NOVEL WEB Chapter XXVII (27)- The World Dungeon
Chapter XXVII (27)- The World Dungeon
Kizu did his best to sleep that night, but he kept seeing the stalker's image whenever he dozed off. The pale face watching him with its mismatching eyes from where it concealed itself under the foliage of bushes.
When the sun rose, he gave up on the idea of getting any more rest. He barely ever got any these days anyway. His body had gotten used to being constantly sleep deprived. He readied himself and went to the testing tower.
The tests were a different arrangement of questions this time. He still knew none of the answers for history, but he did significantly better in the astronomy test. This time, when a James asked for a blood sample at the end of his test, he compiled without broking any argument.
It only took an hour to complete it all and finish. Then he headed for Roba’s office.
She didn’t even bother to look up from her papers as he entered.
“Your results just finished processing. You’ve moved up in all your current subjects with the exceptions of history, music, and brewing. And combat, of course. That test will be tomorrow.”
“What are my new rankings?” Kizu asked. He couldn’t help a bit of nervousness as he waited for her to shuffle her papers around.
“Enchanting- 381, Astronomy 223, Elemental- 726. Also, your summoning and divination scores improved as well. You’re 799th now in Summoning and 196th in Divination.”
Kizu wanted to press for more information, but Roba appeared to be in a bit of a foul mood at the moment. Instead of letting him ask questions, she began her lecture.
“Your history score is beyond horrible. I know Krimpit is difficult to learn from, especially in that specific level of class. But I won’t excuse such laziness on your part. If you want to be here, then you need to try harder.”
“Okay,” Kizu said.
“And you need to stop causing problems. They found you passed out in a corridor from over-exhaustion. I admire the tenacity but despise the stupidity. Learn to be tenacious without being an idiot. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Good. If I am going to teach you how to jump, I need you to be able to keep a level head and not make stupid calls.”
“I understand.” He stood up a bit straighter at the mention of jumping.
“The first thing you need to understand. Jumping kills people. Every year at least a hundred mages suffer fatal wounds from jumping. They misjudge their distance and jump into the ocean. They jump a little too low and find themselves submerged underground. They jump into a place they used to know but now the furniture was rearranged and end up collapsing a support beam. A million different factors go into jumping. And misjudging any of those will likely end with your death. Do you understand?”
Kizu nodded his head. Part of him felt like he should be taking notes. But he hadn’t brought anything to write on or with.
“Good,” Roba continued. “And the worst situations don’t end with the jumping mage’s death. The worst situation is when the mage has the gall to jump to a populated place and ends up jumping into a child playing hopscotch in the street.” She let that sink in for a moment.
Kizu bit his lip at the image. But she hadn’t deterred him. He wanted this. He needed this if he wanted to talk to his sister again.
“We will start by going over safety precautions you must take before a jump. First, aim higher than you intend. A two-meter fall to the ground might be uncomfortable, but it’s far more comfortable than being covered in blood and flesh that doesn’t belong to you.”
“What if there’s a ceiling?” Kizu asked. “The crone used to jump to and from her hut all the time when I lived there. If she jumped too high, she would have had her head stuck in the ceiling.”
“Do not jump anywhere indoors that you cannot see. The crone likely designed her home and laced it with a scrying magic. That way, even if she was on an entirely different continent, she would know immediately every movement and every tiny change the moment it happened within that space. The same is the case for this room and myself.”
As if to punctuate her point, she jumped across to the other side of the room. Then in rapid succession she jumped a score more times. She finished by jumping back into the armchair behind her desk.
“Divination magics are by far the most useful conjoined with spatial magics. If I hadn’t seen your blood score with a high divination capability, I would have refused you out right. But it seems that the crone taught you something in the subject.”
“Taught is a strong word,” Kizu mumbled. “I mostly just watched her and helped her sometimes if she needed me to.”
“Even still. The witch covens of the Hon Basin are famous for their divination talents. Don’t discard what you learned there, no matter how much others may dismiss the knowledge.”
Kizu stared at her. Did she really believe him to be dumb or vain enough to throw away his skills for sake of appearances? He kept the thought to himself though.
“Today I have some books for you to study on the subject. Once you complete the reading and can answer any question I have from the texts to my satisfaction, then we can begin the more practical applications of the magic. Do you understand?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Good.” She gave him a hard look. “Now, tell me how the blood disposal went last week.”
Kizu blinked. She knew. Somehow, she knew.
“I forgot to take out my earring,” he admitted.
“And?”
“And a humanoid creature chased me down and managed to steal a few vials before I threw them into the river of fire.”
Her eyes remained locked on him, even after he looked down in shame.
“And you didn’t tell me,” Roba said. “That, by far, was your worst mistake.”
After a long minute of silence, Roba finally continued to speak.
“Underneath our feet is access to the World Dungeon. Also known as The Great Labyrinth Sekai and The Endless Abyss. What do you know of it?”
“Nothing,” Kizu said honestly.
“Hm. This dungeon connects to every discovered continent on the planet. It’s through it we have access to the travel rooms that bring us students from across the civilized world. It was built in an era long before the modern day. The written languages found down in it still baffle historians.”
“Can’t you use magic to translate it? Like with my enchanted earring?” He had wondered the same thing back when he was translating his sister’s letter, but he hadn’t had any resources to look into it.
“Your earring,” she drew out the word and paused before continuing. “Your earring translates the intent of the words. Not the language itself. It takes in the verbal sound from the person and turns it into something you can understand. Discovering the intent of writing is far more difficult.” She raised a hand when Kizu opened his mouth to ask another question. “If you want to know more about languages, perhaps you should question Professor Krimpit?”
That shut him up. She was right. Professor Krimpit even said on the very first day of classes that he was an archaeologist. And yet, that somehow didn’t make the idea of approaching him any more appealing.
“What you need to know is that monsters live down there. We have monsters on the surface, obviously, but they’re nothing in comparison to what you’ll find in dungeons. You set a surface troll down in the deeper levels of the dungeon and it will be dead within minutes. However, it’s extremely rare to encounter a monster so near the surface like you did. Unless, of course, you idiotically break a rule your mentor set for you.”
“They have a spellsense?” Kizu guessed, pushing through his burning shame.
“Yes. Almost every monster down in the dungeon has a far more powerful spellsense than any living human. And vampiric spawn, the specific breed of creature common to this section of the dungeon, feeds off of blood. More specifically, blood from creatures still alive.”
“Which is what I was getting rid of.” Kizu felt a bite of irritation. Why would she keep him in the dark about the level of danger of the errand? This whole situation seemed more a result of ignorance due to her lack of communication than any mistake on his end. Instead of pursuing that thread of thinking though, he asked a different question. “Why would disposing blood be a good idea in a dungeon full of blood drinkers?”
“Those magma tubes tend to be the perfect location for utter destruction of blood. Disposing blood through magical means can leave residue. As I mentioned before, it’s never been an issue because the spawn stay in far deeper areas. The spawn normally would never have enough time to reach someone on the upper levels, let alone sense their gear from so far away. They despise the heat and avoid the magma tubes. I suspect the one you encountered was exiled.”
“What does this mean for the people who had their blood drunk?”
“Oh, nothing much. The major effects are on those who drink it. Because when a spawn drinks blood, suddenly, that monster has access to the arsenal of spells of the blood owner until that blood is expended. And they also can ignore the barriers that normally keep them contained below and leave the dungeon.”
“You mean I-”
“Released an undead terror onto the population of the island? Yes. You did. Luckily, you’re also going to be the one to put it down.”
Kizu groaned as she began to list off the creature’s natural resistances and weaknesses. Fire, apparently, was the most definite way to kill a creature. Unfortunately for Kizu, his skill with elemental spellcraft was severely lacking. Another option was to stab it in the heart with a stake of wood or use silver to suppress and burn it. Recalling the creature, he reflected that he really did not want to get within stabbing range.
“Do you understand now what you need to do?” Roba said.
“I am supposed to somehow lure out a vampiric spawn in the middle of the night and burn it alive.”
She nodded.
“Do you seriously expect me to be able to do this?” Kizu said. He threw his hands into the air in frustration. It must be some sort of strange joke. It made no sense.
“Were you not the one to release the vampiric spawn on the population? Who else should take the responsibility?”
“Um, someone qualified and actually able to do this? I can barely even make an antimagic shield. I struggle to make water slightly colder. This sounds like suicide.”
Her crow’s feet crinkled as her gaze hardened on him. She tapped a nail against her table.
“You have a set of skills unique to yourself,” she said. “Use them. And don’t mention this errand to anyone else. If others were to discover it, you might find yourself without a school to study at.”
“Is this what happened to my sister? Sent her into a dungeon with no instruction and then expelled her for something that wasn’t her fault?”
Roba’s scowl deepened.
“I gave you instructions,” she said. “Now clean up your mess before someone else notices.”