Azura was a little disappointed in the first few floors if he was honest. He was almost finished with the 4th floor, and frankly he wondered if 11 was really going to be high enough to convince people he could survive a trip to Worlds End. Then again he supposed guides were hired specifically because they knew the safest route to get places. So he wouldn’t need to be as strong as someone planning to head there in a straight shot. Well he fully expected to run into stronger monsters than the guide would be expecting. His bad luck hadn’t been as present in the academy, but he put that more to lack of things that could happen than anything. Out here it would be on full display.
He bisected another monster that had come to make him a meal. Blitz wolves were reasonably fast, but they were still only rank 2 monsters, and not even particularly dangerous ones. The only way to distinguish them from regular wolves was the jagged horns of various colors sprouting from their heads. He sighed, at least thanks to clairvoyance he wasn’t having any trouble finding the stairs to the next level. So according to the paperwork he did the tower could be used as a substitute for field experience for adventurer rank. Passing floor 10 would raise him to d rank, 25 would put him at c, 50 would put him at b, and 75 would put him at a. Although there was a big argument on that last one since even the already A-rankers who have tried it haven’t been able to clear it. Of course no one S-rank or equivalent had bothered with the spire.
He understood why in a sense. S-rankers were usually a certain kind of person, and they went into very dangerous situations out in the world. They usually didn’t have the time or the want to train in a place like this. He had been taken to his fathers training ground once, needless to say even if he went there now he would still die in an instant. Well maybe not an instant, but he wouldn’t last long. He sincerely doubted the spire could hold anything on that level.
He was a little surprised to only sense 1 presence on the 5th floor, a quick check with clairvoyance revealed a minotaur. He rolled his eyes. Minotaurs had some dangerous variants, but regular ones were basically fodder. They were physically strong, and not so slow as to be lumbering, but they lacked any range or special abilities you needed to look out for. They were just barely rank-3, and for the opposite reason of shadow panthers. There was nothing tricky about dealing with them, but a regular soldier would be overwhelmed by their strength and endurance.
He supposed he shouldn’t expect much of a boss prepared for an E-ranked adventurer. Still a minotaurs skin was tough enough he wouldn’t be able to casually bisect it, not that he needed to do anything so extreme to kill a creature like this. He walked towards the presence. He wouldn’t need much in the way of strategy to beat a creature like this. Sure enough as soon as he was in sight of the monster it charged at him hefting a battle ax. As if that increased the difficulty any. It lacked any skill and simply did an overhead swing with all of its power.
He casually sidestepped and stabbed his blade through its throat. If a slashing attack doesn’t have enough force then the answer is to focus your power on one spot with a powerful thrusting attack. He pulled his blade out of the monster’s throat and swung it to clean off the blood before retracting the blade. He walked past the minotaur as it fell to its knees, before landing face first on the gray floor. Maybe he should go a bit farther than floor 11, he could probably at least get to rank-c easy enough, of course that would take a lot of extra time, and he knew the others would be angry if they found out he was spending all that extra time on something so pointless.
Oh well, maybe he’d come back later. He hoped to be high A-rank by the time he graduated from the academy, but that was a long time away. At the moment he might just barely make for B-rank, although he could temporarily fight at a much higher level. If he was honest it was probably more apt to say he was high C-rank, but he could bump himself up to b consistently, so he figured that distinction wasn’t necessary. Unfortunately the next few floors weren’t really difficult for him either. There was definitely a difficulty spike, but the first few were so easy even with the spike there wasn’t much threat. Each floor had a few weaker rank-3 monsters mixed with the rank 2 swarms. He supposed rather than the rank-3s the real danger spike came in the form of the numbers.
He debated using some aoe spells just to avoid having to cut through each monster. Even if he could kill 2 or 3 per swing. There were also flying monsters on this floor. Razorwings weren’t particularly hard to kill, but they earned their rank 3 by pure offensive force. They could shoot out their feathers with impressive speed, and as their name implied their feathers were razor sharp. Ultimately it was more annoying than it was difficult though. He had to use a few defensive spells against the blade like feathers, but for the most part after using his blade's chain form to devastating effect he was able to clean up the monsters relatively quickly.
He maintained that strategy all the way to the 10th floor. It seemed there were 3 monsters this time though. A quick check of clairvoyance left him groaning. Viper Jellies were a particularly annoying foe. They were slow, weak and weren’t tough at all, but they made up for it with their regeneration ability. On top of that they were capable of dissolving almost any material that came into contact with them, and were of course poisonous, so getting even small amounts on your skin could be fatal. Overall a pretty solid choice to judge for D-rank. They weren’t too bad to deal with if you were careful, and if you’re careless you shouldn’t be an adventurer anyway.
Still they were an annoying enemy for him, because he didn’t really specialize in the kind of spells that leave nothing left, so he would have to waste a lot of mana on an inefficient spell to properly annihilate them without any risk to himself. Then again, this was the last floor he actually had to beat, so he didn’t particularly have to worry about conserving mana. A magic circle appeared above the jellies. Another one appeared below. “This spell isn’t perfected yet, but it should be sufficient.” A blinding light released from the circles.
***
“Attention students, We will be visiting the capital city Of Delford this coming weekend. Of course trips to the other capitals will also be happening, but talks about when each one will happen have yet to be fully resolved. I hope all of you will use this time to plan for your future and to foster unity between the kingdoms. Thank you for your attention.” Azura’s copy was rapidly pailing. The words the headmistress had released to the school filled him with dread.
“We’re going to the capitals? I guess the unity thing makes sense, but I’ve never heard of the school doing this?” Katy was curious, but not concerned. How could she be, she had never been to the capital. His father was very selective about which servants would come with them on their trips to the capital, and Katy never made the cut. Of course he knew why that was, but he had hoped that particular plan of his father’s never came to pass even more than most.
“Are you ok? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this visibly panicked before.” Lily was the first to mention his obvious discomfort, though the teasing grin faltered when he didn’t respond immediately. “Seriously, what's wrong? You look like the end of the world came early.” He wished. Normally her highness wouldn’t stand for a mere copies company, so the copies were usually safe from her machinations, but this time the original wouldn’t be present, and he got the feeling that meant her highness was going to be even more unreasonable than usual.
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“Oh don’t worry about it, he always gets like this whenever it’s mentioned he'd be going to the capital. He’s probably just being melodramatic though he’s never returned with an injury or anything so it can’t be anything dangerous.” Nothing physically dangerous maybe, and that was a big maybe. Even if he managed to avoid physical risk, there would be major risks for his pride and mental well being. At least his father wouldn’t be there to try and force him to curry favor with the princess.
“If… no it’s me so when we run into the imperial princess I need you guys to be very careful of what you say. In terms of speechcraft I’m not ashamed to admit she is far my superior, and she’s as crafty as they get.” That and she seemed to get some kind of twisted joy in his misery. For the first time since the original left he’d rather trade places. Perhaps the worst thing is she knew that his father wanted him to marry her, and out of the countless noble sons and daughters that had been introduced to her she seemed to like torturing him the best.
“It’s not like we’ll be there in the palace the whole time right? We will probably just be greeted by the royals, and then left with the nights and contracted mages for our stay. So relax a little will you. I’ve never known you to ignore a jab like that.” Lily was right if only technically. Her highness had a lot more freedom than he’d expect of an imperial princess. As long as she had her knights with her she could do almost whatever she wanted, and that included leaving the castle to torment him. At least the crowned prince was cool. They got along well due to shared misery.
“I know how to prioritize, and playful banter is pretty low on my list at the moment. You guys haven’t met the princess, but I imagine once you do you’ll sing a different tune. Lucky you I’m not petty enough to let you go in blind just because you’re insulting me now.” Well actually he was, but her highness would absolutely use his friends to mess with him more if his friends didn’t know what they were dealing with.
He’s right about the princess. I met her once when my dad was visiting the king of Delford. She’s scary, like you know how we always complain about Azura figuring stuff out that he shouldn’t. Imagine that, but 10 times worse, and she takes joy in learning things people don’t want her to know.” It wasn’t too surprising that Cynthia had met the princess since she was one herself, but it was a little surprising that the princess would act the same way around foreign royalty. Then again it wouldn’t be hard to see that Cynthia wouldn’t want to cause any problems and would just grin and bear it. He wondered if his friends being there would make it easier or harder.
***
Katy had always thought Azura was just being melodramatic. Cynthia being just as wary made her start to believe it, but what really sealed the deal was Gareth of all people appearing in front of their group stopping from a full sprint. “I propose we form a temporary alliance so that we may properly react to her highness.” She was dumbfounded. Even Gareth was pale. Just what kind of person was the princess?
“I was thinking the same thing, first we should go find the other big house nobles, we’re going to need all the help we can get. If we can get heir Crimson to work with us then we might be able to come out unscathed.” Her eye was twitching, how could it not be? Heir Crimson was someone who was so much stronger than Azura that Azura had said in no uncertain terms that he couldn’t beat him. Not that it would take all his resources, but that he couldn’t win. The only other person he had ever said that about was his father. Why would they need someone like that to deal with a princess that she was pretty sure was a non-combatant.
“Unfortunately it seems this trip is only for the first years. Apparently it happens every year, although I have no idea how such a thing would remain hidden.” Gareth seemed to deeply regret the fact they couldn’t take Someone capable of leveling a city with them. Well maybe she was exaggerating, but she didn’t even know the upper limit of Azura’s power, just that heir Crimson was above even that.
“Probably because regular people wouldn’t know or care and it’s simply normal for everyone in the castle, so they don’t think to talk about it.” It was kind of funny the divide in the team right now. Azura, Cynthia, and surprisingly Luna joined Gareth in seriously planning contingencies for the princess while the rest of them just stared on in confusion. Except for Roran who had a broad smile on his face. Somehow that was just as worrying as the rest of these reactions.
***
Azura might have overdone it a little. He had his id updated as a D-rank adventurer now, but he had to deal with some complaining, apparently his spell had disrupted the spell that created multiple variations of the spire floors so that 2 people could be on the same floor and yet not in the same place. So everyone essentially appeared in the same version of the tower and were thus very confused. Obviously it wasn’t about the strength of his spell, since many more powerful spells had been used before. If he had to guess it was because the nature of that spell was to return things to their base components. On monsters it essentially turned them into magic crystals. Since it essentially tore their bodies into pieces smaller than the eye could see and gathered the mana they sustained their life with.
He guessed the spell interfered with the magic array that created and maintained the multiple versions of the tower. Thankfully it appeared to be a temporary issue of the magic powering them being pulled away since the issue fixed itself after only a few minutes. Sadly despite its pros he learned that his new spell was not yet really usable. It was powerful, but it cost way more mana than it was worth, and he couldn’t control it very well. The spell had even drained away some of his own magic so he lost even more than the spell itself cost. The magic crystals were valuable, but the spell wasn’t designed to make them. Due to their nature as an unintended side effect they were extremely volatile. One of them exploded when he so much as tried to analyze it. So selling them would have to wait until he found a way to stabilize them.
It wasn’t all bad though, he had learned a lot about that spell that he wouldn’t have by testing it on his own, especially because he’d never have risked using it in the field. It was a few hours after noon, so he had some time to relax at least. He had set a request for a guide in the adventurers guild along with his credentials, so hopefully someone would take up the quest before it got dark, but he didn’t have his hopes up. The receptionist had warned him that there weren’t many who would head out to World’s End, and the ones that would mostly took quests in the morning or late at night. He understood why the early ones would be the most lucrative, and the ones left at night would be the most challenging. His leaned more towards the latter, so his best bet was someone in the night crowd looking for difficult requests to make themselves stronger.
Hopefully it wouldn’t be a muscle bound idiot that thought a straight shot was a good idea. He could probably afford to up the reward some if it came to it, but he figured the offer to buy most of the monster parts on the spot would help sweeten the deal and encourage whoever took the quest to take out as many monsters as they could. He sighed. Either way it seemed he was going to have to stay an extra night after all. Thankfully he found there was a free zone where people were able to set up their own temporary lodgings, under the condition of everything being cleared out in the morning. It was first come first serve, so he had made a copy to take care of that earlier. All he could do now was wait.