Chapter 266: Mid-Term Exam [2]
The blinding blue light of the teleportation array swallowed my vision.
The spatial displacement felt exactly like being violently yanked through a frozen keyhole.
My ears popped, my stomach dropped, and the crisp, clean air of the Academy courtyard was instantly replaced by something entirely different.
My boots hit soft, damp earth. I immediately bent my knees, absorbing the shock of the materialization, my right hand instinctively dropping toward the hilt of my sword.
The Obsidian Woods lived up to its name.
The ambient light plummeted. Massive, towering trees with bark as dark as forged iron stretched up into a thick, overlapping canopy that almost completely blocked out the sun.
The air was incredibly heavy, thick with the smell of wet moss, decay, and the sharp, metallic tang of concentrated, untamed mana.
"Ugh, disgusting," someone groaned immediately.
I glanced over and saw Adrian was aggressively brushing a stray dead leaf off his uniform jacket, looking around the dark, oppressive forest.
"The teleportation coordinates are incredibly unrefined. We landed right in the middle of a mud patch."
Kyle completely ignored him. He drew his heavy blade with a loud metallic shing, his green eyes darting around the shadows with pure, unadulterated excitement.
"This is awesome. It feels like a real hunting ground! I can already hear things moving out there."
Emma let go of my arm, though she stayed perfectly positioned right at my flank.
She raised her left wrist, adjusting the silver, teardrop-crystal bracelet I had bought her in the capital. The crystal hummed with a faint, reassuring golden light as she subtly tested her mana flow.
"My output is stable," she reported quietly to me, her bright blue eyes scanning the tree line. "The mana here is dense, but it’s not corrupting."
I nodded, opening my Debugger interface silently flaring to life behind my retinas.
[Target: Environment -> Execute Command: Topographical Scan (Radius: 500 Meters)]
[Three hostile life signs detected (Low-Tier). Zero faculty tokens in immediate vicinity.]
"Alright, listen up," Adrian announced, stepping out of the mud and attempting to project an aura of absolute command.
He rested his hand on the pommel of his rapier, looking at the three of us as if we were his personal retainers.
"Since I am the highest-ranking noble in this squad, I am officially taking point as squad leader. Our strategy is simple. We find a defensible high ground, fortify it, and ambush the weaker squads for their tokens as they pass by. Raith, you and the commoner take the vanguard."
Kyle scoffed loudly, resting his heavy sword over his shoulder. "Are you out of your mind? Jin’s the one who basically is strongest among us all. I’m not taking orders from a guy who’s scared of getting mud on his boots."
Adrian’s eyes narrowed. "Know your place, peasant—"
"We’re moving north," I interrupted, my voice perfectly calm and completely devoid of debate.
Adrian snapped his head toward me, his jaw clenching. "Excuse me? I just gave an order—"
"And it was a terrible one," I replied smoothly, not even bothering to look at him as I adjusted the leather bracers I had modified.
"Setting up a static ambush requires knowing the main routes, which we don’t.
Staying in one place also means we aren’t actively hunting beasts for their internal tokens, severely limiting our point ceiling.
Furthermore, the mana density is heavier to the south, meaning the stronger beasts will naturally gravitate that way.
If we go north, we hit the mid-tier zones, farm the beasts efficiently without running into an early other students, and build momentum."
Kyle grinned, slapping my shoulder. "Makes perfect sense to me. Lead the way, boss."
"I agree," Emma added instantly, falling perfectly into step right behind my right shoulder.
Adrian stood there, his face flushing a deep red as his "command" was completely and effortlessly dismantled by simple, undeniable logic.
He looked at the three of us, realizing he was entirely outvoted and outmatched in basic tactical theory.
"Fine," Adrian spat, his pride bruised as he reluctantly drew his rapier and fell to the back of the formation. "But when your little northern route gets us surrounded by dire-wolves, I’m not bailing you out."
"I wouldn’t dream of asking you to," I muttered.
Then, we pushed north for about an hour, the thick canopy of the Obsidian Woods making it feel like it was already twilight.
It didn’t take long for the local wildlife to find us.
Three Iron-Hide Panthers dropped silently from the heavy branches above, their metallic fur scraping against the bark.
Before they even hit the ground, Kyle was already moving.
He let out a booming laugh, swinging his sword in a massive, sweeping arc that caught the first panther mid-air, slamming it into a tree trunk with a bone-crunching crack.
The second panther lunged straight at Emma.
She didn’t even flinch. Her silver bracelet flared, and a perfectly hexagonal barrier snapped into existence.
The beast smashed face-first into the hard light, completely stunning itself.
Then I smoothly stepped past her, drove my blade through the gap in the panther’s neck plating, and cleanly severed its spinal cord.
The third panther circled toward Adrian.
"Filthy mutt!" Adrian yelled, frantically drew his rapier, and unleashed a massive, blinding thrust that completely overkill-fried the beast.
It died instantly, but the smell of burnt ozone and singed hair filled the clearing.
"Nice waste of mana," I muttered, wiping my blade clean on the damp moss. I crouched down next to the panther I had killed, digging the tip of my knife into its chest cavity.
With a quick twist, I pried out a small, metallic silver coin stamped with the Academy crest.
"One token down."
Adrian scoffed, aggressively wiping a speck of ash off his pristine white sleeve.
"That was barely a warm-up. If this is the best the mid-tier zones have to offer, we’ll be done by tomorrow."
I stood up, tossing the token to Emma, who safely tucked it into her pouch.
And just as I was about to tell Adrian to keep his voice down when my interface violently spiked behind my retinas.
[Warning: Life forms detected. Radius: 40 meters. Trajectory: Inbound.]
[Signatures: Four human combatants. Concealed.]
An ambush. A rival squad had tracked the noise of Adrian’s flashy lightning strike and was currently aiming a volley right at us from the dense thicket to our right.
I tensed, my grip tightening on my sword. If I yelled to take cover, we would be pinned down behind the trees, letting them dictate the pace of the fight. I needed to draw their fire, reveal their exact positions, and waste their opening volley.
Which means... I needed a meat shield.
My eyes casually slid over to Adrian, who was still busy admiring his rapier.
"Adrian," I said, pitching my voice to sound slightly urgent but completely submissive.
"My tracking skill is picking up a dense mana fluctuation right behind that thicket to your right. It feels like a high-tier token drop."
Adrian’s eyes instantly lit up with pure, unadulterated greed. He completely forgot about his complaints from two minutes ago.
He wanted the glory of securing a high-value asset to hold over my head.
"I’ve got it," Adrian declared arrogantly, shoving past me. "Stand back, Raith. Let a real noble handle the extraction."
"Be my guest," I said, stepping smoothly behind the massive trunk of an iron-wood tree. I caught Kyle’s eye and subtly tapped the side of my leg twice, our silent signal for incoming contact.
Kyle’s grin vanished, and he immediately shifted his heavy sword into a ready stance.
Adrian marched right up to the thicket, completely exposing himself in the open clearing, and aggressively pushed the heavy branches aside.
"Let’s see what we have—"
BOOM!
The ambush triggered.
Three localized air-cannons and a barrage of jagged earth-spikes exploded out of the brush simultaneously, aimed squarely at the first person who stepped into their crosshairs.
Adrian took the absolute brunt of it.
His auto-triggering personal shield artifact flared to life, but the sheer force of the concentrated ambush instantly shattered the barrier like glass.
Adrian let out a high-pitched, thoroughly undignified scream as the blast violently launched him backward.
He flew through the air and crashed face-first into a massive puddle of freezing, stagnant mud, his pristine uniform instantly ruined.
"Get ready!" I yelled, perfectly timing my movement.
With the enemy squad’s positions entirely exposed and their first volley wasted on our resident aristocrat, the trap was broken.
"Kyle, left flank! Break their vanguard!" I ordered, already blurring into motion.
"Emma, lock down the ranged casters!"
"You got it!" Kyle roared, charging straight into the thicket like an absolute battering ram, his sword tearing through the brush.
Emma stepped out from cover, her eyes flashing with a brilliant, focused light.
"On it!"
As the other squad frantically tried to cycle their mana for a second volley, I slipped through the shadows, my blade already drawn, leaving Adrian groaning in the mud as I went to clear the field.
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