Around four days later...

  With the summoned student training having begun, most of the Great Heroes were now occupied and busy with teaching their students and ensuring that they start levelling up as fast as possible. However, Andrius, not having a student to train because of one ‘not being summoned’ according to Alicia, was wandering the halls of the castle, a serious expression across his face and his gaze pointed at the ground, as if he was lost in thoughts.

  The conversation between him, Alicia and Oscar four days ago just kept replaying in his mind.

  “That’s strange…” He then turned to face Alicia. “Alicia, was there not a ‘Tamer’ summoned among the other worlders?”

  “Oh, I forgot to mention — unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone with the tamer class summoned.”

  “That’s… surprising. There should have been at least one individual per class…”

  “My apologies Andrius, but it seems you won’t be able to train anyone.”

  “It’s okay Oscar! I just got severely unlucky that there wasn’t a disciple summoned for me. Oh well, it looks like I’ll just train harder to be even stronger for our next confrontation with the Revenant Monarchs army.”

  While he had laughed it off at the time, he couldn’t help but feel as though there was something up with this. It was unusual — the spell Alicia used to summon these disciples had been created by their master and should not have any kind of errors in it.

  While Andrius was lost in thought, a man dressed in thick robes came upon him, smiling lightly before approaching the large man. “Andrius, it’s good to see you.”

  Andrius lifted his head up and looked at the cheerful man.

  His expression softened as he exhaled and laughed lightly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Good to see you as well, Lee.”

  The man dressed in the thick robes was Lee Starfall — The only individual in the entirety of Roria, with the truly unique class - ‘Seer’. This was a class that no one else besides him had in Roria. ‘Seer’ is a class that allows individuals to see the future — or at least, a rough estimate of what the future may hold.

  Usually a ‘Seer’ is a kingdom's most valuable individual, who is placed under maximum protection at all times, as losing a ‘Seer’ would mean that the kingdom would completely fall at the mercy of fate they had no way of predicting or knowing.

  Lee in specific was on the older side — Dressed in thick robes that faintly resembled a priests wear, with blackish grey hair that was short and a black veil, that fell over and covered the top part of his face, to block his eyes from being strained by the world around him. ‘Seers’ have very sensitive vision and often can receive divine revelations by just looking around.

  To reduce the strain on their eyes and mind, their eyes are usually closed and they wear something to cover their eyes and mostly block their vision.

  Lee looked around a bit confused, before looking at Andrius again. “Where is your disciple? I was under the impression that all the Great Heroes had begun training their summoned disciples.”

  “About that…” Andrius sighed, crossing his arms. “Apparently there wasn’t a single tamer summoned with these disciples, so I have ended up empty handed.”

  Lee's expression changed to an even more confused one, as he brought his right arm up to his chin, scratching it lightly. “That’s… strange. The spell that he left behind was flawless and was supposed to summon someone for each class.” Andrius shrugged.

  “I guess I just got unlucky. Maybe the spell wasn’t so flawless after all.” The man stated, before walking past Lee and farther down the hall. “Anyways, I have some matters to attend to. Talk to you another time Lee—”

  “You’re going to go and investigate the chamber where the summoning took place, aren’t you?” Andrius froze. He remained still for a few seconds, before exhaling and looking at Lee with an amused expression, while he also shed a cold sweat. “I guess I should know better than to try and hide things from a Seer…”

  Lee laughed lightly, turning to face Andrius. “You should.”

  Andrius sighed a bit heavily. “Will you stop me?”

  “No,” Lee walked over to Andrius’ side and smiled lightly. “In fact, I wish to accompany you. This entire ‘not summoned’ thing smells fishy.” Andrius smiled lightly, laughing before resuming his move, with Lee following him.

  “Glad to see that you’re on the same wavelength as me.”

  The duo walked down the hall and eventually reached the large doors that lead to the chamber that had been used to summon the students. At it, two guards stood, however upon seeing both Andrius and Lee, they immediately moved aside and allowed entry into the hall, without saying anything.

  Once the doors were closed behind them, Andrius threw a look around.

  The chamber was empty, quiet and dark. Made sense — no one has been here since the day of the summoning.

  “Alright, let’s see what exactly is going on here.” Andrius stated with Lee nodding lightly in agreement. The two of them then headed down to the lower part of the chamber, before moving over to the large circle engraving that had been used to do the ritual of summoning. Andrius immediately kneeled down, placing his hand onto the magic circle.

  “Are you about to check what the circle had brought?” Lee asked.

  “That’s exactly what I’ll do. I’ll see how many people the summoning ritual had summoned and what their classes were when they were summoned.” He replied before closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath, exhaling a moment later.

  [Insight] has been activated.

  Andrius opened his eyes again, only this time, they shone with a bright orange colour. The magic circle engraved onto the ground then began shining with the same orange colour as Andrius’ eyes – the light emitting from it, being enough to blind most people because of how bright it was.

  Lee watched from a small distance, while Andrius just kept up the spell for a little while, before eventually breaking his stance and closing his eyes again, the circle ceasing its shining and his eyes returning to normal as he opened them and stood up. “Hm…”

  “Well?” Lee joined Andrius’ side. “Discover anything?”

  “Well…” Andrius scratched his chin. “The spell had connected to a world called ‘Earth’ — and the disciples he summoned mainly came from a land known in that world as ‘Japan’.” Andrius began, looking down at the circle.

  “For the most part they all came from the same land and were even in the same class of the schools there — however…”

  Lee perked his ears. “However?”

  “The number of disciples we greeted in the Hero Hall and began their training was twenty two, however… there were twenty three individuals summoned.” Lee exhaled and smiled. “Let me guess…”

  “The twenty third person was most likely the one who was supposed to be my disciple.” Andrius finished, placing his hands on his hips.

  Lee scratched his chin, before crossing his arms and looking down at the magic circle. “That means that the ritual did summon one individual for every class, so the ritual wasn’t a failure in any means.” Then, the thick robed man exhaled. “But then…” He looked up at Andrius.

  “What happened to the ‘Tamer’?”

  Andrius moved forward a bit. “That’s what we’re about to find out. Come – I can feel faint traces of magic here.”

  The two walked a bit forward, now located at around the middle point of the large ritual circle that was engraved in the ground. Once there, Lee stepped in front of Andrius. “Allow me.” The man lifted his arms up. His hands began emitting a gentle glow, which then caused a very faint mist to start glowing in the air in front of them.

  Andrius scuffed. “Magic traces… Can you figure out the caster and what spell it was?”

  “I can try, however the magic traces are very, very faint.” Lee replied, before falling into a deeper concentration, his hands beginning to shine even brighter and the mist in front of the two also beginning to shine brighter. For a while, there was silence as Lee was trying to decode and figure out the origins of the magic traces, until eventually, the man stopped and lowered his arms, groaning a bit before grabbing his head, stumbling back a bit.

  Andrius quickly caught him. “Careful. As a ‘Seer’ your magic control is very weak.”

  Lee breathed a bit heavily before taking in a deep breath. “I’m alright.” He then backed up from Andrius before looking at him. “More importantly – these magic traces.”

  “Figure it out?”

  “A bit…” Lee scratched his chin, before exhaling. “For starters, the caster is undoubtedly Alicia. As for the spell, it was a transportation spell.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Andrius’ eyes narrowed. “Transportation? Of course…” He sighed heavily.

  This did not surprise the man at all. The fact that his disciple had been summoned, was missing and Alicia had cast a transportation spell in this chamber made it very easy to piece together what had happened in this chamber, most likely shortly after the large summoning ritual had been completed.

  “So, where was the Transportation spell connected to?”

  Lee looked at Andrius worryingly. “That’s the thing… I am unsure.”

  Andrius lifted his eyebrow. “Elaborate.” Lee exhaled. “It’s as if the transportation spell Alicia had cast, was connected to an area with an insane density of magical energy, which in return, made it impossible to pinpoint exactly where the spell was connected to.” Lee then looked away, placing his arms behind his back.

  “It could be somewhere harmless like the Spiritwalker Woods or it could be somewhere dangerous, like the Revenant Monarchs territory or even…”

  “The worst place possible — The Great Labyrinth.”

  Andrius finished Lee’s way of thought. The Seer remained silent before turning to look at Andrius and nodding. “I’m afraid so.” Andrius sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Man… never I imagined she would take it this far…”

  “Pardon?” Lee looked a bit confused.

  Andrius turned around, crossing his arms. “Alicia… has always had a deep hatred aimed at me. She has always been envious of me. Until now, I have chosen to ignore it and pretend that I don’t know about it, thinking that it wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  Andrius sighed heavily. “But it seems I was sorely mistaken.”

  “So you believe that since she is unable to take her hate and envy out on you due to the difference in power between you two, she decided to take it out on the individual who was supposed to be your disciple?”

  Andrius nodded, rubbing the back of his neck again. “That’s about right. After all, it’s easier to take your anger out on someone weaker than you than someone who outpowers you.” Lee remained silent. After a moment, the man looked away.

  “Then, what do we do now? We know that Alicia lied about there not being a disciple for you and even potentially sent them to a very dangerous place…” Lee looked at Andrius, with his left eye slightly open, revealing a shining white eye below his cover. “Will you confront her about it?”

  Andrius remained silent for a bit, before shaking his head in denial.

  “No.” He then looked at the ceiling. “Right now, we don’t have concrete proof. The magic traces here are basically all gone and Alicia herself is a master of deceit. I think that instead of telling anyone about it or confronting her…” He turned to face Lee again. “I will try to look for the one who was summoned as a ‘Tamer’. I have a few connections within the Mercenary Guild, so I can ask them to travel to the locations where Alicia most likely sent my disciple to and bring them back if they find them.”

  Lee tilted his head to the side. “And then?”

  “And then…” Andrius looked away with a cold gaze, his eyes slightly glowing orange. “I will wait. After all, the investigation for this entire matter cannot happen out in public – if Alicia catches on that I have found out the truth, she will do all she can do to prevent me from telling anyone else, as her sending a summoned hero from another world to a dangerous location because of her own bias will be the thing to kill her reputation and possibly cause her to even lose her position within the church.”

  Andrius then began to move back towards the stairs that led up to the large doors. Lee remained silent for a bit, before following after the man, catching up to his side. “Then I shall aid you a bit. While I can’t get involved personally, I will try contacting the Celestials to find out whether the disciple is still alive.”

  Andrius smiled, patting Lee on the back. “Thanks Lee.”

  He exhaled, looked down. “You’re a good friend.”

  Lee laughed as the two of them exited the chamber. “Just doing what I must to help my friends.” The man replied, with the large doors to the chamber closing after the two left the chamber – leaving it empty and dark once again.

  Great Labyrinth – Floor 50.

  Sallow leapt up into the air, before crashing back down and slicing apart a group of small Green Goblins, their bodies flying apart and the blood that spilled from them, going everywhere – staining the rocky environment that surrounded them.

  Another group of Green Goblins were actively trying to flee from the scene, their fear written all across their faces while Araneida chased after them – her arachnid eyes glowing with hunger. Without wasting time, the spider fired off a string of her web at the fleeing green critters, stopping their movements, before quickly tearing them all apart and even devouring their heads and throats – all the while the Goblins screamed.

  The largest part of this group of Goblins that was led by a larger goblin, was cornered by Jack, who approached with one of his eyes shining orange.

  A bloodstained shortsword was tightly gripped within his right hand, while a sinister grin was spread across his face. “Where are you going? This is where the fun begins.” Jack stated, before leaping at the cornered goblins and slicing them apart with ease — their blood staining the rocks and screams echoing throughout the cave environment.

  [ ALERT ]

  You have levelled up.

  41 > 42

  [ ALERT ]

  Jack brushed off his clothes and then cleaned off his face from the goblin blood that had splashed onto it. Afterwards, he turned to look at Sallow and Araneida. Sallow was busy looting the goblins' remains, while Araneida was just munching on her kills, eating them with a joyous expression.

  “Looks like those two are enjoying themselves. Good.” He turned his gaze away. “System Start.”

  [ STATUS ]

  Jack Alfred Gragbone

  Gender: Male

  Level: 42 (1)

  Rank: F

  Class: Tamer

  Stat Points: 2

  Health: 440 / [13]

  Magical Energy: 850 / [14]

  Strength: 250 / [15]

  Defence: 220 / [12]

  Agility: 220 / [12]

  Skills;

  [Interpreter]; Common Skill

  [Combat Experience]; Unique Skill

  [Battle Hungry]; Unique Skill

  [Spider Venom]; Unique Skill

  [Leaders Transformation]; Unique Skill

  [Taming]; Class Skill

  [Animal Body]; Class Skill

  [ STATUS ]

  “I don’t know how long it has been since I was dropped into this dungeon by that shitstain who called herself a ‘Saintess’, however, ever since then I have managed to grow pretty steadily.” He thought, scratching his chin, before placing the two stat points he had just gained into the agility stat.

  He hadn’t rested for at least a day or two, yet he wasn’t feeling even an inch of exhaustion or tiredness. “Have to say, my stamina ever since coming to this world, feels like it has returned back to how it was when I was in my prime.” He commented, closing his status window before sheathing up his shortsword and walking over to Sallow and Araneida.

  He hadn’t been the only one who was levelling up – Both Araneida and Sallow had grown stronger — Currently Araneida was level thirty while Sallow was level seven. Jack had learned that the higher rank of a creature, the more creatures they need to slay before they can level up or alternatively, they need to kill stronger ones.

  However, since according to Sallow, all strong monsters that used to inhabit this floor were wiped out by this floors guardian, they were not going to see a monster stronger than C-Rank any time soon — since according to Sallow, he was one of the strongest monsters on this floor, if you didn’t count the guardian.

  “Find anything Sallow?”

  “Unfortunately, no.” The grey goblin rose to his feet and looked at Jack with a slightly disappointed expression. “These green goblins have nothing of value on them. I am sorry, my Lord.” Sallow kneeled before Jack, who exhaled and then laughed.

  “It’s fine. I wasn’t expecting these weaklings to have anything on them anyway.” He then looked over at Araneida, who had finished her meal. Calling her over with a whistle, he looked at Sallow again. “Let’s keep moving.”

  “Of course, my Lord.”

  The trio resumed their path, leaving behind the pools of blood and torn apart bodies of the goblins they had just killed.

  The trio moved farther and farther, with Jack beginning to occasionally throw small gazes behind him. Sallow, noticing his master's slight disarray, exhaled lightly. “My Lord, how about we take a little rest nearby and replenish our energy? Further down this path is the Green Goblin tribe and before we face them, we should make sure we’re fully ready.”

  Jack looked at Sallow, at first confused, however quickly figured out that the Grey Goblin had also caught on, so simply nodded. “Good idea. I do feel like my body is a bit stiff after fighting so much..” He stretched out a bit. Sallow nodded, before turning to the left side and moving over to a spot that was a little off of the main path and crouching down before pretending to put together a small fire pit.

  Araneida and Jack followed after Sallow, with Jack kneeling down and bringing his face closer to Sallow, so that the Grey Goblin would be able to hear him. “You’ve noticed, haven’t you?”

  Sallow and Araneida both nodded.

  “We’re being stalked by something.”

  Jack nodded, before throwing his gaze back, trying to spot wherever their stalker was now. He managed to eventually spot a dark figure, hiding in a patch of dark shadows – very much looking at them all. Jack scuffed a bit, looking back at Sallow and Araneida. “I have a plan. Araneida, you go and pretend to hunt down some monsters for us, however get onto the ceiling above. Sallow, you walk in the opposite direction of Araneida, pretending to go get some things for a fire, however in reality block off any escapes this thing may have.”

  Sallow and Araneida nodded, however before they split up, Sallow shed a slightly cold sweat. “What will you do, my Lord?”

  Jack smirked. “You’ll see.”

  Afterwards, Jack stood up and stretched out again. “Alright, Araneida, mind going off to grab some monsters to eat?” The spider let out an enthusiastic squeal, before running off. Afterwards, Jack sat down as Sallow rose up.

  “I’ll go find something to start a fire with.” Sallow stated, leaving. “Alright, just stay safe.” Jack waved the Grey Goblin a goodbye, before turning his gaze back down at the set up spot for the campfire. Once both Araneida and Sallow were gone, Jack waited.

  And waited, and waited…

  Eventually, he looked up at the ceiling with his eyes – making sure to not appear suspicious. Araneida was in place, slowly and silently skittering across the ceiling. “Good, Araneidas in position. Then I suppose I should go and greet our dear guest.”

  Jack stood up and stretched out, before walking back out onto the path that they had been taking before noticing their stalker. “Man, what’s taking Sallow and Araneida so long? They should have returned by now.” Jack looked around, managing to spot the dark figure still in the shadows.

  “Good, they’re still there.” His gaze then moved over to where they had come from. Sallow was already standing there, his large stone sword beside him – the escape was basically sealed. Exhaling, Jack turned his back against the figure and everyone, before beginning to move away. “Maybe I’ll go look for them…”

  As he started moving, he listened.

  Ruffle… step, step, step…

  They were following. Immediately, Jack exhaled before looking up at Araneida. “Now!”

  The spider leapt down from the ceiling, before sending a loud screech.

  Araneida has activated [Intimidation].

  The shadow figure froze, unable to move an inch of their body. “What the—?!” Jack quickly closed the distance between him and the figure, before throwing a punch at it. “Gotcha.”

  However, his punch went through the figure's body.

  Jack's eyes narrowed. “That’s unexpected.”

  The figure laughed. “Did you seriously just try to punch a Wraith—”

  The figure was cut off by Sallow, who had appeared behind it, his sword cast in a flame. Sallow swung the sword at the figure and slashed apart its body – which seemed to hurt the creature as it let out a blood curdling scream, before the two halves of its body vanished.

  Araneida quickly joined their side, while Sallow placed his sword down. “Sallow, you’re supposed to be—”

  “I know, however, my Lord… I’m afraid this creature is one you can’t harm.” Jack looked dumbfounded, while laughter came from above them all. They all turned their gazes up at the ceiling. Above them was now a slightly transparent, human looking individual. It appeared to be a female, dressed in a thick, long dress and her eyes shining brightly.

  Jack shed a slight sweat, before taking a single step back.

  [ CREATURE ]

  Greater Wraith

  Rank: C

  Level: 50 (3)

  A rare evolved form of the Undead.

  Wraiths are unaffected by physical attacks and must be fought with magic.

  [ CREATURE ]

  Jack swore lightly to himself.

  “Sallow… Can we defeat it?” He asked, a small, yet nervous smile across his face. Sallow shed a sweat, picking up his sword again, before enveloping it in flames again. “I do not know my Lord. However, rest assured that at the very least… we will not fall against it.”

  The wraith floated in the air above the trio, a sinister chuckle echoing through the cave from it.