Chapter 57: Acting fools
Everyone cut through the few mistwraiths that still managed to reach them and arrived at the brighter room. Jaden also called his summons back.
Just as they stepped into the brighter room, its tall gate creaked and closed by itself, blocking other mistwraiths from making way towards them.
Arden fell on his butt as he breathed heavily and said sombrely.
"How long would it take us to leave this damned place?"
Everyone looked at him with a dark look before turning their gaze to the front.
The room was just as enormous as before, but its floor had dim blue cracks instead of walls, and it was brightened by the light coming through the gateway before them. The strange thing, however, was its walls, which were covered with a similar mist, but it appeared to be frozen, giving it a jade-like look.
"Another gateway?" Navin exclaimed as he looked at the gateway with a frown.
Jaden tried to look further into the gateway by enhancing his eyes using mana, but he couldn’t see anything, as if something was stopping him from looking at what was there.
’Damn it! I can’t even see what’s there.’ he cursed inwardly and looked at the others.
Selina had her hand on her sheathed sword while her other hand was on her chin, a thoughtful look on her face.
Navin was checking his shield and spear. Shelly stood with her hands folded at her abdomen, and Jamie had his arms folded across his chest with a dissatisfied look.
Just as he was about to step forward towards the gateway, the walls shook and the cracks began to widen. Arden, who was sitting on the ground, shifted as the floor beneath him split open.
"AHHHHH!"
He yelled as he saw no end to the cavity beneath, but before he could fall into it, Jamie pulled him away and shouted at him.
"Stop screaming into my fucking ears!"
Arden looked at him with tear-filled eyes and hugged him. Jamie gave him a disgusted look before patting his head a few times and pushing him away.
Seeing him act like that, Jaden thought.
’Talk about being a tsundere.’
The cracks continued to spread wider and wider, and soon, they only had enough space to stand within the room.
"How are we supposed to go to that gateway then?" Selina questioned with a frown on her face.
"There has to be a way... each game has a finish, after all."
Jaden replied as he looked around the room to find any clues, and others did the same. A few moments later, a soft chime rang within the room, and the walls began to shake violently. Dust and stone fell from them before they came to a stop.
Then, random slabs covered in the mist began to emerge from the walls, taking the form of stairs.
"..."
Everyone stared at the slabs with dark looks as Arden questioned.
"Don’t tell me we have to hop from one slab to another..."
Jamie sharply turned to him and questioned with a sincerely worried look.
"Ardy, are you alright?"
Arden frowned at his question and asked back.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I am just worried for you."
"Oh! Yes, I am alright." Arden replied with a bright smile, at which Jamie responded with curses, "Then why the fuck do you keep asking these stupid questions? What else do you think we are supposed to do? Make love with those slabs?"
Arden blinked a few times and forced out a cough as he mumbled under his breath.
"I was just being sure..."
"What was it?" Jamie questioned sharply as he looked at him with an annoyed look.
All of this while others were trying to figure out if there was any other way than hopping from one slab to another, the slabs were huge, they could reach the gateway just by jumping a couple of them, but they didn’t know what kind of things would be waiting for them on the slab, they were sure that they have surprises waiting for them.
"There is nothing else we can do but climb those slabs..." Jaden added darkly as he sighed and pointed at the nearby slab.
"No point in waiting; we would just be wasting our time."
Others nodded at his words and stepped closer to the slab before jumping on it.
"You guys have wind magic, but we don’t... however, we can cross the distance with my lightning magic spell, which is in fact better than yours, so don’t worry about us."
Jaden nodded at him and used [Gust Step ★]. He reached the slab in one jump. Selina, Shelly and Navin followed after him using the same spell.
Jamie grabbed Arden by his waist as a wide grin spread across his face. Arden looked at his grin with a fearful look as he questioned.
"What are you thinking of doing, Jamie?"
"Heh. Don’t worry... it won’t be anything dangerous, probably."
Just as he spoke, yellow lightning crackled around him and flowed towards his feet before it exploded.
Both of them were sent flying, and smoke trailed them as they landed a few steps away from the others. Both slid across the slab. Smoke escaped Arden’s mouth as he said.
"T-this guy is mad! P-please keep him away from me..."
Jamie, who was lying beside him, tidied himself a little and began to laugh loudly as he shouted.
"Fuck yeah! That was insane."
Arden turned his head and looked at him with a wronged expression as he questioned.
"Why me though?"
Jamie ignored him and continued to laugh like a madman.
Jaden looked at both of them before turning towards Navin and questioning.
"I was meaning to ask... how did these two survive the city?"
Navin shrugged at him and answered.
"Don’t judge them low just because they act like fools, Jaden. Jamie is the youngest son of Marquise of War, and Arden is the best archer within the first year of Arcane Knight Academy."
"Huh?"