Chapter 10 - Expedition

We walk up to the blue robed mage, he’s middle aged with a gruff beard and has an experienced bearing. He confidently oversees a few mages but notices our approach, so he turns to us before asking, “Ah, new mages, you were assigned to me by high mage Viera I assume?”

Aurelie nods as she introduces us while gesturing toward me, “We were. I am mage Aurelie, and this here is my friend mage Agnes.”

“Excellent, I’ll be your captain for the duration of the expedition. I am mage Franck, a rank 2 mage and I am in charge mage attack squad 3; we are the weakest squad of attack mages, so our job is to support squad 1 and 2.” He strictly explains with a glare before saying, “I’ll introduce you to everyone else.’

Facing the training mages, he sternly orders, “Mages, line up please!”

They all stop their actions and arrange themselves in a line facing Franck. Looking them over they all seem young, a few of them in academy robes, and most notably, there is Leonore; these are clearly the academy mages from the duelling club. Franck expressionlessly says, “With you two we will have 8 mages excluding myself, I’ll be splitting you 8 into two groups, mage Leonore and mage Joel, you’ll be grouped with mage Aurelie and mage Agnes. Mingle among each other for a moment then we’ll be returning back to training.”

Leonore’s face falls as she stares at us in bewildered surprise, mage Joel looks to be a simple minded fellow, an honest face but no depth. Walking over to them mage Joel steps forward with a wide grin, happily initiating conversation with us, “Ah, fine day is it not mages.”

We both look up at the greyly clouded sky before staring back at him with weird looks, I remark, “It looks like it’s about to rain.”

Joel awkwardly laughs as he scratches his head, “Haha, it was a fine day. Goodness me, the weather is quite volatile down here in Tian isn’t it.”

The weather’s been awful all week…

Aurelie seems more occupied with Leonore as they both seem to be silently look at each other. Not wanting to get involved in their standoff right now I reengage with Joel, “So mage Joel, you’re an academy mage I assume.”

“Not anymore, I graduated just this year.”

“Oh, congratulations,” I say in faux excitement before remarking, “Uhm, no offence, but why are you in our group if you’ve already graduated, I imagine you’re a lot more powerful than us.”

He laughs before saying good-naturedly, “Haha, how I wish I was, I’m from the C-class, I’m not even a rank 2 mage yet, not even close. I am happy that you think so highly of me anyway mage Agnes.”

Wow, while I was aware that the students in the C-class weren’t talented; I didn’t realise that they were so far behind us. Interrupting our conversation mage Franck commands, “Alright mages, let’s do some quick drills before we set off today.”

“Watch this!” Joel confidently says as he begins casting a spell. I feel the ground rumble before I suddenly get swept off my feet causing me to land on my bum which elicits Aurelie to cackle out. Joel is not so amused as his eyes widen in horror before he runs over to me, apologising profusely, “Oh my, I’m so sorry Agnes; I thought I reduced the strength.”

Getting up, I rub my sore bottom as I say, “It’s fine, just please; a head’s up next time.”

“Yes yes, certainly. My I’m such an idiot sometimes.” He says as he smacks his forehead.

“That you are.” Aurelie remarks in amusement. Looking at him in interest, I inquire, “What spell was that? it was honestly quite effective.”

“Shift, a rank 1 earth spell, used to disorientate enemies or, in your case, slip enemies.” Joel explains with unwarranted humour before continuing, “Look at these two spells, I promise I won’t cast anything on you.”

I peer at him closely feeling genuinely curious, insisting, “Go ahead then.”

He casts a quick spell, suddenly forming a mound, he then casts a much slower spell that creates a thin layer of bark on his skin. While looking like a tree man he comically explains, “The first spell is ‘dirt mound’, it’s used to trip fast approaching enemies.”

Pointing at himself he continues, “This spell is called ‘lesser woodskin’, it is rather weak against magic, but it’s strength is against physical attacks. “

Aurelie nods along, adding on, “Geomancers are typically known for close combat fighting, or excellent support mages. Many talented geomancers will learn warrior skills.”

“That’s correct, unfortunately I’m not one of those talented geomancers, I don’t have the time to dual cultivate.” He says as his face changes from his excessive gleefulness into a sourness. He then looks at Leonore who is casually standing around while ignoring us, Joel mentions, “I keep trying to get Leonore to show her magical arsenal, but she keeps declining.”

Leonore’s ear twitches slightly before she looks toward Joel with a scowl.

“It’s mage De la Rue to you, Joel,” she says while mockingly emphasising Joel’s name. She then rudely retorts, “And there’s no need to reveal my spells, we will perform exactly the same regardless of if a lesser mage like you knows my skillset or not.”

Joel sighs in resignation before turning to me and Aurelie, “Let’s not mind her then, how about you two show me what you can do.”

Later that day the expedition sets off. We travel through the dukedom of Tian, our party attracting monsters as we travel the road. For three weeks we travel, the state of the world transforming; the roads, more overgrown; the forests, taller, and monsters, stronger. Passing by one final settlement, the expedition leaves the carriages and horses behind, progressing the rest of the way on foot. We tread off the beaten path, entering a forest named Greenhawk’s forest.

A flash of light erupts, a bolt of lightning flies through the air, striking the giant horrifying centipede causing it to shriek in a strange clicking sound while it curls up and dies. I cast of two missiles to snipe out a far centipede but then notice three centipedes that somehow managed to skirt around the warriors’ defence. I cast out a flare to stun them as I try to gain some distance by running off. Regaining my bearing I notice the dirt shaking below the centipedes, halting their approach as the monsters try to regain balance. Taking advantage, I stand still and solely focus on casting, mana courses through my body as I construct 8 magic missiles that mow down the scrambling centipedes, a loud combination of shrieks pierces my ears as they burn to a crisp. Looking toward Joel I thank him, “Thanks!”

In his ridiculous wood man form he gives me a thumbs up while smiling goofily. I chuckle to myself before resuming the battle. Searching for a large group I find 4 centipedes and blast them to pieces with my magic missiles. I continue this a few times like clockwork until mage Franck yells, “Group 2, left flank!”

For another three weeks we slowly trudge through the forest, often encountering monster; an expedition can’t exactly avoid fights. We finally reach a small stone structure.

The stone structure is a dark grey cube that pops out of the ground. It would look out of place if it wasn’t for the severe overgrowth as green moss spills out from the cracks of the stone, making it look more moss than stone. The cube is open with a circular entrance that reaches the sides of the cube, a vague outline of stairs descending downwards can be made out before they very quickly vanish into an abyssal black. The darkness unnaturally shrouds the stairs looking more like a black mist than a natural shadow. I also note the remains of a camp outside the entrance, clearly from the explorers that found this place.

As we get close a few of the high ranked scholarly mages run to the structure to study it intently. One of them in hooded grey robes heatedly says, “An ancient Viridian structure, they are mostly all discovered in Tian.”

“Can we ascertain it’s purpose?” High mage Viera asks as she walks beside them. He shakes his head, “It’s too early to tell, even with the preliminary accounts we got from the adventurers.”

High mage Viera nods but remains silent. One of the mages, an old mage with a long white beard and an overloaded backpack, takes out some tools, explaining, “I will perform some tests to ensure there are no nefarious formations set up at the entrance, you never know with Viridians.”

High mage Viera leaves the mages to their tasks as she loudly addresses everyone else, “We will set up camp here to be our base of operations, we rest tonight and depending on the assessment by our formation master, we will likely enter tomorrow. Everyone satisfied? No? Good”

Inside a tiny tent our group is stuffed inside. The prelude to a kerfuffle that occurs every so often begins when Leonore requests in faux politeness, “Mage L’Estocq, may you pass the anti-bug ointment? I believe we put it in your bag.”

“Get it yourself.” Aurelie promptly replies.

“It’s right next to you, just pass it over you, you idiot.” Leonore ‘insults’ as her voice rises slightly; I’m already covering my ears.

Aurelie chuckles as she playfully grabs at her chest, “Wow, you got me good, you’re going to make me cry.”

She snidely remarks, “I made you cry a few months ago.”

Aurelie’s emotions fluctuate slightly as her face drops before she loudly shouts in outrage, “That’s… you humiliated me in front of everyone!”

Their argument continues, talking about useless rubbish. Why do I have to put up with this crap? Joel is relaxed, casually reading a book with the tolerance of a saint. My anger sizzles as, like every other night, I imagine words to say that would cause the most dramatic impact. Tonight, is the night where I finally outburst, I flip forward from my lying position before yelling, “Oh, bloody hell, can you two get over yourselves!? Stop being such children, this bickering has been affecting us on the field. We’re about to enter a dungeon; I really think it’ll be in your best interests to please, SHUTUP!”

Everyone stares at me with gaping mouths. Leonore grows slightly red before looking away. Aurelie instead looks down dejectedly before tearing up a little bit, she quietly murmurs, “Sorry Agnes.”

Did I seriously make her sad from just that? I pat her on the back anyway, consoling, “Hey Aurelie, it’s not that big of a deal.”

She whimpers out, “But it is, I could get you killed, how could I be so selfish…”

I remain silent, there’s no point arguing because I agree, life is more important than feelings. I glance up at Leonore who is currently awkwardly looking everywhere but where we are, so while patting Aurelie back I ask, “So Leonore?”

Her eyes stop moving around as she faces me, saying with gravity, “Your suggestion has merit; the dungeon will be incredibly dangerous, so we should put our differences behind for the time being.”

Pleased, I nod, “Good.”

The next day the expedition sets off yet again, except this time into the dungeon. A few mages cast a utility spell that creates a light, ensuring that everyone has vision of their direct vicinity. We form a line then begin treading down the stairs, the darkness thankfully being eaten away but the magical light. The steps are difficult to walk down, the overgrowth pushing the steps in angles that make tripping a real possibility. And tripping is not something you would want to do because I soon feel my stomach drop as the stairs lose one of their surrounding walls, a long precipitous drop presenting itself along with a deep blackness covering whatever mysteries lie below.

A light buzz echoes out eliciting someone to anxiously shout out, “Holy shit! That sounds like bluzzers.”

The buzzing sound sharpens as these flying black insectoid creatures with 6 limbs and a fly like head arise from the darkness below. Viera shouts, “Ranged units, at the ready!”

I get into combat stance, already constructing two runes to hold at the ready, channelling in a tiny amount of mana to keep the runes active. When the creepy creatures near us, Viera suddenly shouts, “Fire!”

I channel mana into the runes before casting two fire magic missiles at two different bluzzers, already constructing my next runes I notice the bluzzers seem to get halted slightly with minor damage from my first strike. I cast my next batch at each bluzzer again, the bluzzers get pushed down now, becoming slightly obscured by the abyss and their backs get scorched as their buzzing stutters, they sway a little bit before rebalancing themselves and resuming their assent yet again. Firing yet another couple missiles, this time their backs get shredded before they fall fast, they won’t be flying back up from that. The bluzzers have strong defence and it takes three missiles to kill one, annoying.

We continue a prolonged assault, I see fiery explosions incinerating swarms of them, a strange watery goop that twists around them, dragging them downwards and there is a mage that shoots out a small piece of ice, immediately freezing creatures that touch it before they fall down into the darkness. I fire out two missiles on an already damaged bluzzer, this one bursts in an explosion of green blood that I swear I can feel. I notice a massive swarm approaching us, prompting me to go all out, without worry for accuracy I mentally construct runes as fast as possible, churning out endless magic missiles that obliterate the bluzzers in a line of fiery destruction. After about a minute I cease my casting when my mana is at about 10% to conserve mana, but Franck yells out, “Agnes, potion! And keep up the good work.”

He throws a blue potion in a vial, I attempt to catch it, but I fumble it around in my hands before dropping it to the floor; I’m not exactly the most dexterous. I ashamedly glance around, everyone too focused to worry about my stupid mistake, I then pick it up and gulp it down, it tastes fruity. Suddenly a euphoric burst of energy shoots through me, and I feel a strange wooziness as if I’m drunk. With my mana filled, I re-examine the battlefield, their numbers seem to be reduced but they are still reducing distance. I get back to casting, not seeing any nearby swarms I return to sniping them individually.

The bluzzers eventually get within striking distance, they aggressively swoop in, knocking a few people over, one of the fallen warriors gets snatched at his ankle by another bluzzer before being dragged down into the deep dark gorge. A group of bluzzers seem to focus on my spot as they start ruthlessly swiping at us, the warriors trying to fend off their assault as they parry away their attacks or straight up slice them to death. However, the creatures are too overwhelming and a few manage to slip past who then zero in on me, I reactively cast flash as I jump away but feel a sharpness painfully wrap around my ankle. Without even thinking I fearfully cast magic missiles, the insectoid forcefully pulling me as I feel myself slide across the step, missiles burst out causing the creature to lessen its grasp, slowing it’s pull, yet it’s not enough as I realise, I’m already off the edge.

I feel a tightness wrap my wrist, so I continue casting with my free hand, destroying my foe in a blast of fire in but a few seconds, removing the strong pull. Looking up I see Leonore of all people holding my wrist while her other armed is hooked with a warrior. We get pulled up, the monster swarm already seems to be thinning out as the last dregs get cleaned out. I feel too shaken up to join back into the fight, as I uncontrollably shiver. I’m literally freaking out right now, I almost died, died by falling down there, I peek over the edge and reactively fall back against the wall, haha ridiculous, am I’m scared of heights now? Once the last of the spells sizzle out high mage Viera orders, “We leave now!”

Without even a rest we continue down the stairs, I would’ve expected that encounter to warrant a return to camp but clearly not. After an exhausting walk, we finally reach an entrance which leads into a doorway that will get us away from the ledge. We enter a room with strange inscriptions on the wall along with a strange ambient green light that seems to come from nowhere, producing a sinister glow. High mage Viera speaks to the scholarly mages, “The preliminary scouting suggested the dungeon was rank 2, that fight with the bluzzers leans more toward a rank 3 dungeon.”

“Maybe the scouting was wrong?” One of the mages suggests.

“We both know that is highly unlikely,” the formation master retorts before rubbing his chin as he wonders aloud, “The question is do we continue or return?”

One of them immediately replies, “Continue obviously. This dungeon is too valuable to pass up, I’m sure you’re aware of that.”

“You’re right, we can’t pass this place up.” High mage Viera agrees before addressing everyone, commanding, “We rest for five then we continue onwards.”

While resting a few of the mages excitedly study the murals as they jot down notes in their notebooks. Now that I’ve calmed down slightly, I walk up to Leonore, saying, “Thank you Leonore, for saving me.”

She immediately waves me off, saying, “It was nothing, please don’t thank me.”

She walks off, cutting me off from saying anymore. Aurelie comes to me briefly afterwards remarking, “I’m surprised she saved you.”

I frown, saying, “She’s just like you or I, why would you be surprised?”

Aurelie sighs but remains silent, someone suddenly screams out, “Where’s the door!?”

I notice everyone looking at the entrance weirdly, I turn to look realising that it’s not that the entrance is weird, it that there is no entrance. The formation master sets down his equipment by the door and starts conducting some tests, after a while the formation master says aloud, “How is this possible? There’s no formation.”

High mage Viera curses aloud before asking, “What could it be then?”

He shakes his head, “I’m not sure, I’m only certain it isn’t a formation.”

One overconfident mage suggests, “Why don’t we just blow through the wall.”

“Don’t be an idiot, we’re trapped by the Viridians. If we tried something like that, it’s more likely to backfire; we can only continue onwards.”

Stepping into the next room, it is very similar to our last room, with it’s square shape and green light, but the mural depictions have notably changed, what they represent I have no clue, but at least some of the mages seem excited as they scribble down notes. We search through the rooms, an unsettling creepiness begins to set in. Entering another room, a grey robed archaeologist stares at the wall saying, “Extraordinary, I think this may be a rune.”

The next second everyone rushes over, including the non-researcher mages. But the archaeologist shakes his head, “It’s just a minor rune, not a runic structure.”

The archaeologist turns to his co-workers saying, “I think we can all agree, this place is a cult, and for teaching students.”

“Teaching what?” One of the warriors asks, the archaeologist replies with a smirk, “Mind magic.”

Everyone in the expedition gasps in surprise but high mage Viera encourages, “Come everyone, let’s keep moving, you mages stop me if you find anything actually useful.”

We explore faster now as we move in formation.

For a few days we continue our exploration, hesitantly checking through the rooms, it feels as if we’re in a labyrinth, every room feels and looks the same. Eventually we come to the entrance of a massive hall. It has stone pillars suspending the roof and dark blue light channelling through strange magic inscriptions on the pillars and walls. One of the rowdier warriors angrily yells out, “Where the hell is all the damn treasure, we’ve seen nothing for days!”

“Shut your mouth soldier.” One of the rank 2 mages says. The warrior growls at him but says nothing more. Such confrontations have been happening all too often; everyone is on edge. At the end of the hall are massive inscriptions with what I can easily tell are full runic structures, albeit incredibly complex ones, like I’ve never seen before. One of the mages joyfully says, “Psychic runic structures, we’ve hit the jackpot everyone!”

All the mages immediately start copying down the structures on their notebooks, not one to miss such an opportunity I record too. I also copy down the accompanying text even if I can’t read it, I assume these murals are sort of like a spell book, so as long as I get the words translated, I’ll know what theories I’ll have to learn to practice the spell. It doesn’t take long to copy everything down, my weirdly good memory helping, maybe my will improves memory. Once everyone is finished, we continue on, entering a back room of the hall. Oddly enough the back room leads into another hall which looks uncannily the same as our previous one, that’s odd. This hall differs in that it has quite a few humanoid monsters skulking about, disgusting minotaur like creatures with exposed brains, someone shouts, “Mind demons, run!”

High mage Viera tries to distract them by casting a spell that raises a body of water out of nowhere, slowing the demons. The demons seem to cast a spell as they raise their hands to their temples causing about a fifth of our group to collapse to the floor in a seizure, frothing at the mouths, high mage Viera even collapses to one knee. Everyone bolts off, some performing spells, others taking potions that improve swiftness, our massive expedition force spreads up and runs off like a bunch of headless chickens.

Looking back, I see the mind demons creepily sprint at groups of people with their well-muscled bodies, raising a hand to their temple, collapsing their prey to the ground. One of the mind demons runs up to our squad, I feel a strong and sharpened will assault my consciousness, etching away at my mental barrier and trying to tear down my defences.

I barely resist it as I slowly push out the foreign will, regaining my bearing, however I notice that my team is crumpled to the floor. Fortunately, the mind demon seems disoriented, so not hesitating I create two external runes as I raises my arms, casting an endless line of magic missiles at the mind demon. My first few attacks cause it to stumble, the next ones start to damage it as its fur gets lightly scorched, consequently it stops focusing on the others, instead casting a large fireball. I sense a large density of mana from it, so I cancel my external rune creation and create lesser shields.

By the time the fireball is at me, I already managed 4 layers of shields. But it’s not enough as my shields shatter and I feel an excruciating heat burn my body, the energy of the attack pushing me back with great force, a pang of pain travels through my back as I smack into a pillar, collapsing before I lean against it. Opening my eyes, I see that the mind demon is dead, two of my companions having woken from their stupor while I engaged the demon, but Joel is still on the floor, writhing. Aurelie and Leonore run over to me and help me up, Aurelie urgently saying, “We’ve got to get the hell out of here, come on.”

I remark as I get dragged forward, “What about Joel?”

“His brain is fried, his will was too low, mine was almost too. “Aurelie explains

I nod sadly, but now is not the time for that. We make for an exit, there seems to be plenty of exits to choose from. Exiting the hall we run though random rooms, the chaotic sounds of battle echoing out in the distance. Two mind demons spot, then chase us hence we run as fast as our legs will take us, but my body slowed by my injuries. Leonore uncharacteristically curses, “Fuck!”

She suddenly picks me up without courtesy and seems to use some magic item that builds up lightning energy around us before letting us move incredibly fast. Leonore takes us through rooms but all I can see is a vague blur, she stops as we reach a gorge again, probably the same one, I scream out, “What about Aurelie!?”

“I could only take one, and…” Unluckily a different group of demons found us, they run straight toward us eliciting Leonore to curse yet again as she peers over the edge, “Fuck, fuck, Fuck!”

She grabs me again, and walks toward the ledge, I stutter out, “Hey, what…”

She jumps off, I feel the air push against my back as we free fall into the darkness. Suddenly electrical energies form around us again, the lightning dimly lights up the wall as we drop creating an interesting light show. Leonore pushes the energy upwards, slowing our descent, suddenly I feel a great pain spread across my body before the world goes black.