End of the semester

The dungeon supervisor of Imp's Castle has been busy in the last two month since the dungeon was captured. When all the monsters in a dungeon is killed, it closes until enough mana is recovered to create more monsters. This was a problem since none of the staff or the adventurers could enter until it has completely recovered. It made the investigations they needed to conduct impossible. There was also the issue of all the adventurers who were hoping to raid the dungeon. Because of this, the town surrounding Imp's Castle is almost abandoned.

The biggest issue of all was kept secret and was primarily the reason why the dungeon supervisor has been overwhelmed with work recently. After a complete dungeon capture, it usually takes approximately a week for Imp's Lair to recover and respawn. At which point, it would open its doors. It has now been over a month and the dungeon has yet to open. Something was clearly wrong and they couldn't enter to investigate. He removed his white suit jacket and plowed through the mounting paperwork in front of him.

Rhald has finally completed the last of his classes. This meant that he was now an unofficial Grand Magician. The king bestows the official title to the graduates and that would mostly likely happen along the awarding ceremony that Principal Dragnar talked about. He was sitting atop a helipad looking over the white buildings of the Capital. He was so deep in thought that he didn't realize Althea quietly sneaking right next to him. It wasn't until she spoke his name that he turned around to see her there.

Thea said nothing as she sat next to him and leaned over to rest her head on his shoulders. He slowly holds her hand without a word and they sat there for a while.

The twins have slowly returned to their cheery state since they found out that they were allowed to stay at the academy. With Lest's lessons, Terrick has now reached master level in Music magic. He will complete his Music magic class within a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Vane and Bryce have continued their sparring sessions. Bryce has finally been able to defeat Vane which was a big accomplishment as the latter is now considered one of the top five strongest students in the academy.

Despite the tension between Bryce and Rhald dissipating after the events of the Imp's Castle dungeon capture, the former still harbored to be the best and strongest. This meant that Bryce hoped to one day best Rhald in a fight, which seems to be a long ways from happening based on the last time they had a friendly fight. Rhald had grown tired of Bryce incessantly bothering him to a match that Rhald finally gave in. Witnessed by their five friends, Bryce lost within 10 seconds. This only seemed to motivate Bryce to work harder though. Now that he can defeat Vane, his power was now almost at the same level as the top five students.

Almost.

Bryce was glad to see that his battle prowess has bridged the gap between him and his friends. However, Bryce knew all too well that this was merely a temporary fix until he found someone who could teach him how to use his Dark element. He has been tacitly frustrated to see his friends grow their magic and leave him in the dust. He could feel that his Dark element has been growing but he doesn't know how to focus its power due to how little he knows about its application and potential.

Ellie's talent for Healing and Sciences bloomed even more. She excels and outperforms everyone in every class she was in. She was now considered as the Healing Ice Priestess of the Magical Healing Arts department. This combined with her newly minted reputation as a Perfect Water magician meant that she was a prodigy twice over. In a school full of gifted and talented magicians, this was an incredible feat. In fact, she was leading a school field trip for new Healing magicians tomorrow.

Two dungeon guards were posted at the entry of the Imp's Castle. The dungeon door has not activated in a while so the two were busy discussing what they should have for lunch. A blue rune softly glowed at the base of the pillar that one of them was leaning against. Then, three more until finally all the runes lit up brightly. One of the guards noticed and began to run. They were instructed to tell the dungeon supervisor as soon as the dungeon opened.

Just then, the dungeon portal opens.