novelraw Chapter 195: Poke The Hive
Chapter 195: Poke The Hive
The "Field Trip to Death" started at the northern gate of the Academy.
Massive iron gates had creaked open, revealing a fleet of carriages waiting for them.
These were far from normal wagons but luxury transport with polished wood, velvet curtains, and horses that looked like they ate better than most Nameless in local villages.
The exhausted first-years looked at the soft cushions with tears in their eyes. After the Hell week they’d just survived, sitting down for a few hours sounded like Heaven.
John stood by the lead carriage while fiddling with a small item in his hand.
"Alright, load up. Three to a carriage, and please don’t fight over the window seats."
Passing all the other students, Ignotus walked up to the first carriage.
He looked at the plush seat and then looked at the horse.
"No thanks."
John paused, looking over his glasses.
"Excuse me?"
"I’ll walk."
Ignotus stated flatly.
"Sitting still for so long makes your muscles forget what they’re for. Plus, the suspension on these things usually sucks."
He adjusted his sword belt and started walking past the convoy.
His true reasons for not walking weren’t that, of course, but he didn’t want to reveal them.
Behind him, the members of House Calamity stiffened.
Lykos reacted the worst of them, in an almost similar manner to Ignotus a second ago.
He looked at the carriage, specifically its soft cushion, and then looked at Ignotus’s back.
"Damn it."
The wolf couldn’t stop himself from cursing under his breath.
If his Lord walked, he walked. That was the rule, even if the rule was stupid.
With a heavy sigh, Lykos stepped away from the carriage. Ulv followed immediately, his face struggling to remain stoic. Gaia gave a small, apologetic bow to the Inquistor and trotted after Ignotus, Nora right behind her.
Mer looked at the others, shrugged, and...
"Good luck, everyone!"
Didn’t follow.
Before entering the carriage, she glanced at the walking group for the last time.
"Idiots."
Climbing in, she quickly curled up on the seat and closed her eyes.
Eris, who had been napping on Ignotus’s shoulder, woke up just enough to see a comfy spot. She leaped off Ignotus, walked on the heads of his people, flew through the air, into the carriage, and landed directly on Mer’s head.
"Mmmmmphhhhhh..."
Mer protested, but she didn’t move.
Eris slapped Mer’s face with Her tail and hopped down.
Padding in a perfect spot, She curled into a ball of black fluff.
’My seat.’
Ignotus watched them go.
"Traitor."
Though he whispered that, he was smiling.
The walk wasn’t exactly scenic. As they moved further away from the Academy’s protective barriers, the landscape changed. Green grass gave way to churned mud and scorched earth.
Ignotus saw no doubt about it; they were passing through recent battlefields.
Huge craters marred the ground while trees were snapped in half, their wood petrified by Elements. Some patches of ground were frozen solid—likely a Priest’s work—while others were glassed over by intense heat.
The students in the carriages started to look nervous.
Ignotus could see many of them gripping their weapons tighter while their eyes darted around the desolate landscape.
"Relax, if there was anything dangerous left here, the headmaster would have annihilated it before sending his precious ’strongest batch’ out for a stroll."
He was right, of course. The headmaster didn’t do things by halves.
The route was suspiciously clear with no wandering monsters or remnant soldiers.
What they met was only the eerie aftermath of battle.
A battle that seemed to have pulled many a House into it.
Banners of all kinds were lying about, some familiar to Ignotus.
Judging by their positions, it seemed that House Ash, the one those two annoying kids were in, had sided with House Time. Indeed, a Death Vassal House had betrayed its owners.
And they likely weren’t the only ones.
It wouldn’t be much longer before Ignotus himself had to choose a side in this war, even though both sides wanted him dead.
Somewhat funny, yes, but not so much when all this death around them was considered a "cold war."
While it was true that most of the dead here were relatively weak and somewhat disposable, a fact that they’d probably use to put all that was happening under the umbrella of a land war... It was still far from cold.
Mere proxies or not, the loss of life was great.
Honestly, though, for the other students, compared to the mental torture of drawing that Rune for ten days straight, walking through a wasteland was actually... fine.
"Fresh air..."
Ignotus breathed in deeply.
"It smells quite lovely."
Gaia walked beside him, holding his arm.
"You have weird tastes."
"I have refined tastes~."
By sundown, they reached their destination.
It was a rocky hill jutting out of the flatlands like a sore thumb. Built into the side of the rock was a cave-like structure reinforced with heavy stone pillars.
A dungeon.
Nearby, a large manor belonging to a Lower House sat on a ridge, overlooking the entrance. Guards in liveried armor stood on the manor walls, watching the Academy group approach.
None of them came down; they didn’t wave, nor did they ask for identification.
They just watched with the respect that the Saint Academy uniform and banner commanded. They knew better than to interrupt whatever the "monsters" from the Academy were doing.
The carriages rolled to a stop, the horses huffing, tired from the journey.
The students poured out, stretching their legs and groaning.
Ignotus walked over to the carriage Mer had claimed.
The door was closed.
He yanked it open.
Inside, Mer was drooling slightly on the velvet. Eris was still asleep next to her, her tail on Mer’s face, rising and falling with Mer’s breath.
It looked like a parasitic hat.
"Wakey wakey!"
Mer didn’t move.
Ignotus sighed, reached in, and scooped Eris up.
The Goddess protested with a tiny hiss before settling into the crook of his arm.
Then, Ignotus delivered a quick slap to Mer’s forehead.
"Ow!"
Mer bolted upright, rubbing her face.
"What was that for?!"
"Sunrise, sunshine."
Ignotus deadpanned.
"We’re here. Stop being a sloth and get ready."
Mer glared at him with pink, sleepy eyes.
"I hate you."
"Most do; now move it."
Grumbling, she grabbed her wand and stumbled out of the carriage to join the others.
"Alright, listen up."
Inquistor John clapped his hands to gather the group.
"This is a standard C-rank Dungeon. It’s currently suffering from a population bloom."
He gestured to the dark, gaping maw of the cave.
"Your goal is not to clear the dungeon. You are not here to hunt for the Core Rune. After all, if you destroy the Core, the dungeon collapses, and this House loses a valuable resource."
He adjusted his glasses, the lenses reflecting the dying sunlight.
"We are here to mow the grass. The monster population is too high; it’s spilling out. So we go in and thin the herd, simple. Is that understood?"
The students nodded.
A grind fest—they could handle that; it sounded easy.
’Mowing the grass...’
Ignotus was standing listening at the back of the group.
’That’s a cute cover story.’
He motioned for his cohort to gather around him.
Lykos, Ulv, Aur, Mer, Gaia, and Nora huddled close.
"Is there a plan, Lord?"
Ulv asked quietly while Ignotus checked to make sure John and the other students were out of earshot.
"Yeah. Forget everything Four-Eyes just said."
The group blinked.
"What?"
"We aren’t here to mow the grass; we’re here because there’s a Greater Demon waking up in the basement."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The silence that followed was heavy.
"A... Greater Demon?"
Mer repeated, suddenly very awake.
"Yup."
Ignotus popped the ’p’.
"The type that feeds on entire Houses and turns cities into graveyards."
He pointed a thumb at John, who was busy shouting instructions to a terrified-looking healer.
"Even John can’t deal with it... He’s an Inquisitor; sure, he’s strong. But against a Greater Demon? He’d be nothing more than an insect... well, one with stings that hurt. If that thing fully wakes up, everyone within a hundred miles is dead. Including us."
Lykos stared at him.
"You brought us on a field trip to fight a House-eater?"
His face went pale, then flushed with disbelief.
"And the Academy thinks this is a good idea?!"
"The Academy thinks we’re here for a field trip."
Ignotus corrected.
"Dante knows, but he’s betting on us and others stopping it before it fully wakes up. He might join us as well, I don’t know. Anyways, it’s in a slumber state right now, so that makes it very vulnerable."
He grinned, a predatory expression.
"High risk, high reward. Think of the gains."
The cohort looked at each other.
They should have been terrified; they should have run back to the carriages.
But they looked at Ignotus—at the guy who defied common sense at every chance he had—and they felt a strange, suicidal confidence.
Lykos let out a long, suffering sigh and gripped his staff tighter.
"So..."
He looked at the dark cave entrance.
"What now?"
Ignotus drew his sword.
"Now? We go poke the hive."
Ding!
—
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║NEW QUEST!║
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[Objective: Stop The Demon’s Awakening]
—
’We’ll change Fate.’