Joaquin paused and almost had a smug dash across his face, he looked to the left and he looked to the right. He stared at the sky and he turned his attention to the ground below.
Green short cut grass which was rough and looked trampled on by some huge monsters lay at his feet. As the others walked out of the trees they also took a moment to gawk at the beautiful green road leading their doom.
The Idol Prince rushed to Joaquin's side and tried to get some words out of him. He only earned himself a snarl and let go of his t-shirt. Joaquin turned to face the students and shook his head, afterwards he took Ains by her wrist and walked forward.
It might have been an illusion or it could have been their freezing fears, but with each step taken forward the students felt a cold wind blowing against them. They persisted and made their way into the opening of the large cave.
Once in, Joaquin noticed the decorations sprayed across the floor so random yet so precise and beautiful. His heart was pounding louder than the whispers of the students. He could barely hear his own thoughts as he proceeded to walk forward.
"Wait you can't just waltz in like that, what if there are traps on the floor?" Beipan asked as he hurried over to the Idol Prince's side.
Joaquin only shot him a single glare before continuing, Ains was in no way concerned about any traps or ongoing conflicts. She was yet again feeling famished, tugging on Joaquin's sleeve she groaned and made her eyes sparkle with little tears.
Joaquin only needed to see it once to know that she had to be ignored. Before leaving for the bus, Joaquin had packed a lot of food for her. He's been watching her gulp it down since entry to the forest and said nothing about it.
'Let her suffer' he thought as a malicious grin shined in his mind. The deeper they went into the cave the more beautiful the walls became to Joaquin. More markings, paintings, and runes started to become visible enough for everyone to see.
The ground shook and everybody paused, Joaquin slowly turned around to see what caused it. At first he suspected Ains who had a flower sticking out of her mouth, it was sticky and had emitted a sort of debuff spell similar to that of the swamp. It was basically poisonous to all the students surrounding her, but she was okay. . But it was the Idol Prince.
He was currently grinning as he dragged his fingers across the linings of the glyphs. Luo noticed Joaquin glaring at the Idol Prince and quickly grabbed his hand.
"Hey watch it…" He pouted as he pulled his hand away from Luo. He massaged his wrist as he turned his attention forward to find Joaquin glaring daggers through his skin.
The Idol Prince smiled awkwardly and lowered his head to walk forward. Some students followed while others awaited Joaquin's move.
"Do you know anything about runes?" He asked the Idol Prince with a solemn look plastered across his face.
The Idol Prince became smug and giggled for a few seconds. He covered his face with his fan and almost quietly answered, "yes, yes I do know quite a lot about the language of magic." He was barely audible but Joaquin heard him clearly.
"If that was the case you wouldn't have activated a trap in a careless manner like that…"
Joaquin was stopped by the Idol Prince waving his fan at his face, "I was fascinated, captivated, you know…" The Idol Prince started tripping over his words and made faces at Joaquin who had already started to move on.
Finally some words came to him, "have you ever been caught in a trance by art as amazing as this?"
Joaquin blinked rapidly and turned away to walk, having much more stamina than most of the students he was able to reclaim his lead. The Idol Prince did not get left behind, he had guessed that the writings on the wall were nothing special considering how little attention they got from the wizard.
They were still beautiful and they glowed everytime you managed to make a connection with your eyes. A lot of time was spent on these narrow hallways. Eventually they got to the first trial of the cave.
Meanwhile Ruben Alder had finally reached the swampy area, there was a herd of miniature goblin sharks everywhere. The rate at which his mana was being absorbed was very high, but due to the nature of his binary ability his mana recovered at a monstrous pace. If he were to encounter the goblin shark he would cut it down in one swing.
Finally, Ruben made his way out of the swamp with tons and tons of magical gems in his person. He was so caught up in the killing he forgot about Joaquin for a second.
"Oops," he said to himself as sparks flew onto his hand. He had made a fire without using binary as Joaquin had once taught him. It was relaxing, 'by now Jojo has probably found a dungeon. If the others are still following him they will die. But there is nothing I can do about it for now. I still have to meditate and keep my mana from running berserk.'
Ruben leaned against a tree and looked back at the swamp, evidence of Joaquin passing by was still there. However it was impossible to tell if any students had died because the shark will absorb any biological material in the surrounding area.
The sun was setting and so began Ruben's journey to save the Idol Prince and the other students from Joaquin. He didn't take the path that Joaquin took. He had found a much open path undisturbed by branches and overgrown vines.
He was able to take in the beauty of the area and appreciate the effort taken by whoever is protecting the cave. He had placed summons on the road forward and they were triggered according to the strength of the trespasser. Being the talent that he was Ruben was able to disguise himself as someone with no power at all.
With ease Ruben was able to identify another entrance to the cave. It was more refined and looked more like a tomb from ancient New earth times that Joaquin used to show him when they were children.
"Is there going to be a dead guy wrapped in bandages inside?" He chuckled to himself as he scrolled in with a big stick in his hand. He had picked it up earlier to use as a sword and fell in love with it, now he couldn't put it down even if he wanted to.
" Oh my who is that weak looking weirdo with the stick? " A giggle came from in front of Ruben. He looked to see who it was and he saw a girl in the company of two boys, she looked Familiar but he couldn't be bothered to think about why.
They waited for Ruben to get closer, and as they waited more and more soon to be dead people emerged from the forest. Almost everybody who gave themselves time to inspect others couldn't help but insult Ruben's extremely low power level.
"You should go back home kid, the tomb of Bronzefella isn't a place someone…"
"So that's what it was called." Ruben said to himself as he passed by the guy without even giving him any face.
"Hey, I'm trying to help you, you know." The guy said as he grabbed Ruben by the shoulder and stopped him in his tracks. Like Ruben he was wearing school tracksuits, but he was blonde with blue eyes and his face was pretty sharp. It reminded him of the various pretty boys back at their school who were barely distinguishable from one another.
He was much taller and more bulkier than Ruben and so from the point of view of everyone else it looked as if he was bullying the powerless child.
"Come on Collins if he wants to go in, it's his funeral." A brown haired boy who was about the same height as Ains interrupted. He wore a mask which only showed his dull brownish eyes.
"Yeah, let him be." commented a girl who slightly reassembled Collins.
Ruben smiled, "I will not forget your kindness."
"Ew," Collins's sister said in response to Alder's out of the blue comment.
Ruben ignored and walked forward, on his way other groups tried to stop him but he continued without being bothered. If anyone actively tried to stop him, they would probably get their limbs broken.
The group of 24 people consisted of two schools and what seemed to be a mercenary group and they were all after the same tressure as Joaquin. Ruben had to go find Joaquin and ask him not to antagonize them, and also to protect the students from the horrors they were about to live through.
.....
Sorry about my absence
Lost my pc a while ago, now I'm Learning how to write on phone