Hello all I'm back and welcome to the next part of my story. Once again I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.
Warning, if you haven't read the novel, from here on there will be spoilers.
Arthur's POV
I was currently in the B ranked dungeon that professor glory had chosen for our classes experience. As we made our way through the dungeon I noticed the complete lack of monsters, making this place seem eerily quiet. This greatly confused me as professor glory had told us that she had reserved the dungeon from the adventures guild for the last few weeks, so this place should be crawling with monsters.
We continued our way on the second floor to see if they were any monsters here, and I hadn't realised that I had been in deep thought that I didn't hear tess calling for me.
"ARTHUR!" She said breaking me out of my thinking.
"Yes?" I asked in confusion as to what she was saying.
"Don't you 'yes' me, you've been ignoring me for the last few minutes" she said scolding me.
"Sorry, I've been in deep thought" I said rubbing the back of my head, trying to defend myself.
"*Sigh* well, anyway, I was asking what you thought the reason that there was a lack of monsters?" She said.
"Hmmm... I wouldn't know, perhaps they had been killed as the lances had been going through the dungeons recently so it's a possibility" I replied as I almost fell into a deep internal debate again.
"Could be a possibility, but why would the lances clear out a B ranked dungeon?" She asked whilst we continued moving.
"Who knows?" I said as we came to the end of the tunnel.
It was there that we finally saw the inhabitants of this dungeon, the minions of the widow queen, but what confused me was how they where so many of them. Is this why there wasn't any on the way down, where they all here?. I saw that professor glory had moved forward quickly killed the monsters that where overpowering a few of the students.
I saw one had slipped past and came at me as I removed my sword from its sheath and disposed of it quickly, after that I moved on and killed a few more of them as I began channeling mana into me to go faster. I wanted to continue but was stopped by professor glory who held me back telling me that it was time to leave.
I turned and walked back towards the group, noticing that they were all annoyed at the prospect of leaving after coming so far. This was until a flame went past the professor and blasted a few more of the monsters that where coming towards us. I saw who it was and my blood boiled at the fact I saw the one person that I would rip apart with pleasure, Lucas Wykes.
"Why bother leaving when we had come this far" he said as the rest of the class joined in forcing the professor to give in.
"Fine, but stay in your groups and keep safe" she said as everyone ran off.
"Oh and Lucas... do that again and there will be consequences" she said threatening Lucas as he trembled in fright.
I inwardly laughed at the fact that he was been scolded at by the professor as I cut down the monsters in front of me with speed leaving none of them behind. I turned around to focus on other issues as I saw that two wind blades sped past my head causing me to turn around and I saw that there were two more dead monsters. I looked and saw the smiling face of tess as my heart warmed and I smiled back. She turned away and began chanting more spells, whilst I went to assist others.
We continued to kill the monsters until an earthquake occurred knocking most of the students on the ground and causing lots of rocks to fall from the ceiling. "MOVE!" Professor glory shouted as we all rushed towards the exit.
I noticed some monsters following us as I turned and killed them quickly, yet being too late to make it to the exit as it caved in leaving me and professor glory behind as more monsters came.
"Damn it, now what?" She said slashing the final monsters apart.
"Hmmm... that earthquake couldn't have been natural" I said as I looked at the direction that the monsters came from.
"You think something caused that?" She asked in shock at what could cause this.
"Perhaps, but for now we should focus on getting out of here" I said turning back to the collapsed exit.
I was hesitant towards how we should move the large amounts of rocks as the dungeon was already unstable until the miniature earthquakes continued. We both stopped and turned towards the direction that it was coming from, only to see the queen of the monsters that inhabited this dungeon. The queen snarler, a B ranked mana beast that would normally appear deeper in the dungeon.
What surprised me was how it looked to be a mutated mana beast, due to the difference in how it looked. I prepared to get into a fighting stance as I told professor glory to flank it whilst I go in from the front. We set off as she sped off around it whilst I sent multiple wind blades at it, causing it to become confused whilst it threw multiple sound attacks at me.
I reached it and slashed down as a spear came in from behind piercing its shoulder whilst I tore a wing off of it. I became complacent as I felt a sharp pain to my side as I was sent off into the distance by a large claw which caused a deep wound to appear.
"ARTHUR!" Professor glory said as I almost blacked out.
Thankfully from the physical training I had received from uncle Jin woo I wasn't too badly injured. I got up with the help of the professor as I saw that another attack was coming from both of the queen snarlers. I immediately pushed her out of the way as I went and received the attack, being sent through the wall and into a deep hole dragging the two queen snarlers with me.
As I fell I reached and grabbed to the two of the snarler queens wings and pulled them off as I smiled before falling deeper into the abyss. I could tell through my internal clock that I had been falling for around half a day as I began to think of methods to stop myself. I thought of practicing using wind to push myself upward when close to the bottom to slow my fall get skipped that one as i was moving too fast to do so.
As I continued thinking a hand appeared and grabbed onto me and held me as I stopped falling. I looked up to see the face of a black night with a sword dug into the wall.
"Thanks" I said.
All he did was nod as he pulled his sword out and we continued falling until I could feel the bottom with my mana, I also saw that we where going to fast as I was prepared to use my magic. This was until we landed, shattering the ground as I could see he landed normally as I looked at this monster in horror at how powerful he was.
Before I had any time to think I fell to the ground whilst the black knight disappeared as well. I was both confused and thankful about what just happened as I removed the bracelet on my hand, which concealed my two most dominant powers, and lit a flame in my hand as I walked into a tunnel leading deeper and deeper. I eventually came across a large room that was covered in the rotting smell of flesh and blood. I came in and felt the ambient mana and noticed the distinct darkness that made me think of uncle Jin woo.
"Why would uncle Jin woo be in... you know what, I'm not gonna question what he does cause he scares me" I said to myself whilst sighing.
I saw that among the bodies of knights that where in the room there was another body, this one though was different compared to the rest as it wasn't human. On the other hand I felt my blood boil as I saw that it looked like one of the creatures that wanted to take Silvia away. This confirmed my suspicion of who was here as these where incredibly powerful creatures and perhaps only uncle Jin woo is able to kill them.
I turned and made my way out of the room and out of the dungeon, only to notice that it was midnight and I was in the middle of the beast glades.
"Great" I said before finding out which direction I needed to take and leaving the area, whilst trying not to disturb any monsters.
Fast forward a few days and I managed to reach the portal that led to xyrus city as I imagined the feeling of a hot meal and a bath at least. I entered and immediately went towards the Helstea manor as I could feel one of my wounds opening.
"Damn it" I said before speeding up.
I arrived there and entered the house to see my parents and professor glory standing there with solemn looks whilst crying. They all heard the door open and look in surprise as they saw it was me.
"ARTHUR!" I heard mother say as she ran and jumped into my embrace causing a searing pain to go through me.
I wanted to remove her from me as I was in a lot of pain and was close to blacking out until I heard mother start to sob on my shoulder whilst I felt that dad had hugged me from the other side. Only after a while had they let go as they both had tears in there eyes.
"You need to stop putting yourself in danger arthur, or we won't be able to bear seeing you in pain every time you come back home" mother said as it hit me that i might not feel much towards it but others do.
"Yes mother" I said with a sigh.
"Good" she said wiping her tears away.
"Arthur?" Professor glory called for me as I turned to see her.
"Yes" I said weakly as I was about to black out from the loss of blood and pain.
"How did you get back alive? I clearly saw you fall down that hall?" She said as I could see she had been crying.
"I'd tell you but it seems I am too weak to stay awake" I said pointing to my wound as blood dropped from it and onto the floor.
Immediately after that I fell unconscious and hit the floor as a pool of blood formed from me. All I could hear before I closed my eyes was my parents scream my name and rush towards me.
I fell into a deep dream like a state of nothingness, a state in which I hadn't known how long had passed and if I could leave. Eventually I was able to leave this place and wake up to an awful headache and a sharp pain throughout my body. I moved and noticed that there was a body leaning against me, confused I looked and saw a silver haired elf sat there asleep. I moved my hand and stroked her soft hair as my heart warmed at her being with me.
I wanted to carry on until she moved and sat up, she stared at me for a few seconds before registering that I was there and jumped at me and hugged me.
"Arthur, your okay" she said as she moved away and kissed me deeply.
I was surprised but not annoyed at the sudden kiss as I returned it and kissed her back deeper. This went on for some time before I broke it as I had questions to ask, although I was unwilling there was time later.
"How long have I been asleep for?" I asked as tess moved and laid across my chest whilst I moved back down onto my bed.
"Three days" she said as I could feel her tears. This made me shocked as I could heal faster than normal. It took me a while to realise she was crying as I stroked her hair and tried to calm her down.
"Are you okay?" I asked as she shot up immediately and looked at me angrily.
"For once Arthur can you put yourself before others" she said crossing her arms.
"Yes mother" I said jokingly whilst laughing.
"Hmm" she said pouting.
I reached forward and pulled her into a tight embrace that led to her being on top of me as we both blushed deeply. I continued to hold her close to me as she moved into a more comfortable spot, resting her head just under mine. We stayed there for some time as we only wanted to be in each other's embrace, sadly that came to an end soon as we heard the door open and tess jumped off my body and back to her seat with a blush.
"Your awake" Ellie said running in and jumping on me.
"I'm awake" I said patting her head.
"Well we shall go so you can get ready" tess said before taking Ellie and leaving the room.
I got out of bed and got changed into casual clothes as I then checked the condition of my body. I found that it was in top shape again with nothing wrong, another thing I realised is that I was too weak. This made me think that I should upgrade my mana core as fast as possible for a better advantage in the future. I would do this later though as my family would want to speak to me about what happened.
I went downstairs and saw that they where all sat in the living room and discussing, until I walked in where they all called my name. I moved and sat down next to tess and smiled at her, to which she smiled back. After that I was barraged with questions from everyone as to how I was able survive that massive fall.
I told them that it was because of uncle Jin woos shadow knight that saved me and how I went through the tunnels and appeared in the beast glades. I explained then how I came to the portal and entered the city and came here. The whole explanation took around an hour due to the constant input of questions.
"Well it's a good thing that you had Jin woos knight with you" dad said.
"Yes... oh by the way where is he?" I asked as I haven't seen him yet.
"Who knows, probably on the edge of the continent or something" mother said.
We all laughed at this response until we realised that would've probably been the case. We continued to talk about what everyone had been up to since I left for xyrus academy. This continued for some time until it got late and we decided that it was time for sleep.
I had the bed all to myself this time because Elijah and silvie where at the academy so I could finally sleep in peace. This thought was ruined as I saw that the door opened and tess had entered.
"Hey art?" She called for me as I could see she was embarrassed.
"Yes" I said getting up.
"C-c-can I s-s-sleep with you just for tonight?" She asked quietly as if she didn't want me to hear it.
"I... a-a-are y-y-you sure?" I asked as I was embarrassed at this thought.
She nodded as I gulped and moved over as she came and sat down and got under the blanket. We stayed at opposite sides of the bed for the next few minutes as we were both heavily embarrassed. I didn't know what to do as this was a first time this had happened, I was slowly calming down though and was falling asleep.
This was until I felt her hands wrap around my chest as I turned to see that she was burying her head in my back. I sighed and turned around and hugged her back, I could tell she was embarrassed as I was but it was strangely comforting as I closed my eyes.
After sleeping together we returned to xyrus academy in the morning and carried on our daily lives.
Unknown location
"My lord, the retainer sent to the continent of Dicathen has fallen" a shadowy voice said.
"I see, do you know who killed him?" Another figure said increasing the pressure in this place with anger.
"No my lord" the shadowy voice said in fear.
"Useless" the other figure said with a torrential burst of mana and aether that caused the surrounding room to collapse.
"Speed up our plans, we will start the war soon" said the large figure.
"Yes my lord" the shadowy figure said as it disappeared from the room.
"When I finish conquering that continent, you will be next, epheotus" it said with a sharp gaze.