Chapter 19: A Trip to Disaster VII

Chapter 19: A Trip to Disaster VII

Aetheris-Veston Border—Awakened Camp.

Dungeon.

There is a facility deep into the grounds of the camp that controls different sorts of gates.

They range in rank mostly from the «Initiate» rank to the highest they can control—the Journeyman rank.

Anything beyond the C-rank equivalent can easily spiral out of control due to the gap between the ranks.

Additionally, the Great Clan had yet to produce a machine that can stabilise the mana fluctuations of higher-ranked gates.

"Hah!"

With a loud shout followed by the crackling and rumbling of thunder, what remained was the charred corpse of a two-meter-tall, grotesque yet fat monster.

The average fantasy monster. An orc.

Orcs. Like other beings that dwell in the gates, there are species that spawn in dungeons like this.

Humanoid, yet tall, possessing a tough hide that even bullets would fail to pierce through, coupled with their aggressiveness, made them a force to be placed at such a rank.

Most of them are usually the best of their rank, possessing the highest strength amongst all Journeyman ranks.

Not only the strength to easily rip an armored tank into two, but aggressive speed to match that. It's not a wonder they had earned this rank.

However, awakeners who were far above the «Journeyman» rank are significantly above the Orcs to the point their movements would appear as if they were moving in slow motion.

"Good job on taking that one out, Damian."

Celeste said while taking a huff from her medication, tapping the ash onto the ground.

Since they were inside a dungeon, she was no longer held back by the imposing rules on the outside.

Since this was a controlled dungeon, it had been controlled in such a way that students wouldn't have to face a horde that would lead to an accident.

Yosen—rather, the Magic Affiliates were that careful after all.

They may be talented; however, when facing a huge number of monsters like that may lead even the most experienced to run away from fear.

Hence, before now, during the entire night yesterday, a group of «Enlightened-Above» had effectively cleared almost every single one of the monsters, leaving a few of them scattered around.

That is how dungeons like this were almost controlled.

"Woah, so that's a Creed."

"How strong…"

"That's nuts."

All they had seen was a red thunderbolt descending from the sky, and now, what was left was a small crater of around six to seven meters on the ground.

The charred body of the orc fell limp onto the ground as its flesh sizzled.

"Extremely aggressive offence. That's what Damian specialises in."

Shane had noted it down while also putting extra comments about his brother down on paper.

He was standing alongside the instructors, who in turn were grading the students based on their performance.

Damian was the opening act, as this was the first orc that approached, and with the male telling them to leave it to him, he had effectively taken care of it like so.

"Alright then, I believe the Disciplinary Council member has shown what he's capable of; now, it's time for the drill; you all know what to do."

Like most who could take a «Journeyman» one-on-one like Damian could, it wasn't the same for the better of them.

Even some who were in the A-class simply had excellent aptitude with the smarts, and not all of them could take on a «Journeyman» class monster that easily.

Sakurai Furinaga, a girl with straight black hair that falls to her shoulders, gives off a graceful feeling as if she were a miko. 

An exorcist who uses the art of summoning spirits of old to fight on her behalf.

These are different from elemental spirits, which are summoned directly from the spirit world to aid them in battle.

Spirits of Old can also be referred to as dead spirits, spirits who roam the border of the world after death.

Most of them usually linger, then accumulate enough power to be called something like a local legend. 

For instance, mountain gods are old, powerful spirits that had died a long time ago, but their spirits haven't dissipated nor departed for the afterlife and have been living as spirits for years.

Back then, these spirits usually found a mountain and inhabited it.

Then, in return for protection from other evil spirits, people would worship these mountain gods, in return giving these mountain gods more powers.

Now that mana was a thing, exorcists who worked in tandem and served these mountain gods could now physically communicate with them and borrow their powers.

Additionally to mountain gods, there were also many other spirits of old, including animals, humans, and even objects, as bizzare as that sounded.

As long as they had a well-known history, human recognition of them, which is then fuelled by mana, makes impossible possible.

It's possible to incarnate like this.

The students formed a group of ten, working together, each with their own speciality to battle the monsters.

It was deemed safer with ten students in a team, with each team taking rotations. About fifteen teams in total.

"Tank, block!"

Currently, it was team one from class A on the run.

Team one comprised the Beastfallen, the Furinaga, and a couple of other kids from excellent houses, as well as abilities.

Normally, they would have tried going at the beasts solo; however, since it was demanded that they work together, there was no helping it.

"Ora!"

George Beastfallen crossed his hand in an X shape, partially transforming his hands, as the clubs of the Orcs landed against his arms with a thud!

"Kuh!"

However—

"Healing Light!"

"Strengthening!"

The moment the club had landed against the Beastfallen's hands, his hands had skewered in a little, as he was a second late in deploying his trait, but just as it happened, his hands had been healed and had been further strengthened.

"Yosha!"

"The rest of you, attack it from all sides!"

Sakurai Furinaga was the one in charge of command, with four more acting as support for the remaining five attackers. 

Bang, bang, bang. Several sounds like that were shot by the spell, magic bullet, towards the Orc knees, successfully making its knees drop and its footings unstable.

"Now is the chance; overwhelm it till I'm ready."

[From East to West. West to North. North to South.]

[O Guardian of the Sacred Peak.]

[God of the Unyielding Mountain,

[Who watches from the heavens and binds the earth below!]

Furinaga Sakurai had begun her chant as soon as her teammates began weakening the beast.

While it was without a doubt they could take these Orcs on, Yosen was to teach them how to fight, calm, and analyse their opponents.

There had been cases where Awakeners were too complacent and had died for it.

All this was to teach them teamwork and real-life combat experiences so the same mistakes wouldn't be made when they graduate.

It was none of their concern even if you had the strength of an «Enlightened-Above.».

There was a reason why the stages above the «Journeyman» rank were called the Ascendants.

There is a difference between someone who had gone through further awakening and someone who had not.

The ranks from F to A were merely placeholders to classify who fell into what place. The official ranks, even which most weren't aware of went like this:

Awakened, Enlightened, Ascendant, and Transcendants.

However, because sometimes, they could be inaccurate estimates, were ranks like that distributed.

It was to provide accurate estimate of an Awakened's strength.

That aside-

[I call upon the beast that prowls in shadow]

The Furinaga girl had continued her chant as below her feet glowed a white circle with a pentagram symbol on it.

[The fangs that split destiny]

And as she did.... "Huh? The heck, that girl, she's summoning a Retainer-class vassals?"

Shane had said that, widening his eyes. Naturally, they were behind class-A team one, watching over the drill. Instructors, other students, and so on.

[Split the heavens with your jaws!]

They heard Shane say that as they turned to him to ask.

However, there wasn't any time for him to explain, as Sakurai had completed her chant.

"Everybody, move!"

A voice resounded, and something followed.

[Roar, O Tiger of Calamity!]

ROAR—!

What came, naturally, was a loud roar that seemed to split the heavens, followed by an unnatural gust of wind.

"Kyaaa!"

Most girls had screamed at the sudden gust of wind.

However, most that had kept their eyes on the battle saw the visage of a white tiger with black stripes coming down from the sky, tearing the orc into pieces with no body left.

Luckily, her teammates had left the area of effect of her attack. No, it wasn't by luck.

She had informed her teammates about her attack and the area of effect of the attack.

And with a signal, by the time she'd say her last line, they would evacuate.

The winds died down with a WHOOSH as the violent wind soon began to clear up.

"That was overkill."

Celeste muttered as she adjusted her hair, which had now scattered due to the intense gust of wind.

"Shane, deduct some marks for that."

"Is that… really necessary?"

Shane had given a wry smile, but considering their objectives, this is pretty much overkill, as she had said.

And as he did, a voice then called out to him. It was Vahn, the instructor of the C-class.

A young man with slick-back hair, who looked like he could pass off as a model if he tried.

"By the way, you mentioned she was summoning a retainer; by that, you mean…?"

"Ah, that, you've heard about Spirits of Old, right?"

Shane looked over at the man, who nodded.

Celeste who had also been complaining about how her hair had been ruined too, also lent a ear to the conversation.

"If that's the case, then, you must have heard of Ancient Spirits, those who are always referred to as mountain gods. Beasts like those are usually referred to as retainers who serve those ancient spirits."

Naturally, there were classifications as to what and how powerful Ancient Spirits were; it was mostly like this: the older or the more worshippers they had, the stronger they were.

That was how it was for most Ancient Spirits, worshipped by most Exorcist Practitioners.

And the spirits the Furinaga's were worshipping are some of the oldest Spirits of Old, alive even till now.

"And? How did you know she was summoning a Retainer?"

After listening to Shane's explanation, Vahn finally asked this. Making the other instructors side-eyed him.

However, the boy, on the other hand, pointed to his eyes.

"I'm good at discernment."

He simply said that cryptically, making them raise an eye up, but they didn't push.

For the other students.

They had been shocked by Damian's Red Lightning; however, seeing the girl's—Furinaga Sakurai's—move had shocked them to no end.

Moreover, the area of effect of the attack from the Tiger of Calamity was more than that of Damian's own.

"... I thought the Creeds were the only ones that were that strong…"

"Yes… But it seems we were wrong."

"I'd have to say, those guys are incredible."

"Oh? To see you admitting defeat like this, this… how unexpected, I should say."

The rest of the B-class down to the F-class couldn't help but stare in amazement.

Perhaps now they had to think again about who was qualified for the A-class placement.

If Furinaga Sakurai was that strong, then how strong were the dedicated supports, and how strong was the Beastfallen to hold on to an attack from a C-rank equivalent monster?

Arianna, on the other hand, had simply laughed languidly; it's only natural.

She had once seen Mages of the Enlightened class summon seas of flames, in literal terms that covered over a wide range that had burnt up the ground and swallowed trees.

Seeing something close to such a feat being replicated almost easily made her feel a tinge of jealousy as she let out a sigh.

'Guess I'll have to work harder than I originally thought.'

But then, as Arianna thought this, the girl from the Furinaga house turned over to look at Damian in the far distance from her, gazing intently at him as if to convey a message that said:

'We are in no way inferior to you Creeds.'