Lucy POV
"Everyone here? Then let's get going."
Miss Julia says after looking at our group gathered at the infirmary. With all three capture targets and Hina present as well, we make quite the group.
It's been a week since we had that meeting with Miss Julia, and it's finally time to enter the dungeons to find the original design documents of the seal on my soul.
Needless to say, in the game the dungeons were only open to the player from the second year, so I'm doing mid to late-game content too early again, but with this group it should be fine.
Especially since Miss Julia is here too. In the game, teachers never joined Lucy's party and Hina is here too, which was also impossible to do in the game. Even if we faced the final boss of the game, the evil god Agramon, we could probably take him on.
…
Ah, that wasn't a flag or anything, right…?
"Oh! Miss Fiancée, what's up with that getup? I thought you always believed your fire magic alone was enough to handle anything."
While Miss Julia begins to lead the way, Bernard is the first to break the silence, addressing Hina.
Until now, she usually wore the regular school uniform, well, except for some other situations… But anyway, now she's wearing long trousers that are easier to move in and a shirt, both of which have a bunch of pockets, along with a few small bags attached to her body.
If I had to compare it to something, maybe a military uniform, or perhaps an assassin's outfit would fit it better in this world.
"Heh, say what you want, but these will help me handle anything we come across."
She says confidently and reaches into one of her pockets, casually pulling out a bunch of small, colorful crystals and starts showing them off.
Actually I'm kind of relieved that she seems to be acting normally. Ever since what happened after the meeting, I haven't been sure how to face her since I didn't know what to expect from her. Pick-up lines and the like are one thing, but um… those newer types of attacks are a bit harder to deal with…
But luckily she's been rather busy preparing for this expedition so she hasn't really tried anything like that since then.
"Huh? Aren't those high quality magical gems? And so many of them at that. Just how much did you spend on all of them?"
"Heh, I'm still the eldest daughter of the Lazarius family. This much is nothing at all."
Glancing over at her, Arthur speaks up in a surprised tone and then Hina answers with a very villainess-like line. Afterwards she quietly mumbles the next part.
"Now no matter what happens, I'll never be powerless again in a fight."
"Hina…"
Oh, is that what this is about? Ugh, but it's my fault that she's rather restricted in her fighting ability…
"What? It's fine. Like this, I can easily adapt to situations I normally wouldn't be able to handle."
Hina panics a little, seemingly not expecting me to overhear her mumbled words and she quickly justifies herself.
"Hm, but what about Hugh?"
Arthur picks up on our conversation and thoughtfully glances over at Hugh, since his fire magic puts him in a similar situation.
"Hm, Lady Seraphina let me know as well and I'm fine. I just had to polish up my swordsmanship skills a little."
"Tsk."
Hugh casually gestures towards the sheathed sword at his side and Hina lightly clicks her tongue.
She's probably annoyed at how easily he handled this handicap. But well, that's just the kind of character Hugh is.
"Well you guys aren't the only ones trying something new. Check this out!"
Bernard speaks up, proudly showing off his new gauntlets covered in small metallic shards all over along its surface.
"Why would I care about… Wait, those pieces look a little familiar…"
"That's right! They're made from the shards of that sword artifact! Lucy got this done for me and it can even withstand my strongest attacks. It's really amazing!"
"Oh? You actually managed to save it? It seemed like a very high grade artifact so I was very doubtful any mage could still salvage it."
"W-well yeah, restoring the sword was pretty much a lost cause. Its quality is much higher than anything available today, so reforging it is not even worth trying. But fusing shards of it onto a gauntlet made of special materials still allows the pieces to retain a portion of their original properties. Channeling mana into it still makes the shards harden and Bernard can use it, though its strength is less than before."
Arthur looks the gauntlet over, clearly impressed. I answer his question, recounting what a certain shopkeeper told me.
Even I wasn't holding out much hope for that artifact, but I guess it was even more impressive than how the game presented it. And even its special quality was preserved, which just goes to show how old artifacts were just on another level.
Though it's also thanks in large part to that shopkeeper. Other than her, I doubt anyone could have done anything about it. And she didn't even ask for any payment, since she already considered the chance to work on it a reward in itself. Well, considering her real identity, it's kind of fitting.
"Ugh, that garbage should have been crushed up even further, pulverized, and then scattered to the winds."
Well, there's someone who isn't so impressed by this reveal. Hina has a huge frown and a disgusted expression on her face and she even takes a step back from the gauntlets upon learning its origin.
"...? Did something happen with that artifact?"
"N-no, nothing."
"Y-yeah, that's right. Nothing happened."
"Hm."
Upon seeing Hina's strong reaction, Hugh picks up on the weird atmosphere and asks about it, but Hina quickly denies it. Then his eyes move over to Bernard and Arthur, both of whom quickly back her up.
"I see…?"
After this we walk for a while as the trees of the restricted zone pass us by and we soon reach deeper than I've ever been to. The trees soon start to thin out, and as we leave the woods a tall wall comes into view, stretching into the distance on both sides.
A number of watchtowers are placed alongside the wall with both students and regular guards being posted on them.
Even though the dungeons are so close to the academy, this is the reason why basically no monsters ever make it to the school grounds. And also why I wasn't really ever worried about going into the restricted zone since it's still behind a defensive wall.
"Ah, President Hugh! Are you here for another patrol? Oh, and the vice president and Bernard too… a-and Lady Seraphina, to w-what do we owe this pleasure?"
The third-year student manning the main gate greets us as we arrive.
At first, his voice is rather spirited, clearly having known Hugh for a long time, but as he glances at the rest of our group, his voice gets shakier and more nervous.
"Hm, not this time. We're here for a mission and need to enter the dungeons."
"Oh. B-But for a trip into the dungeons a teacher is needed as well."
"That's what I'm here for."
"Ah, Miss Julia too. I'm sorry, I didn't notice you… Of course, you're cleared to go then. Um, g-good luck."
After this short interaction the gate quickly opens and we officially enter the dungeon area. Well, there's still a bit of a walk to the ruins though.
"Remember what I said and take your position. I'll stay at the front, ready to defend at any moment. Lucy, do the same at the back in case of an ambush."
"Yes."
Following Miss Julia's instructions, I take the rear and everyone else readies themselves too. The rather relaxed, almost field trip-like atmosphere from earlier quickly dissipates, replaced by quiet tension.
According to the game's setting, this area of the dungeons near the academy is one of the least dangerous parts. During the fight against Agramon, this was where the human armies defeated him and his horde of monsters, thoroughly clearing this area of them. Since then, monsters have returned here too, but their numbers are much smaller than before.
Because this place was relatively easy to explore after Argamon's death, it also meant that all the artifacts and other valuable items of Old Meridia were taken back to the empire as well. So there's basically no reason to send any more exploration missions into these parts, but it also makes this the perfect place to train the new generations of nobles due to the low number of monsters here.
While I'm thinking about this and keeping an eye out for any movement, the scenery around us begins to change. All sorts of rubble and ruins that can barely be recognised as parts of old buildings start popping up more and more.
Even judging from the amount of rubble here, this must have been part of a city, and most of Old Meridia was probably similarly densely populated. Even its ruins are larger than most countries in this world, so it really must have been a powerful nation that only fell because six evil gods descended on it at once. As for why nobody tried to claim parts of it as their territory, well, they tried. But no matter how thoroughly you try to clear out all the monsters here, more will eventually show up, like they just spawned out of thin air.
Which is mostly true. That's how the enemies in the games worked, and the explanation was that as long as the last evil god, Agramon, is still alive, monsters will continue to haunt this world. So while no country has laid claim to its territory, plenty of expeditions are still sent into the less explored regions of it for all the rare materials and artifacts that can still be found among the ruins. The Meridian Empire is the main force behind these expeditions, and its efforts to recover Old Meridia's technology is the main reason it became the most powerful nation in this world.
"Everyone, movement at six o'clock."
While I'm thinking about the setting of the game, Hugh suddenly speaks up in a low voice and everyone quickly reacts to his words.
"This is what I've been waiting for, let's go!"
"Haah, we could have launched a surprise attack, you know. Well, anyway."
"Hmph, an idiot is always an idiot."
After saying such cool lines, Bernard instantly charges forward, with Arthur following closely behind and Hina throws a few blue crystals that quickly transform into large, sharp ice shards heading straight in the direction Hugh mentioned.
The monsters in this world are dark and twisted creatures, almost like something made of pure shadows. The weaker ones usually have somewhat humanoid shapes, covered in all sorts of tentacles and no real discernible features. Of course, higher-level monsters are more terrifying, with appearances resembling more conventional monster types, though those are pretty rare around these parts.
Hugh spotted three similar humanoid-shaped low level monsters, or maybe it's more accurate to say they were monsters like that.
Within a few moments Bernard already crushed one of them, Arthur backstabbed the other and Hina's magic gems precisely took care of the last. Before I even have a chance to do anything, the fight is already over.
I mean, I don't know what I expected. In the game, combat in the dungeons was a turn-based event where you could have the capture targets use different skills and strategize, but real life is pretty different from games after all. All of them just took the initiative and handled everything without me doing a thing. It kind of feels like I put the fight on autoplay or maybe 'being carried' is more accurate.
"Lucy, are you okay?"
"Huh? Yeah, of course."
Hina suddenly calls out to me while I'm spacing out, and I quickly come back to my senses. This team is pretty overkill, huh?
Well, I should still try to contribute as best I can, though.
"I don't see any other movement, so we should be safe for now."
"Okay, thank you, Hugh. I think this is the entrance we need."
Miss Julia says while taking out and examining an old map and then she points to a somewhat hidden, cave-like entrance still standing beside a mostly intact building.
"We'll be going through some cramped corridors so make sure to be even more alert. I'll keep leading the way."
The others quickly return to their positions as we start heading deeper into the dungeons, or the ruins of Old Meridia.
Honestly, I don't know what we might find here. Neither this seal nor the lead about Magnus Latimer's workshop appeared anywhere in the game. So I'm also going in somewhat blind and excited about what kind of secrets we might find. Though it's probably just some information about the seal and how to release the real Lucy.