Chapter 142: Stuck In A Rut

There were stupid people and there were stupid questions—she'd give it to the fellow student before her that they were only doing something on the latter. Most Mages she'd encounter weren't stupid, only peculiar and strange.The Half Elf stood up from her spot as she walked out of her cell and walked to the next one where he was currently in. She unlocked the bolt and pushed the jail door open, "The slime forgot to lock the cell, so we only have to think about the barrier now and with your help…"

She assessed the barrier.

According to what she learned, Elves vision and sight regarding magic and mana were one of the clearest, some had even called it True Sight. Her father had said that it was easy to untangle Spells, break free from Illusions...anything related to magic. But right now all she could see was the energy surrounding them and powering the barrier but other than that she couldn't tell much.

The prospect of untangling it was out of her current options.

There were no weak spots or fluctuations, everything about it was working smoothly but that was all she could grasp. This wasn't in her realm of knowledge—but someone was familiar with it. She stared at the young man in front of her, she didn't have to brute force herself out. "You're supposed to be an expert weren't you? I've still got some mana, I can do what you need to do to unlock the barrier."

But she also needed to check if it was dangerous for him.

Ellynn strode up to the barrier and held her hand out—there was no electricity or anything that attacked her, instead she only touched a solid thing. She sighed in relief, she wasn't exactly that familiar with this type of magic. Only that she was positive that she'd be able to get through it after some strenuous effort.

"Er... let me look at the enchantments then." Theodore warily stepped out of his cell. His cloak simply followed after him as it floated. "Are you sure we're not going to get in trouble for this?"

"Do you plan to die here?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

Fear was easy.

Despite the man not knowing who exactly she was—he shut up and raised his hands. And somehow the cloak did the exact same thing… at least the edges of the cloak rose up in a similar manner. She had to admit that the cape kind of bothered her. Something like it shouldn't be floating around and acting so sentient.

He waved at her as he settled down, "Yeah, I got it. I got it." Theodore approached the barrier and knocked. He did the same thing as she did but he adjusted his spectacles. "Ooh yeah. This thing is old but it's running so smoothly and for explanation's sake, Ellynn right? This is quite an exquisite suppression field and not just a barrier."

His words made her sigh—should she just try slicing it with the wind? She twitched her hands and felt the wind around her was dying, there was only normal air and she couldn't rouse it to pick up some speed.

The man continued, "It seems like a barrier but it's not. Barriers are usually made on the spot and sustained with mana while this one is—"

"Are you going to actually figure out how to open it or are you going to give me a lecture?" How could this guy have so much energy despite being stuck here for days…

Theodore grimaced and turned back to the 'suppression field' with a nod, "Right, right let me work on it!" And yet all he did was move around their entire area as if he was examining every part of the barrier-field.

His cloak trailed after him.

She blinked when she noticed that the edges of the cloak were fluttering past the solid barrier, "Your cloak can move past the barrier—er, suppression field."

"Huh?" Theodore glanced at her with a raised brow. "What was that?"

Ellynn bit her tongue before she could actually say anything snappy. She was losing her patience as she pointed to his cloak. His eyes bulged as he pulled back the floating cloth backwards to him, "You can't move there, you're going to deconstruct yourself!" The man began to fuss over the edges of the cloak with a care that almost resembled what she imagined as a mother's love.

"...wait, a second." Her gaze returned to the area where the edges of cloak stuck itself. There was a distortion in the energy of the field, "That thing is messing up with the field of suppression, let's use that to break—"

Theodore hid the cloak behind his back and shook his head, "Hold it right there, let's not sacrifice friends now, shall we?"

.. .

"I can't tell you anything... But I only have good intentions, I swear." The Mage replied and paused, "Well, it's beneficial for me to help you go down, there's something down there that I want." And despite having a dagger to the throat that it was enough to draw some blood… there was only a small pained expression on their face. Unlike the Mages he'd seen in his year, there was no look of panic at all, only a calm visage.

Could he trust his words?

They could be lying and trying to get his guard down. Han frowned and tried to use his now-skill [ Detect Thoughts ] and quickly met an invisible wall—and a spark of electricity that knocked him backwards and made him drop his dagger.

Somehow despite the pain that made him fall, a familiar blue screen appeared:

[ Mental Fortitude Increased! ]

The Mage quickly stepped back and gave him a look, "Why'd you use something—I had my mental barriers up, and why is someone like you using this kind of magic already?"

And yet he couldn't even bother with them right now.

His head hurt. And it was like a migraine but way worse as he placed a hand on his forehead, it didn't just hurt but it felt like he'd been attacked— "I'll trust you temporarily… I think." What nonsense was he saying now? He should get going. "Bah, I need to save my friend, if I don't come back soon, please contact the proper authorities in charge of this."

"I'm not some—"

"If you had no concern over this situation then you probably would have left me immediately—" Han winced and shut his eye, "But you didn't do that." Despite his head hurting like hell and his vision was spinning, he could at least deduce their motivation. Maybe the Mage had been telling the truth in the first place?

The Mage huffed, "Being so sure of yourself aren't you? What if I just had nothing to do?"

"Talking with you is useless now, I'm going." He pulled himself up to his feet and picked up the dagger. He took note of this situation but he made a general direction to the portal and then fell.

Right before he did, he finally saw one last thing—there was a familiar lump of sack near the books.

.

.

.

Thud.

The drop was much shorter than he expected, Han winced at his side and once again stood up to assess his surroundings. It was a good thing that he hadn't accidentally stabbed himself. Everything around him was dark—but that was the reason why he had [ Night Vision ] in the first place.

His next course of action was looking at the image of the map and free Ellynn—no, there was that lumpy bag sack. Something didn't seem to add up, it was there when he and that Mage earlier. "Kraelonia Academy Map."

His own version of the map appeared but unlike the image that the Wood Elf had sent, there was something blue blinking in a place that was still far off from the green dot. Had Ellynn escaped already? He compared the two and shook his head. That was Timothy!

Who else was gonna appear on his screen?! "How the hell did he come—" Something dark flashed in his screen and he quickly moved sideways as a dark tendril pierced through the screen.

But it didn't shatter or anything of that sort.

Han quickly gazed out and found its source, a lumbering dark blob. All the tendrils shot out to him as he ducked, "S-Shogg—?" He bit his tongue and quickly sliced off the ones closest to him.

The tendrils fell down and formed in an icky puddle.

But it thankfully didn't rejoin its main body. There was some chance for him, "Ah, just a slime." And yet there was no time to sigh in relief. He darted forward and tried to cross the distance between him and the creature while he dodged the tentacles that tried to hit him. Left. Right. Up. Down. Jump and Slice. His [ Basic Reflexes ] and [ Basic Agility ] were being put to use as he maneuvered to and fro.

"Hah! Feints!" Things were going smoothly as he closed the gap between them and stabbed the slime in its chest. It was time to slice and dice up this big slime to pieces!

He pulled back his dagger—

It was stuck.