I was hoping to catch up with her, but unfortunately, Ningxue did not stick around for the hubbub following the public exam. With no other reason for remaining there, I headed home and reuinited with Xinxia, who had passed her exam with an S and an A. The summer flew by.
Unequivocally, I was placed straight into the Elite class taught by Tang Yue beginning in September. I was offered the use of the shared Common-grade Stardust Magic Tool for a month because I had the highest exam score, but I rejected, claiming my Stardust was about to rise to the 3rd-tier anyway; I was not so petty as to deny my classmates the use of the tool when I already had one. The Light Stardust indeed did level up in another three months, unlocking access to the 3rd-tier Basic Light spell.
It was December by that point and I hadn't killed beasts for nearly a year now, so I set out to the jungle to sharpen my skills once again. I decided to avoid going after Advancing Soldiers; they were not easy to find, let alone kill. Instead, I started to focus on battling groups of Lesser Soldiers, even Average Soldiers.
Group battles are a completely different animal than one-on-ones. The average person would get utterly demolished in a 1 vs 2: one of them would end up restraining one or more of his limbs, and he wouldn't be able to fight back effectively against the remaining person.
Therefore, the key in a group battle is to not get tied down. The team of hyena-like Lesser Soldiers surrounding me would love nothing more than allowing one of their own to get sliced half to death while feasting on the one doing the slicing.
As one can imagine, fighting several creatures at once involved an order of magnitude more parrying and weaving through attacks. Luckily, I was no stranger to this, having been chased by wolf packs, hyena packs, wild dogs, and more countless times. My awareness of my surroundings and my evasions eventually coalesced into a fluid process. I subconsciously assigned a time by which I'd have to dodge the attacks of the rest of the pack while facing one member in isolation. If halfway through that time I had not landed a blow on my opponent, I immediately withdrew and evaded and parried as much as possible, searching for the next chance to deal damage to a beast.
Of course, it's all instinctual with very little mental processing, or else I would be utterly helpless against the speed and agility of Solder-class creatures.
For the next 6 months, I did nothing but eat, meditate, fight, sell, and sleep. Oh, aside from talking to Xinxia and Uncle Mo every day, of course. She matured and grew less concerned about me coming back in bad shape, especially because she could fix me up in a few minutes with her Basic Healing spells, but she was often miffed that our precious little time together was slashed because I made some bold moves that resulted in injuries.
During a particularly intense battle with 5 Average Soldier-level lizards, I managed to tear a gash along one of their scaly torsos, spilling its entrails everywhere. After a minute or so, I paralyzed another one by stabbing into its spinal cord, but I barely dodged the subsequent attacks from its comrades, distracted by a hand-sized glowing white circle approaching Nyx that disappeared after touching its black surface. I mentally filed the matter away for later, and finished off the rest of the agile, hippopotamus-sized lizards.
Soldier Soul Essences, among a myriad of other uses, are fodder for Stardust Magic Tools. Upon dying, the creature's soul has a certain chance of preserving itself, forming a Soul Essence. Otherwise, most of the soul's energy fades away and a tiny firefly-like Soul Remnant remains. Soul Essences are extremely rare drops from monster deaths; there is no consensus on the precise probability, but estimates are all in the ballpark of 1 in 350. Over the past 6 months, I had killed around 600 Soldier-class magical beasts (getting 600 Soul Remnants), and the lizards were somewhere in the 500s: I was quite unlucky to only receive one after so much fighting.
But my unenviable fortune wasn't the confusing anomaly. That would be the fact that to collect Soul Essences and Remnants, one had to either be an Undead Magician or have an extremely expensive Soul Container capable of attracting and storing Soul Essences. Nyx was a Stardust Magic Tool; how could it possibly be a Soul Container? It harbored more enigmas than I initially perceived.
Speaking of which, after absorbing the lizard's Soul Essence, Nyx shuddered. Interested, I meditated to see its new effects, and indeed, it had been upgraded to a Spirit-grade Stardust Magic Tool. So I could level it up with Soul Essences? Yet another mystery.
…
…
It's currently June 19, near the end of my second year of high school. The teachers have seen fit to take the Elite class out on an excursion to the mountainous forest north of Bo City. There's 100 of us, so they divide us into 5 groups of 20, each supervised by a teacher and two military instructors: for my group, the two are a tanned, handsome man called Luo Yunbo and a similarly tanned woman, Pan Lijun, and the teacher is an ordinary-looking Zhang Jianguo.
They take us to Snowy Peak Mountain exit: a 20 meter tall stone gate sequestered into the rest of the solid wall; a sentry stands guard atop each of its sides. One of them hops down and greets the two Battlemages with us.
"Yunbo, Lijun, looking great. Ready to show these brats what a real battle is like?"
"Certainly, Boss Zhan Kong!" They crisply reply.
We proceed to the Snowy Peak Mountain stronghold next to the gate, where shops and vendors litter the area. Shady-looking men and women hawk their goods to passersby, offering necessities for battle and cultivation. Several appear to have dozens of dusty Magic Equipment and Magic Tools, and nearby vendors are selling the magic stones needed to power them.
My weapons are extremely basic. The only reason they're so expensive is that they use materials that are fodder for Magic Equipment, but their price is still not comparable to Magic Equipment derived from equivalent materials even though the labor, skill, and time required to produce weapons like mine is comparable to those of Magic Equipment.
There's several reasons for this. One: demand for Magic Equipment is far higher than demand for cold weapons, since the ease of use and utility of the former surpasses the latter for most Basic Mages unable to wield swords or spears properly. Two: Magic Equipment can be imbued with a spiritual mark via a strand of Intent, and then Mages can store it in their Spiritual Worlds instead of lugging it around, something not possible with cold weapons. Three: Magic Equipment automatically repairs itself over time using a small stream of Spiritual Force; the only maintenance needed is possibly magic stones if it consumes magic power, while I've had to take my short swords and spear back to the smithy several times for repairs.
Magic Tools are usually small, magical items that Mages carry on their body; they could vary from taking some form of jewelry to bootstraps to belts, etc. Their uses are just as variable as those Magic Equipment, but usually leaning towards utility instead of combat. Stardust Magic Tools and Soul Containers are two excellent examples.
Magic stones, often used to supply Magic Equipment with energy, are the power source of all technology in the world. The outdated steam engine used a combination of Fire, Water, and Wind magic stones to produce steam. Most electrical appliances are powered by Lightning magic stones. Light magic stones are used in nearly every source of illumination. Tiny pieces of Space magic stones are in every phone, computer, and data server, transmitting information across the world.
They're also the magical beasts' source of food and energy, along with Mages themselves. Cities exist to shield humans, allowing them to live in relative comfort with technology powered by magic stones. If anyone tried to use these sophisticated items outside cities, they'd be devoured within minutes. Still, even removing technology from the equation, demonic creatures would remain hostile to humans: our cities lie in their territory, as far as they're concerned.
Fighting them is a necessity, which explains why our final exam involves venturing into the dense, green forest adorning Snowy Peak Mountain. Speaking of which, all 5 groups have gathered, waiting for Zhan Kong to begin talking.
"Alright, you brats, I'm your Chief Military Instructor. You're the first group of examinees I've overseen since coming to this city, so I'll go easy on you. Only one of you 100 brats has to complete a low-level bounty mission I've scrounged up and reserved for you, and that's enough for all of you to get an A."
Xu Zhaoting cautiously asks, "What if none of us can claim the bounty?"
"Then you're all pieces of garbage, deserving of the fails I'll give you."
An uproar arises among the students, and the surrounding Battlemages scoff in disbelief. It's hardly a wonder why; only seasoned squadrons of Mages with at least 3 years of experience in the wild would dare to claim consistent clearance of easier bounties, let alone the more difficult ones.
[Does he want us to fail?]
"Naturally, for the person who does manage to clear the bounty, there's a reward. One piece of defensive Magic Equipment."
A second tumult resounds through the audience. Any random defensive Magic equipment costs at least tens of thousands of yuan, if not hundreds of thousands; what an expensive reward for such a low bounty! Suspicious.
As I'm mulling the matter over, everyone begins heading to the gate. On the way, Zhan Kong discreetly pulls me aside.
"Oi, Yang Jianyu, don't think I'm unaware of your skills. C'mon, hand over all the weapons you have; none of the others have anything capable of damaging even Inferior Soldiers. You can't walk into the exam with such an unfair advantage."
I concede and give him my two concealed short swords, having left behind my spear.
…
…
4 days have passed. The bounty is only 30 km away, as the oft-complaining Zhang Shuhua points out; why haven't we gotten there?
[Gee, I wonder. Who's slowing down the group?]
Actually, that's a misguided implication. Nearly the entire group is slowing down the group. Pretty much all of my 19 peers have lived life in relative comfort, having their parents pay for any wants, including the resources to enroll at Magic High. The fees aren't cheap; I wouldn't be able to pay for myself and Xinxia if I wasn't able to hunt and loot. Xiaohou's fees are waived since he's been an orphan for over a decade ever since his parents passed away, and Zhaoting, Kunsan, and Mu Bai all have families capable of paying those fees.
At any rate, in this group of 20 students, only Zhang Xiaohou and Zhou Min are made of sterner stuff. He often scouts ahead with his Wind Trail, and she blasts through shrubbery using Fire Bursts. The rest lag behind, whining about the dirt staining their body, having to eat poorly cooked food, insects crawling over them, boredom, uncomfortable bedding, etc. It's no wonder the three of us stay ahead of them, fed up with their constant drivel.
As for why we haven't traveled '30 km' in 4 days, Zhang Xiaohou generously offers the obvious answer: "Climbing hills, crossing valleys, and detouring around mountains adds a lot to the 30 km straight line estimate."
Honestly, he's been exceedingly patient. The others often mocked him for having the lowest grades regarding his Wind Element among the 4 Wind Magicians here, but he shut them all up by being the only one with any courage. We were faced with an uncrossable ravine, where the other side was over 30 meters away: even the most fit Basic Mages could only manage a lunge distance around 10 meters. Zhang Xiaohou was the sole volunteer to leap across. I supervised the construction of a sturdy rope made out of vines, ensuring Earth Mages squeezed a layer of rock around each knot to keep it secure. I tied one end around his waist and the other to a huge tree near the cliff, assuring him I'd have my hands on the rope the entire time to pull him up if necessary. He cast Wind Trail: Swift Current, building up momentum and vaulting across the gap with a meter to spare. His momentum carried him into an unfortunate collision with a tree, but he shrugged it off, grinning with excitement.
I'm sure the military instructors checking on us once in a while noticed his feat, marking him as an excellent seedling. Ah, none of the other students seem to be aware, but we were not dumped into the wild and told to kill a monster by ourselves. Or rather, we were, but not without intermittent supervision, likely to score us.
By now I'm pretty sure Zhan Kong does not expect us to complete the bounty; why else would he take my weapons away but not deny the useless rich students their Magic Equipment? Why else would they be supervising us, if not to save us from certain death? He's motivating the students with an A if they succeed and an F if they fail, but of course he knows that's not an appropriate metric to grade my peers.
…
…
The bounty is to kill a Spirit Wolf that had slaughtered a Light Magician, Bai Yang. The wolf's den is deep within the caverns of Hundred Grass Valley, ones we're wandering through right now. A bright yellow ball levitates over our head, illuminating everything in the radius of 50 meters. With a tier 3 Light Stardust, I'm now capable of casting 8 Basic spells instead of the paltry 2 when I had first carried out activation.
Keeping the ball, the result of casting Illuminate: Blindness at a safe distance above our heads, shining only requires a tiny stream of mana from my Stardust; I could keep it up for hours.
We see a few much smaller sources of light in the distance, likely the result of keeping Illuminate: Cleanse active. No Light Magicians in my group bothered, since my stronger spell was sufficient.
Our groups meet up; I see that Mu Bai's their leader. We discuss for a moment, agreeing that it's unlikely any other groups are coming given most of the excellent students happened to be assigned to the two groups already here. We continue exploring the caverns together, searching for the Spirit Wolf's den.
…
…
We come across a large pool of water after 30 minutes. While the others take a breather, I notice something odd.
The rocks around 30 cm or less above the waterline are damp, meaning the water's depth has dropped by a foot or so. Evaporation cannot deplete the water fast enough that the exposed rocks also don't evaporate their water. This means creatures have been drinking it, perhaps even recently. Then… given I've been leading the others to the Spirit Wolf by following clues of its presence…
"Awoooooh! Awooooooooh!" Two successive howls resound from nearby, outside the range of our sources of light. As the creature steps into the illuminated area, I think at least 3 people piss their pants.
A hairy blue foot comes out of the dark. Its razor-sharp claws sink into the ground with each step. Rows of fierce, saw-like teeth appear, and green saliva drips down from two sword-like fangs, revealing the beast's hunger. A pair of lime green eyes adorn its head. Its build is precisely that of a wolf, scaled up to 3 meters long and 2 meters tall. Dense muscles ripple under its skin.
[F…fuck me. An Advancing Soldier?]
I curse myself for letting Zhan Kong take my swords. Plus, I have not noticed any signs of the military instructors or teachers, so either they've gotten better at hiding themselves, or, more likely, they're not here…
"R…ru…RUN!" someone screams.
Everyone begins scattering. He Yu is rooted to the ground. Zhang Xiaohou tugs at her to go, but she won't budge. Frustrated, he tries casting Wind Trail, but fails in the menacing aura of the wolf. He gives up and starts dragging her away.
A few other brave students, including Zhou Min, try aligning their stars, but they just can't: the stars whiz out of existence. It's no wonder the Battlemages scoffed when hearing Zhan Kong assigned us a bounty to complete; greenhorns faced with a magical beast for the first time simply cannot construct a Star Path.
All give up except Zhou Min, who tries again even though the wolf is currently plodding toward us, evidently treating the situation as sport. As it gets within 20 meters of her, I scoop her up and begin running away. Bravery will only get you eaten here.
As I approach the nearest exit while she struggles in my arms, I notice Mu Bai closeby. He seems to be aligning his stars in spite of his body trembling out of instinctive fear. He fires his 2nd-tier Ice Spread: Solidify at the wolf, causing clouds of frost to steadily encapsulate its beefy legs and slowing it down.
[This could work.]
I start rushing at the wolf, transferring the spear from my back into my hands. That's right, I fashioned a stone spear during our journey here. Light but sturdy wood, a pointed rock spearpoint I found and sharpened further, and vines securing the whole thing tightly.
It moderately increases my confidence as I near the literal jaws of death. The wolf snarls, blurring into a lunge that I'm already sidestepping. The jump takes it within strike range of everyone else, so I sprint at it while it swivels around to face me, leaving its back exposed to the others. It's all up to them now, and they don't disappoint.
Zhou Min is the first to launch an attack. She throws a Fire Burst: Burning Bones at its furry back. The small flaming ember vanishes after landing, and suddenly a red glow within its body appears as the wolf howls in pain: its muscles and other tissues in its rump are violently burning!
It suddenly dashes to the pond, and it takes several seconds for the fire to be extinguished. Finally, it rises out with water pouring down from its fur, its scarlet red eyes staring at us menacingly.
[Scarlet red? I thought its eyes were green.]
The wolf's lips peel back in anger. Instead of steadily walking and treating us like sport, it seems more aggressive after the severe injury to its back. It immediately launches into an unsteady sprint at double the speed of its lunge, coming at the closest person: me! I barely react in time, jumping and whacking its mouth with the butt of my spear, using the force to divert my path from its jaws.
Having failed to injure me twice, it switches tactics and howls. Fearing the worst, I yell, "Water Mages, shields on me NOW!" Only He Yu reacts in time, and the lone water barrier holds on for a while under the storm of dust and rocks that come my way, but shatters a few seconds before the onslaught dissipates. I can't parry pebbles and dust. The sand tears at my skin and fills my nose; it's a miracle I managed to hold my breath so my lungs didn't start shredding from the inside.
The sandstorm clears, but it has taken its toll. I'm left hacking and coughing the dust out of my system, blood on every square inch of my skin, except for my eyes that I covered with my hands and my feet that are protected by thick military boots.
Ignoring the pain, I charge at the monster while yelling, "ZHAOTING! Shoot a Lightning Strike at it NOW!!"
Thankfully, coils of lighting gather around his arm before firing at the wolf's torso. Its limbs are fully paralyzed right when I'm two meters away. I make full use of the limited time by stabbing deep into its eye sockets, ear canals, nose, anus, anything not protected by its thick hide. Unfortunately, I overestimated how long I had before it recovers from the paralysis, and it blindly swipes everywhere with its front paws, cutting three deep gashes in my back even as I'm already fleeing.
I fall to the ground, and since I lack mud to cover my scent, it manages to sniff out the smell of my blood through its ruined snout. It lunges at me, and I push myself off the ground horizontally to dodge, kicking its neck for further leverage. I'm in one of the worst conditions I've ever been in, and I don't even know whether I can keep evading for much longer. Even without its accurate sight, I'll surely get caught in its next sandstorm since it covers such a wide range, and I'll lose too much blood and collapse.
However, perhaps the sight of my bloody figure valiantly facing off against the wolf gives the rest of the students courage. The Fire Mages launch a volley of Fire Burst: Scorches, some of which manage to damage the beast's sensitive regions further and burn away part of its thick hide. Mu Bai then leads the Ice Mages to freeze it in place, allowing the Fire Mages' next volley to be far more accurate. Everyone with any offensive spells starts tossing them at the wolf, and it finally succumbs to its accumulated injuries.
I, too, fall to the ground momentarily, heaving sweet gulps of air. I allow myself a brief respite before hobbling over to my peers.
…
…
I wake up to a pleasant warmth I quickly equate with remnants of someone's Healing Element. I push myself upright and look around the white hospital ward. Several military instructors, including their Chief Zhan Kong, the teachers, and all the students are here.
Tang Yue gently informs me, "We were waiting for you to awaken. The other students told us what happened. Congratulations, truly."
I recall the battle in which my peers and I fought for our lives. Irritation mounts within me as I fight the urge to speak rudely.
"Chief Military Instructor, may I please have my weapons back?" If he hadn't taken them from me, I wouldn't have been so helpless.
The instructors frown at my tone, but Zhan Kong raises his hand, preventing them from speaking. He hands me my short swords with a regretful expression on his face. "I apologize. None of us expected the Spirit Wolf to lose all restraint, mounting such a ferocious assault."
"Excuse me? Why do you assume it was restrained in the first pl… Oh. It was a Summoned Beast." I suppose it makes sense; I had already known the supervisors didn't abandon us to face off against the wilderness alone, so I should've expected something like this. My anger fades as I realize Zhan Kong couldn't have anticipated what occurred either.
"Sorry for snapping at you like that. If it's one of your men's Summons, I guess its actions were completely out of the blue."
He places a hand on my shoulder. "It's quite alright, I deserve a bit of chastising for telling everyone to keep their distance from you all in the caverns. I thought our Illuminate spells would immediately throw you guys off, perhaps making you think there's another group that wants to meet up. In hindsight, your safety is far more important than keeping your exam free of interference."
I frown, puzzled. "But then, why did the wolf go mad? One moment, its eyes were green. Then, after getting hit by Zhou Min's Fire Burst: Burning Bones, it ran to the water to extinguish itself, and its eyes turned scarlet red and it started going crazy after that."
He frowns. "None of the students told us about the eye color change; that's new information. Even if on very rare occasions a summoned beast gets infuriated and escapes its master's control, I don't understand why its eyes shifted from green to red. As far as I know, nothing in a Spirit Wolf's biological system allows for such a phenomenon."
I'm enlightened. "I know! It must have been mmph." He covers my mouth, giving me a look that says we'll discuss it later.
"Putting this mystery aside, I have to commend the two teams that reached the Spirit Wolf. You displayed excellence in the face of fear; few Basic Mages can claim to have cast a spell on their first encounter with a magical beast! All 100 of you will receive A's as promised, and the 26 who faced the beast will receive S's."
Cheers resound the ward.
"As for you, Jianyu, we're at a loss. It's highly likely at least a dozen students would have been torn to pieces had you not bravely faced it in close combat with your makeshift spear, giving them the courage to fight back. Of course, you'll receive an SS, but it doesn't sit right with me to merely offer you a defensive Magic Equipment worth tens of thousands of yuan. Is there any reward you have in mind?"
No doubt this is partially to cover for the fact that he hadn't prepared such equipment in the first place. "How about a defensive Magic Equipment worth tens of millions of yuan?"
Everyone laughs while his countenance darkens. "That… in this city, there exists no one capable of creating such expensive equipment. Anything else?"
I mull it over more seriously. "Can I trade my short swords in for ones that can slice through the bones of Lesser Warrior-level creatures? I'm tired of having my weapons clang off of vertebrae when I aim at my opponents' spinal cords."
His face winces at my pricey request. "S… sure. I'll send someone to drop it off at your house in a week or so."
"Wait, this is normal for you? Do you fight magical beasts with your short swords?" a voice pipes up from the crowd. It's Zhang Xiaohou. Curse him.
"Uh, yeah. Advanced and Super Mages engage in close combat all the time; I just happen to be doing it earlier is all." That's a terrible explanation, but luckily I think everyone except Zhan Kong buys it.
"Alright, let's get all of you back to school. Enjoy your last summer as high school students; you'll be graduating in a year!" Zhan Kong ushers everyone out and closes the door when he's the only one left. He walks back to my bed.
"So what were you saying about the Spirit Wolf?"
I gather my thoughts for a moment, then state, "There's two possibilities. One is that it just happened to change eye colors and become frenzied after landing in the water, perhaps due to the interference of some unknown entity wishing harm upon my peers."
"Sounds pretty wishy washy to me. What's the other possibility?"
"The other, and in my opinion likelier idea, is that the water itself was contaminated with something that made the wolf go crazy and changed its eyes from green to red. Possibly because the highly enhanced blood flow accompanying the madness burst the capillaries running through its eyes. Though I don't know why it wasn't frenzied to begin with if it had been drinking the water. Perhaps the summoned beast's contract resisted the influence of madness until the wolf got injured and jumped in the pond?"
"I think that makes sense, yes."
"Wait, also speaking of drinking the water, there's no way the wolf alone could have depleted enough to sink the waterline by 30 cm. I know One-eyed Magic Wolves roam around those caverns; I believe it's highly likely they have been consuming the frenzy substance if it exists."
"So, you're saying we should investigate the water, maybe perform some experiments to see whether it makes creatures go mad? And check the beasts inhabiting the area for irregularities?"
"Precisely. And be on the lookout for hostile humans; I don't think such a substance is natural. Your Battlemages are familiar with the region, but they didn't have any explanation for what occurred. Therefore, if the substance is real, it is not native to the area. Meaning someone sprinkled it into the pond."
"Gotcha. Jeez, you're one perceptive kid. Gonna be a hell of a Hunter when you grow into your strength."
I grin. "Maybe. For now, I much prefer slaughtering roves of beasts than taking missions from the Hunter Union that provide contribution points."
[Though that's not to say I haven't earned any; I'm an Intermediate Hunter, almost an Advanced Hunter because they offer a fixed amount of points depending on the levels of the Soldiers I killed. Definitely not as efficient for neither points nor money as doing detective work in the missions, but far superior for honing my combat skills.]
"Admirable. I'll be off then, rest up here for now."
I'm pretty much fully healed, but sure. "Understood, Chief Military Instructor."