Chapter Seven: Into the Dungeon
Hello there readers, I hope you've stayed safe and enjoyed yourselves these past three weeks, in the last chapter, I told you I have a surprise for you, well that surprise is that today, October 24th, is my birthday! Today, I turn 17 years old, man, how time flies, I've been on this site for 3 years, I'm glad to have lived this long, but I wouldn't feel right unless I did something for you as well, readers. So today, I've posted three chapters, chapters 7-9, you won't have to wait, you can read it all in one go. With that out of the way, please enjoy these string of chapters.
"Oh yeah!" Kenos and Asta exclaimed together. Their day off had ended yesterday, the two of them along with Noelle and Vanessa had visited place after place, but despite that, they didn't spend too much. Now the new day had started and the two rookies were enjoying a hot bath.
"Man, I didn't know how much I needed this," Kenos said with a relaxed tone.
"I know, it just makes you forget about everything else," Asta added with the same tone of comfort.
"True, but our day off is over, we have to be ready for a mission at any time," Kenos told him.
"Yeah, you got a point, I do get pretty excited during a mission," Asta said back.
Time passed and the two boys eventually got out of the bath, headed to their rooms, changed, and went into the main hall where the others were.
"Good morning," the two greeted.
"Morning, Asta, Kenos," the others greeted back.
As the two sat down, two plates were slammed in front of them, each was stacked high with food, Asta and Kenos looked over to see Charmy.
"You two, eat," Charmy ordered with her usual childish tone.
"Thanks, Charmy, what did you do for your day off?" Kenos asked.
"I'm so glad you asked, I searched the forests around the hideout as well as some towns for some yummy food to find and cook up, a good amount of today's breakfast is actually made of what I found," she replied.
Asta took a bite of his meal. "And it tastes great!"
Yami walked over to them. "Yo Kenos, a letter came for you today,"
"A letter?" the solar mage asked.
"That's right, I haven't looked at it, here you go," the captain replied, handing over the letter.
Kenos took the letter and opened it, then began reading its contents.
Hey there Kenos, just wanted to thank you and the others again for helping me yesterday at the Black Market, so I already sent a star to your squad for it, so if Yami asks, you can tell him, and once again, I hope you enjoy being with the Black Bulls, Yami is a good old friend of mine, I know you're in good hands. -Signed Chronovala aka Julius. PS: Please don't tell Yami I was at the Black Market, he hates it when I go there!
Kenos sighed. "Chronovala? Is that the name he goes by when disguised as that old lady, Julius, you truly are a strange one," he thought before smiling.
"So, what does it say?" Magna asked.
"Oh, it's just from a friend, they wanted to wish me the best now I'm a Magic Knight," he lied.
"Well, that's a nice thing to do," Yami began before grinning and raising something into the air. "And speaking of nice, check it, our squad got another star!"
"Alright!" they all exclaimed together.
"How'd we even get a star, we had a day off yesterday?" Luck wondered. "I know for sure that I didn't do anything,"
Kenos stepped up. "I'm guessing it had to do with us," he turned to Asta, Noelle, and Vanessa. "We did stop a bandit at the Black Market yesterday,"
"Oh yeah, I didn't know that counted," Asta said.
"Same, but who was in the Black Market with us to send a star to our squad in the first place?" Noelle then asked.
A drop of sweat fell down Kenos' face as he turned his face away from the others, trying to hide his nervous smile which had suspicion written all over it. Thankfully, he was spared from possible interrogation by the others as Yami spoke up.
"Doesn't matter, a star is a star, and besides, it's the Black Market, Magic Knights are bound to be there, heck, even the Wizard King goes there...even though I tell him not to," the captain said. "His fascination with new and unknown magic can get out of hand very quickly, and he has his responsibilities as the Wizard King, the Black Market is one of the worst places he can be,"
"What, no way, the Wizard King goes there too, what if there was a chance I could've met him yesterday!" Asta exclaimed before Yami grabbed his head and lifted him into the air.
"Shut it, kid," he glared as Asta apologized and was released, just as he was, he felt something on his head.
He looked up and saw an anti-bird. "Oh, it's you again,"
"You've seen this bird before?" Kenos asked.
Asta nodded. "Yeah, we first met at the entrance exam, and ever since, it's been following me,"
"An anti-bird," Kenos thought, remembering when he met Zuka, another smile came to his face.
"An anti-bird aye, I wonder if it tastes good," Charmy mused as her mouth began watering.
"Eating it is completely out of the question," Finral interrupted.
"He's right, this could be an opportunity," Magna spoke up. "That bird can become the official pet of the Black Bulls,"
"That's not a bad idea. But, if it's going to become our pet, shouldn't we give it a name?" Vanessa asked.
"I'll give it a name, it follows me everywhere, so it only makes sense," Asta said.
"No way Dorksta, I'll name it, besides, I'm royalty," Noelle stated.
"You're both wrong, the pet thing was my idea, so if anyone will give it a name, it'll be me!" Magna exclaimed.
"Um, I think I have an idea," Kenos suggested, walking over to Asta, taking the bird off of his head and putting it on the table. "The bird will fly on someone's head, whosoever head it lands on gets to name it, does that seem fair,"
"That seems fair to me," Magna agreed, Asta and Noelle nodded.
Kenos turned to the bird. "I'm not sure if you can understand me, but I want you to rest on someone's head,"
The bird looked around, the other Bulls decided to join in, wanting a chance to name the bird as well.
"C'mon already birdie, come over to Magna," the flame mage thought with a grin.
"Please come to me, you practically rest on my head all the time," Asta thought as well.
"That bird is so adorable, I want to get to name it, besides, it would be even more adorable if it perched on my head!" Noelle thought.
At last, the bird flew from the table, circling around in the air, the others waited in anticipation for it to land, and it finally did, but as it did, nearly everyone's jaws dropped in surprise, it had chosen the person they all thought was least likely.
Luck
"Oh, it came to me," the lightning mage grinned.
"What, no way, how come?!" Magna exclaimed.
"I guess it just likes me," he replied. "That means I get to name it, I wonder, oh I know, I'll call you Nero,"
"Nero?" Gauche asked. "Why would you name it that?"
"No real reason, it just sounds cool," Luck replied.
"Well, then Nero it is," Kenos said.
"Good to have you on the squad, Nero," Yami said before a portal appeared above the table and a letter dropped down from it.
"I wonder what that could be," the captain wondered as he walked over to the letter, picking it up and reading it. "Oh, it seems like we've been assigned a mission, and not just any mission, it's directly from the Wizard King,"
"Really, the Wizard King assigned a mission to us himself, what does he want us to do?" Asta asked with a tone of excitement and wonder.
"It seems a new dungeon has opened up," Yami replied.
"Wait a minute, what's a dungeon," the magicless swordsman asked.
"A dungeon is like some kind of tomb that contains relics, the mage who first founded it puts treasures in there and sets up traps to keep others from stealing it," Finral replied.
"What he said, but this is no ordinary dungeon, it's right in between the territories of both the Clover Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom, our neighboring kingdom, we have to claim the dungeon before they do," Yami spoke up. "Asta, Noelle, Kenos, since you three are our rookies, this can be a good chance for you to see a dungeon, and as for who will be going with you...Luck,"
"Me, I get to go to a dungeon, yippee, this is going to be awesome!" Luck exclaimed.
"Finral will create a portal for you to take you there," Yami informed them.
"Not exactly there, I've been around the area, but not at the exact place as the dungeon, so you'll have to walk," the spatial mage clarified as he created a portal.
"Okay then, let's get a move on," Asta said as the four of them entered the portal.
Once they all reached the other side, the portal disappeared, they looked ahead of them and saw a luscious patch of green all around them.
"This place is beautiful," Noelle commented.
"No time to stand around, let's go," Luck said with his usual smile, already walking, the others not too far behind him.
"Hey, I just realized something," Kenos spoke up. "This is my first mission with other Black Bulls,"
"Oh yeah, you were on another mission with that Zuka girl, I can't wait to see how we all work together," Asta said back.
"Same here, but I would like to know how you all fight, I know Asta is a melee fighter with his sword, but what about you Noelle, and you Luck?" the solar mage asked.
"Well, as you already know from our trip to the Black Market, my magical attribute is water, but I only know defensive spells," Noelle replied.
"Another thing to know is that she has trouble controlling her magic," Asta added.
Noelle's cheeks turned red with embarrassment. "Hey, why did you tell him that, I bet he didn't even know!?"
"Actually, I sort of knew," Kenos said. "You did say at the Black Market that you needed something to aid with magic control,"
Noelle internally cursed herself. "But I'm royalty, having trouble controlling my magic must make me an embarrassment," she said with a slight crestfallen tone.
Kenos, on the other hand, gave her a reassuring smile. "That's not true, I bet you'll get the hang of it eventually, you just need time, practice, and encouragement,"
"Thanks," she said.
"Hey Kenos, did you call me?" Luck asked, turning to face them.
"Yeah, I wanted to know what kind of magic you use as well as the way you fight?" Kenos asked back.
"Oh, I use lightning magic, and I'm a combat mage, I really like fighting tough opponents," he replied cheerfully.
"I see, say, how close are we to the entrance of the dungeon?"
Luck turned back to look in front of him. "Not too far, I can see it, we can get there in a few seconds if we run," he answered before sprinting, the others sprinting as well.
As Luck had said, they made it there in just a few seconds, they didn't even need to catch their breath.
"So this is the entrance," Kenos said aloud, he looked around. "I don't think anyone from the Diamond Kingdom has gotten here yet,"
"Well, let's not wait around to find out," Noelle said, the others nodded as they entered. A few seconds passed in there, and one thing was easy to see.
"I can't see a thing!" Asta complained.
"Me neither," Noelle added.
"We can't let ourselves get lost, we should hold hands to stay together," Asta suggested.
"H-Hold hands," Noelle muttered, the darkness hiding her slight blush.
"I've got a better idea," Kenos spoke up as he raised his hand, immediately as he did, a ball of orange light formed.
"Nice work Kenos, using your solar magic to create a light for us," Asta said gratefully.
"I think I can do something similar," Luck stated as he raised his hand and produced lightning.
"Awesome, you and I will be at the front, Asta and Noelle will be behind us," Kenos instructed as they all did so.
The four of them continued walking down the path, Kenos then turned to look at Luck, who was wearing his usual smile. "Now that I think about it, this is a great chance to get to know more about Luck, from what I already know, he likes to fight, but that isn't a lot, maybe if we fight, I can know more about him," he thought.
"Hey Luck, after this mission is completed, do you wanna have a fight?" Kenos asked with a slight tone of uncertainty, still not sure if his plan would work.
"A fight, would I ever, come on, let's go right now!" he exclaimed in response.
"But, I said after the mission, this is super important," Kenos said.
"But there's nobody here but the four of us, we can have a quick fight and then find the treasure," Luck said back, the lightning in his hand beginning to flash more violently, he quickly charged at the solar mage.
"What the?" Kenos managed to say before dodging the attack, Luck instead hitting a wall, destroying it.
"Ah, you dodged it, not bad," Luck said with a tone of excitement.
Asta quickly stood in front of the lightning mage. "C'mon Luck, we're on a mission right now, if you want to fight him, you can do it when we're done," he said in an attempt to reason with him.
"Um, guys, look at that," Noelle interrupted them, they turned and saw the part of the wall that Luck had hit, light was coming from it.
"I wonder what's in that room?" Kenos openly asked as they all entered the newly made hole. On the other side, they were astonished, the area looked like some intricate puzzle, multiple entrances similar to the one outside were everywhere, potentially leading anywhere.
"This must be the main area of the dungeon," Luck deduced. "I'm sensing a decent amount of mana,"
Noelle and Kenos nodded, also feeling the mana Luck did, but Asta of course, was confused.
"I don't feel anything," he spoke up.
"Oh that's right, you don't have any magic, I guess that comes with no mana detection either," Kenos said.
"Ah, no fair," the magicless knight said as he walked around, but as he did, he stepped on a rock, but that rock began glowing before a circle appeared on it.
"What the?" he asked with a confused tone before a shadow fell over him, he looked up and saw a boulder descending towards him.
"Asta!" Kenos exclaimed, his grimoire floating in front of him. "Solar Magic: Sunbeam Ray!" he shot the attack right at the boulder, destroying it in mid-air.
"Thanks a lot, Kenos," Asta thanked him.
Kenos put his grimoire back into his satchel. "No problem, I'm guessing those are one of the traps in this dungeon, we'd better be careful around here, okay Noelle, Luck," he turned his head, but only saw Noelle. "Luck?"
"I want to try destroying one of these two!" the mage exclaimed as he moved in a random frenzy, activating trap after trap, destroying each one that came his way.
Unfortunately for Asta and Kenos, some of the traps Luck disarmed came in their direction, forcing them to destroy each one, Noelle, however, stood on the side, knowing she couldn't do much in this situation. Soon, Luck stopped and walked back to them.
"What the hell Luck, are you trying to kill us?!" Kenos and Asta exclaimed in unison.
Luck smiled in response. "What, by doing that, we lessen our chance to trigger off another trap,"
Kenos and Asta stopped and considered what Luck told them, it did make sense, but they both knew that disarming traps for later wasn't his primary goal.
"Okay then, if you say so," Kenos said. "Well, now that we're done with traps, we should try to find the treasure, Noelle, Luck, are either of you picking up on any changes in mana around you?"
"Nothing here," Noelle replied.
"What about you Luck?" Kenos asked, he turned to see the lightning mage walking away from them, as if something was calling out to him. "Um, Luck, feeling anything?"
"Yeah, I am, but it's not the mana of a place or object, it's the mana of...a person, and whoever that person is, they're strong, so much for being the only ones here, but I don't mind now," he replied, his grimoire floating in front of him, encased in a light bluish aura. "Lightning Creation Magic: Holy Lightning Boots!"
The others looked at him with surprise as boots of blue electricity appeared on Luck's feet, not even a second passed before he was above them, entering one of the vast doors. "I'm going to see who this person is, I'll leave the mission up to you three for now, if I finish off whoever it is fast enough, I'll meet up with you," he said, running off into the path.
"What did he just do?!" the three rookies exclaimed together.
"He just left us to fend for ourselves, he was supposed to be in charge," Noelle said, clearly unhappy.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now, when we get back, we'll tell Captain Yami," Kenos told her. "But for now, we have to locate the treasure,"
"Easier said than done, we're not even sure where to look," Asta reminded him before feeling a pecking sensation on his head, he looked up to see Nero. "Oh hey, you followed me here, sorry but Luck isn't here right now, he's somewhere though,"
"Even if we don't know where to look, we have to try," he turned to the water mage. "Noelle, we have to find a spot where the mana is stronger, that'll give us an idea of where it is,"
"Okay," she replied as she walked to a new spot, but as she stepped on a stone, it glowed and a circle appeared on it.
"What?" was all she got to say before a large Venus Flytrap appeared, its vines quickly constricted her and Kenos, propelling them into the air.
"Kenos, Noelle, don't worry, I'm coming!" Asta exclaimed, drawing out his sword, he charged at the plant, but didn't see the vine that was behind him.
"Asta, look out!" Noelle exclaimed, seeing the hidden vine, but it was too late, it quickly grabbed Asta, sending his sword to the ground.
"Oh crap, my sword, hey Kenos, can you cast your dagger spell?" Asta asked.
Kenos shook his head. "I can't, this thing is constricting my satchel too, I can't take out my grimoire,"
"No, then we're done for!" Asta exclaimed, he looked up at the anti-bird. "Nero, is there something you can do...wait a minute, of course there isn't, you're a bird, that thing will eat you alive!"
"Shit, I need to do something, but I can't move my hands, if I can free just one, I can fire off a basic attribute attack, it should free us, but the hard part will be just getting my hand free," Kenos thought as the vines began drawing them near the plant, the plant then opening its mouth to reveal a line of razor-sharp teeth.
"Damn it!" the three of them exclaimed together in a tone of complete utter panic.
"Asta, there was once a time when I was in danger and you saved me, putting me in your debt," a male voice spoke, overseeing the monstrous plant from a high vantage point, he took out his grimoire, it was primarily gold, a green aura surrounded it, and it had a four-leaf clover on it.
With his hand, he shot a crescent-shaped spell made out of wind, cutting the plant in half. "But now…," the three rookies dropped to the ground, they quickly looked up to see where the attack had come from, and they saw him, the male who shot the spell, he had black hair, and wore a Magic Knight's robe, behind him were three other people, each wearing the same robe.
"...That debt is repaid," the male finished with a smile.
Kenos and Noelle didn't know who this mage was, but Asta did, and seeing him put a big smile on his face.
"Didn't think I'd see you here, Yuno," he said.
"Same here, Asta," Yuno said back as he and the other three mages behind him jumped from where they were and walked over to them.
Kenos inspected their robes. "Those guys are part of the Golden Dawn, and that guy is named Yuno, so he's Asta's rival,"
Asta went and grabbed his sword, putting it back in his grimoire before walking to mages of the best Magic Knight squad. "Seems we're even now Yuno, you've gotten pretty strong,"
"Yeah, I'll have to if I want to become the Wizard King," Yuno said back before looking at his fellow Golden Dawn squadmates. "As for these four-,"
"We'll introduce ourselves," a tall man with glasses interrupted as he stepped up. "I am Klaus Lunettes,"
Another mage stepped forward, it was a female, she had long ginger hair. "And I am Mimosa Vermilion,"
The last of the three stepped up, it was another female, she had light green hair tied up in a ponytail, similar to Klaus, she wore glasses. "Hello there, my name is Letoile Becquerel,"
"Hello there, my name's Asta!" he loudly introduced himself.
"He's quite loud," the three Golden Dawn mages thought in unison, Yuno, however, was pretty used to it.
Noelle walked up. "And I'm Noelle Silva," she turned to Mimosa. "It's good to see you again, cousin,"
Mimosa smiled. "It's good to see you too, how's your magic training going?"
"It's getting better, I even made a spell now," she replied.
"That's great, I'm so happy for you," Mimosa said with a smile.
Kenos looked at all of them and realized he was the only one who hadn't introduced himself, he walked up to the four mages. "Hello everyone, my name is-,"
"Kenos Rossiu!" Klaus exclaimed.
"You...know me?" Kenos asked, confused.
Mimosa turned to the solar mage. "Hello there Kenos, it's been a while,"
Kenos smiled. "It has, good to see you Mimosa, we haven't seen each other since that banquet the Wizard King invited us to six months ago, I see you've joined the Golden Dawn,"
"Wait, if you're wearing that robe, that means the rumors are true," Klaus spoke up.
"Rumors?" Kenos thought to himself, he had remembered Sekke mentioning rumors before while they were at the Black Market, but didn't get an answer as to what those rumors were. "Do you mind telling me what those rumors are?"
Klaus looked confused. "You mean you haven't heard, the rumor was that you, a member of the noble House Rossiu has joined the Black Bulls, despite being offered a spot on the Silver Eagles and the Crimson Lion Kings, the only squads led by Royal captains," he explained. "I didn't think something like that would be possible, but it seems I was wrong,"
"He's a noble," Yuno thought as he looked at Kenos, that look soon becoming a slightly menacing glare.
"The Black Bulls may not have a great reputation, but they're not that bad," Kenos said before turning to Yuno, a small smile formed on his face as he approached him. "Hello, so you're Yuno, Asta has told me about you, it's nice to finally meet you," he extended his hand. "You saved us back there,"
Yuno looked at it intently but merely walked away, giving Kenos a feeling that the wind mage somehow disliked him.
"Don't worry about that Kenos, Yuno does that all the time with people he doesn't know too well," Asta reassured him.
However, Klaus didn't finish talking with Kenos. "Aren't you ashamed, Kenos Rossiu, a member of an esteemed noble house, joining the Black Bulls, a squad full of delinquents and rejects, a squad that has the worst reputation among all the Magic Knight squads, what would your family think?"
Kenos gave a slight smile, trying his best not to scream at the mage. "We can talk about that later, instead, why don't you tell us why you're here, the Black Bulls and I have been assigned to claim this dungeon from the Wizard King,"
"We were given the same mission, but I'm surprised that the Wizard King would give this mission to the Black Bulls," Klaus scoffed.
"Well, it's true, we wouldn't be here otherwise, but one of our squadmates did run off somewhere," Asta said in response.
"That reminds me, you said your name was Asta right, and that you know Yuno?" Klaus asked.
Asta nodded. "That's right, we grew up in the same church,"
"So that means you're both commoners?" he asked again.
Asta was a little unsure of the tone the mage used. "Um, yeah, is there a problem?"
Klaus fixed his glasses with his hand. "No, just make sure that the two of you carry your own weight, well we must be going, we have to find the treasure,"
"Wait a minute," Asta said, grabbing everyone's attention. "We may be part of different squads, but we should work together, we are both trying to claim the treasure for the Clover Kingdom,"
"Our two squads, work together?" Yuno said, he walked away from the group to scope the area.
Kenos followed behind him, wondering what the wind mage was doing, but as he got close enough, he heard Yuno muttering words, and as he heard it, his eyes widened and an awful feeling grew inside of him.
"Work together? There's no way I'm working with another stuck-up noble, even if he is a part of Asta's squad,"
"Stuck-up noble, he's talking about...me, but, why...you know what, screw it," Kenos thought, that awful feeling had been replaced by anger, first, his squad was insulted, and then, his honor as a noble, he knew he had to do something.
He turned to face the other Magic Knights. "No, no working together, instead, let's make this a competition,"
"A competition?" the others asked, they turned to the solar mage and were taken aback by the look of complete seriousness in his eyes.
"Yes, a competition, to see who will reach the treasure first, either the Golden Dawn, or the Black Bulls!"