The System putting up a penalty in the case of a failure made Merlin the most uneasy he'd ever been since walking into Prestige Academy. And that was one of the reasons why his mind was constantly hollering at him to speed things up and not take his time with walking through clearing the Dungeon.
It would have definitely been a lot easier for him if Quests had existed in Singularity Mage, he would have at least had an idea of what the System's penalty could end up being. But they hadn't. And, if he was to be honest, he wasn't keen on finding that out. But he knew better than to be hasty. That never resulted in anything good.
"Wait." Merlin stretched out his arm, halting the rest of his party after they had walked a bit over twenty steps. They did as they were told without query.
The first hurdle Kieran had come across in the Necromancer's Lair was a rather simple booby trap, which, of course, was actually anything but simple if one wasn't expecting it. Kieran had been a special case, because he was, well, the protagonist. Merlin and the others were different.
Before they had moved, Merlin had returned back to the entrance of the Dungeon and counted his steps. Kieran had taken forty steps to reach the first booby trap, and Merlin had made sure to replicate those exact steps. Now, he just had to confirm if he had not miscalculated, or if this Dungeon was not what he thought it was.
He bent down.
"What's there?" asked Nora, not daring to come close to him.
"A booby trap's supposed to be here," said Merlin as he brushed his palm over the floor slightly.
It was disgusting that he had to go through finding the trap this way, but he could think of no other way. If he was Kieran that would have been different, because the protagonist's Perception had been so unnaturally high that he had been able to perceive the presence of a trap just by getting close to it. But, alas, he was Merlin.
The floor was made up of uneven stone blocks, and Merlin knew that one of those stone blocks was what opened the first booby trap. His intention was to figure out which it was before they moved forward so they could avoid it. And it did not take too long for him to find it, because the stone block that activated the booby trap was an inch higher than the rest of the blocks. He pressed down on it, and a section of the wall to their side flew open, an arrow bolt shooting out of it and piercing the air where Merlin's mid section would have been had he been standing.
Kim Minji yelped, Nora and Chima froze, while Merlin smiled.
It's correct. This is really the Necromancer's Lair!
"W-Was that a real arrow?" Kim Minji asked as the bolt dropped to the floor after hitting the wall on the other side. "That would have really injured one of us. Isn't this an exam? Are they trying to kill us?"
"Relax," said Chima. "Just take a deep breath and relax. There's no way the Academy's trying to kill examinees."
"How are we to explain that then?" Kim Minji bit her lower lip. Merlin felt like he had seen enough of her actions to judge her now. She was quite meek. But that didn't matter. Turning back meant that they had failed to clear the Dungeon, which meant that they had failed the exam, and he would receive a penalty from the System that he was not exactly eager to find out.
"It doesn't matter what it was. We continue forward," Nora said, thankfully sharing Merlin's sentiment. That, however, did not hide her shaky voice.
No one would claim that they were not scared of being hit by an arrow, and this was just the first trap. Merlin, personally, knew that it was only going to get worse, and, he too, was scared. But, now, he felt more confident that everyone could get out of this unscathed. He would make sure nothing went wrong.
He took the first step towards that by checking every other stone block on the floor around the trap, and when it was apparent that nothing had been modified, he pressed down on the trap again, another arrow flying out, and left his palm there.
"You guys move ahead first," he said. "I'm making sure no one mistakenly steps on it." They nodded and did just that. He then stood up, and glanced at the two arrows that had been shot. His mind told him to pick them up, that they could prove useful down the line, but his heart was against it. It took a bit of a tussle with his ideals, but he knew it was better to be safe than sorry. This was an exam. Passing determined if he would become a Mage. If he let his ideals force him into a foolish decision and he ended up regretting it, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. He picked up the bolts.
As they progressed, the booby traps became more and more ferocious. They came across a ball of spikes that fell from the ceiling to crush anyone that trespassed, foothold traps that popped out of the floor to clamp on one's leg if they stepped on a particular block, as well as a coffin in the floor. Merlin had gotten them all through it by pinpointing where all their activation mechanisms lay. But he could do that no more. After all, they had gotten to the Dungeon hall, which was the place where Kieran fought the foot soldiers of the Necromancer.
He stopped his party members just before they went in.
"I've proven that I'm well aware of what I'm doing, right?" he said as he turned around to face them. Chima nodded. "Good. Then I'll need you to trust everything I have to say here. So far we've had no casualties, and you all have had no reason to stress yourselves, as I've been doing all the work. But, now, you guys are going to be the ones working."
"What do you mean?" Kim Minji asked.
"The Necromancer's foot soldiers should number to a hundred," Merlin answered, and everyone's eyes widened.
"A hundred?" Nora voiced. "That's too much."
"Yeah," said Merlin. "But we've come this far and we can't go back now. We can get through." He checked his watch. "We have thirty minutes left. It'll be enough if we play our cards right."
"And what are those cards?" Chima asked. "You hold them, don't you?"
Merlin nodded. His heart was pounding so much, but he was trying his best to remain calm. He couldn't meditate at the moment to help with that, so he relied on his own ability to control his breathing in dire moments, which had come from his constant meditation training, so perhaps it was helping in some way.
"First of all, you all have to know that the foot soldiers can't be defeated," he said, but all he received from that declaration were frowns from Nora and Chima. He had been blessed with calm teammates. Kim Minji, on the other hand, looked like she would lose her mind at any moment. She never shouted at the top of her lungs, but her expression grew pale with every bad news she heard.
"They can't be defeated?" she asked. "Then how are we going to get past?"
"They can't be defeated because they are skeletons, and they're only moving due to the Necromancer puppeteering them with its mana. So no matter how many times you strike them down, they'll just get back up. What we'll do instead is create a path. We won't stand and fight, we'll blast through them and escape to the other side before they have the time to recuperate."
What Kieran had done here was simply deconstruct the mana the Necromancer had used to power the skeletons, but Merlin couldn't do that. He had to keep himself fit for the real battle which would ensue once they had crossed the hall.
Chima took a deep breath and exhaled. "Blast through them. Got it."
"There's one more thing you have to know," Merlin continued. "You all will become very exhausted, because…I won't be fighting."
Nora blinked owlishly. She had not been expecting him to say something so brazen, it was written all over her face. But more than anyone here, she knew he had a reason, and perhaps she quickly figured out what that reason was because her expression loosened a second later.
Chima and Kim Minji, however, were confused, the latter lost for words.
"Are you saying we'll serve as your shield?" Chima asked, still uncannily calm. Merlin had thought something would have gotten on the boy's nerves by now, but he always remained composed. He couldn't help but wonder what could actually make the boy juggle that tennis ball of his. "You must have a very good reason for that, right?"
Well, Merlin did. And…he was not planning on hiding it from them. After all, he would use the ability in a few moments from now. He had nothing to gain from jeopardizing the team by keeping a secret. He glanced at Nora and let her know of his intentions with his eyes. She only shrugged.
"It's because I'm the only one who can defeat the Necromancer," Merlin explained after hesitating for a brief moment. "I can cancel out magic."