Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Evin picked the second door this time, and it turned out that this door was dedicated to puzzles. The whole place was made of ketricite, so the student couldn't cheat; and he had to go around pulling levers which opened doors and stuff. At least Evin didn't have to fight any rats this time, which was a nice change of pace, but he did spend a considerable amount of time solving it.

For his troubles, he received another two cards:

[Privilege to ask two questions from the Ruler. Note: The Ruler can answer any question regarding the island, as long as it doesn't pertain to the knowledge of becoming Helm.]

[Show this at the shelter to obtain a more detailed map of the Island.]

Evin was definitely thrilled at these boons. Teouka said that she was allowed to answer only one question a day, and Evin could guess that she could only answer certain kinds of questions. The Ruler, on the other hand, was someone who knew everything about the island, so he should be knowledgeable about all sorts of things. But since he could only ask two questions, Evin needed to think carefully about them.

The more detailed map wasn't as exciting as the questions, but Evin was still happy about it. Perhaps he would finally learn what the two unknown places are. Satisfied with his boons, he entered the final door.

This one led him down the stairs again and turned out to a mix of the concepts of the previous three doors. Evin started inside a rectangular room and was met with four doors. Each door led to a corridor, which led to another room, and those rooms would always have 2-4 doors. The interesting part was that these various different rooms would always have one of three things. Loot, enemies, or puzzles.

The loot wasn't anything notable, most of them were just access to food or supplies, with the only notable exception being a card: [Show this at the Shelter to obtain information on The Cove.]

Evin tucked the card into his small bag and went on. Eventually, he found the room with the key, which was guarded by a tier-2 rat. Interestingly, this one's fur was infused with mana, giving it stronger defenses. Its size was also much bigger than the previous tier 2. But unfortunately for the rat, its new defenses didn't extent to its eyes, so it was two-shot by the Voice. Evin combined the two key pieces and obtained the key to the locked door.

Finished with the exploration, Evin ascended the stairs, wondering what he would find behind the locked door. But just as he opened the iron door, he briefly lost control of his body, and felt it ducking down with almost inhuman speed.

"Shit!" he heard a familiar voice cursing above him and looked up.

Kolin had just hit the wall with an awfully thick tree branch, and Evin could also see the rest of his entourage standing beside the other three doors, each holding some kind of blunt weapon in their hands.

'An ambush, then,' Evin thought and realized that the Voice was sharing its mind with him again.

It's been almost a month since Evin fell in this state, so he could almost immediately tell the difference. But there was something wrong about it this time. He didn't know if it was because it was a long time since he accessed this state, or because of something else entirely, but his mind felt almost unfamiliar to him now. Usually, when the Voice shared its state of mind with him, Evin felt only calm and quick-witted, but this time, there was a distinct coldness to it all.

Various thoughts flashed past Evin's brain, but he still had an ambush to worry about.

"How could you miss that?" one of the girls complained and rushed towards Evin.

"The fucker doesn't move normally!" Kolin complained as he tried to stabilize himself and hit Evin again.

<Run back downstairs,> the Voice ordered. <I can't use air bullets inside that room, so we need a change of energies.>

Evin thought for a second, slammed the door on Kolin's left hands and ran back downstairs. He didn't even reach half the staircase before he expelled the Air energy out of his core and absorbed the energy of Apdenul. His body instantly felt reinvigorated, but he wasn't done yet. He started to circulate the energy through his body the proper way and felt his body becoming stronger and more durable.

Evin couldn't use the World of Life to heal himself, but he could definitely make his body stronger, thanks to all the lessons he had under Leanne. The effects were much more noticeable since he dedicated three whole lodestones to the task. He looked up and saw two students helping Kolin out of the door, looking towards him with fear. One of them threw a branch at him, but Evin grabbed it and crushed it in his hands.

The ambushers' expressions of fear turned even more vivid, giving Evin a sense of indescribable thrill.

<Alright, let's go,> the Voice said and Evin dashed up the stairs.

It took him only two seconds to climb up the stairs and reach the other students. Diligently, he looked around to see whether anyone else was in the room, but as far as he could tell, only Kolin's group was around the area. One boy and one girl were trying to help Kolin up, while the other two girls were running up the stairs outside, screaming random words. Evin quickly got hold of them and threw them back into the Ketricite room.

The five regarded Evin with fear and wariness as Evin stood guard before the stairway outside. There was no way these five could do anything to him. As far as Evin knew, none of them even possessed access to the World of Life, and even if they did, they surely weren't adept enough at it to strengthen themselves.

"Should I be expecting more people to be coming here?" Evin asked, wincing at the pain that came from his bitten cheek.

"Fucking freak!" Kolin replied, as he clutched his left hand with his right with a grimace.

"I can't tell if that's a yes or a no," Evin said as he gently touched his wound, idly wondering if the sudden movements opened it.

"It means fuck off, freak!" Kolin said, still holding up his bravado.

Arza had an on and off relationship with the boy, he was either best buddies with them, or was arguing with them over the smallest things. Evin couldn't really do the same. Not that he ever wanted to, considering how much they hated Evin for whatever reason.

Shrugging, he walked up to the boy and kicked him in the shin. "I'm sorry, I still can't understand if that's a yes or a no."

"Do your worst, scum! The whole academy's hot on your heels, anyway!" Kolin shouted back despite the pain he should've felt from the kick. Evin heard the words, and his face turned into a frown. He thought about the words and was suddenly reminded of Gehenne's warning from yesterday. "Is it Decatur?"

"Yeah. Put a bounty on your head. Anyone who incapacitates you and brings you to him gets to have their tuition paid for the next year."

"When did you learn this?" Evin grabbed Kolin's wrist and gripped it hard. Seeing Kolin trying to stifle a gasp felt terribly satisfying, not because it gave Evin a feeling of superiority, but because someone was hurting because of him.

"Yesterday. Everyone in the Academy knows about it," Kolin replied, his voice cracking from the pain.

"So that's why everyone started attacking me in the morning…" Evin murmured.

"You're all alone, Evin! The nobles all fall under his control and he's money and fame to every 1st grade. No one will accept you in their group, not even your Bella and Phel that you're friends with."

Evin stifled the urge to slam the boy's head into the ketricite and instead herded the five into the room behind the first door. Evin wondered whether the Academy's staff would clean this area at some point, and reckoned that they'd get to it after he was done with the locked door. But that really wasn't Evin's problem.

He took the five's lodestones, lifted the metal gate high enough to throw Kolin's group inside, and closed the gate. From the strength he had to exert to lift it, Evin knew the five wouldn't be able to get out of there any time soon.

"Careful of rats falling from up there," he warned them with a smile. Slowly, he continued while gesturing at the dead rats, "As far as I know, it starts with one rat. After you kill it, comes two… then four, eight, sixteen… before finally ending with a tier-2."

"Give us back our lodestones, you bastard!" Kolin shouted.

Evin admired Kolin for still being able to shout so fearlessly, but he could also sense the desperation behind his bold attitude. "Come on, Kolin, those are clearly my lodestones. Stop being so rude."

"Please, Evin, just let us out! We're sorry for trying to ambush you on your way out," one of the girls cried. "We can't even fight these rats with our spells, how are we supposed to kill so many of them without magic?"

"I'm sure you'll manage somehow. If you aren't confident in clearing this room, maybe you could try leaving a rat alive, so the rest won't come? Well, I don't really know how this place works, as I just killed every mana-beast that fell into this hole."