Despite her attempts to produce the magical seals, Victoria wasn’t succeeding. She was still a novice mage, and the magic Stuart had taught her wasn’t the easiest to perform.

“I don’t think I can do this,” she kept saying to herself, and that self-doubt was preventing her from completing the task.

William had already tried to calm her down and get her to focus, but it didn’t work. Because of this, he decided to be a bit harsher with his words.

“If you don’t do this, you’ll keep being one of the worst students here, and in the end, you’ll become a joke to everyone. Not to mention, you’ll never make your father proud.”

William’s words were harsh. Victoria felt a surge of anger upon hearing this from someone she had started to trust.

She focused entirely on trying to unlock the dungeon door, and to her surprise, she succeeded on the first try! William’s harsh words had worked.

They slipped inside the dungeon before the guard could return and closed the door behind them to ensure no one would notice they had entered.

Once inside, Victoria confronted him.

“Were you serious when you said that?”

William laughed.

“Of course not, but I realized it’s a great way to get you to focus. You work better when you’re angry, it seems.”

“Now that you mention it, it was during a fit of anger that I discovered my talent for magic… Anyway, what now? What do we do?”

Now that they were finally inside the dungeon, where would they go first? Neither of them knew the layout.

The place was dimly lit, with only torches on the walls providing light. The entire area was made of stone—a common feature for dungeons—and it was eerily quiet.

“Let’s move carefully. We don’t know if there are other guards inside.”

Victoria nodded and followed, moving slowly.

There wasn’t much to see, just a straight path ahead. It was a simple corridor. At the end of the corridor was another wooden door with an iron latch. Luckily, it was open.

And the door didn’t have any magical protection, which was strange.

“Either they’re overly confident in the protection of the other door, or someone opened this and forgot to close it,” William warned her.

A place where magical beasts were kept needed to be heavily fortified, especially inside a magic academy! What if the beasts escaped and attacked the students?

Of course, they wouldn’t keep extremely powerful beasts here, but it was always good to take precautions. Given that line of thinking, it was odd that the door wasn’t more reinforced.

Victoria opened the door, pulling it slowly and peeking through the crack. She wanted to see if there were any guards inside.

Her eyes scanned the area, and she didn’t see anyone. But what she did see were cells, each containing different types of creatures. Each cell was heavily reinforced, made of sturdy materials, and protected by powerful magic.

Now it made sense why the outer door wasn’t as heavily protected. The beasts couldn’t escape their cells. The magic used for protection was incredibly strong.

William gave Victoria the next instructions, as she seemed a bit lost, unsure of what to do.

“Let’s look for a weak beast that you can easily defeat.”

This wasn’t too hard to do. Victoria walked along the cells, observing the creatures and sensing their magical power.

There were creatures of various power levels. The academy used these creatures for student training.

Victoria recognized one of the creatures.

“This one here, I faced it in my first class. It’s a very weak creature.”

William observed the creature she mentioned but ultimately decided to choose another one. Victoria questioned his decision.

“They’ll notice if a creature goes missing or dies. We won’t be able to hide the body. It’s better to face a slightly stronger creature so they’ll think another student killed it, not a novice like you.”

They had to think not only about killing the creature and performing the ritual but also about not getting caught. William was considering all of this, but it seemed Victoria hadn’t fully grasped it.

“But what if I can’t defeat it?”

“We’ll pick one that’s a bit stronger. I’ll help you with my power. It’ll be fine.”

The two continued searching for a suitable beast until they found a desert fox with red eyes and spines along its back.

This fox was common in the desert and was quite unique. It could burrow into the sand to hunt smaller, weaker magical creatures that hid there.

“This one could work.”

Victoria looked at the small fox, and despite its intimidating appearance, she felt a bit hesitant.

“I think it’s kind of cute. Do we really have to kill it?”

“Yes.”

She had no choice. The first thing she did was figure out how to open the cell—since she couldn’t break the magical protection.

Of course, they had a way around it. The guards and even some professors wouldn’t be able to break the protection either. It was incredibly powerful, created by a remarkable mage.

However, they didn’t need to break the barrier. All they needed was to use the master key hanging on the wall near the cells. The key could open any of the cells.

Victoria was about to grab the key when William stopped her.

“Cover your hand with something—a cloth, a piece of your cloak. They might be able to track your touch.”

William didn’t know if they could track something like fingerprints, something common in his old world, but why take the risk? Given how versatile magic was, he wouldn’t be surprised if they could.

After covering her hand with her cloak, Victoria took the key and approached the cell. She inserted the key into the lock and opened the cell.

It was time for the fight. Victoria drew Asura from its sheath. William then activated the power through the sword. A dark, burning energy surrounded the blade.

This power was something Victoria had seen before during her first training session with Asura, but this time it was stronger. William was using a significant amount of power to ensure Victoria would win the fight.

With the sword empowered by demonic energy, Victoria felt much more confident facing the fox. She charged at the creature, gripping the sword firmly in her hands.

The fox hadn’t fully realized it had been freed yet, and that was crucial for Victoria to land a surprise attack.

If it had been an attack using only Victoria’s power, the beast wouldn’t have taken much damage, but the attack with Asura was incredibly powerful. The strike cut through the fox’s fur and skin, burning it in the process.

The beast roared in pain and could no longer move after that first attack. This allowed Victoria to deliver the final blow without much trouble, finishing off the magical beast.

“Such a powerful attack! I didn’t know you could use this much power.”

Victoria was even more excited than before.

“There’s a lot more where that came from. You’ll soon be the strongest one here. Now, take the beast’s body, and let’s find a secluded spot down here.”

Victoria also pulled a glass vial from her pocket. William had asked her to bring it.

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“What do I do with this vial again?”

“Fill it with the beast’s blood.”

“…”

She picked up the beast’s body and searched for a spot in the dungeon where they could perform the ritual.

William had decided to do it down there because if they tried it in Victoria’s room or anywhere else in the school, the risk of being seen was too high.

So, the dungeon, which was completely empty, was the best place to carry out the ritual.

They continued exploring the dungeon until they found a room that seemed to belong to someone. It had a desk, several handwritten papers, and even a bed.

“Does the dungeon caretaker live here? I wouldn’t be able to stand staying here…” Victoria said.

“I don’t think he can either, since he’s probably somewhere else. Anyway, let’s do it here. Put the beast on the table.”

There was a table in the middle of the room, likely where the caretaker conducted experiments or something similar. They placed the fox on it and began drawing the symbols.

The symbols were difficult to create. So, William used the same technique Asura had used to transfer information to him and decided to pass it on to Victoria!

Of course, he only shared the information about the ritual and the symbols, not how the ritual worked. He wanted to keep that part a secret.

The blood collected from the fox was used to draw the symbols. They were symbols from the time of the demons, meaning they were symbols no one used anymore.

And since everything was done with blood, the whole thing looked quite macabre. It was rather sinister. Victoria wasn’t too fond of what she was doing.

“Are you sure this ritual is safe? Seriously, this feels wrong…”

“Trust me. Now, repeat the words after me.”

Once everything was ready, Victoria placed Asura on the table near the dead fox and began chanting words in a language she didn’t recognize.

She didn’t even know how she was speaking it—it was because William had passed the information to her as well.

With each word, she could feel power flowing into her body. It was intoxicating, a sensation of lightness and strength.

This began to intoxicate Victoria, and she started smiling as she repeated the words aloud.

At that moment, William knew he had won Victoria over. He knew she would now do whatever he needed, and this would guarantee his escape from Jonas’s mansion.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep