Raze continued to stare at the hallway where the mysterious man known as Zon had left from. Nothing was there, and it didn't seem like something would turn up, but as he continued to look, images were appearing in his head.
'I couldn't do anything, even though I finally became a three-star mage,' Raze thought to himself.
The images that were playing in his head were if he had acted. If he had thrown out a Dark pulse, he could see the man avoiding the attack, and before he could even react with his Pagna warrior techniques, the red sword would have been thrust right through his stomach.
Raze tried to play the scene again. Trying to use his wind powers, then trying what limited amount of ice powers he could use as well. This continued, but every time, the result seemed like it would end up the same.
That's when Raze decided to do one more thing; in his head, he started to imagine himself back with the strength he used to have as a nine-star Magus. All of the abilities he had, the preparation, it was only then that Raze could actually picture himself somewhat winning.
'He's that strong, just who was that guy? I've never seen anyone like him before?' Raze thought. 'Not only that, but it was clear that he knew about Mages and Alterian as well. It didn't seem like he saw them in the best light, but just what did he want with me?'
The whole thing was giving Raze a headache because not just the mysterious man but even the cave they were in. The wording on the wall and the magic circle below, all of it was a magic spell for a summoner-type mage.
It was a rare class of mage, but during Raze's time as a professor, he had read enough research books to know what the spells looked like. If he had to take a guess, the dimension boss beast they took down was summoned in this very room.
'Does Alterian have a lot more to do with everything going on than I first realized? Just how many secrets are those Supreme Magi hiding?' Raze clenched his fist. 'That man reacted strangely to the Alter group as well, and it's not the first time this has happened.'
Taking a deep breath, Raze soon realized that he didn't need to get involved in all of the complicated matters that surrounded everything. Instead, he just needed to focus on his original goal.
'I need to just continue getting stronger, get my strength back so things like that can't happen again.'
The sound of groaning could be heard coming from his right side. Eventually, a few rocks started to tumble as Gunther was starting to move.
Walking over, Gunther looked to be quite badly hurt. The single hit had broken through his naturally strong body, and the Qi he had used to defend himself, but he was still alive and was moving slowly.
"Take this," Raze said as he threw over a red-colored pill.
Moving his hand, and breaking through the pain, Gunther had caught it. He looked at the Qi pill and could see there was a small marking of DM on the pill.
Gunther had decided to trust the strange student in this situation and took the pill. "What's wrong, you don't want to get close to me, and pull me out of this mess?" Gunther asked.
However, Gunther soon noticed after taking the pill, a burst of Qi felt like it had entered his body. No, it wasn't that, but more so the cells in his body were activating and focusing on healing his body.
It wasn't a complete heal, it was actually quite a small amount; perhaps he had recovered only five percent of his injuries, but with how hurt he was, it was quite a large improvement.
'I'm starting to see why the Crimson Crane is after this person more and more,' Gunther thought as he stood up still holding onto his stomach. His armor had completely been ripped through, but the armor hadn't gone through his skin. Gunther wasn't sure if he had imagined it or not, but it almost felt like the man had pulled back his punch just before so it wouldn't do major damage. Or at least more damage than what was already done.
"So who was he, was he a friend?" Gunther asked.
"Not a friend, and no one that I know of," Raze answered, already walking off. He wanted to head and meet up with the others. His pace quickened a little.
Gunther was able to follow not far behind; he was just in no condition to fight anymore.
As they headed back through the tunnel at which they had come from, they had eventually entered the open cavern that split into two halves. When they were here, they could see the others as well.
"Crap, what happened to you!" Liam said, pointing at the hurt Gunther. There was some dry blood on top of his armor, so it was quite alarming to the kids.
"Was there someone that attacked you?" Dame asked. He had felt like something was in the room with them from before, and now he felt like this was confirmation.
"Yes," Raze replied. "We have no clue why he was here, or what he wanted, but he just attacked Gunther out of nowhere. Did you guys see anyone?"
"No," Simyon shook his head. "We didn't see anything; the only thing we managed to get our hands on was a book."
Safa was carrying the book with both hands, and when Raze looked at her, she stretched it out so he could get a better view. Seeing it, his eyes started to light up. n.)-(/)-()/(.I-)n
'Now I know why the ice magic had reacted to the other path.' Raze walked over and didn't even have to do anything because Safa had willingly given it to him.
After turning a few pages, Raze's confirmation was true. "This will do me well; thank you," Raze said.
What Raze had in his hands was a spellbook, but not just any spellbook, but one that focused on ice spells. The type of spells he needed to go with his new attribute.
This little trip had allowed him to gain more than he had imagined. With his dark magic, the book disappeared.
"Since none of you can read the book, I assume there is no need for me to share anything with you guys?" Raze asked.
He could see the look on Liam's face when Raze had taken the book, but since Raze had a point, he felt like he couldn't exactly say anything.
With the incident that had occurred with Gunther, the group decided it was best for them to leave the place. They had no clue when the attacker was going to go after them again.
Dame was actually the one that had strongly suggested this. Whatever had taken care of Gunther, if it was the same thing that he had seen, then Dame wouldn't stand much of a chance against that person either.
They got more than they wished from this place and it was time for them to leave. Simyon and Liam gave Gunther a shoulder, helping him along, while the rest continued back where they had come from.
They had eventually reached the portal in the same location from before.
"I never want to come back to one of these places again," Liam commented, rubbing the back of his neck, which was still a little sore. "At least, not any time soon. Maybe when we have to go with the entire academy?"
The others were exhausted, a lot of the adrenaline had already left their bodies after meeting the dimension boss; they were more than ready to head back.
Each one of them stepped back through the portal, and Raze, taking one more look behind him, had stepped through the portal as well.
With a zip and a zap, each one of them found themselves back in the thick fog, only there was a difference this time. There was no longer any portal. From the deep foot imprints in the ground that Raze had made, they knew they were back and in the right place.
"Alright, time for us to head to the academy," Simyon said, "and I can eventually get some rest."
The group stayed close to each other so they could see one another in the fog; they also needed Dame to help them climb back up. But that's when Safa was starting to panic; she was twisting and turning her head.
Simyon was the first to notice this.
"Wait, where's Raze?" Simyon asked.
"You guys go ahead," Raze's voice traveled through the fog. "There's something I still need to do."
