Death, Devotion, Dissonance

'Ah, I guess this is how you become worthy of food,' Evin chuckled. 'But why are there so many items? … Oh, it's probably because this place is intended for multiple students to conquer. By this logic, the Tunnels should've been originally designed to be conquered by a group of five.'

Feeling glad that he breezed through a task meant for many, Evin inspected his other loot. The piece of metal, though, was a much more important discovery. If Evin was correct, this was one half of a key. Seeing this, Evin became sure that one of the three other doors possessed the other half of the key in it.

Now that he understood how the Tunnels worked, he quickly got to work. He found his way out of the 3rd door and appeared in the room with the four doors. This time though, he walked through the 1st door.

The door led him further downstairs, and Evin soon realized that each door had different things waiting for him behind them. As Evin was getting a bit tired of walking aimlessly through a maze, this was a nice surprise to him. He appeared in an open area, with the only a short, metal-barred gate on the other side. Evin peeked through the bars, but only saw a relatively small, empty space with a very short ceiling behind it.

As Evin was wondering what all this was about, he heard a panicked squeak from somewhere, and before he could register what was happening, a huge rat fell from above behind the metal bars. Startled out of his mind, Evin stumbled onto his back while barely containing a shriek.

"The fuc-" he began a curse, but couldn't quite finish it, as his vision darkened and he felt something furry jumping onto his face. He felt its panicked claws clutching at his chest and neck, and then he felt something sharp sinking into his cheek. Panicked and feared, Evin grabbed at the rat while howling in pain and barely managed to pull the mad creature off his face. Irrational anger took over his mind as he slammed the rat down and then kicked it across the room with all his might.

The rat shrieked angrily and was about to rush at Evin again, but a bullet of compressed air hit it in the eyes and immediately killed it. He looked towards the small space and noticed that the metal barred gate was gone.

"Do-" Evin opened his mouth to scream at the Voice inside to kill the rat faster, but an unnatural force took hold of his mouth and shut it.

<Don't shout at me verbally. Eyes and ears everywhere, remember?> the Voice reminded.

<Why didn't you kill it faster?!>

<Honestly, I was pretty startled as well. And you know it takes a while for me to create the accelerator.>

<Freeze it in water, or burn it. Why do you have to create such a complicated spell?> Evin raged.

<You do realize you only have Seyethe's energy inside you, right? I could've tried to create Hard Air, but I'm afraid it would take the same amount of time, anyway.>

Its dead-calm tone infuriated Evin to no end, but he had a more pressing matter to worry about. His neck and chest were burning with pain because of all the scratches, but the most excruciating pain came from his cheek. Evin feared that the rat had dug a fang into it during the struggle. Carefully, he reached for the would and felt something wet.

Blood came all over his fingers and for a second, Evin felt as if he was about to pass out.

<Take a lodestone and turn half of it into Ivelisi's energy,> the Voice ordered.

Evin didn't wish to argue with it anymore and obediently did as asked. The Voice created a sizeable amount of water with the energy and used it to quickly rinse Evin's neck and face. Then, it directed a large bit of the water towards his cheek and froze the wound. A stinging pain came over Evin's head, which woke him up from his woozy state.

<Make sure to keep the ice on top of the wound until your blood clots.>

<Can't you just heal the wound?> Evin asked.

<You know I can't use the World of Life to heal,> the Voice replied calmly. <And be glad that I didn't just patch the bite mark with fire and be done with it… And besides, we have other things to worry about,> it said and pointed towards the gate.

Two rats fell down this time, and the moment they saw Evin, they dashed towards him. But they couldn't get far, as the Voice quickly dealt with them using two air bullets. Now that it was ready for them, the tier-1 rats couldn't really pose a threat. Evin didn't really have anything to do, so he dutifully held the ice near his face. The cold seemed to be helping with the pain, so he could finally think without falling into a fit of emotions.

After the two rats came four, then eight, then sixteen. Just as Evin was wondering how 32 rats were going to fit inside that little space, a tier-2 rat-type mana-beast appeared. The thing was the size of a hunting dog and Evin could see that its fangs and feet had taken on a bluish hue, which Evin guessed was mana. But its eyes were still bloodshot, so Evin could tell that this one was rabid.

Most animals simply experienced an increase in size when they became a tier-1 mana-beast. The smaller the animal, the larger the increase. These rats, for example, grew three to four times in size. Bigger animals like cats and dogs only grew twice their original size; while animals like horses or bulls could barely experience a 50% increase in mass. It might seem unfair for the larger animals to only experience smaller changes compared to smaller animals, but this was balanced by the fact that the bigger animals had a much higher chance of retaining their sanity during these transformations. But more on that later on.

Anyhow, when these tier-1s reached the next level, something else happened. Sure, some animals still experienced a size increase, but almost always, a certain part of their body would undergo another change to due to the overload of mana. The scholars called it an overload, as if it's a bad thing, but these always had positive effects. In the case of this rat, its fangs would be much more durable than any kind of bone, while its feet would be much stronger and also be capable of much faster bursts of speed.

But despite all these newfound strengths, the rat still only required two air bullets to kill. One to rupture its eyes and another to make a mess of its brain. Just because its fangs and feet became stronger, it didn't mean that the rest of its body was suddenly impenetrable.

Evin expected more rats to come through, but that seemed to be the end of this door's trials. With a loud clank, the metal gate closed down. Just as Evin was wondering where the loot was, a brick fell from one of the walls and crushed the carcass of a rat under it. Evin was startled, but he could guess what was happening. He walked over to the empty spot in the wall and saw two cards on it.

[Castle Card – collect three copies of this card to obtain the rights to rule over a castle.]

[Slaver Card – bring five copies of this card to the Ruler and receive the Slaver's Chains (attach this item to someone's neck, to make them your slave through the rest of the test).]

<Kinky,> the Voice chuckled.

"What the hell?" Evin couldn't help but exclaim. But working his mouth made his cheek hurt like hell, so he grimaced and pushed the ice harder onto the wound.

<Your wound's clotted already, so let go of the ice. If you keep it for too long, it might freeze your flesh. Also, you should probably give the infirmary a visit, since you were bitten by a rabid rat.>

Reluctantly, Evin let go of the ice and gathered his thoughts. Going to the infirmary was definitely the best idea, but he was reluctant to stop exploring the tunnels at this point in time.

The reason Evin chose to explore the Tunnels was simple. Basically, he just needed to tackle one of the challenges that were marked on the map. Teouka told him that to become worthy, he had to go around the island and do stuff. One of them would allow him to visit the Shelter without getting attacked. Sure enough, Evin received a card that got him 15 portions of food, plus a bag and a tent. And now, he received two cards, which he needed to collect more of to receive certain privileges.

By exploring the Tunnels, Evin started to understand how the island worked. As for why he chose the Tunnels over anything else, well, that was because he expected that no one else would be coming for this place any time soon. If he guessed correctly, the Dungeon, on the other hand, was probably filled with students trying to obtain its prizes.

After all, if one had a choice between rat-infested tunnels and a dungeon that promised riches, which would they choose?

One more reason he decided to tackle the Tunnels was because he expected the stronger groups to be tackling the harder tasks. Most of the noble students should be toiling away at either Mt. Lor, or The Cove, while the strongest students like Arza or Bella should be headed towards the two unspecified areas.

So, the only place which he could explore freely was here. But soon enough, people would come to the Tunnels and Evin would have to fight against other students.

<Let's sweep this place clean before anyone else comes,> Evin decided.

<Are you sure you're fine?>

<Yeah, I'll be fine. Let's just get this over with.>

The Voice didn't object, and the two set off to explore the rest of the four doors.