Finishing collecting the material from the body of the last wolf I would like to study it a little more, but unfortunately I will have to leave the priority for later and recover the magic tool.
"There must still be some magical animals on our way. I want to retrieve the tool and then we must clean the aria around before dark."
"Why clean the aria?"
"Well, Ingredi, I know that you are preyed, but as we do not know how long the magic tool is here, it may have affected the natural resources, they may have mutated and this should increase their value so we will harvest anything that seems valuable in region that was exposed to the shadow element.
"Hmm."
Ingredi is acting abnormally I know that we are close to completing our mission and that can make people apprehensive and nervous, but Ingredi tends to be calm is it that an environment full of shadow element energy is affecting her ?
I don't know if mages are affected differently to warriors by elemental energy or maybe it is that Ingredi just wants the test to end soon.
My team moved towards the magic tool the closer we get to it, the shadow element becomes denser in the air and this reflects in less light in the environment, but luckily there are only a few animals left on our path despite they are in a state of madness and that the does more strong than normal they still do not have a number large enough to threaten us.
After eliminating a dozen wolves and eight very annoying crows we arrived at a distance of ten meters from the tool I expected a guardian or traps, but I couldn't see anything with my eyes, but if I'm wrong I decided to approach alone and leave my team ready to ambush any enemy that tries to attack me.
Entering a small clearing it was completely taken by the shadow element. I had to disable my eyes to be able to see the magic tool because the shadow element in the air was so dense that it became a fog that obstructed my view.
I visualized an uncovered black urn it looked very old or worn it had several superficial cracks in its glass I approached it and recovered its lid that was next to the urn when I grabbed the lid I realized how heavy it was its weight can be compared to added weight of my weapons and part of my armor and that and only the lid of the urn how heavy will it be? "
Looking at the contents of the urn, I saw a small amount of black liquid outside it, the urn is empty, I covered the urn and with that the energy that was coming out of the urn stopped until I saw the energy leaking in a much less amount coming out of some of the cracks in the urn.
I gave a signal for the team to get together as they approached. I studied the terrain around the urn. It is obviously contaminated by the shadow element, but I found nothing but grass around it and I didn't see a concentrated aura under the urn so my hope. of any resource being born because of the rune has been destroyed.
" Did we get the tool?"
"No, Erick, this urn is an illusion of your head.
"We don't have time to waste on your children's games!"
I thought that Ingredi would be in a better mood after we we could find the magic tool, but it seems she is still angry.
"Well does anyone know what kind of tool this urn is?"
I ask that by looking directly at Raziel since he has the shadow element, maybe he has seen it before or read about it, but in the end it was our magician who can tell us about the urn.
"I know! This type of magic tool has the function of conserving precise and high-level resources that can lose their quality over time or when they are exposed to elemental energies different from yours. "
"And basically a high quality container can they be made only with insulating materials or can it be made with the purpose of containing a specific element? I believe that this urn must have been made specifically for the shadow element, was there anything inside it?"
"Only a very small amount of a liquid from the shadow element."
"Is he good for anything?"
"The urn looks badly damaged I doubt the school would put a precious resource in it just to use it in a survival test the liquid must be a type of preservative and they must have chosen this urn because they must consider it a broken magic tool."
"Well taking into account that this urn has a heavy weight and this can slow down our speed and better we don't waste time searching the forest and making our way back we only have a few hours before dusk and we need to set up a defensive perimeter to defend ourselves against a large-scale attack at night.
"Who's going to want to carry the urn?"
An uncomfortable silence was formed and I didn't even have a volunteer to carry the urn.
"Ok let's go over her Raziel starts wrap her up and carry her on her back that will distribute her weight better and tire less."
Now with our task complete we spend more than half the time of the test that means we must speed up or run the risk of failing the test we cannot do more than pray that we do not face a natural disaster in the last two days of the test this would end our chance to finish the test.
"If they don't want to reduce the rest time, we will have to speed up the pace."
We trace our route to the entrance to the forest, but as we will not be able to return to the location of the last camp we will have to find a new place to spend the night or we will have to find a cleaner place and so we will depend on Ingredi to create an advantage on the ground .
With the arrival of nightfall we had to set up the camp in a cleaner aria while Ingredi created our defenses we split up for a couple to prepare dinner and another one for the tents I went to plant half of the explosive mines that I still have I hope they don't need to be used if we cannot run out of mines to use on the last night and that would be a very big risk.
After consuming the meat of the magical beast I discovered why Ingredi's bad mood she must be irritated because she cannot clean up properly in the last days trying to take a bath in a forest is very risky and taking into account the time limit we have becomes impossible if you clean it properly it will bother anyone who is not a pig, but Ingredi must have a cleaning habit so her mood is getting worse she must be reaching the limit.
There is nothing I can do then and I can only pray that she doesn't have a tantrum and use her magic in min.
While I was comparing the claw taken from the magic beast and that of the wolf that stayed alive longer when a large amount of elemental energy was injected, I could better understand the differences between them. The wolf's claw has a little less than half of the elemental energy that claw of the magic beast this means that if the shadow element no longer disperses, using this material will have around forty percent of effectiveness compared to a material taken from a common magical beast
If I can reproduce this I can sell this knowledge to a noble family of artisans or a large group of traders since the value of this knowledge is only truly profitable if applied to large-scale manufacturing .
I must search the library for information and studies on magic contracts and then find a good business partner, but in order to do that I have to be able to keep this urn in the first place since it was her energy that created the shadow element that contaminates the wolf first.
I must ask for help from one of the teachers, which one should I choose the most risky and with the best chance of success and with Professor Frey since he can help me seal the energy of the urn and maybe help me get guinea pigs, but he also and the one who can, but easily discover my project and rob me even though he has a posture that conveys respect and integrity and a possible scenario .
As I rambled on about my dilemma, I didn't notice a change in the mana in the air before my shift ended or when I woke up before dawn a few minutes before the time I heard attacks in the past nights.
With the dawn approaching I could not find a sign of attack to my surprise it seems that we will have a quiet night this and a good thing more could also be that this is just the calm before the storm and I am not using the term storm of a figuratively, but like a real storm like the one that happened in the last test.
After collecting the traps while breakfast was being prepared, our day starts quietly, but I don't see a happy face in the group, I think everyone has the same idea as mine about this abnormal tranquility for the situation.
With the camp dismantled and all the luggage packed, we made our way out of the forest without knowing what awaited us on the fourth day of the survival test.