The group followed Gaira through a passage on the opposite side of the cavern as the caged tunnels. Rune already cleaned up the mess of nine “innocents” and was in the middle of yawning when Gaira asked him a question.
“So, what is a “teacher” exactly?”
“Hmm? You don’t know? Basically, they are people who better society by enriching students with the knowledge they need to survive in life.”
Gaira made a confused face and tilted her head. She was moving her lips a small bit, as if she wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the right words. Rune looked at her confused face and spoke after thinking of a way to make his words simpler.
“You see… teachers are, uh, people who help other people learn things to live.”
“Ah!”
She seemed to understand it and nodded profusely and Rune put on a face that was 2 parts confusion, 1 part frown, and 1 part smile. Then he shifted his jaw in his mouth to change his expression to that of a neutral expression.
It seemed like him being Cursed Armor affected his facial muscles that he was not used to using. After all, his Cursed Armor only had rotating eyes now.
Hika looked back up at the ceiling and scratched her chin. Then it looked like she had a grand epiphany and sighed for a long time. She was thinking about how she would have to go to school after the mission was done. She would rather be on a dangerous mission than go to school.
Rena actually was getting tired of the mission and wanted to go back to the school and rest. She was quite keen on learning, unlike Hika, and didn’t feel too great after the large amount of pain that she was in the day before.
The group walked up some steps in the passage and they saw a light through cracks in a wooden door ahead of them. It didn’t seem to be anything special, but there were no locks and just a handle.
Rune hopped up the stairs stood hesitantly in front of the door. He moved his hand and grasped the handle and turned it.
There was a blinding light and he could see sand. They were on the surface. Except, on closer inspection, they were in a massive ditch that was about two miles deep, but was curved. They seemed to be at the very bottom with the tunnel and door protruding out from the center.
The heat was almost unbearable for Rune and he quickly started using a less fatal version of [Freezing Aura]. He sighed as he instantly felt cooler and the rest of the group came up. As soon as they were hit by the heat, they also felt the cold air all around them.
“Aaahhh.”
Gaira started to stretch and felt good in the cool and warm environment. She stretched her limbs and proceeded to look around her surroundings. The rest of the group followed suit.
“Ok then. Let’s get out of this crater. Get on.”
Rune pulled out a large, empty food crate and split it into six platforms. Some people were going to have to squeeze, but they could easily do so. They each got onto one part of the box and Rune just placed his chest piece over his jacket and prepared to use magic.
Then, with a sudden push and tug, the box pieces started to move and so did Rune’s armor. He was using a combination of [Gravity Control] and [Gust] so that they could move faster and with more precision.
However, the only problem was that he was using up a lot of mana at the moment and had already depleted his supply to about twenty five percent just after the massacre in the cages. He looked in his status to see his mana lower at an immense rate and he changed into the Demon King form.
Of course, this had a lot of drawbacks. One of which being that no one knew he had that form.
“““Wah!!!”””
Three surprised voices were heard from the box surfaces. They were Erin, Riika, and Elisa who each yelped at the same time while the others just put on confused faces. Gaira was too confused to say anything.
Rune turned to look at the group as soon as he felt less tired and a large portion of his mana was regained. He looked at everyone and spoke in a voice similar to his own, but more rough and baritone. Even he was a bit surprised at his voice.
“It’s just me, Rune. Don’t freak out so much.”
“W-what? How can we not freak out after seeing you turn into… that.”
Elisa gestured to the entirety of Rune and Riika nodded without saying a word. By that time, Rune stopped using magic on himself and was steadily flying upwards. They still hadn’t even made it a fourth of the way up.
“Anyway, where do you come from and what is your backstory, Gaira?”
“Hmm? I am a Black Guardian Dragon who used to live in the Majin continent. I was actually an advisor to two of the Demon Kings before the second one I served exiled me here for not performing my duties correctly.”
“What did you do?”
Riika was curious and Rune was intrigued, but Hika was the one who asked the question. Elisa was holding the scabbard of Excalibur with a tight grip and was glowering at her.
Rune saw this and moved his hand up and forcibly lowered her hands with [Gravity Control]. He didn’t want to move around too much as he wanted to focus on moving on his path without any other hindrances.
“To be exiled? I tried to stop the Demon King from destroying all of Humanity and the Elves. It seemed that that one wanted destruction and death. But, you know, to me, it seems like Rune is something like the Demon King… Why is that?”
“That’s probably because I am the Demon King.”
Gaira started to suddenly cough and cleared her throat. She had started to choke on some saliva as soon as she heard that.
Then she started backing away from Rune as far as she could while still on the box. She started to stutter and point at Rune, but he just held up his hand and spoke.
“Hey, it’s fine. I’m not going to do anything to you. Plus, I’m too busy with this mission, the school, and my family.”
She started to calm down, but then had a question.
“Are you starting that school to kill better opponents? Like, the people who finish the school? What is your main goal?”
“First of all, no. I don’t plan on killing my students. Look, you just made Rena, Erin, and Riika scared. Secondly, my main goal to to watch anime.”
“... annie may?”
“I think you’re saying it wrong.”
By the time they finished with the small conversation, the group reached the top of the crater and Rune plopped everyone onto the ground. The sand made it hard for them to stand on, but they were already almost used to the unbalanced ground.
Gaira was the one who was having the most trouble on the sandy terrain, but managed to stay standing on it. Rune looked about and increased his sight to see that his hovering platform was still floating, but was about a mile away.
He sighed and decided to have the group walk towards it. The hovering platform would not be controlled by him unless he was within 100 ft of it. Currently, he was about a mile away.
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“Ugh. Ok. Come on. We have to get a move on. Let's start walking.”
Gaira looked at him in curiosity as he put away the pieces of the box.
“Why not hover over there with the same way we came up the crater?”
“I need to recharge. The amount of mana I used was still quite a lot and I would end up with nearly zero mana by the time we reach it and I won’t be able to do anything about monsters or I would be too tired to do so.”
“Like that one?”
Rune turned around to see a cloud of sand hurled into the air. It spread around a single point and there was a blurry image in the center that seemed to near them every second. Then a shrill sound could be heard and Rune had to stop for a moment to think about ways to not jinx them.
He breathed out with a long and deep sigh before drawing out his rifle and reloading it. Then he aimed at the being and used [Physical Enhancement] to aim at the being. He put his eye to the scope and entered a stance in which he would not be blown backwards.
He waited until he saw what it was. It turned out to be some grey colored animal with flippers instead of legs and it was half submerged while the mouth was open and it was inhaling sand. There also seemed to be a hole on top of the being which sent the sand it ingested into the air. Rune guessed that it was some sort of whale with six flippers and didn’t need water.
He fired and the bullet flew from the chamber. As soon as it came out, the air pressure suddenly increased in its wake and some of the group were violently thrown about. The bullet traveled at such amazing speeds and it penetrated the beast’s mouth.
To be exact, it utterly destroyed the tongue of the beast and blood spewed about as the tongue dangled everywhere and the tongue matter was splattered everywhere. It made a strange noise that was like a bellowing that sounded like it was underwater.
Rune pulled his hand back to pull the bolt and the next bullet escaped from the cartridge into the chamber and he pushed the bolt back into place. He pulled the trigger and the next bullet flew. This all happened in less than half a second.
The bullet flew with such precision that it went in easily right in center of the whale’s face. It made a large hole in its head and it seemed to do a barrel roll as it skidded to a stop in front of Rune. He put away his rifle and unsheathed his katana. He stabbed the creature right underneath the eye and was satisfied when it did not move.
Elisa and Gaira both covered their mouths at the sight of the whale with a hole in its head, a mangled tongue, and a sword wound under its left eye. Elisa was on the verge of throwing up when Gaira did so and set off a chain reaction for her.
“Ugh. Can you try not to throw up every time I kill something? Now that I have to deal with smells, it becomes a hassle. Let’s just get a move on.”
Rune stored the whale being in his storage and was slowly edging away from the vomit all over the sand. He was holding his nose and the others in the group did so as well while trying to move towards Rune.
It was quite obvious from everything he did up until the display just now that he was their best chance of leaving the continent alive while completing the mission. Everyone was intent on surviving through the hardships of the mission, even if they were just being dragged along due to Rune and his original mission that he took them on.
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The group reached the hovering platform without any other incident, but it took a little bit over an hour to reach it. The group was tired of walking through the sand and, when Rune made the platform touch the ground in front of them, they all sighed in relief. Rouna and Gaira both flew several times, but they were both dragged down by the part of the group that couldn’t fly.
They all filed on to the platform and Rune made a makeshift tarp covering and put down some of the cooling magic tools on the floor of the vehicle. The platform itself was hot and was similar to asphalt on a summer’s day.
The group was very reluctant to get on as, one, it was uncomfortable to sit on a hard surface and, two, it was a temperature that burned their hands. The platform was also much smaller in width and length than the wagon they were using before. Of course, wagons couldn’t be made easily and Rune was not in the mood to spend enough time and concentration to recreate the wagon himself that he, Kelly, and Jared had originally made.
Gaira climbed aboard and looked around before speaking up.
“Where are we going now?”
“It’s going to take some time, much more than the wagon, but we will go to the Stormy Isles. I suppose, though, it will be better to teleport you to the school now.”
“Wut?”
Rune quickly stopped moving the platform and stood up. He took three steps to get to the other side of the platform where Gaira was and held out his hand. She looked at it for a moment before grabbing it.
Then the surroundings around her changed and she could not believe her eyes. One moment she was on a floating platform with sand all around and, in the next, she was on grass with plains surrounding them. Behind them was a large amount of wood and stacks of bricks. There was also a large amount of people working.
They stood in front of the gates. The actual bars were made of a metal mixed with magical energy and enchanted by Rune. On both sides of the gates were walls with small towers connected directly to the gate. On the towers there were three guards each which consisted of the Bastets.
All the Bastets were trained to be as strong or stronger than the knights guard of the King. Elisa was one of the three Elite Knights and, under them, were the Knight Captains which had many Knight Guards as their subordinates.
They each carried assault rifles and either a pistol or a sub-machine gun. They were trained how to use it and they each also had a small knife in their belt. They wore tailored, black outfits that each had the same design.
They were surprised when the boss of their boss, the security chief, suddenly showed up at the front gates with someone who threw up at his feet. They hurried to open the gates and they swung open.
The only reason why and how they recognized him in his Demon King form was due to the weapons on his back and the clothes on his body. They were quite aware of his ability to shapeshift.
“Yeah… I forgot that people throw up afterwards… Clean yourself up because I have to hurry back.”
She held up a finger before throwing up again with a violent noise. It was like the sound of a person dying, but louder and more violent. Then she wiped her mouth and cleared her throat.
“Blegh. Ok. I’m done now. So what is this place?”
It was at that moment that two of the security personal walked through the open gate and saluted with a military style greeting for their superior. Gaira went from her squatting to a standing poise. She looked between the guards and Rune and realized what was going on.
“Why are they saluting you?”
“This is my school. This is where you will be working.”
He moved one arm to showcase the building. It seemed like her face glowed in awe as she saw the large school that was undergoing even more construction to teach more people.
“Wow.”
Ruen turned to a guard and told them to bring about the teachers of the Freshmen year. There were other teachers now, but there were currently only students in the Freshmen year. After several minutes of Gaira looking at the school, the teachers came down.
Rune turned to them and spoke.
“Please teach her the basics of the subjects and what they are about. Then she will choose one and be a teacher in that subject. Now, I have somewhere to be.”
Ruen briskly walked towards the lab and entered. The first thing he saw was that the room had become taller for some reason and there were two more floors. There were now even more things on each floor and there seemed to also be robots working around.
One of the robots, one that looked like a female wearing a maid outfit, came up to Rune and spoke in feminine voice. He was surprised at first, but soon shook it off.
“Who are you?”
“Huh?! Oh, uh, I am Rune. Rune Samuv?”
“That is false. Your magic energy nor your appearance say that you are Rune.”
He sighed and changed into a Human. He looked at the robot and spoke again.
“I am Rune.”
“That is false. Magical energy does not match.”
From above, he could hear someone’s voice calling down to them. It was Kelly.
“No! That is Rune!”
She was quite far away, on the fourth floor, and had to shout for them to hear.
“Affirmative. Welcome back, master.”
The robot held both sides of its long dress and did a little courtesy before walking away. Rune could hear gears turning and a slight metal on metal scraping sound. Kelly was going down to the first floor with an elevator built into the side of the lab.
She came out of the cylindrical tube and greeted Rune.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? We made the room taller by enhancing the size of the pocket dimension so that it now fits almost everything. Here, let me guide you on a small tour.
So, now we have robots, but they can’t think for themselves yet. We haven’t found a way to develop artificial intelligence nor a way to upload your mind to the internet. They are basically like manual labor that can go on without breaks.
We have designed a smaller version of the internet and we used it to complete several apps. There is social media, photos, texts, emails, and other things. We have put those on the phone and set up a router and cell tower to connect all of them. For a test, we gave the students each a phone, but it is monitored by the tech staff to determine what bugs there are and if they are being used for wrong.
The test staff are mainly people we taught for a short while about these things. They caught on quickly, but they can’t seem to be able to get used to a keyboard just yet.
What I find disturbing about the lab is that we receive things at a slower rate than outside and that we send things at a faster rate than outside. It seems that we can only use the internet outside of the lab.
We have also developed more weaponry for use and, drum roll please, even developed a jeep. The only problem is the fuel source. We have changed from nuclear energy to electromagnetic and thermal energy which is much safer. As for the remaining nuclear material, we used it all up and placed the waste in a bin that is going to be shipped out to use for the battlefield where they will spread it to hurt the enemies. Luckily, it is only the monsters so far.
As for the weapons… we can get into that later. I’m sure Sophia will want to see you, even if you only spent less than a second in the real world.”