In fire dungeons, over 10% of deaths from first time delvers can be attributed to what cause?

A: Heat Stroke

B: Smoke Inhalation

C: Dehydration

D: Slags

Political schemes and angry archmages aside, midterms carried on unabated.

I circled B and moved on. Slags were more of a magma dungeon thing, and they were the easiest monsters there besides. Dehydration was a concern, but with spatial storage items, cantrips that could summon infinite water, and things like enchanted canteens, lack of water was only ever a problem for the seriously underprepared. Even then, you could always turn back and leave the dungeon if you ran out of water. Heat stroke was similarly something where you generally had time to leave the dungeon before succumbing to it. That, and the fact that a lot of people would have skills like Heat Resistance, or armor enchantments to do something similar.

Smoke, on the other hand, was often something people forgot to take into account, as it didn’t come up in every single room. When it did though, there weren’t as many common counters to it, and the resulting asphyxiation was something that most low-level healers couldn’t fix.

The recommendation was to buy air filtration charms, or failing that, to have at least one party member who could clear or purify the air.

I worked my way through the remainder of the multiple choice until at last getting to the short answer section. A few of them were pretty straightforward, and God’s Mind essentially let me write verbatim what I remembered from lecture. A few were a bit more puzzling.

You find yourself in a death dungeon. For the upcoming fight, your party’s healer offers to lay down a large generic healing circle which will passively heal anyone above it. Describe under what conditions this would be a good or bad idea.

Rough. The downside of a generic healing circle was that it healed anyone on top of it, enemies included. That was less of an issue for the undead, but it depended on what mana type the circle would be using.

Apparently life mana operated on more of a biological level. It wouldn’t work on something like a revenant or a skeleton, for instance, but surprisingly, it would work on something like a zombie.

At least, that was the gist of it — it had worked on Slippy even though the snake had mostly been made of rock, after all, so clearly there were some exceptions. Possibly something to do with it being part garden as well, but I wasn’t sure.

Light mana, on the other hand, operated through the soul, restoring a being to what their soul thought was their natural state. It wouldn’t work on most undead, but if it was some sort of boss fight against a higher-leveled undead with a soul, then things would go pretty poorly.

As for other mana types, like water healing?

I had no clue.

Hopefully that’s enough. I scrawled down my answer and kept on working and working and working, until-

“Time!” the instructor boomed out from the front of the class. Her proclamation was met with the standard series of groans, and I chuckled to see that some things were constant between worlds. As we all shuffled forward to the hand in our tests, the teacher continued to shout at us.

“With that, your midterm is over! As you hopefully all know, you have a week’s break coming up. While you still have some time, I recommend using some of it to think about who’ll be delving with you next semester, assuming they pass. That’s all. Dismissed!”

Classes had whizzed by, week after week, until we’d finally reached the first big break in the school year. I was honestly pretty happy to find out the academy even had breaks considering how short Sylum workers’ weekends were. A solid week off would be a good excuse to relax a little and finally check up on Emer’Thalis again.

I slid over to the door after dropping my test off, hoping to catch my friends on their way out. Before either Alara or Emin made it, however, a different familiar face locked eyes with me.

“Lady Tess. It has been some time.” Long white hair framed a pale and unreadable face.

“Lady Verin!” It still felt pretty weird to address someone as (and be addressed by) the whole “lady” thing, but if she was doing it, then so was I. “That’s probably my fault. I definitely should have said hi sooner.” Admittedly, even past the woman’s somewhat intimidating aura, I’d have found it hard to get past the cadre of nobles who seemed to surround her wherever she sat. Still, I could have made a stronger attempt.

“The fault lies with me as well. I will admit to some minor trepidation at approaching you while with Lady Valis. While I bear her no animosity, I cannot be certain she would not yell her moniker for me for all the class to hear. Such a thing would be… undesirable.” As if fearing such a happening as she said it, Verin turned about, making sure that Alara wasn’t about to sneak up on her.

I could totally see that happening, too. Alara would just shout “Ice Lady!” the moment she came over. Oops. Moving away from that line of thought, I broached the more standard class-related topics.

“So? Test went well for you? And how’s it going with forming a delving party?” If she was still looking for party members, maybe I could snag her.

“As well as could be expected, I suppose. As for the party, it was rather set in stone before I even joined the class. My parents have arranged for retainers from various noble houses to take the class alongside me in order to form an optimally balanced team. Perhaps a pity, in some sense. I dare say the experience you and Lady Valis will have may be more… interesting.”

A shame. I didn’t have a great sense of how strong she was, but having someone I knew in the party would have been preferable to random people I didn’t. Win some, lose some, I guess.

As more and more students trickled out of the room, another familiar face passed by. As he spotted me, he waved and started coming over, only to stop dead in his tracks as he noticed I was occupied.

His approach, however, did not go unnoticed by Verin, nor, apparently, did his eyes.

“Ah. I do not believe I was aware of another Shifted in the class. A rarity. A friend of yours, then? Perhaps we should find time to discuss our experiences at some point; however, I believe I should head out before your other companion embroils me in a much longer conversation.”

It was as if the noble had some sort of sixth sense, as behind her I spotted Alara presently en route.

Verin gave me a curt nod.

“And as I won’t be delving with you, perhaps we can use the time offered by our impending break to explore the gallery I mentioned, yes? I’ll send an invitation.”

Oh. Right. She did invite me along to something like that back at the ball, didn’t she?

Before I could make so much as a peep in response, she darted out, only to be replaced moments later by Alara. Where the first had been largely impassive, the second was actively pulling at her hair, eyes staring far off into the distance.

“Um. Was it that bad for you then?” Emin nervously glanced up at the hulking brawler, as if simply mentioning the test would spook her.

“We could go grab a drink if you need one,” I offered. It was early yet, but I had no qualms with a touch of day-drinking if it was for a friend.

Pulling a hand from her hair, she waved us off. “It is fine. The test was a worthy opponent, and I must return home to nurse the wounds it has given me. You two should celebrate your victory, however!”

The two of us attempted to persuade her to join us, but Alara was adamant. With a shrug, it was all we could do to assure her she’d hopefully done better than she’d thought, and if she hadn’t, then the test was stupid in any case.

After parting ways with Alara, Emin and I decided to follow her advice and “celebrate our victory.” Early as it was, Tree of Knowledge was still in its cafe mode, but that suited the two of us just fine. A celebration didn’t have to involve heavy amounts of drinking — sometimes a nice meal worked just as well.

Much to Emin’s dismay and distaste, I’d opted to stab and heal my flesh homunculus on the way to the cafe. Practice was practice! On arriving, however, I stowed it away, noting his squeamish relief.

For a while, we chatted about the test. Compared a few answers. Discussed the questions that had stumped us. Once that was out of the way, however, I asked the question that had been rolling around in my head since we’d left the classroom.

“What did Verin mean about you two being ‘Shifted’?” When I’d learned about the various scions, Markus had made a brief mention that Verin was “ice aligned,” but had left it at that. With as much as I’d had to cover with the man, I hadn’t pressed him for more information, but I was starting to regret that choice.

It was a pretty safe guess that she’d been referring to his nearly-black eyes and the very faint aura that hung about him, but past that, I was clueless.

Emin chuckled. “I, uh, assumed you knew. Polite of you not to pry before now, but it’s not a secret. She and I are ‘Mana Shifted’. Instead of producing normal, unaspected mana like most people do, I directly produce dark mana, while she produces ice. It would be fascinating if, well, it weren’t such a pain.”

Weird. I could see why it would be a pain though. If I’d had eyes like that back on Earth, people would assume I was wearing costume contacts 24/7, or that I was some sort of demon.

“Is it only the visual change? Or does it actually affect you somehow?” If it made all his dark spells stronger, maybe it was actually helpful in a way?

“Hmm? Uh, it messes with pretty much everything, actually. Any magic I use is weaker if it’s not dark. My mana regen is abysmal if I’m not in a location with large amounts of dark mana. Feels unpleasant too. Like trying to take a breath, but the air’s always too thin. Mostly, uh, a bit of a curse unless you’re lucky or rich enough to be surrounded by your mana type all the time.”

Wow. That kind of sucked? And here I was thinking that the Verin and Emin just got edgy styles completely for free. With all that in mind, it was even more wild that the researcher was trying to get into dungeon delving.

“So, class wise, you’d be better off with some monster parts from dark-infused monsters, right? Just need to grab a few?” That certainly wasn’t that hard, was it?

Something about this amused him to no end, and he broke out into a fit of snickering. “Just grab a few. You know how rare such things are, no?”

Is it really that big a deal? I was about to ask him what the issue was before realizing I actually knew the answer for once. Gemma the jeweler had touched on it a bit when I tried selling to her, but even more than that, I’d learned about it a few weeks ago in class.

If you wanted an earth dungeon or a water dungeon, all you had to do was look in some mountains or by a lake. A darkness dungeon, on the other hand, was far rarer, and considerably harder to find. The only places that were perpetually dark were normally underground, and at that point, you were more likely to find an earth dungeon in any case. Naturally occurring darkness-infused creatures were probably vanishingly rare.

Guess my view on this is a little skewed. Not like he can just Amazon some dungeon monster parts from who-knows-where.

In terms of dark monster parts though…

“Um. Kind of random. But does this count?” I reached into my spatial pouch and fished out some of the obsidian I’d mined from Slippy’s body. It looked like a rock, but it had been part of a monster, right?

“Ha. I, uh, don’t think a dark rock is going to cut it, but let me-” He took a hold of the rock and immediately went mute.

In a flash, his forearm grew glassy and faceted, as if the obsidian had melted over it.

“This is… But… I could probably hit the next level through researching this alone! It’s just… the toughness. And the mana conductivity. And is that some life mana inside? Fascinating. I wonder if I could use this as a basis for imbuing plants with dark mana. I’d have to set up some experiments, but…” He trailed off, completely lost to the world for a few seconds before abruptly snapping back with a stammer.

“Oh! S-sorry! But, where in the hells did you get this? This is incredible! Incredible.” He held the obsidian in a death grip, as if afraid I’d yank it away from him at any moment.

Come on. It can’t be that big of a deal, can it? “I just sort of found it in a darkness dungeon I ran once. Part of some random hidden boss that was made from obsidian.”

Far from calming the researcher down, he went wild at this, and for a moment I worried he might launch himself at me from across the cafe table.

“You ran a darkness dungeon? Is it nearby? Can I come? Or can you tell me where? I’ll pay. Uh. All my savings? 100 favors? A box of expensive chocolates? Life of my firstborn? A signed, first-edition copy of ‘The Fifth Herbal Compendium’?”

Wonder if he’d joke about giving me his firstborn if he knew I had that whole Demonic Summoning skill. Accepting first borns feels like a demonic summoner thing to do.

Jokes aside, I found myself at a loss. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Emin. I even trusted the researcher a good deal — while we hadn’t really talked it over, I’d have to if he ended up being part of my dungeon delving party.

Still, physically bringing someone from Sylum back to Emer’Thalis… It kind of spit in the face of the whole “make sure no one can find out you’re a Protagonist,” thing. And that was a secret I didn’t think I was ready to share yet.

“It’s, uh. Closed off now,” I lied. I was about to say it was a Yekkish thing before remembering they didn’t have the system up there. I wasn’t sure if that meant they didn’t have dungeons either. “And also really far away. Sorry.”

Deception has reached level 3!

“Oh.” The animation drained out of Emin a flash, leaving him looking somewhat deflated. “Right, of course. Sorry for prying.”

I winced, stifling a groan as I saw him retreat back into a thick-walled shell. “You can keep that one though. Hopefully it’ll help out?” He’d certainly put it to far better use than I would.

Some of the tension escaped from his shoulders as he summoned up a soft smile. “This is, ah, far too nice of a gift for me, but I want to study it a bit too much to decline. In that case, let’s say I’ll, uh, owe you one? Or two or three? Thank you Lady- Apologies. Thank you Tess.”

I shrugged, hoping to downplay it and still feeling guilty for lying. “I’m sure you’d do the same if the roles were reversed.”

Emin raised a hand to his head, for once using it to stroke at his chin rather than the back of his head. He seemed to zone out for a moment before speaking.

“Yes, I think you’re right. It would be nice to get you a gift sometime if I could get my hands on something you wanted.”

That’s kind of sweet, I think. I just hope he doesn’t think he needs to get me something to repay me for the rock. I know it has mana in it, but it really is just a rock. As far as gifts went, it was visually only one step up from a lump of coal.

Without warning, Emin shook his head, fully snapping back to reality. His face grew flushed, as if he’d said something embarrassing. “Oh, uh. Sorry. I should… I just remembered I had a thing. Thanks again, and uh, I’ll see you later?” Emin hastily collected himself and pushed away from the bar counter.

Probably in a rush to check that rock out. I chuckled. Can’t fault a nerd for being a nerd.

“For sure. I’ll see you later.”

With that, he darted out the door, and after finishing my drink, I followed his example.

On the way back, I idly cast Illumination over and over again, more as a distracted habit than from an actual desire to train.

I don’t think I like lying to my friends very much, I decided. I knew I had to, but still. It sucked.

As if to pull me from my deception-induced funk, a notification popped up.

Illumination has reached level 10!

Congratulations! You have reached the Initiate rank in Illumination!

You have been granted the standard augment for your spell.

Augment of Coloration

Allows you to summon lights in whatever color you prefer.

Oh.

Well, some things were unambiguously positive. While the notification itself didn’t succeed in fully pulling me from my thoughts, its consequences did.

I get to grab a new cantrip now, right?

Much as we’d been told at the end of the Dungeon Delving test, it was just about time for a break from school.

You better believe I’m making time to visit the archmage before heading back, though. Hopefully in only a day’s time, I’d have 8 mana types down, and only one to go.

Character Updates:

Deception 2 → 3 Illumination 9 → 10

Character Sheet:

Name: Tess

Age: 26

Race: Human

Class: Arcane Arsenal

Level: 11

Prestige: 1238

Health: 500/500

Mana: 350/350

Stamina: 275/275

Constitution: 28 (+2)

Strength: 26

Endurance: 26

Dexterity: 21 (+1)

Intelligence: 31 (+2)

Wisdom: 27 (+2)

Perception: 28

Charisma: 21

Luck: 27

Skills:

Skills

Weapon & Armor

Spears: 11

Small Blades: 11

Archery: 10

Axes: 9

Heavy Armor: 6

Medium Armor: 5

Light Armor: 4

Swords: 3

Hammers: 2

Staffs: 2

Unarmed Combat: 2

Movement

Dodge: 6

Spell Classes

Fire Magic: 10

Water Magic: 10

Dark Magic: 9

Light Magic: 8

Mental Magic: 8

Life Magic: 6

Earth Magic: 3

Air Magic: 3

Magic

Advanced Internal Mana Manipulation: 5

Demonic Summoning: 2

Ritual Magic: 1

Spells

Conjure Water: 11

Flameploof: 10

Darken Small Object: 10

Illumination: 10

Sense Minds: 7

Minor Healing: 7

Summon Pebble: 3

Gust: 3

Resistances

Trauma Suppression: 13

Mental Resistance: 7

Poison Resistance: 6

Bleed Resistance: 4

Pain Resistance: 4

Heat Resistance: 2

Detection

God's Eye: 8

Detect Secret: 8

Detect Trap: 7

Craft

Construction: 6

Woodworking: 7

Jewelry Making: 5

Mining: 5

Alchemy: 5

Herbalism: 4

Social

Conversation: 5

Etiquette: 5

Dancing: 4

Trade: 3

Deception: 3

Flirt: 2

General

Drinking: 7 (+5)

Reading: 3

Gambling: 1

Writing: 1

Class Skills

Weaponmaster

Bind Weapon: 5/5

Arcane Armament: 2/5

Overload Weapon: 1/5

Armorist

Bind Armor: 5/5

Arcane Armory: 5/5

Resist Magic: 2/5

Augmenter

Mana Feet: 1/1

Arcane Vision: 1/1