"Today, we hunt!" Lady Luna's words echoed across the courtyard. "And you will each come to me with at least one kill under your belt!"
Murmurs spread across the courtyard. "Now, each of you open your stat panels and check your stats!" Professor Cross' words sounded.
Aether sighed. He was almost regretting having spent the four AP for a day's worth of library privileges. Those points were supposed to be refunded, but nothing of the sort had happened yet.
"A new tab will be visible under the 'Breakdown' menu." Professor Cross continued. "For now, you can only see what you have killed so far. If I'm not mistaken, Aether is the only one who should have a registered kill."
Aether tapped the tab she was talking about. He would have preferred if she hadn't called him out like that, but there wasn't much he could do about it now. The class crowded around him as the new tab appeared.
"Claim them." Professor Cross instructed. With a hesitant motion, Aether tapped on the confirmation.
The notifications popped up one by one, then they vanished, and the bracelet once again showed his stats.
"As you can see," Professor Cross spoke up. "Whenever you kill a creature spawned from a wildmagic anomaly, you get rewards. Remember, you need to be the one to deliver the killing blow. I'll now teach you how to properly kill one,"
While she explained the importance of properly destroying the creature's cores, Aether let his gaze wander about. He watched Lady Luna for a short while, then finally look at Lord Ladran. His lips formed a thin line, and the dark expression he wore the day before returned.
"Now that you are all well aware of what to do," Lady Luna spoke up as soon as Professor Cross finished her words, "We will move out. I received reports on a series of anomalies within the woods to the north of the academy, starting at the edge of the treeline, and continuing all the way up to the mountains." Her words caused a wave of murmurs among the students.
Aether listened, only to hear words of excitement. Many things to hunt, they said. Many points to gather. He, on the other hand, was more worried. Such a large area being infested with anomalies was hardly safe. Nor normal.
"We will split the class into several groups, and a teacher will accompany each group." Lady Luna explained. Professor Cross spoke up right afterwards. "Erika, Mara…" She counted about three more names.
"Iris, Seth," Lady Luna called three more names as well.
Aether caught Iris' arm as she walked past him to join up with Lady Luna. "Don't leave her sight, he can't do anything to you as long as she is there." Iris seemed to go pale for a split second before she nodded and hurried to Lady Luna's side.
"The remaining five come with me." Lord Ladran waved with a cheerful expression. Aether and the remaining four students made their way towards him. The young man tried to decide whether he was too lucky, or too unlucky to be put in this man's group.
After a moment of hesitation, he chose to accept it as luck. At least he could keep an eye on the Council of Mages' representative. Despite his words about his reason for being here, Aether didn't trust him one bit.
"Alright then," Lord Ladran said with a cheerful voice. "We split the forest in three among the three groups. The Professor's group is taking the south side – the edge of the forest, the area closest to the Academy. Lady Luna will take the mountains, they will circle around the edge of the forest and enter the mountains through normal, mundane means." He chuckled. "We are taking the heart of the forest."
Aether sighed. It was normal that the scholar would try to investigate the heart. Lord Ladran was, if nothing else, a renowned scholar and a powerful mage. Of all the people in the academy, he was the most qualified to deal with any threat, though he, Iris and Aether were the only ones to be aware of that.
"The heart will be slightly more dangerous, so when I tell you to leave and find the others, don't try and argue with me. Understood?" His blue eyes looked at each student one by one, until everyone nodded. Everyone but Aether. The middle-aged man seemed to be satisfied nonetheless, and they soon set off.
As they entered the cover of the forest, the air seemed to grow ever so slightly colder. The incredibly tall trees blocked nearly all of the sunlight, making it difficult to see ahead.
"Was this place always so dark?" One of the students asked.
"Light." Aether spoke in a low voice, and a floating orb of silver light soon appeared in his raised palm. Seeing Lord Ladran's somewhat surprised expression, he handed the orb to him.
"It wouldn't do to be unable to see." Lord Ladran smiled. "Thank you," He glanced at the other four students. "Never be afraid to take initiative even in the smallest things. No, especially in the smallest things. It will help build confidence." He grinned. "Believe me, you want to be confident when you are dealing with magic."
Aether couldn't help but agree with him on this. His words weren't as shallow as they seemed at first.
"Let's not waste time. We have a few hours of walk before we reach the area we are responsible of." Lord Ladran hastened his steps as soon as he finished his words.
Aether turned his attention to their surroundings as they walked deeper and deeper into the woods. Unlike what he imagined before, there was little magic to speak of. He could spy a few magical plants and a couple of unnaturally bright butterflies and other critters, but nothing that satisfied his imagination.
Somewhat annoyed at the mundaneness of their surroundings, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. His hair fell before his eyes as he tilted his head slightly, covering their otherworldly silver glow.
His vision changed, and colours filled his world.
"Ah." Lord Ladran's voice almost startled him. "Seems like we found our first anomaly."
The colours rose like flames, spreading through the air, all converging in one single point high above ground.
"Look out!" Aether shouted as a loud roar sounded. "It's coming!"