Slowly waking up, I rolled over as the feeling of being comfortable prevented me from getting up. Feeling the cold on my face, I keep myself covered with the cloth to keep warm. I want to sleep for a bit longer, last night was difficult. After all, I just fought a Guardian-Class and levelled up…
Sitting up quickly, I look around. Why am I in bed, why is it cold. I’m in a small bedroom and looking down I see I’m in my normal clothing, no Elven Armour on. There is a small table next to the bed with a lantern on it and a window. Keeping my guard up, I quietly leave the bed and move quickly to the window and peek through. Outside, I can’t see much, there is snow falling from the sky and a wall a few metres from the window. It was slightly dark outside, thick clouds covered the sky.
Hearing footsteps approaching, I crouch low and ready my stance. Without knocking, someone bursts through the door and before I can act I see a tall woman with dark skin, wavy brown hair with matching eyes. Speaking in a loud voice she says “Alisha you better be up! You have school today, go eat breakfast and take that damn bird with you.” Turning around, she leaves the room.
Confused, I wonder what she meant by school, what was a school? By damn bird did she mean Alice? As if to answer my question, I see Alice walk in at that moment. “Kraa!” Flying up, she lands on my head and I go to pet her. I noticed that I didn’t have my fox ears! Checking my teeth, they were also normal, no longer all sharp. Why did I revert? Checking my System to see if there was anything there, I found the answer to some of my questions.
[Special Dungeon Scenario:
Due to taking a hidden route, passing a trial and saving citizens of Zalus, you have been granted a rare opportunity to witness the events that lead to the downfall of their mighty country.
During this Scenario your level is locked. Bonded monster levels are locked. You will not gain experience nor can you take any physical items or weapons with you when leaving this world.
There are no rewards.]
‘If there are no rewards, why am I here?’ Thinking this, I look around again. Sitting on the bed again, I ask Alice “Have you seen the others?” “Kraa!” A negative feeling comes from Alice, I knew that she hadn’t seen anyone. Wondering what I should do, I decided it was best to go along with the flow. Getting up, I go out the door and follow the smell of food.
Arriving in a new room, there was a table with food on it and that same woman standing at a bench. Seeing me enter she shakes her head at the sight of Alice on my head. “Eat, bathe and get changed, I’ve put your clothes in the bathroom and heated the water already. Don’t be late to school, I’m leaving now.” Without giving me a chance to speak, she walks out of the room. Sitting down, I pick up the meat on the plate, not sure about the other things like the odd white circle with a yellow bubble on top. Eating the meat while sharing some with Alice, I decided to try everything else on the plate.
Finding it oddly tasty, I ate everything that was on the table, including a red fruit with seeds in it and crunchy bread. Getting up, I follow the instructions of the women and find the bathroom from the smell of water. If I could rely on this smell to navigate this place it would be good. Taking off my clothing, I got in the bath. It was nice and warm. I’ve never experienced heated water before, it was relaxing, did all humans get to experience this? Tasty food and hot water baths? Seeing soap on a ledge nearby, I use it to wash myself. Alice refused to get in the water, flying off my head and staying on that ledge. Putting the soap down, I lay back and think of what to do.
I have no idea what this school thing is that I have to go to nor I don’t know where the rest of the group is, it’s possible they were taken to somewhere else like in the trials. I don’t know what to do to witness the so-called downfall of a mighty country.
Reaching up and petting Alice who moves her head into my hand, I ask her “What do you think we should do, Alice?” As I tilt my head in thought, Alice also tilts her head looking at me as she gives me a soft “kraa!”
‘Maybe I can take this chance to relax, I’ve never really gotten to relax and think about things since leaving Cerberus’s Domain.’ Submerging myself a bit more, I think about what we were going to do once we left this dungeon. It’s all fine when we’re in the moment to say we’ll build a home for other hybrids, but how does that happen? I’m sure no one in the group knows how to build. How do we feed that many people? Argh, I’m not good at thinking about stuff like this.
What do I do when we’ve freed the others? I don’t know how to look after people, maybe Elizabeth would know. What was it that I wanted to do though…I want to explore the world more, visit the village Olivia came from, see more places. I want to get stronger too, maybe travel with just myself and Alice for a while. Feeling the water getting cold, I decided to get out before I froze.
Standing and stretching, I look at the clothes that were sitting there for me. It was a blue woollen shirt with long sleeves, long pants, underwear and thick socks. I dried myself with the towel and put these clothes on. I had noticed my sack wasn’t here with me, hopefully it would be still there when we left this area. With the new clothes on I felt warmer, I grabbed Alice off the ledge and put her in my shirt. With her head sticking out under my chin, we set off out of the room.
Walking out of the house I was in, I stepped onto the snow, it was very cold outside. There was a gate that took me out of the walled house, and looking around I found the sight beautiful. The house I came out of was on top of a small hill, overlooking a city with hundreds of buildings, some small and big. There was a giant wall surrounding the city, I could see the lights of fires and lanterns in the distance, with people walking around and snow was slowly falling. I couldn’t make out any details of those people, but I knew they were likely to be human.
“We should wander around for a bit, maybe I could find some new things to learn.” Speaking aloud to Alice, who replies with a “Kraa!”, without plans to return to this house, I walk down the hill and start walking down the streets. It was lively, I’ve never seen such a sight before. Human children playing in the streets, adults talking to each other. Every now and then I’d check the System and see these humans were at various levels, some even above level 20! I even saw one who had ??? as their level. Was Crater like this in that noble place Elizabeth spoke of? That was a scary thought, my understanding is that those with the ??? were very high level!
At first, I was scared that others would see me as a monster since I would be shown as a Demonic Fox, but either they saw me and ignored me or just didn’t look my way. The children all waved and greeted me, a feeling I wasn’t used to as I clumsily waved back. In fact, I wasn’t used to any of this, I never knew there were cities with humans outside of Crater, we were always told Crater had the last of the humans. Maybe they told us that to keep us from running.
Walking while avoiding running into people, I was still in awe, the noises of people yelling, working and laughing. So many different smells, it was making me hungry. Feeling Alice pecking at my hands I knew she was getting hungry too. As I continued down the streets, I smelled something new…something familiar, human blood. Looking around, no one else was alarmed or seemed panicked.
Moving towards the smell, I soon arrive near a courtyard surrounded by buildings on three sides. Climbing up the wall, I could see people fighting each other inside. Watching them fight, it took me a minute to realise they weren’t trying to kill each other, and there were others nearby who would come over to heal them. As I watch them, I notice they’re using a style similar to mine, but it was a lot more beautiful, fluid and just like a dance. The one Teacher Lee showed and taught me was like a stiff dance but this was more beautiful.
I couldn’t see the wind around their bodies but when they punched out there were bursts of different elements, like fire, water or oddly ice. Once again I was entranced by seeing this style that was similar to the one I had learnt, it was more refined seeing it done in person. “Look at that Alice, maybe I could learn something?” “Kraa!” As I leaned up the wall a bit to watch more, I heard a voice behind me.
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“You need to leave, this isn’t a place for children.”
Ignoring the voice, I keep watching. While I was paying attention to their movements, I suddenly smell movement from behind me, someone about to strike me. Kicking up the wind around me as Alice moved into my shirt out of sight, I launched myself from the ledge with a twirl and aimed at the smell below me. Spinning, I saw someone below me as I gathered energy towards my leg and I lashed out my fire-encased leg. Pushing it aside, the human looked surprised and reached to grab me again.
Pushing wind to my side, I dodge the hand and land on the ground. Thinking about what to do, I attack on instinct, forgetting to check his level. Using wind magic to spin the air around me faster, I use it to propel myself forward, and punch towards the man's throat. With a strange look in his eye, the man dodges easily, and pushes my fist away. Reacting, I use the wind to push my fist back, aiming my elbow at his eye. With an eyebrow raised, he waved a hand and without knowing how he did it, all of my wind magic stopped, including the one around my body.
Pulling my hand back, I quickly think of what to do. I have to kill this human and escape, before more humans come to help him. Gathering mana into my fist, I use lightning magic, arcs of purple-blue lightning shooting out everywhere around me as I throw the punch at him. With widened eyes, the human stomps his foot down and a wall of earth suddenly shoots up from the ground, too quick for me to pull away. Punching into the earth wall, I feel my fist crack, the lightning dissipates as I lose my focus. I haven’t learnt to control lightning magic, I can’t keep it up like my wind.
Jumping back as the earth wall crumbles, I see the human nodding, looking at me with interest. “Girl, what's your name?” Confused, I wonder what he was asking, couldn’t he just see it through the System? Not wanting to answer, I considered running. Looking around without moving my head, I can’t see a way past him without being open to an attack. Checking his level, I knew the chance of me escaping would be hard.
[Level ??? Master Earthen Magician, Jin]
“No need to run away child, I was angry at you before. Now I just want to have a chat.” Smiling at me, I frown at this comment, I can’t trust humans right away. Before I could make a decision on what to do, I heard a new voice from near the wall.
“Master, is everything okay? I heard a commotion.” Looking out from the corner of my eye I see a young girl, about my age, sitting on the wall looking at me with curiosity. Shifting my body slightly so I was facing both of them, her smile widened a bit more. “Oh, this one is experienced in fighting. Is she a secret student of yours, Master?”
“Hoho, no no, I saw her watching the students practising and just as I was about to chase her away she nearly hit me.” Taking a closer look at the man, he was slightly taller than me, with a slight hunch, a long black beard and no hair. Stroking his beard watching me, he was nodding. “She’s using a Style similar to the Graceful Wind Dance, mixed with lightning magic, but it’s very rough. Like she’s intimidating something she watched. Ugly, but furious, with matching bloodthirst. Her mana output feels odd however, I can't quite place what is wrong.”
“Girl, have you killed before?” Killed? I’ve killed plenty of monsters. Keeping my guard up, I don’t answer him as I take a step back and risk a look behind me for a way to escape. “Hehe, not bad, stepping away like that would help. But you’re not prepared for magic at all, Ice magic would freeze you in place, Earth magic would trap you here and a well practised Fire magician would burn you to a crisp.” Slightly annoyed, I shot a glare at the girl on the wall, seeing her level.
[Level ??? Apprentice Fire Magician, Ash]
‘What’s a Magician?’ Seeing her Class and Jin’s, I was confused. Putting power into my legs, I was about to run when the old man, Jin, raised his hand. “Girl, let me introduce you to someone, they can teach you how to-” Seeing a chance as the old man was talking, I sent a burst of wind below my feet and upwards, lifting the snow as I used a Wind Explosion to push it out around me. Using the snow as a smokescreen, I ran down an alleyway as I heard a “Good!” from far behind me.
After running for a while, I found a spot to hide. Under a strangely built path that went over a frozen river, I duck under and sit down, out of sight. Moving into a ball to warm myself up again, I whistle and Alice pops her head out again. Sticking close to me for warmth, I was glad she didn’t show herself back there. They might’ve killed her thinking she was a monster…hang on, why didn’t they kill me, the System shows me as a Demonic Fox. Unable to think of an answer, I talked to Alice “That was scary, that human barely moved and I couldn’t hit him at all. Do you think humans in Crater are like that? He could’ve killed me at any time he wanted.” “Kraa!” “Yea, if there are, we'll overcome it.” Just as I’m about to pet her, a voice reaches my ears, frightening me to my core.
“So you’re the girl that Jin told me about. Blue jumper, long pants and a Dark Raven hiding in the shirt. Hm, body is a bit skinny, but good build. Good, you’re suitable, come with me girl.” Looking up in fear, I see a woman about Elizabeth’s age, purple hair and almond coloured eyes. Getting up quickly, I send an arc of lightning at her as I dash out of my hiding spot. How did she find me?! Gathering wind at my feet, I boost myself upwards, towards a building’s roof, a two story building.
Jumping high, I landed roughly and just as I’m about to run to the other side of the roof, she appeared right in front of my eyes, lightning dancing around her figure. “Sluggish lightning, wind usage is very good for level. Oddities with mana usage, using a lot of mana for small usage. Experienced in combat. Jin has good eyes, like usual.” Getting a bit irritated, I look for a way to escape. Why was she following me, who was she? Glancing at her information, I knew once again escaping would be hard.
[Level ??? Master Storm Magician, Anita]
‘WHY IS IT ANOTHER HIGH LEVEL?!’ Shouting in my own mind, I grit my teeth in anger. Finally speaking, I demand of the woman one thing. “If you’re going to kill me, just get it over with. Otherwise leave me alone.”
The woman, who was about to move towards me, stops. Looking at me in surprise it took a few minutes before she finally said “Why would I kill a talent? Now come, I’ll show you how to use your magic properly.” Once again she moves towards me.
“Alice” Whispering as quietly as I can, I feel Alice poke her head out as the dark aura around her that was building shoots out at Anita. Without checking to see if it succeeded, I turned around and jumped off the building again. Ten metres, seven metres, five metres…a gust of wind picks up around me, stopping me from falling as I float in the air. Unable to move, I see Anita arrive in front of me, looking at Alice.
“Strong casting speed, I didn’t sense it till she poked out. Very good, your teamwork is impressive. Now let's go, plenty to teach, so little time.” Suddenly, I’m dragged by the wind following behind Anita, who was somehow floating along in the wind.
“S-stop. I don’t know what’s happening, who are you people, what do you want from me?!” Speaking in haste, I am scared about being thrown into a dark cage by this human. We stop suddenly and Anita turns to look at me, confused.
“You…you don’t know who I am?” Looking at me while asking this question, I feel a bit angry. “Of course not! I was suddenly attacked by an old man then you!” As I say this, she starts giggling.
“My apologies! I am Anita “Storm Caller” Skye. I am a Master at the academy for magic research and training of Zalus, Athena Academy. Oh, you shouldn’t call Jin an old man, he gets angry.”
“Magic research and training? What do you want with me and Alice?!” Trying to find a way out of the air bubble that was trapping me, Anita looked at me confused once again.
“To train you of course. We don’t accept many students, magic isn’t easy to learn or use, but you have a very good grasp on wind magic and even though it's sluggish, you know some lightning magic. This is a good opportunity for you.”
While she was talking, I had grasped how this air bubble worked. There was wind blowing from below and behind me, one to keep me floating here and another to push me, while there was a very small amount of wind surrounding me in a bubble, I found it hard to sense it. Thinking of a way to get out of this air bubble, I ask her another question to distract her.
“So after training me are you going to use me as a slave?” This time, Anita scrowled and the confusion showed completely.
“What are you talking about? Slave? Why would we do suc-” Taking this chance, I cast a wind that opposed the air bubble, spinning it as fast as I could to counter it. I felt my mana veins being strained and in pain almost immediately, however I was successful. Freed of the air bubble, I tap my chest once as I’m falling. Alice pokes out and fires another Blindness as I push myself with wind towards the ground. Landing, I’m about to run when I felt a shock go through my body.
Turning back, I see Anita looking at me in shock. The Blindness failed. Seeing this I tried to cast wind magic to create a screen of snow again, however I can’t. Sensing my mana, I knew I had more than enough to do so, even though I was running dry. Landing softly next to me, Anita asks with some panic in her voice “You…are you okay?! You shouldn’t exhaust that much mana at once, you could cripple your mana veins! Why do you resist as such?”
Opening my mouth to respond, I feel a heavy faintness overcome me. I could feel my mana leaking out from me, from everywhere around me. Before I knew what was happening, everything went black…I just wanted to relax damnit!