"Ugh..." Sebek got up from his sleeping bag grumbling as he looked around before realizing that he was not called upon and scowled, "Don't tell me..."
His eyes widen in disbelief as he scowled, "Riddle and Silver fell asleep! Huh?"
He paused in surprise before looking down and realized that Lotus had been shivering for a while now. Confused, Sebek glanced down on her curiously and reached out to push the blanket away from her face only to realize how cold her skin had become. Surprised, he pulled back in hand in shock.
Was she always this cold? However, he never recalled her being cold up to this point before either. Yet, she was quite cold enough to kick him into Riddle's tent. Had it not been for them struggling to get along, he would not have been forced to share a tent with her! Yet...
Sebek hesitated in his thoughts as he saw that the guy was shivering despite curled up into a small ball. With a sigh, he got up. Guess there was only one thing left to do.
"RIDDLE!!!"
Riddle and Silver jumped at the sound of Sebek's booming voice upon them.
"S-Sebek!? What happened?" Riddle looked around in bewilderment.
Sebek sighed in dismay as he said, "This is normal for Silver, but you were dozing off too, Riddle!"
"Ah…" Riddle frowned as it dawned upon him that he fell asleep during the entire half of the night, "My bad. But of course I'm exhausted. I'm not that used to staying up late."
Not to mention, he had a sudden urge to fall into a deep slumber shortly after Silver and Sebek decided to switch places at the dead of night.
"Then why don't you go rest inside the tent? I'll watch over the campfire." Sebek suggested as he muttered in exasperatioin.
"Are you sure? You must be tired too." Riddle responded hesitantly, "After staying up half way into the shift."
"I'm used to camping. I'm still perfectly fine. Besides, Lotus has refused to wake up anyway." Sebek pointed to Silver who looked ready to fall asleep again, "But could you take Silver with you? Watching him sleeping peacefully in front of me is driving me mad."
"Okay. I'll just… Silver?"
"Hm? I…" Silver wearily opened his eyes as he looked around, "Was I sleeping again…?"
"Yes." Riddle nodded, "Sebek will keep watch here, so we can head back to our tents."
Before heading back to their tents, Silver and Riddle had gone to check on Lotus quietly as Riddle walked in with a look of surprise! Under layers and layers of blankets, the little guy was wrapped like a burrito!
"I had a feeling that Sebek wouldn't just let him freeze to death." Riddle sighed in relief upon teaching her forehead and finding that it was decently warm, "At least, he won't freeze over like last time."
"Looks as though he's doing just fine, then." Silver yawned after poking his head in to check on them, "With this, Malleus and Yuu can rest with ease."
"Malleus was worried about him?" Riddle raised a brow as he got out of the tent.
Silver nodded, "He was left in our care by the prefect. So, Malleus decided to take care of him until their dorm is rebuilt. However, we had to be rather careful since he doesn't seem to enjoy being either of us aside from Fa- Lilia and Malleus. Unlike today, he never lashes at me, though. In my opinion, he's very calm and collected even if it means stay around those he doesn't like. As for Sebek... Unless Sebek acts out of character first, he simply enjoys poking fun at him."
"Well, I know the last part." Riddle sighed in dismay, "As if he wasn't poking fun at Sebek since joining the club. By the way, have you noticed?"
"Hm?"
"I haven't seen Ace around since we left for the challenges." Riddle muttered with a frown.
"Really?" Silver raised a brow, "I haven't noticed it. But, he should be all right since he's with Scarabia's vice-dorm leader as well in the basketball club, right?"
Silver never interacted closely with the freshmen before so he isn't too familiar with Ace, Deuce and Yuu prior to this event. So, he doesn't know much about Ace and Deuce or what his habit and personality was like. However, he knew that they were also students like himself so it would be bad if they were gone. Yet, it would be bad if they were to disappear. Hopefully this was all just some fruitless thoughts.
.....
The sun had yet to rise when there was a loud clanging in the distance waking everyone up.
"What was that?!" Sebek jumped up in bewilderment. He had only been up for a few hours when he suddenly heard the sounds of metal clanging and got to his feet posed ready when he noticed a ghost with a spatula and large pan creating a ruckus in a distance.
"It's morning, everyone. Wake up~! We're going to announce your challenges~!"
"Hmph! It's about time!" Sebek huffed and hurriedly went to go wake up.
"MORNING!" Vargas called out with a bright and shining smile on his face which was a little glaring to see, "It's a beautiful day."
"Ugh… I'm still sleepy…" Floyd grumbled with a yawn.
"Hah…" Deuce yawned, "The floor was so hard, and it feels like I didn't get any rest at all…"
"Good morning!" Lotus called out excitedly, "What's today's challenge, Professor?"
"It's good to see that at least one person is awake and ready to face the day." Vargas huffed in dismay upon seeing the other boys, "I can't believe you guys… Not only do you not have muscles, but no manners either? You're supposed to answer my greeting! Otherwise I'll disqualify you right here. Let's try this again… Morning!!!"
"…Good morning." The students grumbled as they secretly cursed at Lotus hoping she could just have kept her mouth shut instead!
"First thing in the morning and we have to see someone this irritating…" Leona grumbled in complaints as he stood annoyingly.
"I'll jump right into announcing your challenges for day two! Just like yesterday, there are three of them. First is "life"! To spend your time at camp safely, you need to make magic potions. Locate wild "luminous flowers" around the area to make a potion that can make small wounds heal quicker." Vargas began instructing.
"Luminous flowers? Those are supposed to be extremely rare. These challenges are way more difficult than yesterday's!" Sebek exclaimed in disbelief.
"Next is "food"! While securing your food, you need to pay close attention to the environment they live in. Capture the catfish that eat the fish in the lake."
"I didn't know catfish live here. I didn't see any during our challenges yesterday. We'll have to think harder about the way we fish today." Ruggie muttered in surprise.
"Last is "learning"! You need to learn more practical information about magic gems than you learned yesterday. Enter the mines again and find one magic gem. But it needs to be bigger than yesterday's! It should be around two cubic centimeters… and weigh seven grams."
"That's huge!!" Floyd cried out in bewilderment, "It was really hard finding the right size yesterday—now this is more than double that… I wanna go home now."
"You have until sunset, just like yesterday. The challenges for Vargas Camp, Day 2… starts now!!"
As soon as the professor walked away, the others began to talk amongst one another right away in hope of a new strategy.
"We should have a larger group go work on the challenge in the forest, since the lambent flower is so rare." Sebek suggested.
"Yeah." Riddle nodded with a frown, "The number of them growing is very small. Like Sebek said, let's have as many people as possible search for it."
Hearing this, Lotus sighed in dismay as the others in the club agreed with bright smiles on their faces, "Here we go again... These boys sure have a one track mind... Don't tell me I'm on food duties again?"
"We'll help you, Lotus." The freshman and others from her prior group returned to her side with a dry smile, "Please don't blame Rosehearts and the others. They aren't wrong that the Luminous flower is very difficult to find. So, while they go out and gather the flowers, let's go fetch the fishes in a bit, then."
"But..." the freshman frowned, "those guys agreed to get us those regular fish. It's not a catfish."
"No worries. It's exactly what we needed." Lotus replied bitterly and with great irritation before turning to the lake, "Remember the groups from yesterday. Also, have you noticed it?"
"Eh?"
"Ace from the basketball club vanished prior to last night." She responded quietly, "Not only that, the professor is not worried about it. Not a hint of worry."
"Seriously?"
"He's right. That guy was complaining how hungry he was last time but he didn't show up for dinner last night."
"That's not right. Someone that hungry would definitely stick like glue once there's food and everyone in the basketball seems like true to their one set mind goals unless it's the scarabia vice dorm leader and one of the twins of Octavinelle."
"But, the professor didn't seem to have noticed." The freshman hesitated, "Perhaps, he simply believes that the guy will come back later?"
Lotus thought for a bit before she sighed, "I got it."
She turned to them and continued, "From now, everyone needs to focus on their task on hand. Stick in pairs or in groups of three. No one is to be left alone, no matter what. Also, absolutely do not slack off. Do these and none of us will disappear. As for the missing students, put that off till tonight. Everyone in our group has the strongest senses aside from Silver and Sebek who are trained harshly from young."
"Is someone or something kidnapping everyone?" An Octavinelle sophmore spoke up hesitantly.
"As someone who has worked in a business, I expect you not to question things... Recklessly." Lotus responded and turned to them, "Tie some ropes onto one another when picking firewood or to the outdoor restroom. Don't bother the mouths and eyes of others. They're not your own. As long as they mean no physical harm, do not mind it. Even the most silliest ideas can be the best ones. Riddle's group has already gone off to fetch the luminous flower and make the potion so make sure that the fire is ready. Whatever you do, don't stray far from one another. Just remember not to slack off."
"Y-yes!"
As they split up into their usual groups and hurried to their tasks, one of the guys tying the ropes on each other whispered, "Here I thought that Professor Vargas would be teaching us how to camp, but I never expected that he would just sent us on tasks without instructions on how to achieve it. In the end, Lotus is the one teaching us how to gather herbs and everything. He's like one of the professors too!"
"But, Riddle and Sebek also knows how to find the luminous flower and use it to create recovery potions too. Without them, we'd be at a complete loss at what to do." Then it finally dawned on the guy as he muttered, "Maybe... we are supposed to be communicating and learning from each other?"
"But students at the school aren't that cooperative unless we are acquainted, right? I mean, we wouldn't be talking like this, unless we are in the same dorm or club."
"True..."