Chapter 3 — Egression

Chapter 3 — Egression

 

It took Shuunin 3 seconds before understanding his situation. Firstly, he was sure he's dead but for some reason he's totally alive. Secondly, his eyesight improved so much he could see the whole room with just one bat of his eyes and even the extra details. Thirdly, he gained back two arms of which he vividly remembered was cut by Souma. Fourthly, he wanted to asked a stranger before him who seemed to have healed him but instead killed his benefactor. Although, Shuunin remained placid when the man he accidentally killed changed it's appearance to a dragon. Suddenly, his senses were heightened so much that he can feel familiar footsteps 100 floors above him. Shuunin then stared dimly at the door behind him. Leaving the corpse of the dragon, he walked to the room of which he had felt a presence of a living being. Shuunin then saw a mysterious box covered with mana, although Shuunin feels that the strength of the mana is weakening. Not wanting to touch it, the box opens on its own, revealing a small creature fitting for his hands. Like a ball it was curled up but slowly, it's body moved and a notification pop-up before him. Before he could read the notification, a stinging sensation evelops Shuunin's body.

 

“GAAAAAH!!!”

 

Shuunin threw himself on the floor as the pain grew stronger and stronger. He felt his bones melting, his eyes started to excrete bloody tears. Without him knowing, the dungeon was slowly disappearing and before he knew it he had passed out from pain in the ground.

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have cleared the 100 floor dungeon by killing the Ancient Dragon and saved the Land God Ashura.

 

You will now exit in 99 seconds.

🔘🔳

 

The pop-up notification stayed for 20 seconds before it automatically vanished. The death of the dragon and the appearance of the mysterious creature marked the clearance of the dungeon of which will greatly affect Shuunin's status in the future.

 

“Waah! I-It's shaking, the ground is shaking!”

 

”Touka-sama, please slow down a bit!”

 

Touka was in the entrance of the Kkam forest when an earthquake occurred. Suddenly, the Kkam forest was surrounded by a strong aura which made Touka and the rest shiver. Without further delay she dashed through the Kkam forest followed by her students who can barely follow her speed. A perilous path welcomed them, as the ground was still shaking and so the low leveled monsters that are hiding resurfaced from the dungeon. Although some high leveled monsters came out, they didn't last after meeting Touka's silver rapier. Her sword skills never lost to anyone during her time as the 20th head of the Zehel clan. Seeing her prowess and murder intent, low leveled monsters flees from the place which gave Touka ang co. a look of the dungeon. However, the moment they got there, another tremor happen and this time it was stronger than before. The entrance of the dungeon started to close before them.

 

“Inceneseo Elementucto, Scintillate!”

 

Touka chanted and her rapier sparked, her skill [Scintillate] is a mixture of fire and lightning, cut through the thick doors of the dungeon however, the moment the doors were disintegrated, the surrounding area collapsed. Touka avoided the collapsing dungeon as she looked dimly towards the dungeon.

 

“Touka-sama, please calm down!”

 

“Let me go, you rascals! My grandson is still inside! Shuunin!”

 

Tears swelled up her eyes while the four tried their best to restrain Touka. As the dungeon's debris started to vanish, Touka was in a thought. If it's vanishing does that mean the dungeon limited to certain time only or did someone cleared the dungeon? Who? When they have earlier, she did a status check on the dungeon and the dungeon was ranked SSS. No one aside from the 13 Pillar Clans are able to attain such rank but someone, aside from them was able to clear it. Erratically, this dungeon opened it's door to lower ranked humans who barely ranked intermediate levels.

 

“Touka-sama! I can feel two entities!”

 

One of her students shouted in the midst of dusty place, the debris all vanished in the thin air before they could even realise. With the words from her student, the they all steeled themselves to face the unknown guys who cleared the dungeon.

 

“Shuunin? Is that... Is that Shuunin?!”

 

Appalled at the sight of the boy in middle of forest, Touka sprinted before her students could stop her not thinking if it could be trap or an illusion. Tears swelled up on her eyes as she scrutinise every inch of the latter's body. Shuunin was pale, as if his body has lost gallons of blood, he is breathing but his pulse is slowly beating and his bones stick to the skin, something she dreaded to see since he's been in the dungeon for long and no one in the house of Zehel tried to save him.

 

“Uuu..!!”

 

Like a kid, Touka cried and hugged the boy. The students behind her were perplexed to see the Queen of Rapier, Zehel Touka, crying like a child. A pillar of light then resurfaces and they recognise their yellow clothes as the medical group, Alfalfa. The must have appeared after one of the students of Touka contact them via IM.

 

“Alfalfa... For you to teleport in house of Zehel right away...”

 

A man with blonde hair tied by silver accessory walked towards Touka. The other three behind him are members of Alfalfa which is a sect following the god of sun Wara and one of their characteristics is the blonde hair and the use of staff or bible. 

 

“I am Freed from squad 4 of Alfalfa. Due to the assassination of the High Human, we were mobilised to secure the safety of each clan heads.”

 

“Eh?! Then Touka-sama is...”

 

“Zehel Touka-dono, we the Alfalfa 4th Squad given the task of guarding you the head of Zehel clan.”

 

Even after the announcement, Touka was still and her eyes never parted from the body of the boy next to her.

 

During the intervening time, inside Shuunin's body, the different types of mana were in turmoil as they fight over which mana will fill the orb. Then, Shuunin opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness although it puzzled him why he can see his body which bare without any clothes. As he started to feel embarrassed by his situation, another throb sent his whole body curled up and then seven orbs appeared out of nowhere, they entered his abdomen. The moment each orb enters his body, he felt different emotions as he sees various memories playing in his eyes like a large screen of theatre, he learns and understands the orbs and it's powers. The same cycle happens after each orbs. His eyes cries when he sees an unknown person crying, he laughs when they laugh, he smiles dimly when they kill another and a lot more emotions. So much emotions he had felt and too much memories he had seen carve a big essence to Shuunin. After the 3rd orb Shuunin started to wail, he doesn't want anymore of these memories. The first two orbs were blithesome and he enjoyed them however the next two orbs demoralised him. Fighting and killing, these contained the orbs and the emotions were stronger than any other emotions he felt. Out of a blue, Shuunin remembers when he was left by his stepbrothers and Souma even cut his arms. Odium filled his thoughts, he planned ways of killing his stepbrothers and then he'll massacre his clan. Suddenly, he sees an overly familiar back who then turned to him with a gentle smile. It was his grandmother who cared for him whenever she is back to the main house. She usually go in an isolation and would go back in the clan with a gift like the head of a giant or some treasure chests. Seeing her image, Shuunin gained his right mind and started to make breathing techniques to calm himself. Then, the darkness was broken and he came to open his eyes.

 

House of Zehel — Main House

 

Five months have passed, April came and the 13 Pillar Clan's incident slowly subsided. The clans who lost their clan heads had a hard time choosing a new clan head despite some internal feud between families, they decided right away to avoid further dishevelment. Zehel clan avoided fights within the house as they see Touka the most fitting person to be the head considering the fact that even though she's a 93 years old swordsman, her agility and skills were at it's peak.

 

“Hohoho! You can even kick that Geon boy without batting an eye.”

 

One of the Five Zehel Elders vaunted as he scratches his grey beard. He is Anereh, one of those who voted for Touka to be the new Zehel Clan head. Vitto Geon is the new clan head of Vitto Clan whose specialise in fire and wind attributes and uses guns as their weapons. During her days as a young lady, Touka has beaten Geon in just 5 moves using her rapier. Touka sighed at the problems she faced because Geon fell for her and was constantly asking for her hand.

 

“Mah... Mah... It's just the folly of youth.”

 

Touka immediately ended the conversation and headed back to the Main House. As she stepped on her room, Touka saw a some light under the door along with it was a knock on her door. Asking who it was, Esoj mentioned his name, one of her students and she ordered him to enter. Esoj was wearing a green long chinese gown, a uniform which the medic wears.

 

“What happened for you to be coming here in a hurry?”

 

Esoj's used a teleporting scroll in such a short distance. That however doesn't matter to him as it was his master's best interest to know the importance of his report.

 

“Touka-sama, there are signs of him waking up.”

 

“Signs of him waking up? What do you mean?”

 

Esoj only has a light attribute and so he has a good mana concentration since two or more mana concentration needs focus and deep understanding of the difference between each attributes. Although Esoj has a high level of the skill [Mana Analysis] and has been able to see normal kind of mana cultivation, what he saw from Shuunin was unique. His mana cultivation when he first saw it was in an erratic state, surprisingly Shuunin has four or more mana orbs which is more than how much a human can contain. Shuunin's body is as strong as an ethereal monster and his skin cannot even be pierced, something he can't understand and so could the medical master of the Zehel clan. As Esoj explains all of this to Touka, she was still and took out a scroll from her cabinet. In her hand is a golden colored scroll, ranked A teleportation scroll. Suddenly, she grabs on to his nape and light envelops them.

 

“Eeh?! Touka-sama!”

 

A girl wearing the same clothes with Esoj ran and bowed to Touka along with her greeting is an apology to Touka.

 

“Eno-chan? Did you spill the water again on the bed? This is the seventh times!”

 

Esoj glares at the Enoiram or known as Eno for short.

 

“NO! It's not that! THAT is the problem!”

 

Pointing at the empty bunk Touka and Esoj was dumbfounded. Down the floor are the bandages the medics had wrapped around Shuunin's body. Then, outside the room, someone can be seen in a distance. It was Shuunin.

 

“That idiot!”

 

The road was filled with dead monsters as a boy walks on the Kkam forest, his hands were drenched with blood. His blonde hair turned maroon in color and his skin was palish akin to a demon. What gave him a bit of surprise was his eyes, formerly it was black in color and he also lost one of his eyes before but when he woke up it changed into a slanted iris with a yellow and purple eyes. Moreover, he gained an eye which somehow gave a supersight, as he was able to see through objects and farsightedness and nearsightedness increases when he wanted to. Like that, he experimented with the nearby monsters and the forest, he right away found what he was searching for. Shuunin then reached​ the place of where the dungeon was located before it disappeared. Although, no trace of the dungeon was left, it made him realise that the dungeon which they entered is a special one. It may be higher than rank SS. Shuunin then stared at a certain spot where something portrude on the ground but when he walked near it, something suddenly jumped on the air revealing a round fur. He gave it a blank look as the ball of fur uncurled and showed a face of a small fox. It's color matches his hair and so did it copied the color of his eyes. Like a pint-size fascimile of Shuunin, the fox stared back at him and jumped at him. Catching the fox at his palm, he was about to use analyse when his grandmother appears next to him.

 

“You little! Did you know how much I aged because you disappeared—eh. I didn't know you have tamed a beast.”

 

“It's my pet.”

 

Shuunin hesitated before saying anything but then, it seems the fox has no thoughts of leaving his side and so he isn't lying. The fox doesn't show any negative aura towards him and so he set aside any thoughts for a while.

 

Meanwhile, Esoj was staring at Shuunin intently. Somehow, he felt an enormous negative aura from Shuunin.

 

“Nah, I might've mistaken it from him. Seriously though, who could have killed all of those monsters?”

 

A question left unanswered as they all went back to the Main House.