Dragon Master: The SSS-Ranked School Belle Asked Me To Contract Her

"What the hell is this?"

Even though he asked it, Veer felt a strange familiarity with it. It was as if he had experienced it before and that feeling also brought a disgust towards it.

Shaking his head, he ignored the unusual feeling and examined the Mana Shard closely. It was weird, and unlike any Mana Shard he had ever seen.

It was like a fragment of a shattered glass and filled with a dark mist that was leaking away gradually. He furrowed his brows and muttered.

"No wonder I felt the familiarity. This is the same Dark Mist that snake had."

"Huh? Which snake?"

"The one we faced to get here. It was Rain's trial And we had to go through a Portal. Unfortunately, this snake names Dark Mist Guardian was guarding the entrance so we fought it. It also became the first nutrient for Rain's Aspect."

"What? Why did you allow her to do that?"

Veer was startled as Aurora grabbed his collar and hissed at him. She tightened her grip and said, "Do you even know what this mist is?"

"How would I know?"

"Exactly! Anyway, since she seems to be fine then there shouldn't be much problem," Aurora said, as she bit her nails and began to mutter something Veer couldn't hear.

"Hey, atleast tell me what is it?" Veer asked, worried and guilty as he was the one who allowed Rain to devour things and he had even left her all alone.

"This mist is Corrupted Mana," Aurora sighed and answered. "We don't know what it is clearly but it's related to the Dark Era. Apparently, most Magical Creatures from the Dark Era had this in them."

Veer frowned, as he looked at the dark mist swirling in the Mana Shard. Meanwhile, Aurora continued, "It's very harmful and could corrupt anyone. It feeds on other's mana and then change it's nature. It wouldn't be much problem here but every Corrupted Creature is haunted by madness and hunger."

She looked down at the beast and sighed, "You must have seen it it's eyes. The hunger, the wrongness. It's as if these creatures aren't supposed to exist but are there to bring the end of the world. Many speculate that the war of Dark Era happened because of them."

Veer hummed and said, "And maybe these Labyrinths were made to contain these creatures. This was a weak one and even the Corrupted Mana it carries isn't that powerful. But what about the powerful ones?"

"Yeah, that's a bad news. I expected this but it's still surprising," Aurora said, as she told up. "Still, it's weird how some have the Corrupted Mana but others don't. We had slayed so many Magical Creatures and most of them were normal."

"Maybe it's because of this cave," Veer said, as he looked in the distance where the tunnel just kept going on forever. "Maybe that's why they led us here."

"Possible. But that means we'll have to be even more careful. The Corrupted Mana gives them a boost in strength and every other factor," Aurora said. "Like this beast, it was much more powerful than normal Novice Stage."

"Now I'm worried about her," Veer muttered.

"Nothing should happen to her as she had already assimilated with the Corrupted Mana," Aurora smiled. "In fact, it seem like she's the perfect person to fight corruption. You see, if you fight too many Corrupted Creatures, there is a high chance you'll get Corrupted even if you don't get affected directly."

"Yeah, according to her Aspect description, she can basically devour anything to benefit herself," Veer heaved a sighed of relief. "Well, this means she'll be going down this route then."

"Hmm, well, we don't have time to worry about her as our situation isn't very optimistic," Aurora said, as she played with her needle. "And after escaping from this, I'll go kill them all."

Veer smiled and stood up, as he said, "Well then, let's conquer this cave or tunnel, whatever it is."

They were going to walk forward when Aurora remembered something and stopped. Taking out a compass, she knocked on her head lightly, "I completely forgot about this."

"Huh? Would compass even work here? I'm pretty sure that guy messed up with our senses too." Veer said.

"It's not normal compass," Aurora grinned. "All of my Artefacts are from my Clan and they're marked by special tracker Runes. Even Grandmasters would struggle to get it off."

Veer smacked his head, as he has almost forgot about it. Of course, top clans would have security of top level. If anyone dared to steal from them, they would be found easily and then punished thoroughly.

One such Artefact was with David, the one which boosted Vitality. Aurora had given it intentionally as she wanted to track them. The Runes of her clan were special and it could be tracked through Space-Time curvatures.

Only through their Runemasters they had risen so high in ranks, after all.

Aurora quickly activated the compass and looked at it's needle hovering around for a while before it came to halt. She followed the directions and sure enough, it was opposite to where they were going.

"Hehe, this compass doesn't just point out direction but also the most optimal way to reach there," Aurora grinned, as a dangerous glint passed through her eyes. "Let's hunt some assassins today."

Veer chuckled softly but also took out his new blade. Joining Aurora, he dashed in the direction the compass pointed. Fortunately, there was enough illumination from some Illumination rocks so they didn't have to take out their own Illumination Artefacts. Continue your adventure at My Virtual Library Empire

It didn't take them long before they were forced to stop, as they had encountered a barrier. It was transperant and if their senses weren't strong, they would have collided with it.

Veer picked up a pebble and threw it before him. It travelled for while but soon encountered an invisible wall where it was turned to dust in matter of moments.

"They really went all out to kill us, huh," Veer chuckled. "And all of this because her Seer saw a vision."

"What do we do now? I don't think we can break the barrier."