Chapter 205

Level thirty hovered just out of reach, close enough that Kana could almost feel it humming beneath her skin. Perhaps she was just so excited.

In the middle of the night, they wasted no time. The trio were fully equipped with weapons and armors though Suri preferred her black enchanted cloak. 

The academy was still drowsy when Kana slipped away with Boris and Suri, the sky painted in dark winter blues, the air sharp enough to sting the lungs. Their boots echoed softly as they descended into the academy’s forgotten arteries, a narrow passage hidden behind illusion and old stonework. The academy’s secret tunnel. 

Kana smiled as she walked. Every little scrap of experience mattered now. She had the king’s word carved into law. Every dungeon owned by the kingdom was open to her, fruit dungeon excluded. She simply needed to present the insignia given to her by the king.

Suri moved ahead, eyes unfocused, her consciousness stretched far beyond her body as her scout illusions slipped through the earth like ghosts.

Then she stopped.

“Uhm…” Suri said, her voice tightening. “We have a problem.”

Kana slowed. “What kind?”

“I didn’t check this route lately,” Suri continued. “It’s been a while since we came here. But my illusions saw… the tunnel’s sealed.”

Boris frowned. “Sealed how?”

They turned the final bend and saw it.

The passage didn’t end naturally. The stone hadn’t collapsed. There were no cracks, no jagged breaks. Instead, the tunnel ended in a smooth wall of compacted earth, layered and reinforced with intent. Mana clung to it faintly, like a fingerprint left behind.

Kana stepped closer, eyes narrowing. “That’s not erosion.”

“No,” Suri agreed. “This is done on purpose.”

Kana recognized the pattern. The subtle compression. The way the mana had settled into the stone like mortar cooling after a forge.

“Made by [Mage] earth variant,” Kana concluded. It was almost the same materials, same color, and seemed the same hardness as well that was erected in the recent annual tournament.

Boris crossed his arms, studying it. “It’s similar to the wall they made last year after the storage breach.” He cracked his knuckles then held his spear. “But I can destroy it.”

Suri’s head snapped toward him. “I don’t recommend it.”

Boris blinked. “Why?”

“We don’t have a way to block the sound,” Suri said flatly. “Your skill is too loud. It’ll ring through half the underground tunnels. We’ll attract all the attention. The night patrol group assigned today might discover us.”

Suri clicked her tongue and swayed her head as she looked at Boris.

Boris opened his mouth, then closed it. “Why do I feel like this is somehow my fault?”

Suri ignored him completely and turned to Kana. “We should back off for now. If they sealed this once, they’re probably monitoring it. We can raid on weekends instead. Then we can do a quick visit to the orphanage.”

Kana stared at the sealed wall, frustration simmering quietly in her chest. It wasn’t anger. It was impatience. Level thirty was so close now that every delay felt personal.

She exhaled slowly. “…Fine,” she said. “We’ll do it that way. Better be safe.”

She turned back the way they came, boots crunching softly against the stone. The tunnel felt narrower on the return, less like a secret passage and more like a reminder.

….

The trio still raided whenever the weekend loosened its grip on the academy schedule. It just wasn’t the kind of raiding Kana wanted.

Mid-low. Low-high. Dungeons that yielded experience in cautious drips instead of the roaring flood she needed. Even with her new dungeon ring item boosting her gains, she could feel the slowdown like mud clinging to her boots. Level thirty no longer felt distant, but it had become stubborn, refusing to step closer no matter how hard she pushed.

They needed a higher-level dungeon. One thing she had noticed—powerful boss monsters may give you a higher exp than killing thousands of common monsters.

And that was the problem.

For just three of them, the risk climbed sharply. Time stretched. A higher level dungeon meant longer clears, which meant missing Monday classes. That was a cost Kana couldn’t casually pay anymore. Because lately, she swore there were so many eyes observing her that she stopped counting.

They tried expanding the party. Leo, then even Elle York.

Both declined.

Nobles, it turned out, carried invisible chains heavier than armor. Duties, appearances, obligations. Power had its own leash.

Yuri could be a good option but they felt like they must get the approval of her parents first.

Kana sighed. By the third night of the new patrol rotation, she found herself grouped with the rest of the third-place team. Clint was there too, noticeably more at ease than before. He laughed more easily with the boys, and joked without hesitation. Around Kana, Suri, Rin, and Yuri, though, he still stiffened like a poorly balanced shield.

She noticed. She simply chose not to comment about it.

The patrol assignments followed a strict route and time, almost ceremonial in its symmetry. Champions with last place on the first night. Second with ninth. Third with eighth. Fourth with seventh. Fifth with sixth. Each night two groups were going to patrol in opposite ways. A pattern designed to balance strength among the top competitors of the annual tournament as the new night patrol group.

The student council had more freedom, allowed to choose their patrol groups they wanted to get along with as long as they stayed within their year. Because of  the incident with the [Lich], Principal Light had adjusted the rules. No more small squads. At least ten members per patrol. Safety layered atop safety, risk diluted through numbers.

They walked through the commoner district beneath a winter sky stripped of warmth. Doors were shut. Windows dark. Even the usual nocturnal murmurs had retreated, leaving the streets hollow and watchful.

Toby walked in front and broke the silence.

“I heard an interesting rumor,” he said, glancing around as if the stones themselves might lean closer, “about that [Lich] we fought a month ago.”

Interest sparked immediately. After all they all witnessed its unbelievable prowess in front of hundreds adventurers not to mention the two royal knights were present there. 

And Toby had a reputation. His rumors were never empty. Just… unfinished. He leaned in, voice dropping. “They say it was a slave.”

Kana’s steps faltered for half a heartbeat.

Slave.

Her arrow flashed in her memory. The red band shattering. The angry roar that followed. She had suspected it was an item to control the powerful monster but she never thought someone was capable of slaving such a powerful creature.

“After the owner died,” Toby continued, “it became free.”

Yuri frowned. “Slavery is prohibited. For all creatures.”

“Indeed,” Toby said lightly. “Only one nation still allows it.”

“The empire,” Rin said, without hesitation.

Toby nodded. “That’s the one. Probably not the empire itself. But its people? Very likely.”

Kana’s brow furrowed. It had taken hundreds of capable people to bring that [Lich] down. She had seen its power. Felt it pressing against her awareness like a storm wall. She would probably not win against the creature in its best state. It was a bit of luck that she struck it with her arrow in its weakened state.

“How did they enslave it?” Kana muttered. “The owner was not that much.” She had seen him die. There had been no authority in that man. Probably, less than lvl 5.

Toby smiled thinly. “That’s the interesting part.”

He paused deliberately, savoring the tension before smiling.

“This is a highly classified piece of information,” he said, lowering his voice further. “I heard they breed them inside dungeons. Shape them. Bind them young. Then sell them to the highest bidder.”

Kana exhaled slowly. She had known Toby long enough to trust his instincts. His rumors always hovered dangerously close to the truth, like arrows that missed only because someone moved at the last second unless it was on purpose.

She glanced at him sidelong.

How do you keep learning things you’re not supposed to know?

The [Lich] cloak. That should belong to me, right?

…

They should still sleep after the night patrol last night because they were exempted from attending the classes.

But morning arrived like a hammer.

A shout tore through the academy grounds, amplified until it rattled the windows and jolted Kana awake. The sound carried authority and rage, layered thick by a voice enhancement stone. One of those days she hated her [High Awareness]

“What is happening?” Suri muttered, already half out of bed.

Shadows spilled from her like startled birds, thin black silhouettes slipping through walls and cracks as her illusions scattered to scout. Kana was moving before her thoughts caught up. Her hand slid beneath her pillow, fingers closing around the familiar grip of the dagger hidden there. Steel whispered free.

Her [High Awareness] flared.

No killing intent. No hostile mana. Just noise.

She sheathed the blade at once, annoyed with herself, and swung her legs off the bed. “Someone’s shouting. Outside.”

By the time they reached the corridor, the academy had begun to stir. Doors creaked open. Students leaned out, hair unkempt, eyes sharp with curiosity. The noise guided them like a beacon toward the training field.

A crowd had already gathered when Kana and Suri arrived. Dozens of students stood in loose rings, attention fixed forward. Two figures rose above the rest. The towering Boris and Adam, unmistakable even from a distance.

They pushed through until they reached them.

“What’s going on?” Suri asked.

Boris nodded toward the field. “Those noble students are shouting about—.”

They couldn’t hear Boris' explanation. On the training grounds, several students stood clustered together, one of them holding a voice enhancement stone high. His words boomed across the academy.

“Stop the night patrol duty! We are not guards!”

The chant followed, repeated again and again, growing sharper each time. Complaints layered over complaints, polished outrage wrapped in righteous phrasing.

“They want the patrol abolished,” Boris continued. “Pretty obvious. Right?”

Suri crossed her arms, squinting. “Right. Now that I’m here, it’s obvious.”

She tilted her head slightly. “Hey. Did you just call me stupid?”

Boris blinked. “What?”

Kana let them bicker, her gaze fixed on the field. She noticed it then. Only nobles. Every protester wore the quiet confidence of status. Fine uniforms. Well-kept hands. Not a single commoner among them.

Her heartbeat began to quicken.

The chanting echoed off the stone walls, bouncing back distorted, heavier. Something about the rhythm tugged at her, an unease she couldn’t name. It felt rehearsed. Familiar.

Too familiar.

Kana frowned.

She had never seen a protest like this before.

And yet, her body reacted as if it had.

Post note:
A loud morning before the new year. I feel bad for them. 😂
Have a blessed new year to everyone! 🎉
Hope you enjoy the chap! 🙂