The sensation of teleportation, if Loryarc must describe it in words, then it feels like being reduced to noodles, the long, long noodles in a long, narrow pipe. He slides there to the exit way of the pipe. He couldn't see anything but blinding light in the process, so he forced himself to shut his eyes and wait patiently.
A strange experience.
As he felt his body return to its normal form, he immediately opened his eyes.
The first thing he faced after snapping his eyes open was darkness. Oh, wait, that's not darkness, that was a stone wall—a cavern wall, or... A valley wall. Loryarc raised his head, finally finding a light source in the darkness from so far above his head. He has been teleported to a valley.
"Really? Aren't there any other better places out there?" Loryarc complained with a sigh.
He just muttered to himself, so he never expected that someone else would respond to his words. And from a very close distance, that's it.
"I think we're not lucky, haha..." A melodic voice replied from his side.
Loryarc's eyes widened. He remembered now that Rina was with him. They are even holding each other's hands.
"Ah, Rina..." He looked at her and wasn't sure what to say as he had momentarily forgotten about her because of the mind-blowing experience of teleporting.
Rina, on the other hand, was looking at her back. "But we are not alone here, Mister Loryarc," she whispered to him.
Only after he heard Rina's words, Loryarc noticed the presence of other fellow students here, in the valley. He turned around and found three more duos standing there.
As they're looking at each other vigilantly, Loryarc and Rina tighten their holds onto each other's hands.
The atmosphere was cold and heat at the same time. The valley was damp and dark, with an eerie sound of winds coming from the gap of the valley above, while the glares exchanged between the four teams were as hot as the summer sun.
What's making it worse is that those three teams were from the noble side. A commoner and an odd nobleman like Rina and Loryarc were never pleasant in their eyes.
Rina gulped.
"Wh-what should we do, Mister Loryarc?" She asked him.
Loryarc also, just like Rina, realized that staying with those nobles wouldn't bring any good things.
"Maybe we should move separately from them," Loryarc suggested, and Rina immediately agreed with him.
They may be stuck in an unknown and dark place, but human hearts were the most dangerous things here, in the confines immune to the rules and orders.
Loryarc and Rina nodded to show their respect towards them before heading north.
The nobles' eyes were fixed on their back before they agreed to move towards the other side and head south.
Raising a dispute here wouldn't benefit any of them and would be a foolish action, so they would rather choose cooperation instead. Of course, that was after excluding those worthless trashes.
***
———
[Status Menu: Level 1{Upgrade}]
[System: Kiss for more.]
[Name: Loryarc Lapizburn.]
[Race: Human.]
[Physique: Mid-Mid.]
[Magic: Low-High.]
[Luck: Low-Mid.]
[System skill: Blessing of Kisses.]
[Personal passive skill: Skilled Touch(E); Pleasuring Movement(D); Zither fingers(F); Basic Cooking(F); Enhanced Stamina(D); Pro licker(E); Intensified Focus(E); Pleasure behind Hardship(D); Hands of an Expert(E); Enchanted steps(D); Relentless Bounces(C); Sensitive Sense(C);...]
[Personal active skill: Petite Light(F); Lusting Gaze(E); Aura of charm(D); Ignite(F); Critical Movement(C); Clone of Wind(B); Climax Move(C); Shadow Curtain(E); Final Sensation(A);...]
[Learned passive Skill: Enchanced Endurance(D); Rage on(E); Burning Resolve(C); The Vow of Knight(B).]
[Learned active Skill: Heavy Strike(E); Penetrating Pierce(D); Flare fall(A); Rail of Fiery(D).]
———
Loryarc's eyes locked on his status menu as he brought his hand forward with an orb of light to illuminate their path.
"You know Light Magic, Mister Loryarc?" Rina asked him, her eyes shining with curiosity towards the orb of light in his hand.
Loryarc shook his head as a response.
"No," he replied, before adding a self-underestimating statement afterward. "This is my Skill, Petite Light. I never learned about Magic before, so how can I know about Magic?"
"I see..." Rina nodded. She was sure that there were no Dungeon Bosses who would drop the Skill Book of Petite Light here in the Academy, but she didn't pay much attention to it since it was just a Skill to produce an orb of light without any offensive purpose. She was satisfied after assuming that Loryarc bought the Skill Book from somewhere else.
Shifted her attention from the orb of light, Rina looked at the surroundings. Her cheeks look redder than they used to be because of the warmth she could feel being transferred from Loryare Arc's hand to her.
Yes, they are still holding their hands together.
Because the valley was too dark and they didn't know what could happen next, they couldn't afford to be careless and took risks to be separated from each other in this unknown valley. At least, before they found a way out of this valley.
"B-by the way... Do you know anything about Holvern, Mister Loryarc?" Rina fidgets with her skirt as she asks him that question since she couldn't help but feel awkward if they stop talking.
"Holvern? To be honest, today was my first time hearing and seeing them." Loryarc immediately admitted his ignorance about their enemies.
Hearing that, Rina built up some confidence as she smiled and began to tell him about Holvern.
"I also only know about them from the books I have once read, to be honest, hehe. According to those books, Holvern was born when a Dragon was once captured by the Third of the Ancient Calamities, Yagaguxalalulil the Corpus. The Corpus bored at the time and forced the Lava Demon, Baalmesh, to breed with the Dragon. The bloodline of Baalmesh and the Dragon makes the Holverns a very resilient monster. They are immune to flame, but also quite resistant to any physical damage..."
As Rina continues to explain, Loryarc's steps suddenly come to a halt.
"Look, Rina, a door..." Rina was about to ask him why he stopped when he said that and pointed to their front, towards a massive, old black door, which blocked their way.
Rina's eyes widened as she looked at the door. Her eyes were fixed on the words carved on the door. She hastily let go of Loryarc's hand and ran towards the door.
"Hey, Rina, wait!" Loryarc called her, but she didn't stop.
"There's something written on the door!" She said.
Right after she reached the front of the door, she brought her fingers to brush off the dust over the words. She then stepped back, and read the words.
"Here lies those who fail to fulfill their purposes. The ones who can no longer come back, the Defeated."