Transcendent Gene
Chapter 187: Hidden Legacy [1]

Chapter 187: Hidden Legacy [1]

It was easy to think that everything was going according to plan.

It was easy to think that this was also a part of the entrance ceremony. The two of them had uncovered a secret beneath the ground that would lead them to many points and rewards.

That was the easiest way to think about what happened after they fell, however, Gio could not believe that such a thing was the case.

The fall was too long. They fell through the abyss until they couldn’t even see the night sky above.

For over a minute, both he and Neriah fell at a distance from each other, which didn’t allow them to interact. They pondered the question separately but arrived at the same answer.

’If the fall is this long, most of the ones out there would die.’

Even with the protection mechanisms, they’d die. That seemed like the only logical conclusion.

Yet, even that logic was thrown out the window.

Whoosh!

A large gust of air swept over Gio from below. With a thump, his body touched the ground.

It was as if he’d been dropped from only a foot in the air. He didn’t even realize there was ground below him before it appeared.

It appeared on its own, and he was forced to accept that it was there.

He stood up slowly, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

"That..." Gio mumbled as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Yes. The hole we should have dropped through is gone, and it seems we are only several dozen meters below the surface."

Both he and Neriah immediately pulled themselves up and gathered their bearings. They’d landed in the same place, however, they weren’t in the same place at all.

"Were we transported?"

"It seems unlikely, however, there is no other explanation."

"Hmm..."

Teleportation wasn’t an easy enough branch of technology to access for it to be used anywhere and for anything. It was highly improbable for a random pit they’d fallen into to contain such technology.

Gio glanced at Neriah. She still had her blades out, but her hostility was gone. She also understood that they were no longer in a situation where they could fight.

"Do you have any ideas?" He asked.

"None. And you?"

"Same boat. This place..."

They were in a small cave. In front of them, there was a corridor that was carved by human hands and machines. All of the other sides were ordinarily walls, but even they were too smooth and angular to be natural.

"Do we have to explore to learn anything...?"

It was too early to be panicking. At the very least, this wasn’t something the school intentionally set up, but that didn’t mean it was a bad thing.

"We’re still on Earth. It isn’t a Riftworld."

That was the first piece of good news.

Riftworlds were unique environments that were assumed to be pieces of the land the monsters came from.

Monsters appeared in the world through portals, but they didn’t always charge recklessly.

Sometimes, humanity was forced to approach them instead. Riftworlds were filled with monsters that were native to those environments.

A human’s goal inside was to eliminate all the monsters present and loot the realm of all its treasures.

If that wasn’t done, the Riftworld would spill into Earth, corrupting it and turning pieces of it into the world of monsters.

If they’d fallen into a Riftworld, panicking would have been the first and last thing they did before dying.

Gio tried to find anything else around him that could explain their situation. His attention ended up on the wall behind him.

It was covered by dust and stone that looked like it had grown over it, but there was a plaque embedded there.

Rumble!

Vibrations spread through the cave as Gio used his power to uncover it, making the text clear to his and Neriah’s eyes.

[Move Forth To Claim Your Birthright, Successor.]

"Any idea what this is about?"

"Would I have any more of an idea than you?"

He asked mostly rhetorically, but Neriah still confirmed that the plaque didn’t help at all.

"Well, if this was meant for someone’s successor, it probably won’t be that dangerous, right?"

"It may also be that this person wished to test their successor rigorously. The dangers awaiting us could be much greater than what we are prepared for."

She wasn’t wrong. They didn’t know whose inheritance this was, nor did they know what level that person expected their successor to reach.

"It’s still true that the entrance to this place was below Celestelle. Maybe it was even meant for someone to find during the entrance ceremony."

They were discussing as if discussions were going to get them anywhere.

"In the end, we only have two options."

The first was to wait in this entrance cave and hope that the school’s faculty would find them before they starved to death.

The second was to enter the corridor and find the exit naturally. The fact that there was a plaque meant humans were meant to enter and leave somehow.

’Breaking out is impossible because of how deep we are. I don’t necessarily want to explore a legacy that has nothing to do with me, but...’

Well, legacies held treasures, didn’t they?

Legacies were meant to make successors stronger. It was a shame to this person’s successor, but Gio felt like he could justify it in his head.

’The power I gain all goes towards saving the world, which, in turn, will save this person’s disciple. I’m just taking some payment.’

It was an unnecessary justification, really. He knew in his heart of hearts that he would be willing to take the legacy even without it.

The only question was the will of the person who fell with him.

Neriah’s eyes were narrowed as she looked into the corridor beyond.

She was, perhaps, the best person he could’ve landed in this situation with. An ordinary student would have panicked. Most of them had never faced real combat before and only knew how to spar. They’d never experienced true danger, so in an unexpected scenario like this one, they would break down and turn into baggage.

Neriah was anything but baggage. In fact, through her eyes and body, she was understanding something that even Gio couldn’t yet see.

"Let’s explore."

She came to a decision after considering it for some time. He was right. If they wanted to reach safety, their only choice was to move forward.

Gio nodded. The two of them carefully approached the entrance of the corridor, each using their own means to see if there was anything waiting for them within.

Gio was a practical thinker. He liked to make sure that everything was going according to his expectations before he allowed himself to feel any kind of emotion that could cloud his judgement.

In this case as well, he waited until everything was sorted to understand how he felt about the situation.

Now that it had all settled in, excitement was starting to fill his body. An anticipation for adventure appeared in his mind.

He took that first step into the corridor with a calm mind and a beating heart. For Neriah, both of them were equally cold.

However, both of them were showing extraordinary mental strength by staying composed.

The situation was different on the outside.

They were right that this wasn’t something the institute planned for them. In fact, they had encountered something the institute never knew existed.

From the outside perspective, two students who had been fighting fell through the ground and into an abyss.

Nothing was heard from them after that. Not a single trace of them remained in the Great Northern Forest.

The entrance ceremony continued in order to keep the other students from panicking, but the response from the faculty was already in motion.

They arrived at the scene of the disappearance and investigated the abyss in the ground.

The conclusions they arrived at...

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