Rian didn’t quite get the best sleep, evidently by the large shadows underneath his eyes.
He had spent the entire night thinking about the mirror and how the original disaster even happened in the first place.
The entire purpose of the examination was to hunt monsters and retrieve their cores. By the second night, every group should have accumulated enough of them to power the mirror again.
All they needed to do was insert a replacement core into the receiving chamber. Yet when the camp was overrun in the original novel, not a single usable core remained.
’Still, with so many cores available, how could someone steal them and be able to get away with it?’
Well, Rian hadn’t exactly focused on how much mana each teleportation would’ve consumed. Though he knew it probably was a lot, so no ordinary number 1 or 2-Star mana core would’ve been enough, especially the amount they could scavenge in only three days...
"Did you manage to sleep at all?" Julius asked from the top bunk, reading a book. "You look horrible..."
Rian sighed, tossing and turning until eventually he decided that he couldn’t sleep regardless and swung his feet over the side. "I slept perfectly fine."
"You look like you died and came back."
"That’s just my face."
Julius wisely decided not to continue.
By the time the four members of Group Thirteen finished preparing, the other candidates had already gathered near whatever gate they wished to depart from.
The group that had been beside their tent, who were originally also planning to go to the western side, immediately turned tail when they saw Rian approach.
’Lucky us.’
Rian shrugged and looked to the side, only to see another team had decided to contest Orion’s northern path.
Instructor Klein stood above the entrance, dressed in his armor once again. Thankfully, there wasn’t a single pinstripe in sight.
"The examination will begin the moment these gates open!" he announced. "Your bracelets contain a map leading back to camp. If you become lost despite that, then perhaps Eidelgard Academy was never meant for you!"
’Sheesh...way to motivate someone.’
Several students checked their equipment one last time. "Remember that the barrier does not extend beyond the walls. Once you leave, we will only intervene if you activate your emergency signal."
Instructor Klein raised a hand, allowing the wooden gates to be slowly opened, and revealing endless rows of gravestones half-hidden behind a curtain of gray morning fog.
"Try not to join the residents."
And with that, all four groups moved at once.
Orion and his companions instantly set off to the northern path, heading toward the mausoleum district exactly as Marie reported he would.
Rian watched them disappear into the fog before turning west. "Looks like your spying worked."
Marie smiled proudly. "I told you I would be good at this. You should listen to people from the boonies more often."
"Don’t get carried away. You objected to this in the beginning."
The four of them passed through the Western Gate, following the narrow trail leading away from Base Camp D.
Several minutes later, the rows of gravestones gradually disappeared beneath a dense collection of blackened trees.
[Western Region — The Dead Woods]
Despite it being morning, very little sunlight managed to penetrate the cloud layers overhead. What little passed through painted the forest in a pale gray-blue color, just bright enough for them to see the path ahead.
Cyan-tinted mist gathered between exposed roots and old burial trenches. Occasionally, Rian spotted something pale between the distant trees, only for it to disappear whenever he tried to look.
Maybe they were some kind of wandering spirit that wanted to scare them away, but well, it could’ve been his imagination.
Yet for some reason, Rian felt a bit out of it today, probably because he was busy using all his brainpower to observe Eliza.
The artificer had been rummaging through her soot-covered bag ever since they left camp, pulling out several mechanical parts and fitting them together as she walked.
’She definitely has the knowledge, that’s for sure.’
"Found it!"
The pink-haired girl suddenly pulled out a small brass device resembling a compass. Several needles rested under its glass surface, while four thin antennae extended from its sides.
She twisted the crystal embedded in its center, and a few seconds later, the needles began spinning.
"What is that?" Julius asked.
"I dunno, I don’t have a name for it yet," Eliza shrugged. "It’s just a device that’s able to sense the small mana pulses that originate from monster cores. It should be able to help us pinpoint which direction they’re coming from."
Rian glanced at the device, but the more he did, the stronger his suspicions grew. Still, it was stupid to decide only based on surface-level understanding, so he decided to say nothing and continue on.
But just as he did, the ground under his feet exploded.
"Rian, get away from there!"
A skeletal creature launched itself from under the soil. Fragments of its rotten flesh were still visible, and a kind of blue-white fire burned within its empty eye sockets.
But just as its axe was about to reach Rian’s exposed leg, a translucent barrier appeared between them, stopping the attack in motion.
〈Ars Aegis〉
CLANG—!
Cracks spread across the surface, but the barrier held firm.
Rian stumbled backward while the creature clawed furiously at the obstruction between them. Julius stood several steps behind him with one hand extended.
Colorless mana swirled around his fingers, continuously repairing the cracks that were spreading across the barrier.
"Are you hurt?" Julius asked.
"No."
Rian stared at the shield, and a distant memory suddenly came back to him.
Julius had once mentioned to Rian while he was bedsick, that he had no affinity at all. Despite lacking an affinity, the barrier was remarkably dense.
Most affinity-less mages struggled because they couldn’t give their mana any special property, but surprisingly, Julius seemed to never have given up, instead being able to turn that detriment into his greatest strength.
Still, they weren’t out of the clear yet.
"T—There are two more!" Eliza called out while looking at her tracker.
A nearby burial mound erupted simultaneously, as another flesh-clung limb pulled itself out from under the grave, shaking loose the soil trapped between its ribs.
But instead of looking like the corpse of a normal soldier, this one still had loose patches of fabric that once belonged to a robe, indicating only one thing:
"...Undead Mages."
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