Chapter 22

 ".... -sama"

A faint voice was heard.

"Rain-sama"

The voice became clearer.

"Hmm?"

The window at the side was opened. A bright sunlight and cool breeze flowed into the room.

I slowly raise my body while rubbing my blurry eyes.

"Rain-sama, you finally wake up"

"Mari, huh"

"Rain-sama, it's almost noon"

Mari pointed at the clock that was hanging on the walls.

"10:34? It's pretty late"

I muttered softly.

Last night, I went to fish in the lake because my dinner was quite frustrating. I was planning to catch some fish and grill it, but met with Claudia. Thanks to that, I had the chance to introduced myself and talked to her. After that, I escorted her back and met with Irina then went fishing until around 3 a.m. 

I don't know if it was because she hadn't entered the villainess route yet, but Claudia was different from what I know. Back in the game, she seemed to keep a distance from other people as if she was putting a wall around her. However, she was willing to talked to me last night. Maybe because I'm Irina's little brother?

I recalled what happened last night while waiting for my body to get enough strength to fully wake up.

Mari went to prepare breakfast while I washed my face.

A simple breakfast of toast with poached egg, bacon and cheese with mustard and chilly sauce. The moment I took a bite, the crunchy, savory and creamy flavors with a little bit of sweetness and spice spreads inside my mouth. As breakfast, it was enough to fill my stomach.

I drank cold lemon tea to clear my mouth. The sweetness and sourness refreshed my mind. Thankfully, it seemed Mari had returned to normal. I thought I was going to have salt as my breakfast.

I shook my head as I recalled my dinner last night and breathed a sigh of relief.

I stood up and stretched my body then left the room.

"Mari, I'm going"

"Take care, Rain-sama"

The academy gave the students the freedom to attend class. The students were only required to attend class 3 times per week and have the freedom to spend the rest of the time.

Usually the noble students uses their time to strengthen their connections, while the commoner students usually uses their time to train or attending the lectures to raise their grades. Those who aim the top grades never skipped lectures. Of course, if they failed to meet the requirement grades then they will be expelled.

In this academy, there are two ways to earn grades. The first one is by attending lectures and do well academically, while the second is exploring dungeon.

I don't want to study hard and repeat what I did back on earth in my second life. So, exploring the dungeon is way easier because I have the knowledges from the game and with my strength it's easy to aim for average grades.

I went to the garden to meet with Lucia. Yesterday, I promised to help her get stronger so she have enough strength to protect herself and so we made plan to explore the dungeon today.

Most students were still at classes, so the academy feels like it became more spacious. When I arrived at the garden, Lucia was sitting on her knees under the tree.

"Lucia"

I called her name.

"Rain!"

She looked at me with a smile.

"Did I make you wait?"

"Yes, you did"

She was pouting. It seems like she waited for quite a while. Her cheeks bloated like a small ball. I know I shouldn't say this, but her cheeks looked like a hamster. It made me want to pinch it.

"As apologize, I have presents for you"

"What is it? Are you trying to bribes me?"

Lucia looked at me with excited eyes.

I took out some items from my magic bag.

＜Crystal Staff＞

A staff made out from magic crystal and blessed by the fairy.

INT + 30

AGI - 10

MP + 50

＜Ring of Intelligence＞

A ring that enchant the wearers magic.

INT +10

"Here, take this"

I gave her my unused magic-tier equipments and some potions. I still have some items, but I don't want to empowered her too much because she might lost the experience to growth.

"What is this? Why are you giving me a ring? Are you proposing to me?"

Lucia blushed and looked at my presents with curious eyes.

"Yes! Will you accept it?"

I teased her for a bit.

"W-We can't! I-It's only been less than a week since we met! G-Give me time to think about it"

Lucia was flustered. She used her hands to hide her face. Her ears were red in shame.

How cute! Her panicked expression was so cute! Ah, not good! I have to calm down!

"I was joking! As you can see, since we're going to explore the dungeon we have to gear ourselves. Both this staff and ring can strengthen your magic"

"I see. Rain you jerk"

Lucia looked a bit lost and then pouted.

"Sorry"

I patted her head as I apologized. She extended her hand in return.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I thought you were going to give me sweets..."

She looked a bit dejected.

Really? We're going to the dungeon and you still think about sweets?

I was speechless. Although it's better than getting nervous.

"Here"

I gave her some candies. Her eyes lit up the moment she saw sweets.

"Here, hold the staff"

"It's quite heavy, but I feel like my mana becomes more active when I hold it"

Well, it gives 30 INT while having AGI -10 as penalty after all.

"Of course, it's a magic weapon after all. Besides, you will get used to it after a while"

"Thank you, Rain"

She bowed her head.

"It's nothing, we're friend after all. Also please wear the ring properly. It would be bad if you dropped it when fighting monsters"

"Okay!"

Lucia saluted her hand at me.

∆ ∆ ∆

"Trials of Beginner" was the first dungeon in  the game "War of Generations". As the name said, it was a dungeon that served as a training ground for the players to get used to the game battle system. There were only 7 floors in total.

In other words, a tutorial dungeon.

According to history, more than 500 years ago the "Trials of the Beginner" was originally a labyrinth. There used to be more than 20 Floors in total. The one who owned this place was originally a monster with a huge body and the face of a bull who wielded a huge axe.

Also known as minotaur.

The minotaur was also known as the boss amongst the elite monsters that spawned at mid-game ranging from level 55-70.

It has high physical defense and magic defense with high physical attack.

The minotaur was defeated around 400 years ago and the Laurasia Kingdom took this dungeon ever since then and built the academy above it 300 years ago.

Time passed by and the magic crystals inside were becoming less and less due to being mined for centuries making the magic power inisde the dungeon became weaker until it become the current "Trial of Beginner".

Right now, I'm currently inside the dungeon with Lucia. Normally, there would be a lot of people who dive inside the dungeon. However, since it was still the first week of school, there aren't many people who visit this place.

The students were given the freedom to explore up to the 3rd floors. However, they need to get permissions from a professor if they want to go to the 4th floors.

As far as I remembered, The first three floors have monsters between level 7-18. With the staff and ring that I gave her, Lucia should be around level 24 or 25 in terms of stats.

Strictly speaking, she should be safe under the 6th floor. However, that only works back in the game.

In the game, no matter what kind of attack you received from lower level monsters, you won't get killed instantly because of the differences in stats. On the contrary, in reality even if you have higher stats than the enemy, if your head was pierced or cut off then it's instant death. Unless you have super regeneration skill close to immortality.

"Lucia, I sense some monsters around 100m away. Do you want to try to deal it alone?"

"Yes. I want to test my magic power"

"Alright. I will lead them here so prepare yourself"

I left to kite the monsters after saying so. Soon, I saw 3 rats were eating a small monster corpse. They were around 1m in size.

"So disgusting"

I concentrated my mana on my finger and shot mana bullets at them. I only used a small amount of mana just to harrass them.

"Kiiii!"

They looked at me with hostility after they mana bullets hit them.

"Come and chase me!"

I shot another bullets and raise my middle finger at them.

"Kiiiii!!!"

They were enraged because I disturbed their meals and taunted them.

I ran back to Lucia while keeping my distance.

"Lucia, they are coming!"

I shouted loudly.

"Understood!"

Lucia hold the staff with both hand and her mana began to surged.

The moment Lucia saw the rats, she quickly pointed her staff at them.

"Forest Prison!"

Bright green light began to shine on the ground. In the next moment, tree roots came out of the ground and attacked them

The rats were surrounded by the roots and trapped. In less than 5 seconds, the roots tightened and strangled them into pieces.

Chunks of meat, bones, guts and blood splattered and covered the roots.

It seemed like she was a druid. It was a rare class as there was only one druid in the protagonist party back in the game.

Druid could heal and give buff to raise the party power or use crowd control skills to limit the enemy movements. Druid have higher magic and physical defense than Priest, so they could sustain damage as a semi-tank or a crowd controlled depending on the build. 

As expected of the descendant of the high-priestess who served the Goddess of Life.

"Lucia, next time please kill them without exploding their body. It looked disgusting"

"Y-Yeah. I never thought my magic power was that strong. Usually, the roots would just trapped the enemy"

Lucia said with a flustered expression.

"Don't let your guard down just because the staff makes your magic stronger. If they get close and rip your throat, it would be your death"

"I will keep it in mind.... Rain, you don't seem to be disturbed by this scene"

Lucia looked at me with a pale pace.

"You will get used to it after you see it ten more times"

I patted her head and encouraged her.

"Next time, please use your offense magic and also please control your magic power properly so as not to waste your mana"

"Alright"

Lucia nodded.

I still remembered the dungeon layout from the map back in the game. Although the scale was different, the layout was still the same.

Back in the game, the monsters were spawned randomly on the map. However, now I have to find them manually. Thanks to my experiences in exploring the "Abyss of the Clouds Tower" alone, my hunting skills were polished to a certain degree.

"I sensed a monster nearby"

"Where?"

"Around 120 meters away on the west side. This time you will go to hunt it instead of me luring it here. It's stronger than before,  but I'm sure you can defeat it as long as you're not careless"

"Can't you bring it to me?"

Lucia looked at me with hopeful eyes.

"Sorry, but no"

I rejected her request firmly. It's not that I don't want to help her, but she needs to accumulate experiences as much as she could before the monster invasion began.

"I will rewards you with chocolate cake if you did well"

"Okay!"

Her eyes lit up and she ran towards the monster's location.

I quickly followed behind to watch over her. Soon, the identity of the monster was confirmed. It was a big rat around 2m in size.

"Forest Prison!"

The tree roots came out from the ground and attack the big rat. The big rat was startled and went berserk. It cut the roots that were aiming at him because the magic power on the roots was not as strong as earlier. However, he couldn't cut everything in one fell swoop.

Lucia's gathered her mana on her staff and launched a spell.

"Forest Spear!"

The tree roots began to fusion and changed it's form into a spear.

"Pierce it!"

With Lucia command, the tree roots stabbed the big rat on it's heart leaving and left a huge hole on it's body.

"Kiiiii!"

The big rat let out a painful roar and tried to pulled the roots out of it's body. However, another roots pierced it's head and it died instantly.

After confirming that it was dead, Lucia turned her head an looked at me.

"How is it, Rain?"

Lucia asked nervously. Her face was a bit pale.

"Amazing! Although you still leave a mess behind, it was still great nevertheless"

"Really?"

"Yes. It seems the monster here doesn't pose any challenge for you. Let's head to the 2nd floor"

"Okay!"

Note : I recently joined a group and will be posting my novel on their website. Still will update here too but advance chapters will be put there instead.

https://zetrotranslation.com/novel/tales-of-a-reincarnated-mob/