“What the fuck is this pce?” Amyra uttered as she came to yet another dead end. She was certain that this was where she came from. It had only been half a day. The memories were still fresh and clear. This was, without a doubt, where the stairs were supposed to be, the stairs that led to the surface. Yet, it wasn’t there. “Is this magic?” she wondered. There were no contraptions involved. The seams would be obvious to her trained eyes. Therefore, it could only be magic. However, there were also no traces of magic, or at least none that she was aware of. She had Appraisal, but it didn’t help. It wasn’t showing anything that might expin this abnormality.

  She searched the dead end thoroughly. She looked through every nook and cranny, even the deep corners of the edges. Still, she found nothing that might suggest or indicate that there had once been a staircase or at least a pathway through this way. She resigned to her blunder after a long moment of contemption. She must have made a wrong turn somewhere. As she tried to return the way she came, she was met with another confounding moment. The path she came from was no longer there. In its stead, there was a door.

  “...Illusion?” Amyra mused. At this point, this was the only logical conclusion she could come to. If she were trapped in an illusion, it would expin why Appraisal was not showing anything, and also why she couldn’t perceive anything out of the ordinary. However, this begged a question. When was the illusion spell cast, and how would she go about breaking out of it. She punched the wall that surrounded her. Her strength made a rge crack on the wall, but the crack faded away in mere seconds, as if the damage just now was only an illusion, which it was. “No other way, huh?”

  Resolving herself, Amyra approached the door and grasped the knob. Instead of turning the knob, she pced her ear against the door. There was no sound on the other side, but that didn’t mean there was nothing on the other side. She was in an illusion, and everything was deceptive. Still, there was no way but forward. She hesitated for a while before twisting and turning the knob. After a click resounded from the door, she shoved it open gently.

  “Oh, what do you know?” Amyra muttered. What y before her was a hallway that stretched out further than her eye could see. Though disgruntled, she was not disheartened. In fact, it was the contrary. It was a familiar scenery. Or rather, a familiar trick. A simple yet effective spell, one that had been employed by many evil mages to confuse a person who intruded into their ir, especially if the ir was located in a dungeon. She was quite accustomed to this spell.

  Loop, that was the name of this illusion spell. Its name was self-expnatory. It put the affected individual into a looping hallucination until the caster’s Mana was completely drained or cut off. This illusion was simple, but the mana expenditure was high. No common mage would be able to sustain this illusion for more than a minute or so. Therefore, the caster would often use a proxy as the illusion’s Mana supply, which was why this illusion spell was often only used in dungeons, where Mana was abundant and condensed.

  “Is this a dungeon?” Amyra asked no one in particur.

  A dungeon was basically an underground maze of tunnels that housed all sorts of dangers and threats, and was also rich in Mana, be it in the air or in the soil. The cause of the emergence of various dangers and threats was still unknown but schors had rgely attributed the cause to the mutation of the natural environment and also creatures that were lured into the dungeon by the abundance of Mana. However, if this was a dungeon, it was unlike any dungeon Amyra had ever seen. Dungeons were naturally formed, but this one was clearly artificial. Artificial constructs would not st in dungeons, as the terrains and the environment would degrade and absorb any foreign constructs. On the other hand, if this pce were truly a dungeon, it would expin why the abominable monster from before existed and was unable to leave this pce.

  But whatever the truth of the matter was, Amyra’s priority was to get herself out of this illusion and find her way to Aedan. If this illusion were not any different from the one she knew of, then it would be easy to break out of it. She had done it more than a dozen times. She just needed to do what she did best, and that was destroying her opponents or obstacles. As this was one of the simplest illusion spells, the method to destroy the spell was also just as simple.

  Amyra brought her hands together and began gathering Mana into her palms. The air around her began to whirl, and the space around her hands started to ripple. The faint glow in her palms grew into a brilliant radiance. Just as the accumuted Mana in her hands was on the verge of spilling out of her grasp, Amyra converted the Mana into her primary magic attribute, fire. The moment that she did, a huge explosion ensued from her palms. The explosion ravaged the floors, tore through the walls, and blew off the ceiling. The entire confined space of the very illusion burst into pieces as the raging fmes enveloped everything in its fury.

  Everything was plunged into darkness.

  Then, Amyra opened her eyes. She was back in the corridor, right before the turn to the corner where the staircase to upstairs was. She didn’t waste any time. She immediately turned right at the end of the corridor, and there it was, the stairs. She was free from the illusion. She sighed in relief. Fortunately, this Loop illusion spell was not any different from the one she knew. If it were, she would have no idea what to do.

  Amyra climbed the stairs without any further dey. She did not take the stairs to the surface. It would be foolish if she simply strode out of there through the front door. Moreover, escaping this pce was not her primary goal.

  She got off the stairs at the floor just one level above. If the bottommost floor was where the cells were, then the floor above it must be where the interrogation rooms were. She was no stranger to gaols. Given her temperament, it wouldn’t be strange that she had some experience. Using what she knew, she swiftly navigated the maze-like corridors and hallways. There weren’t many guards. In fact, there were no guards at all. This wasn’t strange. This was simply hubris. There was only one way out of here, and the prisoners must get past the monster before making their way to the surface. Whatever that monster was, the guards had utter faith that it would be able to prevent the prisoners from even thinking of escaping. Regardless to Amyra, it worked in her favour.

  Though there were many turns and doors, Amyra only needed to choose the ones where the floors were the least stained. The frequent movements would keep the floors retively cleaner than those with significantly fewer movements.

  The same was true for the doors. There were many doors with cobwebs and dust, indicating that they hadn’t been moved for a very long time. The puddles and the dampness of the floor were also great guidance. It showed the footprints of those who recently went through certain paths. After following all the clues, Amyra was led to a corridor that stretched on further than any of the corridors.

  There was a door just beside her, and this door was made of iron, unlike the others, which were all made of wood. Whatever was behind this door must be important. There was even a lock on the tch handle. A mere simple lock was nothing to Amyra. She grasped the lock tightly and yanked it off the handle. She tossed the mangled lock aside and kicked open the door. There was also a surprise waiting for her within.

  This room appeared to be a storage room for all the articles and possessions taken from the prisoners. Her giant cleaver of a sword, amongst them and also the rest of her gear. Amyra’s expression gleamed with joy, but it turned upside down immediately. “Sons of bitches!” she seethed when she saw how her sword and gear were treated. There were no proper means of storage for all of the confiscated items. They were all just thrown and shoved into one corner.

  She hastily collected and gathered her things before reequipping herself with her weapon and gear. She patted herself after she had fully reequipped herself, making sure nothing was missing. Everything was still here, even the scrolls, which were mildly strange as spell scrolls would fetch quite the gold. From what she could tell, all the items that remained here were old, crude, and worn, things that wouldn’t sell for much. Either the guards misjudged her possessions, or—

  “The guards will be back for my things,” Amyra concluded.

  As if right on cue, the door swung open.

  “The door’s unlocked?” muttered the short and stout man who came walking into the room. He wasn’t very bright as he only realised the door was unlocked after he entered the room.

  Amyra hadn’t seen the man before, but judging by the way he was clothed and dressed, she could only guess that he was the gaoler. She reckoned competency was not a requirement for this job. The man looked neither intimidating nor menacing. If anything, the man looked feeble and vulnerable.

  “Huh? Who are you?” the gaoler eventually realised Amyra’s presence. “You’re no guard. You don’t dress like one.”

  “A fine observation you have made,” Amyra scoffed. “Can’t say the same for your brain.”

  “What the hell are you— Hah! You’re an escaped prisoner!”

  Amyra rolled her eyes. “Very quick on the uptake.”

  The gaoler immediately dashed out of the room. But before he could make it anywhere far, he was knocked unconscious by Amyra with a kick to the head.

  She then dragged the unconscious gaoler into the storage room and sealed it shut by crumpling the door’s tch along with the frame’s tch together.

  “I must be on the right path,” Amyra said to herself as she continued on down the corridor.

  There was only a single door in this corridor, aside from the one storage room, and it was near the end. Though she made quite a sound when she knocked the gaoler unconscious, she still kept her steps silent and steady as she approached the door. She didn’t need to pce her ear on the door to tell that there was no one in the room.

  There was no knob on the door, only a handle. So, Amyra just pushed the door gently and it swung open. She entered the room. It was truly empty, but she wasn’t deterred. She appraised the room and found a spell rune enchanted on one corner of the room. It was a portal rune. She touched the rune and poured her Mana into it. The rune glowed, and a whirling pool of darkness was formed.

  Before Amyra could even begin to contempte her next move, a hand emerged from the whirling pool. Amyra narrowly dodged the hand that was aiming for her neck. She tossed herself away from the portal.

  “That was close,” Amyra sighed. She gathered her bearings and assumed her combat stance.

  Then, her assaint emerged from the portal, in a suit of armour that covered every part of their body— if there was even a person inside the armour. From what she could hear, her assaint made hollow sounds as it strode towards. There was no person inside the suit. The suit itself was moving on its own as a whole. The result from her appraisal further cemented her observation. It read; Living Armour.