Chapter 140: Hunting Practice (1)
The buses rolled to a stop at the edge of the city where the road simply ended and the forest began.
It was a clear and distinct boundary, one moment open streets and buildings, and then suddenly a wall of towering trees stretching in both directions as far as the eye could see.
The canopy above was dense and layered, and the air that drifted out from between the trunks was noticeably cooler and heavier with the scent of earth and leaves.
The students filed out and gathered in rows on the open ground outside the tree line.
Morgana stood at the front facing them, holding a flat box in one hand. She hadn’t said anything yet, and nobody had thought to ask what was inside it.
Then she moved.
Or rather for many she vanished.
One moment she was standing in front of them. The next she was gone, and before anyone could react or even draw a breath, she reappeared in the exact same spot as though she had never left at all.
Except now every single student had a metallic grey band sitting on their lap.
The silence that followed was the kind that comes when a group of people all experience the same mild shock at the same time and haven’t yet agreed on how to react to it.
Morgana spoke before anyone could find their voice.
"Those bands on your laps, put them on your wrists. All of you."
The rustling of a hundred students reaching down followed immediately.
"Those bracelets will track your positions throughout the exercise," she continued, her voice carrying easily across the gathered crowd.
"Your instructors will be monitoring your locations at all times. Additionally, you will be divided into units of six students each. Some units may have five or seven depending on the numbers. Don’t concern yourselves with that."
She paused for a moment, letting the information settle.
"Once we move outside, the bracelet will display the names of your assigned unit members. Now, regarding the purpose of these groups, this is not a simple hunting exercise."
"Your unit will accumulate points based on how many monsters you kill and how well you perform as a team. Each member of the group receives the points their unit earns, so how well you work together matters."
Leonard raised his hand. "Why are we only finding out about the groups now?"
"Because the purpose is precisely that," Morgana said without any particular expression.
"You don’t get to choose your teammates in real situations. You work with whoever stands beside you. Consider this practice for that." She glanced across the rows of students.
"One more thing, if any of you find yourselves in a situation beyond your ability to handle, your bracelet will send an alert directly to the instructor team and we will reach you immediately. So do not do anything completely reckless."
She let the last part land with appropriate weight.
"Now get outside and form up."
The class moved out onto the open ground in front of the treeline, organizing themselves into loose rows. A moment later, the bracelets let out a soft synchronized beep across the group.
Noah raised his right arm and pressed the surface of the band. A translucent blue screen materialized above his wrist, thin and clear like light pressed into the shape of glass. He looked at the names listed on it.
---
Unit:
Noah Eldritch
Ophelia Thornveil
Mary Turner
Ken Takaene
Marina Lumineth
Ryan Darkclaw
---
He stared at the screen for a moment.
Then blinked.
Then stared at it again.
The names didn’t change no matter how long he looked at them. He checked each one carefully, just to be absolutely sure he wasn’t misreading something.
He wasn’t.
None of the main cast was in his group.
He wasn’t with Damien. Not with Lyria or Emma or Leonard or Kaelan. He was grouped with Ophelia, Mary, Ken, Marina, and someone named Ryan Darkclaw whose face he was currently trying to match to a name.
He wasn’t sure how to feel about this.
He had known something was likely to happen during this trip...something always did when the main cast was involved.
Dangerous things, unexpected things, the kind of situations that changed the course of a story. And now, at exactly the moment when that danger was likely to show itself, he was going to be on the other side of the forest.
He closed the screen and exhaled quietly through his nose.
From behind him, Arisha’s voice cut through his thoughts.
"I’m with Lyria, Damien, Leonard, Emma, and Zack." She said it casually, but there was a satisfied edge to it.
Noah processed that for a moment. No Kaelan in that group either, which was interesting. He filed it away without comment.
"Marina." He turned slightly. "You’re in my unit."
Marina, the blonde haired elf who had been sitting with Arisha on the bus, looked over at her bracelet and then back at him with a small, composed smile. "I saw. I’m looking forward to working with you."
Around them, the students were already pulling together into their assigned groups, screens glowing above wrists as people compared names and moved through the crowd to find each other.
Noah turned and scanned the gathering faces nearby.
Ryan Darkclaw found them first, A tall young man with the broad build and slightly sharpened features of a beast-man, dark brown hair and steady amber eyes. He gave a short, easy nod when he spotted Noah.
Ophelia Thornveil was nearby, her dark midnight-colored hair falling straight past her shoulders, her expression composed in a way that suggested this sort of situation was neither exciting nor particularly concerning to her.
Mary Turner stood a little apart from the others, her short black hair neat and her round glasses catching the morning light.
She was already looking in their direction with that same unreadable expression she had worn on the bus.
Ken Takaene completed the group, stepping over without any hurry, hands in his pockets. He acknowledged Noah with a brief glance and said nothing beyond that.
Six people, most of whom had exchanged fewer than ten words with each other.
Well Noah was different. He had good talk with Ophelia and Mary... Well good word couldn’t be use for Ophelia.
