19. The College of All

As David got out, the first thing he saw was Benjamin's face, and he jumped back out of reflex. Then he heard Benjamin's voice

"Good you have gotten a lot more powerful than you used to be. We have to reach the College of All before they send more people again, I had to fight groups of ten transcendents and it has taken its toll on me. Lets get a move on, we'll talk in the road."(Benjamin)

Just as Benjamin finished David Hugged Benjamin

"I am so happy to finally see you again, it has been more than a year and the dungeon was scary."(David)

"Damn kid, sorry I couldn't be there for you but you would never survive the fight here I had to send you away and the dungeon was my only choice"(Benjamin)

Just as they were about to separate Benjamin gave one last tight hug. After that David realized the situation they were in and they started moving. They were moving way faster than they had been before his dungeoning. It would take them about 3 weeks in their previous speed, as they needed to go through another route instead of the previous one, but now it only took them 5 days to reach the border, the border was the most problematic part as they needed to sneak past numerous hero leveled guards.

Benjamin started studying the guards patterns throughout the checkpoint and his study was slowly paying off as he started to formulate a plan, while the plan was slowly formulating, David and Benjamin had a lot of time to talk and bond.

David would tell his stories in the dungeon, how he failed to beat the monkey boss at first, went to the mantises and cleared most of them before coming back to finish the monkey boss, and how he almost died to the huge hob-goblin. Benjamin in turn would teach David about subtle tricks that he could have used in the said situation to ease his efforts and basically make things easier for him.

David even told Benjamin about the puzzle solving challenge room and how it took him so long to solve an easy ass puzzle just because he didn't know that he could move the pedestal.

"Hahaha, kid you got played by one of the oldest tricks in the books of dungeoning. The same trick was written down on all the 7 of the most famous books written about dungeons, well the dungeons in the world don't really have many challenge rooms left but our old old ancestors had many of these challenge rooms to clear, and the trick you mentioned is in all their books, and even after that most people that entered these dungeons like you did also explained that there was the occasional non moving pedestal that could actually be turned."(Benjamin)

"At least I got my money worth of time after I solved the puzzle, it gave me a technique to absorb Divine material cores and even gave me the Glacial Water, a Mediocre Divine Water"(David)

"Holy shit, even I didn't absorb any Mediocre Divine materials, you really are lucky kid, you have a bright future ahead of you, you should get your revenge but don't live to get it, live so that you could become powerful and get your revenge because of it. Don't get stuck on things like I did, look at me now, I may be powerful but I ain't powerful enough to kill the God king and I ain't ever will be because I lost my edge, I am no longer that crazy guy that would try everything to get more powerful, if you are looking to just get revenge, after some point you start becoming scared that you will die before you are able to kill them. For some people it isn't like that, you know the occasional person who became a god overnight after making a deal with a demon god and so on but thats even more destructive and you don't even gain any power, its just yours for a day or two until its gone. Sorry kid, I rambled on for too long."(Benjamin)

David slowly said its ok but didn't think it was heard by Benjamin as it was more like a soft whisper. Benjamin definitely heard it by the way. They didn't talk for the rest of the night and in the morning everything was back to normal, no strange atmosphere.

"Guess what David"(Benjamin)

"What"(David)

"Come on kid are you really going to say what after I said guess what"(Benjamin)

"Alright alright, fair enough. Uhh, I'll guess that the plan is finally finished and we will be moving today"(David)

"You are damn right, get ready to move, we will be moving in two hours, follow me strictly and try not to make a noise after we start moving alright, there are some of the most powerful transcendents stationed in this outpost as it leads to the College of All and as they know that we are heading this way. They don't go out and actively seek any problem on the area but if they hear anything from the others, we'll have a hard time running away from them."(Benjamin)

After saying all this they had breakfast and waited for the mid day shift changes to sneak past the guards, Benjamin was scared that David would make some noise and they would get caught but to his surprise the kid was pretty sneaky, he thought that it was one of the things he earned from the dungeon and he was absolutely correct. They sneaked by without raising any alarms whatsoever and reached the no mans land that separated the whole of the college of all from all the countries.

This area was not that wide only amounting to about 50 km from every side. That was less than 3 days worth of travel and as they were already in the No Mans Land, it was almost certain that they would reach the College of All, only problem would be if they encountered any of the 20 god monsters or any of the 108 high transcendent monsters who were only tens of levels away from becoming god monsters.

This area called No Mans Land was unlike the name suggests created by humans, not humans but more like a singular human, more than 10000 years ago one god went from a mediocre god to one of the most powerful. After his rise to power destroyed a whole kingdom with multiple gods and deemed the place cursed as he created a barrier of monsters around it more than 100 god tier monsters and more than 1000 transcendent monsters had been here at its peak but as the areas mana was not enough to supply all these monsters after the death of the said expert, monsters started leaving the place and in 10000 years the are had found its natural balance and still had a lot of God monsters as the College of All increased the mana density inside its own borders.

The walk through the No Mans Land was relatively relax as they only faced 2 transcendent monsters that had a chat with Benjamin and let them go on their way. As they reached the end of the No Mans Land, they saw a huge wall lining the world as long as they could see. And an out post right in front of them. Both were pretty happy and increased their speed and entered the outpost. There was these counters people went to register and go in. They had all these different cards showing they were allowed entry to the College of All, needles to say David and Benjamin didn't have such cards. Just as David was about to ask Benjamin about it. Benjamin said.

"Don't worry, we are seeking refuge not visiting or entering, now if they ask you, you only have a real good knack over combining skills alright nothing more."(Benjamin)

Right after Benjamin said this, they reached the counter and saw that an Elvish Lady asked them for their entry cards.

"Hello, we aren't entering we wanted to seek refuge from the Ausloris Kingdom"(Benjamin)

"You look awfully calm for someone seeking refuge from a country, sir"(Elvish Lady)

"Just call me your supervisor, Laeden"(Benjamin)

"Wait how did you ..."(Laeden)

Laeden was a level 903 Archer but this man had been able to inspect his statistics which meant that he was at least level 1000.

"Yes sir, Sorry to make you wait, it'll be a minute"(Laeden)

As Laeden went upstairs to call for her superior, she heard the outpost leaders, Eabita's ,voice in her head.

"Bring them to me Laeden."(Eabita)

Laeden went back down stairs and asked David and Benjamin to follow her and follow they did. As they reached the top floor, Laeden led them to the only door in the floor and then left as meekly as a mouse.

Davids heart was beating like a race car while Benjamin was as calm as he could be. And after a 5 second wait finally the doors started opening.

As the doors aparted and a graceful elf woman, about 180cm long and with dazzling silver hair and rosy skin came out in a white dress. David felt his heart beating even faster but for other reasons. Just as all this was happening David heard Bejamin's voice.

"Eabita, old friend, are you trying to get my disciple to fall in love with you mask your presence"(Benjamin)

"I'm just testing the kid out and having some fun nothing wrong with that"(Eabita)

After this remark there was a silence for a second or two until both of them started laughing like mad. At that point Eabita had withdrawn all her presence so David was also able to come back to earth.

"So tell me what does Benjamin the Nightmare seek from the College of All, if I remember correctly you refused to join us, when you got away from the god king. What set your path towards us."(Eabita)

"I see you are as stupid as you used to be"(Benjamin)

Just as he said this David felt a gust of wind hit him and he had to take a step back and he saw that Eabita had tried to kick Benjamin's balls.

"Eabita you should know by now that you could never be as fast as me, you are a mage for gods sake, even when we were students you were always trying to hit me in the nuts whenever I joked around with you"(Benjamin)

"I know, I know, I just wanted to remember the old times, so you came to seek refuge huh. We would definitely take you and I could make place for the kid in the academy no questions asked but if he had any talents that would make things easier for me."(Eabita)

"Of course he has a talent, he is a one in ten million or even a one in a hundred million talent, he can combine skills easily. Just give him a week or two with 2 skills and voila he's got you a combined skill better than both."(Benjamin)

"Oh, its an unexpected but a good surprise. Alright College of All will accept you as a teacher and you as part of the talented people group when you reach 18 you will start learning like normal students with extra classes"(Eabita)

"Leave the serious work for later, lets chat a bit. David why don't you go ahead and waste time outside we have a lot of things to talk about"(Benjamin)

Practically being kicked out David went downstairs and talked to Laeden about where he could spend time. He was told that some of the academy's first year students were in the town that was part of the outpost, mostly in the tavern as they had returned from a hard mission and needed to spend some time relaxing. David went there.