Chapter 122: Extreme Situation (2)

The next day, after finishing my preparations, I arrived at the meeting spot to wait for Professor Baldwin. I sat in the shade for about ten minutes, avoiding the blazing summer sun. Then, the hum of an engine grew closer, and Professor Baldwin’s magi-car soon pulled up in front of me.

The window rolled down, revealing her with sunglasses on, casually waving a hand. “Did I keep you waiting?”

“Not at all. I only arrived about ten minutes ago,” I replied.

“Get in.”

I loaded my bag into the back seat and slid into the passenger seat.

“Not much luggage, I see,” she said.

“Well, it’s not like we’re going very far.”

Besides, once we entered that place, most things brought from outside would become useless anyway.

She looked at me. “By the way, you never did say where we were going.”

“And you agreed to come along without even knowing?” I asked, bewildered.

She shrugged with mock nonchalance. “Hah! I owe you too much to start questioning that now, Dale.”

I smothered a chuckle. “Well, once we get there, you’ll recognize the place immediately, Professor.”

After all, I had been there only a few days ago.

“Hm! Fair enough. Where to then?”

“Just keep going straight this way,” I replied nonchalantly.

And so, I guided Professor Baldwin’s magi-car toward our destination. About twenty minutes later, we arrived at a small mountain not far from the academy.

Looking around, she said, “This place is…”

“Do you recognize it?”

“Isn’t this the mountain with the entrance to the underground ruins beneath the academy?”

“That’s right.”

It was the very ruins where the final evaluation had taken place—a vast underground complex, wide enough to resemble an ancient subterranean city. The entrance was hidden within this mountain.

Most cadets didn’t know about it, of course. During the exam, we had traveled to it through a warp portal instead. But now that the exams were over and all warp portals had been withdrawn, the only way in was through this entrance.

Professor Baldwin asked out of curiosity, “Didn’t you say something about preparing for an ‘extreme situation’ this time?”

“Yes, that’s right,” I replied.

“Then why come here? The guardian golems have already been removed. It should be empty now.”

Due to their size and complexity, the massive ruins beneath the Hero Academy were regularly used for exams and training. However, at other times, the place was nothing more than an empty shell.

“I doubt anything resembling an extreme situation will happen here,” she added.

“That’s fine. Our true destination lies deeper. Far below this place.”

Professor Baldwin frowned, looking at me as if I had started spouting nonsense. “Below?”

“You’ve heard the story about the Demon God being sealed beneath the academy, haven’t you?”

“Of course.”

Everyone on the continent knew that the academy had been built atop the land where, five hundred years ago, Reynald, the Knight of the Sun, had sealed away the Demon God.

“Then do you know how far below that seal actually lies?” I asked.

“Well, somewhere impossibly deep. Beyond human reach, surely.”

The exact location where the Great Five Heroes had sealed the Demon God away had never been passed down. The legends only ever said he was buried in the “Abyss,” a place unreachable by mankind.

“It’s the sixth floor,” I said.

“The sixth floor?”

“Yes. And this ruin we’re standing in now, that’s the first floor of the Abyss.”

Professor Baldwin’s eyes widened in shock, her jaw dropping. “W-wait. What did you just say? This ruin… is the Abyss where the Demon God is sealed?”

I gestured around us at the enormous underground city, vast enough to rival the academy’s entire grounds. “Doesn’t it strike you as odd? That something this massive could exist right beneath the academy?”

The Demon God sealed under the academy and the sprawling ruins lying directly below; it didn’t take much to connect the two.

Professor Baldwin said, “Of course, you’re not the first to suggest that. Plenty of scholars and heroes have made the same claim. But in all five hundred years, no passage leading below this ruin has ever been found.”

I shrugged. “Well, naturally. Because no physical passage exists.”

Professor Baldwin narrowed her eyes sharply. “Are you playing games with me?”

I shook my head with a faint smile. “No. What I mean is that there’s no physical corridor leading downward.”

Her eyes narrowed further. “No physical corridor, huh.”

I asked, “Tell me, how did we enter these ruins during the final evaluation?”

“Are you saying there’s a warp portal leading further down?” she said, doubting her own words.

“Exactly. But before it can be used, you need to activate the hidden magic circle that conceals it.”

“Tch!” She rubbed her forehead as if warding off a headache, letting out a mirthless laugh. “How could something like that go unnoticed for five centuries?”

If the ruins themselves had been hidden, it was possible. But that wasn’t the case. For centuries, hundreds, no, thousands of cadets had trained here. The place was even mapped into holograms accessible on every Hero Watch. Yet someone was telling her that there was a warp portal inside that no one had ever discovered? Even knowing that I was a regressor, it was probably hard for her to believe that.

“Well, that’s because the information about the Abyss was deliberately erased,” I explained.

“Erased? By whom?”

“Who else?” I raised my hand and pointed at the ceiling of the ruins, at the academy that sat directly above. “The very ones who sealed the Demon God here.”

“You mean… the Great Five Heroes hid the truth of the Abyss?”

“It’s not exactly the sort of knowledge you’d want spreading, is it?”

Professor Baldwin stroked her chin, slowly nodding. “Hmmm! True enough. That does make sense.”

From their perspective, letting information about the Abyss leak to the world would only invite disaster.

“Then, shall we head out?” I asked.

Professor Baldwin gave a heavy nod. “Alright.”

She followed me as I led the way toward the very heart of the ruins, not the jagged, maze-like terrain choked with soaring rocks, but an open clearing spread wide before us.

After reaching my destination, I said, “This is the place.”

Professor Baldwin narrowed her eyes and scanned the surroundings. “You’re saying a magic circle is hidden here?”

Her violet irises shifted, a black vertical slit appearing across them, her Cursed Eyes gleaming faintly. “Tch!”

Just as I expected, even with her Blessing of Insight, she saw nothing resembling a magic circle. So, I said, “Haha! If it were the kind of circle your Blessing of Insight could reveal, it would’ve been uncovered ages ago.”

“Mmgh!”

The Blessing of Insight was powerful when it came to probing living beings, their bodies, or their minds. But on hidden structures like this, it was practically useless. Magic circles didn’t have bodily fluids, after all. The Blessing of Insight’s true power awakened only when she could directly absorb the fluids of her target.

“Stay back for a moment,” I said.

I placed my palm on the ruin’s floor and slowly infused it with mana. This would be my first time directly activating the warp portal that led to the Abyss, but I had no doubt it would work. After all, the core structure of this circle was based on the Three Conundrums of the Great Sage, and I had already solved two of them.

The air, once empty, flared with light as the ruins trembled. Complex mana patterns unraveled into the sky, drifting about like letters plucked from a book, floating freely in the air. Then, lines of radiant blue gathered into a single nexus, forming a warp portal.

I looked at the professor. “There. You may step in now.”

Professor Baldwin let out a dry laugh, staring at the warp portal that had formed with such ridiculous ease. “This warp portal, does it stay open?”

“No. It’ll close on its own in about three days.”

Once closed, it would take at least a month before it could be opened again.

“Let’s go,” I said.

I stepped through the warp portal at a measured pace. Professor Baldwin gave a nod and followed. Our bodies lifted, vision flashing white, and then, we reappeared in a new region.

Professor Baldwin squinted, taking in her surroundings. “So this is… the Abyss.”

A dim red glow filled the air, with ashen rocks and a barren wasteland stretched endlessly before our eyes.

“Yes. This is the second floor,” I replied.

Her face stiffened as she scanned the area. “Dale, there’s a demonic monster.”

From behind a towering ashen boulder, a monster emerged, lumbering forward with deliberate steps.

“Chiiiiiik!Chzzzt!”

It looked like a rat, magnified hundreds of times its normal size. Its massive head bore four pairs of eyes, glowing with a menacing light.

“Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiik!”

The earth quaked as the demonic monster charged at us.

Professor Baldwin flicked her wrist, releasing dozens of silver threads that lashed out, ensnaring the monster’s hulking body. “Bind.”

Snared, the monster thrashed violently. “Chiiiik!”

I kicked off the ground and dashed toward it. Leaping high, I spun in the air, flipping once before bringing my heel down straight onto the monster’s skull. It was the Berald Combat Style: Lightning Drop.

The sound of bones shattering rang out, and its eyeballs burst free, rolling across the ground.

Professor Baldwin grimaced as she looked down at the corpse, its head crushed beyond recognition. “Huh! To run into an eight-eyed demonic monster right away.”

It had been dispatched easily, but only because Professor Baldwin and I were far stronger than the standard hero. That didn’t mean the monster was weak.

“No need to be surprised. That’s just how this place is,” I explained calmly.

Demonic monsters dwelling in the Abyss carried the corruption of the Demon God. Compared to monsters on the surface, they were far more powerful on average.

“This is a place where eight-eyed demonic monsters roam around like stray dogs,” I added.

Professor Baldwin pressed her lips tightly shut, as though she lacked even the strength for bitter laughter. “Indeed. If it’s here, then I see why you said one could face an extreme situation.”

“No. This isn’t the place I had in mind.”

“It isn’t?”

I raised three fingers. “The third floor. My destination lies one level deeper.”

Professor Baldwin’s face darkened. If her expression could be put into words, it was probably something along the lines of “I shouldn’t have come along.”

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