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Echoes of Mastery
Chapter 7 : Beginner Dungeon?

Chapter 7 : Beginner Dungeon?

They slowly start arriving at the dungeon that was surrounded by trees and a few hills. The dungeon was in a mountain and used as a training dungeon so they usually don't destroy the stone inside. Everyone gets out of the bus and all walk to a tent that is posted at the dungeon.

Ivy enters and the rest of the kids follow her, she starts by getting all of the necessary things for the explanation.

“We are here to discuss the rules so listen closely rule number one don't do anything stupid and don't try to handle things you clearly can't. Rule two don't abandon your companion, Rule three I'm watching your every move so don't get away from the device that gives me my sight.”

“How will we know when the exploration is over and how will we be graded?” Frank says while raising his hand.

“You will be graded on your composure, distance and if you are able to handle the monsters. You're done when you use the scroll I give you to leave or if you make it to the end of the dungeon you will use the scroll. Now that is out of the way, time to assign groups of 2.”

Ivy grabs a marker and starts writing everyone's names on the board and then writes what class they are.

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As she looks at the names she rearranges everyone's names and makes the teams needed for entering.

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“So everyone partnered up on what is shown on the board, normally each team would have a lot more people with less teams. We only have six today so imma change things up." As she claps her hands and hands everyone a scroll she leads everyone to the entrance of the dungeon and summons a large eye that proceeds to follow Jayce and Alex.

Alex is a girl with hooded brown eyes, and has straight, chocolate-colored hair and is in a simple ponytail. She has a lithe build and likes wearing a lot of black. Alex looks at Jayce nervously and hides behind him as they slowly get closer to the dungeon.

Jayce sees Alex clearly frightened and understands why he was paired with her as during the exam she was extremely nervous and barely passed the exam. Jayce assumes they were paired by pairing the highest with the lowest scores, so it must be like that with all the teams.

As all the teams get closer to entrance of the dungeon, Alex is the 1st to notice that there are 3 paths ahead as asks Ms. Ivy.

“Ms. Ivy there are three paths ahead, which one do we enter?”

“I see you have great eyes Alex, each team will select a path to take starting with your team going down the list. Now get ready Team one you are up to select a path to take.”

Jayce looks at each path and looks at Alex as she also stares at each path slowly. As she looks she gets extremely nervous while looking at the middle path while on the last path she seems to do a little smile.

“Alex, what path do you wanna take?”

“The last path, it's the best option.”

“Why is that? Fewer monsters, why not the middle path?”

“NO no not the middle path that one has too much.”

“I’m sorry but we got to choose the middle path for the best possible grade plus I don't think anyone else would be able to handle it as well as us. Don't Worry i'll protect you”

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“Ok I believe you” she says nervously.

Jayce and Alex start walking down the middle path and as Jayce slowly draws his sword, Alex nervously gets her bow out and takes out an arrow.

“Jayce, there are five goblins ahead.”

Jayce readies his sword and sprints forward, and sees the goblins ahead and goes for a slash. The slash cleaves one of the goblins' arms off due to the goblin dodging, Jayce readies another attack taking the same goblins head off with another slash.

Jayce taking down one goblin takes a step back and waits and watches the other goblins. The rest of the goblins start walking towards him and then start rushing him all at once. Jayce gets into the kasumi no kamae stance and his body starts getting enhanced with mana. In a few seconds each goblin goes for an attack and Jayce deflected two of the goblins, he slashes the goblins, the two goblins who were slightly lagging behind cutting them in half. His body moves forward with the moment of the slash and quickly turns around, an arrow pierces one of the goblins head and falls to the floor, the other goblin turns around to see Alex, Jayce decapitates him the moment he looks away from him.

Alex walks up to where Jayce is and is shaking nervously, she sees the blood of the goblins and gets scared and runs to Jayce. Jayce pats her on the head, to try and comfort her he says.

“You did great, don't worry. You're fine, I'm still here.”

They continue moving forward, they notice blue blood leading further into the dungeon. As they moved deeper and deeper into the dungeon no goblins were seen but the sound of crunching and squeals can be heard. Alex stops moving in fear and gets down to the ground having a panic attack crying.

Jayce walks up to Alex and holds onto her shoulders and while staring at her he says.

“Alex, snap out of it you're fine we are still nowhere near it still if it's that bad let's leave and tell the instructor about what you saw.”

As Alex looks up she has an immediate look of terror and passes out before she can utter a word. Jayce, confused, gets a feeling and as he turns around a very large monster slashes at his head but Jayce barely manages to dodge it. The monster connected his strike against Jayce's chest even though it's just a small nick it still manages to draw blood. Jayce stares at the creature and it looks very similar to a Barghest but larger, so he prepares his sword and gets into a defensive stance.

The Barghest rushes in with incredible speed and quickly attacks Jayce, he manages to block it but can't get a counter attack in as it already backed up quickly moving to another position. Jayce goes for the attack instead charging at the Barghest using his speed but the Barghest easily avoids him and starts rushing to Alex’s passed out body. Jayce looks back shocked and rushes back to prevent the Barghest from getting Alex. Instead it was a trick and the Barghest sneak attacked Jayce with his claw by quickly turning around and slashing at him. Jayce barely manages to dodge, get slashed and his left arm is badly injured bleeding badly.

“I don't have time to be playing around, god dammit.”

Jayce holds his blade up and starts channeling his mana around his body, sparks appear surrounding Jayce and his blade starts getting bright with electricity. In a blink of an eye Jayce dashes to the Barghest cutting its back leg off and tries to go back to slash it again, but the Barghest notices and immediately goes invisible.

Jayce stops and goes near Alex’s body, as he looks around his mana is slowly diminishing he looks for any slight movements. Jayce proceeds to try and sense the mana around him as he quickly releases his mana inside of him spreading it 10ft around him and senses the Barghest. Jayce rushes to that position and stabs the Barghest in the chest, but instead he hits a rock. The Barghest, noticing the opportunity to attack, slashing his back and retreats to go back invisible and stalks Jayce once again. Jayce removes his sword and quickly looks around and as he does he gets light headed from blood loss and exhaustion. Jayce notices dust and pebbles moving in direction slowly as the Barghest is stalking Jayce.

“It’s toying with me, if I don't take care of it in my next attack I don't think I can continue.” He thinks to himself.

Jayce looks at the floor and notices a pebble getting kicked, and he rushes to that direction pinning the Barghest right arm to the wall. Jayce Activates Absorption and his hand glows red and looks like there is a small fire around his hand and starts forcefully absorbing the Barghest mana. The Barghest starts roaring extremely loudly and starts slashing at Jayce with its left arm but Jayce starts sparking again and the sound of crackling electricity is heard and gets louder, drowning out the roar of the creature. The Barghest starts getting burned by the electricity as it gets hotter and hotter, then a sound of thunder striking is heard. Jayce lets go of the charred body of the Barghest and removes his sword and falls down on his knees.

“That son of a bitch, I never realized how annoying some monsters can be, I need to get stro-.” Jayce passes out before finishing and he sees something walking towards him.