chapter 2

The adventurer girl, Aurora, was startled awake by a big noise nearby. The sound of trees being pulled out of the ground. Knowing that she indeed is in danger, she quickly took a dagger out and started running in the opposite direction to evade the supposedly dangerous monster.

'Shit, shit, shit, I really hope it was not a Cyclop; otherwise, I am dead meat.' While Aurora was saying this out loud, she saw a gigantic light on the horizon. Not knowing what it could be in this dark forest, she decides to go in that direction—thinking that it was a wrong, lousy decision, she could not help but remember the past of her first day in hell.

An hour later, Aurora exits the building with just enough money to enroll in the academy. With a big smile, she looks at the full bourse full of gold coins.

''You human, Aurori! Come this way!' shouted the elf. Aurora directly saw Alea, but she was not alone. Two men stood there on her left and right side, a wolfman with gray fur, dark eyes, and an elf man with blond hair and green eyes; both were the same size, around 6.5 feet tall. Shocked that the elf girls could not even remember her name, she went in their direction. When she was still far, the male elf said: "mmhm, she is just a frail human. Do you really think that she could be useful, Alea? What do you think of her, Zarul? "

With a low voice Zarul, the wolfman, said, 'it's not really important. We will only use her as a scout. She just needs to have great speed, right, Alea ?"

The elf girl said,'' Jaarthael, we do not need her to survive for a long time. We will just need her to sacrifice herself if we are in a desperate situation, and before that, we can use her as a slave. Hehe.''

Aurora, with a reluctant first step, went to the group. With a shy voice, Aurora said'

"Hello, I need to thank you again for your help in the tavern. Did you want to talk about something?'' The elf replied:'' No problem, but you understand that you do own me a big one, right? So to repay me, why don't you form a party with us? What do you think? It's a good idea, right?

Aurora thought it would be an excellent idea to start the academy with a group rather than start as a lone adventurer. She directly accepts the invitation.

When she arrived at the light, she saw that the light was at the castle's top. She found it strange that the millennia-old palace could still give light? When she was nearby, the girl could see that only one tower was lightened. The rest of the castle was so pitch black that you could not even guess the full structure.

" Okay, the treasure should be at the tower; only magic items could still give off such a light after thousands of years.' With a heavy sigh, she decides to penetrate the front door.

The entry was a majestic door made from a strong wood that she could not recognize. A few decorations were engraved on the door. It looks like a magic inscription, a really complex one.

Wow, is this a magic array? I never saw one this complicated. It was so damaged, it seems like time is not so forgiving. Unfortunately for her, she didn't pay attention that a small light could be seen from one of the engraved letters on the door the moment she touched the door.

When she entered, an awful smell was swarming in the air. The red carpet was moldy; a few holes could be seen in it; the paintings on the walls were destroyed, a few burned down, and others torn apart. The enclosed smell reminds her of her first assignment with the group.

It was three weeks later, in front of the academy, Aurora could see the group. Zarul is the first to say something:

'' At least you are there, you are almost late! You will need to come on time if we want to graduate"'

Yes, Aurora, it would nice if you did come on time'' said the elf lady with a friendly smile. After three weeks, she knew that this smile was fake. She knew that today would be a living hell. Today's assignment was to enter a light gray dungeon, Arachidee maze. Today's goal in the maze was to find a specific plant: the Ideena, a type of healing plant that you could only find in a place full of spiders. Aurora had already bought antidotes for everybody because they would all die there if one of them fell. She didn't say anything about it because she knew that they would have tried to steal all the potion. In those few weeks, she saw how wicked they indeed were.

Alea actually made her sign a magic agreement! In this contract, it was written that she would stay in their group for four years; otherwise, she will have to repay a massive amount of money. When she first saw the contract, she thought it was the academy's agreement, but it was a slave contract in reality. The moral of the story is always read before signing something. Regretfully it was too late. She just had to survive four years before she will be set free again. She just had to be present on the missions to fulfill the contract, and she still did get paid. While she thought it could've been worse, she remembered that those friends used her as bait, scout, or every position that could be dangerous.

But anyways, the female adventurer had no choice but to participate in the quests.

Aurora ready herself not to trust those guys again. In front of the dungeon, they quickly got in position—Aurora in front like a scout(even though her actual class is archer). Alea is a mage, and she is in front of the male elf and behind the wolfman. Jaarthael was a monk, and he was standing behind Alea to defend the rear. Zarul, the wolfman, was a beast knight standing with a giant shield in front of Alea. Using this ridiculous formation, they advanced in the dungeon smoothly. Aurora was spotting enemies, and she was fighting the monsters left and right like a warrior. She was the group's highest level party member.

She didn't receive much help from her party members. Aurora monopolized all the experience, but she still had to give the loot to Alea's party leader. At the end of the first floor, Aurora was full of injuries. Only then did Jaarthael use a healing spell on her. The three first floors looked like a cave: a rough stone wall, with some torch to give a bit of light. But when they entered the fourth floor, it looked like an old jail, full of broken iron bars, and a disgusting smell was lingering in the air.

The group became cautious about the change in the air. They could not see even one spider at this level, but they could sense that something was staring at them. Slowly advancing in the old jail, Aurora saw something moving in the shadows. Something was glaring at her from one of the old cells. A giant spider with six eyes, the rest of her eyes were missing. One leg of the spider was missing; you could also see a few burn scars and arrows on her back. The battle-forged spider was ready to jump at the party members. Aurora wanted to jump to the side. But Jaartheal threw her in the pile of rotting corpses close to the spider to escape the monster. The spider saw this as an opportunity to finish one of her prey.

She had no choice but to use one of her potions; the inferno potion. She throws it at the mouth of the beast, and it directly explodes. The creature ran to one pile of the corpses to extinguish the fire. Using this chance, Aurora quickly fled to the group and gave them a dirty look. Alea's group decided to take action when Aurora was trying to survive this incident. Alea cast an inferno spell, and some big tornado flames rapidly formed out of nothing and moved toward the giant spider to kill it. Jaartheal uses the abilities aura of peace to cast to Alea, and Zarul uses his shield to protect the two of them. They did finish the quest, but Aurora was severely injured after this.

Reminscensing bad memories, she decides to walk further down the corridor, where she sees a big door. The ornament on it was made with gold and silver; its pattern was simple but elegant. It was the throne room.

After recasting her light spell, Aurora decides to penetrate the room. There was a gigantic throne in the middle of the place made from a magical type of wood.

What surprised her the most was that a person was sitting in it. But when she decided to approach, she could feel her strength diminishing with every step she took. After a few steps, she was in front of him. She could see that the guy was not moving; he was sitting on the throne using one arm to hold its head. He was wearing a nice suit, but you could see that the time damaged its clothes. The piece of clothing had holes in it, and green spots could be seen.

'Wow, did I just find a pretty sleeping prince? What is he doing here? It looks like he was sitting here for a long time. Was he abandoned? Who would let such a pretty boy alone? The adventurer Aurora started asking herself those questions rapidly.

The adventurer was right. The boy was charming. He had black hair cut short, and his skin was tanned, but just enough to look healthy. The boy, or should we say the man looked in his early twenties. The woman could not stop but blush just looking at him.

Aurora wanted to check for a heartbeat, so the girl reached for his neck. But as soon as her fingers met his skin, the sleeping beauty woke up.