Ren’s mushrooms couldn’t process the information they were receiving. These beasts didn’t follow their known logic, defying every pattern he had learned.
“There’s no information,” murmured Ren while his mushrooms tried to analyze the creatures. “It’s as if… as if they came from somewhere completely different.”
“Fall back!” shouted one of the professors while attacking one of the beasts, barely managing to inflict any damage despite his powerful beast.
The students retreated in panic as more creatures emerged. A being that seemed made of intertwined tubes pumping violet liquid advanced toward them, its movements following no natural rhythm.
“They’re more horrible than I expected,” Klein murmured, his lion growling at enemies that defied its comprehension.
“What do we do, Ren?” Min asked, his water snake manifested but coiling nervously. “What kind of beasts are these?”
Taro also turned to him. “Are they like the deep worms and living tunnels? Or more like the bugs or assassins you told us about?”
The mushrooms in Ren’s hair pulsed erratically, trying to process what they were seeing, their usual patterns breaking down in the face of the unknown.
He watched one of the creatures that had an elongated body covered in overlapping plates of deep purple. It had no visible eyes, but dozens of antennae vibrated constantly.
“I…” Ren found himself speechless for the first time in a long while. His mushrooms couldn’t provide useful information; the beasts didn’t follow the normal patterns he had learned to recognize.
“I don’t know,” Ren finally admitted, the sensation of ignorance hitting him like a physical weight. “I have no information about them.”
Min and Taro exchanged surprised looks. Ren always knew something, always had some idea of how to proceed.
A roar resonated in the chamber as a larger beast emerged. Its body was a mass of dense tissue, with multiple appendages ending in branching structures.
“Defensive formation!” Professor Wei’s voice cut through the panic. “Senior students, form a perimeter! You’ve studied abyssal beasts!”
The teachers moved with the precision that only comes from real experience in the army during their military service. Their beasts attacked while they took strategic positions.
“Don’t let them advance!” shouted another professor while his elephant bull charged one of the creatures. “Test elements until you find their random weakness!”
Wei directed his manticore. “Bronze rank, seek elemental weakness! Silver rank, attack directly! Brute force works if you have enough power!”
The senior students who had advanced in their cultivation organized quickly. One launched a water attack that made one of the beasts writhe in pain. Another discovered his wind beast could disarm the protective plates of another.
“This is revealing,” murmured Ren while watching the battle unfold with fascination and apprehension.
He observed, fascinated, as the teachers and experienced students worked together, testing different approaches until finding the effective way to eliminate each type of beast. It was for him a reminder that the world was larger and stranger than his mushrooms could show him at this level.
“It’s like starting over,” he whispered, a small smile forming on his lips despite the danger. “There’s so much I don’t know…”
Ren observed with renewed interest. Perhaps he didn’t know these beasts, had no information about their patterns or weaknesses, but that only meant there was more to discover.
Of course he was afraid of the unknown… But he had always been brave because he had always liked the idea of being an explorer like the ‘Wandering King’ from his book.
The initial feeling of vulnerability slowly transformed into something else: the same feeling of excitement and curiosity that had led him to leave home or explore the mines in the first place.
“Well,” he finally said to Min and Taro, his mushrooms pulsing with renewed determination, “I guess it’s time to learn something new.”
♢♢♢♢
The last monsters fell to the teachers’ combined experience.
What initially seemed like a crisis was resolved with common military tactics, leaving only carcases and some holes in the ground as evidence.
“Very well,” Wei gathered the younger students while other teachers inspected the damage. “Normally this is explained in battle class in a few years but… Since you’ve had an unexpected direct encounter with abyssal beasts, we’ll advance this lesson.”
He cleared his throat, preparing for one of his extensive explanations.
Wei observed the group of young students, noting with discomfort the presence of a certain student he normally didn’t have to face in his classes.
During the last few months, he had grown accustomed to freely mocking the “absurd fungus theories” when the boy wasn’t present.
Now he would have to teach with him there.
“As you can see,” he continued with some stiffness, “abyssal beasts are fundamentally different from the normal creatures we find in the mines or outskirts.”
He stopped instinctively, waiting for the inevitable correction. When Ren only observed attentively with what seemed genuine interest, Wei found himself losing his train of thought.
“Normally these attacks…” Wei cleared his throat, uncomfortable with Ren’s silent attention. “These attacks occur from the great abyss in the city outskirts.”
Taro, sitting nearby, smiled seeing Wei’s nervousness. During the last month he had had to endure the professor’s constant mockery about the “absent fungus’s theories,” and now the professor seemed unable to maintain his usual condescending tone.
“True hordes are much larger,” Wei continued, his hand playing nervously with his robe. “They can last… entire months…”
He stopped instinctively, his experience with Ren making him wait for the inevitable “actually professor…”
Nothing.
The boy kept listening with total attention, showing no signs of wanting to interrupt.
“This attack was unusually small,” Wei tried to recover some of his usual confidence. “Though I suppose some might have… alternative theories about that.”
The jab, which would normally provoke laughter in class, fell into uncomfortable silence. The students who had witnessed Wei’s behavior during the last month exchanged amused looks.
“Any questions?” Wei looked directly at Ren, almost begging for the familiar confrontation.
“Yes, professor,” Ren raised his hand politely. “Could you explain more about the horde cycles?”
Wei almost choked on his own saliva. Where were the absurd theories? The references no one else knew?
“True hordes…” Wei loosened his robe’s collar, visibly sweating, “follow a cycle of several years and appear in specific seasons… and require the intervention of the complete army.”
Another glance at Ren. Was he sick? Had the encounter affected him more than it seemed?
“Does anyone want to… add something?” he looked meaningfully at Ren. “Comment on any error in my explanation? Please?”