Arcadian dungeon

  At the northern sector of the academy, in the Larzack Forests where we were about having a surprise test. In Lady Opheliaʼs perspective there was no need for classroom lectures, she preferred only field training. "You are to break up into teams of three, for your dungeon exploration practicals.."

  It was no surprise that many people wanted to join our group as the third-party, obviously Belitha and I were already a duo so we'd need one more member to make us a certified trio.

If Rosemarie Lunette was present then surely everyone would've wanted to join her team, as much as I've done I'm pretty sure a good number of the class sees me as the abominable Cross.

"Let me join your team, Nyx!", "Hey! He needs a guy on the team not a girl!", "Yeah! A girl would just hold him back! But I'm the guy for the job! Get lost!" it was honestly tiresome.

"Hey, you guys should take it easy.."

  I tried to reason with them and get them to take it easy, but then, something stole my attention.

I could see that girl again, the one who was being bullied by Dilbert just some days ago. "Hey, Nyx, do you think it's cool if we team up with that girl?" she felt the need to offer her help, she was isolated and that in it's own was sad enough. I agreed to Belitha's proposal, we spent a few seconds smiling at each other.

  Then, Belitha abruptly approached her and grabbed her hands, "Hey, come join our team!" it didn't sound like an offer, and that's because it wasn't.

It came as a surprise to the girl that someone would want to team up with her, "A-Are you sure? I'm not really much help.." she said, but Belitha still insisted. Further telling her they were just looking for another team member and with her usual excited voice.

She went on to ask for the girl's name, to which she said it was Laia Von Klaude, but it was best to call her Laia.

We introduced ourselves so as to get the formalities out of the way.

  She bowed her head to thank us again for the other day, bending her head made me notice that her jade colored hair was indeed long when you get to see the rear.

We only conveyed how much of a treat it was to have her and she expressed her happiness to have joined us. She was an easily frightened; timid girl, that much I could tell from just looking at her.

[ Some minutes later ]

  We were in the dark tunnels of the Arcadian dungeon, but our main assignment was yet to be revealed.

Ophelia then informed us that our assignment would be to delve down into the eight floor, and acquire gallanite which is a dark mineral rich in the lower sections of this dungeon.

But that wasn't all, we were also to bring five to nine cores of a polymoprh as well.

"A-A Polymorph?! That's a Rank B+ monster!", "Do you really want us to die, Lady Ophelia?!", they all complained bitterly as to the requirements of this test but she didn't seem to care.

"A test like this should be child's play, right?"

  She asked me, but I knew this was one of her traps designed to tease me on the fact that she was on my case. I stuttered before moving with both Belitha and Laia pushing them slowly and gently from behind so we could take our leave.

This was my own way of avoiding the question, although very nervously. She obviously wasn't going to stop until she knew what she wanted to, so I'd better play my cards right now.

She knew a great deal of what I could do so if I try to downplay my abilities she'll have even more reason to suspect. Oh boy, what a headache.

We walked for some about fifteen minutes, and it was then we came across the a wave of polymorphs, counting up to about twelve of them, Rank B+ monsters meant that they were in fact very strong by student standards.

• Polymorphs (B+): These are slime creatures, they are living colloidal suspensions with a body that could either be acidic or alkaline whenever they choose. They weigh about 300 pounds and stand at 6 feet. They can alter their shape as they are originally formless creatures, this allows them to carry out a variety of skilled fluid movements in battle or when predating on it's find. They also have Ultraspeed Regeneration. The cores inside them are known as Polymoprhic Crystals which are transformation items used upgrade numerous magical products.

  They hissed at us, viewing us as prey of sorts. They glowed in the dark thanks to the crystals within them, they possess a level of luminescence only notable when in dark surroundings.

The sight of 12 Polymorphs already sent fear down Laiaʼs spine and she fell to the ground before crawling back in delibitating fear, "A-A Polymorph?!" but here was the both Belitha and I assuring her that she was safe "It's fine, Laia. I'll defeat these low-level monsters quickly."

I already had some spells downloaded just some days after my duel with Dilbert so I had more knowledge about my abilities now. Thanks to the [Oracle Engine].

  I recently learned that in order for me to perform magic spells I need to draw energy from the magicubes in my surroundings as my personal mana wasn't sufficient enough. As such, Scentia is the one who helped measure my mana output and enables my magical abilities.

It was now up to Belitha and yours truly to handle the twelve, "How do we attack something like this that has ultraspeed speed regeneration?" Belitha asked and just as I was about thinking, Scentia informed me of the likely best option, she didn't waste time to get all the information on them [Analytical Appraisal] so it was easy pickings from here.

[>> Heat denatures Polymoprhs to the point of erasure <<]

[>> Suggested Spell: Grand Storm (Tier B) ---> Spell Synthesis of Fire Storm (Tier C) and Grand Conflagration (Tier A/S) <<]

"We'll have to use a fire spell, prepare something good Belitha, we'll take them down at the same time.."

  Because I sounded confident, Belitha didn't see any use in questioning why I chose fire magic specifically, but it had already begun to make sense to her, though she did not express it yet.

We both went on to prepare our respective spells to vanquish the already moving Polymorphs who shot highly acidic based balls at us.

[ Fire Lance ]

  Pointing her finger out, she gathers mana in her body which is converted to magicubes when she did, it projected a magic seal on the tip of her index finger, of the outstretched right arm. The seal rotates at a gradually increasing velocity forming what looked like a flaming and haphazardly rotary spear. She projected it at the Polymorphs with intense speed that overpowered their slime balls completely erasing it as it stretched forward.

[ Grand Storm ]

  First, I formed a three-dimensional magic seal in my open right palm, only very few people can conjure three-dimensional magic seals as they are mostly used to propagate Synthetic Spells. Because they have more mana concentration support than the normal magic seal. My right hand extended and the seal ready to project the spell, a tempestuous rush of fire forcibly releases out of the seal traveling for them at the same time as Belitha's which in turn results in a complete and utter destruction of these monsters. I already noticed that the spell had to destructive power of the Grand Conflagration and the speed of the Fire Storm, the latter being one he learnt from watching Dilbert do it.

"Incredible!"

  No surprise, Laia was amazed. "Geez! It isn't a big deal you know. They weren't as hard as I even thought, thanks to Nyxʼs big brain.." she helps Laia up from the ground.

Meanwhile, I was approaching the target point to see what was left of the Polymorphs, but there was nothing, just scorch marks on the floor.

Shoot. We have to preserve their cores, guess we went a little too far. Just great.

"I can't do anything! I'm sorry, you can just remove me from your party now because I'm slow and dumb... even our classmates seem to think so."

Looking at Laia, all I could see... was me.