TBATE - Havaca Rises

Chapter 48 - Widow's Crypt

AN - It's been a month since I last posted. Honestly, I didn't even notice how much time had passed, so to hopefully make up for it here is a slightly longer chapter. Enjoy.

Tessia's POV

"Alright everyone, remember to stick with your groups!" Professor Glory shouted.

"Hey Tess, you should stow your sword at your side instead of keeping it in your mana ring," Art advised.

"And why should she do that?" Clive asked with disdain; I guess he still isn't over his loss.

"Because the Beast Glades are dangerous and unpredictable. While we may have mapped movement patterns, routines, and behavior patterns of the mana beast here but there is no telling when they might suddenly evolve or decide to expand their territories," Art explained, not even bothered by Clive's tone.

"Hmph, that's stupid, they are just mindless beast who hasn't changed in centuries!" Clive yelled trying to refute Art's claims.

"Nope, Arthur is right. Listen, class, there are many unexpected things that can occur out here in the Glades. Every day overconfident adventures find themselves dead because they overestimate their strength because they ignored caution, venture too deep without the right resources, and become another corpse claimed by the ever-unforgiving Beast Glades. As Arthur said, there were several times in the past when mana beast has moved about, left their zones, left their dungeons slaughtering unsuspecting adventurers. Each beast here is capable of some form of intelligence and has natural advantages over us humans. I may sound like a broken record, but it's something we need to instill into all of you. Be wary when in the beast glades, always be prepared for a fight, whether it be a mana beast or a rogue adventurer," Professor Glory warned causing my classmates to take up defensive stances with their weapons at the ready.

"Hey Kid, you know you sound like an experienced adventurer," Professor Glory teased getting closer to our group.

"I've heard lots of stories from various people bragging about their adventures. After sorting through the near-endless hubris, I managed to gather some useful information here and there," Art retorted, with a sly smile.

"Kyu!" Sylvie squealed before taking off.

"Ah, Arthur is it safe for her to run off like that," Conley asked.

"Yeah, it's fine. She just smelled some mana beast nearby and got excited."

"But what if she chases something that she can't kill?" Conley asked in a worried tone.

"Sylvie is quite smart and she knows her limits well, besides you already had a first-hand experience of how fast she can actually be," Arthur said reliving his worries.

'What's the real reason though? If it was just hunting, she would have run off long before we neared the dungeon' I asked through the use of sound transmission.

'She is going to kill everything below the third floor of the dungeon so that we can actually spend the night in the dungeon. I think it would be a great experience for you guys before you're sent out to war.'

'Oh, this is the dungeon trip that went wrong, the one you got caught up in an explosion and then found a dead lance?' I asked since he never gave us many details about the more... graphic events.

'This is the one.'

'But didn't Big Sis Alea say in the group chat that she was going to hunt mutated beast in the dungeons today as well?' I asked worried or my sister's safety.

'It's fine, Alea was never weak and now she is no longer burdened by the restrictions of the artifact. The fact that she was able to get past Uto's near-instant casting in an environment that greatly favored him and chipped in his horn, all the while carrying the guilt of failing her battalion and resisting the fear of death, says quite a bit about her tenacity and strength,' Arthur praised.