《The Cursed Sword Of Hephalio》 Prologue I stop running and catch my breath. Is it gone?! Where is it?! Wait...what was I running from again? How did I even get here? Whatever that doesn''t matter right now. First I need to get out of this...cave? Honestly, how did I even get here, also where are Maria and Alex? While I''m running with my lungs feeling like they''re about to burst, I catch something glowing in the corner of my eye. There''s a glowing crack in the wall barely big enough to let me squeeze through. Already out of options, I quickly crawl through. The second I enter the crack in the wall, I hear whatever it was that''s chasing me sprint by, and it wasn''t alone anymore it seems like. It brought some friends along with it. Once I pass through the crack and exit at the other side I immediately get blinded by an intense yellow light.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. As my eyes adjust to the light, I realize what''s causing the yellow glow. I see a giant sword, with dull yellow flames licking the sword edges lazily. There seemed to be a series of random grooves near the handle of the blade that looked like some form of writing which were glowing a more vibrant yellow. With a sudden desire to grasp the unnatural blade, I begin walking towards it. As I draw nearer to the sword, I stretch out my hand. My hand prepares to grasp the glowing sword''s hilt when I Suddenly find myself in bed, drenched in a cold sweat. It''s that same damn dream again. Chapter 1: Strange Dreams "Mathias get over there and clean that up!" Duke Phillip yells. "Honestly, what kind of slave are you?" "Right away Duke Phillip!" I yell back as I quickly get out of bed, change my clothes and run down the stone steps to the training hall he sent me to. Why the hell do I have to clean the mess those damn knight trainees made. If I didn''t need the money I would be long gone from this hellhole of a kingdom. Of course the ''collar of domination'' poses a problem in my grande plans for escape. Blasted thing zaps me full of lightning magic whenever I disobey his orders. Can''t even forcibly remove it either, as it was made to resist the strength of high level Demons, hell some were enchanted with enough spells to even subdue Demon Generals, albeit not without a large amount of difficulty. After finally making my way outside to the knights training field, the field is ruined and pockmarked full of massive craters, you can also practically feel the mana in the air from the attacks those knights used. "Oh look it''s Mathias Sparrow our resident '' assistant mage''. Do us a favour and fix up the training field, would you? The duke would be rather upset if we can''t continue training due to your incompetence am I right?" snickered the knight captain Herald Vorlander. The other knights burst out in laughter as they walked back inside the Acadamy. I sighed as I started silently chanting a spell to fix the field, ''Terraform'', a rather useful spell even if it is a basic spell. Seriously, this field was covered with protection spells to prevent this very scenario and yet they blew it to shreds, leaving me with the cleanup. I''m no janitor ok, I''m just an assistant mage that is working here, but this collar makes me nothing short of a slave. My title as an assistant mage as well as my wages are simply a formality so the Acadamy of Nepholite and the Noble running the place don''t get in trouble with the King of Megallia. Slavery was long since banned and the collar is only used on criminals, but nobles are constantly finding loopholes in the laws to abuse. I''m not considered a slave as long as I get paid reasonable wages weekly, and have my own freedom. The collar''s allowed on me legally since I''m considered "unable to control my mana efficiently and safely, thus requiring the aid of the collar to prevent any incidents at work." As if! The duke faked numerous accidents and made it look like I can''t control my magic properly, and since he "cares dearly for his fellow employees" he requested for a collar to be placed on me with the only restrictions on it to be that it will prevent any accidental mana overloads, aka my spells going kaboom because I couldn''t control it. The king approved his request but added an observer to be placed in the academy to make sure that the duke doesn''t abuse the collar. Little did the king know the observer was one of Duke Phillip''s lackey''s rendering the whole observer deal a moot point. I was originally a mage who had finished training at the Adventurer''s academy that is free to the public to enroll in as it teaches people the basics of being an adventurer as well as how to defend yourselves properly. I was looking for a job after graduating so I could collect enough money to enroll in the Nepholite Academy, the best academy in the kingdom, and found a job opening one day. Luckily I got the job as an assistant mage, but that''s where my problems started. Accidents occurred whenever I tried casting spells, which was strange as I was a competent mage so it frustrated me to no end. Eventually an incident occurred while I was helping a teacher demonstrate some basic fire spells, but it was just my luck that the duke happened to be showing the king around the Academy and I lost control of my fireball, sending it careening at the king. He was saved by his royal guard and that was when the duke suggested the whole collar thing because he ''cared so much for all of his employees'', which is how I wound up in my current predicament.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Remembering the whole ordeal made me so angry at both myself and the duke. I was angry at myself for being tricked so easily and at the duke for tricking me in the first place. He sabotaged me back then by having other mages cast spells to disrupt my flow of mana causing each and every incident that happened. I learned about this after becoming his slave and by then it was too late to run away. He wanted me as a slave in the first place because he was gathering promising mages to form his own sort of private mage squad. Since he couldn''t hire any good mages normally due to his terrible reputation which I didn''t hear about since I lived in a village most of my life, he tricked various mages into becoming assistant mages at the academy and one way or another he made them into slaves. Currently there''s 5 of us in the mage squadron and Alex Wishmonger was a friend I made after joining the squad. Alex is a tall guy with short hair that always manages to look perfect each morning, with practically pale skin and is very well built. His arms look like tree trunks due to the muscle he has on him, and you wouldn''t be able to tell that he''s a freaking mage of all things. When we first met we just hit it off. Alex is a happy go lucky goofball with little to no regard for his own safety when doing things. He usually got me into trouble with his various pranks, I remember that one time he greased up that jackass Herald''s armour with chilli peppers from the kitchen, man that was a riot. Too bad we both got stuck with no food for the next 3 days after that, but it was worth it to see his smug face look so stupid. After I finished cleaning up the field I head back to my room to see Alex fiddling with some random bits and bobs, which can only mean more trouble for me. "Whatever you''re doing keep me out of it, I already took the fall for you last time and I''m not about to suffer for another 3 days because you want to torture Vorlander some more." I say while sitting down on my bed. He chuckles and replies "Dude this one will be worth it! I got word of a new spell from Ms.sylfa that can cause Vorlander to constantly trip and smell like rotten eggs, it''ll be great! I just need to finish a few enchantment engravings on his armour and boom one smelly and very uncoordinated Vorlander! That aside are you still getting those weird dreams like usual?". "Yeah but only this time it was far more detailed and could actually hear things, It felt so real dude. In the dream I was wondering about where you and some chick Maria were. I don''t even know anyone named Maria. But this time got so close to touching the glowing sword, I was inches away but I woke up before I could grab it. These dreams keep getting more vivid and feel as real as you and me." I say in exasperation as I flop onto the hard surface I call a bed. Alex looks up from whatever it is he was engraving and speaks to me all excited "Do you know what the sword was enchanted with? A glowing sword with flames doesn''t seem like your average everyday weapon if you ask me. I wonder if I could make my own glowy sword of doom. Then I could give one as a ''present'' to Vorlander only to have it explode! Oh what if I made it light him on fire and then break into dust, or how about-". Alex went on another one of his rants about ways to cause me more headaches. As much of a pain in the ass his pranks can be, he is a genius when it comes to enchanting and crafting. Not to mention he can cleave someone clean in 2 with an axe if he wants to. He''s more of a warrior than a mage, even if he can enchant. What kind of mage can cleave Wolves in 2 with an axe?! Not to mention all the nasty poisons and other status effects he oh so loves to stick onto things. I shake my head trying to forget the dream and tell him to clean up the mess he''s made and get ready for work before the duke notices he''s been slacking off again. I don''t want to eat hard bread for a whole day because he was late again. Chapter 2: Misunderstandings I finally managed to make Alex stop his scheming and get ready for work. As we entered the classroom, Mr. Ralph starts chewing us out saying "Hurry up you two, the new students are almost here! I''ll dock your pay the next time you''re late..what are you waiting for? Start preparing!" We quickly finished prepping the class and got in position next to the sparring grounds outside of the class. Not long afterwards the new students started walking in. A whole slew of freshly minted knight trainees that came to the academy for training to become proper knights got into their seats while chatting amongst themselves. After the class got settled in Mr.Ralph gave a self introduction and told everyone to do the same. Most of the introductions were boring as they were either zealous knights ready for training, nobles or your average teenager, but a few stood out among the boring introductions that caught my eye. After some bratty noble finished his self introduction a girl stood up to introduce herself, and everyone''s eyes instantly gravitated towards her. She was a beautiful specimen of a woman with curves in all the right places; curvy hips, bountiful breasts and looks that could kill. With straight blond hair that fell to her shoulders, and emerald green eyes that captivated onlookers she introduced herself, "my name is Maria Stadford and I am here to train as a knight so that I may protect the glorious kingdom of Megallia and his highness as my predecessors have done throughout history". She promptly sat down after her short and curt introduction saying no more. The next few introductions went by quickly and ended shortly after Maria''s. Once that was said and done Mr.Ralph said some boring curriculum stuff that I tuned out. I was brought out of dreamland when he told everyone that there were going to be sparring matches happening to see how everyone fared in actual combat. "Maria and Stolas will face off against the 2 assistant mages Matthias and Alex as they had the highest entrance exam results." Mr.Ralph says and then tells us to ready for battle and put on our gear. Maria looked at me and Alex with a look of disgust as if she were looking at utter filth which caught me off guard so I asked her " Hey why do you seem like you hate me and Alex when we haven''t even done anything...wait Alex did you pull another one of your stunts? Is that why she''s angry?" I say and stare at Alex with an accusing stare. Before he could even refute my claim I''m interrupted with "Silence you criminal, I do not want to hear your rubbish nonsense, now let''s get this public whipping of yours over with". I was left entirely confused. Criminal? Me? How do I look like a criminal to her? Then it dawned on me that she was staring at my collar the whole time she spoke to me. She must have thought I was a criminal slave! Criminals can become slaves if their crimes are sufficient enough to warrant it, and that''s what she must have thought I was, a criminal slave. Criminal slaves are also the only form of slavery still legal in the kingdom. I wanted to refuse her and tell her I''m not a criminal but by this time she had left to put on her armour and other gear. "Hey cheer up man, look on the bright side, you get to be in the same class as that hot chick, and she wouldn''t believe you even if you told her you are not a criminal slave even if you told her." Alex pats my back while pulling out his trademark war axe and was giving it a few test swings. He was right, she wouldn''t believe me if I did tell her. I mean who in their right mind would believe someone with a slave collar on? It would take a special kind of stupid to fall for that. I sighed in resignation and get ready for the battle knowing that the beauty of the class would neverendingly hate me, and all because of this stupid collar. I didn''t even get to ask her out on a date yet, which made my mood drop further. With the preparations complete we headed outside to the sparring grounds where others had already started fighting. A flurry of magical enhancements and martial arts were being used. Martial arts were the warrior equivalent of a magic attack, but usually more melee oriented.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The sparring match was ready to go but we were cautioned by Mr.Ralph with "Make sure you do not cause any serious wounds. This is a sparring match and not a duel to the death, make sure you remember that. Any deaths caused by either side will result in being punished according to the law", and with that the fight began. Maria instantly rushed out to lop my arm off with her two handed sword while Stolas ran towards Alex to prevent him from interfering with Maria. Taking out the mage was standard tactics in a fight as they provided offensive,defensive and support in one bundle, so they were the primary targets in any battle. What they didn''t realise was that Alex over here was also a mage, even though he didn''t look or act like one. He spread a toxic gas using one of the obscure magic spells that he created or learned from ancient grimoires. With the gas spreading he cast poison immunity on us both and proceeded to rush at Stolas, who was now cornered between the toxic cloud and Alex. I on the other hand had to jump back in order to narrowly avoid the vicious swings from Maria. I quickly cast several ice spears and fling them at Maria but they were simply deflected with her sword or dodged entirely. She used a martial skill ''Lesser Speed Boost'' and dashed towards me even quicker than before. While casting Ice Wall to block her off I start melting the ground right in front of the giant wall of ice with a jet of flame magic. It turns the rock around the wall into a puddle of lava around 1 metre in size but before I can make it any larger the wall of ice was literally smashed into pieces. That crazy girl ran through the wall of ice without stopping but I expected that, which was why I made the puddle of lava in the first place. Shards of ice go flying all around me so I cast a simple mana shield in order to protect myself from the shrapnel. As soon as she was through the wall she placed her foot down to jump at me but was met with a smoldering hot floor, granted it did cool down a fair bit from all that ice flying into it but it was still an uneven lump of superheated rock. Maria''s face contorted in pain as her feet were being cooked by the heat, but she ran towards me nonetheless. As she was about to reach me she was met with a giant war axe to the side and was sent tumbling away a few metres. Alex seemed to have finished his fight with Stolas, who was now a miserable twitching heap that occasionally vomited. Seems like he was done in good by Alex, poor guy. "How''s it going dude, you about to wrap things up over here too?" is what Alex asked me as he hefted his war axe onto his shoulders while grinning. I did simply replied with "yeah yeah I''m just fine, she would have stabbed herself with ice spikes from the proximity spells around me". Since mages were the first target in any battle, what mage wouldn''t prepare a few traps to deter any would be attackers? I had already prepared several spells in a radius around me including explosive traps, ice spikes, and even a few wind tornados that send you flying into the air or into a tree far away from me. Needless to say the battle was as good as won before it even began, but that was to be expected as the knight trainees were just that, trainees. They had no actual combat experience or knowledge. They were here precisely because they were trainees and needed to be taught actual combat knowledge and gain experience in a safe environment. Maria propped herself up with her sword and started to hobble towards me but was stopped by Mr.Ralph who had been watching the whole fight. "34 seconds, pretty good for new students. Head over to the medical station to get any wounds treated. Stolas might take a while though..poor guy was bullied by Alex". With that the sparring matches ended and everyone in the class was told to get first aid and head into the classroom afterwards. While me and Alex walked into the class to help the teacher ready for the lecture Alex started teasing me about how Maria considers me and him criminal slaves. I retorted with "the next time you set fire to Vorlander''s clothes with stink flames and need a person to help take the fall with you, count me out" and sped up my pace with Alex chasing me while sputtering apologies and complaining how he needs me for some grand scheme of his. Chapter 3: Monster Breakout It had been 2 weeks since the first class of sparring. We had gone through and taught the trainees some battle 101. Things that would be useful to know and the very basics of fighting, such as "Don''t hold your sword at such a funny angle, are you trying to break your wrists while swinging it?! And you, the way you tried dodging would leave you wide open to attacks from the side, go back and read the textbook on how to do it! Alfred how many times do I..." Mr.Ralph becomes a devil when training people, probably because he used to be a drill sergeant for the army and trained actual soldiers. Today we were going to so some live combat, seeing as the students had become sufficient enough at fighting to survive for around 1 minute against me and Alex. That was a benchmark Mr.Ralph set for the students to reach and they reached it after 2 weeks of grueling training followed by us whooping their asses during sparring matches. I should say this now that Maria is still suspicious of us even though I explained our circumstances. She isn''t openly hostile anymore but still gives us weird looks as if we are going to kidnap someone and make a break for it. Still, it''s an improvement from "Vile scum of the kingdom that have sinned, do not even speak to me". Anyways today''s training was going to be against living beings, namely monsters. They had been captured or tamed by adventurers and brought here for training and studying purposes at the academy. When we got onto the training field there was a row of massive cages filled to the brim with monsters. The cages were made of spell-iron, a special type of iron that was soaked in large amounts of mana either naturally or by humans. It was stronger than normal iron and also had various enchantment put on to make it even tougher and More resistant to breaking. The students gulped when they saw the massive amount of Gray Wolves, Hind Bears, slimes and other monsters. There were 2 cages however that were triple layered with spell iron and even had a mana barrier around them and these cages contained a 3 Dire wolves in one, and 10 lesser corrupted in the other. Corrupted were very hard creatures to fight as they were essentially humans that were killed by other corrupted and brought back to life as a corrupted. Long story short is that a wacko dark mage went insane and made corrupted to rule the world with. He didn''t rule the world to put it short. Died in a war somewhere random and his corrupted were let loose on the world. Corrupted are broken up into lesser, mid, greater, and grand. Each tier was more intelligent and powerful than the last. Lesser and mid are as smart as monsters but follow orders of higher tiers while high and grand are as smart as a human child and a full adult respectively. Corrupted start off as lesser tier and eventually become grand tier over time. The most annoying part of corrupted is that they can contain near infinite amounts of mana in their mana gems they grow in their bodies and use that for magic, martial arts and their trademark move, rapid regeneration. You could cut a corrupted into 7 bits and it would manage to regrow all 4 limbs and head within a minute and be ready to fight once again. You only really kill them by smashing all the mana gems,depleting all their mana or making it so they don''t have enough of a body to regen. The fact they don''t feel pain makes shit worse since they will sacrifice their arm and head in order to kill you. Got a little side tracked there, back to what was going on. The students were being made to fight slimes and goblins until either they were unable to fight or they killed the monsters. Several students were simply knocked unconscious by the slimes wrapping around their heads and choking them out or goblins smashing a club into their heads one too many times. There were around 13 students who managed to actually kill the slimes and goblins they fought, albeit with some difficulty. One of them was Maria who had a kill count of 13 slimes and 7 goblins., which was the most kills by anyone in the class which averages around 6 slimes and 3 goblins. At this point it was around 12pm and everyone was eating lunch, but was also the time when a class of we one year students came out. High and mighty vorlander'' s class. He didn''t dare bother me and Alex in front of Mr.Ralph as the guy may be scrawny looking, but he was scary when mad. Their class fought against a bunch of Gray Wolves and even a couple of Hind Bears. They went a bit wild trying to show off to the first years, aka our class and got a couple of the cages filled with monsters with their magic attacks. The monsters didn''t take too kindly to that and reciprocated with roars and smashing into the cages with various attacks. The teachers tried stopping the 2nd years who went to further make fun of the monsters. Vorlander then went and made a big mistake by slapping the cage of the lesser corrupted and making fun of them by saying "what''s so special about these weird Gray skinned freaks, they look like a couple of ghouls to me. I bet I could finish them off in a heartbeat" he taunted the corrupted further and further before being yelled at by Mr.Ralph to get away from the cage, but the damage was done.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The lesser corrupted may only have the thinking capacity of monsters but it didn''t mean they didn''t understand humans. They were fuming in anger and starting unleashing a torrent of spells and claw swipes. Explosions wreaked havoc in the cage instantly braking the mana barrier defending the cage before sending spell-iron chunks flying. The mages on standby tried to reinforce the cages and using their taming spells but it barely worked. Only 3 of the 10 were pacified while the rest ran amok trying to get to their target of hate. Vorlander realized he made a big mistake and backed away in fear as fast as he could before cowering behind his classmates. By this point the men in the academy had been raised and teachers started rushing to the training grounds while evacuating the students. "Alex we should probably get ready for battle, yknow just in case those things break out and go wild" I say while setting up some trap spells around me. Alex just smiled and responds with " You fry em and I''ll dice em" and pulls out his axe and starts enchanting it. Shortly after that we saw that the last layer of spell-iron bars were torn asunder and out of the cage flooded 6 of the 10 lesser corrupted as 4 had been pacified at this point. They saw that their target had escaped and started sniffing the air and looking around to find him but were intercepted by the teachers and guards on duty. Dozens of fireballs rained down from the sky hitting the lesser corrupted, courtesy of Ms.Sylfa. They shrugged them off with 4 losing an arm and 1 losing his head, with all of them burnt in various places. They started recovering from their wounds almost instantly as the burnt portions healed and started growing where they lost body parts. Before that could finish however, several knight guards stepped up and started cleaning at the lesser corrupted. The first 2 were chopped up into dozens of pieces but they didn''t stop cutting and called for a mage to burn the body parts while jumping back. The bits of gray and black flesh were lit on fire while the remaining 4 were staring at the knights with an almost palpable hatred visible in their completely black eyes and purple pupils. They knew they couldn''t win and that even though they lost some members from their pack, the best choice was to flee. They scattered and 3 fled towards the forest with knights and mages hot on their heels but one decided to rush the only other direction available to it, us. "Here it comes Matthew, better be ready with those traps by now!" Alex yells as he got in front while brandishing his war axe, so I answered his yell by launching ice spears, but instead of straight forward I aimed downwards towards the ground. My goal was to pin the corrupted bastard to the ground with a dozen or so ice spears so Alex could slice the thing to bits and afterwards I would light it on fire to finish the job. Unfortunately lady luck wasn''t on my side as most of the spears were dodged by the corrupted and 2 simply grazed its sides which did literally nothing to it as it felt no pain and regenerated those wounds shortly after. It reached Alex and swiped its left arm at him which he dodged, or tried to. The thing was much faster than you would expect for a dead person brought back to life as an entirely new race. The claws gouged his side''s after piercing straight through his leather armour. Alex swung his axe sideways while releasing paralytic gas and then used wind magic to send it flying at the corrupted''s face but he missed since he was slightly panicking due to being gouged in his left side. I summoned ice spikes out of the ground which hit its legs and immobilized it. As it was tearing its legs free I yelled "Alex now!" so he cleaved the thing in two from the head down through its groin before cutting it in half again horizontally, slicing it into 4 pieces. Alex managed to cut the mana gem near its neck which resulted in the thing actually screaming in pain for once. It seems like having its mana storage shattered and having mana go wild in its body didn''t feel too good, even for the gray bastard. I didn''t miss the opportunity and swiftly shot a viscous substance that lit on fire upon touching air. It stuck to the corrupted and didn''t come off as long as I supplied it with mana or the affected parts were cut off. It was a custom spell made by a hero 90 years ago, I believe he called it a Napalm strike? Hero''s are very weird, they know a whole bunch of random things that make no sense and are ridiculously powerful from the get go and only get more powerful as they train. Sometimes I wonder if the hero''s world is filled with hundreds of thousands of humans as strong as dragons because it seems very likely. The lesser corrupted gave one last cry of anger before burning to ash and with that the fight was over. I went to Alex and immediately cast healing spells while asking Alex "Are you ok? That looks like it hurts quite a bit. Seriously, if you were going to be that slow then you should have let me deal with it." I ranted towards Alex who smiled and said "c''mon man it didn''t hurt that much. Also did you see my new spell? It gave me a whole bunch of ideas. I could make a spell that fires poison gasses like a cannon! OOH what if I combined the stickiness of the napalm spell you used and make my poison gasses into sticky poison gasses. How would that work though..what about.." I smiled while Alex continued his magic filled rant of devious new spells because it meant Alex was completely fine, even though he''s injured. I just wonder where the corrupted ran off to. I don''t want more of those bastard running around near the city. Chapter 4: Dungeon Discovery While eating lunch the next day Alex spoke up " Hey Matthias did ya hear about what happened after they chased the corrupted that ran away?". I looked up from the watery soup I was eating and stared at Alex in confusion. "What do you mean what happened? They probably hunted them down and slaughtered them. Corrupted are far too dangerous to let loose. Leave 1 alive and 1 month later a horde of over 50 will come looking to slaughter you". "I mean you arn''t wrong but no, that''s not all that happened dude. They chased the corrupted and managed to kill one during the chase but the other 2 ran into a dungeon to escape the guards!" Alex responded in a very excited tone while looking at me expectantly. "So what? They just ran into a dungeon..." was my simple response as i finished the last of my soup and carried the dishes to the kitchen. "There''s no dungeons near the academy you know, so what do you think that means then? It means there''s a new dungeon!" Alex nearly sent his dishes flying in his excitement. After I calmed him down somewhat I said "So that''s why everyone seems so busy and excited." A new dungeon could mean dozens of new resources that were infinitely renewable. This meant that the city would flourish and the economy would boom. This was only the case if it wasn''t a so called useless dungeon. Those are dungeons that only contain monsters that have nothing of value or anything harvestable, and only created more trouble than they were worth. "Hopefully the dungeon isn''t a dud, because that would just mean trouble, what with the threat of monsters escaping the dungeon to attack people and whatnot." I tell Alex as we were walking down the halls. Before Alex could respond I hear that irritable voice that always caused trouble for us, Vorlander, walk towards us and speak in his annoying tone of voice. "Thats what we are going to find out my dear Matthias. The Duke pulled some strings and now students from Nepholite Academy will have the honour to be the first explorers of the newly discovered dungeon, and you 2 will be joining us as our meatshield- I mean guards to ensure the safety of us students". His voice was laden with mockery of our situation. Obviously if things went south, we would be the first into the fire to stall for time. This meant that we would most likely get injured several times if not killed during the dungeon exploration, simply because the students were too damn careless to bother avoiding danger. "Let''s go Matthias, we don''t want you turning Vorlander into a popsicle, as fun as that sounds. The Duke would only make us suffer". Alex gripped my shoulders to prevent me from lashing out with magic at Vorlander, who obviously had a hand in us being part of the guards. He probably wants to simply bully us and use us in order to gain fame to clearing a dangerous dungeon by having us do the hard work and leave him to take the glory. He would get away with it due to these stupid collars too, which made me even more furious. I turned around and ignored the snide remarks coming from behind my back that made my mood get worse and worse. ~~~ Later that day, after we had finished helping teach classes we decided to talk with Maria, who was surprisingly a good person in her heart. Even if she looked as unaproachable as a rabid dog at times, she was a relatively kind girl. "How was my sword swings during our spar Alex? Did I do it right? I followed exactly what you said!" Maria fervently discussed military strategies and sword techniques with Alex. She was a total fighting fanatic with nothing but how to improve her fighting techniques on her mind. Sweets? Boys? Love? She couldn''t care less about those topics. She would rather blather on and on about how ''Alex was totally like a Northern berserker'' and how She ''wants Alex to teach her more on his fighting technique because it seems very effective''.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I let the 2 meatheads finish their discussion before Maria spoke up "Alex, Matthias I''m going on a dungeon clearing quest with other students tomorrow! I also heard you 2 will be going along, is that true?" Alex laughed and said "We sure are, but how did you hear about it? We didn''t exactly advertise it to people or anything". Alex sounded rather confused as he said the last bit because we truly didn''t tell others. What was the point? It didn''t mean we were going to get real food for once, so we didn''t particularly care about the little escapade we were a part of. "Vorlander has been going around bragging about how you 2 are his personal meatshield or something". She said with that typical icy tone Maria used when we first met. "Looks like Vorlander has been spreading his nonsense around to either piss us off, or to look so better in front of his peers. Whatever it was, he certainly accomplished number 1" I say as I clenched my fists while Alex Simply laughed and shook his head. "He is going to get a couple of meatshields alright. Just not the type he expected". Alex had a terrifying glint of madness in his eyes, which I usually only saw when he was doing some crazy experiment or about to do something that would make my head hurt. I had a bad feeling about that glint as it probably meant I wouldn''t be eating much food for the next few days. "Just... Just try to keep your shenanigans to a minimum, would you?" was my respo nce as I massaged my head to prevent the headache that was developing. "No promises!" was all I got out of Alex, leaving poor Maria very confused as to what was going on. "What does Matthias mean by that Alex? Are you going to do something?". I felt as though it was going to be a long day. Shortly after the discussion with Maria, the party that would be exploring got together. There was a total of 5 students, with Maria and Vorlander being 2 of them. The other 3 were some 2nd year students I had never talked with. Other than us, there was also 2 B ranked adventurers that would be escorting us through the dungeon. Many of the students that go to Nepholite Academy were wealthy and came from good families, so obviously the duke would spend money to ensure their safety and prevent them from harm, because that would be simply putting his head on the chopping block if they got harmed due to his negligence. The adventurers introduced themselves as Stron and Meldor, and went over some basic rules that would be followed when entering the dungeon. Most of them were safety procedures like what to do when separated, and how to use the warp stones to escape in case of emergency. I noticed that Alex and I were considerably lacking in the warp stone department and asked the adventurers, to which they responded "The Duke didn''t provide us with yours and said that you 2 would bring your own. Did you guys forget them? I can''t get you guys any as warp stones are rather expensive, so you''re going to have to deal with not having any". I saw Vorlander snickering and Maria giving us a concerned look, but when she saw me looking she turned away as if she never cared about me in the first place. She''s very confusing at times. She can look glad to be with us one second and the next pretend like I''m a rock because I embarrassed her or some other nonsensical reason. We got our gear ready and Stron shouted "Ready? Let''s head in there and kick some monster ass!". We then marched into the dungeon full of anticipation and slight fear. Chapter 5: Exploring The Dungeon We entered the dungeon carefully and slowly marched into it. Vorlander seemed to be very excited and ready to show off as evident by his words. "Just watch me slice up all the monsters in this dungeon. I''ll be known as the person who steamrolled a new dungeon!" As Vorlander was bragging to the other students Stron spoke up, "there''s something up ahead so shut up and prepare for battle". He pointedly looked at Vorlander while saying that, causing him to shut up and clench his sword. Everyone had their weapons out, Including us and the adventurers. We heard a clattering of bones in the distance getting closer. I cast a few light orbs and spread them out to make it easier to see. Closing in on us were 3 skeletons walking towards us with iron swords in their hands. When we saw that Stron aimed and put his weapon away, the same as Meldor. "It''s just a dungeon filled with skeletons, so there''s probably only undead in this dungeon. These skeletons are easy enough targets for you kids to deal with. We will be right behind you ready To stop in if it gets dangerous so go ahead and fight." was all that Stron said while watching the skeletons walking closer. The students nervously held their weapons. Even Vorlander see looked slightly uneasy. It was his first dungeon exploration so it made sense that he was nervous, even if he acted like an asshole at times. The skeleton closest swung his sword at Vorlander and another swung at Maria, while The last one attacked one of the other students. Vorlander and Maria both took care of them easily, with Maria crushing the skeletons skull and Vorlander chopping its head off by slicing it from the neck down. The third student had a bit of trouble and was nearly sliced in the arm but his armour blocked the hit. He also ended up killing the skeleton but with a bit of trouble. Stron looked at the students and then said "alright let''s take a short breather then move on with the exploration. Proper rest is important so don''t forget that." We took a small break and the student checked himself and his armour. He had a bruise on his upper arm where he was hit repeatedly by the sword but other than that he was fine. He was wearing leather armour unlike the rest of the students who all wore iron armour. Seems like he couldn''t afford the iron armour so he stuck with leather. After he finished catching his breath we moved on with the exploration. We saw mostly skeletons with swords for the next 10 minutes as we travelled through the dungeons many rooms and hallways. We walked into a bigger room after clearing out a group of 4 skeletons and saw 5 skeletons waiting. There were 3 skeleton swordsmen like usual but 2 of the skeletons held bows which they aimed at us upon seeing us, their glowing blue flames that substituted for eyes burning brightly. "Skeleton archers huh, Maria and Vorlander you 2 head for the archers while the other 3 attack the skeleton swordsmen." Stron quickly barked orders and everyone leapt into action. Maria ran forward like an unstoppable bull, slashing her sword at an arrow that nearly impaled her head. Vorlander tried doing the same but was met with an onslaught of arrows flying at him, and while he was distracted a skeleton swung his sword at him. Before he could try to block it one of the other students stepped up with his shield and blocked it, allowing Vorlander to block the incoming arrows. With the arrows blocked he was free to attack the skeleton swordsman nearby. The whole fight was chaotic, with arrows flying here and there and swords clashing, but no one was hurt too badly. The only injury was when the guy with leather armour got an arrow embedded into his armour, and while trying to yank the arrow out, he was slashed across the arm with a sword. His armour blocked the impact, preventing him from being cut, but his armour was left with a gash in it, along with his arm being left in terrible pain. The skeletons were taken care of and he had his injury looked at. "It''s only bruised it''ll be fine, stop being a baby and get up." was all the medical attention he got from Stron. Left with no choice the poor guy stood up and held his sword slightly shakily due to the pain.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. We continued on and the only time me and Alex had to do anything was when 4 skeletons holding shields and spears appeared, along with 2 skeleton mages. It got a bit dangerous when Vorlander and Maria the 2 strongest of the group were unable to get past the skeleton shieldbearers, and one of the students fighting was hit with a fireball to the chest, sending him flying. "Alex lets go! Take care of the shieldbearers, I''ll finish off the mages." was what I told Alex, who rushed forward and covered for the downed student, slicing the shield apart with his axe in one go before slicing the skeleton in half vertically, leather armour and everything. I, on the other hand, fired a few ice spear at the skeleton mages. The shieldbearers blocked 2 of them but the rest got past and shattered the 2 skeleton mages, sending shards of bones flying. We helped clean up the rest of the skeletons, of which 1 shieldbearer had already died by Maria''s sword. Finishing the rest off I asked "Is everyone alright? I can cast healing if you need it." I got a weak reply by 2 of the students who were on the ground rolling in pain. One held their arm, which had its armour shattered by magic and had a stab wound, while the other was the poor guy who ate a fireball to the chest. He could barely move and was coughing the entire time. "Don''t move or get up, lay still you moron! Who told you to get up when you can''t even breathe properly!" I yelled at the guy struggling to breathe, who was attempting to stand up. With no time to waste I cast lesser healing on the 2 of them. They instantly started looking slightly better. The stab wound on the first guy was closing up and the other guy looked like he could actually breathe again. After a few more casts of healing and giving them healing potions as insurance, they stood up and readied their equipment once more. Stron looked at me with a thankful expression and then spoke to everyone. "It seems this is as far as we will go. Things got a bit dangerous but luckily it was taken care of. Let''s start heading back." It seemed that he judged this as the limit of the students, which was a fair thought since 2 people got injured, but Vorlander was having none of it. "No! We need to beat this dungeon! I won''t let the honour of clearing the dungeon go to someone else." He wanted to continue? Did he see what just happened? Meldor yelled at Vorlander with clenched fists "Did ya see what just happened? People got hurt! You can take your pride and stuff it up your arse! We are leaving this dungeon and you don''t get a say in it!" The students were slightly shocked by the outburst of anger but not Vorlander, as he smirked and held up some paper while saying " My father gave me this order notice which states that I can give one order that you must follow, and I use it here to say that we must clear this dungeon. You wouldn''t disobey my father now would you?" Vorlander laughed while waving the paper in Stron'' s face. It seemed his father had given Vorlander an official notice. Even if his father wasn''t the king or a famous noble, he was still a noble nonetheless so his words held value. A value which couldn''t be easily disobeyed by regular adventurers. After inspecting the paper Stron sighed and looked at Vorlander in anger. "If anything happens to the students it will be you and your father''s fault you hear? I''m not taking the blame for any problems when I was forced into this by that scrap of paper." Vorlander smiled and said, "Don''t worry, even if a problem happens we can escape with warp stones, and use the 2 idiots over there as bait to give us the time to activate the warp stones." Vorlander looked at us with an evil grin as he put the paper away and got ready to go further into the dungeon. Stron looked at Vorlander with a tired expression before saying " alright let''s continue into the dungeon and get this nonsense over with. If you feel you can''t handle the fight simply yell out and one of us on the sidelines will come help. Don''t overexert yourselves. Also, does anyone have spare armguards for him?" He pointed at the guy with a hole in his arm guard from earlier. After we finished swapping armour for those that needed to and fixed any damages to our equipment, we continued into the dungeon, with the students feeling more fear than excitement at the prospect of meeting more groups like earlier, but we had no choice but to continue in due to a certain someone. I sighed as I followed the rest thinking about how much of a pain in the ass Vorlander could be sometimes. Chapter 6: A Terrifying Discovery We continued to walk through the stone corridors and fought with 3 more squads of skeleton shieldbearers and skeleton spear users. Thankfully only one squad had 2 skeleton mages. The students were very tired by this point and even me and Alex had to interfere a few times due to it being too dangerous. Stron looked at Vorlander viciously and said "Look at the trouble all the students have had to go through. One of them nearly had his head lopped off! I am calling it off here, consequences be damned. I ain''t going to die in some unknown dungeon because of a noble. Students, if you want to leave follow us, we''ll take the full blame!" He started prepping his gear and looked at the other students as if to ask which were coming and which were staying, Vorlander was furious and screamed "You can''t do that! I''ll have you arrested and locked away for life! I order you to stay under using my father''s decree!" Spit was flying as he screamed that at the top of his lungs, with his face looking as red as a tomato. Stron didn''t seem to care and simply replied with "If you want to die here then be my guest but we are no longer risking our lives for no gain because of some spoiled brat. Besides I have a few favours I can call in to avoid trouble with your father should the need arise". He had finished packing his gear and looked at the students, all of whom had finished fixing their gear and doing whatever packing and maintenance they needed to do. We were about to turn around and leave when we heard it. THUMP. The sound came from down the hall straight ahead. We were in a room filled with pillars along the sides of the room. It had been filled with a lot of skeleton shieldbearer''s and had 2 skeleton mages. The room also had a skeleton knight. That was rather dangerous. It was covered in rusted iron plate mail and was wielding a greatsword. It took quite a lot of effort to kill it since it''s armour was rather tough to break through. Everyone was quiet and looking in the direction of the sound with their weapons at the ready. THUMP. The sound came again, followed by the sound of metal scraping the floor. It kept getting closer and I felt a chill go down my spine. "I have a bad feeling about this Alex, I don''t think we should st-" I stopped talking as I saw a long greatsword made of a pitch-black material. I then remembered my reoccurring dream''s and even though it sounded crazy I didn''t hesitate. I grabbed Alex and shouted "HIDE! I-IT''S A DEATH KNIGHT!". I didn''t wait to hear everyone''s replies and instantly hid behind a nearby pillar while dragging Alex with me. The adventurers looked at me and then looked at the looming silhouette that was getting closer and Stron instantly made a decision. "Everyone use you''re warp stones! NOW! We need to lea-Guhaah!" Stron didn''t get to finish as he was stabbed through the gut by the large black greatsword and then was sent flying into a nearby pillar. Meldor ran to Stron and pulled out his warpstone as well as Stron''s and instantly used them both before screaming "USE YOUR WARP STONES! RUN!" In a whirl of mana and blue light they disappeared, with Meldor''s warning echoing through the halls. Followed by that was a hair-raising roar as the creature came into full view. A Death Knight. One of the strongest undead that exists. Over 7 feet, with some Death Knight''s nearing 8 feet it loomed over us. It was wearing some rather terrifying armour made out of the same pitch-black material its sword was made of. It also had a large tower shield that covered most of its body. That shield would cover a normal human easily, probably even 2 or 3 standing side by side. It looked at us with its blue flames for eyes burning brightly as it looked at us all. It let out a mighty roar and then charged a nearby student. The one in leather armour. He fumbled with his warpstone as he tried to activate it. Unfortunately, he was too slow and was cut in half by the Death Knight. The warpstone then activated and teleported his top and bottom halves out of the dungeon. The other students were absolutely terrified at this point and Vorlander instantly used his warpstone after fumbling with it for a bit. Maria yelled at the other''s who were still in shock "What are you waiting for?! Use your warpstones!" She readied her sword and used a defensive martial art, Stone stance. The other students finally snapped out of it when Maria was sent tumbling after narrowly avoiding the swing of the Death Knight. They quickly pulled out their warpstones but one guy wasn''t so lucky and got his entire left arm and part of his shoulder cut off before finish the teleport, with the body part warping with him even though it was detached. Maria quickly got up and tried to use another martial art but was about to be cut in half by the sword swung at her, so I acted without thinking. I used around half of my mana to create a spell and quickly shot it at the Death Knight. The spell was Napalm Strike, but since it used half of my mana to cast it was a far more powerful version, with bright white flames burning the thing. It stopped mid-swing and looked at me. It then roared in fury as it charged at me. I yelled at Alex and Maria as I started to make a break for it. "Get out of here you two! I''ll find a way out!" I wasn''t really thinking properly as I said that and said it in the heat of the moment. I kept sprinting as I heard a loud THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP CRASH from the Death Knight charging down the hall and swinging its sword at me only to be blocked by my mana barrier. The swing took a shit ton of mana to block and my barrier was already cracking. "Matthias! Don''t Die! We''ll be coming to save you in a bit! Hide and don''t die!" I heard Alex scream as he sent something flying into a wall, presumably some other undead that wandered over due to the noise. I kept running and didn''t stop even as my lungs protested and screamed in pain. I heard more thumps start following me, the amount of death knights chasing me probably increasing. "Why the hell does this dungeon have Death Knights?! AND ON THE FIRST FLOOR! They should be on the 50th floor or something, not here!! What the hell is wrong with this dungeon?! I should have known shit was wrong when the number of skeletons kept increasing at an alarming rate and the difficulty kept spiking at a faster than normal rate" I chided myself for being a moron and kept running. I heard a loud crack as my mana barrier took another hit from the Death Knight''s chasing me. I coughed some blood as the strain of keeping the barrier active even with the immense attacks was taking its toll on my body. Normally my barrier would have shattered, but it was thanks to me having a ridiculously large mana pool that I was able to maintain it. My mana pool was so stupidly large for my age that people would call me a genius if I studied here. "Too bad I''m stuck as a slave here, haha. AGH!" My laugh was cut short by another attack sending a new wave of pain through my body as it impacted my mana barrier. I wouldn''t be able to keep it up much longer, even with my stupid amount of mana.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I kept sprinting, turning around corners and taking twists and stairs to wherever in order to avoid the Death Knights chasing me. "Would you give it a rest already?! Don''t you have something better to do?!" I screamed as I sent more Napalm strikes flying behind me blindly. I was rewarded with several roars of anger. I had to provide them with mana so my mana was dropping ever so slowly. The clock was ticking and I was going to die if I didn''t find a solution soon. It then hit me as I turned a corner. I combined a spell that increased your voice''s volume and a light spell Flash. I instantly fired the spell and a large ball of light went flying behind me and then I mentally triggered it. What came from behind me was one of the loudest sounds I''ve ever heard followed by a blinding light flashing and lighting up the halls. My ears were ringing as I kept sprinting. I looked behind me and saw to my dismay that it only stopped a few Death Knights, the rest were still hot on my heels. "Goddamnit! Piss off!"I blindly sent dozens of these ''flashbang''s'' as I decided to call them. I mean they were literally a large flash and a big bang. I know I have terrible naming sense but shut up me. "Why am I arguing with myself over a stupid spell name? I need to find a way to escape those Death Knights" ~~~ I kept running for god knows how long. It felt like hours, or maybe days. I couldn''t tell the time in this dungeon Eventually, I found that the things chasing me were basically allergic to the large flash of light mana from the flashbang''s so I sent as many as I could. Eventually I was able to stop running and catch my breath. Wait...what was I running from again? How did I even get here? Whatever that doesn''t matter right now. First I need to get out of this dungeon. Honestly, how did I even get here, also where are Maria and Alex? I had a feeling of Deja vu when I thought that. I had been so focused on trying to live that I forgot where I even was and what I was running from. I then tried to remember my dream more but I heard some more thumping behind me. "Shit, they already caught up with me". I started to sprint down the halls to escape whatever it was that I was escaping from. "Oh right Death knights! That''s what I was running from!" I said in realization and heard a roar come from behind me, prompting me to spring even faster.While I''m running with my lungs feeling like they''re about to burst, I catch something glowing in the corner of my eye."Well isn''t this very familiar. Here goes nothing!" I dove into the large glowing crack without any hesitation and continued to crawl as fast as I could. I heard the thumping from the Death Knights as they passed by my little hidey hole. I kept crawling through to the other side because I didn''t want to go back to where the Death Knights were. Once I pass through the crack and exit at the other side I immediately get blinded by an intense yellow light. "Let me guess, there''s a fancy glowy sword of doom?" I laughed as I said that but stopped when I saw I was right. I saw a giant sword, with dull yellow flames licking the sword edges lazily. There seemed to be a series of random grooves near the handle of the blade that looked like some form of writing which were glowing a more vibrant yellow. I laughed at how my dream ended up coming true. I wasn''t sure how it ended up being true but I didn''t care. I wanted the sword. It looked cool and was probably super powerful. "Hell I could probably slaughter everyone at the academy with this sword, and make my way out of the city, carving a path of bloo-" I stopped and shook my head. This wasn''t like me. I wasn''t a blood-crazed maniac who wanted to murder. I also didn''t want the sword, or did I? I shook my head as the desire to take the sword started to take root in my mind again. I backed up but found that I was already against the wall. The sword looked menacing now that I looked at it better, but who cares as long as I get it right? People can''t argue when they are dead can the- "Goddamnit! What the hell is wrong with me? I need to leave before this weird sword influences me more than it already is. Whatever this sword is it seems like bad news". I decided and was about to leave when a massive wave of mana flooded the room and brought me to my knees. Desire. Power. Greed. Freedom. Those thoughts echoed in my head and I got up, then walked back to the sword. Slowly I inched closer as I tried to reason with myself that I didn''t need the sword. I was a fricking mage, why would I need a sword? I wasn''t Alex who could wield weapons with his massive bulk even though he was a mage. But the sword would grant Freedom and Power. When those words were in my head they seemed to echo and make my desire to take the sword even greater. I went over to grab the sword and when my hand finally grabbed the sword. The echoing words soon changed to maniacal laughter. It was a terrifying laugh that would send chills down anyone''s spine. As the laugh faded I saw a prompt from the world''s voice appear in front of me.
You have acquired the Cursed sword of Hephalio
"Shit" was all I managed to say before I fell to my knees and blacked out, still gripping the sword. There were a few more prompts from the world''s voice but my vision went black before I could read them. Chapter 7: Cursed Blessings I awoke to a massive headache and there was a searing pain in my left arm, along with someone screaming at me to wake up. "5 more minutes..." I mumbled to whoever it was that was shaking me, but the shaking didn''t stop. Instead I was met with a rather abrupt smack to the stomach followed by someone yelling "If you don''t wake up I''m going to light Vorlander''s pants on fire and pin all the blame on you!" I was instantly awake and my eyes shot towards Alex and without thinking I said "Don''t you even DARE pin the blame on me for your random ass shenanigans. I will melt your axe if you even attempt that you god damn- wait....where are we? and what the hell is-" I was stopped by more searing pain in my left arm and was clutching it in pain. I couldn''t hear what Alex was saying over the sheer intensity of the pain I was going through. It felt like something was tearing flesh off of my arm in small little strands and replacing the flesh with something else entirely. It felt foreign and full of power yet not right, as if I should not let it exist, but I wanted it to exist all at the same time. I wanted to scream in agony but a hand covered my mouth and I heard a loud set of clunking footsteps echo in the distance. I then remembered where we were. Thats right, we were in the dungeon and got screwed over by some Death Knight and I found some weird glowing sword. Speaking of swords where the hell was the sword? It was then that I noticed the notifications in my vision. The pain had subsided enough to let me think clearly and actually pay attention to what was going on.
The Cursed Sword of Hephalio has activated and given you a curse. The curse is Greater Mana Instability! For the next 72 hours you will have very unstable mana. Whenever you use mana the mana will run rampant and have a high chance of the spell failing or even backfiring and causing terrible repercussions. Hephalio has enjoyed your suffering from the branding and has granted you a blessing! For the next 72 hours all spells you successfully use will deal 3x the normal damage and cost 50% less mana.
I stared at the notification in shock. What the hell was the cursed sword of Hephalio and why did it curse me? I then noticed another popup and read it.
You have been Branded by the cursed sword of Hephalio! The brand on your left arm will allow you to summon or unsummon the Hephalio. Hephalio has a chance to curse the user at whim and depending on the circumstances it may also grant a blessing as well. Be warned. Hephalio is known to drive its user to ruin and it is impossible to get rid of Hephalio as you have been branded with it''s mark.
I blinked as I read the second message and then stared at my left arm. On my arm was a blood red glowing tattoo. It looked like a long wingless dragon coiling around my arm with it''s mouth encompassing my left hand with the top of the dragon''s mouth covering half of the top of my hand and the bottom doing the same for half of my palm. The rest of my hand was untouched by the tattoo The dragon itself looked ferocious and a combination between a dragon and a demon, and looked like it only took the ferocious parts of both to make a terrifying beast of slaughter. It also had several faint tattoos but I couldn''t make out what they were. I felt like I would see the tattoos more clearly the more powerful I got but I had no idea where this knowledge came from. As I was staring at the tattoo I could have sworn I saw the eyes of the beast turn to look at me and heard the dragon snickered. It freaked me out and I moved my hand away from me in terror. When the dragon, was that the right term to call it that? It felt wrong somehow but I was going to continue calling it that as I had no other name for what it was. The dragon didn''t move from its original spot on my arm, causing me to relax and I then heard Alex say something, sounding real annoyed. "What the hell is up with you? I used my Searching Call spell to find your location and find you in some crack, which I then found out was being constantly patrolled around by Death Knights. I then manage to get into the crack and find you passed out and your entire body was emanating a fierce aura and I couldn''t get near you until just now, and when I do get to you I find that you now have some glowing Demonic Dragon Tattoo! Seriously what the hell have you been up to in the past 4 hours?" ...It had been 4 hours already? It felt like a few minutes had passed between me running away and me passing out but I guess a lot more time than I thought had passed. "I don''t really know man. I was just running for my life and found this crack in the wall and dove into it to avoid certain death. I saw this weird sword and kept getting the thought to touch the sword. I seriously wish I hadn''t touched the sword cause it freaking HURT." I shivered as I remembered the pain I had gone through just moments ago. The pain was mostly gone by this point and was reduced to a dull throbbing with the occasional burst of pain.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. "Matthias we really need to get out of here dude. We can sort out the whole tattoo thing later on. But for now I want to focus on getting out of here alive." Alex was right on that so I got up with assistance from Alex. We then went near the crack and were checking for any Death Knights patrolling nearby when I thought about where the sword went and remembered the notification saying something about being able to summon the sword, so I tried to do just that. I just thought ''I want the sword to appear in my left hand''. Not a second later the sword did appear in my hand, only this time the runes were glowing blood red instead of a vibrant yellow like I remembered it was. The sword itself looked very menacing and powerful. I kept staring at the sword and noticed its yellow flames were now tinged with a very slight amount of red. I wouldn''t have noticed if I wasn''t paying such close attention to the sword at the moment. The amount of red was almost nonexistent in the yellow flames. I then felt a pat on my shoulder followed by him saying "Alright the coast is clear lets book it." I started crawling forward and willed the sword to be unsummoned, which it did after I thought about it. Man this would be useful for travelling and other stuff. Too bad I can'' travel with this stupid slave collar on, I thought to my self as I touched my slave collar while we ran As we were sprinting down the halls we heard a thumping and clanking sound that indicated the arrival of a Death Knight. We quickly located that it was coming fro ma hallway behind us to the left so we booked it down a side path with Alex leading the way the entire time. "Man how the heck do you know where to go." I asked him. He simply laughed and said "The Searching Call spell lets me locate stuff and gives me directions to it provided I have touched the object and know exactly how it looks and also doesn''t work for certain things. Oh it also has a range and constantly consumes magic so we better hurry or we''ll be stuck walking blind until I get enough mana." At that we picked up the pace while Alex detailed his next great plan which involved inverting Vorlander''s clothing and making his underwear glow vibrantly. I sighed as I listened to him. Alex never changes no matter what situation he is in. ~~~ "Haah haah, did we finally lose em? I seriously don''t want to see another skeleton for a long while. I feel like i''m going to have nightmares about Death Knights." Alex and I were still running and he seemed rather tired of escaping from Death Knights the entire time. This place was infested with them, like seriously. "We climbed 15 staircases upwards and passed through what feels like 50 km worth of hallways. I didn''t know I ran this far when escaping them. I seriously thought I had only ran along one floor, not descended down 15 floors. Running for your life can really make you get going huh." I said that and Alex laughed and then pointed at a tunnel. The exit should be just past that corner." I cried out in excitement and yelled "Finally we are going to be free! No more undead! I can''t wait to punch Vorlander in the god damn face for nearly getting us killed." I had a rather evil grin on my face as I thought of the various spells I could use to torture Vorlander. The Dragon on my left arm pulsed in what I could have sworn was excitement. This made me stumble and nearly fall, but I righted myself and kept running. The thing responded to my thoughts, it freaking got excited. This made me wonder what exactly had been branded onto my left arm. Or was something a part of my left arm now? I kept thinking of this and the excitement in the dragon tattoo faded into nothing and almost turned into something else. I couldn''t really understand how this tattoo could feel things but it did and it felt disappointed from what I understood. I kept thinking about the tattoo some more but we had made it out of the dungeon a few moments later, not giving me nearly enough time to think about this situation. What I saw outside the dungeon was a full battalion of knights and a large amount of adventurers at the ready with weapons drawn. They calmed down when they saw it was humans but didn''t let their guards down, still suspicious of us. I saw Vorlander standing off to the side under a tent being yelled at by the Meldor. Stron was still injured but it looked like he had been healed somehow. I was glad he had survived as he wasn''t a bad person to be honest. Vorlander looked furious but whenever he started acting out Meldor would increase his yelling and the killing intent would roll off of him in almost literal waves, quickly silencing any snarky remarks he had. We were walking over to them when someone nearby yelled "Stop! Who are you and why are you leaving that dungeon just now? It''s been over 4 hours since the report had been made. Are you somehow related to the Death Knight incident? Speak!" The knight that spoke aimed his sword at us and the rest followed suit by getting into a battle ready stance. Before I could even say anything I saw Meldor yell "Oi leave em alone , those 2 are part of the reason why we are still alive. If he hadn''t figured out it was a Death Knight then Stron would have been dead and so would have most of the students!" With that the knights backed off but still kept a wary eye on us. I huffed and continued with Alex over to the group and waved at Maria, who looked relieved to see us alive. She ran to Alex and socked him in the gut, which caused him to wince in pain, before yelling at him. "Why did you have to run after him, the direction the Death Knight went?! You both could have died! Do you know how stupid it was to just blindly charge after the Death Knight like that?!" She really seemed angry and chewed Alex out quite a lot before taking a deep breath and saying "I''m just glad my teaching instructor didn''t die. You still have quite a lot to teach me so don''t go off chasing Death Knights like a moron." I laughed at that and started talking with Stron and Meldor about what was going on outside the dungeon with all the knights and adventurers. From the sounds of it quite a lot happened and this became a bigger mess than anyone could have predicted.