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Chapter 122: Extreme Situation (2)
The Next Day.
After getting ready to go out, I arrived at the meeting spot and waited for Professor Elisha.
I sat in the shade for about ten minutes to avoid the scorching summer sun.
Vroooom.
With the sound of an engine, Professor Elisha’s magic vehicle pulled up in front of me.
The window rolled down, and Professor Elisha, wearing sunglasses, waved casually.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No, I just got here ten minutes ago myself.”
“Get in.”
After loading my luggage into the back seat, I got into the passenger seat.
“You don’t have much stuff.”
“Well, we’re not going far.”
Besides, once you enter ‘there,’ most of the stuff you bring from outside becomes useless.
“By the way, I don’t think you told me where we’re going.”
“You agreed to come with me without even knowing where we’re headed?”
“Haha, I owe you quite a bit, Cadet Dale.”
Seeing Professor Elisha shrug her shoulders nonchalantly, I held back a small laugh.
“Well… once we get there, you’ll recognize it, Professor Elisha.”
After all, it was a place we visited just a few days ago.
“Hmm, alright. So, where do I go?”
“Just keep going straight this way.”
And so, we headed to the destination in Professor Elisha’s magic vehicle.
About twenty minutes later, we arrived at a small mountain not far from the school.
“This place…”
“Do you recognize it?”
“Isn’t this the mountain with the entrance to the underground ruins beneath the school?”
“That’s right.”
The underground ruins beneath the school, where the final evaluation was held, were vast enough to resemble an underground city.
The entrance was inside this mountain.
‘Most candidates don’t know about this entrance since we used a warp gate during the exam.’
Now that the exam was over, and all the warp gates had been retrieved, we had no choice but to enter through this entrance.
“You mentioned creating an extreme situation, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did.”
“…But why are we here? The guardian golems have been removed, so it’s probably empty.”
The enormous underground ruins beneath the Hero Academy.
Thanks to its vast and complex structure, it was used for final evaluations and various practical training.
Normally, the ruins were empty.
“I don’t think the extreme situation you’re aiming for, Dale candidate, will happen here.”
“It’s fine. Our destination is even ‘lower’ than this.”
“…Lower?”
Professor Elisha squinted at me, as if wondering what kind of nonsense I was spouting.
“Have you heard the rumor that the Demon God is sealed beneath the Hero Academy?”
“Of course, I have.”
Everyone on the continent knew that the school was built on the land where the Demon God was sealed by the Sword of the Sun, Reynald, 500 years ago.
“Then, do you know exactly how far below the demon god is buried?”
“Well… it must be deep enough that no human could reach it.”
Though it was widely known that the Five Great Heroes sealed the demon god here, no one knew exactly where.
It was only said that the demon god was sealed in an ‘abyss’ unreachable by humans.
“The sixth floor.”
“The sixth floor…?”
“And this ruin is the ‘first floor’ of that so-called abyss where the demon god is sealed.”
“…!”
Professor Elisha’s eyes widened, her mouth agape.
“W-Wait. What did you just say? This ruin is the ‘abyss’ where the demon god is sealed?”
“Didn’t you find it strange?”
I glanced around at the vast underground ruins that resembled an underground city.
The area was much larger than the entire school above it.
“Isn’t it strange that such an enormous ruin is directly beneath the school?”
The Demon God sealed beneath the school.
The enormous underground ruins located right below it.
It wasn’t hard to draw a meaningful connection between the two.
“Many heroes over the past 500 years have claimed something similar to what you’re suggesting, Dale. But in all that time, no passage to the ‘lower’ levels of this ruin has ever been discovered.”
“That’s because there isn’t one.”
I shrugged and nodded.
“There’s no physical passage leading further down.”
“…Are you playing word games with me?”
Professor Elisha glared at me with fierce eyes.
I chuckled softly and shook my head.
“No. What I mean is that there is no physical passage.”
“No physical passage…?”
Professor Elisha narrowed her eyes.
“How did we enter this ruin during the final evaluation?”
“…Are you saying there’s a warp to the lower levels?”
“Yes. But first, we have to activate the hidden magic circle within the ruin to enable the warp.”
“Hah.”
Professor Elisha rubbed her forehead, letting out a hollow laugh.
“How could no one know about this for 500 years?”
It wasn’t as though this place was a completely hidden area.
For 500 years, hundreds and thousands of candidates had taken exams and undergone practical training here.
There was even a holographic map of the ruins that could be seen using the Hero Watch.
It was hard to believe that a warp no one knew about had existed for 500 years.
Even though she knew I was a ‘regressor,’ it was hard to accept.
“Well, it’s not surprising. The information about the ‘abyss’ was intentionally erased.”
“Erased? By whom?”
“Who do you think?”
I pointed to the ceiling of the underground ruins.
More precisely, to the Hero Academy above it.
“The ones who sealed the Demon God.”
“You’re saying the Five Great Heroes hid the information about the abyss?”
“Why would they let that kind of information spread? It wouldn’t do any good.”
“Hmm. That does make sense.”
Professor Elisha stroked her chin and nodded.
From their perspective, spreading information about the abyss wouldn’t have been beneficial at all.
“Alright, let’s get going.”
“…Understood.”
Professor Elisha nodded heavily and followed behind me.
The place I headed to was the center of the ruins.
It wasn’t a maze-like area blocked by towering rocks but a wide, open space.
"Here it is."
"…Is there really a magic circle hidden here?"
Professor Elisha frowned as she surveyed the surroundings.
Her violet eyes gleamed as her black, vertically slit pupils emerged, shimmering with insight.
"Tsk."
As expected.
Even with her "Blessing of Insight," there was nothing that looked like a magic circle around.
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"Haha. If it were a magic circle that could be revealed by the Blessing of Insight, it would’ve been discovered ages ago."
"Tch."
Her Blessing of Insight was incredibly effective when it came to examining living beings or inner aspects, but it wasn’t very useful in finding hidden magic circles like this.
'Magic circles don’t have bodily fluids, after all.'
The true power of her Blessing of Insight only manifested when she directly absorbed the bodily fluids of her target.
"Please step back for a moment."
I placed my hand on the ground of the ruins and slowly let my mana flow into it.
It was my first time activating a warp connected to the 'Abyss,' but I didn't think I'd fail.
'This magic circle’s core structure is based on the Sage's three unsolvable problems.'
And I had already solved all but one of those problems.
Woooong!
A magic circle that had been invisible until now began to emit light, causing the ruins to vibrate.
Complex patterns of magic intertwined in the air, swirling around.
It was a scene as if letters from a book had detached and were floating freely in the air.
Ziiiiing.
Blue glowing strings of text gathered in one spot, forming a warp gate.
"There, now you can enter."
"Huh…."
Professor Elisha chuckled dryly, staring at the warp gate that had formed almost too easily.
"Will this warp gate remain open?"
"No. It will automatically close in about three days."
After that, it would take at least a month to reopen the warp gate.
"Let’s go."
I slowly stepped into the warp gate.
Professor Elisha nodded and followed behind me.
Wooooong!
With a floating sensation, my vision flickered.
"So… this is the Abyss."
Professor Elisha squinted as she surveyed the surroundings.
A barren landscape of ashen rocks and dry earth bathed in a faint reddish light unfolded before our eyes.
"Yes. This is the second floor."
"…Cadet Dale."
As she looked around, Professor Elisha’s face hardened.
"There’s a demonic beast."
A tall, ashen rock.
From behind it, a demonic beast ambled out.
"Screeeee! Squeak."
The demonic beast had the appearance of a rat, only a hundred times bigger.
Its massive head was adorned with eight pairs of eyes glowing ominously.
"Screeeeeeech!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground shook as the demonic beast charged toward us.
"Bind it."
Professor Elisha swiftly unleashed dozens of silver threads that wrapped around the demonic beast's body.
"Screeeee!"
The demonic beast thrashed violently, struggling against the silver threads.
I kicked off the ground and rushed toward the demonic beast.
Crash!
Leaping high into the air, I flipped and brought my heel down on the demonic beast's crown.
Berald’s Martial Arts.
Thunderous Strike.
Crack!
The sound of bones shattering echoed as one of the demonic beast's eyes popped out and rolled across the ground.
"Hmph."
Professor Elisha grimaced as she stared at the dead demonic beast’s crushed head.
"An 8-eyed demonic beast as soon as we arrive…."
Though we handled it easily, that was only because both she and I were abnormally strong heroes; the demonic beast itself wasn’t weak by any means.
"No need to be surprised. This is just how it is here."
The demonic beasts that lived in the Abyss, influenced by the Demon God, were far stronger than the ones on the surface on average.
"A place where 8-eyed demonic beasts roam around like stray dogs."
"……."
Professor Elisha was silent, her lips tightly pressed together, perhaps too exhausted to even chuckle.
"Indeed… If it's here, you might experience the 'extreme situations' you mentioned, Cadet Dale."
"No. This isn’t the place I intended to go."
"…This isn’t the place?"
"The third floor."
I raised three fingers.
"My destination is one level lower."
"……."
Professor Elisha’s expression darkened.
If I had to describe the emotion on her face, it would be something like…
'Should I have not come along?'
That would be about right.
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