Chapter 45 – Unexpected Failure
“Teacher, why do you look unhappy?” Alyssa asked as she gazed at Zwei with big, innocent eyes. She had been particularly happy ever since Zwei said he would solve the vampire problem. In her eyes, her teacher was the strongest, and vampires were insignificant existences.
“It’s nothing,” Zwei replied in a slightly depressed tone.
Originally, he had made up his mind not to get involved in this matter yet had impulsively made such a declaration just now. Sure enough, impulse was the greatest enemy of mankind!
However, he couldn’t take back his words. In that case, he might as well go all out and solve this matter rather than waste time regretting his actions.
Fortunately, from what Father Tony said, the vampire was currently only capable of creating ordinary walking corpses instead of tricky minions like hungry corpses or plague corpses. It would seem that the other party was only a Level 12 to Level 15 Vampire Baron that had broken free of the shackles of life just recently.
If it were before his promotion, Zwei naturally wouldn’t stand a chance against a vampire baron. However, since he was now a Basic Magician, he had a chance of victory.
Now, the only thing Zwei needed to worry about was the vampire’s location. Since he had taken such conspicuous action, the other party would naturally hear of it. Anything he did now would definitely come under the vampire’s scrutiny.
Just as Zwei was pondering a solution, the back of his robe suddenly got tugged, making him stagger.
For some reason, Tio, who had been following him closely, had an anguished expression as she knelt weakly on the ground. Only her right hand continued to clutch Zwei’s robe tightly.
“Little Tio, what’s wrong? “Alyssa exclaimed.
Zwei was also shocked. He immediately reached out to support the girl.
If something happened to Tio, then things would get truly troublesome.
“I don’t know… I just feel a little dizzy,” Tio replied weakly. At this time, her complexion was pale, and her lips lacked even a trace of blood.
However, when Zwei placed his hand on her forehead, he didn’t detect any symptoms of a fever.
As someone who lacked medical knowledge, Zwei was at a loss in this situation. Hence, he resorted to feeding Tio one of the Magic Academy System’s Healing Potions.
Surprisingly, Tio’s condition actually stabilized, and she fell asleep in Zwei’s arms.
However, even when Tio had fallen asleep, Zwei and Alyssa still didn’t know what just happened. Did Tio get sick because of a hidden illness she originally had? Or was it because of the changes in her environment? Or did the vampire somehow manage to place a curse on her?
“Regardless, let’s head back to Old Vita’s home first,” Zwei decided after coming up clueless.
In response, Alyssa nodded in agreement and quickly stood up from her squatting posture. However, perhaps because she had been overly anxious before, her body wobbled a little before she managed to stand firm.
“Are you alright?” Zwei asked out of concern.
“It’s okay. I just stood up too quickly and got a little dizzy,” Alyssa answered, not finding anything special about her condition. Although getting dizzy from standing up too quickly wasn’t a common phenomenon, it wasn’t exactly unheard-of, either.
Zwei, who also understood a little about this principle, felt relieved.
However, after returning to Old Vita’s home, Zwei discovered that both Old John and Old Vita were also feeling weak.
This situation made Zwei uneasy.
Why did the people around him suddenly start experiencing dizziness? Was it because the vampire had already begun its attack on them? Or had the walking corpses spread some strange disease across the town?
When Zwei saw the gutted fish on the kitchen chopping board, realization dawned upon him.
After lunch, Zwei went out for a walk by himself and returned to Old Vita’s home only after he had confirmed his conjecture.
“I’m going to meditate. Alyssa, guard the corridor for me. Nobody is to enter my room without permission, understand?”
“Yes, Teacher.”
Zwei had finally grabbed the vampire’s tail. However, seeing as the other party still wasn’t aware that their identity had been exposed, Zwei decided to take advantage of this opportunity for further training. At the same time, he wanted to see whether he could conquer a new dungeon and obtain an additional Proof of the Strong and some other rewards.
He was inside the second floor’s northern bedroom, whereas Tio was sleeping in the second floor’s southern bedroom. He didn’t have to worry about getting caught sneaking through spacetime.
At this point, the dungeon named “Honing Tower’s First Floor” had already disappeared from the Trial Gate’s panel.
This situation made Zwei very depressed. After all, it meant that he had lost not only access to the dungeon’s rewards but also his opportunity to get revenge on the titan tarantula that had put him in a miserable state.
However, because of his promotion, the yellow spots representing certain dungeons had turned green, indicating that the dungeons were now accessible.
For example, there was the Yellow Sand Dunes’ subsequent dungeon, the Sand Pirates’ Stronghold. The Sand Pirates’ Stronghold’s activation condition was to have “Yellow Sand Dunes cleared at evaluation B or above” and “be at the Basic Magician rank.”
Aside from the Sand Pirates’ Stronghold, there was also a new dungeon called the Moonlight Lakeside.
Of course, Zwei currently had no plans to raid these two new dungeons. If the conclusion he came to inside the Yellow Sand Dunes was correct, then he could receive an S-rank evaluation only on his first clear.
Although he didn’t know what kind of dungeons the Sand Pirates’ Stronghold and Moonlight Lakeside were or what kind of monsters were in them, he definitely wouldn’t be able to clear them easily if he went in unprepared. He would simply be wasting his chance at obtaining S-rank evaluations—something his currently impoverished self could not afford.
Hence, Zwei set his sights on the two dungeons that had already been activated even before he conquered the Honing Tower’s First Floor—the Night Forest’s Heart and Coral Sea Path.
He set the latter aside for now. The Night Forest dungeons, on the other hand, had only goblins as monsters, based on his past experiences. The Night Forest’s Heart shouldn’t be an exception to this pattern, either.
In Zwei’s opinion, goblins were no different from cannon fodder in front of his current combat power. Hence, he chose to enter the Night Forest’s Heart.
The next moment, his figure disappeared from the small room.
Then, about 15 minutes later, he reappeared in the room. However, unlike the spirited look he wore when he first left for the dungeon, his face was now covered in a cold sweat. He was also panting as if he had just had some strenuous exercise.
A change had also occurred to the blue dial tattoo on the back of Zwei’s right hand. The pointer of the rococo-style clock face now pointed to the sector representing three.
In just 15 minutes, he had actually died in a dungeon filled with only goblins!