The elemental mists billowed and converged upon Yuriko as she barreled through the air and entered the Elemental Conflux called the Golden Fields. They crashed against her Anima, pressed down upon it, and acted as a heavy weight that pushed her towards the ground. She frowned and pushed back, noting the strain. It wasn’t something she couldn’t endure, but it would weary her as time progressed.

Hmmm, it would be a good resistance training method. For now, she allowed herself to sink towards the ground, noting that the pressure decreased significantly until it practically disappeared once she was only a couple of paces above the ground. She raised herself higher so she could feel the resistance, then moved deeper into the valley. 

The mists shrouded her sight, but a hundred paces in, they turned translucent enough that she could finally see into the valley. The Golden Fields was only a hundred longstrides from Nirlith City, but it almost covered the entirety of Bresia’s northern border. From what she gathered from the report, the Fields' physical presence spanned nearly a hundred leagues across, leaving just a narrow, twisting passage between itself and the Kerromere Mountain Range. The Conflux also pressed up against the borderlands but did not extend into it, leaving another gap for normal travel, with the western one being wide and stable, while the eastern one a bit more treacherous. The entrance near Feldton was one of the stabler ones, but there were entrances at other points, east, west, and north. As for the south, the republic had closed off most of the easy access, leaving only the one near the village as the most stable and viable one. The more entrances, the less stable the passage, apparently, but Yuriko didn’t know what made unstable passages dangerous. 

She froze when she finally went past the obscuring mists. The report did not specify how large the Golden Fields were, just its outer boundaries. Like Chaos Founts, Elemental Confluxes were bigger on the inside than out. The estimate was at least two or three times bigger. 

That wasn’t why she stopped though. She thought that the name was simply a description, but it was rather quite literal. The leaves of the trees right in front of her were gold. The grass was made of the same metal, but the most eye-catching of all were the fields of gold wheat. They were spread across the valley, and maybe even beyond it. The valley walls were gentle enough that the grain grew there as well, and on the peaks were a thick canopy of golden leaves. 

Yuriko plucked a leaf with her Anima and examined it with her perception. “It’s really gold,” she muttered, then shook her head. “A very low concentration though.”

A gold coin floated out of her purse and she examined the leaf and coin together. The leaf had a thousandth of what the coin contained, and even that wasn’t pure gold. The purest gold was rather soft, after all. 

The leaf was covered in gold, though there were flecks within it, too. She held it between her fingers and ignited it, though not with her Radiant energy, otherwise nothing would be left. Instead, she runescript cast a Produce Flame spell. The leaf burned slowly, reluctantly. The gold was not flammable and the liquid within hindered the flame, but eventually, the leaf crumbled to ashes and gold flecks. She gathered the flecks together, heated them up with the natural heat her Anima gave off, and turned them into molten gold for long enough to fuse every fleck into a droplet that was barely wider than a hair. Hmm. If she denuded the tree, she could smelt a couple of gold coins. Maybe. 

Her initial fascination with the glimmering metal didn’t preclude her keeping an eye out for hostiles. And when none were apparent, she cast a Sending spell to Andrea Mendez. 

“All clear on entrance.” 

“Good. Please proceed with preliminary scouting.”

“Alright.” 

The wheat field was of a lower elevation than the entrance. Roughly fifty paces lower according to her Anima. The slope was very gentle and would not be difficult to walk, but the immediate entrance wasn’t an ideal place for base camp. Perhaps on that minor plateau just before reaching the valley floor?

She walked down towards it, making sure her perception caught everything within reach. She contemplated using her sunblades to scout too, but even at its maximum reach, she couldn’t be able to cover the width of the valley. The entrance had quickly opened up wide, too. 

She could feel the elemental energies clashing against her Anima. Metal elemental energy? No, not just that. She could feel Earth and hints of Fire, too. Wind, Wood, and Water were thin, though only in comparison to the first three elements. It was gentler close to the ground, she realised. Higher up, the clash was strong enough to actually crack her Anima. She was surprised that nothing of it showed in the empty air. But the skies were cloudless, and the Radiant Sun shone down brightly. 

She turned towards the entrance as the professors and staff entered the Conflux. She noticed Andrea direct them towards a spot roughly fifty paces away and off to the side. How many students would go through this exam anyway? Only the fourth to sixth-year students, right? And only the combat departments? Oh, no, everyone would come, so that was three thousand warm bodies over the course of a couple of weeks. The combat divisions would hunt down beasts while the others would be examined with other activities. 

She walked up to the wheat field and found no natural path between the plots of land. The grain looked close to ripening, and she plucked a sheaf. The grains were pure gold. Huh. A handful of grain would probably be worth a gold coin, right? This was a huge amount of wealth, and from what she could see, completely unused. Why was that? 

Or perhaps it was too dangerous a place to harvest easily? There were elemental beasts wandering around and that meant only Magi would be able to harvest. Most at that level were paid handsomely so…

Yuriko hovered above the wheat field and surveyed the valley. The mists obscured her vision past a longstride away. She spread her perception, absently noting that her fellow from the Battle Magus department was already pushing his way through the field, though Rayan was headed northeast. 

She decided to go northwest, and away from the other professors. She was more than tempted to harvest and melt the gold wheat since she was somewhat short on funds. The unfortunate thing was that the stuff she needed, Ambrosia, couldn’t be bought with gold. Every droplet of it that was harvested by delvers was immediately turned to Life Essence, which was useless for her purposes. Not that she could use it immediately. Damien’s memories warned her to wait a couple of years or so before utilising Ambrosia to temper herself again. No, it was Heron and Gwendith who could use the stuff now. 

That and she needed to find a way to portal back to Rumiga.

However, after several weeks of research, she was no closer to finding a solution. Perhaps that portal hub, the Eternal Tower, would have answers for her. Hmmm, well, the other reagents needed to open that portal would require gold, and it looked like she was in the right spot to just…pick it up. 

As she moved more than a longstride away from base camp, she began to pluck the heads of the golden wheat. She burned the dross and melted the pure gold flecks together until she formed an ingot that was about a Jin in weight. It fit easily into her hip satchel. 

She cleared several square paces of wheat though, and she decided to pluck fewer bits so that she wouldn’t create bare spots. She imagined that part of the trials involved having the students harvest gold. 

It wasn’t too long before she saw the elemental beasts. She discovered a plume of dark smoke. The stench was harsh against her senses, and when she pushed herself higher to get a better view, she saw a creature that was nearly as large as the Steeld carriage loafing in the midst of the wheat field, chewing on the shoots, and belching out plumes of smoke from orifices on its shoulders and back, as well as its behind. It had three pairs of legs, well-muscled, was covered in brassy fur, and looked much like an oversized goat. The horns on its head coiled round and round, and extended at least half a pace on either side of its head, which was as large as Yuriko’s torso. 

As soon as she spotted the giant goat, it noticed her gaze, looked towards her and bleated in warning. When she didn’t move, it got up on its feet, snorted a plume of fire and smoke and stamped the ground. There was a wide depression underneath its bulk which revealed bare dirt.

The thing charged towards her, flattening the wheat in the process. 

Meeeeeeh!

With a snort of amusement, Yuriko cast a Radiant Bolt at the thing.

Ptang!

Which promptly deflected off its horns. 

“Oh.”

Meeeeh! Fwoosh!

The giant goat roared at her and blasted a plume of fire to her face. She stopped it with her Anima easily, but then, the goat bleated and twirled. It stomped the ground and turned into a blur. Its horns slammed into her condensed aura, then rebounded away, staggering as though drunk. 

Yuriko let out a soft breath. The impact was horrific, and if she had still been in Actualisation, she might have felt it. Instead, it was no more than a tickle to her. Hmmm, she didn’t need to kill this thing. It wasn’t too dangerous and would probably present a decent challenge to the students. 

Oh, there were more of them in the distance. Perhaps she should check how difficult it is to kill one? 

Alright. Yuriko reached over her back and pulled out a sword from her backpack. It wasn’t her Arclight Sword, but a regular steel weapon procured from a blacksmith in Nirlith. It was a curved blade and was a cavalry sabre. She recalled Cillian’s soldiers carrying similar blades while riding their Steelds. 

She landed on the field, crushing the wheat stalks underneath her heel. She had worn her sensible traveller’s clothes this time around, instead of the dresses Ryoko had been pushing at her. 

Hmm, when was the last time she met an enemy at blade point rather than through her sunblades? 

She stalked closer to the goat, who had somewhat recovered from braining itself against her immovable rock. 

Meeeh!

She sidestepped a blast of flame, though the smoke plume nearly choked her as it spread out from the creature’s vicinity. She leaned forward and used a combination of Roaring Volcano and Sweeping Gale to deliver a brutal slice along the goat’s side. 

Skrenk!

A cascade of yellow sparks flew from the sabre’s edge as it cut against the goat’s fur. It was made out of metal too! Brass or gold? Maybe bronze? Even if the coat wasn’t reinforced by Animus, it was still quite tough. Her sabre, which had resonated with Fire and Wind elemental energy, clashed against the Metal elemental energy and ultimately, they cancelled each other out. 

Meh!

The goat twisted around, quite light on its feet, and slammed its horn at her. 

Poor foolish goat. 

Her Anima repelled the assault, and this time, the goat’s front legs collapsed and its eyes rolled up. Sniggering, she danced to the side and chopped down on its neck, her blade supported by Jade Mountain and Flowing Water Style. The force of earth and the pressure of water slammed against the metallic fur and parted it to expose flesh. Red, hot flesh. 

The blade was stopped short after digging an inch into the neck. Then Yuriko put her considerable weight into it. 

Hmmm, no, no, she wasn’t that heavy! She, er, she pushed her Anima’s force into the blow and beheaded the goat. She could have sworn the thing’s eyes narrowed in vindictive anger. 

Then, a few moments after the head fell to the ground, the exposed flesh brightened to red-white. 

Babooom!