Chapter 11

Caera Denoir POV

It's been almost three of years since we started adventuring. At first I didn't believe at what Noah said, that Arthur/Note was the person we're tasked to look for. Since the high sovereign said that we're looking for, is a boy that's a year younger than us and a Quadra-elemental mage.

Since Arthur/Note was only a water augmenter and deviant on ice I give up thinking it was him, but Noah keep insisting that it was him. But as the Time passed, Arthur begin to trust us and told us he had an affinity to all of the elements and their higher forms.

During This three years of our adventures. All of us became close towards each other and became strong, both Arthur and Noah make a break through, and was now both a white core.  Jasmine just recently broke through and now a high-silver core, and I was at the peak of solid-yellow core. Both Noah and Arthur was still using a concealer though.

Arthur/Note with concealer is an initial-silver core While Noah is at the solid-yellow core.

Arthur Also told us that he was also going attend the Xyrus Academy the same year with us.

Noah and Arthur also agreed that the both of them will enter the academy at the light-yellow core.

Noah and I also met the famous twin horns, and they are all strong as they say almost all of them was at the high -silver core. I met them when Jasmine was still at the mid-silver core.

Currently jasmine and I are outside the dragonspine inn waiting for those two to come out.

"Jasmine wanna make a bet?" I ask as Jasmine look at me confused.

"About what?"

" We will make a bet if those two will cause a trouble, or not." I responded. " I will bet that they will."

Jasmine just sighed and said. "Okay, I chose the latter."

After a few minutes both note and Noah came out, I noticed a blood stain on note mask signifying my win.

"Looks like I won." I said before walking to meet the two. Jasmine just sigh before following me.

Arthur Leywin POV

It's almost been three years since I started being an adventurer, and since I meet my two friends.

I along with Noah also became an AA-Class, and Caera was now an A-Class.

We also became close towards each other, we started treating each other's like siblings.

We are currently on our way, for our last dungeon dive, we all agreed that our last dungeon to be less stressful.

"We're here," Jasmine announced, snapping me out of my thoughts. At her signal, the four of us brought our horses to a slow trot into a small clearing in the woods.

The clearing that was surrounded by tall trees, and where the dungeon entrance was located, was littered with a group of adventurers clearing their camp, some checking their weapons as they got ready to go in.

"I guess we're stuck with more augmenters," an all-too-familiar voice rang as he clicked his tongue. Getting off of my mount, I made my way towards the group of adventurers when the blond fire conjurer from the examination site shot me a distasteful look. Jasmine, Noah and Caera followed behind me as an armored augmenter stepped forth and held out his hand in front of him, gesturing for a shake.

"Please don't mind Lucas and let me introduce you to the party. My name is Reginald Brooks, and I'm an A-class augmenter. I am an earth attribute yellow stage core that specializes in using a hammer." He pointed at the giant warhammer lying on the ground where the group stood.

Studying Reginald, the man had short, messy brown hair that matched his eyes. His square jaw that was covered in a thick beard, coupled with his near-two- meter height and broad shoulders made for a very intimidating man.

The augmenters in the group, excluding the four of us, consisted of Reginald, Kriol, and Brald. Kriol was a very defensive, water attribute augmenter that only wielded a gigantic shield as his weapon. He was a head shorter than Reginald with a large belly that indicated the man loved his beer by the barrel. I could tell he was strong, though, by how firm his body was overall, despite his belly that squeezed out of his armor.

Brald was a very noble-looking man that stood just a bit shorter than Reginald. He wore a white, metal armor that covered his shoulders and chest only, with a luxurious mantle flowing behind him. With trimmed blond hair and sharp, hazel eyes, he seemed like a real lady-killer. To my surprise, he was a real gentleman and offered us handshakes and a rather innocent smile.

"I go by Brald and just became an AA-class, light yellow stage augmenter. I am a fire attribute augmenter that specializes in the broadsword and shield. I'll be the one to lead us today." He beamed, shying away after meeting eyes with Jasmine.

After the augmenters introduced themselves, the conjurers stepped up. Including Lucas, there were four other conjurers. One of them was a lanky man and the other, a girl, while the last one was the serious-looking, bespectacled black-haired boy that I had seen at the examination site.

What was his name again...?

"My name is Elijah Knight. A-class, dark orange stage conjurer... single specialization in Earth," he said tersely.

I couldn't help but eye him carefully. There had to be more than that. He wouldn't be able to get by with skipping the exam and being placed into B rank by just being an earth conjurer, no matter how young he was.

The beady-eyed lanky man that looked well into his thirties came forth next. He had a smug look on his face despite his less than attractive appearance, with his crooked nose and greasy brown hair parted down the middle. "Ahem! I go by Oliver and I am an A-class, dark yellow stage conjurer. I am an emitter deviant, specializing in healing." He stuck his jaw out smugly as he crossed his arms in content.

Despite his attitude, it was reassuring to have a healer in the party.

"Hi! My name is Samantha but you guys can just call me Sammy! Dark yellow stage, A-class conjurer with a single specialization in water at your service!" She threw in a wink in my direction. Samantha looked to be around her mid-twenties and was an attractive woman but by her attitude, I'm sure she was aware. She had wavy blond hair that flowed down her shoulders and light blue eyes that looked almost grey. Her eyes were big and round; making her look deceivingly innocent, and her petite height complimented that fact well. The girl constantly swayed her hips as she switched the leg she was putting her weight on, attracting sideway glances from the men nearby; Oliver was especially engrossed.

" Jasmine, high-silver stage, AA-class augmenter. Wind attribute with dual swords,"

" Noah Wilson, solid-yellow stage, AA-Class augmenter. Earth and fire attributes with spear."

" Caera Denoir, solid-yellow stage, A-Class augmenter. Fire attribute with long sword."

They introduce themselves without batting an eye.

" Note, initial-silver stage, AA-Class augmenter, water attribute and ice deviant with specialization in sword." I added impatiently.

Brald smiled at us, "Welcome, you two! I'm certainly glad to have three more AA-class in the group!" The other two augmenters nodded in agreement while Oliver apathetic faces showed he didn't care. The same couldn't be said at. Lucas I can see him muttering something, putting some mana at my ears I then hear him cursing under his breath about how a lowly commoner had a higher rank than him.

When asked for an introduction by Brald, Lucas practically spat out that he was a fire- specialized conjurer who was at dark yellow stage. Through all of this, Elijah kept his stone face while I was already beginning to grow annoyed by the constant glances Samantha shot at me, trying to look through the mask somehow.

"We should head out immediately," Brald declared. He assumed the position as the leader since he was the front line.

This dungeon was deemed AA class, meaning parties with only A class and above were allowed to enter. Brald recently found out that there was a hidden tunnel that led to an unexplored portion of the dungeon, which we would be going into today; this meant that most of our dungeon-exploring would be through uncharted areas. Everyone unsheathed their weapons while even the conjurers wiped their smug expressions as we stepped into the dungeon named by the first explorers: "The Dire Tombs."

This dungeon had been cleared—or at least it was, until Brald had discovered the hidden passage—but never defeated.

"We're approaching the first level of the dungeon, stay on guard. The mana beasts here aren't strong, but there'll be a lot of them. Don't waste your time trying to collect the mana cores from the beasts...they don't have one," Brald declared, lowering his stance.

I heard a faint muttering from Oliver, our healer, who was already beginning to complain about the lack of rewards from this dungeon.

Suddenly, a steady growl filled the dungeon hall.

Narrowing my eyes, I focused on the source of the sound. We had just reached the end of the descending passage and into an underground cave no larger than fifty meters in diameter. Looking around, the whole cave was glowing in a dim, blue color. Above us, the cave was covered in stalactites, threatening us with their sharp, gleaming tips.

Out from the spaces between the stalactites fell two dozen mana beasts that looked like large bats, except with four limbs replacing what normally would've been wings. The hollow body of the bat-like mana beasts had their ribs fully visible and inside it, where the beast core should've been, was a cracked rock.

"Batrunners! They're not strong but they attack in groups. Minimizing the use of our mana is going to be the key inside this dungeon! Get ready!" Brald roared over the growling of the batrunners, all of whom were positioned to pounce, their patches of fur standing on end and their teeth bared.

"Form and torment the foes around! Fire Cyclone!" I heard a yell from behind me and I realized it was Lucas who had casted the spell.

Suddenly, four twisters of fire swirled to life around us, filling the cavern with a wave of heat.

As the fiery cyclones spread out, sharp yelps and pained whimpers echoed from the mana beasts.

Many of the batrunners had been engulfed by the fire tornadoes and were charred to ashes. The ones that were fortunate enough to escape the tornadoes had fled, trying to circle around and attack us.

I could hear Brald click his tongue, dissatisfied that Lucas had just ignored his orders and casted a spell that wasn't necessary.

The fire cyclones had killed most of the batrunners and the ones left had been badly burned, making it easy to defeat the rest.

"Next time, follow orders and don't waste mana like that. Your spell was overkill," Brald growled over his shoulder before marching ahead.

Lucas just rolled his eyes, "I don't see the problem. We killed them fast enough so that everyone else could save their mana."

Shaking his head, Brald ushered us forward to the other end of the cave. As we continued forward to the location of the next room, the rather sickening sound of bones crunching and flesh gurgling made us all turn our heads back.

To my surprise and disgust, the batrunners that had just been killed began to reanimate, their bodies snapping into place as the ones that had been burned just seemed to rise up again from their ashes.

Dire Tombs...What an unfortunately fitting name for this dungeon.

We chose to ignore them and advanced into the next room while Elijah quietly casted an earthen wall over the entrance so that the batrunners couldn't follow us.

The opening on the other side of the cave led us through another dark corridor just wide enough for four people to go through at once.

I could tell everyone was a bit more relaxed upon leaving the first cave but I couldn't shake an uneasy feeling.

As if to answer me, a barely-discernable click and faint whistle caught my attention.

I immediately drew my sword and sidestepped in front of Samantha.

My shortsword blurred as I instinctively parried the projectiles aimed towards Samantha, the sharp ring of metal on metal echoing through the dim corridor.

"Th-Thank you..." Samantha muttered mindlessly. Even under the dim blue lighting, I could tell that her face had paled as the metal spikes that almost killed her landed on the ground, harmlessly, beside her feet.

"Something's wrong...there were no traps last time." Brald picked up one of the pointed spikes to study it but was baffled.

"I don't think they were traps but strategically placed mana beasts, which doesn't make the situation better," I said, noticing the faint scuttle of the small beasts on the walls.

"Stay alert, everyone," Brald said, kicking the spikes to the side. Jasmine already had her twin daggers guarding her vitals before Noah, Caera, Reginald and Kriol readied their weapons. Samantha inched a bit closer to me, her hand pinching my sleeve as her free hand gripped tightly at her wand.

Fortunately, we reached the end of the hall with no other traps deterring us. The next cave was similar to the previous cave, but twice the size and littered with suspicious holes all over the ground.

"Don't get near the holes. They're geysers that shoot extremely hot streams of gas up. It should be fine as long as you're not in direct proximity of the blast," Brald announced as we all looked for any signs of mana beasts.

As if on cue, the cave trembled, shaking the sharp stalactites overhead to a nerve-wracking degree. Forcing my attention from the wobbling spikes, a large figure erupting from the ground.

"Was that here last time, Brald?" the pot-bellied Kriol asked in a worrying tone as we all peered up at the mana beast.

The creature resembled a worm, except it was thick enough to easily swallow any one of us here, whole. With a glowing red hide and countless rows of teeth encircling the hole that I assumed was the mouth, it was impossible to guess how long this creature was since its body was still mostly underground.

"N-No, it wasn't—I don't get what's happening. It doesn't make sense for new mana beast species to enter a dungeon like this." Our handsome leader had a wavering look, his mask of confidence all but gone.

"Cheh. It's not a big deal. It's just an oversized insect," Lucas quipped from behind.

We braced ourselves for its strike, but to our surprise, the gigantic red worm didn't attack us. Instead, the beast burrowed back underground, leaving in its path another gaping hole.

"It doesn't seem to be after us," muttered Elijah while his sharp, bespectacled eyes studied the hole the giant worm had left.

The red worm-beast was now burrowing itself into the walls of the cave, creating more holes from all different angles, but it never confronted us.

"Are we just going to stand around watching the worm dig or are we going to go?" Oliver, our lanky emitter, shoved Brald out of the way, fearlessly taking the lead as he strode towards the other end of the cave.

It was obvious not just to me, but to everyone else that Oliver's brazen attitude was to show off in front of a certain party member.

"Get back here! We need to assess what's happening before we go across!" Brald barked, his face furrowed in agitation at the arrogance displayed by the conjurers. As our leader stepped forward to go after him, a thundering rumble shook as the entire cavern fizzed with the sound of a boiling kettle.

"Lucas! Heatwave Barrier, now!" I roared at the confused, blonde noble.

Just as I yelled out the command, fumes began filling the cavern.

The holes. The holes that were here since the beginning and the holes littered across the ground, roof, and walls made by the giant worm all trembled before released a fiery torrent of deadly gas.

"Damn it," I cursed. The giant worm was making the holes in order to kill us, and we just let it happen.

I managed to pull Brald, who was just at arm's length of me, back in before he had the chance to run after Oliver.

Just as the barrier was erected, a blast of a mustard-yellow gas bombarded us. Lucas's barrier trembled against the pressure but Samantha managed to gather her wits in time to help him out with a water barrier of her own just beneath Lucas's.

The two barriers of opposing elements sizzled, making the area inside the spell a makeshift sauna. Despite the crude teamwork, however, the barrier held, leaving us sweating but intact, until the blast of gas began to subside.

However, due to the strength of the gaseous blasts that filled the cavern, I lost sight of our idiot healer.

As both Lucas and Samantha released their barriers with stifled breaths, I then saw our stupid healer with Noah.

It seems like Noah also predicted on what about to happen, and saved him knowing it will be troublesome if our healer died.

" Are you an stupid or something? You're our healer and you were to follow us behind not to lead us! If we didn't predicted what was to happen you are dead right now!" Noah roared at Oliver who have a pale face after a near death experience.

" Noah that's enough! And Oliver you should've listen to the orders starting from now. Let's move out!" I ordered as everyone nodded their heads.