Today was finally the day practically every student had been looking forward to; their very first trip into the dungeon. The cafeteria was an endless cacophony of excited students wondering what they would encounter on their first trip. Naturally, there were a few less excited, and even one or two naysayers who were convinced that they'd see nothing special and it would be pretty dull. How could the first floor of the dungeon ever be exciting? That's where nothing but small fry would spawn. Or so they claimed. Still, that wasn't enough to dampen the spirits of the majority, and soon their pessimism was drowned out. As for Lily and Lotte, both were almost bouncing in their seats, albeit for somewhat differing reasons. Lily was excited to observe the Mana density in the dungeon, as Arakil had mentioned it was likely far better than the surface to facilitate monster spawning. Lotte, on the other hand, was hoping she'd get to kill a few monsters, eager to gain a bit of a boost to her questionable constitution. Nothing had happened so far, but sometimes she'd get this unshakable worry that she was one illness away from collapsing. Lily had even given her some of her spare potions from Camilla, and to her knowledge, none of them had been used yet. Then again, if she were in a similar situation, she'd probably also worry, so she didn't harp on it for too long. Speaking of Lotte, Lily had also brought up the stone skin spell with Arakil again. She really wanted to help her friend if she could, but she also didn't want to abuse Arakil's knowledge. Not so much in a "morale" way, but more, she was paranoid about putting strain on their relationship. However, that fear was squashed sooner than she expected, as Arakil seemed to have no issue with sharing some of his magical knowledge. In fact, he had almost seemed eager at the prospect, citing that he had a lot more free time to burn nowadays, and it would be quite enjoyable. The reason for the change of pace was that the bottleneck had shifted from Arakil's ability to research towards Lily's capability to progress. In theory, Arakil could access the majority of his archives with the Mana they had stored up now, but Lily needed time to properly digest it. And so, Arakil agreed that he'd allow Lily to share some spells with her friends if she so wished. The only caveat being that Lily wouldn't attempt to learn the spells unless he approved it beforehand, and that she didn't question his selection. Lily didn't have an issue with any of this, but she was curious about why. The answer was surprisingly simple: Arakil wished to test his old knowledge against the current world's bloodlines. His ultimate goal would be to see if he could devise the perfect complementary spells for each individual. There was still the issue of transcribing the spells, but that was an issue to worry about later, and Arakil still needed to do some initial investigative research on what knowledge he wished to grant. To Lily's surprise, however, was the fact that Arakil could operate his book while floating and doing research at the same time, although he did admit to it being a somewhat automated task. Still, all of that was for later as the class was eagerly heading towards their Dungeon Studies class! On the way, they met up with Hana, who once again had skipped breakfast for one of her jogs. They entered the classroom and to their surprise Alice was already waiting for them. "Hurry up to your seats, I need to set some ground rules before we head down," she said, gesturing towards the large door at the back of the class. Unlike Professor Elius' class, they didn't have to wait long for everyone to arrive, as apparently nobody wanted to be late for this. "Right. So down in the dungeon, I'm the boss. If you don't listen to me, I can and will forbid you from entering again anytime soon. Trust me, the ordeal of getting your entry privilege back is not something you want to go through. Ask some of the older students if you want to get an idea. Got it!?" The class murmured in agreement, with some nodding their heads to her sudden final exclamation. "Good. I'm glad you're listening. You are to stay within visual range of me at all times. No wandering off at all, no matter how brave you're feeling. Secondly, we will be skipping lunch and spending it down there and continuing into the afternoon since there's no afternoon class, so I've got you lot all to myself." Someone raised his hand to ask a question, but rather than giving him permission to speak, she answered as if predicting the question. "I've brought supplies and rations. Storage bags full of them. It won't be fine cuisine, but nobody will go hungry, you can trust me on that. Think of it as an early experience for your future camping trips." The student lowered his hand, and Alice continued on. "Nobody is to attack any monsters without my permission. Unless in the infinitesimal chance that one somehow gets past my watch and attacks you. Even then, I'd recommend a defensive spell instead, but I expect you to use your head. This does not give you permission to try to play the hero, got it?" She paused and refused to continue until the entire class was nodding in agreement. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. "Good. You'll get plenty of time to explore the dungeon once you're qualified. Remember, it's your dungeon pass that's at stake here. Speaking of which…" Alice sauntered over to her desk and, after unlocking one of the drawers, pulled out a satchel. She opened it up and released the contents. Spilling out onto her desk were a bunch of identical bronze badges. Looking closely, Lily noticed that they had a red "0" embellished on them. "These are your temporary passes. You're free to keep them, but they only work when in the presence of a qualified staff member, such as myself. When you earn your actual pass, it'll have a number on it indicating what level of the dungeon you're permitted to access, so that's something to look forward to. And don't get the bright idea of trying to steal someone else's pass, it's keyed to your Mana and blood, so there's no fooling the real deal." "And… I think that's it for now. So everyone, go grab a badge and pin it somewhere visible." Everyone excitedly surged forward to the front of the class to grab their badge, as if supplies were limited. Fortunately for any latecomers, that was certainly not the case, and there was actually plenty to spare. Lily and Lotte each grabbed one and pinned it to their collars, as did most of the students, except for a few who thought it would be funny to pin it to their chest or crotch. Once everyone had grabbed one, Alice started to move towards the oversized door. She opened it with relative ease, and the students collectively held their breaths in anticipation. The secret behind the closed door was a large stonework staircase that led down, some of a major letdown from what their imaginations had cooked up. Even Lily had felt mildly disappointed. "Right, follow me and remember my warnings," Alice reminded everyone and marched in. With Alice at the lead, they all began descending the staircase down into the depths. The kids started to whisper and speculate what they would see, with most of them expecting to suddenly be plunged into darkness. Yet that didn't happen, and instead the environment seemed to be getting brighter. The reason became apparent as they reached the bottom of the staircase and an archway blocked by a glowing film of pearlescent light. It shimmered and wavered, preventing any of them from seeing beyond its boundary. "This is the dungeon entrance. Sealed by the fuzzball in charge. Without your entry permit, you won't be able to get through this barrier. Anyone want to try?" Alice waited, but nobody stepped forward. She clicked her tongue before chuckling. "Damn, no takers this year. Anyway… Do note that this isn't the only entrance, but it will likely be the only one you will use anytime soon. Follow me, and don't dawdle when stepping through it." Alice strutted forward, walking straight to the barrier as if it wasn't there. When she came into contact with it, she passed through, only causing a minor ripple in the pearlescent sheen. Naturally, Arthur and Hana were the first to follow after, but a group of eager students were immediately behind them. As the pair touched the barrier, their permits shone for a brief moment before they passed through effortlessly. [Fascinating... If I'm not mistaken, it's using the Familiar bond to inherit the permission. I guess it's a good thing we didn't try to fake the ritual, or I might have been unable to pass through. Of course, that's assuming the barrier even sees me as a "living entity," but such a detailed analysis will sadly have to wait until you can enter without prying eyes.] Lily gave a subtle hand gesture with her right hand, indicating "yes" to Arakil in times when she couldn't speak out loud. Right hand "yes", left hand "no", both hands "explain" or "why", and that was about it for now. They'd kept them extremely simple, with the hope that Lily would be able to talk mentally to Arakil soon as well. Lotte and Lily went in together, and the experience was quite indescribable. It was like stretching a sock on, except over your entire body, before it abruptly gave way and let you pass through entirely. Lily was relieved to see Arakil pass through with her without any issue. On the other side, a group of waiting students and Alice quickly joined the pack to avoid blocking the entrance. With that out of the way, Lily finally began to look around and examine her surroundings. The entire room appeared to be made out of stonework of immaculate quality. The room was rectangular with the barrier archway behind it and a sealed door on the opposite end. However, it was wide enough that it couldn't be classified as a simple hallway. Sconces lined the walls, but rather than flame, they all were illuminated by white crystals. It was a rather magnificent sight as they produced a light that wasn't harsh to look at directly, yet somehow was bright enough to make the entire room feel like they were out in the sun. In the center of the room, and behind Alice, was a three-tiered fountain, with crystal clear water trickling out of it into its large basin surrounding it. Other than that, the room was surprisingly featureless. Not at all what Lily had assumed a dungeon would look like. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝗂𝗋𝖾⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥 [Oh! Now this is something exciting. Lily, quickly use your Magesight, or open up your Mana Core.] Lily did so, opting to choose her Magesight. Despite expecting to see something extraordinary, it was so startling that she very nearly jumped or let out a tiny shriek. The entire area was glowing with Mana, just like Arakil had theorized. She'd never seen so much Mana in one place, even when they'd activated rituals after preparing for so long. As soon as Lily got a chance, she quickly started a trance, wanting to see what it looked like from the perspective of her Mana Core. Lily had always seen a world of tiny fragments of Mana, evidence of the poor state of the world according to Arakil. She'd believed him, but having never known otherwise, she couldn't ever compare it to what he described. However, what Lily witnessed now, she could only imagine, must have been an enormous step in the right direction of what he was talking about. The entire area was saturated with Mana; it wasn't fragments or specs, but a flow, almost like an airborne river. Naturally, she expanded her radius to see how much of it she could find, wanting to witness its full glory, but was surprised to find her radius halted in the room they were occupied in. Even without using the gathering array, Lily had a much more impressive range nowadays, so it came as a shock to find herself halted so suddenly. After failing to go any further, she didn't press, knowing she didn't have much time. Instead, she tried to see if she could gather anything by forming a quick and small spiral. The rivers of Mana flowing around her were initially resistant, but soon gave way to her spiral and allowed themselves to be redirected. They were caught up in her spiraling stream and obeying its command. However, Lily immediately noticed that the river of Mana was not clean and would need to be purified. She started making more spirals to ensure it would be cleansed, but when she noticed it wasn't making much progress and her reasonable timeframe was rapidly expiring, she gave up. "You okay, Lily?" Lotte asked inquisitively. "You seemed to zone out for a bit." "Yes, I was just dazzled by the sight," she quickly replied. "I guess it is pretty cool. Although I can't help but think this is just one big waiting room. I think behind that door we'll see something even more amazing!" Lily smiled and nodded. "I certainly hope so. I can't wait!"