As Hamil told his intentions to Ms. Eva, he simply left the class and went to his next schedule. To his knowledge, there wasn't another class to get into. It left him around one hour and thirty minutes of free time. What he was going to use this free time on was to simply go to the library to study.
There, he planned to use his time on planning on what he would do against the terrorist that was going to come and how he would to also make growth for Arthur.
"..." so as he went to the Library, on his way he felt a gaze down at his back.
Someone was following him yet again, although this gaze was a bit familiar.
He didn't stop walking and continued his way to the library.
As he made it into the library, he immediately made way to the section that had books about elemental control. There he picked out a book about utilizing the earth element and as well as the dark element.
And as he made his way to an empty table, that was when a certain person approached him.
"...What do you want?" asked Hamil as he went and sat down at the table.
"I just came to let you know that as of now, not a lot of threats are coming to Martha's way…I'll call you when we do find something." said Eric as he sat down at the table.
"...Okay." replied Hamil.
"But there might be a threat that'll happen in her next class." said Eric.
"What do you mean?" asked Hamil.
"Her next class is Alchemy, the same one as yours, with that I heard that a merging will happen between Class C and A. Do you know why that's happening?"
"Right…the scavenger hunt for resources." answered.
"That's right, your Professor thought that it might have been a good idea to bring the two classes together so that they could share the gate and make seem safer."
"Do you know what rank the gate is?" asked Hamil.
"...I heard it was around an E-rank gate, so the students might have to go in groups." said Eric.
"I guess that's fair, but I don't think I'll have anything to do for now. It's just an E-rank, nothing too dangerous will come out…I think." said Hamil, assured of himself that an E-rank was no threat to someone like Martha.
"I'm just here to tell you this. That's all." said Eric, as he then stands up from the chair.
"...before you go, can I ask who the third one is?" Hamil wanted to know who the third member was for this job.
"The third one is someone you know…her name is Iris, an archer."
".…So it was Iris after all huh. With her skills, its only natural that she would be called by the Dottingham's." said Hamil.
Soon Eric left the Library, leaving Hamil all to his own and as time passed, He then went to his next class which was Alchemy
As he went there, he could see that most of his classmates were already there. When all of them were finally complete, they were lead to a special room that was guarded by multiple strong guards.
When all of them finally made it inside the room, they were meet with another group of people who seemed to be from class A. Hamil could tell because he could see Martha, Iris and Ranzy talking in the distance.
Seeing as how this activity might proceed with groups, Hamil didn't have to be worried for Martha's safety.
As he walked closer to his friends, he could feel the gaze from Martha and Iris as they look to him with interest. But Hamil ignore their stares and just waited until Professor Hosea would come to explain the activity.
Not long after, Professor Hosea came in with a clipboard on hand.
"Okay class, today you will all experience the process of gathering materials inside the gate. With how I've taught you all the materials needed, I expect you all to utilize those knowledge to cleanly gather the needed resources. Here, I will give you the list needed to gather these materials." as soon as Professor Hosea handed them a piece of paper, some people were a bit worried since only about half of these things were recognizable, the rest wasn't. Yet some of the other students were familiar with the materials.
"If you guys have any questions, then please ask them now before we go through with this activity." said Prof. Hosea.
"Professor, what kind of gate are we going to enter?"
"Hmm, the gate that stands before you all is one of the most common gates found throughout all over the world. The Tarvesin Domain."
The Gates were very diverse in wherever they would pop out of, some would lead to very different locations but are contained inside the same world while others would lead on to new worlds that hasn't been discovered yet.
With the help of the grandfather of Randy Volde Savez, Robert Demero Savez, they were able to fully explore 25 new worlds. One of those worlds was none other than the world of Tarvesin. One of the weaker and more stable worlds known to the people. It was a planet not inhabited by species capable of feats like the humans do. It only contains an environment that were very similar to that of their world. With things like mana, breathable air, drinkable water and a lot things usable, this place was quite like the place they lived in but more adamant with monsters.
Tarvesin was an ideal place to set one's ideal home and kingdom. If the kingdom had the chance to live in this place and colonize it, it would have been possible. The one thing that stopped the colonization of the worlds of different gates was the limits of what the gate was capable of holding. Gates were gates, and their purpose was only for a special entrance to the view with either limited time or limited capacity for visitations. You could travel to a thousand miles or maybe around its world, but the one thing to stop a person from doing such a thing was either the gate had a limited time to pop out in its place or that it was limiting the access available to the traverser.
This was common sense to the world and to its people.
"Professor, should we go as a group for this activity?"asked one of the students from class A.
"Well, the quantity of the material that I've listed there is needed per one student. Meaning if you guys were to pair up in two's and one of the resources needed is around five pieces, then I should expect you guys to have at least 10 pieces of that material. It all matters to yourself if you want to group up or not." said the professor as he stood with his arms crossed.
"What happens if we run into danger professor?"
"That's all up to you. Either you fight the monster or run away, the only thing I expect you to do is survive inside the gate and gather the materials."
"And what if we get extremely hurt?" asked one of the students.
"The gate we are entering right now isn't that threatening because it has already been controlled by the academy. So you don't have to worry over your safety, the academy we'll take responsibility over it if the time ever does come." said the professor with a smile on his face.
"You got five minutes to ready yourselves…please start preparing." said the professor.
Soon some of the students began grouping up with the others, some went and grouped up to a number of four people, others were with three people and some went to just group up with into a pair.
Martha grouped up with her friend Ranzy and Iris, making them a group of three, so it was safe to assume that Martha was watched over by Iris as intended by the job. Remmy, Sofia and Sarah went and grouped themselves into three with Sarah being a bit bossy since she was the most experienced in the group. Rebertha paired with another group of friends that was also with three members, and Hamil stood on his own without grouping with anyone. His friends tried to invite him along, but he rejected the offer since he had plans with this activity.
"Are you sure you don't want to hunt with us?" asked Sofia with a concerned look.
"No, I'm fine on my own. The rank of this gate isn't that hard, so I'll be fine." said Hamil as he assured his friends that they shouldn't worry over him.
"Okay then." said Sofia as she lets go of the issue.
Soon the activity was starting and group by group, the students entered the gate.
The first people to enter was Class C, a lot of them were nervous for the fact that not a lot of them had experienced a Gate, only around a quarter of their numbers were experienced. Class A on the other has around half the number of students who were experienced.
As the students finally crossed the gate, two professors followed them in with a few guards in the back.
Soon in the gate, it was the start of a simple Scavenging hunt for materials. The moment they entered the gate, they were meet with a simple look of a forest, where they stood on a platformed stage that was made of tiled sandstone. A lot of students were amazed to see that in this gate, two men were already found waiting for their arrival.
These two could be considered the people who managed the gate as it was a safe-point area. They handle the monsters that comes to pass through the gate since it has been a few years since this place was made base by the academy not a lot of monster ever came through to this place. Since it was recognized as a safe-zone.
"Okay students, you have 2 hours to complete the task given to you. To signify our location, we will turn on a beacon for every ten minutes that passes. The beacon will act as your guide to come back to the safe-zone, so you don't have to worry about getting lost in this gate."
As soon as he assured this information, the students then started making their way into the forest.
Group by group they went into the forest without hesitation, yet one person remained standing as he stared at a certain direction.
"Hamil, Are you not going to move?"
"...I will Professor." said Hamil as he started walking north into the forest.
".…" Professor Hosea watched as the boy walked off into the forest, not worried in the slightest for what was to come.
As Hamil walked into the forest to a point that was far enough to not take notice of Prof. Hosea's presence, he then jumped unto the tallest tree near him and landed on its branch. Then he jumped as high as he could to a point that he could almost see the surroundings of the forest itself. By that height, he saw almost everything in a 30 km radius.
"...I was right." he said as he looked to the northern direction of the gate.
*Thud*
By the thud of his landing, he soon ran to north as fast as he could with a speed that was far faster than usual.
In his mind, he sought for an opportunity to grow and in this gate, that opportunity was available to him.
'...The Golden Pink Tulip should still be at that place, just like how it was written in the book. If I miss this chance now, then I might have to wait for another season to pass until they bloom once again.'
The Golden Pink Tulip was one precious material harvested to make into a miracle pill that will help enhance one's magic capacity. The tulip could only be harvested in this gate alone which was guarded by the Academy's watch. It was written in the book that Arthur himself was able to luckily find the material when he was in this gate doing to the same scavenger hunt as Hamil was. By finding the Tulip, he gave it to teacher Hosea for inspection.
They acknowledged his find and used the material to be created into a Miracle Pill, but in return, it wasn't given to him, instead they stored the miracle pill into their vaults for safe keeping. All Arthur got in return was a magic potion that simply improved his magic by a small margin. The effects of the miracle pill was incomparable to that of the potion.
But the story did relay to the Miracle pill once again in the tournament arc of the story for the first years. By his win for the tournament, he was gifted with the chance to meet the vault and pick out two items. One that was for weaponry and another that was made for enhancements. His first choice of weapon was the "Gloves of the Spirits" and the second item was none other than the "Miracle Pill." so in the end, he was able to get back the pill.
With the revelation of the Tulip's discovery, it would have been natural to look for more Tulips that was just as powerful, but the academy didn't allow such power to be exploited by the people. Even to the nobles, the information about the tulip was secret and only known to three people who worked on the miracle pill. The Head Principal, the Vice Principal and Professor Hosea who was a master at alchemy. These people were quite delicate with the idea of exploiting such a material. And so, they decided to let the plant grow as nature intended it to.
It has been a year since the tulip was discovered and now the time had come yet again to harvest the only tulip that would sprout once in a year. If Hamil were to miss this chance, then he will lose the opportunity to grow his magic capacity. The quantity of the tulip was only around five flowers by each year with their locations being random.
"..." With him heading north, he would soon meet upon a field of flowers that was filled with a thick fog and guarded by a spirit.
The spirit was the guardian of the Flower Field. It yielded great illusion powers that helped misguide the incoming monsters that walk into its fields and lead them back into the thick forest. The only reason why Arthur was able to get by the illusion of the fog and gets his hands on the tulip was because of his affinity with this spirit who was kind to those who treated it kindly and it was dangerous to those with bad intentions.
With Arthur's calm and kind personality, he was able to meet the spirit and simply observed the spirit as it was. He didn't picked a single flower until he was allowed to by the spirit and when he did, he was blessed by picking out the Golden Pink Tulip. His luck in this matter helped him choose such a great flower. There were other flowers on the field with great qualities, but the Tulip was one of the things that was quite high in it's condensed nature of mana quality.
Hamil was quite nervous on his luck matter and whether or not his affinity with the spirit was good enough to let him walk into the flower field. After all, he wasn't the main character who was impervious to such a plot.
"...a fog, looks like I was right on the mark." he said as he stood on top of a tree, watching over an area that was completely covered with a thick smug of fog.
He didn't waste any time and continued to run to that place.
"...damn." when he finally made it to the start of the fog's thick cover, he was amazed to see how little he could see in front of him. But that didn't stop him from his chances of getting his tulip, so he pushed forward into the fog and made his venture into it.
Soon, as minutes passed of walking in the fog, he was starting to feel a sense of dizziness in his mind as his head was starting to ache and the air on this fog was getting quite heavy to breath in… the path he took which he was sure to be straight as a stick, was getting bendier and bendier.
"..hnn." but his strong will didn't falter in his venture.
For minutes, he continued to walk…
And walk.
Walk…
Walk…
"...this wasn't…in the book." he said to himself as he quite certain that this wasn't how it happened in the book. As in the book, Arthur was simply able to find himself in the flower field by chance…or maybe it was by choice of the spirit…maybe because it was of their affinity with each other…
Maybe Hamil wasn't compatible with being chosen to be allowed to walk in the fields…
The Spirit might never even accept him…and the plot of the story never allowed him to…
"...no." he said as minutes turned to feel like hours and the uncertainty and doubt in his mind began to cloud his judgement, but yet he continued to walk.
While he continued to lurk deep in the fog, a beast watched from afar as the boy walks with an agitated look of desperation.
"...Grrr.." it growled with the intent to hunt as it's saliva dripped on the floor.
"...!?" the boy immediately heard that noise coming from behind and he was sure that this monster was close by, judging by how loud the growl was.
To make sure for his safety, he brought out his shield to block off any attack.
'A monster's close by? How?' he thought that the possibility of a monster being near him was unimaginable since he was in the fog. The fog had the capability to mislead all types of beast in the area back to the outside. If one were near him at the moment, it could only mean that this monster was either capable of neglecting the effects of the fog or that this monster was part of the fog as a precaution to fend off the unwilling trespassers.
*Click* *Crack* *tap*
He could hear the heavy footsteps it makes circling around him, as if it was ready to attack at any moment.
'...' he waited for the beast to strike, but none came. The growling remained, yet no attack came.
This continued on for minutes, until finally…the beast ran off into the deeper part of the fog.
"...strange." he said as he drops his guard down, certain that no threat was coming his way at the moment.
He puts back his shield away and continued on to walk into the fog, but as he did, he was suddenly met in front by a little spirit that stood in front of him with a blank expression.
She was neither smiling nor gleeful of his encounter, but nonetheless, she walked up to him with a flower on hand.
"..." Hamil stared in disbelief. He was certain of the fact that this spirit was none other than the same spirit that played with Arthur in his time here.
He could tell by the expression alone that this spirit wasn't happy in the least for him having to walk in here. And the flower it carried was somewhat similar to that of the Golden Pink Tulip that Arthur once picked…but something was off.
Despite how different their attitude was from meeting a person with good affinity and a person with an uncertain affinity, this spirit was too indifferent for having such a bipolar reaction towards Hamil.
The spirit held its hand upfront and willingly gifted Hamil with the flower, but Hamil wasn't so certain with receiving such a gift with open arms.
The willingness of this spirit was the problem.
For the spirit to give such an important flower to Hamil felt like it was too quick of a transaction…spirits weren't like this after all in the novel.
It was written in the novel that this particular spirit was quite protective of everything it owned, even to the people that it seemed to accept as enjoyable to be around with, AKA Arthur. Arthur was only able to gain such a flower because the spirit permitted him to only pick out one flower…anything more than that was unforgivable to the spirit. If Arthur were to pick out more than one flower, than something horrible might have happened to him, but because of his good sense of judgement, he respected the spirit and only picked out the single Golden Pink Tulip.
"..." Hamil knew something was off, so he approached the spirit with a calm but cautious gaze and simply walked pass through it as if the spirit wasn't there in the first place.
"....!?" the spirit was shocked of his reaction and quickly turned to see that Hamil continued on his way deeper into the fog. It was as if Hamil wasn't able to see the spirit in the first place.
"..." soon the spirit loses sight of the boy, and there, its expression changed from a blank slate to an eager smile that was crazed with contempt. The spirit dropped the flower down to the floor and left it like it was a disposable object without worth. The spirit soon disappears into the fog like a ghost with its smile plastered on with an eagerness to have fun.
Beyond the fog, muddled figures began to emerge as Hamil continued his search for the flower field in the fog. figures who he was very familiar with.