Dive [1]

My first real week of training had passed, and my body felt like shit.

Even with Sarah healing me and consuming several potions, my body still took quite a beating from the spars.

When we ended the spar, the gorilla told Sarah to keep the spar a secret, so as to not let my skill be known to anyone.

Like this, I was now ready to prepare myself fully before we did the dungeon dive on Friday.

****

The days went by, following the routine of the previous week. Although I hadn't made any huge breakthroughs such as attaining a new skill or empowering my M.G, I had still made some steady progress.

My elemental imbuement had gotten to a point where I could quite naturally execute lightning attacks, without having to consciously think about the process.

It wasn't to the point where I could make it a part of my step-in, step-out combo, but it wasn't too far off either.

Brushing my teeth, I couldn't stop my nerves from acting up.

'I am doing a dungeon dive today...'

Even knowing that our teacher would be present, I was nervous. Accidents weren't a regular occurrence, but they couldn't be called rare either.

'I'm fine, I've trained my ass off for this. And even if he dislikes me, Bayyan is strong and Sarah's healing is amazing.'

As I calmed my nerves with reassuring thoughts, I proceeded to make my way toward our homeroom, where we would get to know exactly how the day would go down.

****

Arriving early, as usual, I sat down on my seat, feeling the soft cushion under my butt.

Without even sitting for a minute, the door opened and the golden boy walked in.

"Yo, Miren! Early as usual?"

He walked to my table and stood in front of me.

"Are you also excited for the dive today? I could barely sleep at all! Just thinking about it makes my blood run wild!"

His blue eyes were on fire, and his body already exuded an air of suspense.

'Combat maniac? He does seem to love fighting.'

"Is that so? Isn't it bad to go for a dive without getting proper sleep though?"

Flexing and grabbing his toned bicep he dismissed my words, "It's fine, I'm fit for fight today! My group even held a small meeting yesterday in order to prepare ourselves."

'Oh right, maybe that would have been a good thing to do. Though I doubt that Bayyan would want to speak with me at all.'

At this point, the other students had started to arrive one after the other, and a full chest had started making its way toward us.

"Hey! Are you guys ready for today? I'm kind of nervous, but with Mike being around it should be fine right?"

Sarah's uniform looked more strained than ever, and she wore her usual angelic smile, but, as confirmed by her words, she seemed a bit nervous.

"Oh, but aren't you guys with Bayyan? From our lessons, he seems strong! With your healing, it should be a breeze!"

Taking his words to heart, her body relaxed a bit,

"Mm, you're right! And if Miren uses his sk..."

'Are we really doing this again? Is everybody that bad at keeping a secret?'

As Sarah had stopped talking, to not expose my martial skill, James' brows rose, "Miren's what?"

Panicking a little, she didn't manage to collect herself enough to get us out of the situation. Thus I intervened, "She meant with my skill at keeping myself safe, we should be fine."

I gave her a meaningful glance to make sure she got the hint.

"Ah yes, as Bayyan is strong, and I'm not part of the frontline, as long as Miren keeps himself safe, we should be fine!"

James didn't quite believe her words but chose to let it go.

"Is that so...? Well as long as you guys don't get hurt, it's all good."

"Take to your seats!"

Our homeroom teacher had arrived.

"Let's start the briefing for today. "

Once again showing the parties on the whiteboard, he spoke,

"Each group will be spending two hours each in the dungeon, and even though you won't see me, I'll be following the group from a distance. I will only intervene if someone's life is at risk, otherwise, you are on your own! Now, you will spend the time before lunch planning strategies with your party members, and afterward, we will meet at the portal house."

With that, he left the room as quickly as he entered.

Everyone started to move, gathering into their groups, including mine.

Both Bayyan and Sarah made their way to my table, and the gray-haired man spoke, "Come on, let's go to the cafeteria."

During our walk, Sarah and Bayyan walked in front holding a conversation, and I walked a bit behind as I preferred.

We quickly entered and sat down at a table, unfortunately not my table, and we began our planning.

"So Sarah, I think we should go with a traditional spearhead and support positioning. I'll attract and fight the goblins, and you will support with healing and ranged attacks....

Their conversation continued, with mostly Bayyan talking and me being completely left out of the discussion.

'Guess he genuinely doesn't see me as a valid party member.'

Instead of trying to verbally break into the meeting, I got up and asked, "Do you guys want a cup of coffee?"

"Yes."

"Yes, please. Oh, could you add some milk to mine? Thanks, Miren!"

Two very different responses, with Bayyan keeping his tone harsh, and Sarah exchanging a warm smile with me.

Standing in front of my beloved coffee machine, I quickly chose the brews.

With my hands full of steaming coffees, I walked back to the table, where I was met by my party members still active in strategizing our dive.

After distributing their cups, I sat down beside Sarah. Thinking I should at least know a few of our tactics, I asked, "So what's the plan?"

Both of them turned their heads toward me, and Bayyan let out a rude answer, "You don't need to know. It's not like you will make a difference either way. Bringing us coffee was probably the limit of what you will contribute. You can't pay the goblins to commit suicide."

'Woah, that's truly mean, thank god I have already processed my emotions regarding him. He is just a kid, after all.'

Although I could handle his childish act with composure, the third member of our temporary squad didn't take it as well. Standing up, she retorted loudly,

"What are you saying Bayyan?! He is just as much a member of the team as you and I! And talking that crap about him bribing anyone, do you even know about..."

"Sarah, stop."

There wouldn't be any gain in telling my life story here, in fact, it could even cause me to be a target for different reasons. It wasn't a lie that I was favored by both Mike and the principal, and even though I hadn't bribed anyone, that was the reason I was here in the first place. Thus, I chose to stop the girl from talking about it.

Instead, I decided to act like an adult should act, "I understand that you don't like me Bayyan, but we are gonna do a dive no matter what. So it's up to you to decide. Is it better if I just randomly follow you around, and risk making mistakes or letting me know about the strategy and act accordingly?"

Listening to my logical assessment, he frowned but accepted it, "Fine. But I'm gonna accept any strategies where you are an important part. I don't want to risk looking bad in front of Mr. Borr just because we expected something from you.

With a small victory sip of my delicious coffee, I was now a part of the conversation, although to a very limited degree.

****

Our teacher was standing in front of the class, with a big glowing portal behind him. We were all equipped with standardized weapons and black and golden combat armor, differing depending on specialisation. I wore a suit made of light leather, Sarah a cloth one, and Bayyan a heavy leather suit with some steel parts.

"Let's begin our trial dive. You will spend two hours in there, trying to thin out the numbers of goblins as much as possible. Now, the first group to enter will be Bayyan, Sarah, and Miren!"

'Of course, we are the first to go...'

"Now, you three will move in first, and I will follow after you. Do know that you will feel some slight nausea when you teleport."

Bayyan took the lead, with me and Sarah following right behind him, and we entered the portal.

A second of nothingness, and then we had arrived. With only a slight churning in my stomach, I looked around.

Surrounded by a huge jungle, it was as if we had traveled to another continent. The dungeon even had its own sun.

In front of us, we were met by a group of three small green creatures.

"Kirrk, kirk!"

My first real battle was about to begin!