Scale of Reality

Veteran Trainees: Final

Muji POV

"Alright, it's that time again kiddos."

The 15 of us sat together in the large carriage, heading toward our location.

The Cave of the Vanquished.

Inside of the cave were skeleton monsters incapable of dying for the most part. Their bodies put itself back together after being broken, and the only real way to kill them was by destroying their body and with fire or breaking it into tiny pieces so it couldn't reform.

Even if they're just bones, they have much more strength than the average man, and can tear apart bodies like it's nothing. They aren't very fast, but they're very durable and in large numbers they're dangerous.

"I wonder who I'll be grouped with this time..."

Ms Shinmon cleared her throat.

"Now usually this would be the part where I tell you all about your groups or whatnot, but this time there'll be no parties. Sometimes, a hunt will consist of a large group and not just individual parties due to the large amount of monsters or location. This cave is one of those locations."

Mya grabbed my arm and squealed a bit.

"Muji we're going to be together for once!"

"Yay..."

"That better not be sarcasm."

Ray raised his hand, causing Ms Shinmon to look at him.

"Yeah?"

"Forgive my ignorance, but what sort of cave is this, 'Cave of Vanquished.'"

Ms Shinmon hummed.

"It's a cave that leads deep underground. Many turns and paths litter the place, it's incredibly easy to get lost. Some people don't even get to leave after completing their mission because they get lost and die of starvation."

A heavy mood hit the air.

It seemed like most of the others were wondering why on earth would they send trainees to this cave.

Which is a valid question.

"Now now don't soil your diapers, I have good news. There's a tool hunters use in order to not get lost in places like these, they're called mana compasses."

Ms Shinmon pulled out a compass, which was probably what she was talking about.

"I'm sure you all know from experience that there's plenty of mana in the air. However that doesn't apply to places like caves or underground tombs, so this will just lead you to the largest source of mana. Which is outside. No man could ever hope to compete with the endless amount of mana in the air."

Everyone let out small gasps or woahs, well almost everyone.

"So once the week is up, as long as everyone follows me, we'll get out of the cave."

Everyone nodded or gave her a yes mam before Ms Shinmon sighed a bit.

"With that being said, let's go over a few things. The Kingdom is cheap and the old heads didn't give a mana lantern, so we'll have to rely on our senses to tell what's going on. That means I'll heavily be relying on Lapis and Muji to tell me in advance if anything is going on."

I nodded before looking to Lapis, he was fast asleep.

"Next, these skeletons are by far the most dangerous monster you guys have fought so far. The most dangerous thing is they lack a sense of pain, and don't have living bodies, so normal attacks that would be fatal won't do you any good. For things without a brain, they're also very intelligent so watch out for that."

Everyone nodded as Ms Shinmon continued.

"Lastly, if you get separated from me in this cave, you will get lost. So stay with me at all times throughout this next week, that especially includes you stronger ones."

Ms Shinmon stared at Jax as he began to whistle, causing her to shake her head a bit.

"We're gonna have to get out and walk to the cave in a bit, so everyone be ready."

"Yes mam!"

Much like Ms Shinmon said, when the carriage came to a stop we weren't at our location. Everyone got out of the carriage and stood together at the bottom of a mountain.

"Get ready to walk kiddos, we're scaling this mountain."

Mya let out a shaky sigh.

"Reminds me of our training."

"Yeah. I also remember you crying about sandwiches."

"Shush! We don't speak about that."

We all began to walk up the mountain, and god was it a large mountain. We walked and walked for what seemed like hours before finally arriving in front of an opening inside said mountain.

"Well everyone, welcome to the cave of the vanquished."

Ms Shinmon took a seat.

"Let's rest up for a bit before we go inside. Walking up that large mountain couldn't have been easy on some of you."

Many sighs of relief could be heard before people began to drop. I took a seat against the wall of the mountain, Mya sitting next to me. Jax walked over and sat on the other side of me as we all just looked up into the sky.

"To think we won't see the sun for an entire week. Isn't that scary guys?"

Jax scoffed.

"I wouldn't say scary. I'm looking forward to see how tough these skeletons are though."

"Battle crazy."

Mya looked to me.

"What about you Muji?"

I hummed.

"I don't really care about the sun."

Mya gasped.

"Why not?! The sun keeps us alive!"

"What's the point of the sun if the world is still seeping with darkness...I don't know."

Jax stood up and pointed his axe to the sky.

"Meh, sun or not, as long as I get to fight people I don't care."

"Well the sun let's you fight people. So be grateful."

As the two began to bicker, I sat there with a sigh.

"Well...I just hope nothing happens while we're in the cave."