"No one accepted the request again..."
A young girl laments as she stands before a request board filled with numerous lists of odd jobs and subjugation requests, with a deep sigh she resigns and left wandering around the small town alone.
"I know it's just a small border town, but I heard there's at least a few decent magicians around here that can take this job" she sighed once more as a piece of paper gripped tightly around her fingers crumpled and thrown away.
With an expression of utter defeat and acceptance, she march to the gates and prepared to leave the town for the nearby caverns.
"Fine, if no one would accompany me then I'll do it by myself!" she exclaimed before recoiling at the sound of something approaching from within the grass.
"W-what was that?" a tail appeared as a snake reared it's head towards her ready to bite.
With a deafening scream she quicky muttered a chant and points her staff towards the beast, "I-Ignis!" as her words drift into the air, the space before her distort as sparks of flames appeared and scared the beast into retreating.
As the encounter ends, her body became limp and she lied on the grass muttering to herself silently, "That was close, I almost got killed before I even entered the dungeon...".
Her eyes drifted on the clear skies, "If I can't even handle a simple snake, how can I hope to continue the path of magic?"
"Maybell was right, I'm not cut out for this kind of life... should I just go ba-" before she could finish the thought, her staff suddenly flew and hits her squarely on the face causing a nosebleed.
"H-hey I'm just kidding don't take it seriously!" she angrily retorted,
As the staff disappear into a state of pure mana, the girl swiftly stretched her body and continued her quest into the dungeon cavern.
_____
The air within the dungeon is stale and wet unlike the surrounding forest, various molds and vines covered the area and the cracks on the walls speaks volumes on it's age.
"This place must have been here for centuries, I wonder what kind of place it was back then."
For a moment as the young mage descends the steps, it seems to be eerily quiet before a distant sound of rumbling began to fill the caves, screeches and the sound of claws began closing in as the girl lifts her arm.
"A demon beast? But that's way too much noise for a single beast, and the screeches sounds familiar" as a staff materializes in thin air she quickly grabbed it and, with a gentle sweep of her staff a soft light shone and illuminated the way ahead, revealing multiple tiny reflections as if beads are scattered around the area, "T-those eyes... a group of giant bats?!".
Without warning the swarm of giant bats drew closer as the space distort and a transparent shield like sphere cover her body, "I didn't have time to properly chant, at this rate the barrier won't hold for long" before she could cast another spell, her breathing seizes as the floor beneath her collapsed and she fell down into a large opening.
Cold water envelops her as she fell into an ancient underground lake, "I have to get to the surface quick!" with all her strength, she swam towards the surface and searched for the nearest dry land.
"T-There I can see a patch of land!" she thought to herself as she quickly swam towards it as a slight rumbling came from down below deep in the water.
The light of the sun shined through a ravine opening above as she lay breathing heavily on the cavern floor, "What was that all about, aren't this place supposed to be a small dungeon with a small amount of low ranking demon beasts?" she muttered to herself before looking around the area she fell into.
"This place doesn't seem to be a part of the dungeon or at least not a marked area, and the air is much more stale here than it is in the dungeon, I might be the first person to end up here in centuries"
The atmosphere is cold and the glittering surface of the lake scatter light into the surrounding caverns wall, around the patch of dry land are what appears to be stone statues of knights scattered randomly across the area with only a single one left standing in front of a large door of stone.
"How am I supposed to leave? I doubt anyone would find me since this part of the dungeon aren't marked on the map."
"W-will I die here alone..? Surely master will come and find me right?" her face slowly turned sour as reality sinks in, "If it's up to her then I might as well accept that I'll be stuck here forever..."
As the girl prepared to give up and lay down forever, a glint on one of the statue caught her attention, she then walked over to see what it was.
Next to a statue something peeked out of the sand, She promptly picked it up and examined it,
"A dirty old glass container? Is a potion inside of it?" she ponders the contents within as she wipes it clean, revealing an imprint across the surface, although she couldn't understand most of what's written, a single word seems to be familiar enough to recognize, "Purify".
"Is this a purification potion? I thought these don't exist anymore, ever since the war between archmages destroyed important alchemical knowledge of the past" as she held the potion in her hands a sudden realization hits her,
"Aren't this extremely valuable then? I could sell this to pay for the enrollment fees to enter the academy!"
The joy was short lived as she is yet to find an exit.
"Even with this in my possession, it's completely worthless unless I can get out of here"
she pondered for a long while until the sunlight disappeared and moonlight fills the caverns, and yet she's unable to leave even after giving her all to try and destroy the large stone door.
"I'm already getting hungry, I guess this is it for me I'm sorry your sister is such a waste Maybell..." as she's about to give up once more the clouds cleared and moonlight shone directly on the only undamaged stone statue in the cavern.
The young girl silver hair gradually moved as she turned her head towards the statue, "Come to think of it, I wonder why this is the only statue that aren't damaged?"
Before her lies a statue of a man with a sword on his hip and what appear to be a crown atop his head, the clothing reminds her of royalty and the aura that the statue exudes is no short of captivating.
"The more I look at it the stranger it seems, these statues are way too detailed and their poses are almost as if they've once lived..."
A thought entered her mind, though unlikely it might save her life.
"Here goes nothing"
_____
She opened the lid of the purification potion and hesitantly poured it over the statue.
"I would have loved to sell this to an alchemist and get rich enough to enroll, but unless I can get out of here it's worth is irrelevant"
As the lid loosened up a thought entered her mind, "When I arrived in town a few days back, I heard a legend about a demon beast around these parts that turns those that tried to hunt it into stones, If the legend is true the purification potion might be able to undo it"
"If I'm right then that would also explain how this potion got here in the first place."
While the girl are lost in thought, the liquid from the potion began to glow and emit smoke, and after a short moment, the stones began to crack and a face appeared from beneath the cracks.
"I-It worked!"
After a brief moment a pair of sapphire eyes slowly opens under the cracks glittering in the moonlight as the lake surface rumbles and the caverns shake,
"W-what's that under the water?", the girl muttered before summoning her staff and points it at the lake.
As the rumbling intensifies an enormous demon beast appeared from under the lake, with long slender body and scales that rivals dragons, the beast can only be a creature of legends,
A Basilisk
"That must be a Basilisk, but why is it so big?"
Without a moment to spare the Basilisk began to open it's eyes and turn them into stones and yet,
Slash
A blade sliced the demon beast eye in an instant rendering it blind on one side.
"What just-" before she could finish the sentence an arm wrapped around her face and covered her eyes.
"Please stand still and close your eyes, I'll handle this in a moment" a voice reassures her before the cavern shook violently until suddenly it's quiet once again.
"Hm? You can open it now if you want to",
As she opened her eyes to see what had happened she shrieked in shock as the beast was right in front of her, but it had been sliced cleanly in the middle, and not too far from the body is the mysterious man she had poured the potion on.
Jet black hair and sapphire colored eyes but what is more interesting about this man is that he,
possessed no mana whatsoever.