Author's Note: Warning, there will be quite a bit of info dump in this chapter so bear with it for now, please.
***
The damp, cold, stone walls of the dungeon surrounded us as I leaned sitting against one of them.
'As expected, camping in a dungeon isn't very fun.'
A small fire was in front of me, Cale had started it with his magic.
Lucas was bouncing around while Cale and I, still exhausted, sat resting from the battle.
"What was that spell out there it was absolutely crazy."
Cale suddenly broke the silence, his face dimly lit by the fire.
"It was two, condensed space and spatial manipulation.
I explained before further continuing.
"Condensed space kinda duplicates space in a spot and spatial manipulation moves space."
I explained fulfilling Cale's curiosity.
"Can't you just use teleportation?"
Lucas questioned as he fidgeted with his guns.
"Teleportation only moves things in space, not actual space itself."
I explained once more as Cale looked at me for a bit before saying,
"Crazy… you're crazy, dude. If you publish those spells in a research paper, you could get tons of money."
I suddenly looked up turning away from the two of them.
"Yeah, I mean I'll have to since I want to teach at the academy."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I love magic so so much. Magic is all I have, all I ever had."
Cale and Lucas paused for a couple of moments
as they came to the stark realization of my words.
"I remember three months ago when I saw Lucien's memories. He loved magic just as much as me. He'd work part-time jobs just to buy magic books and studied all night long."
Even though they both went quiet I didn't stop talking.
I was completely lost in my own words and memories.
"I even remember how devastated he was when he found out he had space affinity after working months to afford an affinity test."
You see space affinity is usually a blessing for those in poverty as space users in the storage ring industry are in large demand,
But for mages. Space mages never got far, simply because it was too hard to use for most.
Not much offense and it's hard to teleport properly without getting into walls or something.
As I slowly trailed off into my own thoughts Lucas spoke up.
"Did you have any friends or anything back at the orphanage?"
Lucas asked, betraying his usual carefree demeanor.
"My friends came and went, even the orphanage director changed a couple of times."
I looked longingly at the damp stone roof of the dungeon we were in as if something was there.
Yet, there wasn't.
The mood had taken a nosedive as Lucas and Cale suddenly went quiet.
'Man, I really need to learn how to shut up.'
"At least you got us."
Lucas said as he smiled, his usual demeanor back in full force.
"Those monsters really just kept coming. I wonder what the Flamebrand Realm is like."
Cale said trying to shift the topic to something else.
Dungeons showed monsters of a certain Realm per se, but there's another portal that shows a portion of that very Realm.
You can tell the difference since Dungeons just take basic colors, but Realm portals take on unique characteristics.
An E-rank Realm needs a lot of E-ranks and even D-ranks while an E-rank Dungeon like this can be defeated by a couple of genius F-ranks like us.
(Info Dump - I know it can be kinda boring but well it's the beginning so. I hope I didn't screw up the flow too much)
"What about that swordsmanship man? It was insane too."
I smiled softly while looking back at Cale.
"Hah, I barely managed to pull it off with multiple incantations and I didn't even fully do it correctly."
"Damn, I suddenly feel like the weak link of this team."
Lucas remarked while looking towards something in the distance and so did I.
I felt it,
the mana warning me.
"The mana's telling me something's coming."
Lucas raised his gun, and mana began swirling in tendrils at the tip of his gun.
[Creation Magic: Creation - Water Bullet]
[Creation Magic: Condensed Creation]
[Mana Shot]
'I knew it.'
I suspected earlier he was one of those rare practitioners of the rarest magic even rarer than space, Creation Magic.
I saw a few special little bullets flying around and his seemingly limitless number of bullets.
Mixing real creation and illusion, I can imagine how deadly of a combo that can be.
A loud bang resounded through the dimly lit dungeon, and
Thud, just like that whatever was approaching fell to the ground.
I let out a little chuckle before saying,
"The weakest link? Some weakest link that one-shots E-rank monsters."
Earlier there were only F-rank monsters, but due to the next section opening up E-rank monsters have started coming.
Lucas brought the monster that was previously hidden in the dark.
It was a wolf-like monster with deep red fur. Most likely an elemental beast.
"A Pyrewolf."
Lucas commented while aiming his gun at its head only to shoot it again.
"You can never be too sure."
With that, the night was filled with light banter and laughs as we teased Cale about Belle and shared stories of our time here.
We all had our own lives before we met.
We all went from extra to genius of our generation.
We took turns sleeping and keeping guard, ironically it was peaceful even in a dungeon.
***
We woke up and immediately headed towards the second section of the dungeon.
Lucas scouted the first section earlier in case of any monsters or treasures but found nothing.
This time me and Lucas took more offensive positions as we planned the night before.
Cale was our frontline while I stood in the middle and Lucas in the very back.
There were fewer monsters, so it was much more manageable than before.
"Sever"
My incantation laced with mana resounded as I slashed my fingers across three Pyrewolves.
Cutting through the fabric of space a large slash wound ran across their chests.
They didn't take it lightly and lunged at me immediately as well as a few others.
Their fangs and claws set ablaze and some even spewed fire at my direction.
[Space Magic: Teleportation]
I teleported up in the air as I began manipulating the small shards of space I had already created.
[Space Magic: Spatial Manipulation]
The shards rained down on the enemies killing off the already injured ones and I finished off the others with a couple of severs.
Without my spatial field, I had to use spatial manipulation to control my shards.
"Attract!"
[Space Magic: Spatial Attraction]
We had developed a sort of code after a while of fighting together.
When I yelled attract it meant I was free and could pull monsters in for the others.
And just like that Lucas shot down a couple of Pyrewolves that couldn't escape my spell.
After a while of fighting, we had almost completely cleared all the Pyrewolves.
During that time, I started practicing new techniques in which half the time Lucas or Cale had to save me because it didn't work.
And just like that, we had gotten to the third section.
Unlike the previous one, the gate won't open unless we open it.
We rested for a bit and then we readied ourselves,
Cale's sword was enveloped in flames and Lucas loaded up condensed water bullets in his gun.
'It's time.'