Over the next few days, Yuriko and Duke Fluffington, Paragon of Fluffiness, First of His Name, went as far north into the Elemental Conflux as they could. She brought along a backpack full of supplies, dried meats, hardtack, and spices, no Imperial ration bars, while the wolf pup was unencumbered, but his galloping speed was barely fast enough to match Yuriko's jog.
His boosted speed was much faster, of course, and almost exceeded hers if she pushed herself, but he grew too tired after repeating the feat a couple of times. So, she decided to hone his stamina.
Fluffington protested vociferously, of course, and used his weaponised cuteness to great effect. For the first couple of times anyway, until she noticed that he used it to get his way with her too many times. So she had to harden her heart and put her foot down. Terror Mien was rather effective in curbing his growing smugness, but she regretted that one, accidental use since he moped around with his tail tucked between his legs for hours afterwards. Still, it established who was the leader of the pack, even if the breadth of her Anima reach did not emphasise it.
The wolf pup was a natural Anima user and through intermingling their auras, Yuriko could interpret the wolf's attempts at more precise communication. He was, indeed, a wolf pup. Even if the proportion of his ears, head, and paws hadn't given it away, he indicated that he was less than a year old. He also did not have any memories of any place other than the Golden Fields, and he knew of no other family members. That wasn't to say that there were no other wolves in this place.
Ten longstrides from base camp, across the first valley, Yuriko and Fluffington found their first wolven foe. They were quite unlike her familiar in that they were even larger than the Steeld carriage-sized goats. They stood nearly four paces high at the shoulder and were nearly fifteen paces long from nose to tail. They were also armoured with thick metal scales rather than having fur, but there was no mistaking the canine shape.
The ironscale wolves crunched down the goats, often breaking their horns using massive jaws, and they swallowed the resulting explosion with equanimity. Each member of the pack often tore off a large bite of the goat before it went kaboom, then they licked up the spatter off wherever it landed.
And they were much stronger than what the students would be able to fight. At least, not as a small group. Perhaps twenty students casting attack spells would be able to defeat an ironscale wolf before it closed the distance since, unlike Fluffington, they were slow.
The presence of the ironscale wolves limited the students' range to that first valley, however, and it would be difficult for three thousand warm bodies to stretch their muscles without running into each other. So the solution was to temporarily drive the ironscale wolves away from their hunting grounds.
Ah, unlike the goats, the ironscale wolves weren't immune to flames. They were resistant, but a steady barrage of fireballs would melt their scales and practically kill them as their insides cooked. The scales were more than enough to withstand a goat's explosion, but not a sustained assault.
Sunblades were more than a match for them. And with the agreement of the professors back in the base, Yuriko began her operation. She and Fluffington roamed the northern valley and fought off the ironscale wolves while leaving the exploding goats alone.
The second valley was larger than the entrance valley, however, and Yuriko wouldn't be able to cover the entire thing by herself. The elemental mists still obscured her vision beyond a longstride away, even if she used Enhanced Sight. Chaos Sight was even worse since it showed the dense elemental energies of her surroundings.
The two of them managed to clear another couple of leagues into the second valley, but that was it. When she went farther north, the ironscale wolves and other elemental beasts returned, or came out of their burrows. The valley floor wasn't covered in gold wheat here, but was a regular forest, even if it was one covered in gold-encrusted leaves and bark. The canopy was thick enough that flying above it didn't do her any favours, and the ever-present restriction on flying made that mode of scouting onerous. At least there weren't any flying beasts. There weren't even any regular birds either.
Fluffington had a great time hunting the ground pigs. Those things burrowed under tree roots and nibbled roots, then shot out of the ground when they felt movement above. Her wolf pup was agile enough to avoid them, though he didn't use his Anima perception underground. Something else she needed to train him for.
She must have stared at him too long since the fur on his back suddenly stood up and he glanced at her nervously. Her smile must not have reassured him as he darted away. Her kinesis caught him before he could leave her range and she brought him back in front of her.
"Fluffington, you need to make better use of your Anima," Yuriko lectured. "Your reach is too limited now, but maybe I should bring you to the Chaos Sea so we can temper you properly."
Nyuuuu! He whined in protest and Yuriko simply chuckled.
"It's for your own good."
Fluffington curled into a foetal position with his tail between his legs. His whole body was trembling. In excitement!
Anyway, after a few days of camping out in the valley, it was about time to return. Fluffington was, unsurprisingly, a nice, warm, hug pillow. At least after she gave him a thorough scrubbing and a bath. It wasn't so bad though as his aura had kept his fur relatively clean. But the difference in their perceptions meant that the wolf pup didn't mind a bit of dirt as that allowed his odour to blend in with his environment. Yuriko didn't want dirt, mud, or sweat to cling to her body. Well, she didn't sweat so much now, or even excrete, as the Transformation of her physique and Anima, as well as the infusion of Radiant energy, meant that there was very little waste for her body to eliminate. They were either consumed by Radiance or burned to ashes and released in minute amounts.
Hmmm, would Gwendith mind having the fluff pillow in their room? Well, she could ask. She hadn't been able to communicate with her friends and she wouldn't be able to until she left the Conflux.
The two of them marched back to base camp. After a longstride of carrying the wolf pup, she finally let him walk on his own after he quelled his excitement. They ran towards camp, and since they weren't wandering around in spirals, they reached the first valley in less than an hour and took even less time to reach the camp's plateau.
And there was a huge difference now after a week. The camp fortifications had been completed and several outposts and watchposts had been constructed. Yuriko continued to read the Golden Field's dossier, and there she found out why there were no past fortifications.
The Conflux changed things around during the turn of every year. Anything built up would be reabsorbed or destroyed by rampaging elemental storms, and most elemental beasts would go into hibernation. During the Season of Water and about half of the Season of Earth, the conflux recovered, and by the time the Season of Fire came about, everything would be ready. Well, there were a couple of weeks left to the Season of Earth, but that was fine. It was at this point that the Conflux was most dangerous anyway. And what better test for aspiring Batte Magi?
There were thousands of higher-year students milling about in camp. Well, at least half of them were building up the camp, so they weren't exactly idle. Fluffington's nose twitched and he sneezed. Yuriko rubbed his ears and nose. Arcane Brewer students were probably hard at work. If she focused, she could smell their concoctions from here.
She wandered over to the fifth-year students, looking for her class. She was not the homeroom teacher so technically, they weren't her responsibility, but Sofia Garcia and Juliette Abad had pretty much monopolised Yuriko's after-class hours with mentorship tokens, so she'd grown somewhat attached to them.
She found both girls with their team setting up their barracks.
"Professor Davar! New familiar?" Juliette greeted her cheerily through a window. She was putting away her clothes in her closet. Sofia's head popped up as she got up from her bed.
"Professor!"
"Hello, you two. Yeah, Fluffington's new," Yuriko said with a smile.
"...Fluffington?" Sofia asked with a blank expression.
"Yup. Duke Fluffington, Paragon of Fluffiness, First of His Name."
"How can you say that with a straight face?" Juliette muttered under her breath.
"Because that's his name," Yuriko answered, while the brunette flushed.
Sofia guffawed and said, "It suits him anyway!"
"Yup, it does," Yuriko said as she flipped the pup around so she could stroke his luxurious tail. Fluffington gave her a long-suffering look. "Are you two ready for your finals?"
"I gues," Juliette answered. "We're to hunt down an elemental beast as a group, right?"
"Don't underestimate them," Yuriko said, though she couldn't give any more information than that. They were supposed to do their own reconnaissance after all. "I and the other professors will make sure that nothing too powerful comes near any of you, so don't worry too much. Even so," Yuriko said gravely, "never relax your vigilance."
"Yup, we won't," Sofia said.
"Well, good fortune then." Yuriko waved as she and her familiar left. Tomorrow was the start, and hopefully, everything would go smoothly.
…She just called upon ill fortune, didn't she?
_______________
"If we don't want to stay here for a decade or so, just harvesting enough cores to leave, we need to go out of the walls," Heron said to Gwendith and Saki. "It would be more dangerous, of course, but we won't be expelled from this region and return to the one we entered from. Unfortunately."
Gwendith agreed, and Saki simply followed behind them. "Yuriko said she would be out of contact for a while. I'd rather we get as much done as we can before we give her any news."
"Then let's gather supplies, head over to the wall, and jump over," Heron insisted.
Soon enough, Gwendith found herself on the same spot on the wall as they entered. In the distance, Xothans and Ishodirians defended their spots and killed Ashen Elementals when they approached the kill zone. The spot they were on had fewer attackers simply because the wall was not broken.
They jumped off, and despite Gwendith's fears, nothing shifted and they landed on the ground easily. The countryside outside the walls of Braxxon was barren. There was a volcano spewing acrid smoke in the distance, and she supposed that the Ashen Elementals would come from there. It looked quite distant, however, so she didn't know how long it would take to reach it.
The three of them moved at a steady clip. Their path wasn't one frequented by the rampaging elementals, but even so, they encountered one not five hundred paces from the wall. Several Ice Daggers and Heron's powerful spear strikes later had the thing crumble. It didn't even leave behind an elemental core, but not all of them did anyway. Maybe one in three had cores? It wasn't a matter of size or power, either, and seemed completely random.
Their journey lasted for several days, almost a week. But they soon reached the foothills of the volcano. A stream of red-hot lava flowed down one side even as plumes of volcanic ash rose from the crater. The peak was probably a couple of longstrides high, but it was at least another fifty longstrides of slope before they could reach it. Not that they had to go all the way up there.
Just a few longstrides from the base, Saki reported that she found a gathering of Ashen Elementals. Hopefully, there would be enough to secure their exit pass.