Chapter 58 (1/2)

Ch. 58: Rushing in and Exploring

“Alright, let’s head in.”

Ain suggested after a while had pa.s.sed since Parme and her party had descended the stairs.

It seemed that along with letting Parme go first and letting her clear the way, he also had the thought of not going in right after her.

Both weren’t the coolest, but this time Loren was a proctor, so he knew that he had no say in what Ain decided.

“It’s not the most respectable action.”

But next to Loren was a priestess that didn’t care about their position.

The students gave her hostile looks as she said what Loren, who was walking beside Lapis without a sign of being intimidated, didn’t even say out loud without hesitation, and her complaints flowed towards him.

“In the first place, the ulterior motive of letting women walk in front and ensuring your own safety isn’t good. If I were the examiner, I would deduct a lot of points.”

“Adventurers aren’t knights, after all. Maybe they’re taught to do whatever they can to survive.”

That was something relatable to mercenaries as well.

In general, the battlefield was accepted to be a place where the ones who survived were in the right. Actions based on the manners and courtesies of knights were applauded, but if you died doing so you would end up being laughingstock.

“Just saying Lapis…you would use whatever and whoever you could to get your hands on unknown knowledge, won’t you?”

When Loren pointed that out, Lapis stared at Loren and crossed her arms.

“Hm? Maybe they’re quite capable.”

“I’m getting worried if I should keep being in a party with you.”

As Loren looked at Lapis with a stretched smile, after a while Lapis laughed and told him that she was joking, but Loren decided that he would be happier off not wondering if she was really joking or if she was being serious.

“Also, it’ll probably fall short of their speculations.”

“Why is that?”

Lapis asked him, but at the same time they reached the bottom of the stairs and Ain, who was in front, opened the door to the dungeon.

The pa.s.sageway on the other side was dark, and Loren saw that the pa.s.sage split into two corridors a short way down.

“It’s too dark. Feim, light the torch.”

“Got it.”

Feim used a flint to light the lantern that she was holding.

Ain the others gave a sigh of relief as the light shone across the walls.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Ain and Cloud stood in front, and Al and Feim followed behind them.

The corridor was wide enough to fit two of them side by side, and the ceiling was high enough that the light from Feim’s lantern didn’t reach it.

Seeing how high it was, Loren judged that there was more than enough s.p.a.ce for him to swing the great sword on his back.

“The ceiling is pretty high.”

Loren nodded to Lapis, who was looking up.

“There’s enough room for me to swing my great sword.”

“Loren, how can you see all the way up there?”

Loren realized as she pointed it out.

The light from Feim’s lantern didn’t reach the ceiling.

That meant the ceiling was still covered in darkness, and there was no way Loren should be able to see it, but when he looked up again, he could see the stone ceiling very clearly.

“…I told you before that I have good night vision. This amount of light is enough for me to see it faintly.”

“I see.”

Lapis seemed to have lost interest at Loren’s response and didn’t poke any further, but inside, Loren was freaking out.

When he called out to Shayna, who was inside him, she answered immediately.

‘Eyes of the undead can see through the darkness.’

Loren thought that Shayna could sense what he was feeling, but apparently Shayna could restore her own senses into his organs as well.

To the undead, darkness was always near them, and were able to perceive things in the dark.

The eyes of Shayna, most likely because she was the highest ranking undead ent.i.ty, a no life king, seemed to see through darkness itself, and by synchronizing her sight with Loren’s eyes resulted in him being able to see where the lantern’s light didn’t reach.

He thought that maybe Shayna could’ve told him beforehand, but he thanked her, knowing that she did it for him.

While he was talking to Shayna, the group had continued down the corridor and reached the first crossroad.

If they were following the school’s teachings, they would go to the left, and without even discussing it, Ain and his party started down the left corridor.

“I think that Klaus and his group went right.”

Lapis c.o.c.ked her head as Loren whispered to her.

Based on the school’s curriculum that she peeked at, going to the left, as their group had done, was the standard, but Loren denied it.

“Parme and her group went first, but don’t you think they wouldn’t put up with clearing the way for Ain and his party?”

“That’s kind of understandable.”

“That’s why I think they probably went right. They would get the same results if they put their right hands on the wall anyway.”