[Sifter's Foundations Front Entrance.]
Jan and Louise were standing 100 meters away from two doors in an eerie cave. Hordes of monsters were guarding the double doors, aimlessly walking. The dim lighting from the torches on the wall made it difficult to see, but their eyes glowed ever so slightly in the darkness.
"Our exit is here." Louise smiled out loud as he brought out his polearm axe.
Louise was excited at the thought of seeing an 'exit' to the assignment but Jan knew that this horde was going to be difficult to clear.
Jan withdrew his longsword from his back as he carefully analyzed the area for potential dangers... HWANG!
[Lost Archives has calculated: 350 monsters - 50: C+ Class, 200: C Class, 100: Low C - Class.]
With monsters swarming the entrance of the double doors, revealing the nightmarish assembly of Massive Ogres were swinging their clubs, venomous Spiders with sharp fangs were crawling around, slimy creatures that oozed with acidic fluid, fire-breathing Lizards, Goblins holding crude weapons, and Trolls pounding the ground with their tremendous strength.
Louise, fueled by the Purest Flame, darted into the chaos with his Polearm Axe, flames dancing around him. A group of Spiders launched venomous bites, but Louise skillfully twirled his axe, parrying each attack with precision
BANG!
In the middle of the moshpit Louise incinerated the monsters that touched his flames. Meanwhile, Jan engaged the Ogres, his sword slicing through the air as he executed a dazzling display of acrobatic moves. He swiftly dodged the swinging clubs and retaliated with powerful strikes and equivalent force.
[320 monsters remain.]
During the fight, the infamous duo maintained silence and seemed to be continuously monitoring each other's movements. They supported each other secretly; while Louise recovered mana, Jan would deflect any ranged monster attacks aimed at Louise. If Jan was surrounded by too many close-range monsters, Louise would use his Purest Flame to weaken or eliminate them so that Jan could have some space to recover.
[280 monsters remain.]
As the battle unfolded, Slimes seeped towards them, attempting to engulf the duo. Louise's Purest Flame incinerated the Slimes on contact, creating a fiery barrier around him. Jan, using his sword aura, created a slash capable of cutting through seemingly anything called impossible.
The Lizards, sensing an opportunity, unleashed torrents of fiery breath. Louise somersaulted through the air, narrowly avoiding the flames, while Jan used his agility to sidestep the attacks. Seizing the moment, Jan executed a quick counter, that even caught the attention of Louise himself.
"Cleaving Arc."
A massive amount of energy seeped into Jan's sword as if he was absorbing the environment around him, with both hands on his sword he unleashed a powerful reaching swing aimed at all monsters within his proximity, as a flowing grace of azure-like aura flowed through his sword a manifestation of a dragon walking in a garden appeared, killing a total of 50 monsters with just a swing of his sword.
[200 monsters remain]
That's when Louise at that moment understood the difference in their abilities, Not only that Jan did not just have pure talent but his technique and form were the epitome of pure hard work.
As goblins began swarming from all sides, their erratic movements acted like a decoy but Louise placed his hands on the ground.
"Scorching embrace."
Louise embraced the earth from the ground and fire of the highest degree came scorching the ground of goblins that surrounded them as Jan reinforced himself in mana avoiding Louise's Fiery feud.
Jan came in and cleaned up the remaining monsters that weren't affected by Louise's Fire utilizing his sword's agility, leapt and in a powerful overhead swing the Goblins, slimes, and Lizards were crushed by the impact of Jan's swing.
[150 monsters remain]
Trolls, with their massive strength, attempted ground-pounding attacks. The ground shook as Jan and Louise evaded the powerful strikes. Louise exploited the Trolls' slow movements, using the Burning Polearm Axe to carve through their tough hides. Jan, with his sword, targeted vital joints to incapacitate the imposing foes.
[100 monsters remain...]
The battle raged on, and each monster eviscerated at the hands of Jan and Louise, through a seamless fusion of their abilities, fought to survive and clear a path towards the double doors. The air crackled with energy as they faced the onslaught, clearing them within 1 minute and 45 seconds.
"Hah, these monsters put up a stronger fight," Jan remarked, wiping sweat from his forehead.
Louise could only look at Jan in envy, opening his mouth, to perhaps respond, but he turned abruptly and headed through the double doors.
The room beyond wasn't what they had expected for an assignment—instead, it resembled a macabre lab experiment. Cages lined the space, some containing dead monsters, while others housed agitated, still-living creatures. The room was spattered with blood, and workbenches and bins held syringes and pills.
Jan and Louise noticed a large cage that was as big as two giants put together. Despite their curiosity, they decided to ignore it and not investigate further. They knew that uncovering ominous things often leads to unwanted consequences.
"What is this place? It doesn't look like the room where the flag could be," Jan stated, concerned about the living conditions in the room, eyeing an IDS Platform in the corner of the room.
Louise's expression twisted in disgust at the sight of the lab equipment. He had a firm underlying belief that corrupted experiments should stop entirely but he had not expected to see such a gruesome sighting.
"Disgusting... Does the academy own such a place like this? This should be illegal." Louise muttered, while observing the benches he went to one of the work benches observing the purple-like fluid of syringes that sparked furiously, creating a static that shocked his finger.
TANG!
"Fuck." Louise dropped the syringe from the sting.
Jan turned towards Louise to see that a syringe that split onto the ground slowly drifitng towards the covered cage...
"Louise I think we have to report this to-"
PWANG!
The IDS Platform was activated in a heartbeat and what followed was an ominous energy as the air grew tight the duo turned not in curiosity but in fear that the person behind them surpassed both the strengths of the two combined.
A man in a black robe, adorned with a cross marked out with a crimson X, stood before them. His face remained concealed, shrouded in mystery.
"I wasn't expecting visitors here today. Who could you two be?" the man's voice was deep and intimidating. resonated through the tense air, tightening the atmosphere even further. The pressure he exuded wasn't just physical strength; it hinted at a force not to be messed with.
***
Checking my watch, a few silent minutes slipped away as I navigated the familiar routes within the cave. Finally, I reached the designated spot where the flag, marked with the academy's emblem, clung to a stone. I secured it in my side pocket alongside my bow, stealing a glance at Valencia further down the cave. She maintained her distance, her demeanour radiating an unspoken hostility.
When is she gonna quit with this hatred for weak people act? it contradicts her character hmm... but I don't have time to complain since the main fight of this assignment would begin soon.
FWANG!
[Alert! Anomaly [???] has been caused. The difficulty for the monster [???] has been scaled.]
With the notification appearing in front of my eyes, I felt overcome with a sense of worry. If I could ask myself to God for one break, it would've been nice if things were kept on pace for this story, but too many things are coming in earlier than expected.
I couldn't help but think if Jan and Louise would pull through with the monster fight, but they're the main characters, so they shouldn't be able to die because of the plot, right?
Then I was overcome with a sudden realization of why these things kept happening. If Valencia being here might've been the intervention of 'cause and effect,' then that means she might be the cause of an anomaly and the uprising of the scale in difficulty. So theoretically, if characters that have been changed to appear later on in the story pop up now, that means that certain stages will occur much later, buying me so much time for the future.
Could it mean that I may have underestimated the timestamps for the future of this story? Also, there's a possibility that the ending may have been delayed by a good solid year. I'm not too sure myself to confirm this, but I hope this is true.
But too much curiosity will kill the cat, and I know that focusing on the future isn't good.
And concern after concern came to me like wildfire. Jan hasn't awakened his ultimate skill yet, and Louise probably hasn't either, so the best choice isn't to wait for the fight to finish; rather, I'd need to figure out how to get into Sifter's Lair and pray that Valencia will somehow follow me.
_______________________
Author notes:
- Lost Archives: The ability to analyze information quickly and absorb it via the user's memory. The information stored will trigger automatically or manually if the user desires the information. Uses for this ability can be used in combat or general learning.
- Lost Archive is a unique system that is completely different to the system Rel has.
- Before Jan reincarnated he retained 3 unique abilities from his previous life.
- Louise can use his 'Pure Flames' as armour if he wants to.