[Jack's POV]
*Thud*
*Thud*
*Thud*
Our steps echoed off the stone walls as we made our way down a long flight of stairs we found right after we entered the labyrinth.
There was no other path forward, so it was the only option.
We were all ready in case anything happened, observing our surroundings and taking note of the weirdly long staircase.
Orin was in the front with his sword drawn.
Ark and I followed closely behind him, watching our surroundings, as the two of us had the best senses in the dark, me with magic and Ark having better sight in the dark.
Zek was behind us, using his fire wand to control several small motes of flame floating around, letting us see.
Finally, Araki was in the back, watching behind us with his bow ready. I had given him a translated version of the map from Zareth. He was the best with maps, so I figured it was a good idea.
(Jack translated it in his own head and, using the book, transcribed it onto a couple ripped-out pages.)
"How long is this staircase?" Orin asked.
"I can see the bottom. It's not far now," Ark said.
We all squinted, trying to see.
Zek sent one of the flames down and illuminated the bottom of the stairs.
"Why is this so long?" Araki asked. "It had to be at least eight floors down, right?"
"Roughly. The first floor of labyrinths and dungeons in general tend to be a little higher up. This might be because this place was artificially made, causing it to act differently. Though it's also possible this could be a direct path to lower levels," I said.
"Dungeons?" Ark asked.
I nodded. "Dungeons and labyrinths are very similar. In places where large amounts of mana accumulate, sometimes a dungeon forms. Dungeons tend to be caves where monsters appear inside of or move into."
"Appeared?" he asked, confused.
"Oh, I heard of that! Some people say dungeons create the monsters themselves to protect something deep within."
I nodded. "Right. Dungeons are actually a type of monster. At the bottom of a dungeon, after the final boss, there is a large crystal. That is its core. You can take it, as it's worth a lot of money, or destroy it to destroy the dungeon. But the guild holds dungeons in high regard, so they might ban you from the guild entirely if it was intentional.
As for how they work, they copy monsters from their area and use magic to create them to defend themselves. The guild sends adventurers to go in to collect monster materials, loot that the monsters have gathered, and trim the dungeon's population a bit. Of course, this is also to prevent monster waves.
And before you ask, every few years, a dungeon will suddenly get too crowded from an overpopulation of monsters. To fix the problem, the dungeon will force the monsters out.
Those monsters then become wild and often cause a monster attack on surrounding villages or cities. Those are monster waves," I said, knowing Ark would ask.
"So dungeons work alongside adventurers then? Like a... oh, what was the word? Symbol-replationship?" Araki said, trying to remember the word.
I chuckled. "Symbiotic relationship, and yes. Dungeons rely on adventurers to feed them magic, and we rely on dungeons to complete quests."
"What about labyrinths?" Ark asked.
"Labyrinths are a little different. They are monsters like dungeons, but rather than forming themselves, they form from old or abandoned ruins. Normally, some old temple or castle would become a labyrinth, creating undead, slimes, goblins, and so on to protect itself.
This labyrinth was created by the academy artificially. They made the lower levels and the multiple entrances, filled it with magic, and left it alone. After a while, they also put monsters down here themselves, allowing them access to resources and ways to test students.
Since then, it grew on its own, adding new layers and more monsters. Some upperclassmen even have labs down here, letting them work without other students hovering around, test out spells and their combat abilities against monsters, and gather resources down here without having to buy them."
Zek looked at me and said, "How did you know all that? Earlier, you didn't even know this labyrinth existed."
I smiled. "I have my ways. Spirits like to talk if you know how to speak to them."
He raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly, understanding I wasn't giving an answer, since it was long.
After that, they asked a few more questions when we finally reached a deviation on the path.
"Which way?" Ark asked, looking down both ways and not finding anything.
I closed my eyes, focusing on sensing the magic in the area, and paused.
"That's concerning," I mumbled.
"What is?" Zek asked, as he also focused on sensing magic.
After a second, he said, "Oh, I see. Yeah, that's weird," and opened his eyes and looked around.
"What?" Orin asked.
"There are so many mana signatures. It's all mixed together. I can't tell them apart," Zek said and turned to me.
"Me neither. There are so many, it's hard to find," I said.
"Those books can use appraisal, right? So can they somehow separate them?" Zek asked.
I shook my head. "No. The shadow's possession has been causing Aaron's signature to change. They aren't able to modify the signatures they're looking for like I can. I can't even recognize it as the Aaron I met last week.
Until now, I was able to tell his apart because it was still similar to his original signature and the only shadow magic around, but here, there are too many to tell the difference."
Everyone looked around, trying to think of a way to track him.
I looked at Araki and asked, "Have you found our location?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I think so," pointing at a certain section. "I can navigate through the tunnels, but I have no idea where he could have gone."
I nodded, and we all took a moment.
"Does anyone know any tracking or divination spells?" I asked.
Zek raised his hand. "I know how to cast clairvoyance, but I'm not great at it, and it takes some prep. Plus, someone will have to replace the lights as I can't focus on that."
I smirked. "Do it. I will cover the lights."
I pulled out one of the light mana crystals from Zareth from my storage ring and said, "Spirit of Light, reveal yourselves to me!"
[Spirit Lights]
Mana drained from the crystal and spread around us, but no magic circle appeared.
Instead, all around us, multiple balls of light appeared, illuminating the area.
Everyone looked around in surprise and quickly noticed how most of them were surrounding Araki.
"Whoa, are these lesser spirits?" Araki asked, raising a hand to touch one, which moved away as he got close.
I nodded, "Yes. It used the light mana to call them out and have them act as replacement lights. I don't like using this much as it's a drain on my mana, but with the ambient mana down here, it should be fine."
he nodded
"These are spirits?" Orin asked.
I nodded, "Yes. lesser spirits to be exact. While they are spirits, they haven't fully formed into or consciousness yet and are more akin to a ball of attributed mana floating around, though they are normally invisible unless called out by certain mages."
Everyone nodded and looked around, curious.
"Why are they surrounding Araki?" Zek asked.
"Probably because of his light affinity. All spirits have an affinity with one of the elements. lesser spirits are born from high amounts of attributed mana in certain areas. Then, once they form, they begin to wander and are attracted to other sources of their attributes.
We all have a few lesser spirits surrounding us at all times; they are just hidden normally. However, there is an abnormally large amount down here, probably because of some monsters or large mana crystals."
"Is this why some mages, despite not being sorcerers, can cast spells without magic circles?" Zek asked, remembering something.
I nodded, "It's very rare, but some people can have a special affinity, allowing them to command the lesser spirits around them of the same affinity. Those spirits can then cast spells under the mage's control; however, it's very rare.
Elves are guaranteed to have this ability, but aside from me, Araki's father is the only non-elf I have met to have that kind of affinity and know about it.
And no, before anyone gets the thought. I could not use them against the trolls since there weren't enough of them around at the time to cast anything above a rank 1 spell."
"Does that mean more people can have it?" Ark asked.
I nodded, "It's possible but rare. Anyway, enough with the magic lesson. You should probably get to work."
remembering why we were here, he nodded and stepped back.
He took a deep breath as a magic circle appeared in front of his right eye.
This, I told the book. ^Appraise the spell. I might need it later.^ Then I stepped back and waited for Zek.
"Clairvoyance?" Ark asked.
I nodded. "It's a spell that allows someone to see far away. You think of a specific target, a person, an item, a place, and so on. When you cast the spell, in one eye, your vision will change to that location, allowing you to watch it as if you were there.
It does have limits, though. The main one is that you have to have seen the thing you want to watch. Since we have all met Aaron before, we can find him. But if you wanted to view, say... Terra's mansion, you wouldn't be able to, as you have never been there."
"That sounds powerful. Is there no way to counter it?" Orin asked.
I nodded. "There is. Also from the school of divination. There are several anti-divination magic items and spells out there that can counter them. It just depends on which is stronger."
"Makes sense. I'm guessing the king probably uses them then," he said.
I nodded. "Yep. Many nobles and higher-ranking officials have low-level ones on hand at all times, typically disguised as a piece of jewelry. All higher-level ones are used by royals and during confidential meetings."
"Ah, I see," Orin nodded.
A few seconds later, Zek spoke aloud. "Now, [Clairvoyance]!"
His eye turned yellow for a second as a pulse of magic burst from him.
A few seconds later, I felt a pulse return, but it wasn't a good one.
"Shit!" I waved my hand, and the returning pulse stuttered and slowed as I rushed forth and tackled Zek.
Sadly, I wasn't fast enough, and the pulse hit Zek in the side of the head.
"AAGGHH!!!" he shouted in pain.
I quickly looked him over, and he wasn't physically hurt, but the pulse definitely had some effect.
Using spiritual energy, I examined his head and found nothing damaged. It looked more along the lines of a mana pulse sent into the brain, causing him to pass out. It wasn't dangerous in any way, but he would be out for a while.
"What happened?!" Orin asked, rushing over worried, followed by Ark and Araki, but those two gave us some room.
"The spell failed, and he was struck with some sort of counter!" I said, making sure there was nothing else wrong.
"Is he alright?" Orin asked.
Ark asked, "Should we use a healing potion?"
I shook my head. "He should be fine. He was just knocked unconscious."
They nodded, but I noticed Ark's ear twitch as he turned around, looking down one of the hallways.
"You hear something?" I asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. It's like sticks banging and rattling against each other... no, those... those are bones! Hundreds of them!"
Realizing what he was hearing, I shouted. "A skeleton horde!"
Everyone quickly readied themselves and got into position.
Skeletons in small groups weren't too hard to deal with, but they were hard to fight in a large horde, like what we are now starting to hear.
Looking at our situation, it wasn't good. With our main mage down and skeletons being hard to kill with anything other than blunt weapons, we weren't in a good spot.
Ark and I were the only ones who could do this properly.
Ark, with his wolf, could fight with his body and his magic, even if air magic wasn't good against skeletons, and I had my spear and spirit techniques, but those had limits and were only effective if I could touch them.
Araki didn't have any blunt arrows on him, and Orin's sword wasn't good against skeletons, even if he swung it sideways.
Both of them knew how to use their fists, but they lacked sufficient experience in defensive measures to stay safe.
Not to mention that none of us had fully recovered from the fight with the trolls yet.
I looked at Zek, who was still unconscious.
He was the only one who could stop the skeletons and other undead we might encounter with his fire magic, but with him down and unlikely to wake up for a long time, I had to make some drastic choices.
it was then i made the decision.
taking a deep breath, I held up a hand and called out,
"Come, number 2 of the Tarot High Arcana: [High Priestess]!"