The days that followed were troubling enough for Michael that even Micah dialed down on him ‘being funny’. They weren’t horrible per se, since realistically speaking, Michael’s reputation skyrocketed. Him helping to save two thirds of a classroom made him even more popular than he already was, with the added benefit of also being ‘popular’ among the teachers. Enough so that Regitris himself called him over to congratulate him and also to mention that having an in with some teachers could prove beneficial for both himself and his faction. Old schemer.

A professor meeting has been called, for the entire teaching body, presence mandatory, under the pretext of discussing safety regulations. Michael personally thought those regulations really should be discussed, but Regitris would probably use the opportunity to steal members from other factions. By diplomacy, of course. Acentionalists wouldn’t debase themselves by offering bribes, magical or monetary in nature. Not.

And he had also managed to learn a new Spell, though he was still a way away from mastering it. Sinestra got in touch with him to congratulate him on the Spell. Apparently, even for her it wasn’t something that could have been learned in a snap. And he also finally managed to learn the |Trip Vine| Spell. Wasn’t hard, just not something he really focused on. Well, at least Micah had been happy to get his book back.

It was a good time. He now had favors to call in, from the rescued students, could ask advice and questions outside the norm from some professors and could even start to curry favor with the upper years. So, why did he felt and looked troubled?

Erea.

Sure, it wasn’t his fault. At all. Nobody who knew the story, including himself, could have though that her hurt feelings were his fault. He didn’t believe it either. But, here’s the thing, just because he knew he wasn’t guilty, didn’t actually mean he didn’t feel bad for how she felt. The elf had been a disaster of an acquaintance at first, to be sure, but she also warmed up to him. And he supposed having the emotional response of a tea spoon wasn’t actually her fault. And he felt just because she felt the way she did.

Plus, he would be lying if he’d have said he wasn’t attracted to her too. Not that the thought would have ever touched his conscious mind.

Still, that was how the days passed. Michael was actually looking forward to going on a mission with Alex. He even cleared his schedule with his faction, though a few grumbled about it. Micah would be helping the Naturalists, so he wouldn’t be joining, but Bob would. Which was good, since after the mission they agreed to have one of the first talks of their conspiracy and share what information they had found that could be put to use. Perhaps it was too soon, but they were all excited for that.

Michael woke up that Friday, had a good, hefty lunch, checked on his gear and walked out of his room. His hand was firmly placed in his wand holster. He had even managed to obtain, not buy, a Mana Potion. Perks of being himself. He was feeling like this mission might actually take his mind of things. Plus, the prospect of loot was always a good thing.

He met with Bob in the classroom Alex told them to meet up. His friend was now sporting the martials usual leather armor, instead of the stretched-out robe he had before. On a huge walking rhino, the effect was quite impressive.

They talked shop until, trading information and joking about Micah until Alex and the others got here. Which apparently, only consisted of Alex and Laen, Quora and Mihli not having been included this time.

“Woo! Sausage party!” the centaur exclaimed.

Of course, that particular dumb expression was the one to make it across different worlds.

“Not intended.” Aex said. “Quora couldn’t make it and Mihli opted out this time.”

“Why?” Michael asked. “Too dangerous?”

“I think if it would have been too dangerous for her, it would have also been too dangerous for you.” He laughed. “No, it’s just that this specific type of quest isn’t really her thing. Her words, not mine.”

“What is the objective of this quest?” Bob asked.

“Cleaning duty!” Alex grinned.

What?

“You should see your faces.” Laen laughed. “It’s more like pest control. We just call it cleaning duty.”

“An Explorer team uncovered a hidden corridor on the third floor. Which is big, since apparently, it might be a shortcut to the fourth floor.”

“Will we be scouting the fourth floor?” Michael asked.

“No! Nooo, no, no. Not with you two and not without being more prepared. No offense.” Laen said.

“The fourth floor might be a little out of your reach for the time being. No, what we will do is clear out the infestation inside the corridor and make sure it’s cleared out this time. Laen will even place a few traps to make sure it stays clear, until higher Level mage comes to check it.” Alex clarified.

“Yeah, it’s a high visibility quest. We’ll probably not find any loot, but the payment should be good.” The centaur added.

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“What kind of enemies are we looking at?” Michael asked.

“Dirtballs.”

“Dirt… balls?” Bob asked, confused.

“The correct term is Rock Chasers.” Alex said. “Well, one of the correct terms, since they come in all flavors. It’s usually a low-grade monster. Natural variants exist, but this one only manifests around high levels of leftover magical ingredients. If you leave around enough magical trash, like leftover potion ingredients, monster parts or wand cores and it all adds up like, say, a corner of room, it will eventually develop a sort of life. Or mobility, at the very least. The core will form and start to look like magical flesh and it will try to form a shell around itself, out of whatever it can find.”

“The explorers said that there’s a lot of them, but that they have really soft shells. Like, not even rock or earth. Just dirt and dust. Easy.”

“Right. Any danger?” Michael asked.

After all, the last room they entered was supposed to be relatively easy too.

“Only if you’re slow.” Alex said. “See, the rock chasers are like spheres of…well, anything. They hunt by either consuming more spilled magical debris or by hunting a mage, breaking him apart and consuming their blood and mana. But these are too weak for that, so you’d only be looking at bruises. Even in the worst of cases, you’d only look at death by asphyxiation. So, if you keep moving and stomp and them, you should be fine.”

“Or they could mass together.” Laen said.

“What’s that?”

“A rare last-ditch effort by this kind of apparition.” Alex conceded. “But good point, Laen. It’s unlikely to happen, but sometimes, if you kill enough of them in close spaces, the survivors can merge, forming one great rock chaser. Happens only rarely, but we can be aware of it, at least.”

Right. I know my luck. Most likely it will happen.

“But, you have a trap setter specialist among you.” Laen grinned. “I’ll be setting traps to make sure that doesn’t happen. If they try to come back, my traps will fry them.”

“Good.” Bob smiled. “Then, should we proceed?”

“Let’s.” Michael answered.

The corridor itself wasn’t far away from them. Or, it was, but since Gnosis didn’t give a damn about spatial physics, they reached it in under a quarter of an hour. The double doors to it looked ancient and Alex explained that they weren’t visible until about a week ago, when a magical duel blasted the walls hard enough to remove the layer of wards hiding the doors.

Entering through them, Michael saw the corridor. The left side of it had periodical windows and the right side of it had only a smooth stone wall, with sconces set inside it every once in a while. The floor was marble and the ceiling was shrouded by darkness. It looked as if it had been built between a castle and a mountain. Though, Michael had seen enough gnosian architecture by now to understand this was just an architect feeling edgy. Amateurs.

The most interesting feature, however, was the shape of the corridor. It was winding, left to right, right to left, like a huge snake. The windings themselves got sharper after each repetition, until after the third set of curves, Michael’s view got obstructed by the wall. Alex explained that it was just spatial shenanigans, that the corridor was actually straight, but that it didn’t matter that much to them.

And so, they walked ahead. It was about five minutes in, when they encountered the rock chasers. To tell the truth, they really were… underwhelming. The first group of them just looked like balls of dirt, ankle tall, shivering nervously. They still attacked them. Michael blasted two apart, being somewhat disgusted by their insides. One was a pale green, while the other a pale yellow, both with fleck of blue. But the disgusting thing was how they popper apart, like overly ripe melons.

Three attached Bob, but the gaindel didn’t bother with Spells. He just stomped on them.

“Impressed?” Alex said.

“So much.” Michael rolled his eyes making him laugh.

“Do me a favor.” Laen said. “Next time, try to kill them all in one spot. No need to waste trap Spells, you know?”

They moved on ahead after Laen set his runes on the floor. Just underpowered |Shock| Spells. The real trick was to make sure they discharged over and over again, instead of just detonating, the centaur said. They’d react to the strength of their target, not just the presence of it.

What came next was generally more of the same. The rock chasers mostly looked the same, dirt and dust, accumulated from who knows how long. Maybe it was because of the open windows, maybe it was because of the debris students of long ago caused while passing through. Michael privately thought that perhaps these things could actually eat their surroundings in order to multiply, since there was absolutely no furniture to be seen. But there sure was a lot of them. Dust and dirt. At least they splashed in different colors.

Bob was the one who did most of the work. He’d run ahead, wait for them, to start ‘attacking him’, before starting to stomp on them. He said he didn’t mind much. They basically tickled. It was only after they passed the middle of the corridor, according to Alex, that they actually had to start helping Bob, since the rock chasers grew enough in number to actually engulf Bob entirely, even standing up. Laen grumbled, having to cast more trap Spells afterwards, but that was life.

They reached the end of the corridor without Michael having to even use his new Potion. Oh, he used a lot of his Spells, but not frantically enough for his own probably small mana regeneration not to be able to handle it.

Well, at least I got to practice my aiming.

Bob himself was visibly more upset, since his feet were visibly covered in rock chaser guts, but Alex assured him it wasn’t anything harmful. Just disgusting.

“You know, now that I’m here, I kind of want to go through.” Michael said, looking at the exit.

The doors looked almost exactly the same as the ones they entered through. Just… more inviting.

“I’m sure you do.” Alex laughed. “However, that’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”

“Nor I.” Laen said. “Listen Michael, you may be a superstar student, but I’m a very comfortable centaur. I came, I saw, I trapper. And now it’s time for me to get paid.”

They shared a laugh at that. But they agreed. They did clear the corridor, successfully this time. Why risk it? Though, Michael decided to look into future quests. If there was one to use this entrance to the fourth floor, he’d make sure to at least put his hat in the ring.

The sound of footsteps stopped their conversation.

But we’re alone in here. Aren’t we?

The footsteps were getting louder and louder, the pacing of them outlining the fact that whoever was coming, they were in a hurry.

“Wands out.” Alex quietly said. “Have a Spell prepared. Bob, stay behind me, attack only on my command.”

They got in a battle formation, Alex in front, with Laen and Michael to the sides and Bob behind him. They were ready to fire when they saw the intruder coming into view.

“Alex!” Erea shouted, out of breath. “I managed to get out of cleaning duty! Mihli told me where to find you. Please tell me you’re not… all… done.”

The elf’s eyes finally found Michael and she stopped running. She was still breathing hard, but she looked disbelieving and increasingly furious. He didn’t even know the elf could actually get red in the face. She looked ready to pop. But she howled instead.

“I’m going to skin the bitch!”