Blood Curse Academia - Orientation

Chapter XLVII (47)- Dungeon Traps

Ione was surprisingly calm about their situation.

“You’ve still got the other book, right?” she said. “The one that ties you to your sister? Just get started on another divination spell. You’ll lose a bit more blood, but that’s hardly the end of the world.”

Kizu lifted it from his pack. Nothing else was missing. Even the dagger was still there, despite the shapeshifter’s keen interest in it. If Basil had truly betrayed them, he could have done much worse by taking Kizu’s entire pack. But Basil’s disappearance still made no sense whatsoever. As much as Kizu racked his brain, he couldn’t think of a decent explanation for it. Then again, he’d never completely understood Basil’s reasons for wanting to join him in the first place.

Kizu handed one of his ration potions to Ione. They tapped vials and then downed them together. Kizu grimaced. The chef hadn’t been lying. It did the job, but the taste and texture reminded him of the lumpy porridge the crone used to feed him.

After unwrapping the dagger, Kizu lightly pressed the tip of it against his finger, pricking his skin. A bead of blood was absorbed by the dark metal. Sojan’s eye snapped open.

“Oh! Hello!”

“I need your advice,” Kizu said.

“I advise stabbing something,” Sojan said sagely. “That girl over there looks like she’s full of blood. A bit scrawny, but it’s the best option we’ve got. A quick thrust straight through the spine would be ideal.”

“Not about that. My friend disappeared while we were asleep. Do you know where he went?”

“You’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m a dagger, not a scrying orb. Now, let’s get back to the matter at hand. If you’re pining after that girl and don’t want her stabbed, I’ll graciously allow you to stab one of those rodents scurrying around. But in doing so, you will be taking advantage of me at my absolute lowest pit of desperation.”

“They’re an endangered species,” Kizu said.

“So am I!”

“This is the dagger?” Ione asked, leaning over it. “And you said it talks? Is it a magical creature? Is it alive?”

“Enchantment,” the dagger muttered. “Though I would be much more lively if you would just stab someone.”

Kizu relayed the message to Ione. He suspected that he could only hear Sojan because it had been his own blood that awakened it.

“Can it guide us?” Ione asked.

“No, it already told me as much.”

“Just stab something already,” the dagger mumbled as its eye drooped shut.

Kizu sighed and wrapped it back in the cloth. Then he took out his sister’s divination book. He started the ritual, placing the book in the center of the circle. It worked perfectly, which was a relief. Kizu had worried the World Dungeon might throw off the spell. But it seemed to point him in the same direction as the previous day.

They left the cavern behind, though Ione took a Sonney with her to study while she rode on her lizard. Surprisingly, the critter didn’t seem to mind Ione abducting it from its home. If anything, it seemed content with its new lot in life. The creature was either extremely placid or too stupid to notice the change in scenery. Likely both. Kizu was beginning to suspect the reason why the rodents were so rare. It was surprising they’d survived this long to begin with.

A deep, moaning noise echoed through the tunnel, shattering the monotony. They froze. The moan rang out again; it sounded close.

“Is that Basil?” Ione whispered.

Kizu listened closely. “It’s hard to say. It’s definitely not his most recent voice, but he might have completely changed since we last saw him. And if he was in trouble, who knows what kind of noise he would make?”

“I imagine he would make the ‘HELP ME I’M DYING’ sort of noise,” Ione said. “But what do I know?”

After a short debate, they decided to take the detour down the side tunnel. As they did, Kizu realized that the tunnel wasn’t a natural structure at all. The circular path was built from cobblestones that arced up over their heads.

Dozens of small lights glinted at the end of the tunnel. As they approached, Kizu realized it wasn’t a light source at all, but the reflection of their fireflies in a mirror. When they reached the mirror, they stopped and stared at it. Other than the mirror, the tunnel appeared to be a dead end. There was no sign of where the moaning had been coming from.

“I don’t like this,” Ione said, scowling at her reflection with malice. “We should turn around.”

“Hold on,” Kizu said, leaning in closer to the mirror. “Why is this here?”

He reached out and tapped the mirror, listening for a false back on it. He regretted the action instantly. Ione’s reflection faded away into a murky white background, leaving only his own reflection in the mirror. It blinked at him. Then it smiled. The reflection’s cheeks split open, allowing the smile to spread all the way back to his molars.

The moaning occurred all around them, louder than ever and shaking them to the bone. The sound didn’t come from the mirror itself - it was more like the entire tunnel had come alive, and was attempting to wheeze out a breath of air. Kizu examined the mirror through his spellsense, something he should have done from the beginning, and saw it oozing advanced spellcraft of a mastery level and type he’d never seen before. It must be one of the artifacts delvers came down here for.

“On second thought, let’s go.”

They retreated, thankfully without issue. When Kizu looked back over his shoulder, the smiling version of himself silently buckled over laughing behind them. Just as they got out of sight of it, Kizu thought he saw it wink.

“Well,” Ione said, clinging to the back of her giant lizard. “That definitely could have gone worse. Glad it zeroed in on you and not me.”

Kizu shuddered. “Let’s just keep moving.”

He followed his earlier divination’s impression. It was significantly more difficult without the atlas, as they continued to run into dead-ends, but they did make progress towards the location. They avoided a few more of the invisible mouths and almost fell into two different pit traps. Thankfully, Ione always went first so her summoned lizard mount triggered everything, and in the case of the pit traps it simply climbed back out without issue.

After what felt like a day's worth of stumbling through the dungeon, Kizu finally decided to start looking for a place to hunker down and get some sleep. When they entered a perfectly normal looking square room, the entrance slammed shut behind them, startling them both as it sealed them inside.

Then, of course, the ceiling creaked overhead, and several streams of water began to pour down from above.

Ione immediately began to sketch a summon on the wall with her piece of chalk.

“What are you summoning?” Kizu asked quickly.

“A big fish, obviously! I can’t swim!” Ione said, panicking while she continued to mark up the wall. The water was already calf height. Soon it would cover her drawing.

“That will only keep you afloat until we reach the ceiling. I have a better idea.” Kizu reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew two vials. He passed one to Ione.

“It won’t teach you how to swim,” he said. “But hang onto me and we should be fine. Just hold your breath. Try to keep the air from escaping through your skin, too.”

Ione took the vial, then glanced at the knee-high water. “I’m still going to wait for you at the ceiling. I don’t want to be in that water a moment longer than I need to be.” Then she climbed back up on her lizard mount, which scampered vertically up the wall.

Kizu stared down at the murky water. It felt surprisingly warm.

Mort hummed and looked at him.

“You’ll be fine. You know how to swim already. Just follow my lead and help Ione.”

Owl monkeys weren’t made for aquatic environments, but his bond worked both ways and Mort had been able to adapt to such things over the years bonded to him. The monkey was still pretty terrible at swimming, but he could manage a dead man’s float if necessary.

It felt like only a moment later that he was treading water, the ceiling slowly getting closer. He examined it closely. Yes, his plan should work fine. “We’re going to enter where the water is coming out of,” he explained to Ione and Mort. “The grate is too small to get humans through, but a small monkey and a few frogs should fit fine.” Good news. He had been more than a little worried he might need to transform Mort into a frog as well. That sounded disastrous.

When his head pressed up against the ceiling, he grabbed Ione underwater and looked her in the eye. Wordlessly, they both drank their potion.

As he gulped it down, he felt something brush up against his leg. Only then did he wonder why the grate’s gaps were wide enough for Mort to fit through.