After a torturous gym session, Aodhán, Andrew, and Daruk gathered in the cafeteria for breakfast and to discuss the matter of Eren Thornhill joining them for their dungeon diving session later in the day. They were understandably confused, and Daruk asked. “Wouldn’t Grendar Bladewynn be a better option for a tutor?”
“Or even Bakhtin.” Andrew added. “They are the strongest metal awakeneds in the class.”
Aodhán shrugged. “I said the same thing, but he’s supposedly not on good terms with either of them. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to advise him about, though. His movements? His form?”
Daruk glanced at Aodhán and frowned. “Those aren’t terrible places to start, but it’s not like you have the best form either.”
“Haha, very funny, Daruk. Very funny.” Aodhán scowled at his brother.
Andrew chuckled. “You know he’s right, though. The metal affinity is all about speed and precision, whereas the storm is—
“Chaotic.” Daruk finished and nodded at Andrew in approval. “This is the first time you’ve made an intelligent statement all week.”
Andrew glared at Daruk and threw a piece of bacon at him. “Fuck you.”
Aodhán just learned back in his chair and shook his head. Andrew was right, but he had committed himself to helping Eren, and it would be rude to pull out now. While he thought of a way to help Eren during the dungeon delve, Andrew threw another piece of bacon into his mouth like a barbarian and said. “Speaking of friends, have you ever seen Eren with anyone lately? I think at one point he was always walking with Tobias Menzies, but I haven’t seen those two together in weeks.”
Aodhán thought about that for a moment before shrugging. Eren’s relationship with the other students was none of his business. They rushed through their breakfast, and when they finished eating, they split off to their respective classes. Aodhán and Andrew to Awakened Plants and Herbology, while Daruk made his way to one of his etiquette whatever classes.
The next two hours of class passed by in a blur of notes, plant images, and an exercise on soil quality, but as soon as the clast ended, Aodhán texted Eren and Daruk to organize their meeting at the dungeon. If they were going to be a party, then they had to go in together. There wasn’t really anything to gain or benefit from doing so, but it just seemed right; besides, they weren’t really delving the dungeon loot but for cores.
Honestly, it had been a real bummer to find out that dungeons in ÆFLYM were very different from what he had imagined or read in books back on Earth. Their layout was basically the same: labyrinths, caverns, and the like, but there was no loot drop or boss rooms like he’d expected. That didn’t make them any less interesting though, and Aodhán was really looking forward to the whole adventurer experience he had always dreamed about.
After texting Daruk and Eren, Aodhán and Andrew began making their way to the dungeon area, a barricaded district set in the north-easternmost part of the academy, discussing how Yurin would have made the delve a little more lively if he were around.
Aodhán had texted Rahim at the cafeteria that morning to inquire about Yurin’s mental state, but Rahim’s response hadn’t been promising. Yurin’s inspiration had been a very strong one, so the duration of the twisted effect was prolonged because of that. According to Rahim, Yurin most likely wouldn’t be returning to his senses until Sunday at least.
It was a sad situation, but it was just one of those things that came with advancement. As long as Yurin was safe, Aodhán wasn’t too worried about him. However, he was incredibly curious to know what kind of inspiration Yurin had gotten to suffer the twisted effect so thoroughly. Perhaps he could gain some insight from it.
They met up with Daruk and Eren a few minutes later, and together they made their way to the dungeon area. Unlike the academy rifts, which were artificial and completely under the control of the academy, dungeons were wild and unpredictable in the sense that they couldn’t be controlled or managed like the artificial rifts.
For this reason, the academy had restricted first-year students from accessing them until last week, when an elaborate commission ceremony had supposedly taken place while he and Cyrus had been rotting away within the sink.
Daruk, Andrew, and Yurin had delved into one of the dungeons last week, and Daruk had a ton of metal affinity cores to show for it. Andrew, on the other hand, had traded almost all the cores he’d gained for evolved cores, which he had absorbed into his class. That was another disadvantage of dungeons, as unlike rifts, the cores of creatures within them weren’t fixed to a particular class and could range all the way from the mundane class to the calamity class depending on the color of the dungeon, of course.
The walk to the dungeon district lasted nearly half an hour, and when they finally arrived, Aodhán took in the array of colorful dungeon entrances and sighed in wonder. There were over a dozen dungeon entrances clustered in this area alone, and Aodhán couldn’t even fathom how the academy had managed to gather them all in one place.
The dungeon entrances ranged all the way from a lowly white to a deep blue entrance, which was very daring considering the average tier of students in the academy. However, Aodhán suspected that the blue dungeon was delved so regularly that a dungeon break would be a literal miracle.
The white dungeon was the lowest of dungeons, consisting mainly of mundane creatures from tier 0 to 5. The green dungeon came next, consisting mainly of evolved creatures from tier 5 to 15, while the blue dungeon was a high level dungeon consisting mainly of advanced creatures all the way from tier 40 to tier 99.
Out of the array of dungeon entrances, though, only five were available for evolved class students. Out of these five dungeons, two of them were white, two were green, and the last was yellow. The white dungeons weren’t even considering, while the green dungeons would have been a mild challenge for Aodhán ten tiers ago. The yellow dungeon was more his speed, consisting mainly of creatures from tier 15 to 39. It probably wouldn’t be a decent challenge until they were halfway through the dungeon, but it was definitely better than the other dungeons.
Aodhán looked at his party and grinned. “Are you guys ready for the real adventurer’s experience?”
Daruk snorted. “We experienced it last week—
“Sheesh. Don’t ruin my excitement.” Aodhán glared at his brother and turned to Andrew instead. “Are you ready, Plant Adventurer?”
“Is that even a question?” Andrew asked, and Aodhán cursed himself for having such party poopers as friends.
In a deadpan tone, Aodhán asked. “It had a question mark, didn’t it?”
Daruk snickered while Andrew shrugged and said. “I didn’t hear any question mark in the question. Did you hear a question mark, Eren?”
“Please don’t involve me in this…idiocy.” Eren replied uncomfortably, his expression slightly puzzled as his gaze darted from one person to another.
“Killjoy.” Andrew muttered with a roll of his eyes as Aodhán gave up on the question and began moving towards the yellow entrance. Andrew and Daruk kept cracking jokes behind him, while Eren wordlessly followed.
When they reached the guards stationed by the yellow entrance, both of whom were advanced class individuals at the limit of their advancement, Aodhán presented his ID card, and the others did the same.
The first guard, a slightly potbellied middle aged man, was a metal awakened, while the second guard, a dark haired old man, was a telekinetic, the first of his kind Aodhán had met ever since his arrival within this world. The telekinetic scrutinized their ID’s for a moment before waving them forward, “Y’all be careful in there. Delving is fun and all until you come across an advanced creature you can’t defeat.”
The other guard nodded. “Judging by your information, I suggest you turn back immediately you start encountering the Rithclaws. Things devolve quickly from there.”
Aodhán thanked them, grateful for the advice, and a minute later, they walked into the swirling yellow portal.
They appeared within a sprawling cavern with walls made of dark iron and steel veins that pulsed faintly with metallic essence. Focusing his core sense, Aodhán marveled at the abundant amount of metallic essence in the air. What made it so surprising was the fact that this was just the entrance; how dense would the energy be when they got to the halfway point or to the end?
Eren let out a blissful sigh as he took in a deep breath and grinned, his hands moving slowly through the air, most likely feeling a deep kinship with the energy around him. To Aodhán, it felt like having a hundred cold blades pressed against his person. It was a little scary, but the energy carried no harmful intent, so Aodhán let the vague threat roll off his back without dwelling too much on it.
Daruk and Andrew had a much harder time adapting to the sensation, although from their expressions, it was obvious they had expected it. Andrew grimaced and released a wisp of his aura to envelope him tightly, pushing away the metallic essence in his immediate area and replacing it with a thin haze of verdant essence.
“That’s one way to go about it.” Aodhán quipped, a little impressed, and without hesitation he quickly copied Andrew’s actions, cloaking himself tightly with a thin layer of storm essence. Daruk did the same, and as a small amount of frost began to gather around him, Aodhán turned his gaze back to Eren, whose face bore an expression of complete contentment.
Aodhán shook his head, wishing he could feel what Eren was feeling; alas, the academy didn’t have a storm dungeon or rift, and the raining season was still a few months away at least.
When Daruk finished, they began making their way deeper into the dungeon, and Aodhán looked around to take in the beautiful space. The ground was uneven and deformed by a series of thick metallic veins that jutted out of the ground, some with dull edges and others with edges as sharp as a knife.
“You think those are useful?” Andrew asked, pointing to a clump of metallic protrusions at the far end of the hall they had appeared in.
“Not really.” Eren responded, looking almost jovial for a change. “Those are tin ores. They are terrible for runic inscriptions or armor creation, but I guess you could sell them for a couple coppers.”
Andrew grimaced at the sad price Eren had mentioned. Even Aodhán was unimpressed, as he couldn’t remember the last time he had spent anything less than silver on anything. Nevertheless, he moved towards the clump and said. “Since there’s no loot, it would be a grave crime to let these ores pass us by regardless of their prices. Do you guys want a share?”
Eren and Andrew shook their heads, while Daruk shrugged. “Sure, why not? A few drops of water make an ocean after all.”
“Mhm, wise words.” Aodhán nodded in approval and proceeded to direct a precise beam of lightning at the tin ore to weaken the rock around it, inadvertently causing the tin ore to crack.”
“I could have done that for you.” Eren muttered with a slight look of annoyance, and Aodhán shrugged. “I’ll keep that in mind if we come across some gold or platinum ores lying around.”
Daruk snorted. “If that were the case, this dungeon would be filled to the brim with students hoping to strike it rich.”
Chuckling, Aodhán handed one half of the tin ore to Daruk and placed the other half in his spatial storage before turning around to search the area in hopes to find a mystical clump of platinum ore. Alas, his luck wasn’t that heavenly, because the only thing he found was a huge clump of lead.
According to professor Caldwell, lead was a pretty good base material for creating jamming or scrying runes, so even though it wasn’t gold, it wasn’t useless either. He was moving towards the lead ore when he suddenly sensed the blazing core of an approaching creature. A grating screech rang out next, and they all turned to the left entrance where the sound had come from, watching as a sleek, doglike creature made purely of bronze metal walked into the cavern.
The creature’s body was slightly disjointed, held together by what seemed to be small screws, and its insides were empty save for the Tier 15 core blazing within it. Above its head was a small text. [BronzeArmor Stalker, tier 15]
The BronzeArmor Stalker screeched again when it saw them, its metallic body creaking as it crouched in preparation to attack, but a single flick of Eren’s fingers turned the Stalker into a ball of scrap bronze metal that scattered to the floor with a loud crash.
Aodhán watched the creature’s carcass sink into the earth with fascination, leaving behind a sliver gleaming core as loot. Eren grabbed the core with a grin and threw it into his spatial storage, saying. “Are you guys ready to hunt, or are you still so fascinated by cheap metal?”
“Cheap to you, decent to commoners.” Aodhán snorted, and with a prideful sniff, he moved towards the clump of lead and made sure to cut out a large chunk before dusting his palms and gesturing for them to go forward.
The moment they stepped out of the cavern, they were attacked by a trio of BronzeArmor Stalkers, two of whom Eren killed, while Andrew killed the last with a whip-like vine plant with silver thorns. The sound of their battle must have called the attention of the other BronzeArmor Stalkers, because barely a minute later, they were nearly completely surrounded by more than a dozen stalkers, none of whom were above the 18th tier.
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Aodhán released a condensed beam of red lightning that smashed into six of the stalkers and caused them to explode violently. Daruk released a beam of frost—a new skill he’d created after facing the Silverwing IceDrake—that took out another five and encased them in ice. Eren took out the last three stalkers by pulling all their screws apart and leaving them to shudder and twitch erratically before crashing to the floor in a chorus of clinks, clangs, and tinks.
The entire fight had barely taken a second, and when it was done, Andrew glared at them. “Great, I’m completely useless.”
“No, you’re not.” Aodhán replied reassuringly. “You’re just slow.”
Andrew rolled his eyes. “That makes me feel so much better.”
They all chuckled, and while they picked up the fallen cores, Aodhán wondered if they would come across any creature that wasn’t made solely of metal. He needed to test out his {Elemental Lightning—Green} skill, and he needed a fleshy creature for that.
When they finished picking and equally distributing the cores, they began moving from one cavern to the next. As they moved deeper into the cavern, they came across other groups of students who were also delving the dungeon, but aside from acknowledging each other, they didn’t break their delve. Good adventurers were focused, except when it came to gains like tin and lead ores!
Aodhán found several clumps of tin and lead on the way, and he made sure to take as much as possible without ruining the fun for others. One time, while the others battled a dozen Tier 20 BronzeArmor Stalkers, Aodhán was crouched in one corner of the cavern, mining a large chunk of copper that he’d almost missed had it not been for Eren. Copper was unsuitable for runic inscriptions, but its value was certainly higher than that of tin.
“Get over here and come and help us.” Andrew shouted as he transformed his arm into a thorny branch and stabbed it into the mouth of one of the stalkers before pulling it out violently, scattering a ton of screws with the motion.
“You are doing great.” Aodhán shouted back as he pulled out a large chunk of copper from its vein and threw it inside his spatial storage. When he turned around, all that was left were his portion of cores that Andrew hesitantly handed over, muttering. “You do not deserve this.”
They moved on to the next cavern, but rather than a stronger group of stalkers like Aodhán had thought, they were attacked by a group of creatures identified as [steel-scaled Slytherins], ranging from the 19th to the 22nd tier. They were basically snakes, but rather than scales, their bodies were made of flexible steel. There were over a dozen of them in the cavern, and the moment they entered the cavern, the Slytherins lunged, fangs bared.
Aodhán reacted instinctively, channeling five strands of willpower into his bloodline before releasing his aura. Instead of simply spreading out his aura, he focused it on the Slytherins. Pressure descended, and it was apparently too much for their reptilian bodies.
All the Slytherins smashed to the floor, and more than half of them simply crumpled. The ones who survived the pressure fell to the beam of cold Daruk released a moment later, and those who survived that fell to Eren’s and Andrew’s combined efforts. The next cavern had an even larger number of Slytherins, but they dealt with them the same way.
Casually, they made their way deeper into the dungeon, mining metal ores and grabbing cores left and right. Time passed by in a blink, and before they knew it, they came across their first humanoid creature, an ironclad golem at the 22nd tier. The golem was clad entirely in steel, save for its head, which was a spherical ball of silver.
The golem attacked immediately; they stepped into the cavern, and they reacted accordingly. Daruk encased its limbs in ice, Andrew held it down with half a dozen vines that sprouted out of the metallic floor, and Eren shattered its armor. Aodhán… Aodhán went for its head and even protected it from a lance of metal just before slicing it off with a serrated lightning blade.
Before the silver head could be absorbed by the dungeon, Aodhán threw it into his spatial storage and whooped in excitement when it didn’t disappear. Daruk shook his head, and Andrew said. “At most, you’ll get a few pieces of silver when that gets melted down. It’s not a great haul or something.”
But Aodhán wasn’t listening. A haul was a haul, no matter how little. That was the fun in adventuring, and he intended to make as much money as he could from this delve.
They continued on their delve through the dungeon, and Aodhán had to admit that this was probably the least challenging delve he’d ever done. They trashed every creature they came across, and sometimes Aodhán didn’t even bother participating, too busy mining one metal or the other.
They came across a variety of metal-themed creatures as they delved deeper, none of which were a problem, especially when all of them ganged up against a single creature. A good example was a tier 24 Steelthorn Raven that might have been a decent challenge had any of them been facing it alone, but after Eren practically crippled its wings and Andrew squeezed it to death with a series of thorny vines, Aodhán and Daruk had just proceeded to hack it to pieces. The battle had only lasted a minute, and even Daruk, the least battle-crazed individual in their midst, was brimming with dissatisfaction. “Why are they so weak?” he asked as he hacked the fleshy underbelly of the raven with an ice spear. “Is anyone enjoying this?”
Andrew scowled. “You guys should have just let me solo it. I would have pumped it full with enough toxins to kill it in five minutes maximum.”
Eren sighed and turned his gaze to Aodhán. “I’ll just come out and say it, since none of you seem to want to. This party is too strong for the early stages of this dungeon. We’ve spent nearly two hours in this dungeon, and I don’t think we are anywhere near the middle yet.
“Things are looking up though.” Andrew pointed out. “The tiers of the creatures are increasing, and I bet we’ll come across our first tier 25 creature soon.”
Andrew’s comment was followed by a beat of silence as the others processed his words, and a moment later, Aodhán asked. “What if it’s an advanced creature?”
The truth was that humans weren’t the only ones who missed evolution stages, and it was possible to find evolved creatures at the late 20th tier and even early thirties, just like in the Tower of Ascension. It was even more common in dungeons like this, but there was always a possibility that the first tier 25 creature they encountered was Advanced. If that was the case, then the best solution was to run. If it was a single creature, then they might stand a chance, but advanced awakeneds and creatures possessed an innate resistance to evolved skills, making them a menace to kill except someone had an epic-ranked weapon or item.
“Just to be safe, I would suggest we run as fast as we can if that happens.” Daruk replied after another moment of silence. “I’m not trying to underestimate our strength, but we can’t afford to underestimate an advanced creature either.”
“I’m in agreement.” Aodhán replied, and after a few seconds, Andrew nodded. “I hate it, but I see the logic.”
Eren agreed too, and they continued on their way into the next cavern, but they had barely taken more than a few steps forward when a sudden roar echoed through the thick walls. Aodhán paused, straining his core sense to the maximum to get a feel of this new creature, but then more roars echoed out.
They all tensed, and Aodhán asked. “How many do you guys hear?”
“Five.” Daruk and Eren replied quietly, but Andrew muttered. “Fourteen.”
“Those are the echoes, idiot.” Eren muttered, but Aodhán ignored them, pushing his core sense to the limit until one of the creatures entered into his range. A memory of a metallic wolf-like creature flashed across his mind, and he quickly called out. “Rithclaws, six of them, but it’s possible there are more of them hanging around.”
“Tier range?” Daruk asked, and Eren gasped in shock. “You can sense them?”
Aodhán ignored him and replied, Daruk. “Between Tier 23 and 24, but there’s a Tier 25 evolved creature among them. Daruk, you and I will have to take that one out first while Andrew and Eren deal with the others.”
“You want us to deal with five-tier 24 creatures on our own?” Eren asked, alarmed, but Andrew just pulled out a pouch of seeds and grinned. “Finally, some challenge.”
“This is not a game!” Eren shouted in panic, but Aodhán didn’t have the time to calm him down. Instead, he quickly took charge of the situation and began giving out commands.
“Andrew, take the left; two Rithclaws are coming that way. Eren, take the right; two Rithclaws are coming from there.
“What! I can’t fight two tier 24 Rithclaws on my own.”
“Will you calm down?” Aodhán glared at him. “First, only one of them is at the 24th tier. Secondly, I’m not asking you to kill them. All I’m asking is for you to do your best. That is the best time to improve your control. You—
His speech was cut shut when two more Rithclaws entered his core sense range, and Aodhán cursed. “Okay, fuck. New plan. Andrew, take the right; Daruk, take the two coming from behind; Eren, take the two from the left.”
“What will you do?” Eren asked, still panicking, and Aodhán muttered. “Varéc and I will take the two coming from the front.”
Another chorus of roars echoed again, and Eren muttered an inaudible prayer to Raol, while Andrew shuffled from feet to feet, praying for the Rithclaws to come faster. He didn’t have to wait long, as a few seconds later, the first Rithclaws, a Tier 23 juvenile, burst into the cavern from behind them and rushed at Daruk.
Daruk attacked with a concentrated beam of frost, but Aodhán was unable to witness the effect of the skill as the tier 25 Rithclaw burst out of the front entrance. Varéc immediately rushed out of his spirit, letting out a torrent of black lightning before he was even fully summoned.
The torrent smashed into the Rithclaw at point blank range, but Aodhán knew it wouldn’t have any major effect. Without hesitation, he pulled deeply from his seal and gasped, both in pain and pleasure, as the golden bolt of lightning shot through his pathways and into {Lightning Beam—Red}.
Heat engulfed him as the skill activated, and a large beam of red electricity shot out of his two palms. The beam shot forward with astounding intensity and punched straight through the Rithclaw, shattering its skull and slicing it completely in half. Fortunately, the second Rithclaw was directly behind the first, so it fell to the same fate, its body twitching and spasming from the shock and power of the attack.
Varéc had gone over to help Andrew, so Aodhán directed the lightning beam to one of the Rithclaws Eren was fighting. The skill managed to punch a hole through the first Rithclaw before it lost the essence of the seal, but it had done enough already. A quick reactivation of {Lightning Beam—Red} finished off the stumbling Rithclaw, and Aodhán turned around to help Daruk, only to see him running towards Andrew to help him.
It was an understatement to say that Aodhán felt proud that Daruk hadn’t needed his help. Daruk had come a long way in only a few months, transforming from the unimaginative and inexperienced awakened he had been, and Aodhán couldn’t have been more proud of his growth.
Eren finished off his Rithclaw a moment later, and Aodhán turned to see Andrew’s remaining opponent, a tier 23 Rithclaw frozen solid in a block of ice. The block of ice shot towards him a moment later, and Daruk muttered. “You said you needed a guinea pig to experiment on.”
Aodhán wrapped the frozen block with a storm construct and grinned. “Well, it’s not exactly a pig, but it’ll do.”
Daruk chuckled, and Andrew went to gather the cores. It was then Aodhán noticed Eren’s silence, and he turned to stare at him. “I can only hope you’ve learned something to improve your control from this whole experience, because I’ve got nothing.”
Eren stared at him for a moment before stating. “You have core sense.”
Aodhán grimaced but nodded. To be honest, his core sense ability wasn’t a secret; in fact, he hadn’t even known it was a special ability until Ahmet had unknowingly pointed it out. The principal was aware of his skill, and so were half his professors, along with anyone who had spent enough time with him to put two and two together.
Eren shook his head in amazement. “It makes so much sense now. How you feel so completely unthreatened by Marcellus even though he could be in the same room with you and you’ll not even know.”
Aodhán shrugged and changed the subject. “Are you injured?”
Eren blinked, surprised by the sudden change of topic, before shaking his head. “No, no, I’m fine.”
Aodhán nodded and said. “I think we should leave now. I used a lot of energy from my seal, and I doubt we can deal with another group like that without taking any serious injuries. What do you guys say?”
“I’m all for leaving.” Daruk sighed. “I had to use my seal too so I could quickly finish off the Rithclaws and come help Andrew.”
Andrew rolled his eyes. “I’m sure I’ll never live that down. Just so you know, you’re not my knight in shining armor, Daruk.”
Daruk grinned. “No, I’m your knight in icy armor.”
Andrew scowled at Daruk and slapped him in the face with a soft vine before turning to look at Aodhán. “I’m down for leaving too. I’ve got a ton of experiments to run in the nature lab anyway.”
Aodhán nodded and turned to look at Eren. “So, ready to go?”
Eren nodded, but when he took a step forward, Aodhán noticed a limp in his steps even though he was trying his best to hide it well.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Aodhán asked again, and Eren’s eyes widened like that of a dear caught in headlights. He stuttered. “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine. It’s just a small…pull.”
“Pull?” Aodhán frowned and moved closer. “Is it a cut, sprain, or dislocation?”
“I said it’s fine.” Eren replied brusquely and limped back. “My regeneration will take care of it.”
“Not if it’s a dislocation.” Andrew pointed out. “You have to pop the bone back to trigger your regeneration.”
“It’s not dislocated.” Eren replied hurriedly, eyes wide, and Daruk frowned. “You know, you’re doing a terrible job convincing us to believe that.”
“I…” Eren began, but then his shoulders sagged and he sighed. “Okay, it’s dislocated, but it’s fine. You guys don’t have to worry about it.”
Aodhán bent down to scrutinize Eren’s ankle, but the moment he moved to fix it though, Eren jumped out of the way and shouted. “Don’t…I’ll go to the healers tent, and they’ll fix it.”
“But it’s just a dislocated joint.” Andrew stated in confusion. “Pop it back in and you wouldn’t even need to see the healers.”
“No,” Eren shook his head. “I don’t want to bother you guys. Let’s just get out of the dungeon and go our separate ways.”
Aodhán frowned and exchanged confused glances with Andrew and Daruk before shrugging. “Fine, if that’s how you want it.”
They began walking to the exit of the dungeon, joking and discussing about all the cores and metal they’d gained from this delve alone. Eren struggled to keep up, and before long he began falling behind. Aodhán watched him subtly, confused by his insistence on having something so mundane treated by the healers, but just as they neared the exit, Aodhán suddenly realized what the problem was.
“You are scared of pain.” He blurted out, and Eren’s eyes widened again.
“No, no, why would you say such a thing?” Eren denied it, but when he saw their disbelieving gazes, he sighed and muttered. “I’m not scared of pain; I’d just rather avoid it.”
“That’s technically the same thing.” Daruk commented, but Eren shook his head hastily as if denying something. “I’m not scared of pain; I’m not a weakling.”
Aodhán exchanged another glance with Andrew and Daruk, not really sure how to address the situation, but after a moment of hesitance, Daruk stepped forward, and in a soft tone, he said. “I’m scared of pain, but that doesn’t make me weak. Every time I fight, I’m scared it’ll be the last time, that it’ll be Aodhán’s last time, or that something terrible will happen. We don’t really talk about it much, but the academy is not an easy place, and it’s completely okay to be scared. A fear of pain doesn’t make you weak. Eren, failing to push past that fear is what does, and if you do not let me fix that dislocated ankle, then you truly are a weakling.”
Aodhán shook his head in disappointment. Daruk had started so well, but he just had to ruin it with that last statement. It seemed to be working on Eren though, because his expression hardened and he looked down at the dislocated joint with determination. Breathing in deeply, Eren glared at them and muttered. “I’ll do it myself.”
Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he bent down and stayed that way for a few seconds, as if mentally preparing himself to jam the bone back into its socket, but after a few seconds, he sagged and muttered. “I can’t do it; it’s too painful.”
Aodhán stepped forward, and this time when he moved to grab the dislocated foot, Eren didn’t resist, although he tensed so hard the metals around them rattled. With a quick, sharp movement, Aodhán jammed the bone back into its socket, and Eren screamed.
“Gah!”
His pained shout soon turned into sobs of relief as the pain subsided and Daruk encased the foot in ice to prevent it from swelling. Aodhán didn’t think the ice was necessary as he could already see the swelling reducing, but Eren appreciated the gesture.
They sat down for a few minutes, just chilling and discussing pain while they waited for Eren’s ankle to completely heal. Aodhán didn’t share his experience with pain even though he was the one most intimate with the sensation; instead, he listened to the Daruk, Andrew, and Eren describe their most painful injuries and experiences, none of which even came close to the horrors he experienced under Eldrith’s training.
When Eren’s leg completely healed, they stood up and continued on their way to the exit, still discussing merrily, while Aodhán nursed his fear for the pain that was sure to come in the next few days.