2.17. Trainee Dungeon

"You do really need to work on your casting. It's way too stiff."

"Yeah.."

Sequencee couldn't deny Judy's evaluation. As someone who's only been practicing the fundamentals like mad for the past 3 years, he had lost touch of that 'creative magic' which made magic.. magic. Rules are meant to be broken, but Sequencee had trouble trying to break those rules. Similar to how one may have perfect language and writing ability, if said person doesn't find a way to use these skills to create interesting work, it's pointless.

Take Schwii for example. Though her foundation wasn't as secure as Sequencee, her unique purgatory flame magic is the most minimal and vital magic type she needed to resolve most situations. It could go against most other spells and win out in the end. This was what Sequencee lacked, a curated, small tool box of spells to work with.

'For now at least, I should keep experimenting with those fusion spells.'

Judy's advice was similar to Iona's: research unique spells to fit in his arsenal. With his foundation, the possibilities are endless. Seuqencee had actually already come up with a few prototypes, but he had only tried them with Iona. The results weren't all that great– but that was when put against a demon general. With some more tinkering and work, it might become something that enables him to plow through dungeons with ease.

"I don't know when they'll arrive, we'll sit here for now. Do you need drinks?" Judy had prepared a cart of tea just for this occasion.

"Are you really going to make tea?"

"What's wrong with that? Just because I'm making tea doesn't mean I'm a maid you know?"

"That's not what I mean..

"Then what do you mean? Looking down on your instructor hm..?"

Sequencee thought to just shut up. Judy prepared the pot of tea by dropping in a custom mix of tea leaves and spices. Heating the water inside to a finely accurate temperature using magic, it didn't take her a minute to settle the ingredients, and another 5 minutes of steeping to complete her concoction. She poured the product out for Sequencee to try.

"What do you think?" She asked with a proud smile.

"It's.. refreshing. Is this from Tnudra Kingdom?"

"Most of the ingredients are from there. Nice right? You should add a cube of sugar or two," Judy stirred her finger in the air and created a cube of sugar out of thin air. Sequencee looked at it dubiously, "It's alchemy magic, tearing apart air molecules and reconstructing it into sugar. I took so long to learn this spell, you wouldn't believe it if I told you."

"How long?"

"Two decades."

Creative magic at its finest.

"..."

"See, what did I say? Here," she dropped two cubes into Sequencee's cup and two in her own. She made herself comfortable sitting opposite of where Sequencee sat.

As she was stirring her tea, Sequencee felt a presence arriving. There was a gentle knock against the door.

"They're here. Make sure to be respectful," Judy got up and promptly attended to the arrival of the heroes. Sequencee tensed up, realizing that he would actually achieve the first milestone to his goal..

Judy tilted her head at the entrance. She greeted the person who stopped by and then turned to Sequencee inside.

"Her Highness will take the place of the hero for today it seems.." Judy felt a little awkward, standing aside to allow Evelyn in.

Evelyn was wearing the priestess uniform. An ocean colour palette adorned with gold and platinum ornaments which wasn't too loose but not tight either. Because of her royal upbringing, she held herself with grace, taking care of her outward appearance when associating with someone else. Her figure was divine and elegant, long silver hair cascaded down, stray strands neatly tucked behind her ear and pinned with silver barrettes. Her amethyst eyes swept past Judy, towards the student who stood up to greet– her mind went blank.

Sequencee bowed.

"It's been a while, Your Highness."

This voice, this treatment. She thought it was a lie, but she knew it couldn't be. This man was too familiar to her, there was no way she could've forgotten.

"Your Highness?" Judy called out to her in panic.

"Sequencee.. that's you.. right?"

"Yeah."

She approached him with trembling steps. Perplexed by her behavior, he took a few steps back. She stood before him.

"M-May I.."

"???"

Before he could gauge the meaning behind her words, she had wrapped her arms around him. The weight in her heart finally fell off as tears streamed down her cheeks. She had once again returned to the comfort of his warmth– this nostalgic feeling of ease from three years ago.

"I thought.. you were gone.." her arms coiled around him tighter as she squirted her eyes bitterly.

Sequencee looked in a way that called for help at the Judy who had her mouth agape.

"I'm sorry I couldn't find you.. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything.."

"It's alright Your Highness.." Sequencee didn't know what else he could say. He didn't remember his relationship with her being so close. All he did was save her then act as her personal guard for two weeks.. or that was what he would've liked to think as the boy he was back then.

'Maybe she's just being emotional.'

Sequencee was trying hard to come up with a reason to deny the princess' advances. If she found out that he's the son of the world's number one enemy.. who knows what could happen.

"No. It's my fault, I should've tried harder should I have known you were still alive. It's my failure–" Evelyn quickly regained herself and wiped the tears off with the loose sleeve of her uniform. Her enchanting amethyst eyes stared at him resolutely. "Having heard a part of it from Miss Judy, I want to hear the full story directly from you. I'll help anyway I can."

Sequencee could sense the relationships around him become increasingly complex.

===

Team Five, please raise your hands.

Sequencee raised his hands along with four other members of the group. The teams were set based on the instructor's arrangement. There was no say in choosing your own peers for this excursion.

Sequencee's team members were Taylor, Adrinne, Nordd and Carlsim. Taylor and Adrinne were fighters, Taylor being a longsword user, Adrinne being a Chakram user. Nora and Carlsim were mages, each capable of using the four basic elements and more.

For this first entry into the trainee dungeon, the ten teams of the class will enter together with Grian, Judy and Miss Willy's (Elaine Willy) guidance. Their goal is to reach the assigned zone, stay there for an entire week, practice killing monsters, and then return. Which meant that Sequencee will still be together with Schwii, just that they will be acting in separate teams.

That said, it didn't help that Schwii was receiving envious looks from the people in her surroundings. The two male students that were lucky enough to be part of her team looked absolutely ecstatic, which made things more concerning. Sequencee hoped that Schwii had gotten her fill of Ionanium, otherwise she might really wring the people in her team to satisfy herself.

And in case anyone gets injured, ten trainee priests have been assigned to each team– worse yet one of them being Her Highness Evelyn. It stirred up quite a commotion among the group, with some people impolitely comparing her with Schwii.

"I'm dedicated to this team, so I'll be in your care," Evelyn bowed.

Taylor and Nordd were stunned. Adrinne smiled wryly and greeted in a simple manner while Carlsim showed an indifferent expression.

Sequencee glanced at Judy, she turned away the moment their eyes met. As the instructors were in charge of arranging this joint department exercise, Sequence believed that Judy and Evelyn had to have done this on purpose.

Schwii felt a little suspicious but didn't think too much about it. She wasn't aware of Sequencee's relationship with Her Highness, though, her ignorance regarding the matter would probably end soon.

The class entered after the last, with Ro and Lilian's departure coming before their own. Each class had been assigned a camping spot at different places. The distance between each class was sufficient in that hunting spots would not collide. Those in the first class were assigned to zones that were closer to red zones, which meant an increase in difficulty.

This dungeon, to repeat, is a Rhizome-type cave dungeon without traps. The only thing the student needed to worry about here is the gloomy dim environment and high ranking monsters.

"Team One, first encounter is yours. Take them out and be careful," Grian announced.

A group of six D-rank gray goblins emerged from the shadows. Five of them were holding a spear and a buckle shield each while the sixth one held a bow. The moment they saw the size of the group, they quickly retreated. It was an anticlimactic ending which the students did not expect.

"Something is wrong," Grian muttered to himself. Normally the monster would attack mindlessly. Seeing how the monsters were behaving differently, he pulled out a communication device and called out to the others to ask if they had similar issues.

While that was happening, Judy culled the goblins with a wave of a staff, sending them to their death. Everyone had to move past the bisected corpses, taking in the horrendous sight of guts and blood strewn on the ground. In any dungeon, the corpses will be reabsorbed and return to the dungeon.

"It's quite frightening, isn't it?" Evelyn spoke to the group.

"I will have to agree with you, Your Highness," Nordd said, moving the ball of light in his control away from the corpses.

"Yeah.. but you'll get used to it eventually," Adrinne said as if to say she had seen this countless times.

Sequencee said nothing and instead, turned to look at Schwii. She caught his gaze and smiled wryly.

Demon-type monsters hold innate reverence towards demon lords. Unless the monsters were something like a golem that didn't have any demonic traits to them, demonic beasts normally stayed away from demon lords. Goblins, orcs and hobgoblins were under the category of demonic beasts, so the reaction of turning away for tactical retreat made sense.. only to the two demon lords of course.

Sequencee knew that Schwii was the cause of the problem. Unlike him, she hadn't masked her presence. Just because she wasn't showing her horns didn't mean that the demons couldn't sense her authority. He knew this as he had experimented with it in the past. His mother used to call him a naturally occurring monster repellent– or magnet, depending on the type of demon.

'Once her team goes out for individual hunting, it would be a dead giveaway..'

Sequencee wondered if Schwii was aware of this point. Meanwhile, Evelyn took note of his interaction with the top beauty of his class. Though he had told her about Schwii, this was the first time she had personally seen her. The allure of her features were impeccable, even Evelyn found herself drawn to it. He said that this girl was funding his education here.

'Who exactly is she anyways?'

It wouldn't be surprising that someone like Sequencee had a big noble backer behind him. That would explain why she couldn't find him after the calamity three years ago. Just that, Evelyn didn't know enough about this girl– she might have ulterior motives behind her actions.

'In that case, I'll just have to make my move.'

Surprisingly, when the next set of goblins came, they didn't avoid the group like the first time. Schwii had fixed her aura.

As the group progressed deeper, the eerie atmosphere exacerbated. Those that were first time explorers found themselves disquieted, but by the momentum of the group, they advanced anyways.

Everyone had themselves a big bag filled with standard supplies like rations, tents, monster repellants and canteens. By the end of the first kilometer, those that were exhausted had to pass their bags to their comrades. Her Highness Evelyn hada unfortunately to let Taylor offer a hand. Though, she would've wished that it was Sequencee. It's clear that he was deliberately avoiding her.

"Team Five."

"Oh yeah! Finally!"

"Do you need someone to help hold your bags?" Sequencee asked.

"You sure?" Taylor looked at Sequencee a little stranger.

"I'm a mage."

"If you say so. Here you go," Taylor passed his bag and Eveyln's bag to Sequencee. He took out his trusty longsword and swirled his shoulders. "I'll go first!"

"Hey! Help me look after my bag too. I'm going," Adrinne, excited for her first battle, dropped the stuff on the floor and charged forward.

"I'm going to support!" Nordd, the mage generated a few more light orbs and sent them forwards into the dark.