Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

After being provided with the opportunity to eat breakfast, all of the students within the department were gathered outside the entrance to the Spiritual Tomb: Albion. Most of them had explored the Mining City, Magi's Fair, in the past so they weren't particularly interested in the hustle and bustle surrounding them. Rather, as students of the Department of Unified Thaumaturgical Theory, they were the center of attention, much like rare and exotic beasts that everyone was interested in but too afraid to approach.

Everyone had already been assigned their groups at this point so, with Companions included, there ten groups with six individuals, one group with eight, and one group with twelve. The largest group was only so due to the fact that Astrid had brought along her small entourage of Companions as she specialized almost exclusively in support and healing Magecraft. Her seven Companions had grown quite attached to her so, while it was possible for her to leave some behind, they would be restless if she was in danger while they were just idling about in their room.

Teams were distributed in a way that allowed power to be spread across each team so, as the most powerful student in the class, Mordred ended up paired together with the three weakest students. This gave her the largest team, sans Companions, but, due to the massive gap in strength, it wasn't an exaggeration to say her team members were anchors. She would have to protect them and make sound judgment calls to keep them out of trouble as, while it was easy to complete the simple tasks and just leave, her pride didn't really allow such things.

As could be expected, the three weakest members of the class were all former members of the Clock Tower's Department of General Studies. They consisted of a single male student, David, and two of the more shy and demure female members of the class, Alissandra, and Berenice. Despite the girls' shy nature, however, the boy seemed a lot more nervous than everyone else as, while it was lucky of him to be paired with Mordred, his instinct as a Magus warned him of the coming danger.

Mordred knew what must be going through all three of her teammate's minds but she kept her calm and confident smile as she explained, "We'll focus on the D-Rank Objective before moving our way up the list. This will be an opportunity for you to grow so I'll leave the easier objectives to the six of you to complete. If there is any danger, Neko and I will step in to protect you. Once we encounter an enemy beyond your capabilities, I'll deal with it personally. Any questions?"

Of the three, Berenice, a girl with light brown hair and grey-blue eyes sheepishly raised her hand and asked, "If we are unable to complete the objectives before the closing of the gate...will we stay inside overnight...?"

Hearing the question, Mordred gave a somewhat sly smile before shaking her head and saying, "Not this time. My intuition tells me that we're also being graded on how quickly we complete our given tasks so we'll return to the surface before the gate closes. Don't worry, though, even if we do end up getting stuck inside, I have plenty of supplies to last for upwards of a month."

The trio was able to relax a bit when they heard the first part of Mordred's statement but, hearing the second half, they couldn't help but feel she had triggered some event. Berenice and Alissandra gave each other knowing looks while David, despite earning a few laughs from students in the surrounding area, hugged his sheep-like Companion a little tighter. It, in turn, gave him a gentle pat on the arm so he was able to calm down a little bit while internally remarking, ("After today, I'll work harder to become stronger...").

David was one of the trio of male students that believed themselves to be ostracized by the rest of the class so he had a lot to reflect upon after learning the value of points. As it was possible to earn bonus points by showing up to non-mandatory training sessions, he suddenly felt that idling about in his room had been a mistake. His Rank was actually the lowest in the entire class so, in the past, Mordred had even offered to help him out after their usual lessons.

Believing that Mordred had just wanted to hang out but, David had ignorantly believed his fortune had turned around but, after an hour of hellish training, he was certain she was just bullying him. It was due to this initial incident that he sought the other male students to complain to and, as they had all experienced 'hardships' of their own, it had been easy for them to become friends. It was only now, after a month of classes, that David began to realize that they were quickly being left behind by the rest of the class.

This expedition was an opportunity for those with few points to earn a considerable amount due to the fact that they were all assigned to groups with a powerful leader. As for people like David, this was a wake-up call that reminded him that the Empire wasn't looking for people that only did the bare minimum. The rewards of the shop were beyond anything he could have imagined in the past so, in order to secure his future, he needed to obtain a few precious resources to strengthen himself as both a Magus and a Magic Knight...

David's sentiments weren't uniquely his own as, after seeing the items listed on the monitor, even the students of the Atlas Temple seemed motivated. They had noticed some items that were almost impossible to obtain in the modern world so, if it was true that they could be purchased, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that the Empire's capabilities already exceeded their Temple and it's near-three-thousand years of history.

---

At precisely 10:00 AM, it was finally time for the Baseline Expedition to begin so, after another short reminder to stay safe, Da Vinci released the teams into the Spirit Tomb. Each group passed through a large transparent blue portal that, at a glance, looked like a perfectly circular pond. However, while it was active, the portal connected to a large spiraling staircase that led into the Spirit Tomb's highest layer, the Great Magic Circuit known as the Vein Corridor: Od Vena. Here, the mana saturation was a startling 11%, making it more than five times more potent than the mana found on the Surface.

All of the students felt the increase in mana but, back in her own group, Sakura turned her eyes toward the rainbow-like aurora winding down the long spiraling path. It was quite beautiful and, though they were supposed to be descending into the earth, the surroundings actually opened up wider as they descended while, outside of the few gaps that were present, an endless void seemed to stretch out into eternity. This was due to the fact that, after passing through the Gate, you would enter into a unique Bounded Field, a sub-dimension created by the True Dragon's will...

Upon reaching a landing, each of the groups began to split off in random directions, some choosing to stay together for mutual protection. As for Sakura, she had been designated as the leader of her group so, after glancing at her classmates, two girls named Irene and Kana, she turned to Momo and said, "Momo, please lead us to the area where we can find Crystal Mandrake."

Irene and Kana were momentarily confused by Sakura's decision to task Momo with leading the way but, before they could ask, she explained, "Our Companions aren't just adorable. They are extremely intelligent and have access to a larger network of information. That diagram Professor Alpha put on display should be stored within their shared network. So long as the location of an item is known, it should be possible for our Companions to lead us there."

Hearing Sakura's explanation, the two girls looked at their own Companions, a dog and fox variation, with glittering eyes. In response, their Companions adopted somewhat silly smiles on their faces that caused the girls' hearts to do backflips as they picked up the adorable creatures to snuggle. Sakura saw this and offered a smile of her own but, rather than idle for too long, she gestured to the duo and said, "Come, we should hurry. If the area is looted by other people, we'll have to wait until the materials respawn or risk having to venture deeper to obtain them."

With Sakura's reminder, the girls became more serious as complacency really was the number one cause of death within the Spirit Tomb. They also recognized this as an opportunity to make a good impression on Sakura as, for the first time since they had started attending class, this was the only instance they had seen the Imperial Quintet split up. The only one that seemed to move about on her own was Mordred so this was a rare chance to become friends with someone they believed to be an Imperial Princess...

---

As the Spirit Tomb was the body of a legendary True Dragon, many parts of it were still full of vitality, despite more than two thousand years having passed since its death. Though most of the 'walls' had solidified into an extremely hard substance, there were areas where fleshy bits could be found. These places served as monster nurseries and, if not purged periodically, a horrifying phenomenon known as a stampede could occur.

Fortunately, this was an extremely rare occurrence and, with the increased flow of traffic into and out of the Spirit Tomb, the density of monsters in the upper chambers had reduced significantly. Because of this, Sakura's party had an easy time reaching the location where Crystal Mandrake could usually be found. The downside, however, was that the alchemical material had already been looted so they would have to wait upwards of four hours for another one to be produced.

Sakura didn't particularly care about things like points but, considering how important such things were to her classmates, she wanted to support them. With this in mind, she spread her mana out like thin threads and, upon detecting a foreign mana signature, she turned to allies and said, "We'll try and hunt some monsters by wandering the surrounding chambers. We can earn some extra points by killing weaker enemies and periodically check back to see if the mandrake has respawned. Is that okay with the four of you...?"

Points were heavily sought after right now so, upon hearing Sakura's words, Irene and Kana were more than willing to go hunting. This wasn't their first time in the Spirit Tomb so the only monsters were things like Giant Rats, Slimes, and other magical creatures. You would have to venture to the upper floors of the 'Ancient Heart', the middle region of the Spirit Tomb, before you started coming across truly dangerous enemies.

With her team's consent, Sakura had the two girls take the lead so that she could protect their real and view the entire situation. Since point allocation depended on contribution, the girls would have to kill their own monsters if they wanted the most benefits. Sakura understood this and, knowing it was a lot easier for her to obtain resources compared to other students, she didn't mind letting them benefit.

In this manner, Kana and Irene, using single burst [Sagitta Magicka], began to clear out every single monster they encountered. This spell was quickly becoming even more popular than [Gandr] as the flexibility it provided was something only advanced users of [Gandr] would be able to pull off. The students of the True Mage course had been surprised that such a simple and versatile spell existed but, as this was only scratching the surface of the mountain of revelations they had received from their brilliant Professor, it had already become 'normal' for them...

Sakura was happy to see her fellow classmates having fun but, as she had trained under both Artoria and Galahad, she never once dropped her guard. She continued to send out threads of mana, one of the unique ways in which she could make use of her overwhelming Od. Using these, she could easily probe ahead to find dangerous monsters and, in some situations, other students. This allowed her to guide the group towards safer pathways but, despite changing course several times, she was also aware of the group of people that had been following them shortly after they split off from the rest of the groups...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'RIP David','Everyone is point hungry~','What is it that people say about those that go seeking trouble...?')

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