"OI you bastard we missed you man, how come you didn't even say hi after you arrived…"
Said Shiki smiling as always.
"Hah I was distracted with the dungeon over there I totally forgot to pass by," I said.
"Well you really did disappear, I mean even for training you should have at least came to the school Kaori over here was 'dying' to see you again." Said Shiki in a teasing tone.
Blushing in a cute way Kaori said
"I-I was not dying to see anyone…it is nice to see you again Asura-san…it's been a long time"
"Nice to meet you again Kaori-san. Well, I still need some explaining Shiki. How did you manage to score a place in the tournament?"
Shiki puffed his chest and in a prideful tone, he started recalling what happened.
It seems that he challenged all five of the best seniors at Albion. And because of his status, they could not refuse. I mean he is the heir to the thunder beast clan.
Although he was beaten to a pulp by four of them. He still managed to score a win against a water user. Due to the counter effect and advantage a lightning user has over the other guy. He managed to score a hard earned victory. Although he still suffered for a while due to the fact that the water user started using pure water that does not conduct electricity. But pure water needs massive amounts of mana and it became a war of attrition before the other guy lost all his power and abandoned the fight.
We were walking toward an open ground where there were multiple tables with students sitting at and the food was being served. I first thought this was a survival camp and the students were needed to bring their own food. But it appears that the school only accounts survival for the ability to fight monsters and not securing basic needs…
Sitting at an empty table there was me and Shiki and Kaori who said that Nassi will be joining us shortly.
Before I could sit I noticed that shortly was looking for something. Right, when our eyes met he started walking toward us. It seems that we were what he was looking for.
Before he could get to us a blond girl sat down right next to me. I know this girl, she is the one that visited me at the hospital and if I remembered correctly she is the one who I somehow managed to share the same dressing room with her…now that I think of it, I should have checked for the sign that said that this was a girl dressing room…embarrassing.
Isn't she Shiki' sister?
Shiki then said.
"Oh, Haruka don't you want to sit next to Onii-chan?"
"S-shut up who would want to sit next to you idiot (Baka)…" said the fidgeting Haruka.
Teasingly said Shiki
"Oh, that hurts my feelings…I didn't think that you preferred Asura that much over me I feel lonely…"
"W-what…"
Before she could finish Nassi was standing next to the table with his hands behind his back staring intensely at Shiki. Then said.
"Hello everyone ah hello Haruka-san good to see you again…Hey, Asura... Say Shiki…you don't happen know what happened to Manamia-sensei's bra do you?"
What a shocking question right next to both the girls and shamelessly stated…this guy is rude beyond reason…still the same
"w-what…why would you be asking me …" said Shiki with a bit of sweat hanging from his forehead….guilty.
"Don't fool around you are the only one (idiot) who could do something like that… and I think she is on to you. You better prepare for what is coming."
"You are the worst Onii-chan…" said the cute sister…
"The worst…" coldly said by Kaori who lifelessly stared at Shiki.
I was going to ask if it was worth it…but seeing the look on the girls I refrained and with my past records… I should probably stay out of this.
Then Shiki said.
"Common you have to trust me on this…and how come you said that she was on to me …"
Nassi interjected furiously
"Because this whole god damned place is monitored if you remember we are close to the borders and if by chance something wrong happened here the crystals keep record of the incidents…"
"Ah, dam...it's going to be hard getting around this … but if push comes to shove it was god damn worth it. You know she is a G-cup I mean where can u ever see a size that large…"
Right after he finished his sentence everyone on the table looked at him with even more disgust and pushed their chairs a bit further away from Shiki as if avoiding a sickly person with a contagious disease.
Clapping his hands a teacher came to the gathering .saying that food will be served and that students will have 30 minutes before getting back to their training. I believe that the schedule of the training camp begins afternoon and students are free to do whatever they want the morning.
The lunch was rather …simple if not ordinary. Few roasted vegetables with a meat portion nothing to satiate hunger but it's better than nothing…I believe that this is the reason why I saw kids cooking food this morning it seems that school encourages the students to prepare themselves but will help in a minimal way those who can't.
Eating and chatting at the table I passed a good time getting to know the others. Some bickering and teasing from everyone around the table only further strengthened their bond.
The teacher came back after 30 minutes and clapped his hands again. This time the servants took all the food from the tables and another teacher came by and guided everyone to their training ground. I was heading that way when I was stopped by Sraam-sensei… it seems he likes creeping behind people.
He said that I needed not to concern myself with this and I should further dive into the dungeon. I gladly accepted after knowing that the training will only be some running and rock climbing which I can manage with extreme ease.
It seems that only Shiki is exempted from the training because he is already qualified for the tournament and he too has access to the dungeon he told me that he couldn't break through the arena floor because it seems that he loses a lot of energy before getting to the arena floor and ends up losing before opening the right door.
It appears that once you lost you will have to repeat the entire thing. Then the exhaustion takes its toll on the body and one cannot do the dungeon more than few times because of fatigue. Shiki took time from his trial in the morning to recuperate and retry again after lunch.
I was teleported this time with the help of Sraam-sensei and instantly appeared in front of the already opened door to the third floor. Sraam-sensei wished me luck and the door closed behind me.
…
The hallway was the same as before with bluish stones. Walking further down, I noticed a spiral staircase leading downwards. I rushed downwards until I got to the bottom of it. There a corridor extended with multiple knights like statues at the sides. They looked like they would come to life if I move forward.
And like I feared (expected) they did. Their eyes flickered and shone in deep red. They grabbed their weapons and started chasing me.
Wrecking troughs them I made my way. Nothing too hard just few metal heads took down with one hit. But it appears that a mage would find this difficult as I have tried the same freezing spell that the white haired girl uses trying to freeze them and pass without fighting was rather ineffective. They managed to break through the layer of glass and kept chasing. I had to use the third form of my sword and thoroughly destroy them.
After that, there were some puzzles and few traps that were easily bypassed.
The problem was the fourth floor. The door had no teacher guarding it. Neither did it have a guardian of any type. I pressed forward pushing the door up from a handle it had on its bottom.
The door squeaked while getting raised.
Only to find another corridor leading downwards. This dungeon is rather big as I am sure that at least a couple hours were spent moving from floor to floor.
This time I started hearing water moving. It seems that there is a waterfall in this floor probably the water from the lake is passing through here.
The room I entered was wide with a dark roof and a stone circular platform in the middle. Around the stone, the platform was a small water current. The platform had two bridges. One linked to where I came from the other was linked to probably the exit or the passage to another floor.
And there it was… a reason to go back. One giant snake sleeping next to the waterfall that poured water to reinforce the current around the platform. It was easily 30 meters long and with a 3-meter diameter.
The snake somehow picked up at my presence and readied itself to fight.
With a gaze of its golden eyes, my body almost froze.
"WARRIOR ART, Control RELEASE" I used this skill to enhance my willpower and remove all debuffs. It worked unlike last time against Osfor-sensei's paralyze magic.
This snake is troublesome, it gave me a hard time dealing with it. Whenever I tried to engage in combat it would just jump down the stream and hide attacking only from the other side.
Its main attack was a water bullet that could blow a hole in the stone platform. Why didn't the teachers at least have one to guard the entrance? This monster is clearly dangerous.
I once managed to land a hit on it. But it's scales are covered in a slime like substance the sword completely deflected from it.
Then I used the white girl's magic, Ice magic and froze the entire stream. This put a stop to the snake as half its body was submerged and the other half was still above water level. Making things easier this way I activated the special ability of my sword's desert snake form.
The sword after it turned into a chain with a needle tip was sent to coil around the body of the snake.
Activating the special ability of that from the linked shards started to spin fast enough that the wailing and screaming of the snake was only translating how damaging that attack has been.
After few agonizing moments, the snake was torn in half. The upper part struggled and wiggled a bit then laid lifelessly on the ground as the snake's eyes lost all signs of life.