ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 27: Dungeon Safety Briefing

Chapter 27

Dungeon Safety Briefing

“I don’t care if this is your first time, or your one millionth time hearing this safety briefing. Before everyone goes on a Dungeon Delve in a Tier II dungeon, so long as they are enrolled at this school,” the instructor said this last part as he looked directly at Alexa, before continuing. “You will need a pass from this class if you wish to enter. Every time you go, no exceptions.”

That pass was of course the reason Alexa herself was here. She had an opportunity to go to the local Tier II dungeon, but was turned away as her status now said, Missing: Permission Slip. When she inquired about that, she was told that it was a mandatory requirement now that she was registered as a pre-awakened student who attended Dawning Light. Apparently there had been several students who were either being hazed, or had nefarious actions linked to their disappearances. In the case of students being hazed, it is believed that students pushed themselves too far too fast, to adapt to the faster pace of the Tier II dungeon. Alexa herself had experienced much of this.

There was of course the darker side of dungeon diving, that being people forcing you to go. Or abandoning you without proper resources. While Mind Readers did weed out a few groups who did just that. The finding of the murders was secondary to the actual point, of stopping the murder from happening in the first place. With that in mind, the school came up with the Dungeon Safety Brief. A briefing offered every weekday at 17:00 and would be done before all students went to practice for their perspective sports.

Now that all students in Dawning Light were able to go into the more powerful dungeons. A lot of crystal incentives were dropped from sporting events. Making it so, many sports that Alexa trained for diligently, were no longer appealing.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that maintaining her GPA was the only way to receive a dungeon pass, she would have likely opted to skip most classes.

As it was, classes seemed to be an overall ineffective use of her time. Most of the material was retained by her within the first few minutes. After that, she often went over spell forms and formula in her mind to make sure she was better prepared for dungeon delving.

With the crystalline reward for sports gone, she now spent most of her afternoon’s spelunking. Or going on a Date Consultation, which after Gina’s word of mouth caused her site to skyrocket in popularity.

This meant she often had to either leave Tier II dungeons early, or schedule the consultations right away, then go into the dungeons until it was time to leave to get ready for morning classes. Her ridiculously high Endurance made it so sleeping was no longer needed. In fact, that had been a perk she chose, remembering how she would randomly make mistakes. It didn’t negate the need for naps or sleep entirely, but it was a good substitute.

“Now, Ms. Thyme is likely a perfect example of why we give these briefings every time before you go into a Tier II dungeon. Can anyone tell me why that is?”

“She competed in the Trials of Ascension?” A Senior asked, he was a regular who like Alexa found themselves constantly going to these classes to get a new pass each day.

“Correct. Now can anyone tell me why we need to warn you all about what the Trials of Ascension are?” He asked. “Not you two.” The instructor said pointing to both Alexa and the senior who regularly showed up to these events.

“They are where you go and choose a side, to gain power and insight into how to wield the powers of the universe?” A student asked.

“No, but that is likely what the Elves or the Orcs wish for you to believe. No, the Trials of Ascension are a benchmark of your progress. No more, no less. What do I mean by a benchmark, again not you two.”

Alexa just used this time to practice her control over the different magic forms.

“The benchmarks are a set value showing you have a minimum competency?” A newer girl asked. She had been a recent repeat, but as this was Alexa’s fourth day of these classes, that didn’t mean much.

“Correct. To get to the Trials of Ascension, you need to complete four key benchmarks. Can anyone tell me what they are?”

“Must have made over 500 individual delves into dungeons, though you can go into the same dungeon multiple times and still have them count.”

“Correct, that is one. What is another?”

“You have to have all of your Attributes over a hundred?”

“Correct, that is two. What are my third and fourth ones?”

This time the repeat girl raised her hand and answered. “You need to complete over 100 floors in a Tier II or higher dungeon and be in a Red level difficulty dungeon.”

“Correct. Now, that you know all of that, what does that information tell you about someone who is a master tier magic user in three different schools of magic?”

“Don’t mess with her?”

“Correct, but why?”

“She is the highest ranked healer in the world by at least three tiers.”

“Yes, that is part of it. But something even more obvious when you think about it.” The instructor pressed as he managed to engage more and more students in this quick 15-minute class. At this point Alexa was guaranteed a pass, so long as she showed up. This was why she was content to let the class give out their answers, while she waited.

“She had over one hundred points in all attributes, made over 500 individual dungeon runs, and already completed over 100 floors in a Tier II dungeon, at least one of which was a red tier in difficulty, and she lived.” A Senior with glowing blue eyes said, as she stared at Alexa with a form of respect, and competitiveness in her eyes.

Alexa had seen the look before, many people often gave her similar looks, when they heard what the minimums required to enter the Trials of Ascension. Of course, most of these people never took a step back to realize how Alexa had managed to unlock her trials, during her first-Tier II dungeon run. That she did so without exiting, or on multiple trips and she was still younger than everyone in attendance by at least a year.

While Juniors, and by extension Sophomores were exempt from needing to have a dungeon pass available. This pass was a pre-requisite for all Seniors. The rationale was that it was always better to have a pass and never need one, than to need one and not have one. Also, this insured that every student had attended this mandatory safety briefing at least once before leaving campus.

“Correct. So not only is she the only healer, but she is likely more experienced than you, and despite the minimums needed, do not expect her to only have a hundred in every Attribute.”

That is how a lot of these classes went, particularly after the video of Joe Dugan’s humiliation went viral. After that, a few Seniors and Juniors all wishing to make a name for themselves set up ambushes to fight or otherwise humiliate Alexa. Alexa for her part took it all in stride and healed everyone once the incident was over. Everyone except for the Senior who swore they would go after Luke next. Mr. Wallis, as his name turned out to be, had to then be evacuated from the campus, to be treated by an emergency medical team. His condition is still listed as critical, and Alexa still has no intention of healing that man.

It is with the case of Mr. Wallis in mind, that part of the class went into explaining the Trials of Ascension. Honestly the instructor, Mr. Lambdis was still quite a ways away himself from even being able to take the trials.

“Any questions?”

“Why is it considered taboo to talk about the actual choices of the trials?” The inquisitive girl asked.

“Good question. The reason why it is considered taboo, is that there were some who were told beforehand about what to expect, and their trials were always considered to be nightmare level difficulty from the beginning. To date only one survivor of such an event was allowed to live. Leroy McCall, son of Major and Lady, a super team duo. Leroy was the first to break the rules of the Trials.”

“Leroy was sent back with a message. That others who attempted to go into the trials with such knowledge about what the trials were, would be met with extreme prejudice. Also, he gave a warning to his parents not to continue their own path of advancement. The warning was not followed as the couple, being one of Earth’s premiere power couples at the time entered a dungeon the next day to get answers and meet out justice for their son. They never returned.”

“That was the case of everyone who both survived the Trials of Ascension and lived to speak about them to others. Some sort of karmic bond was set between not only the speaker, but also the listener.”

“From there, people of course still spoke about it, going so far as to record all their own personal details and upload them to a team site. Then when one team member finally broke through, they told others that they had done so. It was from those initial brave few, that we now know the requirements of the Trials.” Mr. Lambdis said, finally finishing his impromptu speech on the taboo nature of the trials.

“Yeah, well couldn’t someone like Alexa tell us? I mean clearly, she is the beloved of the elves or something.” The girl pressed.

With that, Alexa just let out a small little smirk. Then she realized something, so she began to speak.

“We speak about them like they are the bogeymen, but they aren’t. They are just self-absorbed monsters who wait to backstab you. The orcs do so right away, encircling you and challenging you for dominance. If you fail, they take all your gear, if you pass, they make you fight them all to the death anyways. Then there are the elves who apparently betray you no matter what happens. That is likely what they are afraid of, us realizing that they will betray us. So, they develop plots and schemes within schemes to make us fear our own shadows.”

As Alexa spoke, she saw a silver line of energy form on her stomach and stretch far off into the distance. With that, she had spoken into truth a believed curse that had been placed upon humanity by the races manning the Ascension Trials.

Seeing the silver thread of fate, Alexa knew her fate was now sealed. That the next time she entered any Tier II dungeon, she would automatically be summoned to a different dungeon than the one she entered.

Rather than feeling shocked, or fearful of her speech, a faint cold smile formed on her lips.

“Finally.” She said, with only the faintest traces of a smile forming on her lips, much the same as Mona Lisa had. Likely from hearing similar news.

With that visual confirmation of an energy type that Alexa had never seen before attaching itself to her, she ran. Following the trail as quickly as possible. She had spent all week planning for this moment. Had trained hard every day. Running through over one hundred, then two hundred, then three hundred more floors from Tier II dungeons. All to ultimately be denied access to another Trial of Ascension.

That was when she came up with this plan yesterday. By doing this, she would prove either one of two things to be correct. First, the not talking about the Trials of Ascension was an old wife’s tale meant to keep people from legitimately sharing information. Or second, that there was something deeper.

After so much time waiting, Alexa figured it was best to force fate’s hand and demand a meeting.

Of course, she had a backup plan. One that she didn’t tell anyone. One that she knew even now would work to one hundred percent satisfaction.

Alexa was so fast that she managed to make it to the Tier II dungeon, well ahead of Lambdis. Of course, Lambdis was so shocked at Alexa’s sudden departure that he failed to call ahead to block access to the Tier II dungeon on campus.

Alexa Telekinetically grabbed the two crystals needed as payment authorization, and the guards waved her through, without any hesitation. By now they were used to Alexa’s unique full speed approach to life and were well aware that she likely had a number of date consultations set up for this afternoon. What they didn’t know, what no one was aware of, was the fact that Alexa had been slowly conditioning everyone to be as accepting of this moment as possible all week. No one, not even her brother checked to see if she had any consultations set up for later this evening, as that was considered to be a given, it was Friday night after all. When else would college students find free time to take out Alexa Thyme on a consultation.

That was why no, except for Mr. Lambdis and a few Senior dungeon delvers were the only ones aware of what Alexa Thyme had done. The only problem, how could they explain to others, without invoking the same curse on themselves, at least not in any meaningful time that could stop Alexa from entering the dungeon.

“Stop her!” Mr. Lambdis’ voice called out, from well behind Alexa. Those were the last two words she heard, before she left the safety of her world, and entered the second stage of the Trials of Ascension, already branded as a Heretic of Fate, and Karma.

As soon as Alexa exited the portal, she was greeted by a stage of thousands of warriors squaring off against each other in what must have been a historical reenactment of one of the famed battles of Alexander the Great. Forces with little more than swords, spears, bows and arrow, and numerous other medieval weaponries squared off in what was to be a monumental battle designed to establish a regional leader for the area.

Just as before, the field was filled with numerous dead bodies, all with one of the weapon types observed. Seeing this, Alexa ran forward, grabbed the spear and the sword. In her left hand, her dominant hand she hefted the spear and hurled it forward at the lines of elven mages.

With that, the battle for the Second Trial of Awakening began.