Chapter 80: Dungeon Crawl
What Kir had expected when entering the dungeon was something dank and gloomy. Even though he’d read otherwise, a part of him still expected grey stone walls and walking skeletons.
Instead, what he got on the first floor was-
"A field..." Someone behind Kir exclaimed.
Kir took his first breath. Something about the dungeon felt... invigorating. It was mana, he realized, suffusing the air in quantities that made the surface world feel like high altitude. Looking around, he saw they were on a generally flat plain. The sky was sunless and orange-red, as if it were late morning or early evening, but weirdly in every direction.
"Weapons out!" Lugh shouted, from the center of the formation. Kir complied along with everyone. There was still just a little rime on the blade from when Rain handled it. Its presence was comforting to him.
The professor walked almost casually out to the squad’s left. "Today, if you don’t already know it, you will know fear. Your gate is in that direction," he gestured vaguely into the tall rolling grasses, interspersed with oddly grassless hills. "Try not to get killed. This floor has the easiest monsters."
With that, he began a spell that set him hovering above the group.
"First unit, forward. Archers at the ready," Lugh said.
Kir flexed his grip around Kangetsu and began to walk, slowing his stride so that he proceeded at the same pace as the cadets flanking him.
He had some idea of what to expect, and yet, everything on the plain was peaceful...
Until Professor Faymar hurled a mass of ice into one of the hills as the group neared it.