucas, so... that was fate acting sadistically against the person I love?
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
[Arthur Leywin POV]
"That leaves Arthur, Tessia, Clive, Lucas and Roland as the last group!" my mind almost melted with irritation just hearing those words coming out of my professor's mouth.
I had to be in the same team as Lucas again? Was she doing this on purpose? No, in this trip, there only are 15 students, and she has no idea that I was an adventurer before, nevertheless that I already teamed up with Lucas and was with him in the little "incident" I let out in the air just some minutes ago. But she was also the one that stopped my little scuffle with Lucas back than in one of her classes.
My mind was completely focused on a debate whether I should ask to switch groups. But then I looked at Tess and thought better, she will also be in that same group, if she is going to stay in that situation, I should be there to protect her as always.
"Any questions? No? So better we start walking right now! It will take us almost two hours to being in the dungeon entrance!" with that, we took off, taking long strides amidst the thick trees, covering most of the sunlight of that morning.
We walked for a while in silence, most of the students were scared and afraid that they would attract any mana beast nearby just by talking. But soon we approached what appeared to be a small clearing, it was so small I wouldn't even call it a clearing to begin with, but compared to the tree-lined environment, it was plenty of space. "Okay guys, the entrance to the dungeon is on this small slope ahead, enjoy that we are on a very straight floor, because it will be a big slope and if you step wrong you will fall very easily." Professor Glory said, so everyone there was taking a deep breath and getting ready to go inside.
"Arthur, I recommend you leave your mana beast out here. Curtis for example has a mana beast and didn't bring it, and I want everyone to be dependent only on group and individual skills, without assistance." Professor Glory came up to me saying that, making me look at Sylvie who was still on my shoulder this whole time, always dozing.
"Sylv, is it okay for you to stay out here and explore for a bit?" I asked low to the mana beast that I consider my daughter, giving her a light caress.
"Yawn!... No problem, Papa!" She spoke mentally, smiling and took a leap, running into the dense forest around the dungeon.
"Fine. From the way you're calm, I think your bond is used to things like that." Glory asked and I nodded.
"Anyway, guys!" She started to get everyone's attention again. "Now it's time for the groups to get to know each other, it's the same idea as when you met on the first day of class, but I want you to talk more about your strengths and weaknesses. And I want y'all to take a leader of each group."
The group I was in looked like no one wanted to say anything, as most of them knew each other, but soon the only one of us I didn't know well, Roland, decided to speak up.
"Ahem! My name is Roland Alderman and I'm a water attribute augmenter! My hobbies are go to shopping, relaxing, maybe try to find a girl to date and—" He was going to say more things, but was interrupted.
"No one asked about hobbies." Clive interrupted while massaging the bridge of his nose in irritation.
"Well... Someone's a little grumpy, it seems... Anywho... My stronger points are in mid-range attacks, I use a type of water whip technic that my family pass from generations. My weakests points are short-range attacks. Next!" He soon passed a imaginary baton for his left so the next person could say about themselve, lucky or unlucky for me, I was that person.
"My name is Arthur Leywin, I'm a quadra-elemental augmenter. My stronger points are the use of my sword in attacks, but I also can do mid-range attack using my spells. My weakests points are my own Earth attribute spells, because I still didnt develope so much that... and long-range attacks." I said that, looking now to Lucas, waiting him to already say about himself so I wouldnt hear his voice after.
"Hmph..." he started to say as if he was the most powerfull mage in the world. "My name is Lucas Wykes, a greater mage with single specialization in Fire! As my stronger and weaker points, let's not bother with that."
"Clive Graves, augmenter, single specialization in wind. I use a bow as my strongest point, Long-ranged attacks. I dont have weakness." Clive was the next one to say, deadpan.
"I'm Tessia Eralith... Conjurer with dual specialization in Wood and Wind. My strongest points are middle-to-close-range spells...." Tessia looked kind of upset about something, so her voice got lower as she spoke, but I wouldn't judge her either, as we knew very well the next point we should discuss.
"I want to be the leader!" Lucas said exactly what I expected of him.
"And why would you be the leader?" Clive asked.
"Because the strongest is always the leader! Let's face it, even though that one is a quadra-elemental, my firepower still is unstoppable." he said this looking at Clive and just pointing at me, feeling a bizarre aura nearby, and when I went to see, Tessia was glaring at Lucas as if she wanted to punch him.
"This team is going to be the purest chaos, isnt it?" I thought as I took a deep breath so my mind wouldn't get into these problems.
"I vote for Tessia to be the leader. Since she's the only girl in the group and she's gorgeous, we could call ourselves Queen and her Kings." Roland commented, his eyes glowing with excitement that Tessia was here, but I could feel he was traveling in his own fantasy world.
"I vote for Tessia to be the leader.. Not for the same reasons as Roland... But I'm also not saying she's not pretty... Ahem!... It's because she's already the student council president, so her leadership has already been proven by the Director herself." Clive commented as he scratched his own cheek.
"Heh?! N-no! I think that A-arthur is a better person than me to be a leader!" She said, shaking her hands, I think she was also travelling in her imagination while we are having that talk.
"I'm okay with Tessia being the leader. For the same reasons as Clive." I was really okay with that, I just didnt want Lucas being the leader.
"Tch. Idiots." Lucas grumbled, not leaving me all that surprised.
"Oh, it looks like everyone has already chosen the leaders! Come on!" Professor Glory announced as she stepped through the dungeon entrance.
As we followed her, the entrance wasn't very wide, so we all had to walk in a single line, one after the other. From the way the entrance was structured, the little light that touched the place we were in no longer seemed to come to us, causing me to only see a faint silhouette of the part above the shoulders of the people around me.
"W-w-w-w-what the hell.... W-w-w-why is it so cold in here?" I heard a voice that seemed to be Roland.
"Augment yourself, you dolt." I heard a voice that seemed to be Clive, I really couldn't see who is talking, only guess.
"Even with all clothes and augmenting, it's still very cold... W-why?" The next voice I heard was difficult to identify, or it was Tessia or Claire, but because Claire was a fire mage, it was more obvious to say that was Tess.
Her voice was also showing a little of fear. I hope that she is just having fear because it's her first time in a dungeon, and not because the feeling of coldness that resembles a little the temperature in Elshire Forest, when I rescued her.
I have to admit, even augmenting myself with little fire and wind mana, I could feel the very low temperature in this place... Just.. Whatafuck is happening here? Even in other dungeons in my adventurer days, I never saw a dungeon that has this type of ambient, either in other winters...
Feeling something grabbing my wrist, I looked back and saw Tess, she was really near me, I could see her lips shaking for the cold, so I augmented a little her with fire mana, and after that, it seems that she wasnt leaving my hand anymore. Or until we gave the lasts steps in the artificial stairs the adventurers before us put for being a easy way to enter the dungeon.
I saw a little of light inside the dungeon and I could feel the frigid mist in our feet, covering most of the initial parts of the first floor, the landscape was making me excited to say at least. The cavern stretched out for hundreds of yards, making me wonder how it even supported itself, the stone that made up that large cavern sparkled with dim blue light as a thin layer of ice corvered the rest of the floor and even formed icicles on the celling. Looking closely, I could see the nearly transparent layer of moss that covered the walls and celling, enveloping this floor with a serene light.
"That's odd... Normally we would see a fair amount of minion snarlers already.. Why can't I—"
Glory was interrupted by a noise echoing around the floor, coming not only in front of us, but also seeming to be behind us. Looking closely, I could see that behind the icicles and some rocks ahead, there were countless pairs of red eyes shining in our direction. I could feel the malice coming from them.
"T-that.... is a lot of snarlers..." I could hear Roland glup as his eyes widened, I looked to Curtis and Claire, they were all with the same face as him, and when I looked to my professor, her expression showed me that she wasnt expecting this large amount of mana beasts, in the first floor at least.
I quickly unsheathed Dawn's Ballade, while standing still, in that movement, the blade came out already touching the ground with a smooth movement, lifting a minimal amount of cave dust and ice fragments.
"Earth Batter." "Icy Layer."
Immediately, still in that same movement, the dust gathered on the back of my sword blade, making it very rigid, being able to cause damage with strong blows, while the front area was coated with a thin layer of ice that would logically increase the durability and would make it sharper.
"Frequency Blade." I didn't finish there, and activated a sound spell, which made my blade now vibrate at an absurd frequency causing a slight, thin buzzing noise, which people would only notice if they paid close attention.
So, my sword was already wrapped in 3 elements, I was ready for what was to come...
But... I was having a real bad feeling....
Am I really ready?
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