(Magic Dungeon Academy beginning of Vol. 6)

“Narias Talrone, welcome. Please, have a seat,” Miss Sweetbell motioned with her hand towards the couch in front of the table in the middle of the room.

“Good day to you, Miss Sweetbell,” Narias greeted her with a bow of his head before sitting down.

“Thank you for coming over. I take it you’re all healed and recovered now?” Jean enquired with an added sweet smile on her face.

“Yes, thank you,” Narias told her.

“I’m so glad to hear that. Now, I am certain you are aware of the reason why I wanted to speak to you again,” the headmistress said, tilting her head to one side just slightly.

“You probably want to talk about what happened inside the dungeon in more detail, Miss Sweetbell?” Narias was bright enough to understand that.

“Indeed. We are conducting an investigation and I would love to know everything that had happened back there,” Miss Sweetbell confirmed it.

“I understand,” Narias said with a dip of his head.

“Excellent. But before we start, how about I prepare some tea for us?” Jean stood up from her chair.

“Thank you, Miss Sweetbell,” Narias was also bright enough that refusing her hospitality would be rude at best. He also knew it wouldn’t be a five minute conversation either. Surprisingly, Miss Sweetbell wasn’t trying to make Narias feel uncomfortable while she was preparing tea and snacks this time. Her green, slightly loose around her arms, blouse was properly buttoned to the very top and she served the treats like a professional server would, sitting down on the other couch on the opposite side of the table, so she could face Narias directly.

“Please,” Jean invited Narias to have a taste, waiting a moment before saying something else. “Now, how about you tell me the full story of what happened inside the dungeon, including any details that you might think would be irrelevant. And please, take your time and try to remember everything that you can.”

“Ok, so… where do I start?” Narias placed his cup he held in his hand back on the table then touched his chin to think about it.

“Oh, I do apologize for being so vague with my question. How about you start by tell me about Mister Ludowik first? It appears he was involved in the incident directly, but we were not able to find any leads regarding his identity yet, unfortunately.”

“So, Mister Ludowik faked his identity to enter the Magic Dungeon, after all,” Narias spoke thoughtfully.

“Indeed. It looks like you are very bright regarding these matters, Narias Talrone,” Miss Sweetbell commented with an added smile.

“Ah, sorry. I was just…” Narias realized he exposed too much of his thoughts.

“No need to be so tense. All the information you will give me will stay in this room. I will use anything helpful you will share with me for the investigation of course, but all that will be said here will stay between you and me,” Jean tried to reassure him.

“Yes, I understand, Miss Sweetbell,” Narias nodded before starting his story. “Well, the first thing that stuck out about Mister Ludowik was…”

The first fifteen or so minutes of the conversation were spent with Narias telling what he had already told Miss Sweetbell about Mister Ludowik when she was visiting him at the infirmary. Even so, the headmistress listened patiently, adding a question or two to help Narias remember more details about the man. Narias admitted that Mister Ludowik looked to be nothing other than a Guide of the second group. Other than bumping into his group several times inside the dungeon, Mister Ludowik didn’t raise any suspicions to Narias until the incident with the Crystal Hornhead happened. That’s when the story became more interesting.

“If Mister Ludowik was strong enough to blast away the Crystal Hornhead with his spell to smash it into the wall, he probably could’ve killed it himself if he wanted to as well. I know the Crystal Hornhead was very strong and dangerous monster, and it wouldn’t be that easy to take it down, but I have no doubt that with Miss Alifur’s help they would’ve been able to do it.” Narias shared his honest thoughts before taking another sip of his tea.

“I see. Can you tell me more about what happened when the Crystal Hornhead attacked?” Miss Sweetbell wanted to know.

“Yeah. It became a little chaotic, especially after the Crystal Hornhead released a shout that caused a cave in. Our groups were split into two. My group ended up on the far right side of the cave while the other group stayed somewhere in the middle of the cave. Miss Alifur tried to fight the monster, but I think she was worried about the students getting hurt in the process and that’s why she couldn’t put her focus on the monster. Her first priority was our safety at the time.”

“There were several Pincer Ants inside the cave too and they would’ve gotten in the way of our escape, so I engaged the monsters to get rid of some of them, allowing for my group to escape. Miss Alifur was carrying a girl student from the other group by then, so she couldn’t fight. When I saw everyone from my group reach the cave exit, I rushed to join them, but then a chunk of ice grew in front of me, blocking my path. I knew right away it wasn’t an accident and that somebody was trying to block my escape. Unfortunately, that ice stopping me for a brief moment was enough to delay me from reaching the intended exit before it was completely blocked by the falling rocks. I didn’t want to make Miss Alifur worry or else she might’ve tried to come back, endangering herself and leaving the other students on their own, including the girl who was injured, so I made sure to tell her I’ll be fine and shouted to her I will use the other exit to leave the cave instead.”

“In all honesty, I didn’t want to believe someone intentionally wanted to trap me inside the cave, but on my way to reach the other side, another ice spell was thrown at me and I was certain it was Rudolf’s doing.” Narias made a pause, needing to take a breather from talking for a moment.

“What made you so sure about that, Narias?” Miss Sweetbell asked, with the honest curiosity in her voice.

“The second spell that was thrown at me was the Frozen Lance spell which Rudolf used against me when I fought him during the Solo Arena Competition. I reacted in time and was able to neutralize Rudolf’s spell with my fire magic, but the falling rocks got in the way and forced me to back away, preventing me from getting to the exit the other students were running to. Rudolf was the last one to reach it, and I would’ve still managed to get out, but I didn’t expect for Mister Ludowik to assist Rudolf. He covered the ground around the exit with water which Rudolf then froze with his Ice Magic, also sealing the exit of the cave. That’s when I realized Mister Ludowik wasn’t just a Guide for the other group.” Narias finished his sentence with a heavy sigh.

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“I’m really sorry to hear such horrible thing has happened to you, Narias,” Miss Sweetbell tried to comfort him.

“Thank you, Miss Sweetbell, but you shouldn’t feel bad about it. It wasn’t your fault that it happened,” Narias didn’t want to burden her with an unnecessary guilt.

“But it was. If I was doing my job better, the other group wouldn’t have snuck inside the Magic Dungeon in the first place and none of it would have happened. It was mainly due to my negligence as the academy’s headmistress for such dangerous incident to occur,” Jean insisted on taking the blame.

“You are being too harsh on yourself, Miss Sweetbell. Running an academy must be an extremely hard job as it is and you are only a human just like all of us. There is not a single person out there who could prevent all the bad things that could happen to them. There is a saying, ‘If you knew where you’d trip, you’d place a pillow down to soften the fall’.” Narias told her, motioning with his hand.

“Wow, what an interesting saying that is,” Jean exclaimed quietly with a sincere surprise, her eyes narrowing while she was gazing at him.

“Oh, aah… sorry. I must’ve… read it somewhere,” Narias scrambled for a justification, scratching his cheek with one finger while looking away.

“Thank you, Narias. I appreciate you being so understanding,” Miss Sweetbell said, putting him at ease. “Your story so far makes it clear that Mister Ludowik was definitely behind the attempt to trap you inside the dungeon, but I am also curious about what happened next? You have mentioned that you have killed the Crystal Hornhead and that you have found an undiscovered Supply Point room. Not to mention, you stayed inside the dungeon for almost a month. Do you mind telling me more about that?”

“Right, yes, I don’t mind,” Narias leaned back, his mind running back in time to remember what happened after the second exit had been blocked.

A few more rocks landed next to Narias feet, making him stumble on the slippery ice. The second exit out of the cave was blocked and the Crystal Hornhead had just picked itself up after being bashed into the wall by Ludowik’s spell earlier. The elephant sized monster wasn’t exactly bothered by the falling rocks, the sizes of which could’ve been up to two feet in diameter. The same couldn’t have been said about Narias, unfortunately. He was in danger of being buried under them.

“Boost! Wind Burst!” Narias had to get away and fast. He was fast enough to dash past falling rocks without being hit by them. Fortunately, the few remaining Pincer Ants weren’t as tough as the Crystal Hornhead and were squashed under the rocks just when they tried to get to Narias, leaving a clear path in front of him. “Humph, hop! Fireball!”

Narias shot a Fireball at the Crystal Hornhead which was trying to block his path. The Fireball visibly hit its target, but evaporated on impact, leaving no scratch on the shiny crystal shell of the monster’s body.

Wow, no effect at all. Narias wasn’t exactly panicking. On the contrary, he was impressed with how strong the monster actually was.

“Huh? Wind Burst!” Instead of fighting the hug bug monster, Narias made his priority to escape from the cave.

There was still one more exit available and it wasn’t blocked just yet. A few hops and jumps to the wall to make some distance between himself and the Crystal Hornhead allowed for Narias to reach the open exit faster. The rocks weren’t falling as much as they did a moment ago, making it easier for him to gain speed thanks to his Boost spell still active. Once Narias reached the cave exit, he dashed in full speed to get away, hoping the Crystal Hornhead wouldn’t catch up to him. That’s where he was wrong.

Crystal Hornhead, as massive as it was, could move at a decently fast speed. Obviously, having six legs was one of the reasons it could run so fast. Thanks to the tunnels connecting the caves being tall and wide enough for the rare monster to move through freely, and now that it wasn’t being slowed down by the falling rocks, it was catching up to Narias at a rapid speed.

“No way!” Narias exclaimed, seeing the big bug creature getting closer. “Ok then. This should slow it down. Fire Wall!”

Instead of trying to run faster, Narias turned around to cast his fire spell, hoping the big wall of fire will stop the monster from advancing. After all, bug and insect monsters were weak to fire. Unfortunately, that was not so for the Crystal Hornhead. It dashed through the burning fire without a second thought, the fire leaving no marks on its body. A fast and deadly swipe of the Crystal Hornhead’s frontal arm followed with Narias just barely managing to dodge being sliced in half. It was thanks to Narias’s Fire Wall that it missed. The flames obstructed the Crystal Hornhead’s vision and the blade-like bug’s arm hit the wall, leaving a deep slashing mark on it.

“Wind Pressure Blast!” Narias shot himself away and into the cave that opened in the distance.

The cave Narias reached had a shape of a crescent moon, two additional exits leading out of it and multiple Pincer Ants in it that sprung to their feet to welcome an unexpected guest that just arrived. The Crystal Hornhead was yet to catch up to Narias thanks to it stopping when it attacked him inside the tunnel. The creature needed some time to build up its speed which gave Narias a few seconds to make some distance between himself and the monster. Fortunately to the cave having a curved shape, the Crystal Hornhead couldn’t just run through it to catch up with Narias. Unfortunately, Narias couldn’t just run through the cave without being stopped either. The Pincer Ants weren’t about to let him pass easily.

“Fireball! Fire Blast!” Narias was blasting the monsters with his spells to make a path for himself to run away.

If I run through the first cave exit, the Crystal Hornhead will run through without slowing down and will catch up with me inside the tunnel before I reach the next cave. I better use the other exit instead. Narias thought, noticing another exit at the very end of the curved cave. It also had some boulders in the middle of it which he thought could serve as a blockade to slow the Crystal Hornhead down.

“Boost!” Narias sprinted towards the side of the wall, running on it thanks to his Boost spell which helped increase his speed. “Fire Blast!” A fire explosion blasted the Pincer Ant away that decided to block Narias’s path, allowing for him to reach the exit. A loud ruckus of rocks smashing and falling was heard behind him right before he darted into the tunnel. The Crystal Hornhead must’ve smashed itself through the boulders to follow him, Narias thought.

It's so persistent. Narias couldn’t shake a feeling that the Crystal Hornhead had a grudge against him for some reason.

Another cave room full of Pincer Ants didn’t make it easier for Narias to get through either. The Crystal Hornhead followed him to this next cave, almost cornering Narias against the wall and almost ending his life with another of its powerful arm-blade slashes. Ironically, it was the Pincer Ants that saved Narias from his certain doom this time.

A few Pincer Ants were blocking his way when the Crystal Hornhead had finally reached the cave where Narias was fighting. His escape was blocked by the Crystal Hornhead behind him and several Pincer Ants in front of him. Just when the Crystal Hornhead was about to swing at him, another Pincer Ant rushed in front of it, trying to catch Narias with its pincers. It was cut in half on the spot by the hug bug monster, its bladed arm stopping less than two feet away from Narias and giving him an opportunity to escape.

Not good, I can’t shake it off. I won’t be able to last for very long if I don’t find a way to escape. Narias had a legitimate reason to worry.

“Boost! Wind Burst!” Narias leaped to the side and away towards the only other exit out of the cave. “Fire Wall!” He left a huge wall of fire behind him in hope it will stop the Pincer Ants from pursuing him and slow down the Crystal Hornhead at least a little bit.

Hey, this tunnel is much shorter compared to the others. I bet there will be more Pincer Ants inside. I just have to blast myself through it. Narias was quick to identify four Pincer Ants inside a round cave which was almost half the size compared to the previous ones he had passed.

“Fire Wall! Wind Burst!” He turned on the Pincer Ants in a ferocious frenzy, planning to get through the cave room as quickly as possible. He used his Fire Wall spell to block the Pincer Ants from approaching him directly, darting to the side of the wall to get to the other end of the cave. “Ok, I’m almost… huh? Where’s the exit?” Narias stopped abruptly, reaching the other end of the cave.

“What? But I thought… No way…” Narias gasped when the horrifying realization had hit him. It was a dead end and there were no other exits out of the current cave he ended up in. “I need to go back…”

Just when Narias has turned around, the Crystal Hornhead stomped into the cave, blocking the only exit out of it. Narias had a very cold chill run down his spine, realizing he was now trapped with no way to escape this time.