B4 - Chapter 14 - Early Start

Before Lily even realized it, it was already the weekend. Thus she was rudely awoken by both Hana and Lotte, who were excited to return to the dungeon as their previously proven team. Lily understood they were excited, but not at the expense of her beauty sleep, and the pair knew she had been active late into the evenings.

I guess I'll just have to drink a tonic…

Camilla's miraculous yet foul-tasting energy-boosting concoction had regrettably fallen several places in Lily's eyes. Even though she very rarely used it, the fatigue removal glyph was just superior in every way, including no horrible aftertaste! Lily reluctantly uncorked a vial and chugged it, as she always took Arakil's warnings seriously. Hence, a recovery glyph was out of the question, but she couldn't afford to be half asleep in the dungeon.

I wonder if the reason it tastes so bad is to help wake you up. Like a shock to the system?

Chuckling at her own expense, Lily opened the door to her two awaiting friends. Thanks to her bracelet, she was pretty much ready to go, although she would have preferred to take a nice warm bath to welcome the start of the weekend.

"What's the big rush?" Lily asked.

"Someone bought the information," Hana excitedly explained.

"And it got leaked," Lotte finished before Lily could ask if it was one of them.

"So much for Regarth's secrets…" Lily shrugged.

"Honestly, it was inevitable. I'm shocked nobody bribed an older student to get a head start," Hana replied.

"The older students probably know better," Lotte suggested. "Who knows where and when Headmaster Fabrelis could be watching."

Lily nodded in full agreement, as in Regarth the walls certainly did appear to have both eyes and ears. "So… Were we right?"

"Yeah, it looks like it's a hidden location in the deep forest," Lotte confirmed.

Now Lily understood why the two had rushed over. If, thanks to this spreading rumor, everyone knew how to reach the third floor, then their achievement of reaching it first was under threat.

"I know you two hate running, but we might have to. The entrance to the second floor is quite a distance from the deep forest, and then we still need to begin our search."

Hana's explanation was reasonable, but Lily couldn't help but catch a glimpse of excitement in her eye. The girl really liked her cardio far too much.

She should go ask Alice to run with her.

In terms of pure speed, Lagia usually took the crown, but if it came to long distance, it was always Equinia. Of course, with Alice being a hardened adventurer, she probably had way more endurance than even above-average Equinia and would easily satisfy Hana's craving.

"I really don't want to run, but I don't see any other options," Lotte groaned.

"I can try carrying you on my back if things get difficult," Hana offered.

"Uh… I think I'd rather get left behind. Getting carried would be way too embarrassing."

Seeing her friend in trouble, Lily decided there wasn't really any point in keeping her inscription a secret from them anymore. The pair already knew she was constantly improving at her glyphs and revealing that she had touched on inscriptions wasn't too much of a stretch in her opinion.

Plus, the real surprise will be when I start drawing my thoughts.

"I think I have a solution to our predicament."

"Oh? What does our team strategist have in mind?" Hana asked expectantly.

"Since when did I become the team strategist?"

"Probably after you created a magical minefield of traps and hazards, preventing a good majority of the class from progressing," Lotte answered.

"Yup. You're our cute little mastermind," Hana agreed. "Are we going to lay traps to prevent the others from reaching the deep forest?"

Lily sighed, although she couldn't exactly deny what they were saying. They each had their strengths, and she doubted she would ever be as fast as Hana or as deadly as Lotte, so she might as well fill the role of their brainy support.

Although if Thomas were in our group, he'd probably be the better ideas guy. He's like a walking encyclopedia.

"No traps, I think we should fly to the deep forest," Lily revealed.

Hana practically squeaked with delight, although it was very brief as she quickly realized how absurd Lily's idea sounded. "Um… Flying is a bit too soon for me. I can't exactly do what my dad did either."

Lily smiled. "Don't worry, we will be using an inscription."

"Ha! I knew Lily would have our back," Lotte cheered triumphantly.

Hana's reaction was very mixed; she was clearly excited at the prospect but also curious, and perhaps a bit envious or suspicious too. "You can already fly with your drawings?"

"Not exactly… And it's quite limited at the moment," Lily replied, trying to reassure her friend. "It's only in a straight line and can only go so high. I would need to get way, way better with inscriptions before I could make something that gave me total flight. There's also the preparation time…"

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Lily didn't want to step on any toes, and suddenly being able to fly would obviously be quite a blow to both Hana and Arthur. Of course, what she said also happened to be the truth, as unless Arakil designed something for her and she just copied it, it wasn't going to suddenly improve.

"Ha, sorry, here you are offering us a solution, and I'm acting jealous," Hana replied a little awkwardly.

"It's fine, and don't worry, I don't really like flying… If not for Rose forcing me, I wouldn't even be suggesting this…"

"You made this to help Rose?" Lotte suddenly asked.

Lily could've hugged her on the spot for the timely save. Lily didn't have the social aptitude to navigate stepping on glass, but this gave her an out.

"Kinda. She needs help with the correct imagery and is too proud to ask anyone for help."

"Oh…" Hana murmured, her eyes widening. "Damn, I guess I really took my dad being able to fly me around for granted. I never even imagined having problems visualizing myself flying. The same goes for Arthur."

"Luckily for Rose, her little sister always has her back, spending hours and hours every day studying those glyphs," Lotte chimed in.

When Hana nodded with a smile, Lily practically sighed with relief at how deftly the situation had been defused. Now it wasn't Lily trying to steal Hana's glory or role; it was her trying to help her sister and, as a happy coincidence, it could help them too.

"Well, we better hurry, or even if we fly there, we might not find it first," Lotte pointed out.

The trio quickly left Lily's room, heading straight to the dungeon as Hana had already secured food for this early morning expedition. Judging by the sheer number of first-year students in the area, their concern seemed justified, as it looked like everyone was racing to conquer the second floor and claim the crown.

Of course, there were still plenty of students heading for the first floor, trying to go in as early as possible to maximize their chances of beating the required number of rooms before their curfew. Some even joked confidently that they would beat both floors today, so that even if they weren't first, they'd still have an accomplishment.

They didn't have to wait long in the queue, and soon they were once again in the beautiful forest, watching several students rush off towards the deep forest upon their arrival.

"Let's find a quiet spot so Lily can work," Lotte suggested.

"And we can eat too," Hana agreed, turning to Lily. "Want me to feed you?"

"Uh… Thanks, I guess?" Lily awkwardly agreed.

While Lily still had the inscription saved in her wand, if she spat out three inscriptions instantly, it would probably shatter the still fragile confidence of her friend. Of course, if she spent time drawing three full inscriptions, while it would save their energy and legs, it would probably not save them any time.

Thus, her idea was to draw one, then say that her wand could copy the completed inscription. It was a bit of a roundabout solution, but it would prove that it took plenty of time and effort to achieve this, compared to a proper flight spell that could do it in seconds. It also had the added bonus of abusing the wand and keeping Arakil happy.

They made an impromptu resting spot, and Lily quickly got to work, starting to draw the inscription. She pulled Arakil out of her pocket, and while he displayed the drawing, she only glanced at it briefly for reference and confirmation. Whether she liked it or not, she was becoming quite proficient in drawing this inscription.

While Lily drew, her friends quickly ate, and then Lotte protected their perimeter not only from monsters, but also to ward off any students who might wander in and see their plan. As for Hana, she was off to the side next to Lily while occasionally placing food in her mouth. As awkward as she was about accepting this idea, when she was laser-focused on drawing, she barely paid attention to what she was chewing and eating.

Eventually, the inscription was complete, and as Lily let out a sigh of relief, Hana was at her side, holding out a refreshing canteen of cold water. "You worked really hard, thanks, Lily."

"Yeah, it's scary when you are in the drawing zone," Lotte replied. "Especially at the size of that thing. Is this your biggest drawing yet?"

"Biggest, no; complexity, yes," Lily answered after quenching her thirst.

"And you need to draw two more?" Lotte asked.

"Maybe I should have run at the start, and then you would've only needed to make two," Hana replied, clearly worried about the time.

"Don't worry. For inscriptions two and three, I can cheat a bit."

"Cheat?" Hana and Lotte asked almost at the same time.

Lily "pulled out" her wand, which was actually already in her grasp. Yes, when drawing the inscription, she had been doing the whole cloak thing the entire time, as it really had become second nature for her at this point.

"Oh, I almost forgot about your wand," Lotte admitted.

"I can copy the inscription with this," Lily explained while making the appropriate gesture, with perhaps a tiny bit of extra flourish.

Usually the process would be to absorb the inscription and then reproduce it, but that would be a waste of her Mana since it was already stored. It would also go against her excuse of needing to draw it first, so instead she pretended to duplicate the finished product rather than produce copies from scratch.

Her friends marveled at the two rapidly produced inscriptions, and judging by the fact Hana's mood hadn't soured, Lily's somewhat devious plan worked. However, there was no time to celebrate just yet, as they still had a lot of ground to cover and a hidden location to find afterward.

"Okay, let me teach you how these work," Lily explained, then went through a quick tutorial on their functions and the override gesture.

"I assume we won't be stopping unless there is an emergency?" Hana asked.

Lotte nodded. "Yeah, if we stop, then Lily has to stop and draw again."

Uh… Is one of these enough to reach the deep forest?

Lily glanced over the three inscriptions and frowned. Her original design was for a relatively brief flight, and it was baked into the sigils to be that way. Of course she could change that, but she didn't exactly know the distance.

{I think I need to remove the distance limitation so that we can travel the maximum distance. Is that okay?}

[The only issue with that is triggering the landing function. You need the minimum amount of Mana remaining; otherwise, the inscription will burn itself dry and leave you in the air.]

{I knew flying was a bad idea!}

[Don't worry. Just copy this sigil exactly into the third glyph.]

The pages unfurled in the book and revealed a brand-new sigil, and, judging by the extra detail on it, Lily suspected it must already have been configured for its purpose.

[This is a Mana reservation sigil. It will cause the third glyph to immediately store the required Mana it needs to function, so in the case you run out of fuel, you will still be able to land safely.]

Lily sighed with relief and quickly got to work, removing the original distance limit from the three inscriptions and then adding the new reservation sigil. Thankfully, it was just a sigil, so even though she was unfamiliar with it, its relatively simple design meant it was quick to copy.

[You might also want to enlarge these three, so that they have more Mana to work with. It's crude but effective, since we don't have the time to add auxiliary glyphs for extra capacity.]

Lily nodded, then, using the wand again, began to enlarge the three inscriptions. It was quite the workout on her Mana Core as the magical drawings hungrily ate while growing in response.

"Okay, correction, now it's the most complex and the biggest," Lily said to Lotte with a faint smile.

"Uh… Is everything okay?" Hana asked with a hint of worry.

"I was just making sure we had enough Mana to make the trip in one go. Just make sure to not accidentally use the stop gesture unless it's an emergency."

"No worries there, I don't think I can accidentally make such a weird wolf hand," Lotte replied.

"Are you sure it's not a fox?" Hana asked.

Lily sighed. "It can be whatever you want it to be, just remember that it's the emergency stop. Now… Shall we fly?"