[Emily Wattsken POV]
"Oh my! This is really happening!!! Aaaah!" I slapped myself in the face. "Calm down! Everything will be fine!"
I was in a carriage on my way to one of the portals connected to the Xyrus adventurer guild. The reason I'm there? Simply because Luz Leywin and Professor Gideon had appointed me as their helper... And my job would be to monitor the "Basic Rune Learning" Class, while Luz would be with his Advanced Class.
Arriving at the portal, I had to get out of the carriage to give the guards my permissions to be there. With that done, I got back into the carriage and we passed through the portal. On the other side, there were the famous green fields of Beast Gladers, with some artificial lighting, made to illuminate the area near the portal.
I noticed the existence of 6 other carriages there. Luz had asked the students to go together, so there wouldn't be an excessive number of carriages for the arrival. It was easy to deduce this, since, counting only the students of the two classes, there would be around 26 people there. 20 BRL students and 6 ARL students. Most students decided to stay in or near the carriages while the drivers were all together talking and smoking.
I got out of the carriage I was in and the driver who was with me helped me get my gear and luggage. I walked until very close to where everyone was most gathered. "Good Evening, guys! Is everyone okay?" I asked.
"Yes. We're just waiting for Professor Luz so we can set up camp tents." Said Trin Rust, one of the elves I would be monitoring.
"Okay, but we'd better at least start preparing a few things beforehand so there's no problem. Where are the Adventurers hired to help us?" I asked, and soon my answer came in the form of a brown-haired girl approaching.
"They went after dry wood for the firecamps since we'll need at least three of those. I think we saw each other at the party on Friday, my name is Diane Whitehall!" Said the young woman extending her hand.
"Emily Watsken." I spoke my name and then looked around "So who are the other adventurers that will be with us? I only know you among them, and you will all be more focused on protecting the students I'm responsible of." I asked.
"Okay, in addition to me a water conjurer, you'll have as guards: The Lovefall brothers, who are wind augmenters, with one of them also a lightning deviant and the other an ice deviant; Kriol Masser, a water augmenter specialized in shields; and Samantha Tempest, a water conjurer specializing in long-range defenses." Diane answered me, smiling.
"Hm... There are a lot of water mages in this group, no?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, as the dungeon we will enter is an anomaly, as some adventurers have reported." She said twirling her staff.
"Anomaly?...."
"Exactly, even though it's a dungeon where most of its environment is underwater, there are still mana beasts weak to water. It's not known why mana beasts would enter a dungeon specialized in their weakness, but theorize that it's due to the fact that they were weak beasts that had powerful predators, which are also weak against water. So they decided to hide in a place where their predators couldn't reach them. I think it's lucky that there are no reports of water mana beasts in this dungeon. "
"So, are we going to use the fact that we have water mages to create air bubbles and stuff like that?" I said and she nodded in agreement. "I see. Really an anomaly... But what about the runes? Have you researched through reports?"
"The fact that you are here is to practically study runes that have already been found but could not be taken out of the dungeon. I've never been there myself, but from what I understand, most of the runes are found in areas outside the water, while others are underwater, which makes it mandatory to have a water mage or a wind mage with you to see these specific ones." she said and i just agreed with that fact.
"Well, now I understand why it's a Class D Dungeon. It manages weak beasts for its environment and varied options to hide from them. How crazy." I said scratching my chin thoughtfully.
"Is that why you chose this dungeon? Or is there another reason?... Luz Leywin, you insane boy, clearly there must be another reason the way you are." I thought deeply until I noticed the portal opening again.
Looking at that portal, I ended up seeing Professor Glory arriving with some equipment and big swords on her back, she noticing all of us, waved. "Good Evening Guys!"
"Good Evening!" Most responded as she approached.
"Good Evening, Professor Glory. What are you doing here?" I asked confused.
"Tomorrow the people from my class will come here, so I decided to spend the night here and wait for them to come tomorrow morning. I asked the Leywin boy who is responsible for you, if I could stay with this camp, and he saw no problem with that... And speaking of him.. Where is he?" Glory said looking around.
"I think he'll be here in about half an hour—" Before Diane could speak, the portal opened again.
From the portal, a man a little taller than me appeared, carrying a small bag in his hand. He was dressed in a bluish hooded cloak, with details that resembled a starry sky. He seemed to have a standard adventurer's uniform under his cloak, and when I got a good look at his face, that's when I noticed.
"Professor Luz Leywin?" I asked and the man responded by raising his hand and waving at us as he approached.
"Hello everyone! Hello Professor Glory. Shall we start preparing camp?" He said smiling at us, but then he looked at Diane and I noticed her, she had a shocked expression. "Hm....? Miss Whitehall? Is there a problem?" He got her attention and she shook her head.
"I'm fine. Sorry, you reminded me of an acquaintance..." She replied.
"Oh I see." He lowered the hood, leaving his dark hair exposed, it looked like the inside of the cloak had a greenish tinge. "I will wear my official Xyrus Academy uniform only tomorrow when we enter the Dungeon."
He kept the cloak inside his dimensional ring, and Diane still looked in complete astonishment, but soon she seemed to return to normal "Alright. "
"Great." He said as he adjusted his shirt sleeves.
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Possibly it was already 9 pm, and the entire camp had managed to get ready. In total, it is planned that we will stay from tomorrow (Sunday) until Tuesday in this place, due to the level of work and concentration necessary for a field trip with the objective of studying traces left behind by the ancient mages.
Several of the students were now around the bonfires, some eating things they had brought from home, and others making their dinners on the spot for a light camping experience. I was sitting next to two twin elves and a dwarf, the three of whom were the top students in the base class. We were eating meat skewers with fruit, as I was one of those who wanted to get a feel for what it was like to do things in the more realistic camp style.
To sleep, we were using sleeping bags and makeshift tents in case it started to rain. There were two for BRL boys and two for girls, there was one for ARL students, two for hired adventurers and... It was strange to see this, but Professor Glory and Professor Luz were sharing the same tent.
Apparently, the boy who insisted on this, after all, we will have camp outside the dungeon, while Glory and her students who will arrive tomorrow will do the day camp inside the dungeon. It was much better for her to use the things we made than to use what she brought back just to store tomorrow and reassemble later somewhere else.
I looked at the bonfire that was to the left of where I was sitting, he was there, that boy, he seemed to be talking to everyone telling fantastic stories, stories that I had never heard of, all this to cheer everyone up and leave them with a feeling of adventure and curiosity, things that are essential to what we are going to do tomorrow. Since Diane looked at him strangely, he stopped wearing that cloak, instead, he was wearing long black pants, along with a beige tank top.
I wonder... How does he manage to wear clothes like that in this cold?
Looking around, everyone wore coats and scarves, he was the only one who wasn't wearing stuff like that. The only thing I could think of as an answer, was that he could be using a light layer of fire mana around his body, that or he's just crazy and is training resistance against the cold...
"Yeah.. It's the last option." I ended up whispering to myself instead of letting that sentence inside my mind.
"Hm? What did you say?" Trin Rust, one of the elves next to me, asked.
"Oh, it was nothing... It's just that if you don't notice, your Professor is literally in a tank top in the middle of the snow." When I said that, they all noticed and were wide-eyed.
"HAHAHA!! My Professor dis reallly crazi!? Why dis he duing dat?!?" Said the dwarf next to me, I think his name is Gylgrimo.
"I don't know... One of my theories is that he must be training resistance against cold." I commented taking a bite of one of the pieces of warm fruit that was on my skewer, it melted in your mouth so soft it was left with the heat of the fire.
All the students who heard what I said agreed at the same time, this made them all burst out laughing, as apparently, they all thought of Professor Luz in the same way. But soon he stopped telling his fanciful stories when he heard the burst of laughter, clearly aimed at him.
"But what little jokes were told about me?" Even though he was a little far away, I could hear his voice clearly, it wasn't like he was talking loudly, it was more like he was using a sound spell to expand his voice to the surroundings.
"No big deal, sir, you're wearing a tank top in the middle of the cold!" One of the students from the BRL class commented, and soon their teacher looked at his own clothes.
"I can weather the cold pretty easily, kids." He said, smirking, but he also spinned saying a spell.
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"Exiguum Fire." As he said that, all the fires seemed to get weaker in the light and no longer seemed to emit any heat. We all started to feel the cold coming on and several complained.
"What's up, guys? I just wanted to see if you guys were like me in that regard~" He snapped his fingers and the fires returned to normal, meanwhile he continued laughing.
"This wasn't good!!" Said Adventurer Samantha, she was the only girl besides Diane who were hired to be our bodyguards.
"I'm sorry Miss Tempest, sometimes I must remind my students that I'm not only a theoretical subject teacher, but also one of the people that Cynthia Goodsky herself left as the most trusted in the school, besides her, and that's taking into account the question of responsibility, but also of power and strategy." He put it simply, if I didn't know him well, I'd think he was overreacting or just putting on a show-off.
"Hmm... If so. What do you think of a basic fight for us to train? After all, we will be the guards of one of your classes." One of the adventurers, with black curly hair, said with a laugh.
"Brother... That's not necessary." Said the other black haired adventurer beside him.
"Come on! Let's see with the guys. Kids! Will you want to see this fight?" Said the great adventurer sitting between the previous two.
Everyone cheered and seemed to agree.
"Yea!"
"Come on, Professor! Show them!"
"Yeah! Show them what the disciplinary committee can do!"
I looked at Professor Glory who was just giving the students a disappointed look, while Luz sighed and looked at the adventurer from before.
"Okay, let's do some light training. But don't go overboard and it has to be far from the camp so nothing is destroyed. Whoever wants to go see it, come with me, whoever doesn't, stay here." Luz said with an annoyed expression, apparently because all the students, even the advanced class, wanted this to happen.
Even so, some people remained there with me, Samantha and Diane, while the others followed Luz. Professor Glory also followed him, just to prevent them from overdoing their night training.
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[3rd person POV]
Luz, Kriol, Alexander and Jayden walked together to an open area near the camp. A total of 10 of the 26 students decided to follow along to watch the fight, 5 of them being from the ARL class, with Letty being the only one from this special class who didn't want to see that. Vanesy Glory was also there, to be the judge of that annoying situation, she took her two greatswords and stuck the blades in the ground next to her.
"Okay! I want a clean fight! No dirty tricks or silent incantations and just ONE weapon!" she said the last part looking at Luz, knowing that if he wanted to, he could cast spells without incantations.
"Oh, so you use multiple weapons?" Jayden asked as he held his daggers, imbuing them with lightning.
Alexander and Kriol took out their respective equipment, with both of them already imbuing the water element in them. Alexander's greatsword had now a large blade made of Ice, while Kriol had his shield with extra water layers.
"Yes. I'm the type of conjurer who trains with a lot of different equipment to always be prepared. I'll use this one against you." Luz said raising his right hand.
The gem that had been stuck to his ring-finger since the incident in Glory's class began to glow purple, red, and black. That strong glow was turning into something solid, a small stick of 20 centimeters, from which a colored whip with thorns was created, and at the end of that whip, a small sphere filled with thorns.
"Ready?" Glory asked, the students all behind her to watch the practice.
"Aye!!" the 3 adventurers and the Professor shouted at the same time.
"Go!!!" with Glory's word, the spar started.
"Wind sphere!!" The Lovefall brothers jointly activated a spell to protect both of them from gusts of wind. They advanced towards Luz, trying to attack him with their blades.
"Thunderclap Impulse" Luz wanted to use a lesser version of his Hero's Thunder, so he used Arthur's lightning spell, it wasn't like that spell was weak or anything, but it was something that he could use for a friendly spar, even that he was, actually this time, just showing off.
With that spell, his reaction speed increased dramatically, so instead of dodging by jumping to one side, he passed between the two wind augmenters, unaffected by their blades attacks.
Still gripping that whip, he swung it as he was passing between the Lovefalls, hitting them in the ribs area and thus making them both back away, taking long leaps in opposite directions. In terms of positioning, now the 3 adventurers were in a position that made them be compared to the tips of a triangle, while Luz would be in the center of that same triangle.
"Water Rush!!!" Kriol yelled his spell, dashing against Luz, using his large shield as a wall that would hit the young professor. His feet were with a water layer, making him slide instead of walking in this attack.
"Vol..." Luz smiled starting to speak a spell, actually that was one of the old spells from his past lives, but thanks to the understanding of how runes worked in this world, he managed to replicate it, ending the spell with a sadistic smile on his face, as if the his mouth would tear his cheeks. "..Ignis!!!"
Two runes appeared, one on each of his arms, both were different. And just as they appeared, a circle shone in front of him, creating a pillar of flame that moved towards the Kriol.
Due to the big adventurer's magical water protection, he came out with little damage, but both his shield and himself no longer had water mana surrounding them. This made his attack still happened but without elemental damage, only physical damage. Luz, upon being hit by the Kriol's shield attack, needed to take a few steps back.
Meanwhile Jayden decided to attack him from behind, while Alexander was standing there enchanting his greatsword with more ice spells. The lightning around the rogue adventurer's daggers seemed to be far more violent than before, and soon he tried to dual slash the young professor's back.
Luz still had the thunderclap impulse active, and because of that, he had enough reaction time to dodge Jayden's blow. Lowering himself so that the blades wouldn't touch him, but on the contrary, the boy soon grabbed Jayden by both wrists and in a jumping movement, along with rolling, launched the rogue towards Kriol, making both of them recoil a little.
"Wind BLAST!"
Still spinning in the air because of that highjump, even before he could land, Luz was attacked by Alexander. By the spell Al said, everyone thought it was a wind attack, but actually he transformed his greatsword in a Ice Javalin-like, throwing at full speed.
"WHAT THE FU— ALEXANDER! THAT ISNT A WIND BLAST!!!" Glory yelled, showing that the wind-ice augmenter had cheated in that attack, even that he said a incantation, it wasnt of the spell he used.
Even so, Luz, using a movement with his own legs, was now able to turn horizontally. The sole of one of his shoes touched the icy blade of the greatsword, and in an almost dramatic, theatrical and extremely impressive way, Luz was able to use the movement of his foot on the blade to direct it to the ground, thus pinning it there.
The young professor finally landed, not on the ground, but on top of Alexander's greatsword's handle, with only a foot.
"Ignition" Using that spell, his entire body went up in flames, all that heat made the ice spell, on the greatsword blade, melt. Glory, Kriol, Jayden and all the students were gaping at the scene, but Alexander can be heard screaming in the background.
"What the actual shit is that?!? Are you fucking kidding me?!? What is this show-off?!?!"
"Haha! You cheated, so I deserve to be stylish against your cheating!" Luz said laughing and having fun with that, jumping and getting off that greatsword, he took the blade from the floor and handed it to Al.
"I have to agree.. But wow, what spell was that?!?" Kriol exclaimed, referring to the pillar of flames.
"That? I call it Vol Ignis, it's a spell I invented." Luz was telling a half-truth, he didn't actually invent the spell, but he, as far as it is known, was the first in this world to use it.
"Really boy, you are a monster, but in a good way, of course." Jayden said as he put away his daggers and slapped Al on the back of the head for the cheating he did.
"Wtf?! But I didnt cheated! The rule was about 'not saying an incantation'!!" He exclaimed, but he also got a pull on the ear from Vanesy, for having broken the rules proposed for that training that was basic for all involved.
All the students went in the direction of the adventurers and the two teachers, they were super curious and asked several questions about the spells used by them. Glory was happy to see that a theoretical group like the one Luz has, was still curious about magic for battles that normally adventurers do.
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After that workout, everyone had gone to sleep, causing them to wake up around 6am, already well rested. Luz, Samantha and Diane prepared breakfast for everyone, which consisted of a fruit stew and meat skewers. Meanwhile, Kriol and Jayden were checking for the last time that everyone had the necessary equipment and Alexander was sleeping on a branch of a tree far away.
"Miss Glory! Won't you eat?" Samantha caught the attention of the other teacher among them, who was sitting thoughtfully on top of a fallen log.
"Oh! Of course I will. It'll be great to have a hearty breakfast like this." She replied, receiving from Samantha a skewer with roast beef and a simple bowl with fruit stew inside.
Vanesy drank all the liquid in the bowl and then ate the meat skewer, leaving only the stick she used to pick up the pieces of fruit in the bowl and eat them. "Hmm! How delicious, who made it?"
"Oh, it was Diane and Luz" Samantha replied smiling, as usual.
"I see... I will now wait for my class near the portal. Give my thanks to Luz for me." Glory said getting up, she had already packed her things, everything was in her dimensional ring and in a bag that she ended up taking.
Thirty minutes had passed since Professor Glory had left and everyone was already in front of the entrance to the dungeon they were going to study. The entrance was a small hill surrounded by pillars of a white stone covered by a blue moss, this hill had a hole with stairs made of the same material as the walls of the place, but with some wooden boards on random steps, clearly that was done by adventurers who came before.
Everyone was dressed in cold weather clothes, but even so, each student carried a small bag on their back, where they could put their scarves or coats, in case the clothes got wet, after all, wearing wet clothes in the cold was worse than no coat at all. Of the 20 BRL students, 3 of them were responsible for keeping items for students who did not have dimensional rings. The ARL students didn't need this organization, as Luz had given each of them a dimensional ring, in which they would have access to basic equipment and their "cultist" clothing.
"Okay guys! I'll remind you of our strategy one more time." Luz said, already walking down the stairs.
Everyone was in a security formation there. Luz and his advanced students were ahead of everyone, just behind them were Diane and Jayden. Behind these two adventurers, were Luz's basic students and lastly, there were Kriol and Samantha. Alexander had decided to stay at the entrance, in case an adventurer was going to try to enter the dungeon without permission, even so, Luz had given him 2 communication scrolls, in case there were problems.
"All of the Basic Rune Learning class, you can only go as far as the second floor of this dungeon. You must obey the adventurers, but the word that will be law for you, other than mine, is what Emily says. The Advanced Rune Learning class, is allowed to go to the sixth floor, but only with me. I will not accept BRL students trying to follow me below the second floor. If I see someone doing this, this person will be with Adventurer Alexander, and I will also make a special letter for the parents or responsibles of that person. Did everyone understand?"
"Yes, Professor." all students responded to Luz.
"Guys, I'm going to say this now, but later I can reinforce this rule again. The maximum number of groups we can have when we split up is 4, but that's only in cases where there's really a need, if there's not that much need, the maximum will be 2 groups." Emily was talking to BRL students.
"Yes, Miss Wattsken." they responded.
After a few minutes, they finally reached the first floor, at first glance, it looked like an ordinary cave with stalactites and stalagmites, the colors of the walls were a bluish gray. The floor was very bumpy, with the holes being filled with water, possibly there was a lake of medium to high depth below the floor, but it was so thick, that the only way to get into such a lake was to jump into the holes or force the breakage of the ground.
There was natural lighting in that dungeon, it completely caused by crystals in these same water-filled holes. There were similar crystals around, but these were off. It was a special type that only glows when covered in water.
Luz watched it, smiling and admiring the beauty of a place like this. Jayden whistled for the style of the place and Diane let out a "Woah" in surprise to see the surroundings.
"Welcome, my dear students. This is the D Class Dungeon, Drowned Refuge. The least dangerous dungeon with the most ancient mages remains that our dear Xyrus Academy can give us access to."