Fighting against the Mana Beast for so long had him worn out and downright fed up with the situation. The creatures used pack mentality and a ravenous hunger instinct that came at him hard. More than the cunning of the Striped Hyena, they looked like. No matter how many were cut down, more would appear; they seemed almost endless.
"Tch!" William cut down two more that jumped at his back with a turn. The ground was turning sloppy from all of the blood. William's footwork was not good enough to make up for this at all. "Dammit!" Collapsing to a knee was the worse of the matter.
He was starting to feel the effects of the Dungeon a little more now. Dizzyness and paranoia turned higher with each scratch taken from a Mana Beast.
A Ghoulish Striped Hyena Mana Beast stalked out, dragging chains. In its mouth, a Discipline Student was currently getting eaten. Where it picked the student up from didn't matter to William.
"So how crappy is the security in this Dungeon?" William asked to know one in particular. The student in the mouth of the Mana Beast spasmed a little but was already a goner after a gusher of blood shot out. The Ghoulish Mana Beast actually stopped to lick the blood up like it was an elixer of some sort. "Well.. that's an option."
William cut the bodies of the Striped Hyenas to cause more of their blood to gush out all over. Moving slowly to conserve energy and keep the beast in his eyesight. Seeing the chains dragging along defintely made the situation worse.
If it broke out of restrains and killed a Discipline Student, then odds are it wouldn't be taken down by him and a backup would not arrive.
So far, he determined it didn't really detect him yet.
*Squeak! Squeak!* Two small cries went out in the room. William barely looked over to the location but didn't see anything. It came at the right time as a few more Striped Hyenas ran out and attacked the Ghoul Beast.
The first one that made it within an inch was cut down by a turn of a chain when the head whipped around. The Ghoul Beast was actually capable of using its restraints as weapons.
"Hi Hii!" The Striped Hyena let out a more painful whimper than a cry out. The chain cut across its face and broke the bottom jaw. "Hi.. Hii..." The whimper was even lower as the blood that seeped out went towards the chains.
'Ok.. bad idea to touch those maybe.' William stepped back from circling around. The chains were taking up to much of the area to allow it to be safe. 'I just need the time to recover and make a full dash for it.'
Before he could formulate the rest of that plan, the Ghoul Beast was tackled to the floor by several of the Striped Hyenas. Quantity won out as they tore into it. Even ignoring the chains that dried them up.
Despite this, it was clear enough of them would not arrive to take it down. But the sound of more crying out could be heard in the distance. Surviving against the Striped Hyenas was somewhat viable by running and jumping nonstop maybe.
"Vermin..." William's blood ran cold as the Ghoul Beast actually spoke in a way. The Realm it would have to be at to do that would need to be really high. "... my "Home" is infested with Vermin.."
If William were in a better condition, he would be able to act better and think more about what was just said.
*Squeak!* A Rat popped out of a hole and scurried across the way under the fighting Mana Beasts. The Ghoul Beast was just close enough to smell its scent. It took a bite at the ground catching its decaying jaw in some stone when missing.
Caught and pinned down further, its neck was exposed for a strike.
'Best chance!' William made a slight mistake in his actions. He circled all of his reserve Mana to dash across. 'I should be able to make it pass its reach!' The Ghoul Beast had a gold glow spread in its eye socket as it changed directions. "Shit!"
William was caught by his back leg at the last moment. With a swallowing capacity of a snake, the mouth unhinged a little and bit back down enough to catch his upper thigh.
"AHHHH!" William's cry was filled with so much pain and anguish it made him sick to hear it. 'It's saliva!' A burning corrosive type of liquid sent constant pain through his side. Only the use of his Body Cultivation kept it from going anywhere else. "LET GO!"
Attacking it wildly without restraint, William was no different than the Striped Hyenas. In fact, the mana beasts bit and chomped in ways to get him free.
To any onlooker that came up, they would assume William was just some Feral Cultivator fighting with his Conclave. But that would be silly with the Akademy not having those courses taught anymore.
With a bite, William bit the eye out of the Mana Beast and chewed it out. Its fangs sunk deeper into his leg before swinging him into a wall with such force, his bones broke and his skull cracked in the back.
Knowledge System: Multiple External Hardrives detected. Extensive damage to Cooling Fan..
"Grr!" William let out a snarl ignoring the notifications. A bit of his Mind still allows him to go for vital areas thanks to the coupling information of the Striped Hyenas Pack Mentality acting as a guide. "Grooo!"
With a grind of the teeth, William devoured the eyeball and lunged at the Ghoul Beast with the Hyenas. The movement of each of them improved thanks to one thing, Williams Soul conveyed Military tactics to the Pack Mentality.
"Vermin...." The Ghoul Beast eyed William as the main threat, but the improvement to the other Mana Beast tipped the scale further. "..get out of my home!"
A Striped Hyena came from underneath. Latching on to the throat and pulling at the throat muscles and a vast majority of its jaw. Another latched on to the back and pulled it back down. With two more going for the hind legs ignoring the chains completely.
*Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!* The Rat moved around out of its hiding place once more. Its smell baiting the Foul Beast and causing the chains to pull towards the side.
Lead that way, it was opened to counterattacks once more. William stabbed into the side of the Foul Beast. Stabbing with such blows his skin peeled back further and allowed the acidic type blood to seep into him.
"Grrrr!" William growled in little recognition to the pain, but not enough to wake him from the haze. Sword Intent grew stronger naturally from this and carved up the creature's insides. "Grroo?"
A piece of fastened metal was felt against a bruised knuckle next to the lungs. Like the chains, it burned and absorbed Williams Blood.
With a clutch of the fingers, Mana wrapped around like little daggers on William. A swipe and wild kick from him missed the creature's nose and head. It hit the wall. William damaged his body even further. His arm was mangled and dangling in the socket.
*Rumble!* The fighting shook enough of the already weakened wall to cause a problem. A piece came down forcing William to the ground. The Foul Mana Beast looked at him with more recognition than a creature should have.
A Striped Hyena cut path across the air. Delivering a cut to the nose and splitting it in two.
The Foul Mana Beast could no longer smell William and could no longer see him like the others to well. It stomped about striking all over wildly with the chains whipping about causing more damage.
*Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!* The sound of the Rat came out. The Striped Hyenas pulled back listening to the command. The influence William was under weakened enough for him to regain control of himself due to the proximity change.
The Rat was not the only one observing of the situation. A figure Astral Project themselves out of range of William and the Mana Beasts while watching. With a wave of the hand tucked into its coat, the rumbling of the Dungeon and its aftershocks completely stopped.
.
Faculty Room-
.
Several Coordinators were gathered in a meeting before a noble burst in with several family guards in tow. The symbol of their house, a two-headed Falcon showed brightly with a defiant look in its gaze. The dark brown feathers are the same colors as the family's main line eyes. Members of House Amalienburg very rarely did anything without cause.
The Vice-Dean addressed the situation with poise and a taciturn mood. Showing himself to be more in control than he actually was.
"This is a closed meeting, how dare you barge into our chambers. You best have a good reason for this."
"Of course." A young man of house Amalienburg responded carefully. "This is a signed Writ by the Marquess to bring Student-Teacher William before the Duchy to answer for the Life & Death Duel that took place recently."
The document was brought forth just a tier lower than that of the King. The Marquess of Amalienburg was a long-standing Duchy with power beyond its station some would say.
They wouldn't say it to the members' face of course.
"This says he is to be rewarded for acting with the Pride of a Loyalist!" The Vice-Dean read the writ over three times to make sure this was true. His old mind was very aware of the possible power game that could be at play. "Correct me if I am wrong, but William if of the Lancaster Duchy, surely the.."
"Student Teacher William was already removed from the Main Family previously." A sweet voice said from among the Amalienburg members. He needed know real introduction as one of the 10 Vice Roys of the Duchy. "To discard such a prominent student and member.. is such a foolish move on their part."
"Be that as it may," The Discipline Coordinator would not allow any real disruption to settle in. "Currently, Teacher William is serving a punishment in the Dungeon."
"On what grounds!?" The young man of house Amalienburg baring slipped a little. A few of his house gave a look but it was ignored by the obvious youth's inability to pick up on the situation. "First this filthy excuse of an institution allowed him to get hurt, now this!"
"Forgive the young lord Barnabus truly," the Vice Roy grabbed the youth and pulled him back. Covering his mouth with a playful smile. "please indulge us on what William has done to get sent to the Dungeon. It's not to much to ask for an Inquiry yes?"
Those of the School Board shifted nervously. Those who would be implicated in regards to a formal inquiry into the matter.
"An Inquiry can take place after we finish." The Student Coordinator said cooly. All eyes were on him to see what he planned to do about the situation. "Right now, this takes precedence. Health Coordinator Bailey can take of that no issue."
As the Student Coordinator, he was supposed to take point on something like this. A Health Coordinator would be a secondary choice for this kind of matter.
Basically giving respect to the Duchy but also controlling the situation a little by not doing it himself.
"That will be fine, won't it?" The Vice-Dean followed up with a sense of bravado. 'If the Student Coordinator department wants to cause an issue or take over this mess by golly they can have it. Where is the Dean when he is needed most? He should have been back by now.'
The Dean left on some urgent matters not to long ago. Something about visiting the old Sealing Grounds. Which suited the Vice Dean perfectly well to not go and deal with that mess of business.
"That is fine, the Health Department has no input on any other matters anyway." Health Coordinator Bailey and the other Coordinators that sat in the upper areas got up to leave. "As for the Inquiry, it shouldn't take to much time really."
"The History Department and Occupation Department are dismissed as well." The Discipline Coordinator had made a small motion to remove a few of the other Loyalist groups from the room. "The budget changes do not affect either of their departments after all."
No one argued at this. Simply because it was the truth and they didn't want any trouble.
William came to with more questions than anything. He spent the last few hours going over the Device Manager to find out what all happened. A total of three different plugins had connected to him somehow. One was the Foul Mana Beast acidic saliva secretions that the Virus Protection determined something unusual about it. It contained human blood mixed inside it. Not from just eating the Discipline Student, but because of something else. Two, the various Striped Hyena-like Mana Beasts affected him enough to connect with him. Even altering his actions to the normal degree. Suppressing a sense of self-preservation and leaning more towards that of the Pack comes first. Third, he only learned from listening really closely and looking around while recovering another Mana Beast was involved. A subtle push and prod towards him maybe while fighting to influence the fight. "Tch!" William scooped the blood up despite the burning sensation it cause
"Fuck!" Clawing at the ground only gave some relief, William felt a sense of hatred wash over him to get back at who placed him here. 'I will figure this out before getting away from the Akademy! Whoever put me here.. I will make sure to pay them back!'*Whoosh!* Mana swirled around wildly. It was clear and very pure. Mental energy running rampant within William. The forming of something within him felt broken and unstable by all accounts and so violent it made road rage in the summer feel like a tantrum.Knowledge System: Mental Realm upgraded to Pillar Rank II. Opening Zip File...Parts of Computer Programming from Backup files were working against him now. The question on how it was done after everything he did before was just to much of a hassle for now. Flashes of the other William messing with something in a messy room came up.Several old Glyphs and lots of mirrors of old that looked like Computer screens were in use. The young Lancaster member act
It was the middle of the night, the first day William felt something was genuinely amiss with what happened.After most of the day was spent dealing with the School Board snoops that came over and visited during his time in the Medical area with false pleasantries, a bunch of little brown nosers trying to get credit for reporting back on his condition.Knowledge System: Full Scan Complete. 72 Virus Quarantine in the vault. 231 eliminated, report complete."Tch!" The 231 eliminated viruses; he could barely make heads or tails out of what they were from. 'Has to be from the bites and scratches. At least I gained a little Mana from them getting taken care of, the same as when I helped my students. But the 72 Quartine ones..'William was not strong enough to get rid of them outright safely. If not for the fact his laptop and other backpack items existed inside him currently, there would be a big problem, or he would be dead by now.'If I can just get t
Coordinator Bailey finally acted and guided her students. Not forgetting to harvest the crystals but she actually used some of her Blood Energy to keep him stable with the others while giving orders."Well, he almost got it right. Accept Kimberely is dead." The Health Student smiled as she explained to the others. "Kimberely was my older sister. She was engaged to William's cousin Bertrand. That was years ago, though...."A small twinkle was noticeable if you paid attention to he left eye. Whether it was harmful to William or beneficial to him remained to be seen in the future."Then his memory might have been stirred by recent events." Coordinator Bailey rubbed her chin before focusing on finishing the procedure at hand. "Keep this quiet from everyone. Unless you want trouble, you can't get yourself out of."The students said nothing as they followed orders..Waking Up-.William woke up just before the sun rose. Not op
The class was going on fine and dandy for the last month. Not a single issue popped up until today. The Kingdom was attacked by its neighbor over a Mineral Dispute. The escalation was pretty quick. With the previous tension with the neighboring kingdom, an attack was bound to happen. This was just a precursor to full war members on both sides were looking for. Mostly for gaining benefits for possible threatening issues with increasing Mana Beasts situations. As long as the stronger Mana Users were not in play, the situation would be fine for the general populace. A sort of power checkmate to keep from escalating the situation. The Draft came around pretty damn quick. Faster than any that happened in William's previous Dimension. Not to critical in the criteria either. Able bodies with no promising future were snatched up. Those with money and a fair enough education were able to dodge the draft. "Student Teacher William," the Healer Coordinator of all people came to him personally
The Kingdom was quite fast in the deployment of forces. Less than a day and William with several were at the engagement zone. The benefit of not having de-escalated the forces from previous matters already.The Kingdom was slowly turning back into a Military State and Mindset.William was in a full suit of armor the same as the others in the squad he was assigned to. A mixture of 2nd Years to 8th Year students.The Health Coordinator, Bailey had provided him with some basic swords fro use. Not showing favoritism to him or any other in the group with special equipment. Literally just grabbing them from a truck while William was securing provisions for the squad itself to make sure it went well.The fact she trusted him to carry it out tipped the former Lancaster Noble ti her having looked into his background some. The Lancasters were known to have a good handle of Logistics in wartime and out of it.William mostly relied on what he knew from the Mod
The mana Beasts he dealt with were plentiful but thankfully weak. He found after most of the fighting and checking some bite marks that Venom didn't affect him. Didn't even trigger the Virus Protection or anything like that for his Computer.'Over 13 bites, and nothing. Is it because of my body is so high or because of the Ghoul Mana Beast mana essence I absorbed by the Rat?' William cut down the last of the Vipers taking out the Toxin Sacs while recovering. 'The movement skill needs more work and is not really better than my Body's output itself.'More and more traits were showing for him to become a Body Type Cultivator with the other 2 of the 3 that makes a person stay a grade under it. He still needed to wait for more to really determine since resources will shrink in the future without a lot of funds.Taking out the Bowl from the Dungeon and mixing the Venom Sacs in, he followed the same method as what he learned for the Flesh and Bodies. The bubbling orang
Running was getting to him now. The injuries were starting to bother him. Running smack dab into a patrol for another group was the biggest mistake in moving about so far."Nope!" William darted off the side but not before sending up another flare. If the other members didn't make it towards the mine yet they better hurry the hell up. Passing a few dead soldiers scattered about, it wasn't difficult to gain hold of them for personal use. 'No more cover and now this!'"We have a real prize here!" An enemy soldier said with glee. "A former Seatholder out on his own!" The odds of someone recognizing him as low, but not impossible. Especially with the camouflage of mud and dirt mostly blown and sweated off."Such a shitty way to address someone!" Swinging his arm with the momentum of the run, William downed at least one before he was forced to confront the others. "I am not the best anymore, but I won't go down nicely!"Knowledge System: Overclock Enable
Currently, Marisole was surrounded by Library Enforcers after she was pried away from William abruptly. The only good thing is that they acted after he disconnected. The Malware the female librarian was infected with was way lower and weaker than Health Coordinator Bailey."I am telling you all I am fine!" Marisole protests were ignored of course. Held back by the enforcers as her Grandfather had William pinned to a wall. Leading with emotions instead of coming to logical choices currently. "You are making a serious mistake! He was helping me!"The difference in the Body And Mind attainment made things helpless. If not for William's Soul so strong and the Firewall Protection from his Computer System, this would have ended the moment the old man came into the room."Grr!" William had blood leaking from his mouth as he pushed back like a strangled dog. Controlling the remaining Swords from the 36 Strikes striking at the oddly large hand holding him by the throat.
There were so many things that continued to throw William for a loop. Whether it was the customs or the way the people ate, something just kept giving him pause during contemplation.The lack of meat for sale after looking further into it was due to the rarity of Hunters, Warriors, or even Poachers' mind you not wanting to give up the resources.As for sending off the children to the Akademy or the Military itself, it was better than Enduntured Servitude by a large margin. Checks into the other teaching facilities went from promising to overall not gonna happen.'Fees to enter those facilities of better learning. At least the Akademy lets poor people in. Despite how shitty they treat everyone overall.' William leaned against the building waiting for the Library to open in the city. Several of his students talked while waiting on the side. 'If something a little better happens to any student, the various Departments try to recruit them quickly as possible.'
Medical-.Health Coordinator Bailey was in her office talking to her "close" students. The room was sealed up pretty nicely and was not opening up anytime soon. The regular students would take care of the day to day issues that pop up if treatment is needed."Regina.. why did you put that ribbon in his hair?" One of the older students asked. Curious about what happened the day they checked William over."To keep people away from him. Big sis Bailey needs to make her move before it is to late. Someone might snatch him up before she knows it." Regina gave a sly grin and the idea of someone caught the older woman's eye was appealing. "Keep it up and the others will think you are a Sapphist like aunty.""I told you it is not like that." Coordinator Bailey leaned in her chair reviewing the notes William gave her once more. They were so detailed that she couldn't quite get over the fact it didn't show a trace of sabotage or anything like that. "Surely h
William was currently giving a lecture on the Method of a Basic Heart Method. The "Stifling Anger" could either help change the heart into a mana-producing organ or make it eat the mana in the body to help with healing.He lost two students in the last week to them giving into challenges. No assistance or intervention was done by him. True to his word in regards to his students who didn't listen.As for those that declined and then harassed, well those people found themselves in trouble further with the Health Department, Military Department, and Disciplinary Department. Not to mention William himself reported each of the students that harassed them formally.Few people took kindly to this. Citing he went above his station to protect those students. But as a Military Officer, even a low-ranking one, William could make it really bad if they go against him for upholding the law."Each of you has the perfect fuel for this. The Mana Essence should be detectab
.Disciplining students-.Tempering 3 into 1 gave a good groundwork to use. Especially filling in some of what he was looking for. Abolishing his cultivation to redo it to gain answers was looking better and better.To provoke some and see if there is anything he was missing, William sent a proposal in regards to "Cultivation Swallowing" to the School Board when the Meeting started back up.Of course, it was a subject mentioned before but not a single Faculty member was willing to help in that regard. Over a hundred Teachers and Student-teachers and not a one wanted to study or apply for the course.Teacher Hill along with his students were present as well. Appointed in a dual teacher role by a few who pressured it. Some using the rumors of William's incident with the interogation to cause trouble.Gathered in the field as normal, Williams students were griping and groaning. A few eyed him with looks of frustration between his
William was not happy about his current situation. He was stuck in an Auditorium listening to people gripe about students and other teachers causing them trouble. He did his best to focus on the book he was reading that hinted at a set of ruins to the south.Why the Teacher Meeting was carrying on like this was beyond him. The high-up Coordinators were not even in the room anymore. Not to mention the Dean and Vice-Dean did not even enter the room.'Possible Archaeology Dig in a Different Dimension! How exciting!' The smile on William's face caught another student teacher's attention. Not that he paid attention to it. 'After I complete my experiment to fix all the trouble gained from before and those bastards marking me. My back hurts something fierce when I cultivate.'"William," the other student-teacher called out. When he didn't answer they got loud. A few others called out to him."William!" They were still ignored. But he did wave a hand up."
"A few weeks tops, I came across a Ghoul Mana Beast in the Dungeon at the Akademy. It did not go well for me. AS far as it being defeated, it was a matter of circumstance and.. some Rat.""Rat?" The third one with features similar to that of a Bat Falcon showed interest. "Did it look no different than a typical Rat Mana Beast? No special hair or anything like that?""Correct. Did some weird movements that seemed to give it the ability to command or influence the Striped Hyena there. The weird Ghoul Mana Beast even talked about vermin in its home. Whatever that meant." William found himself having trouble moving even his head. Something painful passed along the center of the back when he forced it. "How about you just let me get out of here and we go our separate ways?""Nonsense. We have much more to discuss." Captain Colotyl smiled then reached out touching William's face. A brush of the thumb that could cut through wood did nothing of course. "Your Body is com
William was a few miles away and only felt more worried about the stream of Essences turning into Mana that started to condense thicker. Running none stop and cultivating was just not in the cards to do smartly. But at least his movement technique grew leaps and bounds.Knowledge System: Talkback Feature enabled Satelite Uplink connected. Autoconnect Incoming transmission...William stopped in place due to pure surprise."William.. Claire... Pete.." The breaking of the voice ended once he moved a little to the left. A quick check to the connection level revealed it had increased two full bars. "..anyone respond.""This... this is Dr.William, I have no idea where the others are. Neither if they have any working gear. In fact.." Looking down at the bomb that was made of stone and glowing Glyphs, he was still trying to figure out how it worked in regards to his computer. "... I am barely surviving now. Attacked by hostiles in great number."A bi
Knowledge System: Body Pillar Realm Rank XII achieved. Overall increase in Blood Energy. Storage Capacity increased by 6. Terrabytes. Mental Pillar Realm Rank V achieved. 2% increase in understanding of Palm Techniques. Soul Pillar Realm Rank XII achieved. Body, Mind, Soul Energy increased."Thanks." William got up shaking the grim off. Coordinator Bailey having a look of astonishment looking down at her hands. Finger flexing in a weird way. "What is it?""Whatever you study has helped me improve." Her mouth closing repeadetly like a fish out of water. "With how your apertures work with the various energies inside, I found myself increasing in strength and understanding. How did you do it?"The woman wouldn't come out and say it, but William's value just increased a large margin."By constantly circulating my mana I guess. I mean all my techniques are at the Akademy to use. I also engage with my students." It wasn't a li