Before he could do anything, Ralth's ears filled with a deafening buzz, and the scenery in front of him turned into an abstract painting with countless blocks of color mixed together. The effect was intensely disorienting, making him dizzy and nauseous.
"I've been teleported again?" Ralth complained to no one, as the world continued to twist and turn around him. A big feeling of nausea brought by the dizziness rushed into his throat, and he fought to keep his breakfast down in his stomach.
After about three or four seconds that felt much longer, the scenery in front of Ralth began to recover its normal appearance.
The swirling colors settled into recognizable shapes, and a lush primeval forest came into his sight. Tall trees with trunks wider than he could wrap his arms around stretched up to a canopy so dense that only patches of sunlight filtered through. The ground was covered in ferns and moss, and the air smelled of damp earth and green growing things.
Ralth leaned against the nearest tree with its bark rough against his back and spat out two mouthfuls of sour water. The feeling of teleportation was really unpleasant and left him disoriented and weak-kneed.
"I was misled, who knew he'd randomly teleport me away" he muttered after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. " Now I can only hope that Charlotte and the others are safe and end up passing the exam."
He looked around just for confirmation - Charlotte and the others were indeed nowhere to be seen. The teleportation had brought him someplace else. He was alone now, and so were the others.
As his eyes adjusted to the dappled light of the forest, Ralth saw beams of bright light rising into the sky in the distance, piercing through the canopy and reaching up as far as the eye could see. The dazzling light was clearly visible even in daytime, serving as a beacon.
The location of these light pillars was where the apprentices needed to arrive within fourteen days, the final goal of this phase of the examination. Those who made it there would proceed; those who didn't would be left behind - or worse.
Ralth tied the belt full of test tubes around his waist, checking that the glass containers were secure. Then, without wasting any time on further reflection or regret, he immediately headed towards the direction of the light column, pushing through the undergrowth with determined steps.
The rules of the academy required apprentices to arrive at the designated location within fourteen days, which meant that arriving early should be allowed and might even be advantageous. The sooner the exam ends, the sooner one will be safe. Ralth knew this without having to think about it.
As he walked, he kept his senses alert for any sign of danger - the rustle of movement that might indicate another apprentice or a monster, the smell of smoke that might suggest a camp, the sounds of combat that would warn him to either approach cautiously or avoid the area entirely.
After the teleportation of thousands of apprentices, almost all of them had immediately began to act, spreading through the ancient woods like ants disturbed in their hill.
These apprentices varied greatly in strength and skill. There were knights with their physical training and combat experience, formal magus apprentices with their spells and magical knowledge, and many others with various abilities and backgrounds. They all showed their magical powers or martial skills as they moved, and all headed towards the pillar of light rising into the sky, though by many different paths and strategies.
Some moved quickly and openly, confident in their ability to overcome any challenge. Others crept cautiously, hiding their presence, hoping to avoid conflict. Small alliances formed and broke as apprentices met, assessed each other, and decided whether to cooperate or compete.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Rayleigh struggled through the dense undergrowth, cursing with every step. As a gifted knight's squire, his strong physique and the magus's potion had allowed him to get out of bed and move around soon after he was injured on the airship. This combination had also allowed him to survive the fall.But tragically, as the potion wore off, he began to suffer endless pain in his crotch all day, a burning, throbbing reminder of his humiliation.
The pain seemed to be constantly reminding him that he was no longer a man, that he had been unmanned in the most humiliating way possible.
"Asshole, Bastard, when I learn magic, I will kill you and chop you into pieces," a somewhat exhausted Rayleigh leaned against a big tree and cursed loudly, his voice echoing through the trees and scaring a flock of birds into flight.
His eyes were bloodshot and he gnashed his teeth so hard they might crack. Hatred was like a hallucinogen, paralyzing his nerves and causing him to hallucinate vivid scenes of revenge. He imagined capturing Ralth, torturing him slowly, making him beg for mercy that would never come.
For example, in his current state of rage and pain, he actually thought he saw the figure that made him unable to be a man emerge from the woods just ahead of him. A cruel trick of his mind, surely.
But then the figure spoke, and the voice was horribly, unmistakably familiar.
"Oh, I met an acquaintance. Now I know where another crystal is."
The figure seemed surprised to see him, stepping out from behind a large fern. He raised his arm, and Rayleigh saw the blue light again, forming at the fingertips of the person who had destroyed his life.
Damn, his blue light!
This wasn't an illusion!
He really had met that bastard!
A fierce fear surged from Rayleigh's heart, washing away all thoughts of revenge and replacing them with pure terror. He turned around and tried to run away, stumbling over roots and stones in his haste.
Although he kept cursing Ralth during his recovery, he had been awakened by nightmares of Ralth and his blue light every night after being injured. In his dreams, the blue light came again and again, and he could do nothing to stop it.
Ralth had almost become his nightmare.
Now, the nightmare had become reality.
BANG!
After his previous experiences, Ralth did not hold back or hesitate. The magic missile flew out from his fingertips with deadly accuracy, leaving a trail of blue light in the air as it crossed the short distance between them. It drew a straight line like a shooting star, and then landed with terrible precision on the back of Rayleigh's head as he attempted to flee.
Then Ralth saw the result of his spell - Rayleigh's entire back of his head was sunken in, caved like a rotten melon, and red and white matter was splattered all around on the leaves and tree trunk. The body fell forward, twitched once, and was then went still.
"Hmm!"
Ralth couldn't help retching as he looked at the corpse, the death was just that brutal. The smell of blood and worse things filled his nostrils.
Although Ralth was not afraid, the strong smell of blood and the sight of the destroyed head was a bit choking, overwhelming to the senses. It was an abnormally brutal death.
After retching for a while, emptying his stomach onto the forest floor, Ralth wiped his mouth and approached the body cautiously. The kill was done; now came the practical matter of survival. He stepped forward and took down Rayleigh's crystal ball and the nutritional potion on his body, quickly adding them to his own supplies.
With these things, he could easily focus on his journey with less worry about resources he had. The crystal ball would help him detect dangers ahead, and the extra potions might mean the difference between life and death if he was gravely injured.
After taking these obvious items, Ralth searched Rayleigh's pockets again, his hands moving quickly and methodically through the dead man's clothing. While groping through a hidden pocket, Ralth's fingers touched something hard and cold.
He pulled it out and found a black diamond-shaped crystal, easily about the size of a small egg.
In this crystal, Ralth actually sensed an extremely strong magical power, like a storm contained in glass. It pulsed was filled with energy, seeming to resonate with his own magic power.
"Is this... a magic stone?" Ralth whispered, turning the crystal in his hands, watching how it caught the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves overhead. If it was what he thought, it was worth more than everything else he had found combined - worth killing for, certainly.
He quickly pocketed the crystal and stood up, taking one last look at Rayleigh's body before turning away. He didn't feel any remorse about killing hin not even satisfaction. It was just one more obstacle removed, one step closer to the light pillar, one step closer to survival.
The forest around him was silent. It was just another death in the long history of the Great Tower's examinations.