For the next few days, Tai had continued to learn more about summoning in class by day, and practice runic sorcery with Amirax by night.
Tai had gotten rather used to having the sword wraith around and, though he hated to say it as it made him sound crazy even to himself, he actually enjoyed the company of the ancient sorcerer.
Tai still could not successfully use runic sorcery to summon, but he felt progress at least.
Unlike the Sorcery of Names where no matter how many thousand times he tried, he could never get the True Name right.
But he had to master it soon, he was running out of pencils, after all.
Creaking open the classroom door, Tai let out a sigh of relief.
Class had not started yet.
As a matter of fact, Miss Athena was not even in the class.
Ice Queen Nikolah was sitting in boredom making different shapes out of ice she manifested on her palms, Claire was reading a book, and the bald guy, Auro, was absent from class.
Taking his seat beside the empty chair, Tai waved at the two girls present.
"Hey."
Nikolah turned her head, finally realizing that she wasn't alone in the class, and awkwardly waved back.
"Hi."
While Claire looked up from her book and gave him a slight nod.
The door creaked open once again, and a figure lazily walked into the room and crashed down on the swivel chair. I
Athena had arrived.
Twirling herself on the soft swivel chair, the black haired woman sighed.
"Sorry I'm late, young Unlocked.
We have gotten information from Protector Base, that the entire academy will be embarking on an expedition tomorrow.
The three of you were originally supposed to be split into two groups, but since baldie called in sick this morning, you will be put in a three man group.
There won't be any classes today, so go over to the main hall, there you will pick a location, pack whatever you need, and be on your way.
The rules of the expedition would be given to you when you get to the hall."
Having nothing to do, Tai idled about a bit, went over the process of runic sorcery in his head, and went down for lunch in the afternoon.
Ignoring the undying chant of "empty walking back pack" that most students called after him, the red haired teenager settled down for a nice lunch.
However before he could take a bite, a figure appeared behind him.
Tai tensed, thinking it was the Cultivator III summoning student that had 'talked' with him the other day, but instead felt a soft palm on his shoulder.
"Mind if I sit here?"
It was Nikolah, the ice queen.
Many boys scowled at him in obvious displeasure, but Tai did not mind.
Smiling lightly, the red haired teenager shrugged.
"Be my guest."
The two ate in silence for a while, until Nikolah suddenly spoke.
"We have already chosen the location of our expedition, you know."
Tai took a bite of his food as he mumbled.
"Mmnhmmn?'
He wanted to know where they had chosen.
The blue haired teenage girl shifted a few strands of hair covering her face and looked the Tai in the eye.
"We're going to Black Nest Island, home to the Covetous Raven."
This made the red haired teenager drop the turkey leg he had been munching on.
"The...Covetous... Raven?"
***
The Covetous Raven was something called an Immortal beast.
It had been in existence since before the creation of death, thus it could not succumb to old age or injuries.
People were usually warned from birth to always avoid the Black Nest Island, as that was where the gargantuan creature had created it's home.
Ships that ventured past the island never returned and there was no life with a sixteen kilometer range from it's nest.
Getting there was hard as it was millions of kilometers higher than every other island, and returning was much harder as the beast could easily end any huge empire all by itself.
It was truly a death trap in more ways than one.
***
Tai coughed.
"Excuse me, but are you crazy?!!
You want to go to a place where death is more than certain?
Do you have a freaking death wish?!
That's one of the top ten most dangerous places to go!"
Nikolah's face dropped into a frown.
She had expected him to be excited, at least.
"I don't have a death wish.
I just realized that the Nest of the Covetous Raven would give us the most contribution points during the expedition.
Then we would win."
The blue haired Ice goddess wanted nothing but to pass the expedition with the highest score possible.