Chapter 7

GREY

"Did you hear the rumor?" Caera asked me as we made our way to "Training for ascents" class.

"No I didn't, please enlighten me," I replied. It had been a few months since I came to school. Me and Seth became really close friends, I feel that I could be myself around him. It was the same with Caera and Mayla. Together we became great friends, even more so than Tessia and Elijah.

Seth got better and can now defend himself. There was obvious romance between Seth and Mayla but they haven't realized it yet. Which makes it hilarious. I made Seth promise to let us know when they start dating, much to his embarrassment.

The four of us hang out during the weekends as well. It was the first time I felt like I was actually living a proper childhood. We even played some games from my old life that I taught them. We didn't play Truth or Dare for 2 reasons. I'm not ready to tell Seth and Mayla my past and I fear for what Caera would dare me to do.

Unfortunately I haven't made any progress with my research on aether but Caera gave the Elderwood guardian's beast will to Sevren. Since Sevren can't use it he's planning to research it and even turn it into a weapon or tool.

"Well, apparently the school is going to see if they can get our training for ascent class into an actual ascent." replied Caera.

I raised my eyebrow in suspicion. "Aren't we first years? Why would they do that?" I asked.

"No clue, it's like they want us to die. Since the relictombs adjust to the strongest person–which is you–it'll be really hard to survive." Caera commented. It was true, I'm much stronger than anyone in our grade. Not sure about the upperclassmen though but I doubt any of them are stronger than me.

As we arrived at class we saw Valen already at our table. Caera and I became friends with Valen but not super close like Seth or Mayla. "Hello, Grey, Caera." said Valen as we sat down.

"Valen, we already told you to stop being so formal." I said as we sat down. "I know, it's just a habit after so many years of "maintaining my position as the next Highlord of the Remseyer blood." I'm glad you two don't treat me like that." replied Valen as he rested his head on his hand.

"Well I probably would if Grey wasn't so casual around everyone. Our parents really did drill it into us." said Caera, expressing her annoyance with the rules of being a highblood.

"That's an understatement," said Valen. Then the teacher entered the room and clapped his hands together.

"Well I have some news for everyone! The school has decided that the strongest student's of each year will go on an ascent with their teacher!" he announced, his excitement spreading to everyone in class.

I saw Caera's eyes go wide in excitement and a smirk form on Valen's face. One student raised his hand, "Sir, who will these student's be?"

"I will read you the list right now. Grey of blood unnamed, Caera of Highblood Denoir, Enola of Highblood Frost, Mayla of Blood Fairweather, Valen of Highblood Remseyer and Seth of Highblood Milview." read the teacher.

I had been training Seth and Mayla outside of my melee enchantment class so it made sense they were strong. Valen, Caera and I were a given since all three of us had made a name for ourselves as people you shouldn't mess with. People were even trying to transfer to my class to learn from me. I also knew Enola was a trustworthy person since I've talked to her in melee enchantment class.

I didn't have time to think about anything though. I was too excited upon hearing my name. I keep it in, or tried to at least until Caera shot out of her seat pulling me into a hug. Valen was also trying his best to keep it in but his eyes deceived him. Everyone in class was staring in jealousy at all of us. The guys looked extra angry at me though.

"You three are to report to room 732 to prepare yourselves and meet your teammates," said the teacher as Caera ran out of the room, pulling me by the arm.

***

"So, who's the teacher that is going to supervise us?" asked Mayla. She and everyone else were struggling to stay in their seats.

"That would be me," said someone from behind us. We all turned around to see a tall nab with a thin frame. He didn't look very strong but his solid silver core said otherwise. Me and Caera made it into solid yellow a while back. He had a bow and arrow for a weapon, it looked elven style, which confused me because this was Alacrya. "My name is Moveo, you don't need to know my blood name." he said in an arrogant tone. I noticed he was giving Caera the stink eye, he didn't like her for some reason.

"What core stage are you Mr. Moveo?" asked Seth.

"Solid silver," replied Moveo. He didn't take his eyes off Caera. He might have something against the Denoir household. I hope he can put aside his anger during the ascent.

"Despite his personality he's a good person," reassured the head master. I gave him a questioning glare and he responded with a smile. Not a good smile but the one that said, "just trust me," in a bad way.

"You guys have 1 week until we start, you won't have to attend classes so use this time to train together." said Moveo as he walked away.

"You heard the man, go introduce yourselves. Leave my office first, I still need to talk to the other grades." said Mr. Remseyer.

***

We were all in my lab discussing our plans. "So am I the only one here that doesn't know everyone?" asked Enola.

"Pretty much, we're all good friends. Except maybe Valen, we're not that close." replied Caera.

"Well, we need a leader if something goes wrong. I don't trust that Moveo guy," said Valen. It was good to know Valen thought the same as me.

"I vote Grey to be the leader," said Mayla. "Anyone else who agrees say Aye. Aye!"

"Aye!"

"Aye!"

"Aye!"

Valen, Caera and Seth all agreed. "Well if everyone else is voting for you then I'll vote for you too." said Enola. "I do want to know what spells you can use."

"You can hide your mana, check someone elses core and even enhance yourself right?" confirmed Seth.

"So you're a Sentry and part Striker," said Valen. Caera chuckled, causing everyone to question her. "That's not all Grey can do." she said, much to my annoyance.

Everyone turned to me with questioning glares. I sighed, knowing I'm about to defy common sense. "I can also cast Thunderclap impulse which allows me to increase my reaction time. Piston stamp is a fire spell that allows me to launch myself forwards. I can use Ice spear, that's self explanatory. The last is a wind barrier." I explained.

"So… you're a caster, striker, shield and sentry? Don't you work with Artifacts?" questioned Seth. "So, are you in all five classes?" asked Mayla.

"Yeah, I guess I am, aren't I?" I said sheepishly. "Please don't tell anyone, it would be problematic." I pleaded.

"Of course! You're our friend after all!" exclaimed Mayla.

Meanwhile Caera was struggling to hold back her laughter. She knew what I could do and this situation was hilarious to her.

"Well if we're going to do this then we'll need to start planning," said Valen.

CAERA DENOIR

It's now the end of the one week deadline and now all of us were in line for entering the relictombs. We were all giddy, even Grey! I was wearing a white shirt with tight black pants while Grey was wearing a full black suit with a green cloak that had a golden lining. (it's the outfit from the official Caera art and book 8 cover but for 12 year olds)

Moveo seemed to hate me for some reason. I hope he doesn't try anything funny. "Alright guys, calm down. We need to get ready for anything. Something might attack us the second we enter." said Grey.

I double checked my storage ring to make sure I had rations for at least a month. I also had a sleeping bag, a change of clothes and a medkit. Everything else was held by the others. Grey said to split up everything in an equal manner because in case something happened then we wouldn't be in danger in case one person had a lot of important things.

I asked him why and he said, "I was with a team that had every person carry a set of items. The guy carrying the cooking utensils dropped his ring in lava. It wasn't a very pleasant dungeon run."

It was now our turn to enter. I drew my sword and Grey drew his. I had never seen his weapon before but it drew in your eyes. When sheathed it looked like a black stick. Its translucent teal blade earned many greedy eyes. I heard Seth woah in awe.

"Where did you get that?" asked Enola.

"I found it in an old storeroom hidden under a shelf. It was hidden quite well, it was a really lucky find." replied Grey. He looked sad when remembering it. Probably someone he knew found it for him.

"Alright, get ready," said Moveo as he prepared his bow.

We all stepped through the entrance to the relictombs only to be met with darkness. No… that wasn't the right word. For about 40 feet we could see everything as if we were in daylight. Beyond that was pitch black. I took a step forward and the darkness moved back the same distance I moved forward. I looked up–using the trees as a reference– and saw the darkness worked the same way upward.

"Like blindness from minecraft," commented Grey. We all gave him a weird look. "Nothing, it's just similar to something else I know." I wanted to push him further and I knew everyone else did but we couldn't because of our situation.

"This is wrong, we shouldn't have such a difficult zone," said Moveo. "You brought Grey along, of course it's going to be like this," I thought. While Grey and I knew what would happen we didn't think it would be this bad.

"Let me take the lead," said Moveo as he pulled his bow string back. We got into formation with Moveo in the lead. Moveo looked surprised at our coordination. Another thing Grey had done to prepare us was train us in taking formation. He was so multi-talented that Valen came to me alone to ask about his past only for me to tell him that I was as clueless as him.

We slowly walked forward through what we now knew was a forest. The trees looked mystical. The bark was a beautiful brown with green veins that flowed through cracks in the bark, the veins also emitted a dim green light. The leaves were a blood red that also seemed to glow and blue vines hung down from the branches.

"It seems everything here is bioluminescent, probably because of how dark it is," said Grey. Once again we all looked at Grey for his choice of weird and unknown words. Grey facepalmed and mumbled under his breath. I swear I heard "people in this world," but I brushed it off.

We kept walking forward, it was disturbing. You could clearly hear living creatures but we couldn't see any of them. The darkness was disturbing and started to drive us crazy. Grey was–as expected–not affected.

"Alright, I don't think we're in any danger," said Moveo as he relaxed himself and dropped his guard. You could almost feel Grey's annoyance emanating off of him. Grey made sure that we would never drop our guard. He solved this by randomly attacking us everywhere. He would ambush Seth while he was reading, throw ice spears at Valen while he was training or create traps we would walk into.

We were paranoid the entire week. He would even stop time just to mess with us. I still remember the look on Mayla's face when her revenge trap was suddenly triggered with no sign of tampering.

"You guys stay here, I'm going to scout ahead," said Moveo as he ran forward only to disappear.

"What just happened!" yelled Mayla. Grey ran forward to check it out himself, "he just ran off a cliff."

"What?" repeated Seth. "He just ran off a cliff. I don't know why he thought that was a good idea considering our situation." explained Grey as he leaned off the now visible cliff.

"Can you see the bottom?" asked Enola. "No, just darkness. This cliff gives me an uneasy feeling." replied Grey as he got up and turned to us.

"Why's that?" questioned Seth.

"No noise," I said. "Moveo didn't make any noise when he fell off. Not even any noise when he hit the bottom."

"That means he died silently and the bottem is so far down we couldn't hear it." Grey explained.

"Wouldn't have made an echo?" asked Valen. "No, echos only form if there is an enclosed or almost enclosed empty space. That means we're either on a mountain or a plateau." said Grey.

"Let's keep exploring, this time make sure you're looking where you're walking." continued Grey as we got into formation. Despite Mayla being an Instiller she was still strong and using Grey's vague idea she managed to create a weapon Grey dubbed the "shotgun."

It looked like nothing I'd seen before. When we questioned Grey he said he knew someone else who came up with the idea but couldn't turn it into a reality.

I know Grey doesn't want to talk about his past but with all the weird things he's said and done this past week I can't help but wonder.

***

"Alright everyone, let's rest here for the night." said Grey as we sat down in a conveniently open cavern. We spent the entire "day" exploring the forest. Turn's out we were indeed on a plateau. Because of the darkness we couldn't reliably map out our surroundings. The cave we were in was small enough that we could see both sides.

"There aren't even any monsters here!" Enola expressed her annoyance. "I take it you like fighting?" asked Valen with a teasing tone.

"You have no idea!" said Enola. We all chucked at her.

I took out my rations which mainly consists of beef jerky. Grey came and sat down next to me, our knees and shoulders touching. We sit like this a lot so neither of us are bothered by it. I rested my head on Grey's shoulder, making sure he doesn't notice my invisible horns. I looked over to the other side of the cavern to see Mayla doing the same on Seth's shoulder. Seth was a bright pink.

I saw Enola and Valen were sitting next to each other with no affection between them. Valen whispered something into Enola's ear which caused her to raise her eyebrow at me and Grey.

"Since we're resting and we have time to talk, how do you think we get out of here?" Seth asked, trying to get his mind off of Mayla on his shoulder. "Well, I think that this is a puzzle zone rather than a combat zone. " Grey expressed.

"I can understand why, this place doesn't give off the 'fight something' kind of vibe," said Valen.

***

We spent the rest of the night discussing what we should do. I stayed silent, happily munching my beef jerky while resting on Grey. We came to the conclusion that we should explore the cave because of how easily we can see. I was enamored by the relictombs. Despite no light being created we can see perfectly, the normal dark cave is fully visible.

"Alright, let's explore the cave tomorrow, there's a high chance we won't ever find this cave again. " said Grey as he got out his own sleeping bag.

"You're probably right, let's go to sleep." said Enola as she got out her own sleeping bag.

I got out my own sleeping bag and went to sleep for the night, hoping nothing bad will happen tomorrow.