Chapter 62: Chapter 62: Dive Into Hell [2]

Azrael fell straight down into the deep pit.

The cold dive lasted for a full minute until the air pressure around him suddenly shifted.

His physical body felt much lighter, and all the mana trapped in his veins reacted differently to the deep underground environment.

’So this is how human magic feels under pressure,’ Azrael thought to himself as he floated down.

The normal gravity of the surface disappeared the moment he passed through an invisible magical barrier built deep inside the hole.

His rapid freefall slowed significantly, becoming a controlled, floating descent.

It felt exactly like swimming through water.

His eyes quickly adjusted to the sudden change in lighting, and the actual layout of the cave became highly visible below him.

Huge rocky stones lined the high, vaulted ceilings, and fresh, clear water ran quietly through deep trenches carved on the sides.

Bright patches of glowing moss covered the rough walls, bathing the entire area in a soft blue light.

It was a surprisingly great starting point for a dangerous dungeon.

Landing softly on his feet a minute later, his boots barely made a sound against the flat stone.

It was hard to move his limbs properly at first due to the sudden gravity shift, but he rolled his shoulders backward and did a quick combat warm-up, easily solving the mortal stiffness.

"Whooooo," a cheerful voice echoed directly above his head.

Azrael stepped casually to the side, looking up just in time to see someone falling right toward his previous spot.

Melissa landed neatly on her feet right beside him, bending her knees slightly to absorb the light impact.

She stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips with a dramatic sigh.

"I was expecting you to catch me in your arms," Melissa complained softly, a playful smile on her lips.

"I thought top rankers were supposed to give us the royal treatment."

"Get serious," Azrael told her, keeping his voice low and flat.

He delivered the line with perfect, detached indifference, exactly how Shane would have acted.

"Blah, blah, blah," she rolled her bright eyes, matching his act perfectly for the watching students.

Her long blue hair was tied up into a ponytail today, exposing her slender neck. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

A curved steel scythe rested securely on her back.

Despite how delicate and playful she looked right now, wielding a scythe is actually very hard to master in real combat.

It requires perfect physical balance and intense core strength.

’If she could summon me in this spoiled body, her powers will increase tenfold once we get the pendant’ Azrael pondered silently.

"Am I really that pretty?" Melissa asked suddenly, tilting her head.

She caught him staring at her face for just a little too long.

The tight black dwarven suit hugged every single curve of her body perfectly, making her teasing question completely valid.

The suit was specifically meant for harsh underground survival, but on her, it looked like high fashion.

If it were anyone else, he would have sliced off their head by now.

"Whatever," Azrael muttered, turning his face away quickly to hide a slight, involuntary grin.

Walking to the side of the wide cavern, they both waited quietly near the glowing moss.

One by one, everyone else fell through the invisible barrier and drifted down to the staging area.

Within ten minutes, all sixty of the freshman students reached the ground safely without any broken ankles.

"Whoa, this place is exactly like the pictures in the textbooks."

"Man, there is an actual river running down here."

"Hey, do not touch that plant, you idiot."

The students got very lively, chatting loudly and pointing at the scenery.

They were highly oblivious to the fact that their lives were currently in extreme danger.

This was not a fun field trip.

But they were just kids playing at war.

Professor Blaze dropped down after everyone else was finally gathered.

"It is ten in the morning right now," Blaze announced loudly, checking a silver pocket watch pulled from his vest.

"Five days from this time, we will be walking down this path to find you all."

He looked around the large group, making sure everyone was paying absolute attention to his next words.

"It is fine if you do not clear the boss and just stay cooped up in a safe place to survive," Blaze explained. "What really matters here is your tenacity and your physical skills to withstand the environment with the given resources."

Everyone in the crowd nodded in nervous understanding.

No one expected a bunch of first-year students to actually defeat a B-rank cave boss on their very first try.

Azrael felt a strange prickling sensation hit the back of his neck.

He turned his head slowly.

Lucien was glaring at him from a dark corner of the group.

"What?" Azrael whispered, looking right back at the blonde boy with dead, cold eyes.

Lucien quickly turned his head, pretending to talk to his little gang of followers.

He was clearly still bitter about getting beaten up in the training hall, but he lacked the spine to start a real fight down here.

"Begin," Blaze shouted, pointing his massive hand straight down the main tunnel.

The large group started walking down the path.

It was highly spacious, wide enough to make all sixty of them stand horizontally shoulder-to-shoulder and still have plenty of breathing room.

Their immediate team naturally grouped together as they walked freely.

Melissa walked very close to his left side, her arm occasionally brushing against his to test his personal boundaries.

Mia walked quietly right behind her, acting exactly like a silent shadow.

Zephyr took the spot to his right, keeping his eyes focused straight forward.

The other students talked loudly among themselves in the background.

"Man, there are ancient drawings carved in here."

"Will there be hot goblins down the path?"

They were actually waiting to get their very first monster kill, treating this dangerous expedition like a video game.

But the cavern around them was totally silent, which was honestly much scarier than hearing a bunch of roaring monsters.

Silence usually means the apex predators are hiding nearby.

After ten minutes of walking deeper into the tunnels, some of the students started looking back over their shoulders with wide eyes.

The way they just walked somehow felt much longer than it actually should have been.

The physical space around them was distorting.

"We won’t get lost in here, right?" an orange-haired girl questioned, her voice shaking slightly as she clutched her wooden staff.

"No, idiot," a taller boy replied confidently, puffing out his chest.

"The academy awakeners won’t let young prodigies like us go to waste."

’That rule is only true if you are actually a prodigy,’ Zephyr thought to himself, keeping his hand resting casually near the hilt of his sword.

’A dead rat is just a dead rat, no matter what uniform it wears.’

Then, without any warning, the underground space shook violently.

The hard ground trembled rapidly beneath their boots.

Students immediately rushed near each other, everyone frantically drawing their respective swords and raising their small shields.

Azrael kept his sword sheathed on his hip.

It is always better to conserve mana for the second stage, where the real threats live and breathe.

He doesn’t know whether this body could withstand his power if he were to unleash it.

Tock. Tock. Tock.

The sound of something running rapidly towards them echoed loudly off the high stone walls.

Everyone’s face quickly broke out in a cold sweat because they could not figure out exactly where the awful noise was coming from in the dark.

"GAHHHHH."

A horrific scream echoed from the back of the student formation.

Quickly turning around, the crowd parted in sheer panic.

A young student was suspended high in the air.

His chest was pierced deeply by a long, bone-white horn.

The monster holding the boy up was a bulky, highly mutated bull.

Solid, foul-smelling saliva dripped constantly from its jaws onto the stone floor, gassing where the acid landed.

The dwarven suit worked exactly as advertised.

It’s tough, magical fabric successfully stopped the horn from fully piercing the boy’s heart, saving him from instant damage.

But the blunt force impact and the shallow puncture wound still made him bleed heavily down the front of his suit.

Huff. Huff.

The bull tossed the bleeding boy to the side like a broken dummy.

Its uneven breathing and frightening, muscular posture made everyone in the cave freeze up in total terror.

Zephyr stepped out of the formation and walked straight to the front of the panicked crowd.

His hands immediately started glowing with a golden light.