Bookbound Bunny 2: Chapter 69

B2 - Chapter 69 - Finishing Up

When Lily reunited with her friends, she smiled happily, triggering an infectious wave of grins among the group. They still weren't allowed to talk about it, but judging by everyone's reactions, they were all quite happy with their performances.

"That seemed fast," Hana suddenly said.

"I'm honestly not sure. I completely lost track of time while in there," Lily admitted.

That caused one of the watchers to shoot them a dirty look, making all of them shut up about the test. They tried their best to make small talk about the upcoming weekend or the weather, but it was excruciating, as everyone wanted to talk about what had happened inside.

When the last name was finally pulled from the hat, and the boy entered through the door, everyone stared at the two staff members with eager eyes.

"Okay, okay, you can talk about the test now!" one gave in, chuckling to himself as he shook his head.

It was like a bomb went off as everyone burst into conversation, the pressure of bottling it all up coming out in full force. Lily's group seemed to unanimously agree to talk about their hardest rooms first.

"That giant Brassbound was annoyingly hard," Arthur said.

"Yeah, I might have only saved a minute or two by killing it. Not worth the energy and effort at all," Hana agreed.

"Well, at least you killed it," Arthur pointed out.

"I think I saved a lot of time, but it took me too long to get to its back," Lily said.

Lotte let out a chuckle. "I think that was the easiest room for me."

"Even the magic shields couldn't stop you?" Lily asked curiously.

Lotte grinned mischievously. "Nope."

"While I wouldn't say it was easy, I don't think I did too badly in that room," Thomas said. "The extra size seemed to offer it no extra protection against lightning."

"Lightning…" Lily groaned, slapping her forehead. "If I had made a lightning glyph, I could have saved so much time!"

"I'm surprised you didn't bring one of everything," Lotte replied.

"It would have been too much trouble to find them during the heat of the moment. So focused on a few generic ones I thought would be good in almost any situation," Lily explained.

"I guess the jack of all trades approach doesn't really work," Arthur replied.

"Even with the bridge, I wish I could've made a more customized solution…" Lily sighed.

"Ugh, the bridge," Lotte groaned.

"That's the one you struggled with?" Hana asked.

"It was quite a bit of a walk. Either that or the last room."

"Quite a bit of a walk…" Arthur responded, sounding despondent.

Lotte nodded. "Yeah, I think that's where I lost most of my time. I don't really have a way to move faster."

Hana let out a laugh. "The room was more difficult than the monsters."

The group couldn't help but chuckle. It sounded preposterous, but then again, Lotte was banned from duels for a reason.

They continued chatting, and Thomas revealed that his worst room was likely the first one. His chanting time meant it took him some time to kill the three skeletons, unless he used something other than lightning.

Lily found it quite admirable that he stuck to his goal unless he literally didn't have another option, like he was apparently forced to use a shield of wind in the last room.

Speaking of wind, Arthur breezed through the bridge by flying across, and that's when Lily explained her own attempt at flying. It caused a few worried looks from her friends, but she spun around showing she was fit as a fiddle with not a scratch on her.

Hana didn't fly across, instead opting to run across the bridge and jump over the Brassbound as if they were hurdles. All in all, they were happy with their performances and eager to hear the results.

"So who do you think got first place?" Arthur asked.

"I think Lotte," Lily answered.

Hana's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I probably agree. I lost way too much time in the third room."

"Hey, don't sell yourselves short, I wasn't joking when I said I lost a lot of time moving around," Lotte pointed out. "I had to wait for the acid to disperse on the bridge, unless I wanted to jump over it, and while I didn't need to stop in the last room, I took it at a casual pace."

"Maybe Lily then?" Thomas suggested.

"Me?" Lily gasped. "I'd love that, but I'm not sure. The third room went terribly."

"Really bad from your perspective, but it sounds like you did way better than me," Hana replied.

Arthur shrugged. "I guess we will just have to wait and see."

***

With the test finishing, the staff were very pleased with the results. Not only was it an enjoyable watching experience, but no student "failed" this mock test by having both shields of their Ward activated.

Now it was just a matter of announcing the results and giving them their prizes, though they were a little conflicted about the rankings.

"If we go solely on total room completion time, then Lotte is the clear winner. If we take the test as a whole, then Lily barely takes first place," Headmaster Fabrelis informed the staff.

"Haven't we always taken the full time?" Professor Elius questioned.

"We do… but I just wanted to point out that in terms of room completion time, Lotte would win by a significant margin. It might even be a school record," Fabrelis replied.

"That's impressive, but it needs to be taken as a whole," Instructor Gerrard commented. "If you take it on room completion time alone, then Arthur and Hana have their positions suffer greatly since they put an emphasis on keeping time throughout the test."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be fair," Elius agreed.

"And being quick on your feet throughout is important. They don't call it a 'dungeon run' for nothing," Alice commented.

Sylwel burst out into laughter. "Ha! Good one!"

After some awkward glances at the Sylwel, they moved on. They finalized the results, going with the regular evaluation. They were pretty excited to see how much these rankings would fluctuate as more students had time to develop.

With the exciting part over and most of the snacks depleted, a majority of the staff decided to depart. Yes, during the prize picking, they would still observe the students to see how or why they chose their prizes. Still, it was hardly entertaining unless you were an exceptionally nosy individual.

Alice also left, as she needed to escort them out and then announce the results. When she held the page and saw Lily's name at the top, she couldn't help but feel proud.

Although if she can use magic to move that fast, why doesn't she do that all the time? She would be far better at dodging that way!

***

While they were chatting, Alice eventually showed up, looking quite happy with herself.

"Good job, kids, none of you needed your asses pulled out of the fire!" Alice said with a smirk. "Now follow me so we can get the prizes over and done with."

The students cheered in celebration, though some were quite peeved that the results hadn't been announced yet. When Alice led them out of the dungeon, they were curious, thinking they would be going to a fabled treasure room, and someone brought it up almost immediately.

"We can't leave items unattended in the dungeon, or they might get claimed," Alice explained. "And the last thing we want is for a storage bag or some other rare piece of loot to go missing."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and a valuable warning was taught—never leave your treasures behind!

Despite leaving the dungeon, the room they were escorted to satisfied their imaginations. Evidently, the school knew they would be disappointed and tried to give the appearance of a magical vault, waiting to be breached.

"Alright," Alice said, knocking on the large door. "You each get five minutes to pick something in the room. Starting from first place, so don't dawdle."

Everyone was excited as Alice pulled out a page; it looked like they were finally going to get the rankings.

"Lily!" Alice said.

"Yes!?" Lily replied, almost falling over.

"You got first, good job, now go get your prize," Alice explained.

"Ha! I knew it," Lotte said, and the friends seemed to agree.

A few of the students seemed upset, as if they weren't believing the results, but then they recalled her demonstration with Professor Elius, and it seemed almost a natural conclusion.

Lily still hadn't moved, feeling slightly shocked, and her friends gave her a gentle nudge towards the vault door. Lily stumbled forward before catching herself and walking the rest of the way.

Alice opened the door and gestured for Lily to enter, but she paused.

"Um, since we are out of the dungeon, is it okay if I bring my Familiar?"

"Uh… Sure, but why?" Alice asked. "I hope you aren't hoping to smuggle an extra reward."

Lily shook her head, vehemently rejecting that idea. "I want to get my Familiar's opinion on an item."

Everyone except Lotte seemed surprised by that response, and a few couldn't help but laugh at her expense. Why would you bother even asking for a Familiar when they already knew there were storage bags as the top prizes?

Alice seemed a bit annoyed, but shrugged. "Sure, go ahead."

Lily smiled and pulled out the notepad-sized grimoire. She "cast" the Familiar-summoning spell, and the book grew and came to life, floating beside her.

"Thank you!" Lily said, now walking into the open door.

Alice shrugged again. "Remember, only five minutes, your time starts as soon as I close the door!"

Lily nodded and picked up the pace, Arakil's grimoire following closely behind her as the door shut.

[First, good job on getting first place. We will discuss that later when we have more time.]

"Thanks…" Lily replied somewhat meekly, blushing happily at the genuine praise from her true teacher.

They looked around the room, which did look like a genuine treasury. There were even piles of gold, but when Lily used her magesight, she found out they were all fake! She also noticed in the corner of her eye that the floating eye was still with her, but this time she managed to conceal her emotions.

Despite the gold and artwork decorating the walls being fake, the rest of the items littered about the room were most definitely real, and each one had a magical aura. At the center was a large table where six bags sat waiting.

Lily rushed up and looked at them with her eyes sparkling. "Wow, are these all storage bags?"

[Yes. The one with the maroon drawstring is the one with the highest capacity.]

Lily stared at the bags with her magesight, but from a magical perspective, they all looked the same to her. To her normal vision, they all looked similar, with some of the pouches just looking slightly more weathered or with slightly different coloring.

Lily picked up the one with the maroon drawstring and couldn't help but open it and look inside. It was empty, but when she gazed inside, she felt a sensation akin to vertigo, as her perspective seemed to realize it was deeper than it appeared. Lily closed the bag and shook her head.

"Okay, so this is our backup prize," Lily said, and attached it to her waist.

[That's the plan, although I admit I don't know if we really will find anything better… They've really included quite a lot of knick-knacks in here. Can you help me sift through some of these piles?]

Lily nodded and, with the utmost haste, began spreading out the magical items to help Arakil. It was a good thing they did this, as even just moving a cloak revealed quite a few other items hidden beneath it, and a large selection of rings was inside a small jewelry box.

Arakil was silent as his book flew around the room, trying his best to scour every nook and cranny while Lily continued her best to sort the items. She even started using the telekinesis spell to give herself an extra set of hands.

They really could have cleaned this place up!

Lily felt like time was running short, but she wasn't worried; she was delighted with the bag, and honestly, she couldn't even imagine a better prize. She almost wanted to tell Arakil to stop, but then he suddenly stopped moving as he stared intently at a vase.

[Oh! What do we have here? Lily, come quick!]

Lily rushed over and looked at the vase. It had a faint magical glow, and she wondered whether this was really better than the bag she was holding.

[Reach inside and pull it out!]

Arakil sounded very excited, so Lily instantly reached in blindly. Something pointy poked her hand, and she let out a small yelp in surprise before she pulled out what looked like a long two-pronged fork.

[No, not that, there's something else! Quickly!]

Lily tossed the weird fork aside and reached in, and again, something pointy poked her hand. Lily grumbled in frustration before pulling it out, revealing a long, thin, black, smooth, and unadorned stick.

[Ha! I knew it!]

Lily held it curiously in her hand, giving it a little swish, but nothing happened. She used her magesight, and the magical aura in it was so faint she would've sworn it really was just a stick.

"What is this?" Lily asked.

[We don't have much time left, but trust me, this should be our prize! Quickly put the bag back on the table!]

Lily nodded, although she was hesitant, as she unfastened it from her waist and placed it back before returning her gaze to the item Arakil wanted her to take.

[We have a tiny bit of time, quickly channel a bit of Mana into it, just to confirm it still works!]

Lily almost yelled at Arakil for giving up the storage bag for something he wasn't even sure worked! Yet she trusted him implicitly, so she began channeling Mana into it quickly.

[You want it to go through the entire wand from the base, until it concentrates on the tip.]

Lily almost gasped at Arakil revealing it was a wand. Compared to the ones she saw during Spellcasting Fundamentals, it looked nothing like them.

Still, she silently followed his instructions, and the lifeless black wand suddenly glowed with a tiny, pearlescent light at its tip.

[Wonderful! With this—]

The closed door slammed open abruptly, causing Lily to panic and, embarrassingly, lose her concentration. The light at the tip was snuffed out as a result, leaving Lily clueless about its purpose.

"Times up!" Alice declared.

Lily blinked a few times, then looked at the "wand" in her hands. She gave a small sigh and nodded, heading towards the exit. Lily gave one last glance back at the storage bag she was leaving behind.

I really hope you're right about this one, Arakil…