A girl watched from the shadows in the tree, her presence almost imperceptible among the leaves. She had been following Ren since early morning, this time more out of obligation than real interest.
Though she was already worrying about the start of classes.
Initially, she had considered following him into the mines.
After all, the headmaster’s recent interest in the supposedly weakest student had piqued her already high curiosity too. But she had dismissed the impulse, reasoning that Ren was likely just another poor student desperate to recover his family’s investment.
‘Another case of economic desperation,’ she had thought upon seeing him enter the mines. It wasn’t unusual, many low-resource students spent extra hours digging, trying to recover something.
‘The headmaster must be overreacting,’ she had thought, settling into her observation post. ‘What could possibly be special about a boy with a mere spore?’
Yet something about him nagged at her mind.
The way he moved through the mines wasn’t like other desperate students. He showed none of the random searching, the trial and error that characterized novice miners. His movements had purpose, precision.
Or so she had seen during their time as classmates, and it was very strange.
The hours passed without incident. The girl almost considered leaving, her time could be better spent on other tasks. But something kept her at her post. Perhaps that strange confidence he seemed to have despite his apparent weakness.
She used the time to study. Occasionally, her eyes would drift to the mine entrance, but nothing seemed amiss.
The chaos began without warning.
Two guards emerged running from the entrance, carrying the boy’s unconscious body. His veins glowed with a sickly radiance, and a line of foam ran from the corner of his lips.
“Halt!” the entrance guard intercepted them. “Inspection protocol! All obtained materials must be…”
“Mana poisoning!” shouted one of the guards carrying Ren. “Critical level!”
The entrance guard paled and stepped aside. “You can… you can report what was found when he wakes up.”
The girl straightened on her branch.
The academy carefully regulated access to deeper areas, and the guards were vigilant at the entrances, keeping students above the 100-meter mark.
‘Did he fall like 200 meters from a secret tunnel?’ she wondered, her mind racing through possibilities. ‘Some forgotten passage to the depths? Or is he simply that pathetic, getting poisoned at levels everyone can tolerate?’
But that didn’t fit with what she had observed of him. Despite his weak beast, Ren had shown surprising competence in other areas. His victory over Kai hadn’t been luck, nor the illusions with the crystals, he had demonstrated knowledge that even senior students would envy.
‘250 meters?’ she calculated while watching them take the boy to the infirmary. ‘No, even deeper to cause that level of saturation.’
But that was impossible. No first-year student, much less one with a spore, could survive at those depths. The beasts would kill them in minutes… Seconds with bad luck.
The mushroom boy was proving to be a most fascinating puzzle.
Her lips curved in a slight smile as she watched more guards arriving at the mine entrance. Whatever had happened below, she intended to find out. After all, anyone who could survive what had so clearly terrified the guards was worth watching very carefully indeed.
She slid a small notebook from her sleeve and began taking notes. Professor Zhao might indeed have seen something that others overlooked.
♢♢♢♢
At 350 meters beneath the academy, a solitary figure ascended through the tunnels.
The golden hippogriff pulsed beneath his skin as he extracted another potion from his bag.
Months of mapping between silver and gold rank depths… some days much deeper, had depleted his reserves, but he still had enough to keep the concentrated mana’s effects at bay.
The liquid was bitter, but the relief was instant. His silver rank 2 abyssal scorpion briefly manifested its claws, adjusting to the renewed energy flow.
A movement in the shadows.
A deep Assassin emerged from a corner, probably attracted by the man’s noisy steps.
The beast had perfectly hidden its presence, but…
The hippogriff manifested its front claws through its tamer’s arms, and the beast didn’t even have time to extend its proboscis before being torn apart.
‘Pathetic,’ he thought while continuing his ascent. These beasts were nothing compared to what he had faced in the depths.
His employer had asked for a hydra core for his daughter. “Any hydra,” he had said, as if they were so easy to find.
If he could turn it into an egg he would multiply his payment by 10, but according to his employer’s family secret technique he needed a mana vein and a hydra alongside the core to transform it back.
The records were ancient, most destroyed during the last war. No one, not even from Yano had ventured so deep in this area in decades.
Honestly, he wouldn’t have survived the worst encounters either…
But everything had changed since Yino discovered how to contract abyssals.
Having two beasts was an advantage that the war against Yano couldn’t ignore for long. Once the plan was complete, once the abyssal scorpions were his squad’s second beast…
His hand instinctively touched the bag where he kept the cores.
Dozens of them, each containing the potential of an abyssal scorpion. Unlike hydras, these abyss beasts could be revived with the new secret technique and didn’t need a vein and the mother creature.
But he had delayed too long searching for hydras.
He thought it would be easier to search for an egg directly, but…
Weeks of searching in the gold ring had been a waste of time, none had eggs.
They weren’t easy opponents either. But still he had to descend from those 1000 meters… 1000 meters more.
The 2000 meters had been hell. The platinum hydras were territorial and ruthless. And they weren’t the only beasts, the superior Assassins were a nightmare. He had almost died three times before deciding to risk everything.
Three thousand meters. The diamond ring.
His potions barely kept him conscious at that depth and fighting was impossible, his whole life depending on stealth. The hippogriff and scorpion suffered from mana excess, but he had no choice.
Luck finally smiled on him as he quickly found an 8-headed diamond hydra guarding eggs. The beast was monstrously powerful, but also predictable in its sleep routine.
One moment of carelessness was all he needed to steal one.
Or so he thought but one head saw him…
The escape had been frantic. He had to hide in many places. Spent almost all his high-level potions staying alive while ascending. And in the end he had to return the egg.