Chapter 83: The Shortcut Tax
The faculty observation booth went dead silent.
Dozens of floating scrying panels illuminated the dark room, but every single instructor was staring at the feed from the eastern sector of Zone Two. They watched Arthur Vance shake rock dust off his coat as a restricted structural bypass opened in front of him.
"How," an older combat instructor said slowly, "did a first-year locate a restricted faculty bypass?"
Sitting at the tactical desk, Professor Elena Moon kept her posture perfectly rigid. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap, her fingernails digging painfully into her own palms to stop them from shaking.
"Cadet Vance has shown unusual aptitude in mana-echo interpretation," Elena said, her voice completely smooth. "He likely read the ambient pressure."
Instructor Morwenna leaned against the glass, her arms crossed over her chest. She slowly turned her head.
"Moon," Morwenna said.
Elena did not look away from the screen. "Yes?"
"Your face is doing that guilty elf thing."
"My face is academically neutral."
Morwenna barked a loud, echoing laugh, thoroughly enjoying the chaos. "Your pet student just robbed the exam. Let’s see if he survives the security tax."
Down in the dungeon, the hidden staircase was not a free walk.
As Squad 7 descended, the air grew incredibly heavy. The clean stone of the stairs was cracked, overgrown with thick, rotting vines from Zone One and jagged crystal spikes from Zone Two. The ambient mana pressure was thick enough to make it hard to breathe.
Arthur ran his hand along the wall, feeling the aggressive pulse of the dungeon.
"Keep your guards up," Arthur warned, drawing his daggers. "The academy system didn’t just give us a free pass. It merged the biomes to punish us for breaking the sequence."
"So you didn’t save us time," Felix complained, hauling his heavy shield down the steep stairs. "You just made the terrain worse."
"I saved us two hours of walking," Arthur corrected. "I never said it would be safer."
The stairs leveled out into a wide, dimly lit transition tunnel.
Just as they reached the floor, a heavy iron grate set into the left wall violently blew open. A cloud of dust and insect ichor spilled into the corridor, followed closely by Leon’s squad.
Squad 1 stepped out of the intended cavern exit, looking battered but victorious. Leon lowered his glowing sword. Cedric adjusted his massive kite shield.
They all froze, staring at Arthur’s squad, who were casually standing in the middle of a corridor that, according to the map, didn’t exist.
Alicia looked at the gaping hole in the solid rock wall behind Arthur. She sheathed her sword with a sharp click.
"You cheated," Alicia said flatly.
Arthur spun his dagger. "I studied."
Elara looked at the shattered crystal anchors and the perfect structural collapse of the wall.
"No," Elara sighed. "He cheated intelligently."
Leon let out a tired laugh, walking forward. "Well, regardless of how you got here, the miasma in this corridor is too thick. We shouldn’t split up. We move in one formation until we hit the Shrine doors."
Arthur looked down the long, suffocating tunnel. The air was literally turning green. "Agreed."
They fell into a natural, combined formation. Arthur and Alicia took the absolute front, their spacing naturally complementing each other. Felix and Cedric locked their massive shields together to cover the rear flank. Leon and Emily took the center, acting as a heavy burst-damage core, while Chloe and Elara stayed tightly protected in the middle to manage the toxic air and provide support.
"Watch your footwork, Vance," Alicia warned quietly, keeping her sword raised as they moved into the green fog. "I don’t want to trip over you."
"Just keep up, Valentine," Arthur replied, his eyes scanning the ceiling.
They didn’t make it thirty yards.
The ceiling above them cracked open. A massive, hybrid monstrosity dropped directly in front of the vanguard.
It was a Crystal-Root Stalker. The adaptive system had completely merged the threats of both zones. It had the horrific, wolf-like anatomy of the Rotwood beasts, but it was heavily plated in jagged cavern crystal. Thick, whip-like vines protruded from its spine, and a glowing blue core shifted rapidly under its ribcage.
It exhaled a thick cloud of green miasma and lunged.
"Center core!" Arthur yelled, diving to the right to avoid a massive crystal claw.
The fight was fast and messy. Emily and Leon stepped up, delivering a devastating combination of a holy strike and a steel-gauntlet haymaker that shattered the beast’s front armor.
But the Stalker didn’t stagger. It adapted. The glowing core shifted violently from its chest to its lower spine, abandoning its broken armor. The blue light slid under the crystal plating like a fish under ice.
Arthur saw the gap. He stepped into the beast’s blind spot, driving his dagger toward the newly exposed core.
He misread the vines.
As Arthur lunged, one of the thick, whip-like appendages snapped out from the beast’s back. It caught Arthur entirely off guard, whipping across his ribs with the force of a steel cable.
The impact threw Arthur backward. He hit the stone wall hard, his breath leaving his lungs in a sharp rush, blood instantly blooming across the side of his tunic.
The Stalker pivoted, raising a heavy crystal claw to impale him while he was down.
A silver blade flashed in the dim light.
Alicia stepped directly over Arthur, parrying the massive claw with a perfect, rigid block. The sheer force of the impact forced her boots to slide back against the stone, but she held the lock, giving Leon and Emily the exact opening they needed.
Leon drove his sword straight down through the beast’s skull, while Emily punched the exposed core on its spine into powder.
The Stalker collapsed into a heap of dead vines and shattered crystal.
Arthur grunted, holding his bleeding side as he pushed himself off the wall.
"I had it," Arthur said, wincing slightly.
Alicia looked back at him, lowering her sword. "You were bleeding on the floor."
Before Arthur could reply, Chloe rushed forward, pushing past Alicia entirely. She dropped to her knees next to Arthur, her hands already glowing with a warm, stabilizing light.
She pressed her hands firmly against his bleeding ribs, closing the gash in seconds. But as she healed him, Chloe didn’t look at Arthur. She glared quietly up at Alicia. It was a subtle, sharp look of pure, territorial jealousy. She didn’t like someone else stepping in to protect her squad leader.
Alicia noticed the glare. She raised an eyebrow, a faint smirk crossing her face, but she didn’t comment on it.
"Move up," Leon called out from the front. "We’re here."
The miasma cleared, revealing the end of the tunnel.
Massive, heavy iron double doors stood before them, marking the entrance to the Ruined Shrine.
Arthur wiped the remaining blood off his tunic, stepping up beside Leon to push the doors open. They had reached the Shrine well ahead of the academy’s projected pace. They were supposed to have time to set traps, catch their breath, and control the arena.
But as Arthur pushed the heavy doors open, the grinding sound of rusted metal echoed from inside the dark chamber.
Heavy, earth-shaking footsteps hit the stone floor. The difficulty adjustment hadn’t just added a mini-boss in the hallway. It had woken the final boss up early.
Arthur stared at the massive, moving silhouette beyond the shrine doors and sighed.
"I miss when cheating made things easier."