Chapter 2

    Field Test part I

    Part 1

    The student expedition set out early in the morning for the field test.

    A convoy of several horse-drawn carriages moved across the expansive plains, leaving Ejis Academy behind. As they moved further away, the academy, perched on the cliffs of the Ejis Mountain Range, appeared increasingly smaller.

    Each carriage, designed to seat a group of four students, was pulled by two horses and had a coachman in charge.

    The seats were open to the elements but shaded by a roof, allowing the cool breeze from the plains to refresh the passengers continuously.

    Talis, still visibly excited, kept standing up to sitting down, urging her friends to admire the scenery on both sides, though the landscape was hardly changing. It seemed as if she was a child who had just gotten the chance to travel outside for the first time.

    In truth, she used this route nearly every month to visit her home, but traveling with everyone gave her a different feeling.

    "Hey Talis, can you sit still for a moment?"

    Lofen asked with a playful yet serious tone, smiling in a way that did not seem too annoyed.

    "Eh~ But it’s so rare to get to breathe the outside air like this…"

    Talis replied, unwilling to settle down, her expression slightly furrowed.

    "I don’t want to spoil your fun, but if you keep moving around like this, Alan is going to feel even worse."

    Lofen said with a smirk, glancing at Alan who was sitting stiffly, his gaze fixed on the horizon, and looking quite uncomfortable.

    "I’m... fine…"

    Alan, who suffered from severe motion sickness, could feel nauseous even in short vehicle rides. Thus, even though the horse-drawn carriage was moving on a smooth road without any bumps or twists was enough to make him dizzy. Seeing Alan’s face, Talis reluctantly decided to sit still, looking a bit guilty.

    Forced to stay put, Talis turned her attention to Zal, who was engrossed in a model of a dimensional room on his hand, hardly interacting with anyone else.

    "What are you doing, Zal?"

    Noticing that Zal had been staring at what seemed to be an empty dimensional room model for a long time, Talis asked curiously.

    "I’m preparing a summoning circle for calling forces. Because summoning magic is different from other types of spells. A summoning circle consists of parts used for the summoning itself and a part that defines the properties of what is to be summoned. My skills aren’t yet advanced enough to create such complex circles in an instant, which makes them unsuitable for real combat. But if I construct a summoning circle and store it in a dimensional room like this, I can bypass the setup and perform summoning immediately."

    Upon closer observation, Talis really saw something resembling a magic circle on the floor of the model room, and there were three of them.

    To outsiders, the model would just appear as a miniature three-dimensional representation of a room. However, the owner could see every detail as if he was actually sitting inside that room. Talis, being an outsider, initially missed this detail.

    "Wow~ you can do that? I've always wondered how summoners perform their summoning almost without casting spells. So, it's like this."

    "Actually, my method is a 'roundabout way' that uses more magical power than direct summoning. But for amateur summoners, this is the easiest way."

    Talis did not quite understand everything Zal was saying since she was not very familiar with summoning magic, but she continued the conversation.

    "And why were there three circles?"

    "Oh, because each circle can be reused, but they have a cooldown period. So, to summon continuously, I need to create multiple circles to alternate their use. And if I encounter a tough fight, I can summon three minions at once for help."

    "That's amazing~! If you had like ten circles, you could summon ten minions at once!"

    "Heh, theoretically, yes. But for me right now, summoning five at once would completely drain my magical energy."

    "Uh huh, so the reason you've been quiet all this way is because you were drawing circles."

    "Not really, I actually finished the circles last night. But I've been adjusting the symbols to get the proportions of the spell's cost and the summoning duration right. I've set it to use 20% of my magical power per summon, which should last about three minutes per summon."

    Lofen interjected teasingly,

    "Three minutes? I thought it was three seconds?"

    "That's because the dragon is a high-level summon! It uses a lot of magical power!"

    Zal hastily covered up, not wanting to lose face in front of Talis. Lofen, knowing this but could not help himself with the teasing, left it at that without probing further.

    The three of them exchanged such banter throughout the journey until the caravan began to move out of the academy's territory. Their destination was a forest on the rim of the western territories, which served as the field test site for the young adventurers.

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    Part 2

    As they reached the edge of the forest, the caravan started to disperse as each carriage stopped to drop off students at predetermined test areas for their groups.

    "We're almost there. Here, take this,"

    the coachman turned and handed a ring to Lofen, who was sitting closest.

    As they approached the forest, the path became increasingly winding. Lofen, Zal, and Talis squeezed to one side so that Alan could lie down, which somewhat alleviated his discomfort, but his expression remained troubled.

    "It's a communication ring, isn't it? Hmm... do I use it like this...?"

    Lofen murmured as he took the ring, trying it on his finger. Soon, the voice of Professor Garris came from the ring.

    "Oh, it's Zalaras's group, isn't it? Are you all ready?"

    The three students responded in unison, although Alan's voice was missing, but Professor Garris did not seem to mind.

    "The task for the exam is simple. Just clear the designated area thoroughly. You can check the boundaries you need to clear from the ring. Once there are no more monsters left in that area, the map will turn green, and your mission will be complete."

    As Professor Garris spoke, the ring projected an image of a map into the air, showing a yellow area with a blue dot moving towards it—the blue dot represented the ring wearer's location, and the yellow area was the zone where they needed to eliminate monsters.

    "The monsters in this area shouldn't be beyond your capabilities. However, if an emergency arises, use the ring to call for help from the carriage driver. Whether it affects the exam will be considered based on the situation. Safety first. Good luck, everyone."

    After Professor Garris finished speaking, the carriage they were traveling in came to a stop because they had reached their destination.

    "If there's an emergency, don't hesitate to contact me, okay? And do your best."

    The driver blessed everyone with a friendly demeanor. In reality, wagon drivers were experienced adventurers hired by the academy to look after each student group. However, their plain academy staff uniforms, made it hard to tell with a glance.

    After disembarking from the carriage and walking just a short distance from the main road, they reached the edge of the forest. Talis cast a spell to cure Alan of his motion sickness, visibly improving his complexion and rejuvenating his spirits.

    "Alright, everyone ready?"

    Alan asked, looking around.

    Lofen snickered softly because Alan had been the sickest of the group just a moment ago but was now posing seriously. Alan frowned at him.

    "Okay, we're ready."

    "We're ready!"

    "Let's go for it!"

    After their replies, everyone cast spells to bring out their prepared equipment, instantly changing from their school uniforms into adventure gear.

    Alan and Talis donned light leather armor with headguard. Alan chose a sword and a medium shield as his weapons, while Talis opted for a mace and a small shield, taking on the roles of the frontline. Alan was acting as the main tank, while Talis was the substitute tank and supporter/healer respectively.

    On the other side, Lofen and Zal did not change much. Lofen wore a mage's cloak over his uniform, and Zal donned a blue coat over his. Their shoes were changed to leather boots suitable for trekking. Lofen's weapons were a magical staff and a small shield, while Zal used a sword and a small shield, as he did not primarily rely on offensive magic.

    Once everyone had donned their gear, Alan used the ring he received from Lofen to check the mission map again.

    "Looking at the scale of the map, the area we need to clear seems to be about three hundred square meters. We'll clear the area gradually in a clockwise direction, starting from the outer edge and squeezing towards the center. Then we'll retrace our steps back here. This should be the shortest route,"

    Alan analyzed the mission and explained the plan fluently. Due to his family status, Alan had been specially trained in various aspects and had already accompanied his older siblings on real missions. Thus, this field test was nothing new to him.

    Everyone agreed with Alan's plan without any objections, and they all began their journey.

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