Chapter 45: 42 – Father-daughter bonding [2]

***

<<Avaron grade school>>

The overly energetic teacher clapped his hands to attract the children's attention.

CLAP—!

"Alright class! Today we're going to visit a dungeon"

"Teacher!", a kid sitting at the back of the classroom raised his hand. "Won't it be too dangerous?"

"Ah, little Timmy, don't worry. We will be going to a cleared dungeon, so absolutely nothing will go wrong!"Fuck you! Why would you raise a flag for a bunch of 10-year-old kids

Despite the teacher having obviously raised a flag, the classroom was filled with murmurs of excitement and anticipation. After all, none of the children present had gone to a dungeon before.

"Hey Alicia!", a student purple-haired whispered. "What do you think about going to dungeons?"

Alicia, who was sitting with a vacant look on her face, didn't seem to have heard the question. "..."

"Alicia!"

"Huh? What were you saying again, Ellen?", Alicia finally snapped out of her stupor and answered, albeit with a fatigued voice.

Ellen looked at Alicia concernedly. "Hm? Why do you sound so tired?"

Scratching the back of her head, Alicia answered. "Nothing, I just stayed up late last night"

'And filled Theodore's grimoire with Magic that is', Alicia pouted as she thought back to the many sleepless nights she had staring into the brown-covered grimoire.

And yesterday was one such night; Thus, she was low on mana today, and dangerously so.

If it wasn't for the cakes that Theodore would buy for her afterwards, she wouldn't have wasted her time doing it at all!

Snapping Alicia out of her thoughts, Ellen spoke. "Is that so? You ought to take care of yourself more. Anyways, what's your answer to my previous question?"

"..."

"Uh... You forgot about it, didn't you?"

"Yes", Alicia answered bluntly... and a bit lazily too.

Ellen sighed. She had been friends with Alicia ever since Arthur, her brother, took her to Avaron. And she knew full-well about Alicia's personality. 

To sum it up, Alicia was lazy, extremely lazy. However, despite her laziness, she attracted attention everywhere she went thanks to her beauty and exotically colored hair .

In fact, before Ellen had realized it, Alicia went from only having her as her friend to becoming the most famous kid in her class.

Even the most handsome boy in the class was chasing after her, though the person in question didn't seem to notice it. That or she just deliberately ignored it.

Pausing her thoughts there, Ellen repeated her question again. "I'm just curious about your thoughts on dungeons"

"Hm...", Alicia paused to think for a good second, before answering. "They're cool, I guess"

"But what about you?", Alicia asked.

She was curious about what someone like Ellen would think about dungeons. After all, she needed to know the thought process of a 'normal' kid, as she didn't want to stand out more than she already was.

"I think they're interesting and mysterious. I really want to visit a dungeon one day, but... I can't go with the class today"

"Huh? Why?"

"Brother Arthur and sister Marie wouldn't let me go. And besides", Ellen pointed to her non-functional legs. "I don't think it would be a good idea for me to go"

Seeing this, Alicia lowered her head in embarrassment and shame. "Sorry I d—"

"It's okay", Ellen gave Alicia a warm smile. "I know you didn't mean it"

Feeling her heart melting at her friend's cuteness and kindness, Alicia spoke with a determined voice. "I'll get you a gift when I get back!"

"Haha! I'll be looking forwards to it then"
...

Alicia stood before the dungeon entrance, which was reminiscence of a ruin.

When she was about to enter it, a frivolous-looking boy suddenly appeared right in front of her.

"Lady Alicia, may I escort you into the dungeon?"

Alicia squinted her eyes at this sight. "Sorry, I can go on my own"

The boy, Alex Oport, was a son of a Count. He had been chasing after her for months now.

Alicia knew better than to outright refuse the noble, so she pretended to not notice his obvious display of affection for her.

She entered the dungeon. She could feel the humid air as soon as she walked in, as the dungeon's insides resembled a rainforest.

However, the atmosphere definitely wasn't that of a dungeon expedition, as—

"Alicia, do you need water?"

"Alicia, are you tired? Do you need to me ask the teacher for a break?"

"Alicia!..."

—Instead of looking out for dangers, or even their own safety, the group she was with, which consisted of more than half of the class, kept trying to act as if they were her servant.

If it was the Alicia from a month ago, she would have groveled in confusion as no normal students would receive this much attention from everyone.

However, Alicia now had accepted the fact that she was, indeed, very popular.

Her beauty, and strange colored hair had definitely helped her gain some popularity. But the polite and somewhat amicable way in which she treated everyone was the main factor behind the attention she was receiving.

Everyone thought that Alicia was a sociable kid, and that she was kind.

However, the person in question was just being polite out of necessity to not accidently offend the wrong person.

'Hmmm... I'm sure that Ellen know about my personality best', Alicia chuckled.

Although she was a little bit uncomfortable with the reputation that really didn't reflect her personality, she would be lying if she said that she didn't like the attention.

'It helped me make more friends after all'

Sighing, and refusing every offers for help that came her way, she continued going through the dungeon with the group, while making small talks along the way.
...

"Alright class!", the teacher pointed towards a cave. "This right here is the spawn location of the dungeon's boss, Steel tiger"

Smiling at the bewildered expression of the students, the teacher spoke. "Now, who can tell me the rank of the boss monster?"

"..."

Seeing that no one raised their hands, the teacher defaulted to the smartest student in the class. "Alicia, may you?"

Groaning in frustration, Alicia lethargically answered. "It's an <F> rank"

"That's right! Now, let's m—"

"TEACHER!", a students suddenly shouted, interrupted the teacher's sentence.

Although it was plainly obvious that the teacher was annoyed, he didn't show it on his face. He was not that good at dealing with children, or so Alicia thought.

"Yes, little Timmy? Do you have anything to say with the class?"

"Teacher, don't boss monsters respawn?"

Instantly, every students took a step back from the cave, much to the dismay of the teacher.

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"Ah!", the teacher clapped his hands. "Good question! Now, Timmy is right. Boss monsters do respawn. However, the dungeon had been re-cleared yesterday, so it will take another week for it to respawn"

Seeing that some of the students were still scared, the teacher continued. "Don't be scared. It's an unbreakable rule that boss monsters never respawn less than a week after it is slain. The only exception to the rule is when a Void rift opens in the dungeon"

However, the students' expression were still pale like white sheets, as if they had just seen a ghost, or a boss monster that was slowly making its way towards them.

Frowning, the teacher inwardly cursed himself for having added that little part at the end about Void rifts. He must have been thinking that just the mere mention of the Void frightened his young students.

"Now now, the chances of the happening is incredibly small. So don— Huh?"

The teacher felt a steamy breath on the back of his neck. He slowly turned around, only to be met with the sight of the boss monster standing right behind him.

However, there was something different about the boss monster. Its body was black as the night sky, and it was at <F+> rank, a little bit stronger than the usual boss monster.

"V- VOID BEAST!"

BAM—!

The teacher screamed, punched the Void steel tiger on its chins, and ran away.

Immediately, the Void beast gave chase.

The students, who had finally woken up from their stupor, was running after their teacher. "TEACHER! WAIT FOR US!"

Those who were slower were left to the mercy of the beast.

Alicia was amongst those who was left behind. However, rather than being scared, she was confused.

'Wasn't the teacher an <E> rank?'

His resume stated that he was an <E> rank, and Alicia herself could see that the teacher's power was indeed equivalent to <E> rank.

Thus, he would have had no problem defeating the Void beast while protecting the students, evident by the fact that his panicked punch earlier dealt significant damage to the beast's jaws.

However, her thoughts was interrupted by a loud scream.

"AHHHHH! HELP ME!"

Alex, the kid that was trying his best to win over Alicia's love earlier, was being slowly crushed under the corrupted Steel tiger's claws.

Although this was a good chance for her to be freed from him, it would leave a bad taste in Alicia's mouth if she had done nothing but to watch him die.

Alicia was at <F-> rank, which would make everyone covet for her if the information ever came out. After all, she was just a 10-year-old, or so the legal documents said anyways.

One wouldn't dare to imagine what the world's reaction would be if words came out that she was just 8.

However, she knew better than anyone else that her talent was just a bit above average. The only reason why she could react <F-> rank at this age was that she had awakened her Status from the moment she was born.

Despite that, however, Alicia was aware that she was the only one who could save Alex and the students who was standing petrified behind her now. Thus, she took out a bottle of Magic ink from her pocket, and dashed towards the beast.

<[ᛊᛈᛚᛁᛏ ᚨᛈᚨᚱᛏ]> ⌈Split apart⌋

She splashed the ink to the ground. Instantly, the earth tore apart, creating a 2m deep crevice.

Cra— Crack—!

The crack in the ground continued to grow larger and larger, until it reached the corrupted tiger.

Alex, who was pinned to the ground by the beast, fell into the newly formed crevice.

Growl—!

Having lost its prey, the tiger growled in frustration. However, it couldn't continue with its growling, as it sensed a presence rapidly closing up on it.

<[℘ Ξς ∋]> ⌈Set aflame⌋

BOOM—!

An explosion of fire enveloped the entire body of the beast. However—

"Tch! I knew it wouldn't work"

—The beast was unscratched.

It leisurely walked towards Alicia, as if mocking her for her previously futile attempt at wounding it.

'A little bit closer'

The beast opened it mouth wide, baring its fangs, while still walking towards Alicia, who was seemingly frozen in fear and despair, with a slow pace. 

'NOW!'

She dipped her finger in the ink bottle, and drew runes on her left arm with a terrifying speed.

The tiger was startled. But before it could recover from it confusion, however, Alicia dashed towards it and stuck her left arm in its mouth.

<[℘ Ξς ∋]> ⌈Set aflame⌋

BOOM—!

This time, fire exploded from within the beast, turning its insides into mush.

GROOOOWL—!

It growled in pain, and rolled on the ground in extreme agony. It glared at Alicia with hateful eyes, but it died in a rather anticlimactic way soon after.

"Haaaah... that was... dangerous", Alicia wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked at her left arm.

'It's burnt...'. She expected as much, considering the kind of stunt she had just pulled.

In fact, she was fully expecting to lose her left arm at the very least. So being left with a burn that could easily be healed without leaving a trace behind using a potion was a blessing in her eyes.

Pausing her thoughts there, she ran towards the crevice that she had created.

"Alex! Are you there?"

Alex, who was sniffling in despair earlier, turned his head up at the sound.

Due to the position of the sun, or at least the dungeon's sun, he couldn't see Alicia's clearly. However, he could never mistake the soft and pleasing sound that was Alicia's voice

"I- I'm here!"

Alex then grabbed Alicia's hand, and let himself be pulled up.

"Haaah... Thank you, lady Alicia", Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down on the ground.

"It's nothing", Alicia said. "Now, let's keep going"

"..."

"Huh? What are you waiting for?"

"..."

Seeing that Alex was staring at her with a terrified and disgusted face, Alicia titled her head in confusion.

She then tried to reach for Alex to shake him out of his stupor. "Hey! Get u—"

Slap—!

Alex slapped Alicia's hand away, and glared at her in disgust.

"KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF ME!"

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