On the zeppelin high up in the sky, Zero walked into the control room and sat on the large commander's chair. He then set his gaze at the screen in front of the seat, overseeing the progress of the students displayed on it.
Each token, whether the dark-brown personal token or the sea-blue token multiplier held by team leaders, all had a special tracking spell formation on them that allowed those at the control room to be able to monitor the movements and positions of everyone on a map of the Manchurian forest. Apart from that, the personal tokens had the ability to sense the life signature of the original owner due to a different special formation embedded in them and their owners.
It was through this secondary formation that the supervisors of the exercise were capable of identifying murders and noticing when something goes wrong in the exercise.
The only flaw to this was that the formation would be cut off from the students if any of the tokens was placed into a spatial artifact like a space ring or space bag. But items like that were really rare with only Asher, the twin princesses and duke Saunter's daughter, Emma, having one. Not even Wendel Castellan, the young lord and son of the king -Fedor Castellan- had one.
"Have you done a casualty check on the students? How many injured? Any deaths?" Zero asked.
It was well known that the Manchurian forest became a lot more dangerous at night, carrying a different risk than it did during the daytime. This was even after the clearance operation carried out by the academy's squad on the forest's monsters, to limit the risks of death during the exercise.
Nocturnal hunters were a lot more dangerous than the average daytime monsters and since that was the point in time when most would be at their weakest, it was inevitable for there to be casualties.
"Not many, sir. Of the forty eight teams, only fifteen suffered attacks during the night. Twelve students were reported injured with five of them critically injured and being forced to quit halfway. The rescue team has already brought the injured on-board the zeppelin." One of the operators in front reported.
"Five students already out after the first day, not bad." Zero said with a monotone voice.
The first day of the test usually had the least casualty count with the second day coming up next and the last day having the most. Considering that only five out of three hundred and forty two (342) students were injured, this 'damage' was negligible.
"Also, we've noticed a strange pattern in their movements, sir." The operator spoke up.
"Oh?" One's interest was piqued.
"Hmm? And what might that be?" Zero asked the operator.
The operator then drew a circle around a specific spot on the map and drew lines that extended from the south towards the circle.
"Quite a few of the groups have been observed to be following the same route, or to be specific, heading to the same destination. Further information suggests that this isn't a coincidence but that instead, something is leading them there or attracting them."
Zero didn't hurry respond right away but focused his vision on the spot that was marked out for a while.
"Continue observation. Send down a recon team to get a closer look at it."
"Yes sir."
. . .
An hour ago, Asher had led the team away from their resting spot deeper into the forest. He intended on checking out the direction the orb pointed out to him and since he couldn't do that without his team, Asher decided to lead them over.
"Nighttime here isn't as dangerous as I thought. We didn't even encounter any troubles during the dark." Noah spoke up.
"If you keep thinking like that, then your death would soon be near." Owen calmly said.
"What do you mean?" James asked with a confused look on his face.
"Isn't it obvious? We were simply lucky and our location was well-thought out." James decided to explain.
"Also, there was Asher's stealth formation that kept us hidden. Added to the fact we took shifts to stay on guard, we were pretty much in a safe position."
"That makes sense." Noah replied.
It wasn't that Noah was dumb but in matters such as this, he was far more inexperienced than James who lived the life of a commoner.
"Hmm?"
After moving on the path for thirty minutes, Owen's brows pricked as his senses picked up something strange by the side. He abruptly stopped walking and focused on that sensation.
"The mana flow…"
"You've noticed?" Asher kept a solemn face as he also halted his progress.
the others, noticing the two strongest in the team stopping, similarly did the same.
"The mana flow up ahead is restricted and stale, you could even say its stiff." Asher said.
"Is that why you brought us here? You knew from the start?" Owen glanced at Asher.
"No. I just happened to sense it a few seconds before you did. You can tell from our course that I'm not lying." Asher was of course lying.
He had noticed the weird incident long ago thanks to his heightened senses. Also, the location the orb was pointing towards was the same place the bizarre event was occurring. Asher simply led the team around to prevent a scenario where it would seem as if he knew something weird was happening here from the start. Phase one was leading them around, phase two was denying any attempt to incriminate him. Then there was phase three, convincing the team to unanimously agree to check out the place.
"However, it would be a lie to say that the weird event doesn't attract my attention. Chances are that some incredible treasure or the like must have surfaced. It would be a disappointment if we don't check it out at the very least. What do you guys think?" Asher asked.
"A treasure?"
Unlike Asher and Owen, the other four weren't as sensitive to mana changes so they had yet to even notice what Asher and Owen were talking about. However, the prospect of finding a treasure was something attractive even to them. The Manchurian forest was rumored to be a 'gold mine'. This statement didn't just refer to the value of the monster's here but also lost ruins, remains of dead adventurers, inheritances from ancient civilizations and kingdoms, and so on.
If they happened to have stumbled upon one of these during their exercise, the rules stipulated that, unless it was some heaven-defying item, the returns belonged to the student; after all, the main aim of the test wasn't treasure hunting so any treasures found had nothing to do with the academy. Since there was a strong likelihood that they had come across one, no one wanted to leave it behind. Even Owen began to seriously consider the option of checking it out despite his suspicions that Asher probably knew about it.
"Let's have a look. We are still within the safe zone so there's no harm in doing so." Noah said.
"True." James, Luna and Melissa agreed.
"Owen?" Asher glanced at him.
Owen frowned in contemplation for a bit, but in the end he nodded his head in concurrence.
Asher kept a plain look on his face, but inside, he was smiling.
Leading the team towards the location of the event, Asher went on alert. His experience from his past life taught him to always be cautious especially around objects or places of bizarre happenings like this. There usually tend to be some sort of trap or guardian beside these items or locations. Even if there wasn't, it was for a fact that Asher and his team weren't the only ones in the forest. There were students present as well as beasts. Any of those might have also been attracted towards the location they were headed to.
"Be on guard." Asher reminded his team as they moved at a fast but steady pace while still remaining vigilant to their surroundings.
A short while later, the team was finally close to the site but once they were, Asher and Owen noticed a couple other presences there. At the same time, the opposite side also noticed them.
"Who are you?" A voice from up ahead shouted with a thick tone of authority.
"Oh, if it isn't the bastard of the Arnhaunts."