Orcus Requiem - Episode 3: The Start to Conquering the Abyss

[ ~ Chapter • Start ~ ]

{ Orcus Great Labyrinth }

{ The Abyss - First Floor }

{ Day 13 }

Satoru stared at the stone that was deep under the ground. He sensed a large room down below, so he did what he would have to do: make a path to it.

So, he just tapped the ground with the tip of his umbrella and sent a pulse of mana to where he desired to go.

After this, the earth lightly rumbled, and a large tunnel was made to create a path to the Divinity Stone and Ambrosia's location.

Due to his action, Eri and a few students approached him to take a look at the path he made which led to a pristine pond which had a really beautiful crystal in the middle of it.

"Woah~! That's so beautiful! Everyone, take a look here!" Yuka yelled out, immediately attracting the attention of most of her classmates.

They all commented about it, though Satoru prevented them from going further.

"That pond of water, and that crystal in the middle of it, is your only chance to survive deep down here," Satoru stated, pointing his umbrella to the edge of the path. "Technically the water on the pond is, but I'll go and handle the stone."

Since Hajime doesn't have both Creation Magic and Metamorphosis Magic yet, it was up to Satoru to create two metallic bottles of water made of both Taur and Stahl Ores, enchanted with the concept of being "Capable of carrying 15 times its volume while being immensely light".

While his students watched, he found immense amounts of mana on the Divine Crystal, which created the ambrosia, as expected.

He picked it up and broke it into large pieces which he put under his coat's inventory space. These will become one of the best materials for his future projects, seeing that they're pretty much of the best quality.

Then, he filled up the bottles with the ambrosia before sealing them tight with the lids and hopped to where his students were.

"Don't mind the crystal, it's going to be turned into your best equipment in the future. Aside from that, this water that I told you that was important, is called the Ambrosia, said to have healing properties equalling that of the highest grade healing spell in this world." Satoru explained while his students listened, before coughing.

"It can cure any disease, even cancer. Do miraculous stuff, but it could not restore lost limbs." He continued, making the most attentive of his students to take note of it.

"Right, no more explanations. Let's prepare to conquer this labyrinth, and we'll start tomorrow! Are you with me!?" He finished loudly, and this caught good reactions from his students.

"Yeah!!!"

"We're all completely prepared, after all!"

"Let's do this!!!"

The students declared loudly, as they were feeling more excited and energized from all the training they all had.

For safety, they all checked their stats using their status plates, not really knowing how much they have grown stronger since almost two weeks ago.

They knew they've all gained new skills, and learnt how to use them by whispering or telling their skills (with some exceptions).

And there were no differences when they noticed most of them had either said skills: [Lightning Clad], [Aerodynamic], [Ground Shrink], [Air Claw] and even [Mana Manipulation].

The fifth one was not that rare, as only Hajime, Kaori, Eri, Ayako, Suzu, and Endou were the only ones who had these.

On another note, they were surprised to have their stats be around 400 to 638 while their Levels jumped up to 47. Hajime was still the weakest, though.

With the ambrosia, they now have a higher survival rate than expected, though some of the students didn't fully believe him at first. Though an event might make them believe his claim, it would happen somewhere in the future.

After that, the group rested after several light sparring sessions.

{ Day 14 }

While they approached the next floor of the Abyss, they were separated into two teams: The Attackers, and the Supports.

It was obvious that the Attackers were the team which were focused on strategized assaults.

And the Supports were focused on casting defensive spells, healing spells, and even supportive attacks (which may come mostly from Hajime).

As they walked deeper into the second floor, Satoru glanced at it with a hidden smile.

"Basilisk! At your nine!" He shouted, and Hajime, reacting swiftly after some of his classmates did, aimed Donner to it before his classmates could cast one spell.

*bang!* *bang!* *bang!*

Three shots, two misses and one clear hit to it's eyes that blew half it's head off. He could still do better, he knows that.

Amazed, Hajime's classmates almost flocked around him, but because they were warned that more monsters would come, they immediately went back to their positions.

Then, by a hidden command from Satoru, more Basilisks revealed themselves from their camouflage, sending the students in a mild disarray.

As expected, most did blame Hajime for alerting the monsters, and through sheer coincidence (not really), Shimizu had been caught in the light of a basilisk.

"What the hell is happening to me?! H-hey, heal me already, please!" He yelled, staring down at his lower body which was already beginning to turn to stone.

"We're trying!" Mao, the Rejuvenist replied as she began chanting a spell with Ayako, a healer like Kaori, to try curing him.

And like that, they were successful in restoring him back to full health, and he immediately sighed in relief and mild fear.

Real battles like this aren't meant to be underestimated, and even Shimizu was always on full alert.

Realizing this, the students became more determined to leave this place alive.

Using teamwork, easily growing experience and combat power, they were all able to clear two floors in under a day, albeit with mild difficulty.

Meanwhile, Satoru was very impressed. He hadn't expected them to work together far more effectively now that their lives are actually at stake.

But, compared to this dungeon, which actually serves only one purpose which is to strengthen and forge those who challenge it, the others actually do different things.

Like showing the atrocity that was done by Ehit, giving the challengers constant stress through extreme heat, clearing a labyrinth with barely the ability to use magic, or even infiltrating the Divine Mountain.

Despite this dungeon being the hardest, Satoru felt that it kinda was underwhelming.

He glanced at Eri, who had been sleeping with her head rested on his lap, and began to contemplate.

She was being very clingy, and it was possible that it was going to become something similar to being a Yandere. And that was definitely no good for him.

Though, something could be done in the future.

[ ~ Chapter • End ~ ]