Lady Amarine gracefully lifted one of her elegant, lily-white hands. The frog monster in front of her squirmed in pain and died without even a scratch on its skin.
Fredrick ran forward to harvest the skin for her, then put it in his bag to help her carry it.
She didn't think much of him, but at least he was better than that worm she had to call a partner. The day before, he had completely ignored it whenever she hunted a monster, like he was expecting her to skin it herself.
Imagine the humiliation! She had managed to use telekinesis to avoid touching the disgusting bodies, but she ended up walking around with a bunch of giant frog skins floating behind her. It was outright disgraceful.
She had, at one point, deigned to ask him to help her with the work that wasn't suitable for one of her status.
He had just raised an eyebrow and responded, "Why? You hunted them. Skin them yourself."
If not for her dignified upbringing, Amarine would have slapped him.
Fortunately, unlike her partner, at least Fredrick knew how she should be treated. She never thought she'd be grateful for the company of one like him, but she had to admit it was far more pleasant than that lowly bastard.
She was Lady Amarine! She was the daughter of a duke and she was the youngest 7-star mage in the continent!
Her long, luscious hair fell in waves over her smooth, pale skin. She had the face of an angel. Her eyes looked almost violet in the light. Her body had a shape that only appeared in men's dreams, and her bearing was as graceful as a goddess.
She was the dream lover of countless men, and the envy of countless women!
It would be understandable if her worm of a partner groveled and tried to lick her feet, but instead he just didn't seem to care about her.
It was strange. Well, looking at it objectively, it was probably better if she had one less fly buzzing around her. She had Fredrick there anyway, taking care of the skinning.
As she was absorbed in her thoughts, she heard someone shout, "Stop! What the hell are you doing?"
It was the worm, and he was shouting at Fredrick's partner.
Amarine looked over to see what, in fact, Fredrick's partner was doing, and he apparently seemed to be pulling a lever he found in a niche in the wall.
The walls started to close in on each other and the floor fell away.
Amarine was too shocked to react, but somehow the worm managed to cast a flight spell on the four of them before they hit the ground.
Of course, casting such a spell was as easy as breathing for a 7-star mage like Amarine, but one still needed the presence of mind to actually do it. Amarine internally kicked herself.
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This is why I hate going anywhere with morons. Who the hell sees a lever in an abandoned burial complex and decides to just pull it without any warning? Actually, why was there even a lever to drop the floor in the first place?
I guess it would seem that Fredrick's partner does. I should have just beaten him up or something, to stop them from following us, but I thought it wasn't worth the hassle. Apparently, I was wrong.
I cast the magic required to stop us from falling to our deaths, even on Fredrick, his idiotic partner, and the mentally ill woman. While I can't say that I wasn't tempted to let them fall and watch their organs splatter on the ground, that would've been a dick move.
So, we all floated down safely.
Maybe Amarine felt guilty for dragging us into this mess by bringing along a pair of morons, because she tried to teleport us out.
I was impressed. Instantaneous teleportation magic was both computationally difficult and required immense amounts of energy.
Although I like to know what's going on around me, I don't tend to rely on gossip, but it appeared that the rumors she was a 7-star mage were true.
Are you interested in mage rankings? If not, you don't have to listen. You can just take my word for it. I don't think they're particular helpful in combat, but they have their uses. Well anyway, I'll explain, just in case.
Mages are evaluated by a committee and given a rank based on their mana capacity and the spells they can cast. An archmage like Valentine would typically be rated a 9-star. Professor Delaney was an 8-star mage. Novices are 1-star by default. I hadn't gone before the committee, but if I did, they would probably give me around 5 or 6 stars.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
For the record, even a 1-star mage can kill a 7-star mage who isn't prepared.
Unfortunately, high ranked mage or not, there seemed to be some sort of spacial distortion, because her spell sizzled and failed. If we wanted to teleport out, we would first need a few hours of testing and calculations.
At the moment, we were at the bottom of the shaft we had fallen down. A dark corridor stretched before us. As I was considering what the fastest way to get out of the shaft would be, the ceiling began to collapse.
All four of us ran into the corridor. The corridor kept gradually collapsing behind us, forcing us to continue running forward.
I kept all my senses on high alert for any other anomalies that I might be able to detect.
Eventually, we reached a room with metal walls. After the path closed behind us, the unpleasant voice of an elderly man filled the room.
It seemed to be projected using mana, so I tried to locate the source while simultaneously readying myself to cast defensive magic.
"You've got quite the gorgeous young lady with you. Even in my past life, she's got to be one of the sexiest I've ever seen. But you probably can't even dream of touching her. Isn't that unfair?"
The voice gave a perverted chuckle, "Don't worry, this old man has a gift for you."
I felt the mana around us start to flow irregularly and instantly activated a field of anti-magic around me. It wasn't large enough to cover other people, but it would at least stop whatever was being cast from affecting me directly.
After a second or so, the irregular mana flow disappeared. I looked at my three companions, but there initially seemed to be no effect.
Then, their eyes started to turn red with repressed emotions.
"Oh, I forgot to mention, if you guys don't relieve yourselves within five hours by joining with a person of the opposite sex, you'll die!" The old man's laughter echoed through the room again.
Was this person so horny they had to create live-action pornography for themselves by having people raped? Even degeneracy should have a limit.
I wanted to decapitate him. I probably would, actually, once I finished dealing with my classmates. Or burn him or turn him to dust or whatever. I had already located the source of the voice.
"Are you the master of this tomb?" Amarine shouted, her voice a little strange, "We demand you stop this!"
It was a good question, but we had no reason to believe the voice's answer. The voice claimed it indeed belonged to the tomb's master. Interesting. We could try comparing his corpse with historical records after disposing of him.
Unexpectedly, after this, Amarine collapsed to the ground, moaning softly.
Fredrick and his partner stared at her, their pants looking, well... I don't want to describe it, and I wish I could unsee it.
At least that meant they were distracted, for the moment.
I vaporized a section of the wall, creating a long, very narrow tunnel in the direction of the voice's mana source.
I climbed through it and it opened into a tiny, extremely strange room. It had some interfaces that looked almost modern.
Before I could get a good look at it, however, a myriad of spells were simultaneously activated and sent towards me. They collapsed upon entering my field of anti-magic, leaving me unharmed. It really was an incredibly useful construction.
The one inside the room looked very much not like a man who had been dead for centuries. He tried to activate some sort of hand-held device. I burned him alive.
It would probably be a bit harder to ID the body now, but whatever.
Unfortunately, this didn't undo whatever was affecting my classmates.
Amarine was putting on a rather unseemly display from her position on the ground, while Fredrick and his partner fought each other.
When they saw that I was back, however, their target changed to me. I killed them. It was self-defense.
That left Amarine.
"Stay away! Even if I die, I want to die with my chastity intact," she moaned.
"Okay," I said, "That's what I was going to do anyway."
I started drawing a long-distance teleportation array that could operate in the spacial distortion. I hadn't brought the proper equipment, but fluids from the frog skins could be used in a pinch.
With difficulty, I managed to ignore the annoying and distracting sounds Amarine was making constantly. She was also squirming, but that was, at least, a lot quieter.
After a few hours, I was done.
By this point, Amarine was gasping, "Rowan, I've realized, I-I don't want to die. Please, help me."
I couldn't sustain the anti-magic field for more than a few minutes at once, but I walked over and cast it on her. It wouldn't necessarily remove magic that had already been cast, but it would temporarily suppress it.
I had already checked. It wouldn't save her, however, we could at least have a proper conversation.
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Rowan might have had no bloodline or background to speak of, but right now, with her mana is disarray, he was her only hope.
"You don't want to die? Alright."
Rowan said it in a matter-of-fact tone, but coming from his cold and undeniably beautiful face, it held a strange sort of attraction. Amarine started blushing and shifted her torn dress.
"Hang on a second, I need to get ready," she said, "And after, you can't tell anyone what happened here! We'll be walking two parallel paths, never together again..."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Sorry?"
"I was offering to bring you back with me. There are some men at the camp who would probably love to do whatever is required to save your life. I don't see any reason it should be me?"
Amarine went red again, this time from shame.
"I- At least-" she stammered, "At least if it's you, I don't mind!"
"I don't see how that's my problem," Rowan said icily.
"The men at the camp are all worthless! I'd rather die than be shamed by them. And I don't want anyone else to see me like this. But if it's you... At least your looks are good enough."
"Do you really think you're in a position to be picky, here?"
"If you don't do it, I won't come with you! You'll just have to leave me here to die!"
He tried to talk her out of it, but Amarine wouldn't budge.
Her beautiful, snow-white legs showed through the holes in her dress, and her chest glistened with fluid. She was panting softly.
Any man would be unfathomably lucky to be in Rowan's position. She wasn't sure why he was being so stubborn, but he'd have to be crazy to actually walk away from an opportunity like this!
She hadn't heard anything about him being a eunuch, and he shared facilities with other men, so he should definitely not be able to resist.
Eventually, looking at her deeply, Rowan asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yes," she said, resolutely.
With his hand wrapped in a cloth, he walked over to Fredrick's body, retrieved Fredrick's knife, and handed it to her.
"I'm not sure how it'll be, but if it gets too painful, use this," he said, "I wish you the best."
Then, he activated the teleportation circle and left her to die.