Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

Wulf was getting used to activating the Wraith, and it was getting easier, but it didn't take away the shock and the strain. At least this time, there was still some mana in the Oronith's systems, and he didn't need to use as much.

It was a blessing for him, because he didn't have as much. He'd been using Kalee's constructs as best he could, but with how much he'd expanded his storage core, he was going to need something stronger soon if he wanted to refill his mana faster.

Or he'd need a more reliable way of drawing the mana back out of the Wraith.

Once the dream-link was secure, he activated his communications construct and said, "Seith, are we ready?"

"Give me one second," she replied. "They'd hooked up some monitors to the internal mountain spirit. Trying to get them disconnected now."

"Were those important?"

"Only for ensuring they weren't hurting the mountain spirit while they were making repairs."

Wulf thought he heard a faint thunk, then felt the chestpiece of his smaller linked golem shudder.

A few seconds later, Seith's voice returned. She said, "Got it. We're good to depart. As long as you don't mind breaking the scaffolding."

"It's just wood," Wulf said. "I'm sure Dr. Azanthius won't mind."

He wasn't actually sure, but no time to doubt that now.

Before he could set off, the back hatch opened once more. Prince Athllas slipped in and proclaimed, "I am coming with you!" He slammed the cockpit's hatch shut once more, using his stone hand. "I…have never been in an Oronith before."

"All aboard, then," Wulf said. He would've glanced back at the prince, but the dream-link was active. "Hold tight, your majesty."

"What about Irmond?" Kalee asked. "How's he gonna get on?"

"He'll see us."

"What? That's not an answer."

"Alright, then you'll see too."

Kalee groaned. "Next time, I get to make the plans."

"Suggestions are always welcome." Wulf would've given her a grin if she could've seen it. He did, however, see her rolling her eyes.

Before he set off, he glanced around the cockpit, looking for any parchment readouts that looked like immediate issues. Nothing.

He only paid attention to the overall activation message, which was quickly fading already:

[Silent Wraith (Low-Silver Tier Oronith) has activated. Systems diagnostic complete. Overall body integrity: 63%]

Good enough. He hadn't expected Wraith to get stronger, anyway, and it should be enough to handle the dungeon.

Oroniths got stronger themselves, as the internal mountain spirit improved, but also with stronger Pilots and Mages. There was some sort of calculation that it did, trying to gather an equivalent power.

For a moment, he wondered what it would show for an Orichalcum Pilot, but he pushed that to the side. He'd never wondered about that before, but it'd always seemed so out of reach. Now…?

"Focus on the present…" he told himself.

Then he stepped forward.

Wood cracked and groaned. The scaffolding fell away from Wraith, beams splintering and platforms shattering. All the scaffolding in front of them—what didn't swivel away—cracked and broke off. Wulf was pretty sure the guards would be fine. They'd gotten high enough up, and the stairs were off to the side. They didn't collapse.

Athllas gripped onto an exposed beam and took a wide stance. Hopefully, he wasn't going anywhere.

He stepped off the platform and set a foot onto the main floor of the hangar. There wasn't much time to waste, and he jogged off down the hall. The ceiling was high enough, and Wraith was spry enough to handle a jog. Turning was a greater challenge, but with effort, he wrenched the Oronith around and sprinted down the hall toward the dungeon entrance.

The gate that separated the hangars from the dungeon entrance was wide open. Irmond had gotten the two massive doors to swing open. Although they were probably designed to be operable by low-tier Ascendant workers, Wulf still appreciated it. The gate was more of an aesthetic measure than anything. The wooden doors weren't going to keep out a determined dungeon monster, nor was it going to hold an Oronith inside, but it'd still take time.

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As they passed through the doorway, Wulf thought he spotted Irmond standing up on a walkway across the doors. People chased after him, shouting, but he jumped off when Wraith passed below.

"Ah," Kalee said. "I see."

Wulf didn't feel the impact, but Irmond had to have made the jump. Rangers didn't usually miss jumps like that. A few seconds later, the cockpit's hatch swung open, and Irmond's head poked in.

"Did I miss anything?" the elf boy asked.

"Get a comms construct, and go be our eyes," Kalee said.

"Got it, ma'am."

"I'm not—" Kalee sighed. "We're a team, Irmond. Not an army."

"Got it, ma'am," Irmond said.

"I think he's just teasing," Wulf added. "But it's not the best time. Focus up."

They entered the cavern with the dungeon entrance, and immediately, the sheets of parchment hanging in the cockpit all displayed the same warning:

[WARNING: dungeon entrance ahead. Dungeon rating: Low-Gold.]

"Low-Gold!" Irmond exclaimed. "How do you expect—"

"That's the overall rating," Wulf provided, drawing on his past experience with dungeons. "The upper layers have lower-tier monsters, and the deeper you go, the higher their tier. You'll get things higher than Low-Gold if you go deep enough."

"That's not reassuring!" Seith provided through the communications construct.

"Yeah, but I don't think Wulf plans on going that deep," Kalee replied.

"Not today."

The cavern that held the dungeon entrance was tall enough to fit Wraith in easily. The rough stone walls glistened with moisture, and braziers lit the floor with flickering light. Ground crews scurried out of the way, pushing carts and moving equipment. There was a clear channel to walk down, though, and Wulf took it without crushing too much equipment.

Combined, the guards—both non-Ascendants and Ascendants—were torn between standing up to Wraith and looking down into the hole, where Arnau had "fallen."

"Turning on the mana lights," Kalee said. "Seith, can you disconnect one? Something tells me we'll need to conserve power."

"On it," Seith replied. "I might make a mess of the rune-line, but hey, I guess we only need one functional floodlight."

"Good call," Wulf said. In three steps, he reached the dungeon entrance—a yawning hole in the ground, wide enough to fit two Oroniths in. Wooden staircases led into the depths, human sized, and rope ladders descended too, but there was nothing for an Oronith. "Brace yourselves," he said. "Let's hope our joints are back in good condition…"

Considering how many nights they'd spent helping out with the repairs, Wulf would also have to trust his own handiwork. He inhaled, stepped up to the ledge, then jumped into the darkness.

They fell twice the height of the Wraith before landing on a shelf of stone. A deep boom echoed out, probably echoing through the entire academy, and a cloud of dust washed around them, clouding the visor. He cushioned the landing with a crouch, but the impact was still jarring, and the dream-link transmitted the pressure to his legs through his golem, constricting the panels and squeezing his knees. He clenched his teeth. He was still only a Bronze.

But they were here to fix that. Stepping to the edge of the ledge, he leaned over and shone their single functional mana light down into the darkness.

"See anything, Irmond?" Wulf asked.

"A big hole," the boy replied.

"Thanks."

"I see a solid floor about the same distance we fell to get down to the ledge," Irmond replied. "No immediate threats."

"What about Dr. Arnau?"

"She's supposed to be hiding, isn't she?" Seith asked.

"Supposed to be," Wulf confirmed. "That's a good sign, then. Brace yourselves again."

"How do I even—"

Wulf jumped down off the ledge. His stomach rose, and they plummeted about the same distance. He landed in a crouch, this time putting his fist down. The dream link still flared magenta, which was to be expected. At Iron, most people's mana took on a colour and became infused with their aspect, but he was still using regular mana—a strained dream-link, however, made it take on the magenta tone. One day, he figured Wraith would be green, but not today.

When the dust cleared, he rose up to his full height, then turned around, illuminating the cavern. The walls were made of rough, gray stone, with streaks and clumps of other colours, but the floor was brick. It wasn't like any kind of brick he'd seen before. They were long stone strands. Clearly intentional, designed by an intelligent being, but by human hands? Doubtful.

Especially considering the size of the hallways. Beyond this entrance cavern, a circle nearly ten Oronith paces across, there were four hallways branching in all four cardinal directions, completely sealed off from above.

And they were tall enough for Wraith to fit through, almost like Wraith was the size of a human walking through a regular hall. Instead of bare stone, its walls were made of the same long, strand-like bricks.

"Alright," Wulf said. "West was always our lucky direction. I'm heading west."

"Lucky direction?" Irmond asked.

"Yeah…last…uh, last time, whenever we'd go into the smaller dungeons, we'd always head west if we were given a choice," Wulf said. Athllas wasn't paying close attention—he was too busy looking out the cockpit visor, or glancing around the cockpit, trying to take it all in, but Wulf didn't need to get caught off guard. They couldn't go revealing to the prince that they were from the future. He continued, "Going west made it harder to get lost. Unless, of course, the dungeon changed and reset on us."

"Changed?" Seith exclaimed. "You mean…something this big can change?"

"The Field alters dungeons to suit its will," Kalee said. "If you don't take out the core, it'll reset, and it'll refill with monsters. It won't destroy anything inside the rooms, but it will restock them."

"I was always skeptical when people said the world was hollow, and that the crust went…deeper than we could ever fathom," Wulf said. "Now, I'm not so sure. They might have been onto something."

Before anyone up above decided to come and chase them, Wulf set off down the west hallway.