Dungeon Exploration Training (1)
Dungeon Exploration Training (1)
Out of the blue, Professor Herlein said something like that.
"Alright, kids. How about we do some dungeon exploration today? What do you think?"
"Dungeon exploration?"
Had I heard that correctly?
Professor Herlein had taken on another lecture this semester as well. It was a subject called 'Basic Combat Magic and Dungeon Practice,' which smelled strongly of fantasy and a certain romanticism.
Given the nature of the course, I could understand the idea of doing dungeon exploration itself.
If there was one problem, though....
"You mean from the very first lesson?"
It was quite different from the curriculum I had known about.
"Isn't it normal to do simulated training for the first few weeks?"
"Yeah, that's true, but... a good opportunity happened to come up."
"A good opportunity?"
"That's right. A good opportunity! A dungeon appeared on the mountain behind the academy a few days ago."
"...Hold on. Are you saying a dungeon appeared right behind the academy?"
The kids wore puzzled expressions. The only person sitting there with a nonchalant face was Rosemary. Just in case, I turned back to look at her, and Rosemary pouted her lips.
"What. Is there something on my face?"
You little shit, so you were the culprit.
That attitude of playing dumb while knowing everything was infuriating. Still, seeing the corners of her mouth twitch up slightly, it seemed she secretly hoped I would recognize that she had done it.
"Nothing to worry about, kids. The investigation into whether the demon cave itself is a Mimic is already complete. So, how about it? If you're all okay with it, I'd like to do the practical from the first lesson. Of course, I'll accompany you as your guardian, so even if something happens, you don't need to worry!"
Good grief. It was a low-level dungeon created by an Extinction-class magic beast.
It was bizarre beyond all reason. Was it really okay to go in?
While I was thinking that, Rosemary, who had been sitting demurely at her desk scratching away with a pencil, stood up and spoke.
"May I accompany you as well?"
"...Of course. If our lady is alright with it, the teacher thinks it would be a good lesson."
Oh, ho. She was willing to act on her own?
"Everyone here is a student in the Special Class of Tillet Academy, after all. Since you all achieved excellent results in combat magic even during the entrance exam, I think watching you practice in a low-level dungeon would greatly benefit me as well."
Rosemary persuasively argued for the legitimacy of her participation in a soft, smooth tone. Her skill at creating an excuse to stick close to me was top-notch.
Putting the speaker aside, there was nothing wrong with Rosemary's words themselves. Friends like Rote, Vermel, and Frey, who had entered with high ranks, were also outstanding at dealing with magic beasts. The answer became clear if you recalled which new students had distinguished themselves during the Drake incident at the entrance ceremony.
And Rosemary herself was going in. Even if she had set traps, she wouldn't set them off. If she did, well... she'd just be swarmed by the beasts herself.
[Why would that happen?]
No, I thought about it. What if the low-level dungeon was actually a Mimic, and while most of the students practicing together fell into traps and died, only she came back perfectly unscathed?
Rosemary would have calculated that far. She probably had another purpose in coming along.
For example, me, or me, or me.
[Ohh, I suppose that makes sense.]
In any case, it was going to be a tiring affair.
"Let's go, dungeon."
Starting with someone's grudging agreement, we grabbed our staffs one by one and stood up.
That was the beginning of the first outdoor class of the second semester.
**
The dungeon was located on the foothills of the northern mountain of the academy.
The dungeon entrance looked like a horizontal cave. The entrance was rounded, and the inside was so dark it was almost invisible. A murky yin energy stretched out from within the cave.
"I'll tell you in advance, but even if you light a flame inside this type of dungeon, you won't be able to see well. The air and mana particles here are that much thinner compared to other places."
The mana particles were thin. Meaning, there was a high probability that magic beasts inhabited it.
Contrary to the name 'magic beast,' they preferred places with low mana concentration. Conversely, if the mana particle concentration was high, spirits roamed around more freely. Of course, that was just what the theory books said, so it might not be certain.
"Alright then, let's get into groups of five!"
The criteria for forming the groups were entirely up to Professor Herlein.
But once we actually formed the groups, I realized the students had been divided by a consistent standard.
"Aether, Rote, Frey, and Irka, you four take the role of group leaders. For the group short on members, I'll guide them from the back!"
I saw. I could tell what standard she used to pick the group leaders.
Every one of them was a student who had shown flexible response during the Drake riot at the entrance ceremony.
It was a truly wise and efficient formation. By forming teams this way, students with experience dealing with low-grade magic beasts could guide those who lacked it, lowering the possibility of the whole group being consumed by panic.
At the same time, it was an excellent teaching method in that it divided students into tutors and tutees, naturally providing opportunities to teach and learn from each other.
"So, which group wants to go in first?"
"We'll go first."
I raised my hand.
It was because I thought it would be safer for everyone if I took the lead in a dungeon created by an Extinction-class magic beast.
Most of all, Rosemary was in my group. Besides her, the group consisted of Meyril, the class president, and two male students who were getting by ordinarily in class.
"Uwaaah...! It's dark! It's so fucking scary!!"
"I'm losing my mind! I'm losing my mind! I'm losing my miiiiind!!"
Come to think of it, those two guys weren't ordinary students who just got by. They had been the main culprits making the class noisy every break period since around the end of the first semester.
"Guys, please be quiet!"
"Uwaaaaaah!!"
Even when the class president stepped in to scold them, it wasn't easy.
"Leave them. They said they're scared."
"Still...."
I lifted my lantern and waved my hand dismissively. The light from the lantern was barely enough to see the class president's face right in front of me. That was how strangely the light failed to extend far inside the dungeon.
It was fortunate this was a 'low-level dungeon,' and a practice 'class' under the teacher's guidance; if it had been a high-grade dungeon with no guardian, that howling would have turned into death throes.
Scritch, scratch, scraaape.
"...What was that just now?"
Occasionally, there was a sound of something scraping against the cave floor. Every time it happened, the class president and the two male students raised their staffs and went into interception stance.
The only ones who didn't assume a combat stance despite hearing the footsteps of magic beasts were Rosemary and me. Rosemary had even reached the point of covering her mouth to yawn.
"Hey, group at the front! Do you see anything?"
Rote's voice came from behind. Meyril answered that we didn't. At the suggestion of the two male students trembling in the rear, we reluctantly decided to merge with Rote's group.
"Even when I shoot fire, I can only see about one meter ahead, that's it."
The flame Rote produced was the brightest and most ferocious not just among the new students but among all the enrolled students at Tillet. After all, wasn't she from the prestigious fire magic family succeeding House Haspelt?
If even Rote's flame could only illuminate a single step ahead, the problem was with the surroundings.
Rote abruptly posed a question.
"The teachers said they finished their investigation here. How do you think they did it?"
Saying the investigation was complete was effectively the same as saying they had grasped the entire topography of this dungeon.
"I know, right. How did they search it?"
"There has to be a method."
The reason Professor Herlein didn't tell us the search method was obvious.
No doubt, this was also part of the lesson. It probably meant for us to figure out for ourselves how to conquer a dungeon like this when we encountered one.
It was while Class President Meyril, Rote, and the other classmates were putting their heads together to devise a strategy. I decided this was a good time to mention what I had thought of.
"You know, there was a useful Unique Magic Art among the things we learned last class."
"Tracking-type magic... Are you talking about that?"
"Yeah."
Meyril tilted her head and asked a follow-up question.
"But that only roughly points out where the enemies are. You can't clearly identify the terrain or features...."
"Hmm, how about this."
I raised my staff, drew a little mana from the Hardcover Book, and deployed the spell.
[Eightfold Way — Third Form, Tesla]
Tesla, one of the eight branches of Element Operation, a Supreme Unique Magic.
Tesla was a technique that created electromagnetic waves of a desired frequency. Following the law of conservation, it consumed mana waves in exchange.
"What are you going to do?"
"Watch."
Now I deployed one more spell.
[Low-grade Unique Magic Art — Auto Mapping]
A magic art that described the shape of an area confirmed by the caster. Simply put, it was a spell that 'mapped' the location of a specific target using mana particles.
Naturally, this dungeon had appeared a few days ago, so I had never visited it before. Therefore, the mapping hovering in the air displayed no information at all.
However, the concept of 'observation' did not only include what was seen with the naked eye.
"Let's see how this works."
I used 'Tesla' to create electromagnetic waves in the X-ray band. Then, I launched them forward.
Now, I examined various wave aspects like hitting the wall, transmitting through it, and scattering, and wove them into the 'Map'.
Like moving a loom to weave thread, I drew out a map of the demon cave. After exploring the surroundings like this for about a minute, I obtained information on the approximate structure of the cave within a radius of several tens of meters.
"Ooh! So that's how you do it!"
"I never thought of using it this way!"
While my classmates were marveling at the novel application of the tracking magic.
[...Master, are you stupid?]
One fellow was grumbling to itself.
It was the Hardcover Book, which had been furious because I had pulled it out of the desk drawer for the first time in a while. The thing muttered as if it found me unreliable.
[You could have just emitted visible light from the start and illuminated your surroundings. Why did you go through the trouble of using a method that creates X-rays, which are high-energy and dangerous, to map the place? This is no different from wasting mana! It's inefficient!]
It seemed quite sulky because I hadn't carried it around lately. No, it had always been like this, but it had gotten worse since around the summer break.
I scoffed and pointed behind us.
"You see that and still don't get it?"
[What. What do you mean, see what and still don't...]
The Hardcover Book couldn't continue its words there.
"If I move along lighting my way and touching the walls, I can reliably map this part."
"We're water mages, so let's send a fluid flowing along the floor. We can sketch the z-axis position according to the potential of the water flowing."
"Whoa, mapping works just by shooting sound waves instead of mana waves? Amazing!"
"If I had shot visible light from the beginning like you said, I would have been the only one to get praised. Then my friends wouldn't learn anything."
Scholarship was the totality of application. If you only looked for easy breakthroughs, you would become buried in that method and your perspective would narrow.
Science... and likewise, magic, were disciplines that could only be understood by escaping that narrow view.
"And even if I had directly shot visible light, it probably wouldn't have been visible very far."
[......Why is that?]
"Because it wasn't visible with Rote's flame or the lantern either."
[Ah.......]
The Hardcover Book couldn't say a single word.