One by one, the students left the vehicle and found themselves out of nowhere. Above was a strikingly blue sky with no sign of clouds. The yellow sun was in the middle of the sky, beaming with splendour.
On the earth, there were green trees all over, with rocky mountains on the far horizon with red cliffs. A volcanic mountain range, but it was far away from there.
"What is this place?" Shin asked, looking all over. He couldn't even figure out if it was the part of earth or some other place like the trial.
"Kilimanjaro," Elior muttered under breath, recognising the place.
"What?" Shin asked a little loudly. Then he saw more students were looking at him, so he asked in a lower tone. "Isn't this place abandoned a couple of decades ago?"
"It is," Ford answered in place of Elior. He came before the students and continued. "Even though this place is among the land that was abandoned decades ago, it is not that dangerous. Specifically, because of the reason, it was then established as the training ground for budding guardians and apprentices. Here are many dungeons that were preserved by the government for the same reason."
"Isn't it not dangerous?" a student asked with worry.
"It could have been, but there were many people placed here to look into it and the dungeons were blocked with any outside intervention, meaning the grade of the dungeon will only decay, not rise. . . ."
"Less talking now, follow me, and stay close to your seniors," Ford said and looked at the leading fellow of the upperclassmen. "Gaivan, take care of them."
Gaivan, the leading student, nodded, and Ford started to walk again. The students followed, and Gaivan took the lead while all the other upperclassmen got busy. Now the upperclassmen were not as nonchalant as before. The eight upperclassmen moved and surrounded the freshmen, baring their weapons. They moved, giving the freshmen more safety. Clearly, they had experience in this type of dealings.
"Everyone will stay in this formation," Gaivan added.
It did not take long for them to reach the spot where the dungeon was. Even a student who was not adept in mana application could tell something was wrong in this place.
While an elite like Elior could tell he was only half a mile away from a dungeon, though he might have a problem showing their way of it. After all, they could not just enter a dungeon by jumping in; there was a lot of nerdy stuff before the guardians could make a safe gate into it.
Another man appeared before them as they came close to the dungeon. Middle-aged with whiskers. He was in official code holding, which appeared to be a big cup of coffee.
"Students, this is Guardian Silva who was in charge of taking care of the dungeons here with a few other guardians." Ford introduced the man as the students bowed their heads a little.
"Alright. Let's go."
Finally, after all the travel, they stood before an enormous gate that was radiating different kinds of light. Mostly faint blue and purple. It was not like that before, only after Guardian Silva did something with the equipment there and the thick barrier thinned out to only faint light.
"Good day hunting," Guardian Silva said. "You guys have two hours. Make the most of it."
"Aye," Ford nodded and led the students to enter. He had already instructed them on how it was not anything difficult. All they had to do was not messing around, jump in straight. But he again instructed them to do so.
An upperclassman showed them the way, by jumping into it and all the following.
"I felt a little dizzy there," Shin said, shaking his head a couple of times. While most of the freshmen were the same.
Inside the dungeon was not so different from the outside. Even though it was an individual realm, it was of a lower level. The sun was still there in the sky. It was the very sun, but now it appeared a little different. The students could not tell what was so different about it apart from that something was restricting it.
"Did I tell you what type of monster we will see here?" Ford asked. "Ants. Not your average ones by huge ones. They could go as big as a metre to two. Fortunately, the one here has no poison, but that doesn't make them easy. They are carnivorous and would eat anything of nutrients, humans too."
The freshmen shook hearing that. Shin was not in them, the wannabe delinquent was still looking all over the place as if searching for the monster. While Ileana was not as brave. With a little step, she got close to Elior, gripping her equipment hard.
"Don't worry, there are the upperclassmen and the Instructor with us," Elior said. "And me too."
"Who said I was worried?" Ileana showed him her tongue, acting tough, but she did keep only a hand length distance from him.
"Instructor Ford," Shin asked among all the students. "Are we allowed to fight the monster here?"
Ford looked back and pondered. He looked at all the students and especially Elior Ileana and Shin before saying. "You are allowed, but it would be under the protection of your upperclassmen and me. If we see any harm in your safety, you will be put into safety immediately."
"I see," Shin said with a little brightened expression.
"Freshmen were allowed to fight in groups or in one by one," Ford said, scanning the surroundings. "Your seniors are preparing the monster for you. So, prepare now."
After that, Ford told them about the weakness of the ant and how to fight. They were taught all these in their very first class about monsters. But it did not take long for the humans to forget things, especially in such dangerous and alien circumstances.
The first ones who had the privilege of fighting the ants were Shin, Ileana, and Elior. Since the dungeon was not anything big and they were only here for the first experience, they went in a group.
Under the watchful gazes of the crowd, Elior with his two companions advanced. There were two ants they were up against, both had a height of about a metre, six legs and an antlike appearance. Only in size they differ.
"Brother Elior, let me deal with this insect," Shin proposed, and Elior let him.
After all, there will be more ants. The seniors were restricting more of them from coming at once.
Shin brandished his sword with mana as the blade grew sharper. Ford with approval as Shin attack one in the head. He twisted his sword as green juice came out of it and the ant laid dead there.
"Eww," Shin uttered in disgust as the other one of the ants advanced towards him. With a swing of his blade, it died easily as well.
"Why is this so easy?" some of the students wondered, and even Shin was wondering.
"These things are filthy," Shin said, jerking his sword. "They did not give me many Karma points too."
"Be steady and continue." Ford's voice came from behind.
This time, the seniors let three ants advance towards them.
Ileana was not convinced of letting the boys do all the work. Golden halo of light beamed in her arm and she cast it to Elior and Shin.
[Your attack power has risen by 10%.]
Elior nodded to the chestnut-haired girl. It was not the limit of her ability. She could do furthermore, but against the ants, even the boast of 10% attack power was unrequired.
The two of them hack and swing their sword and spear respectively as the three corpses of the ants lay on the ground. It took even less time than before.
[You have killed a Kilar Ants level 7]
[You have gained 46 karma points.]
The Karma points divided among the three of them according to the contributions, but none of them had any enthusiastic face. These ants were no challenge. Not to say, ants were never a predator, these monsters were even less than level ten. They held no dangers to them.
"Can we get more ants, please?" Shin said. "And it would be better if they were a little stronger."
The upperclassmen looked at Ford, who nodded. In the next term, they were against five ants, but they looked similarly weak from before.