I mentally prepare myself for whatever is to come. I still have the magic protection around my body, but I absorbed the hexagonal shields when I started mimicking the moves, since they could get in the way. This should be good enough to at least run away, so I step out off the ring. My hand hovers over the orb for a moment, before gently touching it.

Knowledge flows into me like it usually does when I unlock an ability or class. In fact, I unlock one of each: [Water Bending] and [Bending Artist], respectively. I feel like the [System] has so many different types of magic it’s kinda silly. Well, I don’t mind, I just have to decide which class to equip.

Considering that the ring has started glowing and that the abilities I’ve learned should let me not only perform the motions better, but also move the water in the vases, I should probably equip the new class, for now at least. I swap it with [Shapechanger] since I don’t think I will need to change my form in the nearest future. And the changed I currently have should stay even without the ability.

I quickly step into the ring and take the starting position. As I do, a glob of water comes out of the vases in front. I perform the moves, depositing it in the first corner vase. When I do, the next shoots out a stream of slow-moving water, and following the order of the moves, I put it into the next one.

I do the last few moves and take the water erupting from the last vase. Where the hell am I supposed to put this? Shit. I perform a one-eighty turn move and deposit the water in the vases next to the orb. That should do it.

Or not. Another vase ejects water. Do I have to continue? Crap. I should probably keep using the forms from the murals. Twist to vase. Where do I put the water? I should probably not overfill one or empty others, so I place the water in one that has spit out water.

I breathe heavily, lying on my back. Bloody hell, that was intense. Multiple vases at once! What a workout, I haven’t been this tired (or sweaty) since before the Upheaval. Not like I exercise regularly, in fact, after the Upheaval I’ve gotten much more frequent and intense exercise. Not to this level, though.

The ring stopped glowing for a while, though I still stood for a minute or so at high alert in case it continued. Pretty sure it’s done now, though. Ahh. I close my eyes and relax.

…

The slimes do in fact seem to be attracted to bodily fluids, or at least sweat, I find out to mild horror. It’s kinda pleasant, though, the cool feeling of having my sweat washed off. Wait! I open my eyes. The slimes were not cool, they were lukewarm.

Uhhh, that’s no slime. That’s a blue, vaguely humanoid figure looking like it’s made of water. Yeah, that’s a water elemental, isn’t it? I didn’t notice one in the slimes, but this one seems to have a mana core. It doesn’t seem hostile, though, so I don’t mind it.

Okay, I should probably mind it now. There’s two of them. They started at my feet and head, respectively, only gently wiping my face, then moved towards the core of my body. And now that they’re done with my thighs and waist I should stop them before this takes a strange turn.

I stand up. It’s not like I can read any kind of emotion from these things, but I could’ve swore they were slightly dismayed right now. Or maybe that’s just what I think they would be in a similar situation in media. Which means japanese media, since this is pretty close to cookie cutter male protagonist situations in those.

Well, I have no intention of being like said protagonists tend to be, and to begin with there are no protagonists in real life. Or perhaps, we’re all protagonists in our own stories. They seem to just kinda stand around now that I’ve moved.Well, whatever, as long as they’re not a threat I don’t care.

I walk over to the orb again, and touch it. This time, it flashes slightly, but nothing else happens. No, wait, I think I heard something. Did it open one of the doors below? I should go back down anyway, so I turn to exit. The elementals are still standing around. One in the ring and one off to the side. I step into the ring, and it takes a pose.

Welp, I should probably have gone around. But for now, I’ll just copy the elemental’s stance. When I do, it makes a clear chime. It then takes water from one of the vases. As I turn to do the same, it launches to water at me. I do a sweeping step to the side, and instead of taking water from a vase, I try to take control of the incoming water.

I succeed and to a spin-into thrust kinda movement, sending it back towards the elemental. After ping-ponging it back and forth for a little while, it deposits the water back in the vase and steps out of the ring, which stops glowing. Wait, is this room just a very elaborate training setup? Ah, the elementals climb back into the vases. Magic training room, huh?

No more delays! Since I seem to have finished all the events I triggered here, I head down the hallway, avoid the slimes. I don’t bother levitating, since by now I’m pretty sure this place does not want to kill me. I keep my magical protections, though.

I enter the main room. No changes that I can see. Ahh, now that I have the ability, I should try to do the moves written above the small door. I head over to it. I’ve come to realise the symbols seems to be less like static letters and more like a format for easily and quickly writing down moves, with the thickness of the line showing speed and where you start from.

Backwards sweep, right leg back into crouch, into thrust? I perform the moves as it demonstrates, but it does nothing. Maybe I need water? Not like that’s hard to get here. I try, this time with water, but it still does nothing. I look around. The floor has a pattern of sorts, as does the door. Hit the correct tiles puzzle? And the door is… red herring?

I start with my feet at the indicated start positions, then perform the moves, hitting only the specific spots marked in the symbols. In the end I have the water in a ball between my hands. The door rises and shows me a hallway with several rooms off to the side.

So I did not need the water? I look at the floor. Ahh, each spot I stepped has a tinge of mana. It seems to detect steps somehow. Maybe. Or maybe it detects where I step in some other way. The water was probably not needed, it would be inconvenient to carry it all the time. Actually, in the Avatar series, waterbenders usually do carry a bit of water, don’t they.

I go through the open door. It uses what is essentially a magic combination lock doesn’t it? I wonder if I could do this before going to the top room if I knew how, or if it somehow recognises that I did the stuff up there. Maybe it knows I have the ability or class?

That aside, this hallway has a bunch of small rooms off to the side. If the room above was a training room, then this is a dormitory isn’t it? It would be kinda bad to train more than a few people in such a small room, though… Wait, going by martial arts logic, maybe that’s a place to test oneself? For rank ups? And the orb is there for initiating people? Not that there are any people here, aside from me.Or look to have been any in a looong while.

I reach the end of the hallway, which branches off to the sides. So this large room here would be a common room, and the very small ones here and there would be equivalent to toilets? This is kinda exciting, it’s like studying ruins of some abandoned magic training place. Actually, is that what it is? Where did this come from, anyway?

…do dungeons come from other worlds, somehow? That would also explain how we can suddenly have monster popping up from seemingly nowhere. There’s just more small rooms down these hallways. By a very rough estimate there seems to be thirty or so in total. And one large rectangular room to each side. I guess that’d be where people would actually train.

Does that mean I have reached some sort of rank up? Or at least gotten accepted as an initiate by whatever magic this place holds. Hmm, I want to try the big door now. Not like there’s anything else here. Every room is completely empty, they don’t even have doors. There is the door to the dormitories, but it’s made of stone. I feel like there should be one on the other side as well, but maybe it was made of wood or something. No, I shouldn’t assume this place is some abandoned ruin, it is in remarkably good shape., with almost no wear and tear

I stop in front of the big double doors. I can’t see any movement symbols on the door. There are symbols on the floor, and now that I’m looking for them, I recognize them as those movement symbols. Maybe I shouldn’t go through? If there’s something cool, interesting or just something in general, I will be further distracted. ‘Just one more turn!’ Well, rooms, not turns.

Ahh well, finishing a dungeon or getting to the next level of this magic dojo or whatever in just a couple hours would be kinda impressive. How long have I been here? I think it’s been two to three hours, but I honestly don’t know. The test above felt like it took forever, but it was probably more like ten minutes.

Well, time to leave, I guess. But before that, let’s take a bit of a closer look in the flooded parts. I drop into the water, which does not have that same magic barrier as the entrance. I dive under the surface, bringing a bubble of air. While exploring I cycled the air in the subspace wristband, so it should have plenty of breathable air.

Ahh! The elevator came down. That startled me. I repeat the somewhat slow, staggered diving pattern I used to get into the dungeon itself. This time I just go down four or so meters; a single floor. Hmmm. I sent the orbs down the corridors, but there seems to only be more of the dorm rooms. Or maybe it’s different, these ones are smaller, but also fewer. Teacher rooms? Or maybe they are storage rooms.

What’s that? There’s something in the room at the end. A low stone desk? I swim around it. Hmm, there’s something like a drawer here. I pull it open. Ahh. There’s a bracelet. I think. It’s far too small for me, but not small enough to be a ring. Who cares, I doubt anyone will miss it. But before that, I [Mana inspect] it.

It’s a [Magical Wood Band]. I knew that already! I want a proper magical ‘tell me what this is’ ability, damnit! Who cares. I stick my hand into the air bubble surrounding my bag and drop it in there, then start heading back up and out.

Bleh, this takes a long time. Well, better that than getting diving sickness. Though, with my current stats and abilities, I’m not sure if I need to follow the normal guidelines. I’ll keep following them as much as I can, though. Better safe than dead.

I stay a couple meters below the surface for a prolonged time, as my research told me I should. Then, I slowly move upwards. Blah, this should be enough. I’ll just swap back for [Shapechanger], there. And now, let’s get some fresh air. But maybe not hit my head at that kayak.