"Good day students." one of the soldiers with one emblem on his uniform said as he stepped forward. "I am Captain Hunter. There are a few things you need to know before you start your first expedition."
"On this planet, unlike Veda, there are deadly beasts which roam the surface and sometimes the beasts move underground. The planet we are currently on is called Soran. Listen attentively, we have ranked the beasts according to their strength." Captain Hunter explained.
"The beast with the least amount of strength is in the Primary rank. You can tell what rank the beast is at by a marking which is on the beast. In every beast, there is a magical essence. Wherever you see the marking on the beast, that is where the magical essence of the beast is."
"The beast essence is like a medium-sized rock which radiates a vibe that can be felt just by looking at it. The higher the rank of the beast, the stronger the vibe the beast essence radiates."
"The marking on the beast is in the form of a ring. A beast in the lowest rank, which is the primary rank, has only one ring on its body. The higher the rank, the higher the number of rings because as the beast gets stronger and goes higher in rank, another ring appears on its body."
"The ranks we gave the beasts are Primary rank, Medial rank, Enhanced rank, Peak rank, Apex rank and Mythical rank."
Stopping with his explaination for a while, Captain Hunter was looking at the faces of all seventy five students in front of him and making sure they were all paying attention.
The students were listening attentively to every single word Captain Hunter said to them. They had no knowledge about the beasts because they had barely seen any beasts on Veda, but now being on a planet with beasts wandering around, every bit of information was useful to them.
As Captain Hunter was explaining things to the students, another Captain was explaining the same things to another set of third year students in another room. The third year students from Dicenview Academy were not the only students who had abruptly been informed about their expedition.
Third year students from Klintop Academy and other schools in Veda had also been taken to another planet for their expedition. There are three other planets under the control of the humans–Soran, Ryburn and Zinor. Every third year student on Veda was teleported to one of the planets so they can begin their first expedition.
"The beasts you will see on your expedition are not higher than Enhanced in rank." Captain Hunter continued. "There are beasts with a higher rank on the planet but there is a boundary which you are not allowed to pass. "
"The beasts within the boundary are not higher than an Enhanced ranked beast but the probability of you seeing one during your expedition is very low and in the case of you actually seeing one, you can use the wrist watches you were given earlier to send a ping to us and the wrist watch will act as a beacon until we reach your location."
"The wrist watch is equipped with a tutorial so everything you need to know will be taught to you with the help of the automated tutorial in the wrist watch."
"The goal of your expedition is to obtain as many of the beasts essence as you can. The group that returns with the highest number of the beasts essence gets a reward. You will be given a dimensional ring which has the supplies you will need to last you for the whole week of your expedition."
"A whole week?" a student asked.
"A week in the wilderness without any protection?"
"Someone could die."
"How can you do this to us?"
"You are right," Captain Hunter said, "someone could die. But the chances of that happening is low because we can get to you in a second no matter where you are. You all have received some type of training, this is where you put that training to use. Follow me."
Walking towards a door in the room, Captain Hunter opened it and stepped into another room which was filled with dimensional rings of different colours on multiple shelves. "These rings contain enough supplies to last you for the whole week." Captain Hunter said and nodded at a soldier who was in the room the students had just left.
Walking inside the room, a soldier brought in a box and went to the front of a student.
"Drop your phones, credit cards, your personal dimensional rings, and any other personal device you may have with you." Captain Hunter said. "They will be returned to you when you come back from your expedition."
"If we come back." a student muttered as he dropped his phone and credit card into the box the soldier was carrying around.
After carrying the box around and collecting the personal belongings of the students, the soldier went to the shelves and began giving the students a dimensional ring which was in a small transparent pack.
Now exiting the building they had been teleported to, the students looked around at the planet they were on.
The sky was pink in colour as opposed to the blue sky in Veda. There were purple trees that were shorter than the ones on Veda and instead of growing from loam, the purple trees were growing from sand. The buildings were made in domelike structures and multiple towers could be seen around the square-shaped civilization, even from where they stood.
"Are those more students over there?" Max asked, looking to his side and seeing some people also coming out of a building.
"Did you think you were the only third year students going on an expedition?" Captain Hunter asked. "Every third year student on Veda is going on their first expedition today."
"Use your wrist watches to keep track of time. You will soon understand why I said that. You have thirty minutes to look around and purchase anything you feel you might need while on your expedition. Each one of you has the same amount of credits, don't spend it all at once."
Moving around with Kevin, Smith, Max and Diane, Jake was looking at the shops on the streets and was thinking of what to spend his credits on. 'First let me see exactly what they gave us and how much credits we have.'
Stopping abruptly, Jake tried to open the portal to the magical dimension of the ring he had been given but instead he saw a screen appear above the ring. The screen showed icons of what was in the ring in a tabular form with the name of the item beneath the icon.
'So we have water, food, a sleeping bag, a tent, a set of clothes, a bag and a replenishing serum. What's a replenishing serum? And what's the bag for?'
Seeing Jake check the contents of his dimensional ring, Kevin, Smith, Max and Diane also checked what they had been given.
"What's a replenishing serum?" Kevin asked after he had checked the contents of his ring.
"Maybe it's to replenish our energy and mana." Smith said. "And the bag is probably to put the essence of the beasts we kill."
"You're right." Jake said. "And we only have five hundred credits each, which means they don't want us to buy a lot of things."
"But what should we buy?" Max asked. "We already have the basic things we need."
"Let's buy some weapons." Jake suggested. "It might come in handy."
"Along with some food and water." Kevin said. "In case the one they gave us finishes before the week is over."
"Let's know the price of what we're buying first." Diane said as they headed into a shop to purchase what they wanted.