Chereads / Strength over all / Chapter 54 - Discoveries

Chapter 54 - Discoveries

Now that everyone was a lot more careful and looked at their surroundings I could be a bit more relaxed. It was completely contrary to everyone else, but it gave me time to think more about the things I had already discovered in this plane.

Everyone was on edge and I could still see most of the nobles slightly trembling. It really amazed me how someone can get strong enough to join the best class at the best academy in this whole kingdom while never having really fought for real.

And it wasn't even a real fight to death our teacher would've just saved us, even if something did go wrong, but I guess they really have not experience at all in a battle to death. This just makes this kind of training so much more important than before, when I thought this training might even be a bit over the top.

The state of the nobles in this kingdom is way too high compared to commoners and because of that this academy has to basically educate all of these nobles from scratch teaching them the really important stuff like being faced with something as close as possible to a life and death situation.

But the first thing I noticed didn't even directly have anything to do with the plain at all. I noticed that our robes fit extremely well into the area and the weather conditions. I didn't know if it was specifically because of this training, but the colour obviously fit and I also didn't feel cold at all.

I should've surely felt cold, but I didn't feel like it was snowing at all. It actually felt comfortable just like before it began to snow.

My best guess was that it was because of the robes we wore everytime at the academy long and would also wear them for the next few months probably. Besides obviously being made from a very expensive material it was still extremely light, in that aspect it had the same characteristics as my sword.

There was no doubt that every one of these robes was extremely expensive in the whole kingdom, after all the lion class is the only one who has the privilege of wearing the white robes with all of their handy features.

You could also feel mana imbued in the robe. That was probably also why I didn't feel cold at all, but there was not doubt that there were also other features connected to the mana.

I also noticed that the things I could hear in the distance obviously weren't all as stealthy as the rabbit. The problem was that I couldn't exactly make out the size of the beasts just from hearing them.

After all I didn't have any way to exactly know how far away they were, I sometimes believed to see a shadow quickly moving in the distance, but I couldn't be sure about it, because even if I managed to catch a glimpse of them I wouldn't be able to accurately tell it's location, it was moving too fast, so even the noises I managed to hear occasionally were not a reliable source.

"There has to be some place around here, where we are able to stay for the night. It wouldn't make sense for the academy to just expect us to survive without even being able to roast our food properly. This snow makes it impossible outside so there have to be caves or something else.

"We also need to find a water source until tomorrow or I don't know how we are supposed to survive this training." Ren was getting more and more nervous, but he wasn't the only one.

It wasn't the cold or the beasts, but rather the night which would fall over us and even though I myself wouldn't really have anything to fear with my sharp senses and my experiences in the past that wasn't the case for anyone else.

"Well that's all true, but it would help if we even just managed to see a mountain or something, which could give us a hint. Maybe there would be a cave leading deeper into the mountain."

It made sense, but the problem was the snowfall, hindering our view. Without the constant snowfall it would be a lot easier to find a hideout.

It was all in all a hard training, almost completely resembling a normal situation, which could really occur. It may not be necessary for the nobles to know how to live in the wild, but to really experience feelings like fear and get a better understanding of the world you have to leave your safe heaven and experience the world.

And it would also teach respect for a lot of things arrogant nobles didn't have any for before experiencing the training at this academy. If they experienced such a completely different lifestyle they would surely change and their arrogance might even turn into respect and cautiousness.

And as we walked further and further the snow finally stopped to fall down on us, revealing an incredible view.

Gigantic mountains not too far away, but invisible to see before had now been revealed to us and we finally got a glimpse of hope to actually survive this first day. The trees had gotten a lot scarcer and instead of normal trees covered in snow there were plants, which seemed like they couldn't be alive, but at the same time clearly showed signs of life.

There was no green in sight and the trees had changed quite a bit in form and size, but most importantly in the energy they needed to survive. They couldn't get nutrition from the ground, because of the cold killing everything underground and of course over ground.

When closely examining one of those trees up close I felt mana flowing through them even if it was just a faint amount and to my surprise I realized that their life force normally absorbed from the ground was actually absorbed by the cold itself, otherwise I had no plausible explanation explanation for this phenomenon.

When touching them I couldn't feel any warmth from them, but they were still living, it was incredible. Did they evolve into this state in which they are able to absorb the cold around them or were they just made like this?

Finding an answer to that question would probably be impossible for me at least right now and for the next few months so although it was fascinating I quickly forgot about it and focused on the really important things.

The mountains in front of me weren't as tall as the ones I encountered before entering the cave and all around it, but they were also different in other aspects. instead of hard stone like normal mountains these ones seemed like you couldn't climb them at all.

They looked like you would immediately slip if you tried to climb up and you could actually see your reflection in the material, which the whole mountain seemed to have been carefully formed from.

It didn't look natural at all, but the thought of this really just developing like a normal tree or a normal mountain seemed so impossible that I really thought that someone had to have made this.

Wait! I am so stupid again!

I am still thinking and judging this world like my previous world, this is entirely different, something like this is possible! That's why I came here, I have to let go of the other world's rules and try to not think of them, when I encounter phenomenons like this.

Things impossible in my previous world could very easily be possible in this world. I couldn't even exactly say if concepts like gravity worked the exact same way as back in my previous world. Why do I still try to compare it, magic itself is something deemed impossible in my previous world, but here it's uncommon, but still very possible to acquire.

"Hey look over there, that looks unusual." At first glance it didn't really appear to me what he was referring to, but then I noticed what one of my classmates was pointing out.

The reflection, which normally perfectly reflected oneself was missing, instead there was a perfect reflection of everything, but us. Comparing it to the rest of the mountain made it obvious that there indeed was something wrong with this place.

"Let's head in, but we should be cautious. Maybe there are beasts hiding inside." Ren was taking the lead and picked up a stone from the ground.

He threw it and it easily passed through the seemingly perfect reflection like there was nothing at all.

I could've told them that there was no need to be cautious, because I couldn't feel anything inside, but it's better for them to learn to be cautious and not just blindly run inside. And I also couldn't be 100% percent sure.

After all I could only trust the complete silence at least a few hundred metres inside of the cave and my ability to feel mana, which didn't even reach that far and got less and less accurate the further I was away also didn't really let me feel any mana of beasts inside the cave. I could just feel a faint amount of mana at the entrance.

It felt similar to a barrier like when entering the academy, but it didn't feel exactly the same. It was definitely different and also was by far not perfect judging from the reflection of us not being able to be shown.

"Seems like it's really a cave and nothing came out yet, it should be relatively safe. In my opinion we should definitely head inside, after all there's no immediate danger."

They actually also missed one important detail, but I guess they still don't take full advantage of the fact that our teacher was constantly following us.

Well if they would really think about they would realize that he wouldn't just let us enter a cave with a strong beast inside or at least the possibility of that. He wouldn't be able to keep his distance, because he would have to follow us inside the cave to protect us in case it's really needed.

But well, we entered the cave and at first we really didn't see anything dangerous like a beast and I couldn't sense anything deeper into the cave, but what I could say was that it definitely did go deep inside.

"Good, we really did manage to find a cave... And it also seems like a fire could burn here."

You could practically feel the relief of everyone in our group as we sat down, resting for a bit.

"Ok, so we can't wait too long, we also need to eat. Luckily you can use fire magic, Itsuki."

Itsuki was one of the nobles, who seemed to be rather shy and didn't really look down upon commoners. Well, he also didn't care for them at all, but neither do I, so I guess I can't really judge him.

But the difference is still that all of them can't help but underestimate commoners, such a shame. But at least he can respect me and Ren, after all he believed me to be at his level and Ren to only be a bit stronger.

Well it is true that he has fire magic and that is after all probably the most important magic you can have in this snowy plain.

"Yeah, I should be able to roast the meat. Outside it would've been a lot harder and I would also need more mana because of the snow and the cold, but in here that's not a problem anymore."

"Good, then I'll cut off enough meat for all of us today and then give it to you."

Ren was already heading towards the corpse of the giant rabbit and began to swiftly and with precision cut the meat in edible pieces.

I almost felt sorry for the beautiful sword to be used like this, but what needs to be done needs to be done. But there was also one other interesting fact about Ren besides his past, his skills and pure talent.

He didn't reveal it to anyone, but I could feel that his magic was special and maybe could even be used in this situation, but it would truly be a dumb decision to reveal it so easily.

He pretends to only have water magic and there's nothing wrong with that, but no one else but me knew of his other elements. I still can't say for sure if he already discovered it himself, but he should be able to use more than one element.

To me the mana of every person feels different and that's especially true when comparing Katsumi and her master, both having wind magic or the devil of fire, Hi Kosuke whose mana felt similar to Itsuki's mana.

And that wasn't different with Ren, his water magic was similar to that of the calm stream, Mazi Saki. But I also managed to feel a slight, but still noticeable similarity to all of the other basic elements.

I was only sure that he didn't train his other elements at all, so he either completely focused on water magic or just didn't know about the existence of his other elements yet. Either way, the main character cliche really did just become more and more apparent in my head.

Well no matter what if he really is a typical main character shouldn't we be able to survive through the power of friendship or something like that?

I didn't have much more time to think about it, because Itsuki had already roasted the meat and thinking about using such a great sword and fire magic just to eat some meat almost made me chuckle a bit. The blacksmiths who made the sword and the fellow fire mages would probably never have guessed to use these powerful things to cut and roast meat.

When I tasted it I noticed that it was different than any meat I had tasted before in my life. The taste was familiar to normal rabbit meat, which should be clear, but there was something fundamentally different.

I guess it's because of the coldness these rabbits must've been exposed since birth, but the meat didn't really taste hot, even tho it just got roasted freshly. It's probably a side effect of the cold running through the body of these beasts but it felt like it was cold, but also warm at the same time.

It was an interesting taste and I couldn't help but wonder if everything in this plain tasted similarly.

As the darkness was replacing the last bit of light we decided to not go out that day anymore and also decided on the people, who would keep watch over the group, so that the other ones could sleep safely

Well if some beast appeared I would no doubt wake up from it's approach, but they weren't able to do that and needed to learn all of the stuff you would normally need to do. Well, they didn't even think about keeping watch at night at first and Ren had to explain it to them.

That just showed how tired and clueless they were, but well they would learn a lot from Ren and I would just pretend to do the same. Without him these guys would be so lost it's actually laughable.

But well in the end the first day seemed to successfully end and I was looking forward to the future with this group even tho there was a more pressing matter at that moment.

It was that I just couldn't sleep, Katsumi looked too cute and it was hard to not look at her sleeping. I would've never thought I would come across a problem like this, but I guess it's good to make an experience like this at least once.

But I seriously hoped I would be able to fall asleep soon.