The Hero Became a Succubus! - Chapter 188

Alt link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HoG5XtPWyHlkKtWnQC0HdP9LlzkfEcvvqWJvhmHqi8k/edit?usp=drive_link

Chapter 188

The red letters formed a giant image of Instructor Marwin's old, wizened face. He peered down at them and smiled.

"Hello, students!" Marwin exclaimed in all his bubbly energy. "This next challenge shall test whether or not you have been paying attention in class. I know several of you have fallen asleep during lessons—"

Nelly shot Teana the side-eye, making her shrink in the seat.

"This is your chance to make it up. Success shall reward you with the key to the throne chamber. Failure means ejection from the Rift. Since you're all in this together, I permit the sharing of answers! Answer four out of five questions correctly and you move on. However, all of you must come to an agreement on the answer. Simple enough, yes? Let us begin!"

Their desks shifted to face the four of them together. Nelly, Teana, and Daya immediately looked to the smartest of them for help— Mikki.

"Ehh? You want me to answer all of the questions? There's no way! I won't know everything," Mikki said.

"First question: What is the name of the lands currently ruled by demons?" Marwin asked.

This one was easy.

"Oh, it's Artaggon!" Mikki answered promptly and proudly. "This is going to be a piece of cake after all!"

Everyone nodded in agreement and, using the pencil and paper given to them, wrote the answer down on it.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

A shrill bell rang out. Next to their written answer, a green check mark seared onto the paper. The timer also reset to one minute again.

"Second question: What is the political power structure of Radevic?"

"I-I know this!" Teana exclaimed. "Theocratic… monarchy, right?"

"Close, but not quite. Having a king usually throws people off, but it's actually a theocratic oligarchy, jointly ruled by an elected heirless sovereign, an archbishop, and the Grand Eye," Mikki explained in absolute confidence.

The group wrote it down, because the other three wouldn't know any better.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

When the same check mark appeared, Nelly and Daya lavished Mikki with praise. The budding alchemist blushed, but her humility thanked Aidenhall's teachers instead. Teana chewed on the eraser end of her pencil. She wanted to be praised, too. At this rate, Mikki was going to answer all five questions.

"Question three: Which religion currently boasts the greatest followers?"

"It has to be the One!" Teana answered.

Mikki shook her head. "That would be correct if we're talking about individual deities, the Supreme One has the most followers. However, since The Many is a collection of many gods, there are a lot more people when counted together. There are even followers in Ortesia and Artaggon!"

While everyone wrote the answer down, Teana stared down at her own paper and frowned. They glanced around with confusion when the sound effect didn't play and the check mark didn't appear. Instead, an annoying buzzer sounded and caused everyone to plug their ears.

"Wh-What happened? I know for sure that was correct!" Mikki cried.

"It wasn't you. It's Teana." Daya growled and pointed to Teana's paper, where she hadn't yet changed her answer. "Don't you trust Mikki? She's the smartest one here, so we're better off listening to her. Now we have to get the next two questions correct, or we're screwed."

Teana lifted her gaze to Nelly, who offered a nod.

"Sorry, everyone…" Teana lowered her head apologetically.

For the next question, everyone listened to Mikki as usual and the answer was correct. Teana couldn't help but feel guilty about messing up the third. She only wanted to be helpful…

"Question five: Prior to No Man's Land's shift into becoming the Commonwealth of Sin, who were the undisputed leaders of Highgreen and Talahurah?"

Nelly and Teana exchanged knowing looks.

"Uhm… I know for sure Margrave Grell was just Grell at the time, but for Talahurah… isn't it Chieftain Sheeba?" Mikki appeared stumped.

"It's not Sheeba!" Teana shouted.

"Not this again. You're going to fail us on the aptitude test. Just write down Mikki's answer!" Daya urged impatiently.

"But…"

Teana folded her hands together and nibbled on her quivering lower lip. Mikki couldn't have known, since she was born after Mama defeated Talon and ended her reign. Daya was mistaking Sheeba because the lioness was named leader for years now.

"Look, Daya. I know Teana got the third question wrong, but she and I have lived in No Man's Land before it was the Commonwealth. We know for sure Sheeba wasn't the leader of Talahurah at the time," Nelly explained.

A light touch fell atop Teana's shaky hand.

"I trust my big sister," Mikki said.

"Nelly, Mikki…" Teana drew a sharp breath. "The answer is Grell and Talon!"

They wrote the names down and held their breaths…

Ding! Ding! Ding!

When the green check mark appeared, they expelled the stale air from their lungs. The magical bandings released them.

"You did it!" Mikki threw her arms over Teana, rubbing their cheeks against each other. She turned a shaming glare at Daya. "I think you owe someone an apology."

"Alright, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you feel bad. Nice work… Teana," Daya said in the best apologetic manner she could muster.

"Thanks for believing in me, everyone…" Teana smiled, pressing her index fingers together out of embarrassment.

The papers they had written merged together, folding upon each other until they formed another key but with a garnet jewel at its base. Nelly picked it up and stowed it away. Down below on the first floor of the round library, a door opened up.

"Looks like we have our way out," Nelly said.

"One more key to go. I hope Pan and Revah are okay…" Teana muttered worriedly.

As soon as they landed on the first floor, a chest in the middle of the room snapped open. The party all jumped back, fearing it might be a mimic. Instead, they found supplies within. Nelly resupplied his quiver with arrows, Daya stored the jerky rations into her satchel, and Mikki picked up a couple of alchemical reagents.

"Before we go forward, I think I should definitely be in front," Teana insisted.

"In that case, I'll be by your side as a Scout," Nelly said.

"That works out, because Mikki over here can't wait to concoct something with the stuff we just got." Daya gestured to Mikki clinging to her back, brewing potions with alchemical instruments harnessed to their chests.

"Ehehe… I can make a firebomb with silver maple leaves… Ginsbeard root can substitute mandrakes to make dragon's blood elixir," Mikki chanted to herself having fallen in the zone when it came to alchemy.

When that happened, nothing would snap her out of it until she finished.

They pressed forward through the open door and into a wide, dungeon corridor. First a greenhouse, a pantry, and a library just earlier… Anything could be next. Teana was feeling motivated more than ever after passing Marwin's trivia trial. She couldn't wait to tell Mama everything.

Until then…

"Pan, Revah… Wherever you are, hang in there!" Teana whispered.

Danger Sense triggered. Teana lifted a hand to give the group pause. Multiple high level monsters were nearby. Nelly sensed it next, and he tensed up. Eagle Eye was a skill specific to the crowned dark elven Scouts. It allowed them to sense the proximity of enemies through movements in the terrain. Paired with Danger Sense, the two skills allowed them to skirt monsters and take up advantageous positions.

In the confined space of a dungeon, however…

"As far as I can tell… five monsters," Nelly said.

"Where?" Daya asked, sniffing the air in search of them.

Teana eyed down the dark corridor but saw nothing. Her gaze wandered to the walls to the side of them, the very same that had taken Pan and Revah. Through the gaps between stone blocks, something slimy began to emerge.

"Slimes! They're all around us!" Teana exclaimed.

"Slimes?" Mikki beamed with excitement. "I can use their core for— ahh!"

They bolted down the corridor against her wishes.

"We can collect slime cores for you after we complete the aptitude test!" Daya exclaimed.

Teana glanced over her shoulder. The five multi-colored slimes amalgamated into a single, rainbow blob and chased after them.

"Awww! There's a red slime though. Those are parasitic. Greens aren't really corrosive and get a bad rep for their colors. Black tastes like honey! Oh, and blue and yellow are the only ones that are actually dangerous. Weirdly enough, they all lose their unique properties when the core shatters," Mikki explained while they were on the run.

"Why do you know all this?!" Daya panted.

"Aha… Mama and Auntie Edina run a franchise called Sexy Slime Goods, so we happen to hear a lot about it," Teana said.

"So, what does it mean when they merge together?" Nelly asked, his legs beginning to give out until Teana carried him in flight.

Neither Mikki nor Teana were sure.

"When enough slimes amalgamate, they become a slime king. Usually their cores fuse together, but it's not the case for this one." Mikki shrugged.

"Crap!" Daya cried out and crashed to the ground alongside Mikki.

A slime tentacle had snatched their ankles.

"Daya, Mikki!" Teana spun around.

"Don't get any closer!" Daya bared her fangs at the slime monster. "Curse of Decay!"

The cores inside their gelatinous body cracked, but they didn't shatter. It engulfed both of them whole. Daya clawed at the surface, but it was too thick to break through. Meanwhile, Mikki was turning blue. When Daya saw that, she swam towards Mikki and pressed their lips together, offering her last breath of air.

"Damn it… " Nelly cursed under his breath. "We don't have a choice but to find Revah. As a rogue subclass, she should have skills to puncture it—"

"I can do it!" Teana planted both feet firmly on the ground and shoved her javelin bag into Nelly's arms, then pulled one out.

The slime was fast approaching, so she couldn't miss a single shot. Teana breathed deeply and launched the javelin. It plunged deep into the gelatinous body, the tip of the steel point shattered one core. The slime stopped moving and shuddered violently. Nelly handed Teana one javelin after another, and she nailed each throw.

Finally, without any cores left, the monster deflated. Daya and Mikki were able to crawl out of the inert slime, gasping for air as they did.

"Nice… shot…" Daya groaned.

"I couldn't have done it without you making the cores brittle." Teana offered Daya a hand to get up.

"You're not so bad after all." She clasped Teana's hand.

"Quit standing around, Nelly. Help me scoop these into jars!" Mikki pleaded to him while on her knees filling as much slime into containers as possible.

"Ugh… It's so sticky and gross though…" Nelly complained.

Daya and Teana bursted into laughter as they watched them get dirty.

"Your sister can be a pain, you know?" Daya remarked playfully.

"Hey, that's my baby sister you're talking about! But I'm glad it's you she took a liking to. I saw what you did for her inside the slime. I thought that was really cool of you!" Teana beamed.

"Uh… Y-Yeah." She glanced away, blushing red and tail whipping a little too fast. "You sisters have the same happy-go-lucky attitude…"

Teana cocked her head sideways.

"Guys! There's a door down this way!" Nelly, accompanied by a slime-drenched Mikki, hollered from farther down the corridor.

The two joined the others in front of a heavy iron door. There were sounds of fighting from within. Teana's Danger Sense was sounding alarm bells louder than the chimera. They pushed together and opened the door enough to squeeze through.

Inside, a hulking reptilian creature roared from the center of the chamber. Pan and Revah were battling three heads— and losing. One head knocked both of them square across the chamber, and Revah landed at Teana's feet.

"Revah!" Teana picked up her groaning sister.

"Teana…" Revah's misty eyes were full of relief, but she quickly rubbed the wetness away. "What took you?"

"We had a trial of our own. What in the three hells is that?" Nelly gaped.

"Leviathan. Its weakness and strength is the head. They split if we lop it off, but we have no choice but to cut it anyway," Daya explained with a low, cautious snarl.

A head scooped up Pan in its jaws.

"No!" Teana lunged forth and chucked a javelin at the base of the leviathan's throat.

It screeched in agony, letting Pan drop from its mouth. Teana swooped in to catch and ferry her away to safety.

"Pan, are you okay?" Teana asked, shaking her sister awake.

"Put me down! Let go!" Pan thrashed until it was too dangerous to stay in the air.

Teana emergency-landed. As a consequence, they were far from the safety of being in a group with the others. Pan struggled to stay standing and had to use her gnarled staff to prop herself up. When Teana tried to offer a shoulder to lean on, she shoved her away.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you being so difficult?" Teana confronted her.

"You four had your own trial, right? Well, this is mine and Revah's. If we can't handle this, what good am I? Revah is plenty strong, but what about me? I have to grow stronger, too, so why won't you just leave me alone and let me do this on my own!" Pan cried.

"Because I'm your big sister!" she yelled, matching Pan's frustration with anger and surprising her younger sister. "I want you to depend on me because I love you! Of course, I don't want to leave you alone… Why wouldn't I? Mama told me to protect all of you. I'm the oldest. It's my duty as the big sister. Pan, you can talk to me! What's getting you so worked up?"

"I… because they left Auntie Edina behind! She's been laying in a coma for days. The only people who visit her are me and the doctors. What about you? Didn't Auntie play with you the most as a baby? You're always on about never leaving anyone behind. I get it. Mom left you behind once, and it hurt. But isn't everyone being a hypocrite for leaving Auntie behind? It's just… so frustrating that no one wants to acknowledge that she's in pain, but I will. I'll be there for her even if no one else will!"

They stared at each other in silence for what felt like an eternity. Teana didn't know what to say. She had no idea Pan was struggling so much inside.

"That's what I thought." Pan spun around to face the leviathan, but Teana grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.

"We're all doing our best right now. Mama, too. It's because I was left behind once that I know she has our best interest in mind. Sometimes she messes up, but I forgive her because I love her. That's why, I know there's no way Mama's forgotten about Auntie Edina. Pan, when we get out, let's go tell Auntie all about it together. How about it?" Teana opened her arms.

"Ugh… That sappy side of you reminds me of Mom. I'm soooo glad I didn't inherit it, because I'd die of cringe. Fine, Teana. That's a promise!" she exclaimed, taking Teana's arms to stay steady.

Revah had been keeping the leviathan busy with net traps upon net traps. Exhaustion was beginning to show. Anymore, and she might push Nelly down in the middle of battle to feed.

"Teana, Pan!" Mikki shouted from across the chamber. "To defeat the leviathan, we have to cut all the heads off at the same time and prevent it from regenerating! The body will die soon after!"

"My Curse of Necrosis can do the trick, but we have to find a way to cut the heads off!" Daya added.

"You're the slippery one. Go! Lightning Shield!" Pan casted a spell that wreathed Teana in a barrier of orbiting balls of electricity.

Teana pulled two javelins out of her bag and charged ahead. Three heads to cut, but none of them had any weapons to slice with. It was already an uphill battle.

Two of the heads chased after Teana until a volley of arrows plunged into its scale. The third head roared at Nelly, so he tossed the bow aside to draw a short sword and buckler instead. They ran circles around the monster and met up in the middle.

"Mikki wanted me to give you this. Says it's a dragon's blood elixir that raises strength." Nelly handed Teana the deep red vial, and she drank it right away.

The STR stat rose from B to A. Teana felt strong enough to take on even Estaline.

One head slammed down on top of them, but they dove out of the way first. Teana, using a javelin in each hand, stabbed into the neck. It roared in pain, thrashing around in an attempt to knock her off. She reached all the way to the top and plunged one javelin deep into the head, then leaped off onto a second head to do the same.

"Pan, now!" Teana shouted.

"Chain Lightning!" Pan fired off a violent, electrical current.

Teana jumped off just in time. Lightning struck the javelins first, surging through the rest of the leviathan's body. Two heads, fried to a crisp, landed on the ground and began to disintegrate.

"Create Trap: Bear Trap." Revah ran up the neck of the third and magically manifested a giant metal mouth that clamped down on the leviathan's final head. The strength of which chomped off the head entirely.

As the body and head toppled, Daya rushed in to cast Curse of Decay. All three heads were beginning to regrow, a pair in each neck, but the necrotizing effects slowed them down.

"It's not enough?" Daya clicked her tongue.

"Oh, it will be! Everyone, get back!" Mikki yelled and flung a bright orange beaker that shattered against the leviathan's body.

The oily substance combusted immediately into blue flames. Teana picked up Nelly and flew away as the fire grew into an inferno. It was so hot and devastating, charred flesh peeled right off the bones and turned to ashes. Even parts of the body that wasn't doused started burning.

Everyone except Mikki gaped.

"What the hells was that, Mikki?" Pan asked.

"Hehe. That's what happens if you mix a silver maple leaf with corrosive yellow slime! I'm a genius, aren't I? Ahhhh! The feeling of witnessing a successful concoction is so exhilarating! This must be how Miss Rosaline feels!" Mikki's eyes widened with impassioned and frenzied awe.

"Uh. I think that feeling is just the fire," Nelly retorted.

A fist-sized skull in the shape of the leviathan head appeared on Teana's waistband, joining the few other monster skulls she had slain in the past. This was her 'Trophy' as a crowned Headhunter. Now, she could call upon its spiritual power once a day.

[Leviathan's Skull: Activate to heal yours or another's wound, even a fatal one.]

Once the flames began to wane, it died out rather quickly. Only ashes were left behind. Pan conjured a gust to blow away the pile of ash, revealing two unstained items underneath it all: an emerald key and tiny, ornate box.

"What is it? Looks too small to be a chest like the one from the trivia trial," Nelly said.

"I'm not sure." Teana picked up the box and dusted it off, then the lid popped open.

Mama appeared before them like she was right there.

"Mom!" Pan, Revah, and Mikki crowded around Teana and the box.

"Is this working?" Mama asked and received an affirmative answer from Madam Bedlam to the side. She cleared her throat, then faced Teana. "Girls, Daya, and Nelly. If you're hearing this, that means you completed your aptitude test. Congratulations! I'm sooooo proud of all of you! Seriously, I couldn't be happier. I only recorded one for your success, because that's how confident I was you would all succeed. It must have been tough, but your fight is over now. You were probably worried the whole way through. I know the other initiates were getting on your nerves. Today, you proved them wrong and proved me right—"

Auntie Arenade butted into the image. "Are you done yet? I want to leave a message to Nelly! I'm proud of you, sport! Ace those tests, alright? I'm not accepting anything lower than perf—"

"Hey, stop! Wait your turn!" she pushed her away.

Nelly put a hand to his face and sighed, but he couldn't hide his own smile.

Mama continued, "Mikki, Pan, Revah, and Teana. I love you girls, so so so much! Eliza's telling me that the magic won't record much longer. I'll be quick. Teana, Eliza and Marwin told me that you've been struggling in classes. You're always looking after your little sisters, but don't forget— You can rely on them, too. When I get back, let's go out together as a family!"

The illusion cut.

Mikki and Pan were outright bawling their eyes out, and Teana was barely holding it in. Revah had turned around, probably to hide that her eyes were tearing up.

"Thanks, Mama. I won't forget." Teana clenched her fists and filled with resolve.

"Must be nice having a mother like that," Daya muttered.

"You're part of this family, too." Mikki entwined her fingers with Daya's and smiled.

"Well, if everyone's thoroughly embarrassed by their moms, we have a test to finish." Nelly approached the door and slotted all three keys into the keyholes.

A gust of wind rushed into the chamber, then right back out. It sucked them through. All six of them came spilling out of the portal on top of each other, lying under the blanket of night and tall towers of Aidenhall.

An instructor and a couple of priests rushed up to them. They quickly began administering healing magic.

"Did we… pass?" Mikki asked.

"Yes!" The instructor nodded. "Well before the 48-hour time limit, I might add!"

"There's a banquet waiting for you in the dining halls. Junior knights only, so that means all six of you!" an elven priest exclaimed, presenting them with fresh tabards.

Teana picked up Pan and dusted her shoulders off.

"You guys go ahead. Pan and I will catch up later," Teana said.

"Are you sure?" Nelly asked, turning around with the other three.

"Huh? Wait, why?" Pan returned Teana with genuine confusion.

"I promised you inside the Rift, didn't I? Let's go tell Auntie Edina all about today," she insisted.

Pan's eyes glossed over with tears. She wiped them off with her ashy sleeve.

"Okay!" Pan nodded.