Chapter 14: The Lost Paradise

"Man, I'm worn out now," Akira said, tired after the endless slaughter of monsters.

"You only fought them for 30 minutes. If you can't last longer than 4 hours of fighting, how do you expect to face the bigger monsters?" Lumina explained as she hid inside Akira.

"Give me a break, I'm still learning how to use sword magic, Lumina," Akira said as he sat on the floor.

"You're still not able to maintain the mana inside the sword for very long. At this rate, we still have a long way to go, master," Lumina explained.

"When will you compliment me for once? You should pull your weight too!" Akira said, letting out a sigh.

"As a Seraphic, I've done a lot of things for you already! You should be grateful that I'm even teaching you things!" Lumina shouted in a friendly way.

"Anyways, I'm hungry. What should we do?" Akira asked Lumina, expecting a plan.

Lumina appeared out of thin air in front of Akira and walked over to the goblins to observe the dead goblin's body.

"We could harvest their meat and eat it," Lumina suggested.

"W-what?! No way!" Akira said, disgusted.

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad!" Lumina explained as she started to cut the stomach open with her magical fingers. "If we're going to try and get out, then we have to do whatever we can," she explained as she began to harvest the flesh.

"I guess we have no choice," Akira said as he started to set up a campfire to settle down.

After a few hours of harvesting and gathering, Akira and Lumina sat down next to each other on the ground.

"So, do you have anyone waiting for you back on the surface?" Lumina asked Akira.

"No, afraid not. I don't have family members, but there is this one friend, her name is Risa," Akira explained.

"S-sorry, I didn't know that you had no family. But I'm the same too, but I guess all Seraphics don't have family anyway," Lumina explained.

"Seraphics don't have family? What do you mean?" Akira asked her, looking at her with a concerned face.

"From what I know, Seraphics are just powerful tools to be used. In truth, I actually lived in a town full of Seraphics high in the sky. We called it The Lost Paradise, home of the Seraphics," Lumina explained.

She let out a sigh. "But unfortunately, some human attacked all of us, and I still remember the Seraphic villagers getting slaughtered and enslaved. I was still a kid, so I didn't know what happened other than someone threw me off the island, and I luckily landed in a pond of water. That's when I was saved by my first master," Lumina explained.

She clenched her hands together, embracing her sad story.

"My master wasn't the best; he had a loving wife and he was also so kind and loving. Until she passed away, and my previous master lost it. He basically enslaved me to do whatever he wanted me to do; I was also punished and injured when I didn't listen, and eventually, he started to use my power for evil. So I fled and broke the soul bound that I pledged to, and now I find myself stuck down here with a new master," Lumina explained as she stared into the fire.

"I'm sorry; you must have been through a lot, Lumina," Akira said as he leaned over to hug her tightly.

Lumina teared up a bit but hugged him back and closed her eyes while smiling.

Meanwhile, on the surface....

A group of students in black clothing gathered in front of the blocked entrance of the cave that had collapsed.

They were all S-rank students sent to find Akira and either retrieve his corpse if he was killed or save him. S-rank students are sent on dungeon expeditions that went terribly wrong to save anyone left behind.

"Listen up! A student was said to be stuck down in the cave, but we have no clue if the kid's even alive. So we will go in there and find his corpse at least if he's dead! Understood!" the leader yelled, and all 10 students shouted, ready to find Akira.

After a few minutes, one of the students punched the giant rocks covering the entrance and managed to clear the way, sending shards of rocks towards the monsters feeding off other monsters, killing them instantly.

The 10 students entered the cave and started to explore. They all went into groups of 2 and explored all the pathways of the dungeons.

Far away on a high cliff, a strange man in a red hooded cloak watched as they all entered the cave.

"So this is what Arcania students are capable of?" the strange man said, revealing a magical red card in his right hand as he turned away and walked off without anyone noticing the man thousands of feet away.

To Be Continued...