Chapter 81: Dungeon Race
By the time Kir recovered, the squad was moving through a tunnel that seemed to spiral downward at a diagonal. Its walls were eerily smooth except for where alcoves had been picked out to place etheric lanterns.
"Let me down," he said.
"Lugh said carry you. So sit tight until we’re at the bottom, demon baby," the minotaur holding him replied.
Lugh was nowhere in sight, so Kir presumed he was at the front.
Something began crawling under Kir’s gambeson. Even though it tickled, he suppressed the urge to cry out until Stella popped her head up from his shirt. "Whatever you did, boss, please don’t do that again... I’m into pain but not that much."
"I can’t promise that," Kir said. Stella groaned and ducked back down.
"What was that?" his carrier asked.
"Nothing... what’s your name?" Kir asked.
"Draungen. How’d you get sealed without going to jail?"
"It’s a long story," Kir said. "One I’m not supposed to repeat." It wasn’t the first time Kir had been asked over the last month. Most simply assumed he was some sort of criminal, or that the spell he’d demonstrated at the exam, Nova Blast, had been deemed too dangerous to let him live as a mage.
"Hmph," Draungen grumbled, then proceeded to carry him in silence.