Upon entering the emerald forest I used my eyes to look for any elemental aura or any disturbance in the forest's mana to my disappointment I didn't find anything different, but when it was an hour before the test started I noticed that the mana in the air was moving in a different pattern and it is increasing in speed although this increase is very small it shows that during this test the forest must go through some event like the storm of the first test.
I suspect that the institute must be responsible for causing these events in the forest or they must be responsible for maintaining the forest so that the forest cycle continues to have these events without changes in them .
I had already realized that after the first test there were several forest resources that underwent a renovation and some special resources that only blossom after it, I wonder how many events like this the forest goes through during a year.
Leaving my daydreams behind I focus on finding materials to harvest and any fragments of energy from the shadow element. Perhaps the tool may have left a trail or it may disperse some of its fuel in the air .
With my team following in silence and with short pauses and detours for me to collect magic herbs on our path I end up getting some looks of surprise and confusion from some of the team members since the Holt brothers are used to my ability to find magic herbs.
But those looks only get worse when I use my knife to dig into the roots of a tree because I had seen a cluster of energy from the earth element at that point when digging until I reach it I dig up a rare ore from the earth element it should be worth several points in the test .
Seeing my discovery, Ingredi could not resist his curiosity and broke the silence that we had agreed to make during the test.
"Finding herbs with their speed and frequency can be explained by experience, but finding this ore and very strange you have no affinity with the earth element as you discovered it under the roots of a tree?"
"Well Ingredi, I'm good at finding treasures and just natural luck."
I give my excuse with an innocent smile on my face I have no reason to explain my skills or make up an excuse to justify my actions because it will only cause more problems to hide my eyes.
" Really ?"
"Yes and now we are going to continue our walk to the center of the forest."
Saving the ore I found so that we could continue on our way, I started to get a look from Ingredi who said that she wanted to use me as a target in her magic practice again .
The first day of the test was quiet for my team. In addition to the rare ore, I only harvested common herbs, but they should serve to accumulate a number of points for the group and we bump into small groups of magical animals, most of them being wolves, but there is a small group with four boars and unfortunately we found a nest of poisonous worms , but they had not yet grown to the adult stage so it was easy to clean them after killing the mother of the nest.
I put our first day's harvest as productive, the problem was now the first night, even though it was not very cold at the time of the year, the forest started to lose temperature in an unusual way with the temperature dropping, we had no choice to start looking for a shelter. to protect yourself from the possible night attack.
My biggest concern was about Ingredi as a mage her body tends to have less resistance to temperature and exercise even with the physical training that I saw Ingredi perform to improve her body I could already see signs that she was tired and the sudden temperature change has increased the burden on her.
Unfortunately I didn't find a cave or a natural shelter the best we found was a point with less trees big enough to make a camp with space for the team to be able to defend themselves against night attacks.
"We are going to stay and make our camp here tonight, it looks like it will be very cold so we will have to build a fire during the night. We will make the watch shifts less Ingredi, who must rest as much as possible so that we can maintain our speed tomorrow as we did today."
Unfortunately, we didn't save any meat from the animals we killed today since we had the rations and don't know that we would have to use a fire because of the cold.
Having a hot meal would help more we are lucky to have mantle with heat rune painted on it to use at night.
Runes are very useful.
At dusk only Ingredi had a peaceful sleep until the moment we were attacked by a group of wolves and birds at the same time the bastards were working as a team to attack us.
My team took on the defensive position on two fronts since we were the target of a pincer attack.
But I wasn't going to stand still and let a bunch of level one magical animals have the best hand in combat.
"Ingredi creates obstacles to break the momentum of the wolves and the others wait for my signal to attack."
I take three powder bombs out of my bag made with a mixture of iron powder and a plant that causes an allergic reaction. I fire the three at the birds that were coming down in a flock to attack us. I had to use the Transparent Blade art three times. to detonate the bombs and increase the speed of their contents against the birds.
I felt not a little sorry when the birds were hit by the contents of the bombs they will lose their organization so their flock attack became a tangle of birds that hit and fell on a direct route to the ground few of them will recover and manage to climb up again. the trees.
The wolves' claw attacks were received by the magic of the land element of Imgredi, which creates obstacles in their route and the moment they break their formation was the moment that gave the order.
"Attack the wolves are alone!"
Given my command my team went to attack less Torris that was protecting Ingredi .
With easy targets we managed to kill a third of the wolves more after a while our advantage was lost when the wolves will gather in a bank again and attack us this time in a unidirectional attack.
" Torris to the front!"
"Brothers Holt cover it and Supporting Ingredi me and Raziel are going to attack the wolves."
With the new formation, Raziel and I took out our bows and started shooting at the wolves.
With Torris blocking the wolves' main attack, the Holt brothers began killing the wolves they saw to the sides.
With the support of Ingredi's land magic, the wolves were unable to turn around our team and attack the rear position.
The pack of wolves did not last when he was shot by the arrows that we shot at them and their number plummeted quickly.
The fight only lasted a few minutes, but we managed to kill several wolves and some birds died when the wolves passed over them when they were powerless in their path.
After the escape of the wolves, we checked the bodies to make sure that all the animals had died in mine. We still found some alive and ended up killing them. Most of them were from the flock of birds. Most of them were extremely injured falling at high speed and then being killed. run over by the second attack of the wolves killed any bird that fell to the ground.
We collected forty-eight cores from the attack.
After wiping the blood off, we walked away from the camp and after walking for an hour we paused for breakfast .
Reflecting on the first day, I believe that we should camp early today to give us more time to rest before the next attack because I don't think it was a coincidence that we were attacked by two groups of animals before dawn.
If I am sure we will face an attack again just before dawn.
I was studying the mana in the air during my watch and after the attack unfortunately I did not pay attention to it during the attack but I believe that the mana in the air before the attack she accelerated her speed and after it she ended up decelerating during the next attack I will pay more attention on that.
You may be able to use the mana flow in the air as a warning for the animals' unusual behavior during the test.
I wonder if after the test any teacher would explain to me the cause of the events in the emerald forest that I see during the tests.
" Has anyone been hurt or has any comment on the animals' attack?"
The first to speak was Erick, the silence must be torture for someone who likes the sound of his own voice so much.
"No injuries, but I think the animals were weird, and the wolves attack in formation that is not something new when they are in a flock, but the birds play with them and weird."
He receives a nod of agreement from the other team members .
"I agree with Erick, but I noticed that the forest air is different from yesterday, it seems heavier."
A Torris is right I was very focused on the speed of the mana in the air and missed the obvious change in the amount of it in the air.
" Torris is certain the mana in the air is in greater quantities than yesterday, but I don't know if it will affect the animals. We will keep an eye on the differences in the animals we hunt today and hope that the environment will not affect them much.
With that, the team ends the breakfast break and we begin to explore the forest.