Joy didn't look prepared to be hit by the claw yet, so Dereck stood in front of her. The mantis walked slowly towards him, freaking him out. His gut was telling him to run, to abandon everything and survive, but he had seen with his own eyes that people could survive even if their entire chest was destroyed.
Going against his instinct again really put him in a bad mood. "Dereck, mindset is what's important, don't let the pain get in your mind. Think that nothing happened when he attacks you, he can't hurt you.", Conrad explained what mattered and how he survived it.
"Easier said than done.", Dereck rebuked, but he knew it was childish to continue. He tried to calm down as the claw was ready to lunge forward. His instinct was screaming for help, yet he stayed completely still.
"Argh!", the pain was immense, his head started to throb, he couldn't focus on what was happening. All he could think of was the pain of having his lungs damaged. He could feel exactly where the nerves cut off.
Suddenly he felt two hands on his face. Conrad was in front of him, holding his head, the mantis didn't seem to care about his interference. "Let go of the pain Dereck. Right now, your body is working perfectly fine, take a look at your core, try and breathe in. Do you think you would be able to do that without your lungs?"
Conrad tried to talk some sense into him. Since Dereck didn't respond, Conrad kept encouraging him to calm down and see past the pain. "Try to meditate, think of someone you love, think of the energy you're about to absorb. The gates of the next Rank are waiting for you, can't you imagine the power you would have once you open them?", Conrad tried to appeal to the most basic of desires in order for him to snap back to reality.
"Slowly let the energy from the claw enter your body, let your core take it and let it fuse with the walls. Take your time, we're not in a hurry.", Conrad left him alone once he noticed Dereck was starting to absorb the claw. The entire time Dereck felt his instincts screaming that this was wrong and that he would die, yet nothing of the sort happened, and he grabbed the claw to make sure it wouldn't move away.
He gained his energy like everybody else and the mantis moved on to attack Joy. Luckily Conrad had already prepared her for the hit and made sure that she wouldn't get lost in the pain. Dereck watched as he helped Joy get through the struggle. 'Did he help me like that as well? Why?'
To Dereck, Conrad was a scheming man that he should avoid at all cost, a true mage as some would call it. Untrustworthy, backstabbing, a true monster, yet he looked very serious trying to help Joy.
Once everyone got their Rank boosted did the mantis leave them alone. It had dimmed quite a bit, but a few other students could probably absorb some energy, if they could avoid thinking they were dead of course. If one were to believe the pain and the wound was fatal and give up, the body would start to shut down and the light from the mantis would stop working as a bridge.
Only by believing in oneself and having the determination to continue could one survive.
"Whoowie, that was a lot more intense than I thought!", Joy seemed to have regained her optimism. She looked quite terrified when the mantis attacked her, but she got over it faster than anyone had expected.
"Conrad, how did you know we would be safe?", Dereck looked at Conrad with a strange look. He could've died from a simple experiment yet did so without any worries.
"Because of you, Dereck. No matter what we did it was impossible to kill the guardian, it didn't even lose any energy during the entire fight. When you said that the headmasters wouldn't put an impossible to kill guardian here, I realized something.
They said that each pool is protected by a guardian, and that we need to be prepared before we engage. But who said that needs to be a physical being? Perhaps the "guardian" is simply a lock that we need to find the key for.
So I tested something, every time it hurt me I tried to see if it actually hindered my body's function or if it just hurt me. The time it got my shoulder, my arm was still capable of moving even though the nerves definitely should've been destroyed. That should've been impossible, yet it did.
The monster is a massive pool of Light energy, so it could in theory heal you if you could absorb it. The only issue would've been how strong its willpower is. The moment it pierced my chest I just focussed on absorbing the power in that claw. Then I realized I could just let it sit and nothing would've happened. This was a test of determination and willpower, not physical strength or strategy."
The group couldn't believe the deduction skill of Conrad. 'To think of all that in the middle of a fight! He's an absolute genius!', even Dereck found it hard to criticize him any further.
"What. Now?", Joseph looked at his three companions and didn't really know what would happen next. Would they go back to their original paths and try to gain more tokens? Would they fight each other for the tokens? Joseph wasn't sure of what was to come next.
"How about we celebrate our victory and go our separate ways? I still have a pool to find and you guys need to reach Rank 2.", Conrad suggested.
"How are we going to celebrate?", Dereck wasn't really sure of what kind of celebrations could happen in a cave where they fought not too long ago. The damage was still clearly visible everywhere. And while most present were healed, they might be mentally drained.
"I don't know, a meal? Have you guys eaten anything since getting to the island?"
"Nope! I've been trying to find the pool the whole time. Although I guess the pool isn't really a pool. I wonder if they're all like that.", Joy started to think about it before tossing that idea in the garbage. She had achieved her goal, so nothing else mattered.
"A. Meal. Is. Fine.", Joseph liked the idea of getting to eat something good after fasting for almost a day and a half. Dereck nodded in agreement, there wasn't a large desire for a celebration, but he didn't really mind it. Taking some rest couldn't hurt.
Conrad took a pot out from his ring and started to make a soup. He asked Joy to fetch him some ingredients and calmly made a broth. After some time the smell from the soup smelled absolutely wonderful. Even though mages didn't need to eat, their mouths started to water from the smell.
They all needed to swallow their saliva and wait patiently until Conrad was done. Then he asked Joy to create some wooden bowls for everyone, so he could pour in their portions.
"If we had been all nobles I don't think we would've been capable of eating anything hahaha.", Conrad seemed proud of his background. Not that making a soup was hard, it was probably the easiest meal to make.
The others could only smile and agree with him. "Nobles don't need to cook, so they're probably starving right now!", for once Joy didn't seem as innocent as before.
Dereck took his wooden bowl and his instinct was once again telling him not to drink from it. He looked at the people around him all drinking the soup with glee. Even Joseph's mouth was finally visible, not that it was anything special.
'Conrad is also drinking the soup, so why is my gut telling me to stay away from it? If it's poisoned, he wouldn't drink it.', Dereck had kept an eye on him ever since they met, if he ever did something strange he would've seen it. And yet, nothing strange happened.
'He only helped us all out. If he didn't help me or Joy we would both be dead. What's the point in poisoning the soup now? Since when is my instinct so wrong? Why am I so wary of him?'
"Conrad, if you don't mind me asking. Did you upset some noble family?"
Conrad looked up at Dereck with wide eyes, "I mean, hahaha, that's a way to put it! I come from the Blue Fire Academy and won the school's competition even though I'm not the strongest. So the nobles I defeated didn't like my victory and are trying to get to me. That's why I suggested splitting up after this, I don't want you all to get into trouble because of me."
They all couldn't believe what Conrad said, but after thinking about it for some time they understood why he was the school's 'strongest'.
"Conrad. Smart. Also. Strength."
"Yeah, those dumb nobles just lost because they can't think for themselves, they always need a butler or maid to help them around!", Joy and Joseph were on Conrad's side. They were amazed someone who was at the bottom of Rank 1 was capable of winning, but his instincts during the fight with the mantis were also not just for show.
'So that's why!', Dereck also realized now why his intuition told him to stay away from Conrad. He wasn't dangerous himself, but he was a target for others. If he stayed with Conrad, he could die for simply associating with him.
'So my gut is correct, just a little too sensitive.', Dereck couldn't help but smile at his realization. There was never any need to be wary of Conrad in the first place.
They all enjoyed their soup and eventually went their separate ways, unlike Conrad, the others had to figure out why they hadn't reached the second Rank yet.
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Dereck walked through the forest wondering if he should use the jade to escape the island or if it was worth it to hunt for some tokens. There were a ton of prizes he could earn if he just focussed on gathering tokens from now on.
A few hours later Dereck started to get a headache. His gut also stopped giving him any signals, which meant he was perfectly safe.
"Tch, now of all times?", he had been thinking of how to open the gates of Rank 2, not making any progress. Now, he had to deal with a headache as well?
'I've been working on getting to Rank 2 for so long and now that I finally have the power to get to the end I can't even open the gates?'
He started to get frustrated for not making any progress while still working so hard.
"All this time suffering under those annoying ass nobles for what? To get stuck at some stupid bullshit?", due to his lack of progress and his inability to find any wolves anymore he started to get angry.
His gut wasn't telling him where to go anymore, there was no danger around him, the wolves were avoiding him or were already dead. He started to get really frustrated.
"Why can't I find any more wolves?"
'The entire time I've been looking, yet there's none, how am I supposed to get my tokens? Perhaps there's a prize I can use to get to Rank 2. After all, I'm already at the precipice, I just need a little push!'
Dereck started to run through the woods but barely found anything that provide tokens for him. He had long given up trying to think to find a way to Rank 2 since every time he tried to think seriously his head would hurt so bad it felt like it split open.
'Ah, FINALLY!', his gut was finally giving him some guidance! He rushed towards the direction in accordance with his gut and found a group of 5 students having a discussion.
'These aren't wolves?! How can they possibly help me out? I'm already stronger than them, I don't need allies. Argh, my head hurts so much! Why can't I find any tokens?! Ah... I see now..'
"You're my tokens!", Dereck rushed towards the students and didn't waste a single second before launching a barrage of stone shards dense enough to scratch steel shields. The sneak attack was successful, killing two of the students present. The others looked at Dereck with fear in their eyes.
"What the hell!?", the students were surprised by the attack, that's for sure, but their faces carried a certain fear.
'Argh, I'm done with this! Screw it all!'
Dereck finally used a spell he had been holding back for so long. A hidden card that he didn't use when he was with his previous group.
Dereck covered his body in a suit of condensed stone armor with sharp claws, making up for his lack of physical strength. The armor was strong on its own, combined with the mana shields and the boost of muscle enhancement he was a monster in a fight. The students all looked extremely scared, making them freeze on the spot.
'What are they looking at!? Tch, my head! Dammit!', Dereck lunged forward taking the attacks of the students head on. His armor was strong enough to handle all their hits, and if something dangerous happened, his gut would warn him.
The students never stood a chance. They had sharpened wind slashes that seemed to damage even his armor, but could never penetrate it. On the other hand Dereck just needed to reach them and his claws would completely shred the students apart.
The students could only try to run in fear or die. Either way, none of the students lived to see another day. The armor protected him from fatal attacks, and the claws pierced any shield they could conjure up. The only downside was the massive mana consumption to keep the spell active.
"Finally! Tokens! Ah, perfect!", his gut was working perfectly again, telling him where to go next. He kept his spell active even though it normally costed a lot of mana. He felt it being drained, but it wasn't so bad, he could keep this up for quite some time.
"So this is what the Peak of Rank 1 is, what is Rank 2 going to give me? Hahaha, I can't wait!", leaving a bloodbath behind he moved on to the next place his gut guided him to.
Not realizing he left one of the students behind. A low Rank 1 mage was hiding himself with a spell, trying to hold his breath. Only when Dereck was completely gone from his view did he dare to breathe again.
"What the hell was that? Our entire squadron, gone? I have to inform Sire Simon immediately. Human monsters have appeared!", the student rushed towards their base.
It didn't take long, he was specialized in stealth and speed after all. "Sire Simon! We have a problem!"
Simon was surrounded by a few students who were giving him reports, he glanced at the frightened student. "What is it, why aren't you in your squadron?"
"Sire Simon, everyone from my squadron has died!", the students around Simon were shocked. The squadrons made use of 6 students which each specializing in certain aspects to increase their survival rate.
"Tch, did the other schools group up? Or did they violate our agreement? No, the fat one wouldn't dare, she might though. Tell me, what happened?"
"Sire Simon, there's something else on the island next to mutated wolves. Mutated humans have started to appear as well! They have the same twisting horns as the wolves but are much more powerful! The one we encountered was a Peak Rank 1!"
The students giving their reports started to ramble and discuss what this meant, but Simon was in a world of his own.
'That's impossible. The setting was that wolves would appear, then mutated wolves, then mutated Rank 0 wolves and then mutated Rank 1 wolves with the final day only giving Peak Rank 1 wolves. They would teleport the wolves to random locations. Nothing else should appear for us to fight. Did they give me the wrong intel?
No, the headmaster was certain this was everything. Someone else is creating variables! Another headmaster? Or is it the owner of the island? His identity was strange after all.'
Simon racked his brains trying to figure out why something like that happened.
"A mutated human, I thought the mutation the wolves go through can't spread?", Simon looked with an angry look at one of the surrounding students that was supposed to figure out what the mutation was about.
"S..Sire Simon, I did multiple test and found that the mutation doesn't spread even when you come into contact with the horns. It's not airborne and even if you eat the meat of the wolves that have mutated, you won't get infected!"
"Then explain to me why there are mutated humans running around killing my troops!"
"I...I.. I don't know Sire. The only thing left would be to eat the horns themselves, but who would be so stupid to do that? And even then, most parasites can't be eaten and survive, only the eggs could survive being eaten. Eating something so clearly dangerous is just suicide! We're all mages, so food shouldn't even be a problem in the first place!"
"Don't talk back to me with such a tone! Nobles will still eat, only the ones who faced hardship would bother to not eat. But that still doesn't answer my question, why didn't you figure out it could spread?"
"I..I.. I couldn't just eat the horn Sire, that...", the student was trying to come up with a reason, but the angry look Simon had said enough. There was nothing he could've said to please him now. Simon closed his eyes for a moment before turning back to the survivor of the fallen squadron.
"Tell me, you still call it a human, does it speak, does it have a conscience?"
"Uh, well, that's the weird part. He spoke clearly and had an obvious goal in mind. He kept rambling on about getting tokens. Killing us would achieve that goal...", the student started to trail off.
"And?"
"The..the thing is, he left all of our slates behind.", the student opened his bag and revealed the 5 other slates from his comrades.