Chapter 51: Date In A Dungeon?
Dungeons.
They were places that existed in a separate space from reality, usually connected to it by some sort of doorway.
They were created in one of two ways, either naturally through a concentration of large amounts of mana in a single location over a long period of time.
When left unabsorbed or undisturbed, that mana would eventually distort space itself, creating a separate domain that usually reflected its nature, in other words, a dungeon.
And finally, powerful individuals, who often those who stood at the peak of the world, would carve out a space beyond reality and leave behind trials, knowledge, or inheritances.... mostly because they were bored.
This dungeon was a result of said boredom.
"A dungeon?" Renelle repeated as she looked at the massive doors before them.
"Mmh," Adrian nodded, "a dungeon created by the headmistress’s father."
"What’s inside?" She asked again turning to him.
"I have no idea," he truthfully answered.
The dungeon’s existence had only been made known to him when the headmistress mentioned it during her visit here, in the manhwa.
What was within, was pretty much a mystery to even him, but he chose it for a reason.
The headmistress’s words in the manhwa.
According to her, the Academy’s founder had created this dungeon as a gift to her mother, a promise that they’d both raid it when she got better.
She never did and he never went inside alone.
Based off the fact that this was a gift for the old man’s wife, there was bound to be a suitable gift in there for his Renelle.
"Would you like to find out together?" Adrian asked.
Renelle thought of his words for a while, when he mentioned date, she had expected quite a number of possible places, but a dungeon was definitely not one of them.
"What a strange spot for a date," she answered with a chuckle, "but since this is your reward, I’ll follow you lead."
«Wake me up when you’re in trouble,» Noctis said as it disappeared back into the vault, «I can’t stand this lovey-dovey nonsense.»
Adrian ignored that comment.
"Shall we go in," he said, before pausing as he recalled, "right, before that."
He suddenly extended his free hand towards the rocky walls around them, his hand sinking into the shadows and then he withdrew them, a pair of neatly folded clothes were on it.
"You should put these on first," Adrian said as he handed her the clothes.
Renelle looked at the clothes in his hand with a bit of surprise before finally letting go of his hand and accepting them.
"You came prepared," she noted, glancing at him.
"Just in case," he replied with a smile, "though I asked for a bit of help from, Margaret."
"I see," Renelle nodded, if he had the chance to ask Margaret to help prepare these clothes meant that he had planned the date before they even arrived at the academy.
She let out a sigh as she realized that her butler’s line of thinking was still a mystery to even her.
"Turn around," She ordered, looking straight at him.
She could just put up an ice wall and get changed behind it, but she had the urge to tease he butler a bit as payback for making plans behind her back.
"Of course."
Adrian did so without hesitation, his back now facing her as he stepped a few paces away, giving her enough space.
There was the faint rustling of fabric behind him.
A few seconds passed before he heard her speak.
"You may turn back now."
For the second time today, he froze at the sight of Renelle.
Although he had been the one to prepare the clothes, seeing her wear them truly made them stand out.
She now had on a white shirt with baggy arms tucked into black pants that made it easy for her to freely move around.
The bottom parts of the pants were tucked into a knee high boot. To complete the look, she had used a small rubber band to arrange her hair in a ponytail.
Well?" Renelle asked, one hand resting lightly on her hip.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when she spoke up.
"It suits you," he said honestly, "though I believe everything does."
"...Flattery won’t get you anywhere," she replied, though the faintest hint of satisfaction crossed her expression.
"Let’s go," she added and stepped forward.
"Alright," Adrian nodded and they both walked towards the door.
The notice some type of text on it, but none of which they recognized, it didn’t even seem to be any language that existed in Avera either.
But it seemed translating it was unnecessary to opening the doors as a golden circular glow suddenly appeared where they stood.
CLICK!
With a heavy click, the doors let out a hiss as they opened up, revealing a layer of translucent glowing portal.
"Let’s go?" Adrian asked as he extended his hand towards her, mostly just wanting to hold her hand again.
"Alright," without thinking too much, and mostly used to it at this point, Renelle placed her hand in his and they walked towards the portal together.
It let out a ripple and a glow in the shape of the two before they completely disappeared into it.
The moment they did, the doors immediately slammed shut and the texts on it started glowing.
They then began rearranging themselves and transforming into a language Adrian would definitely recognize if he was still here.
English.
The text finally formed a single readable sentence, which read:
Dungeon of truth.
***
Renelle opened her eyes, realizing that she was in a completely different spot.
Her blue eyes scanned around, noticing that she was surrounded by massive glass structures, ones that were completely different from any type of architecture in Avera.
But that wasn’t what worried her, what worried her was the fact that Adrian, who had been holding her hand just a moment earlier, was completely gone.
Calming herself down, she looked around once more, realizing that this might just be a mechanism of the dungeon.
And if it was, there most some type of objective, that she needed to figure out.
Though she had realized that this was the dungeon’s test, one question still rose as she looked at the structures,
"Where is this?"