Chapter 217: The Realm Expedition Begins
Royal Academy Realm Gate Hall
Planet Kreiz
Dorcaster Star system
Burning Realms Galaxy Cluster
First of October
Year 717 of the 50th General Calendar.
Murmurs could be heard from all over the hall as the fifth-year students of the academy all gathered inside the hall waiting for the director to come and address them.
The hall was divided in two as the fifth-year students all sat on one half while the other half was filled with multiple realm gates of different shapes and sizes.
Some of them were water-like circles spinning in the air, while some others looked like tears in space. There were a few that were relatively normal, looking like normal doors that could be found in houses anywhere, but the red tags floating beside them were enough to tell that whatever realm they led to was far from normal.
In between the students seating place and the realm gates, was a 10-inch-thick transparent magic barrier, one cast personally by the main entity of the Hell universe who was in charge of the academy, Duke Tikan.
Suddenly, several projected monitors appeared in the air and showed the footage of the ’Big Ten" directors.
Each of these directors was a member of a ducal house and possessed strength in the superior stage of the mid-tier deity realm and above.
The students all quieted down as one of the directors nodded to the other before speaking.
[Welcome to the ’Gate Hall’.
As you can see in the area behind the barrier, there are Realm gates leading to the various realms in our Hell universe that have been discovered over the years by the directors.
The realms here are ones that the Academy has a high level of influence within, but for this expedition, you would all be going on, and you all would be unable to use that influence.
Each of these realms is a danger zone with many monsters of different levels. These realms also have sentient humanoid inhabitants, and these inhabitants have their own civilizations, some of which are highly advanced.
One thing that is consistent in all these realms, is the fact that the ambient energy concentrations in these realms are very high, this also means the level of monsters you would find there, would be equally high.
In this Realm Expedition, your goal is to return with as many monster energy cores as you can. The method of acquiring these cores doesn’t really matter to us.
This means you can either get them from fighting monsters or...from fighting yourselves.]
There was an uproar in the hall as many students began to object to this new addition to the realm expedition but the director paid them no mind and continued with his explanation.
[If you come across any danger and you feel like you are about to die, the emergency button at the side of your Academy-issued watches is enough to return you here.
There is a token that is used to track the locations of each and every one of you and that token is filled with enough energy to teleport you back here.
For those who do not possess inter-spatial rings to keep your weapons, energy cores, or other properties, the school would lend you some for the duration of the expedition.]
The director continued speaking as many students looked at each other with fear, anticipation, or joy on their faces.
The Realm Expedition’s real purpose was to let the students experience the harshness of the outside world, away from where the power and influence of their various families could reach.
For those that had influence in these realms, the directors appointed instructors to keep them under close watch so they did not abuse that influence.
This expedition was to allow students to experience the Harshness of life and that greed could overwhelm people.
They were to survive on their own for a duration, of one year!
Hearing the duration of this year’s realm expedition caused another uproar among the students.
[Due to the inconveniences experienced last year, the academy has decided to, first of all, extend this year’s expedition time from six months to a full year.
Secondly, there would be a change in your curriculum, and in the event that you bring back enough energy cores to get a passing grade, it would be taken that you have passed both your Realm expedition test and your sixth-year mid-semester exams.]
Another director spoke up to explain the reason for the changes, and the benefits they could gain from these changes.
Originally, they were supposed to have the realm expedition starting in May in their fourth year and it was to run for six months.
However, they were now having it from October in their fifth year and it would run until October in their sixth year.
Upon their return, they would only need to spend three more months in the academy before their final exams and graduation.
While this explanation was ongoing, Arthur was staring at the realm gate for the Varona Realm. It was a gate that looked like an Archaic doorpost with a spinning mass of energy inside it.
To others, all they could see was the purple colour of space-attributed magic power, but for the sub-cosmic being Arthur, he could see cosmic energy mixed in with that space-attributed magic power.
The same was the case for a few dozen other realm gates. Arthur couldn’t help but heave a sigh in exasperation as stared at these gates, ignoring the words of the director speaking.
"Hmm? Is that Varona’s gate?"
"...Yeah."
Arthur took a moment to answer Layla’s question. She then turned her gaze towards Nicole who was beside her and asked.
"What realm are you going to?"
"...Varona. That’s where you’re going, isn’t it?"
Nicole answered and returned the question to Layla who nodded in affirmation. Layla couldn’t really care less about what realm she went to, the only reason she was going to Varona was simply that Arthur suggested it for her so she agreed.
Nicole and Esna decided to follow her to Varona too and Edward was going wherever Esna was so the five all ended up going to Varona.
Now one might wonder why Esna was also going with them but this was because the Fourth years were also going on their realm expedition alongside the fifth years.
The Academy had various Gate Halls so the enormous amount of fourth-year students could be accommodated in each of these halls.
The director finished the explanations and then gave the go-ahead for the students to begin entering the realms.
The students were entering in order of their academy ranks so Arthur and crew all moved towards the gate of Varona the moment they were called.
Upon getting closer to the gate, Arthur noticed that there was some sort of spell cast on it, not with magic power but with cosmic energy.
"This is suspicious as fuck."
"What is?"
"The entire Hell Universe."
Arthur gave an incomprehensible reply to Layla before looking at his academy-issued watch. He confirmed it was fully functional before speaking to the other four.
"Here’s how things are gonna go, there’s a high chance we might be separated so you guys should not be surprised if I’m not with you by the time we enter the realm."
Arthur had spent a lot of time thinking about how entering Varona via the Academy’s gate was going to help him discover whatever legacy Lucifer left behind.
He arrived at the conclusion that there might be some sort of spell or special effect on the Realm gate in the academy that worked the same way the ruin Creusery found did.
In the same way the ruin’s guardians stopped attacking upon discovering he was a descendant of Lucifer, he believed there might be some similar thing in the realm gate that detected any descendants of Lucifer entering the realm and maybe carried them either to the ruin or an area around the ruin.
This was why he believed that he might be separated from the other four.
"Is this related to the reason you’ve been so fixated on Varona since our first year?"
"Yep."
Arthur answered Layla’s question as he created a finger-sized aura blade and made a small cut with it on his finger.
"Hope everyone has everything ready?"
"Everything’s ready."
Esna asked and Edward replied before looking at the others who checked their interspatial rings and confirmed all their supplies were in there.
"All right. Let’s Go!!"
The three girls simultaneously shook their heads upon hearing Arthur’s strange shout as they all entered the realm gate at the same time.
Right before Arthur entered, he cut his finger once again with his aura blade and entered the gate faster than the wound could heal.
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur spent the next thirty seconds in a world of purple with pulling forces coming from two different directions. He instantly figured out something was wrong as the realm gates were only supposed to take a few seconds to send him to his destination.
There was also supposed to be only one pulling force too. He guessed the second was probably the result of the spell on the realm gate trying to send him elsewhere.
He finally exited the gate after a few more seconds and found himself in a vast desert with red sand. Looking around, he could not see the figures of Layla or the others.
He then checked his academy-issued watch for his location.
[Location Details
Realm: Varona
Star System: 73964
Planet: Searching....]
