Around the island, there were six pools of elemental energy for the students to use in order to grow. It was an opportunity mixed with a challenge so that only the worthy had access to the boons of the pool.
Each pool had its own little trick up its sleeve to keep students wary. Halfway through the competition, a rumor started to spread that the Earth Pool had two challenges instead of one.
In front of the entrance of the Earth Pool, Mino stood watch and made certain that only people from his own school had easy access to it. If students from different academies wanted the privilege, they needed to give up all their tokens and survive a single hit from Mino. Otherwise, they would be unworthy and waste the precious resource.
So Mino had an easy time collecting tokens since he turned anyone with less than a certain amount away. Only when they had around 50 tokens, or 70, or 35, or above a hundred, it really depended on how much Mino liked you or not, would you get the chance to be hit.
Those from his own school had a much easier time, although they also didn't get through without emptying their pockets. During his time he got contacted a few times by Simon's followers, but he never cared for them, thinking that all those schemes are for the weak.
At the final day, he stopped guarding the cave leading to the Earth Pool, not because he was generous enough to give the others a break. The pool was empty, so his income was gone. Wandering around the woods, Mino didn't put up any guard and made sure his aura was contained.
Any poor wolf willing to prey on Mino were a few tokens extra for the Fortress of Steel. If students tried to get his tokens, they would leave with their spirits broken. At least they kept their lives, which was more than enough for most of them.
Mino didn't really have any important goal during this competition, some wanted to prove others they were stronger, others tried to get one of the prizes. But for Mino, this was all just a way to pass the time. He wanted to have fun, not be bothered by all the serious things in life, there was plenty of that back home.
Here, he could do what he wanted and nobody could stop him since he signed a contract that made the other Rank 2's ignore his actions. So, he started to enjoy the surrounding nature. Strolling in a random direction, the ground beneath him started to rumble.
'Oh, is someone creating an earthquake? That's not easy.', when he saw the massive pillar of smoke he was a tad disappointed but also intrigued since it was quite close by. A massive wall of wind passed by, but Mino kept walking, enjoying the breeze.
Making his way over, he found two people fighting each other with weapons and techniques foreign to him. Mino wasn't one to learn swordsmanship in the first place, but he did like the colorful way they fought. Seeing the Blue Fire destroy the surrounding trees and plants, he inspected it from up close.
'Strong fire, it's weaker than my basic shield though, a pity. I would've loved to fight so enthusiastically as them.'
To Mino, it looked like both were having the time of their life. One side dishing out one strong attack after another while the other dodged the assault in a beautiful dance of death and destruction. Both had smiles on their faces as if this was the highlight of their lives.
'I wonder how long ago it was since I had such a fun fight.'
The passion they showed made his own heart beat a tad faster, making him excited to simply join in. But his strength far surpassed them, and it wouldn't be fun.
'If they had the same combat abilities but with Dark magic, it might be a little less... No, it wouldn't matter, once you reach Rank 2 you start developing countermeasures, and Darkness is the easiest to defend against.'
After some time, both sides seemed to be exhausted. 'Guess I shouldn't be hiding myself anymore, they deserve a reward for entertaining me so much.'
Mino came out, giving them an applause with a genuine smile. Right as he was about to say something, one of them rushed into the woods, immediately hiding his presence.
"Wow, didn't think I was that scary, and you don't look like you want to talk anymore, do you?", Mino glanced at the crushed skull and couldn't help but notice the nice clothes the body was wearing. "You got some good clothes though, mind if I borrow them? Think my little brother might like them."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Asta was finished with his task, with his mind healed through certain silvery pills he got back to a more relaxed state. All the information that once flooded his mind was carefully archived in his dome. Hence, it was extremely easy to find where the wolves were and quickly hunt them down. Entering his Mind Sphere, it was filled with bookcases and a small reading table with a small lamp.
It was cozy and easy to check certain information. Every person was unique in their way of thinking, which also meant that every dome had a unique look to it. Lucas's was quite bland, with it being just half an empty sphere covered in memories. This kind of dome is seen as more of an undeveloped dome.
Although Lucas had the Scarlet Moon at the top, in the end it's just the reinforcements of the very memories that were playing over and over again on the walls. In Asta's dome, the walls were black and there was barely any light.
Only the very top gave a bit of light to navigate between the bookcases, and the reading lamp at the little table was useful for parsing through any info he might need.
Asta had been spending a lot of time meditating to research a certain topic. Rather than wasting time and energy by doing his research in the open where he could attract a lot of attention. He did every single step inside himself, keeping the knowledge hidden.
Beside him was a massive pile of wolf corpses, he wanted to freeze them to make the horrible stench go away, but using elements was against his way of living. Instead, he endured the smell while working on his spells.
He could easily sit somewhere far away, but doing so would leave the meat exposed to any other hungry predator.
'When is he going to return? I've already done more than what I have to.', not that Asta dared to ever admit he was worried about anything, especially to himself. But the shaking of the ground and the pretty big pillar of smoke coming from the direction Asta pointed him to didn't feel great. In order to keep his mind busy, he kept researching.
After a while, a certain aura entered his willpower that he spread out, he knew things were finally going to enter the final act. Seeing Lucas arrive, Asta could immediately tell that he wasn't in perfect condition.
"Did you throw yourself in that explosion? Why do you look so beat up?", Asta looked in surprise as Lucas's clothes contained a bunch of burnt edges and were torn apart in certain places.
"I didn't have enough potions to completely heal myself."
"I thought you robbed every noble you found?"
"...I don't know what the other potions do. I'm not drinking poison by accident. I've already had enough trouble today."
Asta couldn't help but grin at the ridiculousness of the situation. A man who was about to overturn the entire island, tricked dozens of people into trusting him only to be backstabbed. Someone who was one of the strongest on the island, with the most genius mind, didn't know how to check his own potions.
Lucas was more focussed on the pile of corpses, and could see around twenty different wolves.
"Impressive, I understand you didn't freeze them, so let's get this over with so we can move on."
"Before we move on, I'll grace you with a bit of my intelligence. Show me your potions, I'll tell you which ones are which."
Lucas was glad, but felt a bit annoyed he had to rely on someone else. Still, he was also glad Asta was capable of collecting enough of the wolves, which were detrimental to his plan.
Most of the potions were just basic healing potions, but they all had a different look. Some had a label explaining what they were meant to do, others had nothing. Each alchemist that made potions didn't follow a certain recipe, only the ones that learned it from their academy would have a certain rule book. This resulted in tons of different potions being produced, each looking a slight bit different but having most of the same effects.
Of course, there were industries that mass-produced low quality potions to gain a profit, and according to the results of Asta, a lot of the fallen nobles were tricked into buying bad potions at a pretty high cost.
"If you can't discern the difference in potions, never trust a merchant. You could be buying poison without knowing it. Now, tell me, what's the next step?"
"Thanks for the advice.", Lucas started to drink the remaining potions that Asta approved. Getting back into shape, he looked over the remaining potions and just dumped them back into the ring. The ring didn't have much space left, but Lucas didn't mind. Only when something came up that had to be taken with him would he bother to check what he could throw away.
He didn't see himself as a hoarder, but if there was no reason to throw it away, why do so?
Getting back to the plan, Lucas started to explain the following steps. "Can you make a bowl that's capable of withstanding the heat of magma?"
"You're asking for something absurd again... but yes, I can if I wanted to. I would need to know what kind of magma we're dealing with, though, each type could be somewhat different."
"Isn't magma just magma?", Lucas pointed towards the volcano, not that he needed to.
"No, of course not, do you think waters from the north and waters from the south taste the same? Anyway, I'll start analyzing this one.", Asta sat down and started to focus. Lucas was thinking of helping him, but left him alone. Lucas knew that Asta wanted to prove himself, and by giving him certain things to work on, it would only improve their relationship.
He had enough work to do, ripping the horns from the decaying flesh was harder than expected. Not that a dead body but up much of a resistance, but the stench and muscles were hard to pull apart.
Asta silently created a bowl and placed it near Lucas.
Seeing the large cup, Lucas started to gather the weird liquid substance that were inside the horns. The smell was extremely mouthwatering, putting Asta in a strange mood, but thanks to the antidotes, they were undeterred in the end.
After Lucas was done, the bowl was filled with a yellowy liquid that attracted a lot of attention. Asta created a lid to keep the smell from spreading, and they started to climb the volcano. The steep ground and edgy rocks were an issue for both, but Lucas created small stone platforms, while Asta had a strange spiky platform stuck to the bottom of his shoes.
"Conrad, I have a question. The Wyvern is going to be enraged if everything goes well, but you still don't have anything to stop the others from using their jades, right?"
"Correct, I've already told you that I'm betting on their pride, ego and greed. It might seem flimsy, but should hold strong against them. They are Rank 2, the powerhouses on the island, if they ran away, what kind of damage would that do to their reputation?"
"That might be the case, but don't you think that when push comes to shove, they'll just run?"
"Hmm... the original plan was for me to figure out how the jades worked, but I haven't had the time to prepare."
"Then you'll like this gift, during the time you were in the Dark Pool and when I was hunting for the wolves, I've been researching it. Partly because it fits your plan, but the jade itself is also an interesting design choice. The jade is both very complex and extremely basic at the same time. It's a miniature artifact that can only be used once. It contains arrays inside, but something else as well.
The logic of the magic exists in two parts, one part detects when the jade is broken. If it breaks, it activates the second part, which brings the user back to the plane we started at. Or at least, that's what I assume, the second part is very well obfuscated. So I can't figure it out."
"Hmm, can you analyze the bridge between the two parts then? If you manage to disrupt that part, the jade will be useless."
"Yes, but the thing is, if the jade breaks, the array checking for it will activate. The thing I can't figure out is how it doesn't damage the second part of it. I can find the bridge between the two parts, but can't tell where the bridge ends. It's like the second part isn't in the jade. Not that it matters, a broken bridge will stop the jade from working."
"All that matters is that they can't run away. Also, calling it my plan would mean I thought of everything, which isn't true. I know I'm not the most appreciative person, Asta, but could you not downplay your own contributions?"
It was an unnecessary remark that even Lucas didn't really want to say. It was more to boost the confidence of his partner than anything. Part of Lucas had been thinking on how to improve their relationship. Since they were both hard-working and competitive, it might've been a good idea to spar ideas.
In the end, he found simply complementing him the easiest solution with the lowest cost. It felt weird to say, but was the best way forward.
Asta didn't reply, his face also didn't change, but Lucas could tell he was happy as his chin raised ever so slightly up.
"So, can you block the jade?"
"Not from afar, I can't cover the island in an array, and even if I could, they would just break it. If I wanted to disrupt it, I need to get very close to their jade."
"How close are we talking?"
"I don't know, I can't tell, but I don't have to touch it. I just need to be close to them for some time."
"When the fight starts, they'll most likely group up, is that a window for you?"
"Only if I can get there in time. What do you think will happen to the others?"
"There will be two groups, one will look for the Rank 2's, since they can protect them, others will hide or use their jade. If you can find the first group, you should have a chance to get in unnoticed. They won't have time to think of anything else and might use your mana to fuel their own attacks."
"I see, that's fine. I'll try to disable their jades, but don't blame me if they figure out what I'm doing. If it goes wrong..."
"Then you'll kill the witnesses and run. Don't look at me like that, I know it won't be so simple. But I don't think you're stupid enough to not make it out. Now, go back into the woods and hide yourself. I'll give our sleeping lizard a little snack."