Otherworld Adventure

When the group finally arrived at the Plaza of Rest, everyone was thoroughly exhausted.

Cecil was amazed to find that the plaza was actually a large complex of multiple tall tree buildings. He scouted out the area and when he entered one of the buildings, it was actually some sort of inn or resting area. The numerous rooms had a bed, shower, and everything.

Cecil quickly reported his findings to Zephyr. He informed everyone who was still able to move to quickly bring the injured into the building.

The rooms in the building were also filled with nature mana that had a healing and soothing property. Just being in the presence of this mana had sped up the recovery of the injured. Once everyone had settled in, the academy leaders decided that they would rest up for the day before they explored the place.

In one of the rooms, Cecil was lying down on the bed.

"...what're you guys doing?"

"...sleeping..."

"Resting~"

Cecil's mouth twitched at the double response. In one of the rooms, on top of the bed was Cecil...and to his left and right were both Serilla and Lucia respectively.

"...I don't even need to rest...so why the hell am I even here?!" Cecil had been tricked by Lucia. She wanted him to carry her into one of the rooms, but when he did, the door abruptly closed behind him and he finally noticed another person inside of the room.

Before he could respond, Lucia pulled him down onto the bed and Serilla pounced and pinned him down as well.

Then the two sidled up next to him and began to hug him. He was just about to teleport away using Nature's Shift, but he noticed the two girls beginning to tear up.

'NOOOO FAAAAIIRRRRR!!!'

And so, here he was...in the current situation. He wanted to escape, but didn't have the heart to do so. It wasn't only because the two girls were tearing up, but because they had to go through such a harrowing experience.

He was never considerate, but Cecil felt that his ending wouldn't be a pretty one if he left them here. It wasn't that he had finally grown more aware of his surroundings, but it was just his instincts screaming at him not to move an inch.

It wasn't only that, but from what Cecil had heard from Ainz, Velicia and Fina almost died. Even Eli had nearly been killed when she jumped in front of Serilla to help her block a surprise attack from one of the Fallen. Although Lucia had been injured during the time when she tried to pull Fina back, it wasn't all too fatal. Ainz and Yuna were relatively okay since the two were mages and they were attacking from behind the vanguards.

Cecil let them be and not long after the two quickly fell into a deep sleep. He loosened their hold around him and sat up. He turned an eye towards Lucia and brushed her hair...

"You did a good job..."

He turned around to Serilla and hesitated before ultimately patting her head.

"You as well..."

Their crumpled expression began to loosen up after his touch and they slept with a serene expression.

Cecil got up and exited the room. Pet-form Silver was waiting for him just outside the door.

"Hey, Silv...you did a great job protecting everyone," Cecil bent down and picked him up. He then began brushing his fur with his hands. It was a good thing that Silver's healing capabilities were much stronger than the rest of the students since he was a monster.

His injuries had all closed up when they arrived at the plaza and after spending some time in the building that had high density nature mana permeating its walls, Silver's injuries had all been healed up, mostly at least.

"How about me and you go explore the place?"

"Wafu!"

After giving his assent, Cecil went down to the ground floor of the building. He was currently on the top most floor of the building, the 10th floor. Cecil and Silver road down a floating platform to reach the ground floor.

When he walked off the platform, he could see the academy leaders and some of their relatively uninjured people gathered together in the lobby.

Zephyr noticed him and waved him over. The boy walked over with Silver in his arms and heard what they were gathering for.

"With the injured recuperating, we should take this time to explore the plaza..." Cleo said.

"Hmph. We were already going to do so with or without you!" Reinhart briskly said. When he noticed Cecil arriving he turned his face away, too scared to even look at the foxkin.

Eva looked over at Cecil and nodded at him. She was grateful that Cecil had summoned Silver and protected their Empire's Princess. She had seen Fina getting grievously injured and she also had profusely thanked Lucia when the battle was over.

Mal'norr kept his silence and only pounded his chest in acknowledgement when Cecil came over. Despite knowing that Cecil hadn't fought in the last battle, he still acknowledged him because he was the master of the powerful Battle Pet, Silver.

"Let's get going then! Our rewards hadn't even been given yet! It better be worth it since we lost many of our strongest fighters," Reinhart scowled.

Cecil opened his mouth to respond to his statement, "This plaza is the reward."

"Hrrmmm?"

"When we first arrived, I did a brief scout of the other buildings and spread my sense inside, this building is the healing ward, the northern building is the armory, and the southern building close to the entrance is the library filled with ancient records, skill books, spell tomes and mana cultivation manuals..."

Cecil continued to explain his findings to the rest of the Academy Leaders. The Final Trial's reward was the plaza. The armory in the north, the healing ward at the center of the plaza, the library in the south, a spiritual herb garden to the east and finally a magi-tech building in the west.

On the very top of the magi-tech building to the west was also the location where the teleportation gate that could transfer them out of the trial grounds.

The Academy Leaders other than Zephyr didn't understand what Cecil meant by him 'spreading his sense', but they took his words at face value and believed him.

They immediately split up and went to explore the plaza with their small group of able bodied students.

Cecil separated from Zephyr. The student council president brought his small group and walked over to the library. The beastmen were also heading over there as well. The Elves went over to the herb garden and the Gigantes went to the armory.

The merfolk went to the western building where the magi-tech was located at. It was surprising since Cecil didn't think that the merfolk would prefer magi-tech over weapons, skill and spell tomes.

He was also intrigued with the ancient magi-tech, but he had a more important place to go to. He didn't tell the rest, but the healing ward had an additional place that Cecil didn't bother informing them about.

He walked back to the platform and pulled out the World Tree's Thorn, Providence. He then walked to a small slit on the center of the platform and stabbed the wooden sword into it.

Gray colored mana began to cover the platform and it lit up. Then the platform began to shift and slowly move downwards.

"There's a bas.e.m.e.nt level?"

The floor above Cecil's head began to close up and the platform he was on brought him further down the underground shaft.

It didn't take long before the platform finally stopped and a hallway presented itself in front of Cecil.

Cecil pulled out the Providence from the platform and stored it into his spatial ring. Then he walked into the hallway and arrived at a large room.

When he looked around, he was reminded of the tree dome that he was in when he finished the 2nd Extra Trial.

He saw the gushing fountain full of mana-rich waters and at the center of the room was another small platform that had a pedestal on it.

In that pedestal was another World Tree's Thorn that was stabbed into it. Cecil walked over to the pedestal and read the inscription.

"The World Tree's 7th Thorn, Serenity."

The wooden sword was the same as the other ones, but it had a dark green color. It also emanated a large amount of nature mana. Cecil grabbed onto the hilt of the sword and pulled.

Just like before he was able to easily pull out the sword from the pedestal. The mana around the sword began to stir and Cecil braced himself for the pain that was coming. He widened his eyes in the next moment because instead of pain, he felt comfort and warmth flowing into his body.

The mana that shone with a dark green light which flowed into his body through his hand felt comfortable and warm. There was no pain at all and this surprised him.

But then, in the next instant he felt his body beginning to itch. The itchiness first appeared on his hand and it slowly rose up to his arm, then it began to spread all over his body until it was unbearable.

He tried to scratch his body, but the itch was everywhere! He couldn't even stand straight anymore and he collapsed on the ground. He started rolling around in agony because it was really unbearable.

Then he remembered the fountain from earlier. The water inside was cold! It should help somewhat!

Cecil immediately struggled to get up. He then quickly rushed over to the fountain and plunged right in. The cold water abated the uncomfortable itch, but it didn't make it go away. He could only curse in his mind.

'Why the hell are the World Tree's 'blessings' always accompanied by some unbearable pain?! These aren't blessings, but more like curses!'

He closed his eyes... Well, at least that's what he thought he did. The surrounding waters had actually turned pitch black all of a sudden. He thought that it was dangerous so he quickly jumped out of the fountain.

"What the hell?"

Cecil finally noticed that the itchiness had subsided, but when he took a look at his body and especially his clothes, they were all dyed black.

His skin was oozing out a pitch black substance that had an appalling smell.

"It's marrow cleansing!" Cecil exclaimed in surprise.

This time it wasn't only his legs, but his entire body was experiencing the cleansing. The nature mana that poured into his body from the wooden sword had catalyzed the cleansing!

The water fountain was quickly drained and more water began to spout out from the top of the fountain. Cecil quickly stripped his clothing and once more stepped into the fountain. He placed his dirtied clothes in the fountain as well and saw the black stains quickly wash away when the fountain waters splashed onto them.

"This water is really, really convenient."

The black substance continued to ooze out of Cecil's body, but the fountain waters continued washing them away. This continued for another half an hour before the last drop of blackness stopped oozing out of Cecil's pores.