Michael had never felt the back of his head itch so much before. He was currently walking along with Alex and Micah, ahead of the group, on their way to a sub-floor, on what they jokingly called ‘the basement’. The group’s leader, Alex had introduced them to the rest of his party.

There was Quora, a dwarven woman, serving as their shielding specialist. Laen, a centaur, specialized in traps and deterrent Spells and Mihli. Mihli was… new. She was short, as short as Quora, but not nearly as stocky. Instead, she was lithe and furry, which made sense as she resembled a humanoid fox. Her focus was on inscribing magic apparently, though what that meant wasn’t very clear to them.

And all three of them formed the second line of the group, right next to Erea, who Michael could swear was glaring a hole in the back of his head. The again, with her being an elf and this being a magical academy, that was very much aa possibility. She hadn’t said a word to them, even as they shook hands in ‘greeting’. The others noticed, but they seemed more darkly amused than tense.

Maybe if I get along with Alex I can ask him what her whole deal is.

Not that the leader of this group could currently be interrupted.

“And that’s how I’ve figured I could not waste my Fridays on boring stuff and Level. Not to mention get to improve my spellcasting and make some coin out of it. Not everything we find we keep for ourselves, but sometimes we simply hit gold. Like this.” He said, pointing to a single vambrace on his left hand. “It’s enchanted with an adjustable force shield. I can shield everyone here for a little while or just me for a lot longer.”

That truly was impressive. Not impressive in the torch an entire room kind of way, but impressive enough for an upper year student. Speaking of which.

“So, you started this activity in your first year?” Michael asked.

“Well, I started this group. This kind of thing almost always existed, in one form or another.”

“What year are you in now? Fourth?”

“Third. Me and Erea are the only ‘seniors’ here, she being a third year as well. Quora, Laen and Mihli are second years. And you and Micah first years, if you can take the heat.” He laughed.

Seeing the dubious expression on his face, Alex continued.

“Don’t get me wrong, we get a lot of other people to come with us. It’s just that the only ones who remain and become part of the main group are right here with us. The last to join us was Mihli. As for first years, well, not many among them are as talented as you are.”

“Sure, just ignore me.” Micah grumbled, still walking and reading.

“Well, you got a Spell book. You can’t be that bad, eh?” he grinned, while Micah looked to be debating whether to hide his book again.

He eventually just shrugged his shoulders and kept reading.

“And why is it that just the ‘main group’ is adventuring out today?”

“Sharp mind you got there.” He laughed. “It’s because the assignment we’re on today is both more difficult than normal and also more… lucrative, if you get what I mean.”

Micah did, his book closing with a snap.

“Meaning that you both don’t want to be taking care of weak fighters and also don’t want to share the loot.” Michael translated. “So, why us?”

“Told you. I’ve got a Skill. And a hunch. And I’m not usually wrong” he smiled. “My team knows that, which is why they’re fine with you two being here.”

“Even Erea?”

Alex laughed.

“Eh, maybe she’s not exactly fine about it, but she won’t cause trouble. Much.”

“Alex, let me be frank here. I’m ok with doing this, since it gets me out of cleaning duty. And I will back out at the first sign of me being over my head.” He said, while Micah just mock-pouted. “But I don’t want to have someone next to me, who’s liable to stabbing me in the back. Maybe literally.”

Their leader grew more serious before answering.

“Look, I know what happened in Nahlil’s class. I haven’t talked to her about it, but I can imagine what it was all about. I promise you that she won’t cause problems, not while we’re on a mission. If she does, I’ll handle it.”

“Thanks. Can I ask what you think her problem with me is?”

“Tell you what.” Alex said, his smile coming back. “If you pull your weight today, I might even tell you.”

He rolled his eyes, but didn’t manage to send out a retort, since the other members of the group have apparently had enough with letting Alex do all the talking and came over for chit chat. They still had some walking to do before they reached their destination.

Apparently, once you went down deep enough, past the inhabited floors, the enchantments one could find grew wilder. Enough that even though they were only heading a few floors down, the flight of stairs they had been walking down on kept going on forever. There was always a bend somewhere, so you couldn’t see all the way down, but Michael thought he had ‘turned right’ twenty times already. The others just chalked it up to special magic and walked on.

This wasn’t the first time they’ve been doing this, but they haven’t descended too many times either. Most times they had headed to an upper floor on their assignments. This was only their fourth time going down.

“It has to do with what you can expect to find.” Laen said. “Upper floors can have illusion-based mazes, magical traps and the normal experiment gone wild or just forgotten opponents.”

“Like animated armor suits?” Micah asked, grinning at Michael.

“Like animated armor suits.” He nodded. “But those are normal. They usually weren’t built to be dangerous, they were just the experiments of some ancient mage who either forgot about them or bit the dust before he got a chance to clean up after themselves.”

“Or who just didn’t care anymore. Some mages are asses.” Mihli said.

“Or that, yes. So you have to watch out for things, sure, but those things are forgotten experiments, normal guardians or traps and illusions meant to shield some sealed room. These latter ones usually fall in the explorers’ domains, though.”

“Explorers?” Micah asked. “There’s explorers in Gnosis?”

“Gnosis is old.” The fox like one said.

Michael was pretty sure it was a ‘she’, but didn’t want to guess.

“Old enough that a lot of it is forgotten. So yes, you have groups tasked with clearing out floors and groups tasked with pathfinding and the like. Sometimes we work together. Mostly, we come in either before or after them.”

“But we have the most fun and profit.” Alex hollered, from a few steps ahead.

Micah looked pretty interested at the notion of exploring, since it probably spoke to the animalistic side of him, but became conflicted when Alex mentioned ‘profit’.

What side would win out, the wolf or the opportunist? A battle for the ages.

“And the lower floors? How are they different?”

“Upper floors are shielded for things coming down. Just regular wards, though.” Quora said. “The lower floors, however, are heavily shielded for things coming up. It’s because the things lurking down there weren’t experiments or if they were, they’re the failed results of stupid experiments.”

“Stupid experiments, mages poking at things best left unpoked.” Mihli continued. “As I said, Gnosis is old. Old enough that one mage every hundred years is enough for the lower levels to be filled with stupid mistakes. Monstrous mistakes.”

“True.” The centaur said. “Not to mention that the older a mage gets, the more arrogant they become. So, when you get very old, you-“

“Stop trying to pin this on elves!” Erea suddenly said.

The centaur didn’t continue, but smiled, as if the moment was a well-worn game of theirs.

“Laen, stop picking on Erea. But yes, Michael, arrogant mages do stupid mistakes and it’s our job to clean up after them. And due to having more time on their hands, elves make more mistakes than most.”

Erea opened her mouth again, but Alex kept on talking.

“It seems we’ve arrived at our destination.” He said, peeking around the corner. “I really wish an explorer team had found a faster way down. It’ll be hard if we have to make a run for it back up.”

“Is it safe?” Mihli asked.

“Looks so. But when did that ever matter?”

They shared a quick laugh at that, while Quora moved ahead without having to be asked. She stepped in front of Alex and muttered a Spell. A shimmering barrier of air appeared in front of her, wide enough that it could cover one person on each side of her. Though, given that the dwarf was short, the shield only extended high enough to cover their heads. No jumping around for them.

One benefit of the magic was that it seemed to be mobile, as when Quora moved, the barrier of air moved with her. That is why after she turned the corner it was Alex who beckoned them down the stairs. They walked forward cautiously, turned the corner and stopped to stare.

The room they were looking at was positively cavernous. It was as wide and long as a football field, with only four massive pillars supporting the high ceiling. There were opaque archways on both lateral sides, three on a side, normal in size and looking like they were made to allow passage. On the fair side, through another open archway, they could glimpse a smaller room, glowing with inner light, though the same opaque barrier made it hard to see what was inside it. The ceiling itself was nondescript, just smoothed rock, while the pillars were sculpted, but boring, in the grand scheme of things.

Of course, the most important and noticeable element in the entire room, was the raised platform in the center, upon which a large urn was placed. An urn who seemed to be blazing with azure fire. It shouldn’t have been possible, not from a fire that small in a room that big, but the light from it illuminated the entirety of the room.

Michael remembered what Alex had told them of this assignment. A new room had been found. They had no idea what it was meant for or if it was warded, inhabited or protected because no other details were provided. He now thought that was the case because the explorer team that found it was composed of cowards. They were here to get a more in-depth read of the room and clear it out, if possible.

Doesn’t look so terrible now, but I really don’t like the look of those side openings.

Alex must have been thinking the exact same thing.

“Quora, can you block those things from here? Distant warding Spells?”

“Mmm, the first set for sure. Maybe the second as well. But my magic would fizzle out before it got to the third. But my warding Spells won’t be as good from a distance then they’d be if I was applying them right in front of the archways.”

“Noted.”

“Oh, I can strengthen them!” Mihli said. “I just have to get near them. So you don’t waste more mana.”

Quora nodded and Alex moved on.

“Laen, what do you got?”

“No traps that I can sense. I can feel something coming from this room, but it isn’t strong.”

“Room?”

“Stairs. I don’t think it’s poison magic… maybe it only activates if we trigger it? Like, once we go on, we can’t go back out until something happens.”

“Great. Erea, start conjuring one of your stronger Spells. Be ready to cast it. Quora, start your work on the first set. If anything comes out, from anywhere, blast it. You two.” He said, turning back to Michael and Micah. “Got anything you can use from a distance.”

“Yes. Don’t know about this much distance, but I’ll try to help.”

“Trying to get it, right now.” Micah said, eyes blurring on the pages.

Alex gave a surprised laugh.

“Then you’d better read fast. Alright, then. Everybody be ready, we’re starting. Quora, now!”

The shimmering barrier of air dispersed, while the dwarf’s hand reached out.

“|Air Shield|. |Air Shield|.” She said, and two identical Spell flew out and ‘detonated’ while close to the archways.

Barriers grew out and blocked the openings. They didn’t look to be shimmering, like the previous Spells, instead they looked like massive panes or trapped air, slightly glowing.

“One after the other.” Erea said, while Quora downed a Mana Potion. “That amulet was really worth keeping.

“And the shield Spells came out perfectly rectangular. Good job, Q-“

Alex didn’t get to finish that sentence, since for whatever reason gravity changed directions and Michael felt himself fly forwards. Once he passed the room’s threshold, gravity became normal again and he impacted hurtfully with the stone floor.

Dizzily, he looked up and saw the urn. And the fire. Which was now no longer blazing quietly, but which had shot up in a spiraling column of azure fire, reaching the room’s ceiling. The light, eerily enough, remained the same.

Then, with a wave of pressure, something emanated from it and the archways lost their opaques shielding, revealing dark side rooms. With things visibly moving around in the darkness.

Here comes the first arena.