[All locations and names are fictional and do not reference any element in reality.]
"They really threw us in the middle of nowhere." Noah couldn't help but exclaim after scanning his new environment.
Two days after the journey on the zeppelin began, the students were dropped at random positions in a large forest and told to remain at the exact spot for the meantime.
"It's nothing special, just a big forest." James said.
"I doubt that."
Owen, who was squatted down, commented.
"What's up?" Asher asked.
Owen looked at him.
"The soil structure is quite different. It's a bit loose, but I just checked deeper with magic. The topography is different from the one in the capital as well as the western part of the kingdom. Only two places have a similar layout; the north and the northwestern parts of the kingdom. When you now put into consideration a forest huge enough to contain forty-five groups spaced at large intervals, only one location comes to mind."
"The Manchurian forest." Asher replied.
In the Great Dawn kingdom, the Manchurian forest was the largest forest as well as a disputed region between the Great Dawn kingdom and its neighbours by the north as this forest happened to be within all three influences. In the end, the three powers had to settle with the arrangements made by the three great empires. The reason for the dispute over the control of the forest had to do with the fact that the Manchurian forest was rich in various resources, specifically creatures. Be it their meat, bone or hide, the creatures in the Manchurian forest offered value for money to anyone who made the effort to hunt within this place. However, while the Manchurian forest seemed to be a gold mine, it had its dangers too.
The monsters in the Manchurian forest weren't your average tigers and lions found in the wild with the average strength of monsters here being equivalent to a first-stage Guardian and many above that level existed here. For this reason, the Manchurian forest was also tagged as a death zone by the common populace and even skilled mages didn't move around here without caution. But that wasn't the scariest fact.
It was mentioned that the three influences bordering this forest settled with the arrangements of the three great empires and desist from squabbles, but that wasn't the complete truth. One should remember that, albeit weaker, every other kingdom was an autonomy and didn't need to obey every decision of the three great empires[1]. So there was no reason for the three involved powers to settle with the arrangements of those three. However, after the Great Dawn kingdom and the other two influences had explored the forest to a large margin, they realized that the Manchurian forest was not a free gold mine and had no choice but to put aside their differences and come to a conclusion. This was because at the centre of the forest was a whole new world. The average strength of monsters there was the fifth stage of the Guardian realm and there were quite a few sixth and seventh stage Guardian realm monsters lying about. Rumours had it that the king of the forest, the title granted to the strongest monster, was a Heroic stage monster. Such a creature could only be handled by the trump card figures of the three influences involved in the border dispute, but none of them was willing to risk having those characters injured over a monster.
Since they had no intention of mobilizing their peak characters, they steered clear away from the centre of the forest and settled with the arrangements of the three empires which was to only take possession of the areas of the forest within their legal borders [2].
When Noah and the others recalled this information about the forest, they suddenly became nervous and scared.
"Hey, you've got to be kidding me, right?" Noah couldn't help but ask.
"There's no way the academy would send a bunch of kids like us to such a dangerous place, right?"
"Dangerous? Technically speaking, the Manchurian is indeed dangerous to ordinary people, but every third-year student is at least a first-stage Guardian. The average strength of monsters in the outer region is roughly the same as that. But unlike the monsters, we are human mages trained by the best academy in the kingdom and operating in groups using intellect. In the minds of the academy's higher-ups, only the inner region would be troublesome for us." Owen smiled.
"Alright then, stop trying to wet yourselves and be on alert. Although the instructors told us not to move around yet, the same doesn't apply to the monsters here. We have to be careful to prevent any ambush." Asher said.
"Alright."
Noah, James, Melissa and her friend, Luna, all nodded and became sharp.
While they were still scared of any possible encounters with the monsters here, Asher and Owen's confident demeanour seemed to calm the group down. Also, Asher's words were quite true. The group had already received training from the First Dawn academy, the number one magic academy in the kingdom and moved into a team of six. Taking one three first stage Guardian level beast was no problem much less one, and as soon as they got the hang of it, they would be able to face even more monsters together. All they lacked was battle experience and now, there was an opportunity to fill that void.
While the rest were waiting, Asher's head was stuck in deep thought.
'How did he know?' Asher sneaked a glance at Owen.
Being able to identify your location simply based on the soil texture and topography was not a common skill. The only reason Asher knew that was because of his family's background. The Arnhaunts, being a noble family with extremely close ties and relations with the military, groomed their descendants with militaristic knowledge. One such aspect was scouting and reconnaissance.
The Great Dawn kingdom lacked advanced scouting technology and location positioning devices, so it was easy to get lost if one had no map to make use of. This was even more common in wars where soldiers usually head into foreign territory and found it difficult to find a path back home. To reduce the chances of that happening, or rather to improve the navigation skills of their soldiers, the Arnhaunts had a book on various factors that could aid one in navigation. This included astronomy, climatology, and other subjects, one of which happened to be on the various soil topographies of the regions of the kingdom and its allies. By making use of these multiple studies, a lost soldier would be able to identify his current location and general direction, whether north, south, east or west. They would also be able to calculate how far they were from the ocean and could further use that knowledge to estimate their general location. This was because the Great Dawn kingdom bordered a sea by the east and an ocean by the south.
Because of the difficulty taken to gain this information as well as the value of this knowledge in warfare and espionage, it wasn't easily available to the public with even noble families having a hard time getting their hands on it. Only the military and other related parties could do so with ease with the Arnhaunts being one of them. But even then, not any lay soldier could get their hands on the full knowledge.
'Just who are you?'
"Alright students," A voice protected in the heads of all the students in the forest.
'Mental communication?' Asher thought.
"As you may or may not know, this is the location of your test for the year; the Manchurian forest. We are sharing this information with you to help rein in your confidence and prevent you from making idiotic decisions."
On the zeppelin about 1000 metres into the air, Zero held close to his mouth a special rectangular device that had a blue magic circle projected at the top. With his signature black cloak and black mask with the inscription '0' on it, Zero spoke into the device.
"As was previously mentioned, you have only three days to survive as long as you can and gain more points. Progress would be announced every 24 hours with only the top 10 groups in mind. I won't stress you with unnecessary statements anymore. I now officially announce the commencement of the survival test titled 'Wildlife experience'. Perform with all your might and strive for the best. Now, you are free to move about."
'It's finally begun.' Asher smiled.