Loryarc and Rina looked at each other. The two of them could see how anxious they were right at the moment.
"Everything we found while doing the Challenge would always have meaning..." Rina muttered, seemingly more to convince Loryarc and herself than anything while recalling what she read before.
Loryarc frowned and turned his head toward the pile of dried corpses inside the dark, damp room. Some of the corpses were lying on the floor, some leaning against the wall, while there were even some who were facing another corpse, maybe hugging each other. The only thing those corpses shared was the fact that they all, without exception, had lost some parts of their bodies.
After considering it, Loryarc nodded to Rina and agreed to enter the room.
Loryarc grabbed his sword handle and pulled it out of its sheath. He warily walked in front as they took steps forward and entered the room. After taking twenty steps from the door, Loryarc and Rina stopped in front of the dried head they had found before.
Loryarc looking at the dried head. He took more attention to the hollowed eye sockets that gave him goosebumps just by looking at them.
"They won't wake up, right?" Loryarc brought his petite light to light the corpses scattered around them and asked Rina doubtfully.
Rina placed her hands in front of her chest after she heard Loryarc's words. She channels her mana towards her palms and constructs a faint greenish light, which soon forms a miniature tree.
Her greenish mana expanded gently from the confinement of her hands and filled the small area in front of them. After some time, the greenish light subsided as Rina showed an expression of confusion.
"What's wrong?" Loryarc asked her with curiosity and a portion of nervousness.
Rina raised her head and looked at Loryarc's face with her brows furrowed in uncertainty.
"There was a faint trace of nature... No, light or holy Mana linger here. These corpses wouldn't become undead since someone has purified their soul and successfully sent them to Heaven." Rina explained what she found to Loryarc in a slightly dazed state.
"A Priest?" Loryarc voices his guess.
Rina nodded to express her confirmation.
Priest, Priestess, Saint, and Saintess.
Even after the God of Trial and Disaster, Azathoth, built Dungeons for the inhabitants of this world, the number of people who could carry these titles remains limited.
The reason was that there were almost no Dungeons that could produce the corresponding Skill Books for these jobs, a stark contrast from the rich number of combat-based Skill Books everyone could get from the Dungeon as long as they were capable of defeating the Dungeon Boss or the Floor Boss of the Dungeon in question.
So from 800 years ago, the students of the Royal Academy, who their ability was specialized in supporting only like the Priest were given the right to refuse to participates in the Spring Seven Challenges which has high risk of losing their life in the process, whether it in the hands of monsters, or in the hands of fellow students.
The previous, previous, previous, previous Principal of the Royal Academy, Mr. Saddafred, even especially constructed a constitution which touched on the topic of supporting protection of the non-direct combatants. His action at that time was even approved by the church of Azathoth because his action was in line with what the Brave once said in the Book of Bravery, "My sword might be capable of beheading the Dragons, slaying Ancient Calamities, and even cut the continent. But I am because of what I've received from you all. I can't heal my wounds myself, so you covered it up! I can't bake bread myself, but you could! I may had destroyed the shadow, but we would certainly meet our demise without you!"
With the Brave's popularity, this constitution was immediately followed by support, and they normally would avoid the Spring Seven Challenges if they could. From year to year, the number of supporters who participate in the Spring Seven Challenges has kept decreasing until today, which is only a Priest and a Support-based Nature Mage.
By the way, Rina's spell was mostly specialized in damage power, so she was an Attack-based Nature Mage.
More than 800 years ago? Rina thought as she followed Loryarc further advancing into the depths of the room, towards the only passageway that existed there, while faintly detecting the residue of Natural Mana, Light Mana, and even Holy Mana still lingering in the air.
She looked ahead their way and found more dried corpses.
Just how many of them are there? What's happened to them that caused they to gather together here? What kind of creature they faced before they met their end? She couldn't help but question herself in shock. Her lips pursed uncomfortably as she pinched her nose.
Rina examined the corpses of the dead with her eyes as she silently followed the sound of Loryarc's footsteps. It was when they took their 400 steps from the door that Rina noticed something about the corpses and halted her steps.
"Wait, Lord Loryarc!" She raised her voice and grabbed Loryarc's sleeve to stop him.
"Hm? What?" Loryarc turned around and asked her.
He brought his petite light to light their faces, illuminating Rina's serious face while her eyes locked on the corpse leaning limp against the wall to her right. Rina crouched down and touched the yellow, withered robe of the corpse; her brow slowly ceased as she found that the fabric of the robe was already so fragile that it began to disintegrate as she touched it.
She looked at the head and body of the corpse, her eyes calculated the size of the corpse's body before it reduced to this state. After she counted it with the knowledge she got from the Necros course in the Academy, she found a rather shocking fact.
"This corpse was not a student of the Academy like us!" She exclaimed.
"This man... Yes, this man should have already reached his 40s when he participated in the Challenge. He died about... A thousand years ago, two thousand years, or even later than that..."
Loryarc and Rina looked at each other and gulped. The sounds of their gulps echo inside this ancient place as it breaks the silence.
They found that this room might be hiding an even bigger secret than what they expected before.
...
At the center of the crimson thunder dimension, at the huge lake... No, at the frozen lake, to be precise.
There, an ice throne stood high and magnificent.
A white-haired woman placed her right leg above her left leg and straightened her back as she looked at the sky. There are several students who was shivering in the cold of her ice besides the throne. They also raised their head to looked at the Halverns flying above their heads.
Julimune gracefully raised her thin, white index finger. She pointed at a Halvern that not long ago had noticed their presence and began to fly down towards them.
Ice crown at her head gleamed slightly as her lips opened undiscernibly and muttered a word, "Launch."
The ice surface beneath them shook right after she muttered it as if in response to her word.
Then, as the Halvern flies closer, a massive, thorn-like ice grows from the ice surface and, in an instant, penetrates the Halvern from its throat to its other end hole.
The roars of other Halverns filled the air as those monsters sensed the death of their friend. One after another, they began to fly over towards the frozen lake.
A particularly huge crimson thunderstorm fell at the moment and dyed the dark sky red.
Everything mirrored in the cold eyes of Julimune. Her body was relazed, calm and unwavered. She really was a Queen.
As other students inside the dimension looked at the ice thorn towering high with a Halvern at the tip, they knew that the Challenge had now begun.