Chương 420: Chapter 421: Ever Onward

After we finished cleaning out all of the information we could find in the admissions office, we moved deeper into the castle. There wasn't very much choice in which direction to go, just like the previous hallways - there was still only one path forward. Interestingly enough, the magic castle was considerably less decorated now. The first two rooms and hallways we had entered had seemed intent on drumming the school's rich history and mastery of magic into the skulls of new prospective students.

Now, the hallways still looked nicely decorated, but they had lost the ostentatious over-the-top decorations of the previous hallways. Perhaps it was because anyone entering this hallway would have already paid their fees and entered the school - meaning that the school would have already made its money from the new students. Even though the quality and quantity of decorations had dropped a notch, the corridors were still nice.

There were numerous little alcoves carved into the walls, and unusual chandeliers hung off the ceiling. I wasn't sure what material the chandeliers were made of. To my surprise, through my soul-sight I could see that the chandeliers were alive - but they weren't monsters. Even the weakest extinguish could kill a chandelier instantly, and it gave no Achievement. Instead, after a few tests, I realized that these chandeliers were some kind of beautification plant.

Each 'chandelier' looked as if it were made of a type of ethereal, faintly glowing glass - but it had the natural shape of a plant, and a fresh, slightly fruity smell that reminded me of peaches. I couldn't help but wonder whether these decorations were meant to appeal to students from the Universal Tree. We didn't know when the suggestion to ramp up the marketing to the Universal tree had been sent, but it wouldn't surprise me if some decorations were built to appeal to the Universal Tree students as well.

After all, if the academy advertised itself as a friendly place to the Universal tree students, but the students came here and felt disappointed, it was unlikely the academy would get repeat business. Considering the time frame most Market businesses seemed to operate on, I expected that the Market probably had a heavier emphasis on long term business sustainability than a similar economy in a normal world would have. Of course, my speculation could also be wrong.

However, the plants certainly felt different from most other decor in the Market - and since the decorations were magic, living plants, I couldn't help but make the connection between 'magic plants' and a civilization based on the 'universal tree.' Only time would tell whether I was seeing connections where none existed. The four of us continued walking through the beautiful, dim corridor. My suspicion that this magic academy had been looted before deepened the further we went.

There were signs of a few missing decorations on the walls, and old scorch marks and craters dug into some of the walls like scars that had never healed. Considering how nicely decorated the rest of the academy was, I didn't think those marks were naturally part of the academy's decorations. Furthermore, the number of monsters we had encountered, as well as the number of useful objects for future growth, were both abnormally low.

Since monsters seemed to have some sort of instinct for areas that were filled with valuable loot and weren't already guarded, the low monster count in this section of the building indicated that there wasn't much of value here. At the very least, the most important parts of the magic academy should still be intact.

The things we really wanted were new bodies, rare abilities, and whatever other valuable inner-Market items might exist in the academy - and as far as I could tell, most objects of the sort were production facilities, rather than mobile items. In other words, fellow transmigrators probably wouldn't have taken them away.

While my memory was hazy, I vaguely recalled that I had seen an advertisement for new bodies when I had entered the Market for the first time - and the advertisement had implied that bodies were mass-produced at some kind of facility. In a weird way, other transmigrators looting this magic academy might even be a good thing for us. The potential rewards we could get for succeeding were lower - but the danger was also lower. Considering our Achievement totals right now, we didn't need Achievement anyway.

We needed ways to turn that Achievement into power. Finally, after another ten minutes of walking, the long hallway finally reached a junction. This was the first time we had actually seen the hallways branch out, and I was more than a little bit relieved to see that we now had exploration options. The hallway split into three different directions - left, right, and center. Sadly, while the hallway now had options for us, none of them were clearly labelled.

One hallway was decorated with orange plant-chandeliers, another was decorated with glass lamps, and the third hallway was decorated with neon, steel lights. Clearly, the hallways led to different locations - but I had absolutely no clue which was which. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Which way should we go?" I asked.

"Does it matter? We have no idea what any of the locations are, and I don't think the decorations tell us much," said Sallia.

"I vote for the hallway with plants," said Felix.

"Based on Miria's earlier speculation, the magic academy might have adjusted some of the decorations to better fit the taste of students from outside the Market. If that assumption is correct, I think the hallway with plants in it is likely built for students from the Universal tree. The Universal Tree interests me, so we might as well see if we can find more information there." The four of us ultimately decided to go with Felix's suggestion, since none of us had a better idea what to do.

About a minute after we started walking down the plant-chandelier hall, we were once again teleported away. This time, I could feel the teleportation as it happened - it clearly worked on a completely different principle than the first hallway we had walked through. This one felt more like a machine reached out from the void, grabbed us, and then bent our location, moving us to a completely different spot in no time. This time, we ended up in a great chamber.

It was ridiculously large - far beyond what was practical for daily use. The ceiling was probably at least a hundred meters off the ground, and the room was even longer and wider. It was divided into two floors - but they weren't completely separated. The second floor was more like a densely packed layer of walkways, with railings and glass floors to let them gaze at the floor below. The room was also beautiful.

There were more of the plant chandeliers decorating both floors, and there were several crumbled tables and pieces of furniture scattered around parts of the room. I quickly realized that this hall had probably been some sort of banquet or dance hall - there was no other reason I could think of for such absurd room proportions. Finally, in the center of the massive room, there was a giant slab of heavily decorated stone.

It looked almost like an altar for a cult, although I doubted that was actually what it was for. I had no clue what it was actually used for, but I could feel faint echoes of essence emanating from it. That alone was impressive. With how old this building was, and how long ago most of the furniture in this room had crumbled to dust, the fact that the stone still had detectable essence meant it must have carried a powerful enchantment once.

Before I could think further about the purpose of the room, with my soul-sight, I caught something snap across the ceiling, like a shadow dashing towards us. My attention snapped towards the movement in an instant. <Potential enemy. On the ceiling. > <Got it, > said Sallia, as she readied her sword. Felix and Anise also stared at the ceiling. However, I had a hard time tracking down the enemy any more precisely - something about the monster's soul made it hard to lock on to its exact location.

I wasn't sure whether it was due to some kind of spatial distortion, or an illusion, or something else entirely, but while I could see flickers of movement, I couldn't find the actual enemy. A moment later, a soft giggle emanated from the ceiling. A laugh that sounded surprisingly human. I found myself even more confused. Was the soul I had seen from another transmigrator? They sounded like a person, not a monster. That impression was shattered when something leapt at me from one of the chandeliers.

She looked just like a human girl - a rather beautiful one, at that. She could have easily passed for a normal twenty year old woman in most worlds we had been in - at least, if it weren't for the fiery, bright red light dancing inside of the pupils of her eyes and the gaping, barbed rows of teeth in her unhinged jaw. I leapt out of the day of the monstrous girl's jaws the moment before she slammed into my previous location, nearly ripping my throat out with her teeth.

Instead of stopping when she hit the floor, she bounced off of the ground as if she were a rubber ball and flew towards me again. Sallia managed to kick her away, giving me a moment of breathing room. I immediately launched an extinguish at the monster, absorbing 80% of my alteration essence and leaving only a few scraps for healing emergencies. The demonic woman hissed as my extinguish ripped away about a quarter of its life force. She snarled at me.

"That hurt, bitch," she snapped, before she extended a hand towards me. I felt a wave of force and essence slam into me like a hammer from the heavens, before it bodily lifted me and threw me at dizzying speeds towards the wall. I heard an ominous crack in my arm, before my arm broke like a dry spaghetti noodle. A moment later, my head hit the wall, and everything went dark.