Another One...

Dungeons

The dungeon itself was like a living thing, a species that sometimes often born in places with a high concentration of mana.

The humans and the other kind of Races were particularly well known for their dungeon-crushing antics. Some of their attacks were heavily driven by greed? Or to say the least, what some can assumed to be as greed for the hidden artifact that was resting inside.

The dungeon's core, the reddish orb that served as its heart, could serve a pretty good pretty good value since it was full of high concentrated mana. Meaning, It could also fetch a pretty money on the market.

Unfortunately, humans and the other Races weren't the only creatures that attacked dungeons. Monsters and the True Demons, do it as well. Dungeon cores were rich in mana, and thus, their instincts drove them to hunt them.

In other words, dungeon's importance was similar to an artifact.

Everyone and everything was hostile for a dungeon.

And it was for that reason that dungeons pick some 'Lost Soul', that served as guardians that could protect them from the harsh environments in which they were born. Dungeons concentrated their magical energies in their Lost Soul and allowed them to become much more powerful than ever before. In exchange, these Lost Soul will turn into 'Dungeon Boss' protected the dungeons and bolstered their chances of survival.

Most dungeons obtained their Lost Soul from dead monsters, or people who had been long consumed by their anger, resentment and rage before they died, by drawing their soul nearby and rebirthing them using the core as it's heart.

The Shade dungeon, however, had been born in an area with an abnormally high concentration of magical particles. It was much more powerful, powerful than its peers. It invested nearly all of its energy into creating a new body for the host, allowing them to become much more powerful than ever before.

But, the academy doesn't know that yet. The Shade Dungeon was supposed to be an Rank B dungeon.

Because of an misinterpretation of the device used to scale the ranking of the dungeon, it was mistaken to be as rank G, which is supposed to be the lowest. Almost half of the students died. Instead of a normal dungeon exploration, it turned into a bloody dungeon-massacre.

According to the novel, it was all thanks to Arthur, Lumine and Athena that many survivors got out safely. They also defeated the Dungeon Boss inside and obtained a key item that was necessary for the future battles.

I, of course, was not planning to take such kind of item, but instead take the other item the protagonist wanted to destroy.

Supposedly, that item was in fact a sword that had been lost since the past, turning them into an artifact from the old era.

Arthur wanted to destroy that sword after he noticed that the sword itself was created from darkness.

The moment his hands touched even the tip of it, he had felt that the sword had tried to devour his own life force using the darkness that was wrapped around it.

That sword name was none other than the devourer of light, 'Gluttonous Devourer' .

"Oh, yeah.... About the dungeon exploration you asked yesterday."

Hearing Mina say that, I turned my head to face her general direction. "What about the dungeon exploration?" I asked, slightly raising my brows while crossing my arms.

Her eyes did not leaved the artifact she was holding with. After a few seconds of silence, the artifact broke into pieces.

"The name of the dungeon is 'Shade'."

The moment I heard her say the word 'Shade', my lips slowly curled upward, turning into a small smile.

"I see..." With that, I placed my hands inside my pocket before turning around to leave.

I was just about to open the door in my front when Mina suddenly threw her pen towards me. Because I wasn't on guard when she did that, it had managed to hit the back of my head.

Since the pen itself was fully covered in her mana, naturally, it felt really painful the moment it hit my head.

"What?" I annoyingly asked while rubbing the back of my head. While she was spinning the other pen from her fingers, she sighed then pointed it to my right.

"You almost forgot what you came here for, idiot." Said Mina, sticking out her tongue in a childish manner. 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥... I sighed. I wanted to voice this out loud, but after some careful considerations, I stopped myself.

Picking up the potion she was pointing at, I immediately chugged the whole bottle, not leaving anything inside of it behind. She just smiled because of this, then returned her attention back to the artifact from earlier.

The fingers of my hands was about to touch the doorknob when suddenly, my vision began to blur. "This fucking potion...." Not long after, I completely passed out.

*

"Hey, Arthur!"

While Arthur was walking around the hallway, he suddenly heard someone calling him out, at the same time he felt a slight touch from his shoulder.

Turning around, he saw a beautiful girl who was wearing a maid outfit.

Her azure-blue hair glowed in the sunlight and rippled with the passing breeze like strands of silk. Her golden eyes were dignified, as her porcelain limbs were pale and almost seemed translucent. The healthy flush of her cheeks and lips, combined with her perfect features, gave her a coquettish charm that was rather elegant even though she was wearing a maid outfit.

Without him noticing it, Arthur had kept on staring right at her in daze.

"Oh, my... It's seems like someone became speechless." With a teasing smile, the girl placed her fingers to her lips before slightly tilting her head.

Letting out a fake cough, Arthur shook his head to help him remove his flabbergasted expression. "Why...? Why are you wearing a maid outfit, Athena?" He asked scratching the back of his neck.

Arthur couldn't help but avert his eyes since he knew that it was rather rude if he keep on staring at her in daze.

"Is there perhaps something wrong with my clothes?" Athena asked. Arthur then noticed that her smile was slowly curling upward.

Sighing, he rubbed his forehead with his palm in contempt. "No. It's nothing... Anyways, is there something you want from me?" He asked, not hiding his confusion.

"Let's see..." With her fingertips under her chin, she continued, "What's with the 'guy' who came in your room a couple of days ago? I saw you two chasing him in the hallway."

Arthur's expression became stiff after Athena mentioned something about the 'guy' she was talking about. Though, it didn't take long for him to give a reply.

"You mean Athan...?"

Suddenly, Athena's expression became serious. "Yes." She replied in a stern voice.

"He said that he wanted to team up with me," Said Arthur. "But, I declined his offer since I already had you and Lumine on my team."

"Tsk!"

The moment he said the word 'team', Athena suddenly clicked her tongue before mumbled some language he couldn't understand.

"Team up, huh... 𝘐𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘺 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘦..." Athena ended her sentence in a language she had long know about...

English.

"Huh, what did you say?" Arthur tilted his head.

"It's nothing serious," Athena made a gesture in her hands. "By the way, what happened to Leigh and Cayla?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"Ahh... After finding out that they're siblings, Cayla brought Leigh back to their kingdom."

"I see..." She forced a smile.

"Well then, I'll go on ahead." With that, Arthur turned around before waving his hands. Athena also waved back as her expression was slowly turning back to normal.

After Arthur left her behind, Athena went back to her room.

Laying on her bed as her hair scattered all over the pillow, Athena blankly stared at the beautiful ceiling of her room.

"It seems like the story is progressing more faster than normal..." She sighed.

Like Athan, after being reincarnated a few years ago, she had been trying her best to keep the world progress like the novel. But, unlike him... Athena was planning to exclude herself in the future. In other words, to run away.

But...

"Damnit! Just right after I finally finished thinking of a good plan.... My long plan to live a normal life in the future is over because of him!!" With her head buried under her pillows, Athena screamed out in frustration.

A few moments later, she finally calmed down.

"Just because I didn't even finished reading half of it..." She said to herself out of frustration.

"What is that supposedly the 'villain guy' even planning to do in the first place, anyway?"