After several interruptions and hostile words, my team is ready to move on, this break helped almost everyone to relax and regain strength, now we need to concentrate on our way back to the center of the maze.
But before we left the rune matrix through the portal a new message appeared above us, this time it was shaped like a rather unusual crow, the paper this origami was made of was black and this is the first time I have seen a black paper being used on an origami. Even the previous origami was made of colored papers like green, red and yellow, but there is something about this black paper that makes me feel nervous.
When I retrieved the message, I was overwhelmed with its content and that the handwriting was different, it seems that this message is not from the examiner who has been following me through the tests but from another hidden person.
'You are going in the wrong direction, as the examiners will not use a portal to move your position to the center of the maze you will have to lead your team there by the longest path, you should go to your right and keep that direction until you reach it. in the stone arena that serves as the entrance to the center of the labyrinth.'
'Watch out for the elves, I hope you can finish gathering your team before meeting them, they have already gathered in large groups. Just remember that killing is forbidden, and try not to hurt them or one of my students in a way that they can't be completely cured by the healers, I don't want to have to do any more paperwork than I already have because of these damn bureaucrats.'
'Don't worry too much about the time, this test was planned to last three to four days before it was said that it would be faster just to cause despair in the students and see how they would deal with this unforeseen situation.'
Reading the end of the message she sets my hand on fire just like the other massages. If I were to try to identify the person who wrote this message, I would say that it was written by the principal, this message is very reminiscent of the words I have heard the principal use and that the person who wrote this message would be responsible for the paperwork that student deaths cause, as far as I know this is one of the principal's responsibilities and not a teacher.
But my suspicions are only based on information that could be false but if I had to make a bet, I would say the principal just helped me again, I wonder why she is doing this, but leaving aside her reason for this letter helped me a lot.
Now I know where to go and that my enemies are waiting for me, but the lack of the word dwarves has not gone unnoticed, to stop the headmistress not thinking that the dwarves are looking for me with the same intentions as the elves. This makes me even more curious to discover the dwarves' intentions in this test.
Hilda, curious as she is, didn't keep the silence for long.
"Good news? Or do we have more problems?"
"Well, it looks like we have to go to the right and the test is longer than the teachers told us before going into the test, it looks like this test could take days to finish and that we shouldn't be focusing on time. The bad part of the message is that we will probably find one or more groups of elves before we reach the central aria of the maze, I hope I don't lose our team's remaining slots because of these elves."
"Nothing about dwarves?"
"No, I thought that was weird too, but there's nothing we can do about it right now. We can only go ahead and hope that the person who wrote the message I believe is the director wants us to get to the center of the maze and this isn't an elaborate prank."
I left the door that had opened before to go to the portal to my right, and when I got there the portal didn't open. I didn't expect this but decided to wait a few more seconds but it was useless so I scream to the sky.
"Serious? Won't you open the fucking portal?!"
The portal is still closed, it looks like the examiners don't want me to go in that direction or there isn't even an examiner watching me right now. I would generally not consider the second option, but bearing in mind that the person sending me the message must have ensured that no one else has seen the message and I may be off the radar for a while.
"Just back off, I'd rather not have to do this again, I might end up getting burned by the matrix as a retaliation for my aura"
I get a dubious look from Hilda and Vanessa, but those who've already come to mess with the matrix take a step back. I focus my aura on my fingers and pierce it right through the center of the portal.
But this time it was more difficult than the last portal I'm facing a lot more resistance and the matrix is not responding well to my aura; it seems they reinforced this flaw in the portals. Damn them, they can't be a little more lazy and not make my life even more difficult by fixing this matrix defect.
I put even more focus and make my intent attack the matrix runes, with great difficulty I tear the matrix and force the portal to open. Once the portal reaches the size of a foot the portal gives way and I manage to open it enough so that we can all go through the portal, even if only one person can go through at a time.
"Well, if you're tired of staring at me, you can go through the portal now! I don't want to lose a finger today so you can go to the other side right away."
With my reminder as everyone started to pass through the portal, I noticed that the matrix began to try to resist my efforts. It seems I don't have much time, as I went through the portal it closed like a guillotine, how violent someone can lose a limb because of these portals.
"I'd rather not have to do this a third time; they've reinforced the portals. Next time it might be better to tear the barrier at another weak spot than try to force a door."
But unlike my previous companions, Hilda and Vanessa were surprised by my abilities and while Hilda held back an evil laugh, Vanessa has already started to interrogate me.
"How did you do it?"
"I know a little about runes."
"I know a little about runes! What you just did doesn't make sense, are you by any chance a runemaster?"
Shit.
"Of course, I'm not a runemaster, it's not easy to become a runemaster Vanessa, if it were the world, it would be full of them. You may have learned some runes and that makes you think my exploit violates the rules of rune matrices, but that's only because you haven't studied enough about runes."
"Are you calling me dumb?!"
"No, I can't call you dumb, I'm just explaining why you're wrong. I not only know who was in charge of these matrices, but I'm also very skilled in this aria of rune matrices, because of these factors and a few more I can force this door, if it was a different or stronger matrix, I obviously wouldn't be able to do it nothing to harm her."
"I do not believe you! I may not know much about runes, but I'm sure you shouldn't be able to do that, as you managed to find the portal or even find their weak points, you would have to know in detail what runes were used and where they are located exactly to do that."
"You're exaggerating Vanessa."
"No, I'm exaggerating, you're giving poorly made lies to cover up the truth. You're not a real nobleman, there's no way you could have studied runes in the hole you came out of before arriving at the institute, no matter how talented you are at runes in basically one year of study you shouldn't be able to do what you do. just did it."
"I will find out your secret and who is funding you. No matter what lies you tell because today I saw who you really are, I had my suspicions about you a simple noble of such a low level that you can hardly be considered a noble, son of a wild warrior who grew up in some village."
"I knew this was all just a facade, you got in the way of mine from several powerful noble family, demonstrated a cultivation speed that was conveniently slightly slower than the nobles of the city's main families. You go around spending an exorbitant amount of money and have a magical beast as your companion, I knew you should serve some noble family, but now I'm sure you must be an apprentice of some runemaster or maybe you are the apprentice of a great rune master."
The girl had a nervous breakdown, she completely freaked out. She didn't know she was capable of causing a mental breakdown in people she didn't even know.
"Vanessa, you're behaving like a crazy person, Ulric may be a weird person and one who is strangely very talented, but to find his whole story too farcical and crazy. My mother has already investigated Ulric and even contacted his mother's friends and confirmed Ulric's background."
"He's just talented and he's Professor Frey's favorite student, it's not that weird that he's able to mess with these rune matrices that were basically designed and created by Professor Frey."
"But it's the other abnormalities, he's very mysterious. He's a really bad liar, where that weird wolf of his came from, that's not a normal magical beast, my family has a huge bestiary and the experience of several generations of tamers and not even a wolf like that in our country nor us nearby countries, he can fool most people, but when I saw that wolf, I was sure he was hiding his identity."
I didn't think Wulfgar was so unique visually, I didn't notice anything that made him so different, but this is very dangerous. I can't let people find out Wulfgar's origin because if this secret is found out I'll be killed and even Ingredi, Raziel and Hilda could end up dead because of it, if some church found out about the meteor, everyone near or involved with that one aria will be the target of the inquisition of several churches.
"Well Vanessa I won't insist too much that I'm an ordinary guy, because you won't believe a word of mine, but about Wulfgar's identity I can only say I got him by luck, but it's not that different. or special in the way I found little Wulfgar. I didn't even know he was so unique, but that must only mean he's a mutant wolf, I've read in the library that some beasts that appear unique because they're the product of a mutation can be very sad news for Wulfgar since most mutations are not capable of having sons or daughters."
Frustration was obvious on Vanessa's face; she looks strangely obsessed with me and I didn't even know her in person before today. I hope not too many other people act like her out there, I prefer not to be watched or investigated by all the nobility.
"Whatever, I won't continue arguing with you."
Vanessa turned her back on the group and headed towards the center of formation, but I'm sure she's not done with me yet, and that's going to be problematic. I have to be even more careful about what I reveal, I seem to have attracted more attention than I intended.