Volume 3 - CH 3

Location: Atlantis

Time: 10:30am

Senior didn’t come back until the morning of the Mausoleum Class.

The timing for the school’s courses were arranged in a really strange way, very different from my previous school. The first class in the morning was Theoretical Class, and then starting from ten thirty until two in the afternoon was the Mausoleum Class. Previously, because we only had to attend theoretical classes, the teacher ended the class around noon, and the afternoon became a free period.

However, I heard that today it will be a practical lesson on site, so it might not be so relaxed.

“Did you bring the explosive charms?” As soon as he stepped into the elective classroom, this was the first question senior asked me.

“Of course I did!”

I realized that as soon as senior entered the classroom, there were about a dozen students in the class who were desperately staring at him.

Mausoleum is originally an unpopular class, so the number of students wasn’t high, probably no one would have thought a black robe would select this basic course.

He sat directly at the empty seat beside me, and took off his black robe. He was wearing t-shirt and jeans inside, it was only then that I saw the enigmatic tear at the top part of the coat. It looked like it was torn by something sharp.

…I better not ask about it.

“I was with two other black robes, dealing with some problems with the Prison World’s barrier. I didn’t sleep for almost three days, confronting with things such as evil spirits.” Senior sneered as he told me in his own accord.

I really didn’t want to know…

“Prison World?” As soon as they heard this, Miao Miao and Chifuyu, who were originally doing their own things, but immediately came over. The few of us formed a little circle, “I’ve heard that lately the prison and the spirit world were rather chaotic.”

Senior smiled, but didn’t reply.

I felt that he didn’t really like to discuss work related things with others, and I’ve never heard him talk about it with others, except, he would occasionally take the initiative to mention it to me a little.

“Yang Yang, didn’t you see the spirit world before? The other time when you were with Ryan and Chifuyu.” Miao Miao turned around and smiled at me, “They had always been rather unlawful, and always loved to attack the things they desire.”

Spirit? That sounded really familiar. Then, I suddenly heard a “tch” sound coming from senior.

Oh right! It was the last time when I was mysteriously dragged to the damn rotten place with a scenic view and positive atmosphere.

“But the Prison World is even more vicious compared to the spirit world, no wonder senior had to be dispatch with two other black robes.” Miao Miao expressed a pair of love shaped eyes, and turned her gaze towards her beloved Senior.

n front of my eyes was a live performance of a “The falling flower is interested, but the running stream underneath is cruel” drama. It has the same as the Taiwan series my mom loves to watch,“Even if you love him so much, he’ll never be yours”, and in the end, the main male character got together with someone else.

“You’ve also met the underlings of the Prison World before.” Letting down his silver hair and retying it, senior casually said with a very low voice only the two of us could hear, “Ghost King Bishen.”

I remember now! The murderer who indirectly caused me to materialize the big black bomb! Wait a moment!

Now that I saw senior tying up his hair, I thought of something I had forgotten a very, very long time ago. So long that I, myself, thought it didn’t exist anymore, “Senior!”

“What’s the matter?” Maybe he didn’t think that I would suddenly shout out, senior was stunned for a second.

“This is for you!” I hurriedly took out a small black box I had forgotten for about half a month. Lying inside my backpack, beautifully packaged in dark blue, had been placed inside and its existence forgotten.

The necklace I bought with Miao Miao and Geng a while back.

Miao Miao, who was sitting at one side, widened her eyes as soon as she saw me taking out the box, “Are you for real, Yang Yang!? You only thought of this now!?”

Anyway, my memory is bad. Also, after entering school, I was frightened until I was exhausted, so I totally forgot about the thing.

“?” Senior narrowed his eyes, and a big question mark appeared on his face.

This made me puzzled, I thought Senior was always listening to my thoughts, so why was it that he is showing such a confused expression?

Then, he closed his red eyes, and opened them, “Necklace?”

Oh, so he was still eavesdropping.

“Yang Yang you’re giving a necklace to senior?” Chifuyu curiously came over to take a look.

Senior opened the box, inside was the silver dog collar necklace. There was a bunch of red flames that looked like it was going to burn at any moment. When I bought it, were the flames so red?

“This is something Yang Yang specially looked for as thanks for senior’s care.” Miao Miao chuckled, sounding just like the ringing of bells, “Both me and Geng saw him searching for this.”

Actually, I didn’t really look for it for that long a time, because I wasn’t someone who would buy this kind of stuff.

“As thanks?” I heard senior’s cold laugh.

Just as Miao Miao seemed to still have something she wanted to say, the class, which had originally been rather noisy, immediately quieted down.

The Mausoleum teacher had arrived.

* * *

My first impression on the Mausoleum teacher (should be called as Professor) was:

No impression.

He looked just like a normal old man. Sometimes when he was talking, he would even cough twice, very grizzly looking as though he would kick the bucket at any moment. But then it also didn’t seem like he would easily and simply kick the bucket.

Chifuyu said he is a purple robe.

When I attended the first class, I did see him wear a purple robe, it’s just that the weird thing was, for some reason when he was wearing it. It looked like a grave clothes, so I thought it was a good thing he was not a white robe, or else he would look like a zombie who came out of his coffin.

“Dear… students… let us set off now… We are almost at… the first learning course…”

See, the way he talks was just like a typical old man who looked like he was going to stop breathing.

With a “smack” sound, Senior gave me a slap behind my head.

“He is a good professor.” Seeing through people’s mind at once, senior said that in a simple and neat way.

It was definitely not easy to be praised by senior.

“That’s right senior, you didn’t come for the first two classes, how did you know what the teacher had taught?” Following at the end of the group, I suddenly thought of this. During the first two classes, senior didn’t attend the lecture, but for some reason he gave off a feeling he actually came and attended the lecture, since he looked very familiar to what was happening.

Red eyes glanced at me for a moment, “I was actually planning to choose this elective last year, so whenever I had free time during the summer vacation, I would go to the library and read up books regarding this course. But never expected it to clash with another class, so I could only select it this year.”

That means, you were already well prepared when you were at home?

I suddenly found out that senior was a very good student.

The road that the teacher led us through was very weird. From the basement of the elective classroom, going through a faintly glowing small tunnel, and kept on going straight.

“This seems to be a Passing Through tunnel.” Miao Miao, who was walking beside me said, “Similar to the teleportation charm, but this requires the people to walk, but it can also transport a lot of people at once.”

Nn… Here comes the question, where are we going to be sent to?

“Probably inside some tomb.” Senior, who was walking slightly in front, explained, “I’ve heard this teacher really loves survival games, so he will usually throw the students into a tomb… similar to a huge ancient mausoleum kind of place, and you are to apply what you’ve learned in class to escape on your own.”

I’ve never heard of this before!

I took a look at Miao Miao, who instigated me to fill in this course, and her face was full of astonishment. Very good, Miao Miao didn’t know about it either. And in the past two damn theoretical classes, I totally didn’t pay any attention at all.

“This is very good, we can do on-site training.” Chifuyu pushed his bright shining glasses and curved up a strange smile.

Only good for you, right!?

“Senior how did you know about this matter?” Miao Miao immediately asked.

“Because I saw it last year. When I was sleeping at the Health Care Center, there was a big group of people with skeletons and curse spirits stuck to their bodies, rushing there for help.”

…I don’t want to play anymore.

“Where are you going.” Senior grabbed onto my collar, my first attempt to escape has failed, “We’re here.”

The whole team stopped moving. It’s that light! In front of the team was a spot of light, and in front of the light was an old man!

“Dear student… we have arrived… the first practical site… Ghost King Tomb…”

What kind strange name is that!? Sounded like extremely bad news!

“This place is where a huge battle between the Prison World and the Elf Tribe occurred… It was said that in the past,… there were more than a hundred Elves who were killed… by Ghost King of Hell… and was then sealed all together… buried here.” The old man talked with halts in between his speech, just stopping short of him ceasing to breath, “The Elves made… a lot of seals… after successive entrance by the Ghost Tribe… and had also put up many traps… This is our homework for today… after reaching the center, take back… the school’s badge… to clear this lesson.”

Now, I thought if he wanted us to go somewhere similar to the pyramids in Egypt similar to the ones in the movie called “The Mummy,” it would have been considered a better heaven. At least I knew mummies used to be humans.

What’s a Ghost King of Hell! And what does he mean about being sealed together with Elves!?

Asking the students to go into a tomb and die in groups, eh?!

“The huge battle between Elves and Ghost Tribe?” Senior’s expression became rather weird, as if he was mumbling to himself, “Then isn’t that the tomb of Ghost King Yelu…?”

How is it that you know this!?

Senior suddenly looked at me, “In the past when I learned about the Elfin history, there was a record about the bygone history of more than a thousand years ago, which definitely contains some huge events. Ghost King Yelu went through the Prison World and reached this world, capturing and slaughtering a number of neighboring Elves. Even the souls became food and was swallowed, it was the biggest disaster that year.”

To put it simply, it means that even after death, their souls were shattered…? That’s really pitiful.

“In the end, the third prince of one of the Elfin tribes, Ice Fang Clan, allied together with nearby aristocratic Elves and attacked Ghost King Yelu. They managed to repressed him, hiding his remains at the coldest place beneath the ground; no longer able to come out under the sun.”

So to say, senior was clearly telling an extremely tragic story, but why was it the more I hear his tone, the more it felt like it was a ghost story? And he was also talking about the story of the damn place where we will entering shortly!!!

“But I’ve heard the corpses of the Ghost King’s tomb would haunt people.” Chifuyu came over, and started to follow up on the ghost story, “I’ve heard there are many Elfin treasures in the Ghost King’s tomb, so there were a lot of people who came for adventuring, but no one heard of anyone surviving.”

F—! And you still wanted us to come here! My first thought was to rush at the teacher and smash his head.

“Please my dear students… take care…” In the next second, the old man in front of the light disappeared into thin air just like that!

In my entire life, this was the first time I wanted to swear so badly.

* * *

“It’s time.”

The second senior finished his sentence, I suddenly felt the pressure from under my feet was gone. The black path had suddenly disappeared, and I was stepping on air.

“Whoa!!” We were all falling down from midair. I could only see darkness below me, and the light had already disappeared.

“Wing of ice, tool of water, gather silk tangles to form a cobweb at once! Senior, who was beside me, was obviously very calm. He took out a blue round bead in an instant, and chanted a long string of words.

In the darkness, I saw a transparent object with a little silver on it, coming out from senior’s hand, and spread out just like a net. Within a few seconds, I fell on top of an icy cold object, and all around was the sound of “thud, thud, thud”. Several students rolled into one group at the other side. Very soon, we realized all of us fell on top of a huge cobweb made of ice.

“Light up.” Miao Miao immediately climbed up, snapped her fingers. A cluster of fire appeared on her palms, and lights started to appear around us, “There’s something down there.” As she said that, she threw the small cluster of flame down, and the bottom of the cobweb immediately brightened up.

All the students, who fell on top of the web, gasped.

A few feet under the cobweb were mountains of sharp spikes, if we directly fell on these, there was a ninety percent we would have all turn into kebabs, and then it was the END. Bow and step down from the stage.

My legs trembled.

“Hmph, a piece of cake.” From the cluster of students, one of them snorted through his nose, spoke, and stood up, “I can move on my own without this thing.”

A pair of small silver wings appeared on his hand, and the person floated away.

“Ah, ah, people from Class A always think they are more superior.” Chifuyu stretched, and said coolly, “If it wasn’t for Senior’s quick action, they wouldn’t even be able to talk.”

I wanted to say, senior was also from Class A, but he is an oddity.

“Chu.” A cold hand was draped across my neck, and a ghost’s breath appeared beside my ear, “If you don’t want to be crushed and have your corpse abandoned here, you’d better stop thinking nonsense.”

“Ahhh!!” I bounced forward, and behind me was senior’s sinister and ghastly face.

Alright, alright, alright already!

As soon as they saw their own classmate leaving, a few students, who were similarly in Class A, left the ice web one by one, and then it was people from Class B. In the end, only a few people were left on the web.

“It’s almost time.” With only the few of us left here, Chifuyu suddenly exposed a demonic smile, it really was a demonic smile, making me remember the weird smile when Ryan’s inner personality appears. They really are worthy of being each other’s partner, “The others had already left, we can now start to plan our route.”

“Nn, nn.” Miao Miao quickly came over.

In that second, I saw a fox and a cat.

“Although I’m not good at fighting, don’t forget that I’m someone from the Yukino Clan.” Chifuyu said while glancing at senior, and then he smiled at me, “Yang Yang, you need to observe carefully.”

He snapped his fingers, and we were surrounded by a few groups of bluish white will-o-the-wisps, the entire space was illuminated. It’s only then that I could clearly see we were in a small room in the tomb. Surrounded by walls, there was a small door at the bottom, estimated that those people who left earlier should have gone through it.

“Call upon the Gods and formalize an mantra, Western Tiger, follow the path of the ghost.” With a swish, four white charms suddenly appeared in Chifuyu’s hand, and in a blink of an eye, white flames ignited. I felt like I was watching some parlor tricks.

After the flames burned out, it was strange that the ashes were not black but were actually silverish white. Then, it fell down from Chifuyu’s hand, floating in midair in front of his chest, “With the mantra, transmit preemptive divination unto me at once.”

The silverish white ashes immediately came together and then they split up, turning into something that looked a little like a simple and convenient map. And then a few small dots of light appearing on the map.

“This is Yukino’s tracking technique.” Senior’s curved up, looks like he was very interested, “It’s really good, but this trick is not simple.”

Chifuyu smiled, “It’s not only a tracking technique, it also can predict what’s going to happen to them, for example, the first group, which is the lights at the upper left corner, they’re going to be done in very soon.”

A few seconds after Chifuyu finished his sentence, somewhere on the silver map, a few of the lights suddenly broke into pieces. A scream from afar echoed back to our place, it was extremely shrill.

I felt my scalp tingling.

They were from Class A, right they are from Class A, right they are from Class A, right they are from Class A right…

What does the scream represent!?

“Next is the third group at the lower right corner.” After two seconds, the light broke into pieces, and the second scream echoed in the small space.

“And then the fifth group in the middle.” The same thing happened, lights were broken, and then there was a horrible scream.

After about thirty seconds, Chifuyu snapped his fingers, the will-o-the-wisps and silver ashes disappeared at the same time, “The traps in these three paths had already been activated, you can choose any one of them. For the first section, all of the roads lead to the same place, only the second section will be a maze.”

So you waited for the other groups to go to their deaths first, right…

“Don’t worry, the medical team should be on duty somewhere around here. They won’t die so easily.” Senior suddenly stood up, “Let’s go, it time to go down.”

Go down? I had a very bad feeling.

And then I felt my collar tightened, “Are you ready?” Senior revealed an extremely evil smile, “Let’s fly, kiddo.”

Fly!?

In less than half a second I immediately understood his words, because senior pulled my collar and jumped down directly towards the entrance.

“Whoahhhhh——” Will die, will die, will die, will die, this time I’ll really die!!! I saw a lot of spikes flying past my eyes, shining and glittering very clearly, and almost touching me.

But I couldn’t fly as far as the door!!!

Then I saw Miao Miao had also jumped down, stepped on my body using it as a leverage, and safely slid across. My whole body started to fall down, “Yang Yang! Grab my hands!” She stretched out her hands and gave my body a pull, causing my whole body to fall towards the entrance. This action made me feel like I was being thrown out with full points in judo, and then I became dizzy from the fall.

Was there no other gentler method!?

* * *

“Light up.”

Senior, who came down last, clapped his hands, and the surrounding was immediately illuminated. Unlike Miao Miao, there was no cluster of fire, but the lights were emitted directly from the walls. The whole stone walls and floor was sparkling.

“Yang Yang, are you still alive?” Chifuyu, who still had some conscience, came over and pulled me up from the ground, “Don’t lie down there and sleep, the tomb insects will come and eat you.”

I immediately jumped up from the floor.

There were several paths in front of us, probably about seven or eight, and all of them were stone paths. The ceiling was also made of stones giving off a kind of pressure. It felt like it was very unstable and would collapse at any time.

“The first, fourth, and seventh path can be taken.” Chifuyu, who was responsible for memorizing the map, said, “The sixth path hasn’t been taken by anyone yet, but there are also traps on that path.”

“Then let’s take the fourth path.” Senior took a look, and then pointed at the road in the middle, “There is a strong scent of blood at the other two paths, I’m afraid someone will vomit.”

I’m sorry, the one who will vomit is me!

“No problem.” Miao Miao and Chifuyu said in unison.

I have a very huge problem. The biggest problem was regarding my personal safety.

“Who cares about your personal safety, move quickly!” Senior raised his foot and kicked my butt, almost causing me to fall down in an embarrassing way. Luckily, I was very experienced, so I was able to balance myself!

I could only bite the bullet and continue walking forward. But, why was it that I’m the one at the front!?

“It’s said that Ghost King Yelu’s nature was very bloody, that year, the Elves were all brutally abused. When the huge army of Elves attacked this place, the whole place was covered in blood and flesh. There were also Elves who became so twisted that they didn’t even resemble their original selves anymore…” Senior, who was walking behind me, softly whispered beside my ear, “Just like… the thing you are about to step on.”

I froze, and instinctively looked down. Sometimes, people just love to find trouble for themselves. Looking down was a mistake.

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh——”

There was a head rolling beside my feet, still fresh, and still spurting blood. The eyes turned white and kept staring at me. It’s one of the students who left earlier. All around was blood and pieces of meat. There were also broken blades surrounding us.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh——” I’ll have a nervous breakdown! I definitely will have a nervous breakdown!

During that extremely terrifying moment, I actually heard someone laughing! Someone was snickering! Issuing a fine sound, snickering at me! I turned my head, the one who was snickering was actually senior!!!

Senior was especially evil today.