[Stage Clear!]
['Serafina (★★★★)', 'Jonah (★)', 'Shanny (★)' levelled up!]
[MVP – 'Serafina (★★★★)']
[Reward – 30,000G, Iron Ore (B) x3, Leather (C) x2, Wooden Planks (B) x3]
The moment the mission window appeared, the three of us were soon engulfed within the familiar bluish-white light.
The view of the thousands of monsters frozen right in front of us gradually vanished until we were completely entrapped within the white dimension.
Seconds after, the light dissipated and we found ourselves back to the mirrored chamber, all sprawled on the smooth floor, exhausted. The many wounds on our bodies began to heal up rapidly.
Given what we just went through, Jonah and I could not help but to stare at each other in silence.
None of us exactly knew what would happen once we arrived at the shining object.
I did not know why I told Jonah to jump. For all we knew the shining object could be a dangerous thing or it was simply not our supposed destination.
But my instinct told me it was the right thing to do.
Fortunately, my instinct did not fail me, or else our corpses would be feasted by countless monsters right now.
"Am I…dead?"
Shanny's question broke the silence in the mirrored chamber.
Thanks to the healing power of the forged land, her fatal wounds were swiftly healing completely. Even her severed hand had regrown anew.
"Nope, you survived!"
Jonah said with a chuckle.
"Indeed. You're still stuck here with us. Urgh."
I said while pulling out the arrow lodged on my back.
"Aw, shit…"
Shanny cursed out which put a relieved smile on both Jonah and I.
As Jonah helped Shanny up by putting her arm around his shoulder, I turned my gaze to one of the mirrors in the room.
[Climb the tower and save the world!]
[Main Dungeon]
[Floor conquered - 5 -]
The number on the writing on the mirror had turned to '5', which confirmed the completion of the fifth floor trial.
There was no denying it.
The fifth floor trial was definitely leagues above the lower floors in terms of difficulty.
It gave us perspective on how difficult the trial could become.
Right now I wondered whether the sixth floor upward would be as difficult or worse.
Shiiinggg!
Suddenly one of the two remaining dark mirrors glowed up with same radiance as the first one. It was the one at the center of the room.
We could now see another writing carved on the newly-bright glass.
[Weekday Dungeon]
[An ever-changing dungeon's feast!]
[Collect various materials!]
[Sinmiel Plateau (11 hours)]
"What is this?"
Jonah asked.
"We'll probably know soon enough. But I'm certain this change happened because we cleared the fifth floor."
I told him.
"Can we just drop these weird stuffs for now? I want to rest."
Shanny said while clinging on her comrade.
She had a point.
Although our wounds had healed, we were still extremely fatigued.
We could not embark on another trial at the moment. Perhaps for a good few days.
Hopefully master was aware of that much and decided to be considerate.
Ignoring the new shining mirror, the three of us stepped out of the huge chamber.
The bright color on the rainbow-hued sky indicated noon.
"Everyone!"
Trudy shouted as we stepped onto the square. Her voice alerted the others nearby that they began gathering as well.
She looked at us with great concern, especially since Shanny looked so beaten and worn.
"What in the world happened in there? You guys were gone for two days! We were so worried!"
The three of us raised our eyebrows upon Trudy's words.
"Two days?"
"I don't think we were in the trial that long though."
"Precisely. We were only there for about six hours at the most."
I stated recalling our experience.
"No matter what you say, that's how long you've been gone."
Trudy replied insistently.
So a time difference was possible between the trial and the lobby.
Interesting.
This fact could be useful for a spell I was theorizing back in Dunia.
"By the way, where are Cecily and Gerson? Are they still inside?"
Trudy asked finally.
Upon hearing the question, Jonah and Shanny turned unease, they were reluctant to answer.
I supposed it was up to me to deliver the hard news.
"They're dead."
"Excuse me?"
"Cecily and Gerson died. They got killed while in the trial."
Trudy and the crowd fell into silence upon hearing my words.
How could they not?
Cecily and Gerson were two of the best combatants we had.
The fact that they died suggested how difficult the fifth floor was. That was if they did not already notice Shanny's limp.
Ignoring their shock, I turned to my teammates.
"Jonah, Shanny, you two need rest. Get back to the lodging at once."
I instructed them.
"What about you?"
"I still have some business in the magic hall."
"Okay then. Don't push yourself."
The three of us then left the square and separated at the lodging.
While Jonah carried Shanny inside, I continued on and made my way to the spired manor by the training ground.
I shut the great wooden doors behind me and walked up to the rows of bookshelves containing dozens of magic books.
Finally left alone, I could now focus on a matter that had been lingering in my thought ever since we returned from the fifth floor trial.
'Everything went worse once I had trouble casting magic.'
I told to myself.
Cecily's and Gerson's deaths were unfortunate.
Had they survived the battle in the garrison, it would be easier for us to repel the endless monster waves on our way to the shining object.
Even so, Jonah, Shanny, and I could handle the enemies quite decently while I was still able to cast my fire magic.
When my mana overflow symptom emerged on our way to the fourth hill, I could not create the fire trail long enough to reach our destination.
The situation went worse when I could not create a dimensional portal in time to replenish Jonah's throwing spears.
As such, Jonah and Shanny had to take greater risk by dealing with more enemies.
And since we had to deal with more enemies, our advance slowed down. It caused the ogres to catch up to us, close enough for them to throw us those giant debris.
In turn, I could not cast my fire magic leading to the fifth hill and it ended up with Shanny committing to a suicide assault.
Had she not obtained that new skill, she would had died back then and Jonah and I would be overrun by the enemies.
There was also the fact that I needed a whole minute to cast a Fifth Circle spell.
One full minute. Pathetic.
Jonah and Shanny almost died because I was too slow.
Had I been training my fire magic all this time, we could had avoided this problem.
In fact, had I learned transportable portal spell, teleportation, or perhaps levitation spell, we could had completed the trial easily.
I even ashamed myself as a mage by having to use a weapon for combat when I used Jonah's spear to kill that wolf.
I underestimated how difficult the trials could turn out to be.
The fifth floor proved how lacking I was as a mage. How lacking I was to my comrades who were counting on me.
This would not do.
We still had 95 floors left to climb.
If I wanted to reach the top, I needed to be better, much better.
[Davah Shashanam]
I waved my hand and pulled the books from the shelves using telekinesis. All kinds of magic texts were soon floating around me.
Wind magic. Water magic. Earth magic. Sub-elemental magic.
Advanced enchantments. Advanced dimensional magic. Great alchemy.
More. I needed to learn more.
Had I known this would happen, I would had learned and trained harder back in the academy.
There was no time.
I needed to improve myself.
Thump!
Intense pain struck my chest.
Suddenly I felt my strength rapidly drained out of my body.
I felt myself falling. The books I enchanted began dropping to the floor.
Thud!
The last thing I recalled of this moment was me lying inside the magic hall, with the magic books scattered all over.