Nick frowned at Clide's remark and quickly responded:
"I hope you're not about to do something stupid Mr. Clide."
Clide thought for a moment:
(Although his display against those monkeys was impressive, those were just magic beasts while we have eight rank 2 Apprentice Magicians on our side. He can't possibly think that he can overcome all of us.)
Clide spoke sternly:
"Don't spout nonsense. My friend here would like that magic wand and since you interfered in our fight to begin with, you should be happy to trade it with us, even if you don't want the potions. If you don't agree with my words, I'll have no choice but to 'convince' you."
Lissan looked at the scene ambivalently, knowing that Clide's words were wrong but since she really did want the wand, she chose to say nothing and see how things would play out.
Nick turned to Clide and replied to him in the simplest way possible:
(Soul Pressure.)
All eight students felt a formless pressure wash over them, inhibiting their movements and ruining their concentration. Clide could barely move his mouth to say a few words as blood oozed from his nose:
"Th..think...carefully...about...what...you're...doing."
Nick sneered and flicked his right index finger.
(Sever.)
Clide's vision suddenly turned to black as his head was separated from his body and flew into the air but strangely enough, as soon as that happened, Clide's entire being turned into specks of white light and disappeared. Nick raised his right eyebrow in slight surprise.
(Is that the effect of the never ending battlefield?)
Slade answered:
[Most likely. It seems that the moment someone is struck with a fatal blow, they are transported somewhere else.]
Nick was glad to confirm the consequences of killing someone even though he did not intend for this to happen. He cancelled Soul Pressure and walked away from the group. The other students felt relieved that the pressure on them had been lifted but looked at Nick with some fear and hatred. Sean spoke to Lissan quickly while wiping blood from his nostrils and lips:
"He just killed Clide, are we going to let him go?"
Lissan spoke with a bitter expression while turning towards the opposite direction of Nick:
"Go seek your own death if you want to, I am returning to Shelter Town to regroup with Clide."
Sean frowned at Lissan's response and turned his attention to his other companions, looking for support. They shook their heads and followed behind Lissan; Sean gritted his teeth and also left for Shelter Town after giving Nick's receding figure a hate-filled glance.
Nick ran deeper into the woodland with a clear mind, he had already firmed up his resolve.
(If anyone shows me malice, I will return it in kind while I am in the wilderness. This is not a place to be lenient with others.)
Slade spoke at this time:
[It's good that you realize that, but then, why did you not slaughter the entire group?]
Nick was momentarily stumped by the question.
(Why didn't I?...I guess I just didn't think of doing that because only Clide aggravated me and the rest of them seemed weak to me.)
Slade responded in disappointment:
[That half measure that you just performed was weak. Listen, if you're going to do something, go all the way; you are not allowed to be half-hearted during this exam. If you can kill one, kill one, if you can kill two, kill two. Don't let future problems walk around freely; when dealing with adversaries, destroy them totally or you are breeding your own destruction. The moment that that fool made his final remark, they had all become your adversaries; there are no mere spectators out here.]
Nick felt that Slade was right and adjusted his mindset so that he would not make the same mistake in the future. Nick soon came upon another group of baboon like magic beasts and cast Soul Pressure and made use of Sever multiple times to kill them quickly, collecting their carcasses afterwards. For the next few hours up until sundown, Nick encountered the same ape and baboon like magic beasts and killed as much as he could, sometimes using Clear Space to flee when their numbers were too great.
When it became sundown, Nick found a small clearing in the woods and tapped his space band and willed for a steel container that was 6 x 12 x 6 meters in dimensions to appear within the clearing. The container had a silver, chrome colored exterior with one entrance and a few concealed vents; Its walls were reinforced with magically treated steel and had cameras and motion sensors on the exterior. Nick had considered that he would be spending some time in the wilderness after Varrow told him about the realm and quickly bought one of these portable safe-houses for £100,000,000 with the help of Carla's connections; this small container actually cost more than his commercial building which was probably to be expected since it was made out of highly resistant magically treated metals.
With this, he would not have to sleep out in the open and this safe-house also emitted smells and subtle sounds into the surroundings that deterred magic beasts like how a skunk's stink spray deterred other animals. Nick had fully realized the value of having money to burn while he was attending Richter Order Academy. Nick entered the safe house and immediately went to take a shower, after which, he had a meal of roasted chicken and fried dumplings. Nick had ordered a lot of food in preparation for the exam and stored them within the space band; high-end space bands could keep food and other organic materials from going bad indefinitely so food and water would not be a problem for a while.
Nick summoned his new high-end laptop and read a math text that he had stored on it as well as a book on magic beasts that he had copied from the library. When he was finished reading those books, Nick studied his soul, space, and blade path inheritances for an hour each before finally meditating and then going to sleep on a small bed in the corner of the safe-house. Nick had an alarm near the bed and set it to wake him up in a few hours.
********************************
RING RING RING
Nick woke up and brushed his teeth and took a shower, after which, he had a breakfast of cinnamon porridge and scrambled eggs with orange juice. When he was done, Nick left the safe-house and stored it within his space band once again.
(Being rich really makes things convenient.)
Slade remarked:
[Sigh, kid, when I was your age, I was homeless and lived out in fields where I had nothing but weeds to eat while I practised magic. Comparisons are really odious.]
Nick shrugged his shoulders and moved in a random direction since he was unfamiliar with the area. The time was just before sunrise which left the woodland a little dim but the feint dimness did not hamper Nick's vision. Soon, Nick came upon the foot of a cliff that was the beginning of a rock wall that was at least forty meters high. Nick thought for a moment on whether he should turn back but after looking at a nearby tree, he thought of a plan quickly. Nick climbed the tree that was only about four meters high and sat on one of its thick branches; he placed his left palm onto the tree's trunk and cast his spell:
(Big.)
The effects of Big allowed Nick to increase the dimensions of an object depending on the magic energy that he invested in casting the spell. Nick poured 9,000 magical units into activating and maintaining the spell while the tree that he was resting on rose into the air until Nick's position was slightly above the edge of the cliff. Nick cast Big on the thick branch that he was sitting on to create a bridge towards the cliff and jumped down to the ground once he was within a safe distance above the ground.
Nick then turned towards the tree and and traced a horizontal line with his right index finger, casting:
(Sever.)
The tree was suddenly cut apart at about twenty meters above the ground and its upper half fell to the ground with a loud crash. Nick had learnt from the mistake of the first baboon magic beast that he killed.
(Wouldn't want someone or something following me up here via that tree.)
Nick looked at the terrain leading away from the cliff and saw nothing but an expanse of grassland with very few trees. Nick breathed in deeply and started running away from the cliff's edge towards the expanse.
(This is the most free I've felt in a long time.)
Nick was on the move for about two hours when he finally met the next magic beast while it was devouring the carcass of a horse like magic beast. The magic beast looked like an adult grizzly bear but had long iron like claws and teeth and its eyes also radiated a silver glow. Since there were no trees to provide cover, the bear magic beast quickly noticed Nick and stopped eating its meal. It snarled menacingly and ran towards Nick on all fours; Nick quickly took out his sword from his space band and unsheathed it, storing the sheath afterwards. Nick ran towards the magic beast and swung his sword from his left side to his right and cast:
(Cleave.)
A sharp, formless power emerged from Nick's sword and bit into the bear but the attack only created a shallow cut on the bear's left shoulder and side which visibly healed within a few seconds. Slade spoke:
[The is a metal path magic beast that has decent defense and regenerative abilities, be careful.]
Nick nodded and cast two more spells:
(Reinforce With Soul.)
(Soul Pressure.)
The magic beast's movements slowed and it bled from its nose but still continued charging towards Nick. Nick lunged at the bear while holding his reinforced sword with both hands and attacked with movements from the Menacing Crane sword technique. Nick soon realized that the magic beast's defense was incredible and it was also quick, so much so that it almost impaled Nick with its claws a few times but Nick had always cast Blink just in time to dodge a fatal blow. As the battle went on for ten minutes, Nick found himself covered with a few superficial cuts and bruises.
Nick got behind the bear and swung his sword:
(Sever.)
The attack cut into the magic beast's right hind leg and Nick noticed that this wound was taking an unusual amount of time to heal. Slade remarked:
[Since this magic beast is covered with metal path laws, it has some resistance to blade path attacks but rule path appears to be another story, hurry up and finish this.]
Nick's eyes became a complete pitch black as he cast two spells in quick succession:
(Sou Pulse.)
(Sever.)
Nick swung his blade onto the bear's side and with the power of Sever as well as the impactful and disorienting effect of Soul Pulse, Nick was able to injure the magic beast heavily, slowing its movements temporarily to a crawl and leaving a deep wound on its left side. Nick got in close and grabbed the magic beast's midsection, near to the wound with his left hand and poured his magic power into the bear:
(Big.)
Before the bear could retaliate, its midsection begun to bloat and it spit out a few mouthfuls of blood before it fell to the ground, lifeless; the magic beast had died from the internal bleeding that resulted from Nick enlarging some of its internal organs. Nick thought:
(This bear was strong, I think that it would make a great meal.)
Nick summoned a magically strengthened cleaving knife from his space band and started hacking at the magic beast's paws. Nick was planning to cook the magic beast's four paws and wanted to avoid eating its internal organs since many of them would have been affected by Big. After cutting off the beast's four paws, Nick summoned a basin and a large jug of water as well as a few spices and after cleaning his hands, Nick started cleaning the paws and seasoning them with salt and other spices as well as specially prepared flour. He then summoned a battery powered fryer and threw the bear's paws into it upon which the sound of frying flesh could be heard.
Twenty minutes later, Nick turned off the fryer, stored the fried paws within a bowl and returned the fryer to his space band. Nick continued walking on while chewing on the fried magic beast paws which filled him with a rush of energy after he cast Growth; they were tender and succulent.
(I know that I'm not a great cook but these came out awesome.)
Nick walked slowly while having his meal, and used the time to carefully observe the surroundings. There wasn't much magic beasts around for some reason but that could be explained by the presence of the bear magic beast.
(It might have been the apex predator in this area, thus other magic beasts might be avoiding my current location. I have to go further.)
Nick threw away the left over bones from his meal and ran forward until he saw some smoke in the distance. Nick stopped and looked at the rising gray smoke and thought:
(Where there's fire, there's smoke. Should I go towards it?)
Nick quickly shook off his hesitation and headed towards the direction where the smoke was coming from. Moving towards the smoke, Nick realized that there were a fair amount of magic beast carcasses to be found on the ground, some of which looked like dogs, wolves, horses, lizards and pumas. Nick ignored the carcasses and continued moving. Soon, he came upon a group of tents that were surrounding a large fire where meat was being cooked by a group of people. There was no cover in the grassland so what was going on in the settlement could be easily seen, but in turn, the people there soon noticed Nick.
A group of four Magicians ran out to meet him, at which point Nick saw the Raylam Priest Academy's emblems pinned to their chests.
(More students from Raylam Priest Academy. I hope that these people have better sense than Clide did.)
One of the four people that ran out to meet Nick was a thin young man wearing a pair of blue jeans and a zipped up leather jacket; the young man had a white complexion and spoke to Nick mildly:
"Friend, my name is Nate Barlow and I am a student of Raylam Priest Academy. Do you mind introducing yourself?"
Nick felt no need to be standoffish and replied:
"I am Nick Capitol of Richter Order Academy. What are you all doing here?"
Nate looked at his companions and they nodded their heads at each other, seeming to signal that telling Nick their intentions would be fine. Nate spoke warmly:
"We are a group of twenty six rank 2 Magicians and some of our scouts found an underground passage filled with peppermint crystals and we are planning to raid it tonight, would you like to join us?"
Nick raised both of his eyebrows upon hearing their reply. Nick knew what peppermint crystals were from reading books and knew that they could be used in creating high level healing potions so they were well sought after and valuable.
(Why are they inviting me? If there are benefits to be gained, they should want to keep it for themselves.)
Nick frowned and asked:
"What's the catch?"
Nate smiled bitterly and replied:
"Well Nick, the cave also happens to be filled with goblins of rank 1 and rank 2 strength and there is even a mutant rank 2 goblin that can cast spells so we need as much help as possible to raid the underground passage."
Nick thought:
(Now I see, goblins. Normally, an individual goblin is not even worth considering but when in a large group, they are a terrifying threat because of their innate human like intelligence. They want we to go into an enclosed space with those things running around? Hell no.)
Nick shook his head and responded:
"No thanks, that seems like more trouble than it's worth."
Nate's smile turned even more bitter and he said:
"You see...a few of our people were actually captured by those goblins when they were exploring the passage and we would like to get them back so we are willing to pay you for your assistance."
Nick thought for a moment before asking:
"Do you have any swords made of magic materials?"
Nate scratched his head as he thought and realizing something, he replied:
"Our group's leader should have some of those. Are you saying that you want one as payment?"
Nick answered:
"Yes, that is what I am saying."
Nick has grown very interested in swords since he began using his in real combat and would like to obtain additional ones for the purpose of study but the exam arrived too soon and he was not able to purchase any because of the lengthy process in buying one, regulated by the Ministry of Magic.
Nate nodded and said:
"Come with me to our camp and meet our leader, only he can agree to your request."
Nate and his three companions turned and moved hastily towards their camp and Nick followed closely behind them, keeping up with their pace. Soon, they came to a large fire where nearly two dozen students were conversing with each other and eating. At a wooden round table, near the fire, a young man was standing as he spoke to a group of six other people sitting around the table.
The young man noticed Nate's arrival with an unfamiliar guest and stared indifferently while directing a question at Nate:
"Nate, who is this?"
Before Nate could answer, the young man looked Nick squarely in the eyes which caused Nick to feel a sense of alarm. Slade said quickly:
[Kid, this young man is using a wisdom path method on you. While I am helping you to resist it since it is a fairly simple method you need to strike back to get him to stop.]
Nick internally sneered and cast a spell and his already scary looking black-red eyes shone with an ominous silver light; Nate noticed the weird interaction going on between Nick and the group leader and chose to stay quiet.
(Ghost Eyes.)
Nick's and the young man's soul suddenly wound up in a mystical confrontation and after a few moments, the result of the confrontation became clear. The young man's expression transformed from indifferent to bitter as he coughed out a mouthful of blood and bled from his nostrils. Nick spoke with unhidden displeasure:
"I am Nick Capitol of Richter Order Academy!"
Everyone in the camp paused what they were doing and watched the scene warily, their mood becoming grim. Nate sighed, not expecting such a bad start to the meeting but he ignored the awkwardness and quickly introduced Nick before the other students got up in arms.
"Mike, this is Nick Capitol and I am trying to convince him to join us in the raid tonight but he says that he wants a sword made of magic materials in return..."
Nick suddenly interrupted, holding up three fingers:
"Based on that idiocy just a moment ago, now I actually want three of such swords or you can all go screw yourselves."
Nate smiled bitterly and looked at their leader, Mike, asking:
"What do you think?"
Mike looked at Nick while wiping blood from his lips with his right hand and then spoke with a slightly less indifferent tone:
"Three swords made of magic materials, right? Yeah, I have those and are keeping them in our communal space band. Nick, was it? If you join us and actively contribute to a successful raid, you can have the swords."
Nick nodded his head, signalling that they had a deal. He then said:
"Show me the location of the passage then."
Nate motioned one of his female companions to show Nick the way and after they both walked into the distance, Nate said to Mike grudgingly:
"What the hell Mike, why would you suddenly attack someone that I led here?"
Mike shrugged his shoulders and rubbed is black, slick styled hair, replying:
"I assumed that you brought him here as help but if he was a useless bum, I didn't even want to talk to him since he was not from our academy."
Nate opened his eyes wide as he looked at Mike and asked:
"Are you serious?"
A fit of laughter then sounded from one of the women at the table. She had a white complexion, blue eyes and long, curly, blonde hair; she answered for Mike:
"Yup, he is serious and I'd have to agree with his tactics. At least we now know that we have gained an interesting team member."
Nate shook his head and responded:
"Mike, Erica, you're both crazy."
Mike responded indifferently:
"Hmph, he just has a few skills. When he comes back, we will discuss things."
*****************************
Nick walked behind the blonde young woman that was showing him the way to the entrance to the underground passage. The young woman was a head shorter than Nick and wore a pair of dark blue jeans, combat boots, a grey t-shirt and a denim jacket. Nick thought that she seemed fairly athletic and pretty but he quickly got rid of those thoughts and took note of the route to the passage.
(We've walked about fourteen meters away from the camp so far and I've seen no other humans or magic beasts? I think that's a little weird but maybe I'm just paranoid...)
The young woman suddenly spoke lively, disrupting Nick's thoughts:
"My name is Clarissa, by the way. That standoff that you had with Mike was so cool. I bet he didn't expect you to counter him so well. What kind of spell did you use against his Penetrating Wisdom."
Nick thought for a moment before answering the young woman:
"A soul path spell."
The young woman nodded in understanding and turned around to face Nick while walking backwards, responding:
"That make sense, soul path is a great counter to wisdom path. Wisdom path Magicians are kind of rare so the other students treat Mike with a lot of respect but in my opinion, he's a little reckless."
Nick stayed quiet and Clarissa turned around to walk forward once again, both of them remaining silent. Five minutes later, Nick and Clarissa arrived at the site of a bricked opening in the ground that appeared to be the beginning of a stair case. Nick thought:
(How convenient.)
Clarissa pointed to the underground entrance and said with firm resolve in her eyes:
"We have to save our academy-mates from those goblins."