Chapter 15 - The Imperial Capital

Walking onto the boat, sailors can be seen rushing about as they prepare the boat for sail along with burly labourers carrying barrels or crates onto the boat before running off to grab more. There are three mages in hooded robes chatting with each other secretively; they are likely hired mages. A man in fine clothing walks up to us saying, “Let me direct all of you to your cabin.”

The man shows us into the ship and brings us through cramped hallways before we arrive at a tiny cabin that has four hammocks and two small desks. Leonore’s face drops as she looks at our shocking accommodation, “Thank goodness the trip is only ten days.”

Deciding not to waste any time I sit at one of the desks and carefully place the book on telepathy onto the table causing Aurelie to whine behind me, “Are you seriously studying!? We should use this time to relax!”

Turning back to her I remark with a smirk, “Ha, I wish I could afford to be as nonchalant as you but I need it.”

“Indeed, your strength is too far behind compared to the people we’ll be seeing at Sorbonne academy.” Leonore says in agreement before scornfully saying, “You’ll fall behind if all you rely on are lesser magic missiles.”

Aurelie deflates slightly, “Ugh, yeah ok fine, I just thought we’d finally have time to have fun. You have been focusing so hard on study since you got back from the dungeon.”

For four days I study the textbook. It’s a rank 2 textbook so it’s technically beyond the scope of what I should be capable of but the knowledge in it is archaic so I seem to be able to work through the mathematical theories with my current knowledge albeit with much difficulty. Someone calls out from the deck causing steps to rumble out throughout the ship as the crewmates seem to rush up to the deck. Running out onto the deck I spot Leonore and Aurelie casting spells along with the three other hooded mages. Their spells fire off into the distance attacking some sea creatures that are obscured by the white foamy sea water as it gets splashed by the spells; obnoxiously loud squeals can be heard from the creatures. Seeing one of the sailors watching I walk up to him before asking, “What is it?”

“Ay, these here are wailing whales, tough fuckers, can rip the ship to shreds if they get close.” He explains in a croaky voice. Of the three mages one casts large air spells that are considerably more powerful than the other two mages, they’re no doubt a rank 3 mage. I might as well get involved so I walk beside the mages and start a focused assault of ice magic missiles, fire likely to lose its efficacy at sea. My ice missiles fire out like a loaded turret as it rips some of the approaching whales apart which splatter into a bloody mess. It doesn’t take long before the combined effort of six mages decimates the monsters. One of the mages walks up to us, his beard poking out from his hood, he praises, “Nice work there mages, you all seem to be rank 1 but your no less powerful than your typical rank 2 mage.”

Leonore puffs herself up as she smiles proudly, “Why thank you fellow mage, we are on our way to attend Sorbonne academy.”

“Ah, Sorbonne academy… No wonder.” The bearded mage says thoughtfully before growing serious, “Well you three better be careful in the imperial lands, there have been reports that mass groups of monsters have been scouring the lands, not to mention the war out west.”

Leonore’s eyes widen as she bewilderedly says, “The monster surges have breached into the imperial lands!? How’s that possible?”

The mage’s voice takes on a solemn tone, “Ha, monster surges? Haven’t you heard, there’s been a full monster invasion up north, all of the dukedom of Shiraz has fallen along with half of the dukedom of Milan. That’s why we’re going up there, to assist in the defence.”

Aurelie shudders slightly as she speaks out, “The dukedom of Shiraz! That’s, that’s where my family is… No wonder I haven’t received word from them in so long.”

Looking at Aurelie in concern I say comfortingly, “I’m sure they’ll be fine, it’s not like a powerful mage family would fall to a few monsters.”

Aurelie looks back at me with a surprisingly cheerful smile, “Oh certainly, don’t worry Agnes, I don’t care if they’ve fallen or not, even though I’m sure they haven’t. Although it is slightly troublesome that I likely won’t be receiving an allowance anymore.”

The slight outline of the bearded mage’s mouth twitches, probably horrified at Aurelie’s nonchalance at her whole family potentially being monster feed. Leonore leans her head forward as she inquires concernedly, “What about the dukedom of Kafei, have you heard news of there.”

“Not much, but from what I’ve heard they weren’t hit two badly, the monster invasion seems to be leaning more towards the east.” The bearded mage replies.

The last six days pass by with a slight tension because of the news we were recently made privy to, nonetheless I continue my study which leads to some interesting discoveries. This textbook has some preliminary knowledge on internal runes which I’ve never seen before, it helps me understand the benefits provided by two of the three internal runes I obtained from the mind dungeon.

The one I’m currently practicing is a confirmed rank 2 rune which increases my will by 15%, boosts the range and power of psychic spells by 30% and strengthens inherit defence against mind attacks; it seems quite powerful especially if I intend on practicing mind magic. The other internal rune from the dungeon is a rank 1 rune which boosts will by 10% and boosts the range and power of psychic spells by 20% while also strengthening inherit defence against mind attacks; overall it’s similar to the rank 2 rune except weaker in almost every aspect. The last internal rune from the dungeon I unfortunately can’t figure out what it provides but I can confirm that it is a rank 3 rune so I at least have one ready for me in the future.

A muffled shout creeps through the ship, “Land ahoy!”

I rush to the deck along with Leonore and Aurelie, the outline of the imperial capital can be made out. The solemn faces of the crewmates alerts me to large bulk of smoke that seems to be rising from the city.

The ship nears the city and the destruction only becomes more apparent as large fires seem to have burned through the city as there are charred buildings along with a few collapsed towers. The dock is a mess with broken ships, destroyed crates and barrels with their contents spilling out along with loads of rotten fish smothered along the dock. Groups of monsters can be seen rushing around the docks while a few stragglers fight them off or try to make their escape. A few flying monsters glide over the wall before scooping down into the city. Leonore mutters, “Holy shit”

“Holy shit indeed,” I repeat, it’s utter mayhem, the supposed imperial capital is in shambles as it’s overrun with monsters. Captain Danton shouts out, ordering, “Let’s turn this ship around boys!”

The sailors get into action while captain Danton steers the wheel around, the ship creaks as it leans to the side and begins turning around. As the ship turns a few of those flying creatures seems to spot us, they are like large birds except instead of beaks they have monstrous mouths that look misplaced. They silently begin their descent towards us so the mages including myself begin casting spells. The spells pierce holes into the flying monsters, singeing their feathers and causing them to fall down into the ocean.

I notice that the rank 3 mage is casting some support spell on all of the mages, he soon turns to me causing me to feel an unfamiliar rune press towards me before stopping at the natural resistance of my will, I let my will give way allowing the rune to continue forward before pressing onto my body. A strange surge of mana bursts from the rune as it seems to super charge my own mana, tangibly increasing my cast speed. My already fast casting reaches a new level as my spells cast so quickly that I feel a heat begin to build up in my palms and my two hands appear to cast beams rather than singular missiles. My fire missiles shred through swarms of those flying monsters as they splatter into bloody messes as their feathers burn.

The rank 3 mage casts yet another spell that creates a flat shield angled in the direction of the birds. A few of the monstrous birds near me but they bump into a hexagonal portion of the shield which weakens on impact but provides me time to obliterate the monsters with my mass of missiles. This assault continues for a couple minutes eventually leaving me with only about 10% mana so I stop casting and decide to retrieve my books, there is not bloody way I’m going to lose them at sea! Running back down into the ship I bolt into my cabin and grab my knapsack filled with my books, I also grab Leonore’s and Aurelie’s bags before returning to the deck.

Once I’m on the deck I hear a paralyzingly loud squawk that freezes me and seemingly everyone else except the rank 3 mage in place. Shifting my eyes upward I see the perpetrator, an absurdly massive bird with a creepily enormous mouth that hangs down and long wings that soar across the sky, the rank 3 mage frantically screams, “Rank 4! Abandon ship, abandon ship!”

Three small wooden row boats are lowered down by a chain that plop down into the sea. I feel hesitant, consider if I should jump onto one of the boats or take a mana potion and remain to give others time to escape. I decide to stay, running to Leonore and shouting, “Mana potion!”

She nods before throwing me one which I immediately down and resume my fast assault. A few birds manage to break through the shield, diving down and picking off a few of the sailors. One dives toward me which I try to avoid by diving to the side but it still nips me, fortunately my mana shield is just enough to repel it even though it shatters from the impact. I cast a few missiles into the beast causing it to explode in a mass of blood. Looking around, the bird monsters seem to have thinned out, this fight would’ve been winnable if it wasn’t for that massive flying monster that eerily watches our fight.

Suddenly the giant bird screams with a deafening roar, freezing everyone yet again, I see it swoop down towards the ship in a blur before smashing through most of the hexagonal shields and diving into the ship. I feel the ship shake violently causing some sailors to fall over and knocking us mages off balance, a massive portion of the ship gets ripped off as the loud bang of splintering wood sounds out. Our ceased defensive assistance unfortunately spells the conclusion of this fight as most of the other flying monsters are now able to descend down and devour the sailors.

Aurelie grabs me by the arm while shouting out, “Let’s go! There’s nothing we can do.”

She pulls me toward where the boats were dropped, Leonore following closely behind us. A monstrous bird flies toward us but a burst of lightning shoots out, bursting the beast in an explosion of feathers. Another swoops from our right but Aurelie fires out her disk spells, I see another come from our front but Aurelie can’t see it so I quickly cast three missiles and burn the bird to a crisp.

We finally reach the edge of the ship, the three boats sparsely occupied by a few sailors who are untangling the chains on the rowboats. Recalling Leonore’s robe gliding function, I hand the bags to Leonore while saying, “Take these onto the boat!”

She nods before leaping straight off the ship yet not falling, her pink robes light up with strange symbols before it expands out while flapping with the wind, her body seems to levitate for a moment before slowly gliding down eloquently. Have one of my arms free I climb down the side of the ship along the chains.

hearing another loud roar I look upward and see the rank 4 monster going in for a second swoop before smashing into the ship, further destroying it. The flapping of the small birds alerts my attention to my side, another two birds dive towards Aurelie and I so while clinging onto the chain with a strained grip I use my other hand to cast missiles and shoot one of the birds out of the sky in a smoky mess as it crashes into the side of the ship while a couple disks slice through the second bird.

We finally reach the boats where Leonore already is. Feeling my internal mana channels in their shrivelled state, I request, “Mana potion!”

“I don’t have many left,” Leonore says unhappily while taking out a blue mana vial from a belt pouch and passing it to me. Downing it, I feel my mana channels refill however with a small strain this time, along with a slight sickness in my stomach, minor mana illness no doubt. The sailors manage to undo the chain before chucking it over the side of the boat and beginning to row. A few stray birds dive toward us but bursts of lightning, air disks along with my fiery missiles annihilate any of those weaker monsters.

“The other mages?” Leonore inquires as she looks back at the ship while casting a few lightning bolts.

“Probably dead,” Aurelie sardonically says before firing a cascade of disks into a few of the birds. As we continue our defensive fire and leave the vicinity of the ship, the number of monstrous birds dwindle while the loud roars become a quiet echo in the distance. Looking back at the ruined ship, it is mostly sunk with the large bird still visibly descending into the ship along with a flock of black spots that swirl near the ship.

The three boats make it to shore, the sailors quickly run across the beach to take cover under trees, our group following. Once we make it to the trees with the sailors, we collapse to the ground while heaving, no doubt we’re all suffering from slight mana illness. Squinting my eyes at the exhausted sailors I thoughtfully ask, “What are we going to do about the sailors?”

“Nothing, they’re not our problem.” Aurelie immediately replies as if she expected me to ask that, eliciting me to look to her before disapprovingly saying, “They’ll die without any protection, only a few of them are even rank 1 warriors.”

Leonore shakes her head at me as she logically explains, “As much as I hate to admit it, I’m going to have to agree with Aurelie here, a monster invasion has passed through this area which will cause monster populations to surge; we aren’t powerful enough to take care of a few weaklings and will most certainly die if we attempt to.”

I huff out angrily but it’s two against one, so I’ll take a step back. Looking out toward the distance city that is currently up in flames, I feel melancholy while asking, “So what’s the plan now then?”

Aurelie looks at the imperial capital before slowly turning her head across the forest, examining it for a moment before pointing at a very vague trail of smoke that originates at the city and moves towards us before continuing to our right, “See the smoke, It’s hard to tell but the destruction seems to start at the imperial capital and moves east past where we currently are.”

Leonore raises a hand to a chin while nodding thoughtfully, “Hm yes, the invasion obviously came from the north where the ‘Foreboding Mountains’ is, before arriving at the imperial capital and reaching the coast, then the invasion must’ve continued east.”

“Hm, so we’d want to go west I suppose, towards the capital.” I suggest.

“Indeed but the capital is still clearly infested with monsters,” Aurelie adds as she looks back toward the city before pointing inland while continuing, “It would be smarter to travel north for a distance to distance ourselves from the imperial capital.”

Leonore gets up and waves us along while already walking inland, saying with urgency, “It’s decided then, north then west, come let’s get going I don’t trust being so close to the coast; those damns birds may spot us.”

Aurelie and I begin walking with her, our quick departure drawing a few glances from the powerless sailors. I feel a pang of guilt as I see the weariness on their faces while silently communicates their hopelessness in this situation. But what can I do? Leonore and Aurelie are correct in that I cannot protect a whole group. A few of the sailors murmur amongst themselves before loosely following behind us which unsurprisingly seems to annoy Leonore as she turns around with her hands on her hips while derisively saying, “We won’t be able to protect you weaklings, don’t expect us to save you if you fall into trouble.”

A few of the sailor’s faces morph into a scowl while some to become even more dismal, a few stop tailing and return to their fellow sailors but there are some that still decide to follow behind. I sigh, feeling pity for these lost souls; they won’t last long…

After 10 minutes of paced walking Aurelie speaks, “I absolutely cannot believe the monsters have reached as far as the imperial capital and even destroyed it.”

Leonore scowls as she crosses her arms, “Hmph, I’m rather disappointed in the imperial family, how could they have let the empire to fall to such a state.”

Aurelie smirks, “Hah, fall to such a state? I’m afraid the empire has completely fallen Leonore, the imperial capital has fallen and I’m sure the north half of the empire is completely overrun by monsters, not to mention the two losing wars.”

I honestly feel rather indifferent about the fall of the empire itself but there’s no doubt that I feel horrified being in the middle of a transitional period in history, the empire was almost 4000 years old, we are probably about to fall into some sort of dark age if my previous world’s history is anything to go by. But when I think about what dungeons are, they are basically locations of the civilization prior to the empire, so doesn’t mean that there will be many new dungeons, interrupting the conversation I bring up my thoughts, “If you think about it, new dungeons will be popping up everywhere from the ruins of the empire, we could stand to gain quite a lot.”

They both look at me with curious gazes before Aurelie agrees, “Hmm, that’s a good idea actually, maybe we shouldn’t go west but continue north where the invasion came from.”

“But it’ll be dangerous as we near the Foreboding Mountains; monsters will be spilling out from there.” Leonore concernedly speaks out.

Aurelie nods but still encouragingly says, “True, but we just won’t travel too far north, just enough to accrue the benefits we deserve, ha.”

Leonore’s eyebrows furrow deeply but her expression remains thoughtful. I argue, “It’s unlikely we’ll be able to get a traditional education anymore. Our only method of getting new spells and textbooks to progress our education will be through exploring the ruins of the empire.”

Leonore’s eyebrows finally even out as she sighs before agreeably saying, “Ahh, you’re right, we’ll continue north then.”

Aurelie’s face lights up as she joyfully says, “Great, the vote is unanimous then, we continue north, becoming a dungeoneering trio, maybe we’ll become famous for it!”

Leonore scoffs mockingly, “Pah, doubt it.”

And so we continue onwards through the forest on a new adventure that I can’t help but feel excitement for. Studying all day at school was honestly starting to bore me and made me long for my time in the mind labyrinth.