Pillar Of Light

"Of course. I wouldn't be able to sniff my darling from here."

"…"X3

Hahh… let's just get this over with.

********

Despite the initial start of our adventure, the journey through the caverns was relatively smooth. The girls were somewhat well-behaved, with some slight bickering mainly from Seph and Scarlett.

It seemed Seph was upset about Scarlett taking my first time, or that it was supposed to be her that I was supposed to have sex with. But regardless, our pace toward the exit was pretty quick.

Seph being the goddess and one of the ones in charge of handling these so-called recruitments helped greatly with navigating through.

Although we still ended up fighting some more kobolds, I let the girls handle them on their own. The team consisted of Seph at the front, Laura in the middle, and Miya at the back.

Scarlett was on standby saying that she alone can clear this whole dungeon. I didn't dispute her words considering the flick she gave me nearly knocked my head on the floor. But Seph didn't take that too nicely so she compromised that she, Laura, and Miya can handle it.

I can't interfere since I'm clearly overpowered and Gwen was being Gwen. She didn't really want to fight unless need be, so they left her to my side.

Although I can't help but worry since Seph doesn't have her powers, she can only rely on her knowledge and her strength but turns out she's also pretty adept at martial arts, making her the lead dps of the group.

Even though she's able to fight considerably, I was slightly worried that they might still get hurt, but they proved me wrong.

Laura helped on the side, her expertise in martial arts still shining through, being able to dismantle incoming kobolds and send them to Seph to finish off was very efficient.

Miya also helped by throwing rocks, distracting the kobolds momentarily while Seph would do the rest.

Watching them fight so efficiently and with relative ease somewhat made me feel proud of them. Granted I didn't do anything about their teamwork, but simply seeing my girls cooperate as a team rather than fighting each other, I mean who wouldn't be happy about that?

Continuing on, we finally reached where we were supposed to be.

Seph explained to us that the caverns are much like a tower. Our goal is to make our way down to the lowest floor, where a boss room would be located. She also told us that the main objective of this trial is to let everyone get used to their abilities and the new environment they're in.

I'm guessing everyone else might be struggling a little bit, considering they don't have someone like Seph, but apparently, they should be fine because the system is helping them along the way.

With Seph being with us, it seems the system deemed her as the guide and helper, thus is why our system doesn't function as it would normally would.

With everything explained I couldn't help but have more questions than answers.

Like, who made the system?

And how many places are there like this?

I asked Seph about my questions and she didn't seem to want to answer, or more so she can't.

I don't know why she can't tell me, but seeing her slightly worried, I didn't push through any further.

Regardless of whether there are other labyrinths or not, we finally made it to the exit. Or more so the boss chamber.

"Wow. That's a big door."-Gwen

"Don't worry, the boss inside should only be a kobold chief. They're relatively similar to normal kobolds, however, they're twice the size and they have double the stats."-Seph

"I'll handle this then."

"No. You've seen us fight. We can also handle it. Plus we've leveled up along the way, we're stronger than before."-Laura

"Un. I also gained a new skill."-Miya

Miya held her hand in front of her and a blue ball of fire floated on her palm.

"Woah! It's blue!"-Gwen

"I-I think it must've been my Alchemist class."-Miya

"I also got one!"

Laura held her hands out and her skin turned obsidian-colored, seemingly transparent and as strong as obsidian.

"Look! My skin is indestructible!"

Laura had an excited smile on her face, but I was still unwilling for them to fight alongside me.

"Luke, we'll be fine. We're stronger than you think."-Seph

"Yeah, and if need be I can also help."-Scarlett

Seph vouched for their skills and Scarlett was confident in her abilities. Although I haven't seen Scarlett act at all, I can somewhat believe that she's at least stronger than me.

"Fine, but if anything happens, I won't forgive myself if one of you gets seriously injured understood?"

"Un"-Miya

"Yeaah."-Laura

"Don't worry."-Seph

"Let's go!"-Gwen

"Fufu~"-Scarlett

"Hahh* alright, let's head in then."

We made our way in front of the large door. Intricate carvings decorated the stone slabs with scenes of battle from ancient times.

I took another look behind me, their heads nodding in approval, as I placed my hands on the double-sided door.

With a slight push, the door caved in, opening a gap for us to go inside.

Our feet made their way through with slight nervousness in our steps. Within reaching inside, the door behind us was closed shut.

The room was completely dark, reminding me of the time when I met Scarlett in the other room.

Once we reached a quarter a way in, torches around the walls began to light up illuminating the entire room. However, despite the room being completely lit, the boss was nowhere to be found.

"Seph is the boss supposed to appear once we push a button or something."

"No… it should be here."

Her answer wasn't quite what I expected. Was her coming along somehow messed up the whole system?

"Luke, there's something over there."

Gwen pointed her finger toward the center of the room. A large circle with an unknown language was written around the perimeter of the circle. Within the middle was a picture of a dragon, similar to the one I saw before when I met Scarlet. However, something else caught my attention.

Peering at the middle of the dragon's mouth was a keyhole one you would usually see back on Earth.

"Why is this here?"

I walked up to the middle, standing right above the keyhole.

"Luke, what are you doing?"-Seph

"Let me check something. I think I might know what we're supposed to do."

Using my skill [Creation] I conjured up a key. A specific key only a certain person I know uses.

Upon activating my skill a weird sensation occurred in my hands, like water flowing inside my skin. It felt very ticklish, yet somehow nostalgic.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I focused on creating the key.

A few seconds went by and a ball of orange light came out of the tips of my fingers. It slowly glided on my palm forming a key-shaped object.

Soon the details became more apparent until the key finally manifested into reality.

"L-Luke. How did you do that?"-Seph

"It's one of my skills, [Creation]. I can't make anything big, but I can make small things like this."

A surprised look was on her face, her mouth was open agape. It seems she was speechless as no words came out of her mouth despite some time already passing.

Although I was curious as to why she reacted like that, I want to see if this key will work.

"Wait, Luke. Is that the classroom key?"-Laura

"Yeah. I don't know why, but I feel like this was the right key."

"How does that work."

"Some weird magic shit I guess. Maybe Professor Mourn planned this out all along."

I proceeded to place the key in the keyhole, successfully going inside with ease.

"Oh, it worked."

Waking up from her stupor, Seph shook her head and asked.

"Wait, did you say Mourn?"

"You mean the professor?"

"Luke, what's his first name."

Her tone was serious slightly catching me off guard.

"Lucille."

As soon as I said that name a massive earthquake shook the room. The torches were snuffed out as a purple light came out of the circle, swallowing my figure entirely in light.

"Luke!"

My girls screamed out my name on the other side. Panic began to set in as I feel myself feeling dizzy.

"Luke! Get out of there!"-Seph

"I-I'm, trying…"

My knees were on the floor, my vision completely flipped upside down.

"….uke!"

The voices on the other side started to become muffled. Audible thuds came from the outside of the pillar of light.

"…lett… der!"

But soon no noises can be heard as my body collapsed on the floor. My vision was completely overtaken by the purple light.

Then suddenly darkness from my eyes closed from exhaustion.

But before I knew it my eyes opened up again the exhaustion I felt was gone as well. With my body somewhat functioning, I stood up from where I was and looked at my surroundings.

"Where am I…"

But before I can take a look where I was, a deep and powerful voice echoed in my ears.

"A mortal… here?"