Out of interest, they had been travelling over the mountains instead of going through the forest as it was actually easier in some cases, with very few obstacles in their way up there. Although there were many flying-type magical beasts, her Flicker Sword Arts could be considered perfect for something like this. Some were blasted out of the sky and ran away while others were killed straight away, being shredded into pieces because they were too weak. 

      Travelling in the mountains also had the added advantage of dodging any humans as the examinees would assume that ascending and descending mountains all the time would take more time. That was wrong, as the mountains were discreetly connected with natural pathways that only depressed slightly, taking less time than you would expect to traverse. 

      Cordelia could see that her companion was shivering with her juvenile, frail body and gritted her teeth. The cloak alone wasn’t enough to insulate the girl as she began to chatter her teeth. Even Cordelia’s armour wasn’t enough, thick as it was. The mist had brought a chilly temperature with it and wasn’t doing them any favours. 

      She couldn’t see through the mist to the sky but knew that it was still early in the day, too early to be resting, yet when she saw Chloe next to her, she could only stop their trip for today. Going down the mountains was also an option but it was hard as the walls were steep and hard to get a grip on. They had gotten lucky with a convenient upwards route that was already dozens of miles away behind them, so there was no choice but to find shelter again. Besides, all of the people on the ground would be annoying and was one of the things that Cordelia aimed to avoid by travelling up here.

      Caverns and holes were littered across the mountains, most likely left behind by magical beasts or expeditions from the Laeon Federation who often explored the rocky peaks to create more maps and possibly discover treasures or riches. 

      “Let’s settle here.”

After searching for an hour, they found a relatively hidden yet cosy cavern that was evidently artificially made as the edges were too smooth and even. It would be concealed from hungry predators if you made an effort to disguise your scent and block the entrance off, making it a perfect place to rest. Silently thanking her predecessors, Cordelia and Chloe set up bedding and a campfire inside after having used low-level earth magic to raise a wall in the entrance. Wind magic was also used to filter out the air so there were no oddities in the smell for magical beasts to catch on.

      Cordelia’s experience in hunting them downplayed a huge role here, allowing her to efficiently and quickly get everything set up, including traps and precautions. To hunt down specific prey, it was sometimes necessary to go on an odyssey as you try to find the perfect chance to strike. If that meant tailing your target for days, if not weeks, on end, then she would do it.

      Her childhood of training and hunting had also taught her to never waste when unnecessary. All of the tools and items she pulled out of her bag was crafted all from resources found during the exam, even the bag itself. She was a warrior first and foremost, and a survivalist second.

      The Mind Mage-in-training was in awe of her big sister who moved her hands without rest, diligently completing all her tasks and secured their safety in the mountains. Cordelia utilised Parallel Thinking to simultaneously complete two assignments with each hand, a true multitasker.

      Finally finished, she laid out two large blankets of soft fur on the cold, hard ground that was processed and skinned from a Tier 3 Magical Beast, a Sabretooth Tiger. She had difficulty avoiding its fearsome pair of hooks that could potentially catch her in and shred her into meat paste, though that was assuming she was ever caught. Fortunately, Cordelia paid extra attention to evasion before managing to catch it off-guard while the beast was lunging towards her, slashing its jugular cleanly from underneath.

      “Rest, Chloe.”

Nodding, the girl let herself sink in the furry hide, her face content and dreamy. At the side, Cordelia smiled wryly, catching the expression as she rolled the fur over herself as it was a lot wider than she was. Combined with the flame that crackled and conflagrated, its low hum filling the cave with an idle yet calming atmosphere. 

      Chloe wasn’t the most physically fit as although she was not necessarily malnourished, her Mental Magic caused her to stay inside a lot. Exacerbated by the poor treatment from her surroundings, including maids who refused to clean her room, she also caught a few diseases and illnesses when she was younger, handicapping her immune system. Developing a weak body was in due course.

      Hiking and trekking for miles on end tired her out, though Cordelia alleviated it by carrying or piggy-backing her for much of the way whenever she showed signs of collapsing. This is good for training up her endurance though. For her sake, she decided to help Chloe less frequently the next day, knowing it would be beneficial to patch up her glaring weakness of a sickly body.

      Closing her eyes, Cordelia’s thoughts were left on yesterday’s horrific events. She didn’t show it at all, but behind her stoic mask, she was still brooding heavily on her rampage. The injuries she inflicted weren’t justified at all; Cordelia wasn’t on a battlefield where you had to kill or be killed. It was just a silly exam for young kids… yet she lost control of herself like that, scared her three new companions and scared her new friend. 

      Clutching her chest, she resolved to find a way to fix that problem one day before falling asleep.

❈ ❈ ❈

25th of March, the Year 1202
15:01
Laeon Federation, Unknown

❈ 

“How are they?”

“It’s nothing fatal, Sir. They only passed out from blood loss and they’ll live on, but some will be crippled. It’s already too late to treat many for their missing limbs and parts unless we had a Saint here.”

Lyon frowned, thinking of the annoying nobles, emperors and kings who would complain to him about this. The group of boys in front of him were mostly comprised of sons of prestigious backgrounds and families that could give him a headache. But hearing what they were about to do, he didn’t care anymore. What goes around, comes around, they say. He would never allow them to set foot into Cheiss Academy beside that kind of attitude.

      When a dozen instructors had suddenly rushed into the building, carrying a few boys in their arms each, he had first credited it to a leftover high-level magical or demonic beast which was supposed to be moved away. However, when he saw their injuries, Lyon knew that it wasn’t the case at all. In a way, you could call their injuries worse than mortal ones; the culprit had deprived them of their future as they had cut off hands, legs, entire limbs and more. One boy even had both of his eyes slashed; he was lucky to be brought in quickly as it was healed, though there would be lingering aftereffects like worsened eyesight.

      For some reason, all of these injuries sparked a feeling of familiarity and nostalgia in him. They were unnecessarily savage and inhuman, the types of injuries that were imposed during a war. Feeling like he was on the cusp of finding the answer before it vanished, Lyon gave up on his pointless musing.

      “Lyon?”

Conrad entered the ward, seeing all the beds occupied by the examinees. He raised an eyebrow and looked towards his fellow Department Head, questioning him silently.

“Doesn’t this seem familiar to you, Conrad?”

He answered him with another question.

“What do you-“

Having only just arrived, the man didn’t have any time to properly inspect the wounds since they were mostly hidden under blankets. But he had naturally high perception and could see how there were hollow parts under the covering where the arms and legs were supposed to be and realised what Lyon was saying. He nodded grimly.

      “Who?”

“We don’t know yet. But I already have a suspect. Based on those instructors’ descriptions, it should be her.”

Both of them were solemn in their speech, no doubt reminiscing about the old days.

“Just like him."

Conrad groaned as he threw his head back slightly. They didn’t have the courage to utter that man’s name out loud. In fact, they no longer had the right to. Those words were like fire on their tongues, burning their pride, confidence and self-respect. 

      “We should go to the surveillance room. Maybe we can see what his daughter is doing too.”

“Un.”

Grunting in agreement, Conrad followed Lyon to the surveillance room when a large network of diviners worked together to display the happenings of the exam. Covering an area of approximately 300km squared, a titanic Advanced Domain spell had been set up to prevent examinees from exiting, or any intruders from entering. Within this space, the Cheiss Academy had set up hundreds of divination seals that acted as vessels for divination spells so that the academy could monitor the events of the exam from a large distance. It was called a camera.

      It might be true that anyone who is unable to reach the end before the time is up is incompetent but the academy knows that there may be some unlucky seedlings that are perhaps unsuited for the exam or are kept back due to unfortunate circumstances. Therefore, the surveillance team observed everything that went on. 

      In theory, the nature of Divination allowed one to see through everything. It was the ultimate spy tool and a popular choice of magic for many, as it was in high-demand for countries. This was because the School of Divination was only officially introduced a few decades ago as it was a culmination of centuries of magic research and experimentation. To split and eject one’s consciousness into another space as Divination does is terribly complicated but when the research for it to be optimised into a compact form for individuals was completed, waves swept across the world and powers scrambled to assemble elite teams of Diviners.

      But it’s also because of this popularity that people began to neglect other methods of spying, communication and more. Cordelia’s array of telepathy towers which allowed for her territory to effectively relay messages and information was hard to counter as people stopped trying to. Decades was not a long time, to be frank, but compared to a Divination network, Cordelia found it easier to defend.

      His arms crossed, Conrad stood unsmilingly as his eyes crossed over the Magic Screen Interface which was magically hooked up to dozens of Diviners who sat in comfortable seats which were leaning back, allowing them a pleasant position. Images and videos of the exam were projected up on to the M.S.I, giving everyone a clear view of it. There was no sound, as research into that subject was slow and cumbersome.

      Lyon grinned in satisfaction, mentally designating a few promising examinees as potentials for Special Class while his friend’s face only fell even further, his strict standards too high for anybody to meet. While there were a few that he admitted were very skilled for their age, he wasn’t just judging them based on that.

      “Bring up a map with all of their locations.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Conrad was vaguely curious about the location of Cordelia Auster. At once, the largest M.S.I changed to an image of the exam area from a sky view, with thousands of tiny dots scattered all over the area. In some places, there were giant conglomerations of dots grouped together as they seemed unmoving due to the disparity in their travel speed and the size of the area. If you looked closely, they were inching forward ever so slightly every few seconds.

      So far, none of the cameras had caught a whiff of the girl he was looking for, so he decided to actively look for her himself. Their armour was specifically fitted for the examinee using magic and this meant that they could customise it any way they wanted for that person. For the sake of safety, all of the distributed armour was linked to the Divination network with corresponding names.

      “Show me the location of the examinee Cordelia Auster.”

Many instructors and staff were inside the surveillance room at that time, and they were confused at Conrad’s sudden order. He was a reclusive figure in the academy, often only showing himself in important events or to his own direct students, or disciples. Although he was a Department Head, his role in the school was not that big and was more of a useless title which was at his own request.

       One of the dots was pinged yellow and enlarged slightly for everybody to see and they were surprised to realise that it was one of the only ones to be in the mountains. At most, there were only a few dozen that travelled across them and compared to the thousands that had taken the exam, this was very few.

      This was because nobody could find a proper way to get up them. Apart from their target mountain which had manmade paths up to the summit, none of the others was the same. Only some very curious people would be able to find a way up to them which many didn’t consider as they thought it was a waste of time. 

      “Give me a free view of her.”

Conrad continued his relentless orders, solely focused on Cordelia Auster. During the Annual Conference, he hadn’t read the data of the girl but was instead informed of her background and identity by his friends. Like them, he had been extremely shocked at the news, feeling a wave of guilt and remorse… but for a very different reason.

Nevertheless, he too automatically had a good impression of the girl on account of her parents, though he knew he had to see her for himself. Conrad Euneric wasn’t a fan of favouritism.

vaexis

This'll be the last post in the next few days, probably. Online assignments and other hobbies are taking up more time, so don't expect an update as usual.

      Also, I don't think that many noticed but I posted a character stat sheet 2 days ago. It didn't show up on the latest updated, probably because it had so few words, but make sure to check it out if you haven't.

      Have a nice day.