"Well now, it's good to see you all getting along so nicely", a strong familiar voice of the Headmistress called out.
At the sound of her calling, the top four strongest binders in this academy suddenly straightened up their postures and stood at attention like soldiers.
[Is that respect for her seniority or her power?], Voxea commented as she floated closer to me.
[Probably both].
"Good Morning, Headmistress!", the four elites said in perfect unison.
"At ease, students", Malrena said with a nod, "I see you were testing out the abilities of your new ally. I trust that it was an enlightening experience, Sir Kiero"?
Having been called out by name, Kiero looked visibly uneasy for a moment before he corrected him posture to be even straighter.
"Yes ma'am! I was unsure of Lady Silvia's capabilities and wished to test them for myself. I apologise for any malcontent or bad impressions I may have caused for my actions!", he said while bowing towards the Headmistress.
[He must have absurd abdominal muscles with how straight-laced he is], Voxea commented.
[This ain't normal for knights]?
[Not unless they're from storybooks].
"Good to hear. Now then, on to more pressing matters", Malrena said as she switched to a more serious tone. Picking up on this sudden shift, I followed suit and stood straight as well.
"As a general reminder, the exhibition match with the royal kin will be happening in two months time. For that reason, I will now be handing you these keys to the dungeons".
[Dungeons]?
"Keys"?
Malrena snapped her fingers, and a strange wooden display box appeared in her hands. Inside of the display were flowing stones inscribed with spell runes. Staring at the runes, I couldn't recognize all of them but I did recognize the runes for "power" and open". Oddly straightforward.
[Huh...those are new...].
With a wave of her hand, the stones floated out of the case and in front of the five of us. Following the lead of the other four, I grabbed the stone in front of me.
"You five have free reign from now until the exhibition match to access the dungeon with your chosen teams of ", Malrena said while dismissing the case in a cloud of purple smoke with another wave of her hand, "be sure to maintain proper scheduling or alert your professors of any absences. Understood"?
"Yes ma'am"!
"Good. I shall leave you all to it then", Malrena said with a short nod before walking away.
After she left, the pressure in the room felt visibly lighter as the elites let out breaths of relief.
"Geez, she always so tensed", Brisbane complained, "Well then, if anyone needs me, I'll be taking my crew to the Deep Floods. What about you lot"?
"None of your business, seadog", Kiero replied before striding off.
"The Humming Manor". Delira said with a chuckle.
"The Forge of Blood", Lu Yan said with a polite nod.
"And you missy?", Brisbane asked while looking toward Voxea and I.
"Uhh...what's a dungeon?", I asked point blank. Silence filled the room as they stared at me in surprise.
[Hah, bluntness].
_____Several moments and an explanation later___
[Huh... this is what the Conductive Earth Array became...], Voxea commented as I, Savina, Alyra, Boleros, Albina and Bori stared at a swirling vortex of aether embedded in a doorway made of copper and gems.
In the span of a five minutes after Malrena left, it was explained to me that the exhibition match weren't going to simple one on one matches, rather they were going to be team fights.
Each of us had to form teams of five binders on our own and be able to coordinate with them in battle. I was told that due to us being "the strongest" we had to be able to demonstrate leadership abilities as well as combat strength, but I had feeling it was more convoluted than that.
I personally thought it was formatted this way because the royal kids disliked working together, but who knows.
As for what the dungeons were...they didn't really know.
They knew that they were weird doorways, they knew that the doors seemed to gather/generate aether and they knew that whatever was behind the door was much much bigger than what the door belayed and were full of majimonsters, weird traps and treasures.
It took Voxea all of one minute to stare at one to understand that these "dungeons" were mutated aether points.