14: Lost During The Tour

Since Evelyn had the amulet in her possession, she had never felt it react to anything, except when that mysterious woman touched it in her dream. The amulet had always been enigmatic, and she doesn't even know the full extent of its power.

Noticing that it had stopped vibrating, she brought out her left hand that she had been hiding behind her back. Opening her hand, she saw the amulet faintly glowing. She tucked it into the academy uniform she was wearing and composed herself.

When the headmaster concluded the orientation, the students were taken by their homeroom teacher to tour the places and departments mentioned by the headmaster.

Just as they were exiting the hall, Evelyn stole a glance at Mr. Werney, purposefully avoiding direct eye contact. She noticed that he was also hastily leaving the hall. She could feel her heart beating with unease; she had a bad feeling about that man.

—— — ——

Inside the Alchemy and Potion Brewing Department, Mr. Werney hurriedly entered and slammed the door behind him.

'I felt the amulet reacting, just as Queen Hunith said it would when it came within a hundred-mile range of the other one... But why was I unable to find it in the hall? Does it mean the person wearing the other amulet noticed the reaction and went out of range?' he pondered as he went to sit on a chair.

'The other amulet belongs to Leviathan, so, likely, she is here in Rylinth, possibly even within or around this academy. Maybe her daughter is disguised as a student here. I need to speak with Her Majesty.' He placed the thumb of his right hand on his forehead while folding the other fingers and closing his eyes. He mumbled some unintelligible words and then focused for a few seconds.

'Your Majesty, are you there?' Werney telepathically connected with Queen Hunith, who was in Wiccaland.

'How far have you progressed with your mission?' asked a woman's voice in his mind. That was Hunith's voice; the telepathy worked.

'We've successfully infiltrated the academies of the human settlement without being detected. Those human abilities are merely so,' Werney replied, proud of his accomplishment.

'Good. So, anything else?'

'Yes, Your Majesty, a few minutes ago, your amulet vibrated but immediately stopped. I couldn't locate the other one when it abruptly stopped. I don't know if it was your sister who noticed your amulet and moved it out of its range, or if it was her daughter,' Werney, explained the situation to the queen.

'It should be my sister. If she notices her amulet reacting to the one you are wearing. She might be able to disconnect. But at least we know that they are in Rylinth, and her daughter is likely a student at the academy,' the female voice told him, 'Just know that it might also be her daughter who is wearing it. Perhaps my sister cast a spell on it to prevent us from locating her if she had anticipated this... Now, you should focus on finding her daughter as soon as possible. You are doing a good job, Werney'

'Yes, Your Majesty! I will now walk around the academy to see if the amulet will elicit any reaction again,' Werney said as he opened his eyes and lowered his hand.

'I must find her

He left the department room and embarked on a solo tour of the academy, hoping to venture beyond its confines if permitted.

—— — ——

Mr. Zim was the tour guide for Evelyn's class. He had already taken them to various locations and departments within the academy.

Now, they are standing in front of the library department. The students couldn't help but be awed by its enormous size, which stretched as far as three buildings combined. When they got inside, Mr. Zim explained a few things about it.

"The library of the academy is divided into three sections: the outer, middle, and inner sections. The first-year students have access only to the outer section, while the second-year students have access to both the outer and middle sections. The staff members have access to all sections of the library, but only they can access the inner section."

It all made sense now because there were certain books, scrolls, and tomes that should not be accessible to first-year students, let alone second-year students. The collection of Zitherland's top-notch magic scrolls and tomes as a whole.

"Each section is further divided into categories of shelves, which are arranged in rows and columns. Each category contains books on a specific topic or department," Mr. Zim further explained. He allowed the students to walk around the outer section and see as many categories as possible. After that, they left the library and headed towards the final destination of today's tour.

The dungeon and underground prison were located near the woods, just outside the borders of the academy.

They entered the underground prison first, where they observed several students locked up. In the prison, some student prisoners were lying on the ground, exhausted of energy. Some of them watched as the students paced around, their eyes devoid of any emotion, while others on the outer part of the prison still retained some energy.

"Teacher Zim, why is it that some of these prisoners aren't receiving the same strict measures as those who are barely alive?" One of the students, named Aria, in group, asked, still looking at the prisoners.

"You will gain a better understanding after reviewing the rules and regulations. The prison also has its sections. The outermost section is reserved for students who have violated less significant rules and is free from the most severe forms of torture. They may stay in prison for two to four days. But the inner part of it has several punishments for those who break rules that are considered important in the school. One of the tortures is the draining of mana and life force. Those guys lying helplessly on the ground have been drained and will continue to be drained as they replenish their energy, but it won't drain them to death," Mr. Zim explained. The students shuddered in fear when they heard his final explanation. They could vividly imagine the merciless torture that the prisoners were undergoing.

"But why aren't they escaping? I mean, I cannot see any locks on the prison cells," another person chimed in.

"Should we place you there so that we can all witness your escape?" Mr. Zim asked, turning to Derek, the boy with brown hair.

"No, sir!" He retorted, stepping back a few inches away from the teacher.

"Ha, ha, ha... you see, the prison door has no visible lock, but powerful invisible locks are binding the doors... I think we should head to the dungeons now. We shouldn't spend too much time here," said their teacher, unable to contain his laughter.

After exploring the prison, they emerged on the surface and made their way towards the dungeon, which was located directly opposite the underground prison.

"Now, this is the entrance to the dungeon," said Mr. Zim, pointing at what looked like the mouth of a cave. However, it was completely different from a cave. It was like a massive natural tunnel running underground, leading to an unknown destination.

"Does anyone want to give it a try?" Mr. Zim asked. But this caused the students to step back from him, afraid of the nightmares lurking within the dungeon.

"Anyway, no one is entering the dungeons today. Just know that it is not very dangerous, at least in the first few levels of the dungeon. This dungeon has twelve levels. The first level contains the weakest mana beasts, while the last level houses the strongest monster beasts," Mr. Zim explained to his students, who were now relieved upon hearing that they wouldn't be going in there.

"Monster beasts?" Most of the students shouted, their voices betraying the fear they were trying to conceal.

"Yeah, monster beasts. But you will only encounter monster beasts starting from level eight. You will soon learn more about the classification of these beasts, which include: mana beasts, monster beasts, spirit beasts, tamed beasts, and demon beasts. But that should be when your classes resume," said Mr. Zim.

"You see, Evelyn. I am confident enough to defeat the beasts in level two, and I might even succeed in annihilating the level three beasts," claimed Zoya.

"..."

"Do you always enjoy giving me the cold shoul..." Zoya couldn't finish her sentence when she glanced beside her and realized that Evelyn wasn't there anymore. She searched for her among the students but couldn't find her there.

"Hey, Elvis. You are Evelyn's brother, right?" Zoya approached Elvis, who was whispering to Cedric.

"Uhmm, yeah," he replied.

"Did you see Evelyn here?" asked Zoya.

"No, I didn't. I thought you were always with her," Elvis replied, craning his neck to locate his sister among the group of students. But he failed.

"Yeah, she is always quiet, so I don't know when she went out. I will look for her," she said, walking away from the group in search of Evelyn.

"Cedric, I am leaving to look for her as well," Elvis said, heading towards the underground prison, with Cedric following behind.