"...Carol's team has come 3rd place with 75 points, Revold's team is 2nd with 112 points, and finally... congratulations to Loren's team for winning with 165 points!"
As the teacher announced the results of the competition, Loren and his team all gathered together and hugged in joy, even Bort had a smile on his face. The hug quickly ended though as the smell emanating from Benson entered everyone's nose, but the pleasant atmosphere stayed.
The other teams looked on at them in surprise, most of them knew that Loren had spent the first 2 hours placing dead crop hoppers around the forest so they didn't understand how he won despite wasting so much time.
Benson placed his hand on Loren's shoulder, a smile plastered on his face. "I can't thank you enough, Loren. Really, you don't understand how much this means to me."
"It's fine," Loren grabbed his hand and placed it off his shoulder. "if you want to thank me, stay about 5 meters away though, I can't take that smell.
"And who's fault is it that I smell like this?" Benson laughed as he wrapped his arms around Loren. "C'mon, let's have a hug!"
"Wait, stop! Ah, the smell!" Loren pinched his nose as he pushed away Benson's embrace, a chuckle escaping his mouth.
"May the winning team please come forward." Breaking out of their reverie, the team all stepped forward to receive the award for the hunt at the words of their teacher, pleasant smiles filled the group.
The teacher in charge of the hunt handed out 5 vials to the students, each one filled with a light blue liquid. The trainees all swallowed their saliva at the sight of the vial. It was an elixer, one that cost more than the tuition they had paid to attend the school and would propel their progress through the 1st stage. Save for Benson, none of the children had ever laid eyes on one, their excitement palpable.
"You can all consume the elixer when you wish, the effect may feel strange for a moment but don't worry, that is your body rejecting the foreign mana, simply allow it to course through your body for a minute and try to see the effects." Listening to the teacher inform them, the students all took off the cap of the vial with haste, impatient to use the elixir.
The surrounding students looked on with envy but did nothing, they could only hope to earn another elixer further into the year.
Loren poured the contents of the elixer down his throat. It was strangely tasteless, like water with a slight hint of citrus. Upon swallowing the entire vial, Loren closed his eyes to focus and feel the effect the elixir had on his mana.
Before long he felt as though something had moved his mana by itself, forcing it through his body without his control. He instinctively wanted to fight against it, but remembered the words of his teacher and let his mana course through his body.
A few minutes passed but Loren and his team didn't notice, their attention fully focused on the spectacle happening in their bodies. Mana constantly flowed through their bodies, at first with slight force, but as time passed the speed and ease of which it moved increased. Until their mana moved at rapid speeds, circling their body and rotating multiple times, heat emanating from their insides.
Finally, Loren and the others opened their eyes, feeling the results of the elixir. It was like the mana of the elixir had run through their body as though it was a passageway, widening the river they used to move their mana and destroying any dams that halted its movement. Loren hadn't had much time to consolidate the change but guessed that his mastery of the 1st stage had increased a fair amount, perhaps three-quarters of his mana could be concentrated now.
'If this is the effect of a stage 1 elixir, then what would a stage 2 one do?' Loren stared down at himself in amazement.
Benson and Bort had an experience similar to Loren, amazed at the proficiency of the elixir. But those who truly felt the effects the most were Lunceen and the twins, they had directly entered the breath stage and felt themselves instantly become empowered.
Loren immediately wanted to see his progress but he was beckoned forward by the teacher in charge, he was so elated from receiving the elixir that he forgot that he won a separate prize as the leader of his hunting group, a stage 1 built artifact.
He walked forward in anticipation as he saw a sleek wooden box being held by the teacher.
"Loren, as the person in charge of the winning team, you have earned a personal artifact. While it is only in the 1st stage, I hope you understand how valuable it is."
His words were a reminder to Loren that the kingdom was the one who procured the artifact for him. The teacher in charge was a special one in the school, his name was Yorik Guard, and instead of being personally employed by the school, he was sent to Rito by the kingdom. Aside from simply teaching the students he also scouted for talents he could bring to the capital and assured the elixirs and artifacts given to the school were not wasted.
Loren nodded but didn't put too much meaning into it. He knew Yorik had his eye on him and wanted to bring him to the capital, but Loren didn't want to go there yet, so he usually only acted cordially to Yorik but didn't respond to his attempts to scout him.
Grabbing the box, Loren opened it without too much fanfare, ready to see the artifact within. Inside he saw a metal arm brace with silver engraving that formed a hexagonal pattern. It was way too large to fit his arm but Loren knew that artifacts had a special magic on them that fitted the user. He took the brace into his hands and attached it to his left forearm, locking the metal latches on the bottom.
Pouring mana into his arm he felt the artifact react as it slowly shrunk down until it perfectly fits his arm. He held up his hand, smiling as he stared at the effect of the artifact.
"The artifact contains the essence of the stage 1 beast pulsing scuttle, it can absorb the shock of impacts given and eventually explode out when enough pressure is stored," Yorik explained. "The effect should be similar to the mana art Expulsion. You can either channel your mana to force the effect or wait until it happens naturally."
Loren stared at the artifact in wonder as he returned to his friends. Noticing that the group were giving him envious looks, Loren smirked at them.
"Jealous?"
"We'd be lying if we weren't," Benson stated. "but I'm happy enough with the elixir, we all are."
The others nodded, agreeing with him. Entering the 1st stage was already a monumental achievement for the group, they didn't want to be too greedy.
They all started to converse, talking about the results of the elixir and how far they had mastered the 1st stage. During the conversation, Loren noticed that Relia was looking off absentmindedly.
"Relia? What's wrong?" He asked.
Exiting her stupor, Relia turned back to him. "Nothing Loren, I was just wondering where you're master went." She had a slight look of unease as she spoke.
That was right, Loren realised, where was Rito? He had been present before the hunt began but was absent during the award ceremony. Loren wanted to shock him with his results so he wasn't too happy with his disappearance.
"Who knows where that guy went? He probably went to talk to your grandpa or something. C'mon the teachers said that we're having a picnic to celebrate the end of the hunt, you should join us." Loren didn't worry too much that he was gone, his master was in the bond stage, and nothing in the vicinity could threaten him.
Waiting a moment, Relia eventually forced a smile and agreed. "Sure, I'm fairly peckish."
She knew what Rito usually did when he came to her town, in return for allowing the students to hunt in their forest, Rito would go out and subdue any local bandit groups for them. She was worried something had occurred at the village that forced Rito to return but pushed away her thoughts. He was a knight in the 3rd stage, he could face any trouble that came to Galan.
***
Relia and Loren's thoughts weren't incorrect, Rito had the strength to deal with any threat that would usually be found near Glana. But that was only in the case that Rito was in the village at the time of the crisis, and more importantly, this was not a usual threat.
Just 5 minutes before the end of the hunting exam, Rito saw a crystal attached to a bracelet he was wearing glow. The bracelet had been given to him by Turk yesterday, it was meant to signal to Rito if anything happened to the village.
Seeing that an emergency may be occurring, Rito informed the rest of the teachers that he would check on the state of the village before leaving with Durkson. There were 2 kilometres between the hunting ground and Galan, bringing Durkson may slow him down but he was required in the case that any of the residents of Galan needed immediate medical attention.
As the two ran through the forest, Rito felt that something was strange about the situation. It wasn't a secret that he came to Galan yearly, and bandits would usually avoid troubling the village when he was present. It could be a herd of beasts that attacked, but it was too much of a coincidence that something happened right as he left with the class. This wasn't the same situation he'd seen in Galan the years before.
His suspicion was confirmed when he met a group of bandits on the way to the town, they stood on the road and looked at Rito as if they knew he'd be coming. The bracelet he wore was a precious artifact of Galan that no one outside the village should have been aware of. How did the bandits know that he would know when the attack began?
He and the bandits quickly started to face each other, during the battle, Rito could tell that the bandits at the forefront of the fight were scared out of their wits facing him but ran ahead despite their fear when looking back at their companion. He could tell these people were only meant to be a momentary distraction for him.
While the scared men at the front charged at Rito, the men in the back laughed seeing the spectacle before they began to flee. They had thrown their sacrificial pawns, now they could run away to their leader. But while these men knew of Rito, they severely underestimated him. Rito was not just any knight of the 3rd stage.
[Sword art: Cleaving Moonlight]
*thud* *thud* *thud*
Blood flew into the air. Bodies fell as with only a single swing of Rito's blase, the bodies of the men were bisected in two, and they died without even realising how.
Rito kicked the ground, arriving before the other bandits in an instant. He raised his sabre as he spoke to them:
"Next time you send out a distraction, make sure they aren't comprised of paper."
"Shit! Guys, we have to deal with him ourselves!"
A short yet bloody battle followed, Rito making quick work of the bandits while Durkson watched with a grimace, the healer not used to the sight of flesh actively being torn.
Finishing the last bandit, Rito felt his suspicions of the bandits grow. These were not an average band of bandits. Bandits were a group of starved criminals who committed atrocities and crimes because they were too incompetent to do anything else. Most bandits were comprised of a hodgepodge of runaway teens or failed knights, and a majority of members would be in the start 1st stage or only know body enhancement.
The terrified few immediately slaughtered matched his perception of bandits, all of them only had a rudimentary usage of mana and weren't even able to see the slash that cut them down. The ruffians he just slew were different, each of them had been in the 2nd stage! In any ordinary group of bandits, they could be the leader, yet they seemed to be just ordinary members, albeit in a higher position than the other trash he faced.
What made Rito worry the most was that the bandits were aware of him and were not afraid to face him, meaning they might target his class. He had left the class with the other teachers, and while each teacher was at the storage stage and could protect themselves from danger, Rito wasn't sure if they could protect the students at the same time.
Rito furrowed his brows as he stared down at the bloody corpses of the bandits. He had a choice, return to the class and protect his students or continue to Galan. He gritted his teeth, he didn't worry that he would face an opponent that could best him but he wasn't able to be in two locations at the same time.
"Durkson, we're returning to the class."
Durkson widened his eyes, they just spent 20 minutes running towards the village. Why return? But he didn't refute Rito and nodded his head. Listening to Rito was the best thing he could do in a crisis.
As they ran back, Rito looked at the town with a sorrowful expression.
"I'm sorry Turk... I'll return after making sure my students are safe."