"Are you certain?" Samuel asked.
"Yes, they took on a mission to hunt a Night Raptor." The one talking was Samuel's roommate and subordinate, Greg, who decided to serve him. After all, Samuel was a noble and a Grade Six.
"Get ready to depart. I've been waiting for this moment." Samuel was gleeful as he envisioned Oscar and Frederick's horrified faces.
At the same time, Oscar and his two companions gathered at the gate leading outside. Each had a bag containing supplies and other necessities for the journey.
"If only I could have a space pocket." Frederick complained.
A space pocket is an item that can contain many objects maintaining the size of a fist. It was a marvel for long journeys but also extremely expensive.
"Just get 1,000,000 contribution points, and you can get one." Oscar jokingly said. 1,000,000 contribution points? Their mission now only gave 1000 points, and they had to split it. It was quite a lofty goal.
"Quit your whining and carry your things." Emily snorted at Frederick's behavior. She was beginning to think this collaboration was a mistake. But she already shook on the deal, so she could only endure.
"Let's go!" Oscar shouted to interrupt Frederick before he could start another argument. A few moments before, Frederick and Emily had argued multiple times, draining Oscar's patience.
'Are we going to be fine?' Oscar groaned in his mind.
Outside, Oscar stared back at the large walls of the Blue Ocean Pavilion. It had been six months since he arrived, and now he was off to the wilderness. He calmed down his nerves with a deep breath.
"The Glenwoods are a day's walk from here." Emily declared herself the leader earlier, so she instructed the two boys.
They set out north, where the Glenwoods were located. They were Apprentice Exalts and utilized their speed to hasten the journey. Oscar kept glancing around his surroundings, drawing Emily's attention.
"What are you looking for?" Emily asked.
Oscar was still running but replied, "I'm making sure no one is following us."
"Following us? Who would follow us?" Emily was confused. She thought Oscar was being too paranoid. However, she understood Oscar was intelligent from their conversations and gave him the benefit of the doubt.
"I'll tell you when we rest."
They continued their run until the two suns had begun to set. In the distance, Oscar could see the borders of the Glenwoods, a vast forest containing many Exalt Beasts and herbs.
They could also find various plants to hand in for more contribution points if they were lucky. But all of that would have to wait for tomorrow.
"We can't go into the forest at night, especially since our prey is the Night Raptor. The night is its prime time." Emily sat down to rest. Even as Exalts, they were liable to exhaustion.
"Get a fire started." Emily relegated the two of them to menial tasks.
"Hope your eyebrows burn off." Frederick grumbled his wish as he started the fire. Emily shot up with her fists clenched.
"I'll throw you deep into the forest. Let's see you survive." She threatened Frederick.
Frederick grunted and ignored her threats. He was tired of arguing with this ferocious and beastly girl. He reminded himself never to interact with this girl again. Adorable and sweet were the best qualities.
"Were you thinking of something insulting?" Emily's orange eyes gleamed like a predator eyeing helpless prey.
"N-No!" Frederick quickly waved his hands in protest. Was she a mind reader? How could she have known he thought of her like a beast?
"Enough squabbling." Oscar rubbed his temple in resignation. He was tired after all the running and constant double-checking of his surroundings.
"I almost forgot. Why were you so cautious along the way?" Emily understood being on guard during a mission, but Oscar was beyond normal.
Oscar gulped down a bottle of water he packed before responding, "I'm thinking of Samuel."
"Samuel?" Frederick and Emily spoke at the same time.
"He's someone that Fred and I always had a conflict with. He tried to bully us into accepting a duel with him, but we always rejected." Oscar explained to Emily about Samuel's actions since the trial and his boasting. Slowly, Emily's face grew angrier, making Frederick scoot away.
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"Scumbag. I'd beat every inch of his body and leave him for the wolves." Emily's words made the two tremble in fear.
"If he's like that, why not just beat him up?".
"We need to be stronger. He's a Middle Apprentice Exalt, so we took this mission to obtain more resources." Frederick answered this time. Although he tried to avoid this girl, he hated Samuel more.
"That's the correct choice. Wait your time and fight on your terms. It's just like hunting." Emily valued strength but not idiocy.
"You hunt?" Oscar asked.
"I'm from the mountainous region of the south. My family makes their living as hunters. My dad is a Middle Apprentice Exalt, so he taught me a few things." Emily talked about her family and that her dad was a dropout of the Blue Ocean Pavilion. He was so happy to discover Emily had Grade Six Exolsia.
The atmosphere lightened up as they shared their family histories and tales of their past. Emily looked on in disgust when Frederick said he was a noble. What kind of noble behaved in such a shameful manner?
The trio laughed and argued as the night covered the sky. They set up their spots for sleep and slept the night away.
Back at the Blue Ocean Pavilion, a group of three students made their way toward the Glenwoods. It was Samuel and two of his men.
"They should be sleeping right now. We'll catch up and find them in the Glenwoods. Take the Night Raptor and kill them." Samuel instructed his men with an icy tone.
"The Blue Ocean Pavilion won't care if the two of you disappear." His eyes glinted coldly in the night.
At the break of dawn, Oscar yawned and stared at the Glenwoods. It reminded him of the forest back home. The forest was laden with green lights as the early sunlight beat down upon it.
It was a beautiful sight, and Oscar stared at it for a while.
'I should meditate.' Oscar closed his eyes and entered Ein meditation.
It was pointless to count the wisps of ein he could collect now, but his core was still slow in integrating it.
'If others work for four hours, I must do eight.' Oscar often started early in the morning and slept late at night. In his path, he could not be lax.
"Morning, Os." Frederick also woke up. He had been affected by Oscar's many early morning outings, so he developed a tendency to wake up early as well. Not as early as Oscar, but still in the middle of dawn.
They packed up when Emily woke up and set out for the Glenwoods. The trees reached wide with their branches and intertwined. Only a few patches of light were able to get in to illuminate their surroundings dimly.
There was no mystery as to why the Night Raptors made their home here; there were still many dark places to lurk during the day. Oscar looked at Frederick, who nodded.
"I'll scout the area." Frederick summoned his green hawk anima. It flew away deeper into the forest while the trio walked slowly.
"A hawk anima. No wonder you were confident in your scouting. I thought you were excessively boasting." Emily was impressed. A beast anima shared vision and hearing with their wielders. Frederick's hawk anima was one of the best for scout and observation.
"Hmph, so you know not to run your loud mouth too much." Frederick's eyes were closed, so he grabbed Oscar's shoulder firmly to move. He was not at the level of being able to watch where he was going while peering through his hawk's eyes.
Frederick's brow was full of sweat from manifesting his anima for too long. But he continued searching. Emily was about to complain about the lack of progress but stopped after seeing Frederick's perseverance; she was not one to put a person down while they were trying their best.
Frederick moved his hawk, gliding it between trees while checking the area. He was almost at his limit until he spotted something. He canceled his Anima and opened his reddened eyes.
"I got something. Follow me." Frederick let go of Oscar and jumped forward. Oscar and Emily followed after him until he stopped at a corpse.
Oscar nearly gagged from the stench but held it in. He saw the rotting corpse of a creature covered in flies. There was a pool of blood around it.
"It's not that old; the blood is not fully dried. I would say it was killed last night." Emily inspected the corpse. Her instincts and knowledge as a hunter were starting to show. She traced the wounds that were inflicted. "Sharp claws, three parallel cuts, and a large chunk of it ripped apart by jagged teeth."
"Sounds close to our hunt." Frederick was catching a breather as Oscar and Emily analyzed the corpse.
"It could not carry the entire corpse, so it decided to be practical. Emily, do you see any tracks?" Oscar read that animals sometimes give up their kill or only take parts of it if necessary.
Emily paced around the corpse, then spotted a smooth groove in the dirt. She saw the outlines of claws leading away into the forest.
"This way." Emily strode in the direction of the tracks. She spotted an indent here or rustled grass there. Oscar was amazed at how fast she was able to navigate through the forest.
Eventually, they spotted a ravine with various caverns. Emily looked grim as she scoured the area.
"I expected this, but it chose a good hiding spot." Oscar was not happy about this. There was too much danger in entering these caverns. He had to formulate a plan.
"We should rest, Frederick needs time, and we need to think."
Frederick rested on the trunk of a wide birch tree. He was quietly gathering Ein to recover while Emily and Oscar were deliberating.
"Going in the caverns is suicide. We have no idea of its layout. If it senses us coming, we will be in grave danger" Oscar gripped his hands as his mind shuffled through everything.
"We could try waiting until the Night Raptor leaves for a hunt. We can try to catch it then." Emily said while munching on some fruit.
"That would be at night. Although we can perceive things better as Exalts, our enemy is an Exalt Beast specialized in the dark."
He thought hard about the issue before them. They could not do anything after tracking the Night Raptor here. Suddenly, Oscar had a flash of inspiration. He smacked his forehead like an idiot. How could he have missed this?
"Are you alright?" Emily was surprised at Oscar's actions and thought he had gone dumb.
"I just thought of a plan," Oscar smirked and stood up. "We need to gather a lot of wood. Let's choke this thing out with fire."
Excitingly, Emily got up with a wide smile. "Of course, we can fill the caverns with smoke, forcing it outside. Then we can pounce on it."
After recovering, Frederick stared at the two prancing around like hapless fools. 'What the hell did I miss?'
Back at the campsite where the trio rested, Samuel and his gang arrived.
"They must have set camp here and gone into the Glenwoods in the morning." Samuel noticed their footsteps leading toward the ancient forest.
"Greg!" Samuel called to the man on his left.
Greg summoned a dog anima that began sniffing around the campsite and continued moving towards the forest.
"Don't think the forest will hide you."