Chương 39: [LD-1] 38. Descent

XXXVIII Descent The groups hunting lower-level monsters on the second and first floors had found more survivors. The scared students joined our army and merged with the other groups based on their roles. Everyone had gone to sleep, for night had ruled for a few hours already. Cull split the moonlight beams falling on the blade. My muscles screamed. Begged me to put the scythe down. A sharp whistle rippled away as the scythe went through its motions and washed over the sleeping students like a shiver.

Why— The whistle cut through the voice. I brought the leg sweep back into a block. My chest was hurting, but my breathing was easy. My body was in pain, but my mind was in a dead calm. —do you fear yourself? Cull split the air.

'I don't want to lose my humanity,' I answered. Why? I recalled the image Cull had fed me during the battle with the warlock. The scythe reversed and punched through the chest of the imaginary goblin coming from my blind spot. At the end of the movement, I held my position and heaved for breath. …

'Because I don't want to make my father right about me.' Cull whipped forward and pre-emptively sliced through whatever the voice would say in response. But no words appeared in my head. I completed my last three hundred repetitions in silence. The moment the last swing completed, I dematerialised my weapon and collapsed.

'Dammit.' The calm ruling my inner world dissolved together with Cull. My arms trembled so fiercely I feared the quaking would wake up a nearby student. But grabbing onto my wrist or forearm didn't stop the trembling. I let my head fall back and stared up at the ceiling. Good work, Master! Kil floated over. Should I have Char carry you back to your bed? I opened my mouth but didn't answer. He tilted his head, then glanced up at the gallery. Ah, would you like to sleep upstairs instead—'No,' I rolled my eyes.

Kiba had spent most of the day travelling with us, so Emily had already taken care of his wounds. There was no reason to go up there and hold his hand. Kil hummed. You can still go up there, right, Master? I'm sure he won't mind the company. I turned toward the gallery.

'He is all alone up there.' It'd already been decided that Kiba would join our group to fight the candidate, so he no longer needed to isolate himself to the second floor. But he was 'being careful,' according to his own words. I shook my head. He'd not even made a big deal out of Alexa and the others kicking him out and now asking his help again. Fighting with us was in his best interest, sure, but he could've at least tried to wring an apology out of Shota like the fiend had done to him.

'He's too kind.' I would've been a lot more petty. Kil hovered over me and waited for an answer. I sighed.

'Just carry me back to my own bed.' Company was fine, but it was better to sleep undisturbed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day. The Matron had made her turf inside a pit of sorts. Shoddy homes and huts covered the inside of the crater. Makeshift bridges ran around the circumference and radius of the room, much like they did in the reception hall of this goblin town. We'd crossed a bridge onto a platform leading to the centre of the compound (situated on a pillar), where the Matron commandeered her troops.

"Joy, get some pressure off the front line!" Alexa yelled over the screeching horde of charging hobs. The Matron didn't like another being louder than her. A bellow ripped out of her throat that drowned out the echoes of Alexa's voice. [Goblin Matron - lvl. 20] A unit of an entity that was twice as tall and fat as the goblin bouncers, something I'd thought impossible before. A wooden helmet, whose top twirled into a crown, shielded her expression.

When she waved the crude, barbed staff in her hands, roots split the earth and burrowed towards our tanks. Across our three parties, we now had four front-liners. Douglas was the highest level among them and their leader on the field.

"I've got this!" Riri yelled.

"Summon Vines!" The earth rumbled in the wake of her barbs racing through the ground. She could not match the Maron vine for vine, but her technique bought our tanks enough room to move around the remainder of the roots without breaking their formation. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Char and I rushed ahead. The burly summon barrelled into the line of hobs trying to overrun our tanks and swept a slew of them off their feet. Cull cleaved through some as well.

Within moments, the goblin's advance had sundered in two. The killing… still didn't make me feel good. But I realised this was necessary.

"Thanks." Douglas crouched behind his shield. A barrier formed between him and the remaining beasts, which ended the charge. Master, one of them is channelling a pretty powerful spell in the back. He guided my gaze to a corner of the chamber. There, a beast covered in draping cloth lifted a pulsating staff. Yellow teeth flashed behind its lips. Earth rumbled behind me, where Emily and our only other healer were— Arrows hurled from our back line.

The missiles shimmered and split mid-flight, turning a mere two darts into eight. Hobs raised their wide shields and blocked the volley meant to take the caster in the throat. The sorcerer continued to laugh and waved its staff as its spell completed. Its laugh cut off as it gagged on the tip of the dagger wedged into its throat. The beast looked behind it, where a boy wearing a hood twirled a second dagger coated in shadows. The second slash split the caster's head.

Damien jumped away and morphed back into the shadows when the angry tank hobs tried to skewer him for what he'd done.

'They're good.' None of the members from Lily's' or Roland's teams were poor fighters. If I was being honest, we were a lot stronger than a group of students of our age had any right to be. Unfortunately, the opposition waiting for us beyond this chamber was anything but normal. Cull cleaved a grunt in two. [Goblin Runt - lvl. 6] x 1 slain! Experience awarded accordingly. My insides didn't stir at the kill, and the warmth crawling up Cull's blade was minimal.

"Corner the Matron!" Alexa yelled. We closed ranks and surrounded her. The other enemies had already been taken care of, leaving the Matron by herself. She must've felt the noose tightening around her neck, because she began slinging spells like crazy. Vines. Boulders. Shards of earth that'd skewer your head and put it on a plate like it was kebab. Our tanks's barriers blocked the most threatening spells. Our ranged users intercepted what missiles they could.

Lily and Alexa's clones grabbed the attention of some attacks. And then the Matron was out of mana. Kiba, who'd been waiting for this moment, launched out of the line of melee fighters. His transformed arm warded off a last-ditch earth shard, then he yanked the Matron's leg out from underneath her. The entire column shook when the ball of fat hit the floor. I arrived at the beast's head before she'd bounced to a standstill. The wood around her neck hardened.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"That won't help." Light split around Cull's tip, and the world cried beneath the arc of the blade. A heartbeat's worth of pause. Then wood cracked and blood poured from the Matron's neck. Her head rolled along the deep groove I'd carved into the earth.

"Good job, everyone!" Alexa yelled. Our party cheered and high-fived each other. I didn't join the celebrations. Murdering the Matron felt like neither achievement nor failure. I just felt…empty. Why was that? Nox are prideful creatures, Master, Kil said. They see most things as beneath them. Would squashing an ant fire you up? I huffed and swiped Cull to the side to flick off the blood.

"Not a hard enough challenge for you?" Kiba mimicked my movement with his claws.

"Job's not finished," I said.

"That's all." Not all the students in our party knew there was an orc Lord in our near future, so I kept my voice low. Kiba snorted.

"Is it your powers making you so negative all the time? You're allowed to feel joy." I rolled my eyes at the pun.

"Joy," Alexa sheathed her blade.

"The others are going to do a final round and make sure we didn't leave any high-level enemies. Do you want to meditate now or in a safer place?"

"I'll do it now." I sank into the lotus.

"Char and Kil will keep watch." I smirked and glanced to the side.

"Unless our resident guard dog is feeling generous." Kiba flipped me off. My mind sank into meditation. The catafalque was coming along nicely—the base and the slab immediately connected to it were nearly finished. It was only the top part that still needed some work.

'If I can get another clump of experience like this one, I'll be able to complete it.' I'm excited, Master! Kil's muffled voice yelled in my soul sea. Apparently, I was going to receive a substantial bonus to my power once it was done, so it was something to look forward to. As always, I divided the experience half and half. Reaper - lvl. 14 -> Reaper - lvl. 16. 6 free stat points gained.

Name: Joy Grimm Level 16 Nox [Reaper] Rank: Neophyte Magic Domain: Death (Special) Class Weapon: Cull the Deathblade (F - 55/10000) Death Core: Dormant Death Fragments: 65/1000 Mana: 210/240 (+ 50; -30 reserved) Skills: Ancient Bone Shell (C-1), Summon Ghoul (C-1), Deathbolt (C-2), Arm of Quranq (U-1), Reaper's Condolence (L-1) STR: 12 DEX: 12 INT: 22 CON: 10 WIS: 24 Faith: 20 Free Points: 0 New class ability unlocked!

Skill learned: [Consecrated Grounds (I) - Uncommon] Consecrated Grounds: Shower an area in the holy waters of the Black Well. Chosen targets within the area take light necrotic damage. The waters slightly buff all Black Well entities and constructs in range. A single Still-Ripple Fish will enter the grounds if the water level is high enough. Has a thirty-minute cooldown. I blinked at the skill.

'That's a first.' Not one of my skills had an internal cooldown. Then again, this seemed like a more powerful ability than the others I had.

'Its rarity is still uncommon, though…' More factors than just power decide a skill's rarity, Kil said.

'Like what?' How easy the skill is to control. Or how much potential for future growth it has. Sometimes, a skill ticks all the boxes but is not unique among classes. Then its rarity goes down, too. I nodded. Well, I wouldn't look a gifted horse in the mouth. I wanted to use the skill right away to test, but the half-hour cooldown was quite long. If correct, we were leaving soo— The president is calling, Kil said. Speak of the devil. I exited my soul sea.

Alexa congratulated me on levelling up, then asked if I was ready to leave.

"The other groups are already heading to the entrance," she said. I pushed myself to my feet.

"Let's go." We passed the pile of ashes in the central chamber on the third floor. The corpses were gone, and the smell of ash had subverted that of the earlier rot. However, that didn't stop those who'd seen the initial state of the corpses from gagging. That smell and sight would never leave us. With hurried steps, our party arrived in front of the elevator. I cast a glance over our group. More students who'd reached levels eight and nine had joined our number.

Most of the others, who were too low-level to really do anything against a level fifteen or higher, were waiting back in the room where we'd killed the warlock. We'd considered having them hide in the cafeteria, but if they were ambushed, they wouldn't have an escape route. Now, if something too powerful showed up, they could at least retreat onto the third floor and find us.

"Everybody on," Alexa called out.

"Does everyone remember their roles?" Lily asked. We'd drilled our formation incessantly. But nerves had a way of getting to people. One of the lower levelled warriors confessed he wasn't sure if he was supposed to join the front line or not—he wasn't. His job was to stay near Emily and our other healer as a last line of defence. I stared out into the void ahead of us while Alexa went over his job for the last time. The same sense of finality that struck me yesterday entered my chest.

"Everyone ready?" Alexa called again. When we all responded with a definite "yes," she pressed the button. Our footing sagged as the elevator disconnected from the earth. Then we lowered into the darkness, the void expanding as we did so. I held my breath. Hairs on the back of my neck stood up. For the first time since yesterday, I felt on edge. What would be waiting for us down there?