If one looked past all the bloodshed going on, the scale of this attack and the precision is actually something to be admired. I should take notes.
"Furgasd!" Lunela exclaims, summoning a sharp attack spell, slicing a monster attacking a few students apart.
Speaking of taking notes, I should log information about strong candidates at the back of my mind. They'll be useful. Unpolished gems like Larien and Lunela are truly a good find. And I can even make something of Darius. After all, he'd have to have something to him if he managed to reach tier 2, with an affinity for light elemental magic. Mages with an affinity for elemental magic aren't common. If I train him sufficiently, I could put him to good use.
We've been gathering the students we've come across who've been under attack by the monsters that came through the teleportation circles. With magic detection, I can sense a few staff and professors handling the greater packs of monsters, but a few strays attack the students and examinees who were outside, or separated from their groups.
"T-thank you!" A girl in the school's uniform exclaims, bowing to us in appreciation, as well as the other male and female students behind her.
She's in uniform so she's a student here. "Do you know what's going on?"
I'm hoping the professors at least mentioned something of the situation to the students of the school. While the exams for new students take place, the students aren't allowed in the lower floors or near the exam sites, but still a few of them are scattered around the campus. Something must've happened.
"N-no. We heard an explosion and suddenly the hall was on fire," She states. "Some of us ran down to the lower floors and tried to escape, but the school gates were sealed."
"I see," I say, fixing a few pieces of thee puzzle together in my head.
Larien glances at me and asks, "What's on your mind?"
"Mm..." I hum, thinking about the situation. "This is definitely a distraction, most likely to occupy all the capable mages and students, and at the same time stop anyone from leaving. I'd say whoever orchestrated this wants something, and wants it badly enough to cause this big of a distraction. It means he probably doesn't know it's exact location and needs that much time to find it. If everyone's too busy looking for a way to get out, it'd give him plenty of time."
But what I still don't understand is how he created that many magic circles at the same time if he isn't tier 7 or higher. It has to be that. I don't see any other way it'd be possible. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise seeing as I've witnessed something else that's crossed over. And if it's been here for ten years then... it just might be.
"Then... could he be after that?" The female student who Lunela rescued ponders.
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Ah, recently, there have been a few trespassing attempts on the school, but at the time we didn't think much of it since it happened all the time but..." She continues. "They were all after information."
"Information?" Lunela asks, placing releasing her magic sword.
"Yes," The second female student adds. "Our school keeps a variety of information on different places, artifacts, relics, and historical sites. And lately, we've had a few intruders all looking for the same thing."
"And what's that?" Lunela inquires.
"Um..." The student stutters, wondering whether to reveal the information then points upwards. "The floating isle."
Huh?! Wait... This guy, he's after information on Aeolia? Well this changes the game. I wasn't interested in interfering before, but I can't really sit back and watch any piece of information about my home fall into the hands of someone unknown. This works in my favor. I can crush the intruder, score some fame points and understand the level of information Dorma currently has on Erandelle. Three birds with one stone.
"I'll go after him," I announce, pushing my hands into my pockets. Using magic sense I know the intruder is inside the school on the third floor.
"Huh?!" The group gasps.
Larien gazes at me with disbelief clearly written on his face and a look that says 'so suddenly you're interested?'. True, I've basically pulled a total 180, but now it became something worth the effort.
"Everyone capable of stopping him is too busy protecting the other students from harm and probably don't even know what's going on. Before things get worse, I'll intervene."
They all stare at me for a while, most likely still hung up on my change in attitude, but Lunela is the first to speak.
"I'll come to,"
Can't say I wasn't expecting that. She's a warrior who took the lead and wasted about seven monsters within five minutes, while we moved here. There's no way she would give up this challenge.
"I will too,"
And neither will Larien. Warrior or not, he has this almost annoying 'righteous guy' attitude that refuses to witness anyone suffer without doing anything to help. It's a good quality but one that'll get in my way one day.
"Fine!" I give in, seriously just not in the mood to argue. If need be I can whack them on the head and knock them unconscious, take the information I need, waste the intruder, and wake them up again with a story like, 'a spell made you lose consciousness'. Should work out. "So the three of us will jump him then."
"M-make that four," Darius stutters, adding himself to the count.
Darius is well-mannered but a rather timid kid. Even now, he's hesitant to jump into the fray. However, this is the first time I've seen him speak this boldly, even with the hesitation. I guess I can't really stop him if he wants to.
"Alright. Let's go." I say, taking the lead and moving towards the direction I picked up.
On our way up here, we see a number of professors and a few students doing their best to repel the horde of monsters. They are mostly weak but their numbers aren't small. It'll give them a hard time dealing with all of them. But that's not my business right now. Though, Lunela and Darius decide to help and break off to subdue the monsters.
Larien and I keep moving on towards the intruder's position. In just a few more steps, we come face to face with the dark mage who caused all of this. He wore a black coat, and put up his hood to cover his face. A glistening light coming from a finger on his hand catches my attention.
As I suspected, it was because of that. 'The ring of Berrude'. This ring was an A-grade item that allowed the user, whether they were a mage or not, to be able to cast a single spell multiple times, at the same time. It also gave mana and efficiency buffs so even a spell that couldn't be casted unless more than two people were present, could be casted with ease by a single person. And to top it off, it also had the attribute to remain undetected through magic.
It fit the situation perfectly, but I still found it a little hard to believe because it was a cheat item in Kingdom Crawlers. Every player wanted to get their hands on it, and there was only that one in the entire game, but two years prior to my death, the game administration announced that the item had been erased from the game. To think it'd be here, and being used by this loser.
"Are you the one responsible for this chaos?" Larien asks, already knowing the answer to that question as he glared at the man in black.
"Tch! Interrupted again," The hoarse voice of the man retorted, backing away and turning down the hall in a dash.
Larien doesn't hesitate to go run after him, and I follow behind.
"Delcum," Larien speaks, casting a spell that hurls sharp blades of wind at the man, who barely manages to dodge them, with a few injuries on his arm.
"Thegrosa!" The man counterattacks with a spell that springs binds from the shadows of the objects around.
Larien intercepts them with a flame shield spell and continues his chase. "Sergrano Nimcal Tis Belva!"
Larien's spell allows a hail of fire spears stab the ground around the dark mage, entrapping him within.
Not bad.
I walk up to them, Larien maintaining the spell, and the dark mage gritting his teeth. He glances down at the ring on his right hand and attempts to cast another spell.
"I don't think so," I mutter, quickly forming a mana sword in my hand and slicing his hand off from his forearm.
"Ahh!" He screams in pain, as he clutches the bleeding wound on his arm.
Larien is taken a bit aback at first, but soon resumes his serious expression, not looking away from the situation.
I hold his arm in my hand and remove the ring on one of the fingers, then toss the arm away.
It's funny. In the game I could never get my hands on this, but now here it is.
"What is that?" Larien asks, gazing at the sparkling green ring held between my finger tips.
I glance at him from through the corner of my eye before giving a mischievous smile. "Nothing really. Just something pretty awesome." I say, as I open my inventory and store it inside.
"Ugh... Spatial magic?" Larien asks, gazing at what appears to be a dark spatial hole in amazement and intrigue.
I just shoot him another smile instead of a real answer. In Kingdom Crawlers, not many people were capable of spatial magic. I guess that seems true here too.
"Now," I sigh, walking up to the groaning man, signaling Larien that he can release the spell enclosing him now. "What to do with you."
While gasping and panting in pain, as soon as Larien put down the fire spears, he dashed to the other end of the hall and casted a spell that shot fire balls at us. Honestly I'm tired of this.
"Tch! I don't see why I expected any less from the jackass that's making me work this hard," I blurt as I cast an explosion spell that encompasses the entire hallway and causes him to burst through the wall, landing on the hard pavement outside.
I manage to protect Larien from the effects of my spell using a barrier spell.
"What was...?"
I don't stay to listen to Larien's question as I jump out the newly created opening in the wall, and land perfectly in front of the trembling intruder.
"Hand it over," I state coldly, glaring down at the groaning dark mage with burn scars around his body.