The climate was nothing short of perfect and the group made sure to enjoy all the benefits that came with taking the most dangerous path of them all. They didn’t hesitate to partake in anything that nature had to offer.

The route along the river Saqh presented them with an unfiltered view of the sunny blue sky, an escape from all the horrors that lurk within the dense forest, and the refreshing and sweet taste of the untouched river. The chirping of birds, the rustling of leaves, and the gentle bubbling of the river… All of these coupled with the wild setting of the forest made for quite the masterpiece of a picture.

The time was a little past twelve in the afternoon when the group of four halted their progress and settled down near a mass of rocks. Umi placed her humongous backpack down and pulled out a cloth of sufficient size, she subsequently placed it on the somewhat damp ground.

Aki and the others followed in Umi’s example as they placed their backpacks on the ground and retrieved items they would be needing for their intermission and sat down on the cloth to rest their bodies.

“So… You said you’d explain everything once we settled down.”

Aki spoke up after wiping away the sweat that had accumulated on his face and neck. His black hair that had grown quite a bit in the past month was disbelieved and his expression clearly indicated his fatigue, however, his eyes were as sharp and energetic as ever.

“Well… We got separated from our group and ended up in the forest. Since we were lost with no sense of direction, we just ran around trying to find an opening and ended up running into you.”

Akio uttered the fake story that had been decided on by the two ladies on the group’s way here.

“Is that so…?”

Aki narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but he didn’t pursue this matter any further. It wasn’t like the two girls would be a cause of inconvenience, on the contrary, their strength could prove to be an asset in the long run. Moreover, Aki had somewhat gotten used to Akio’s presence, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that her existence had a calming effect on Aki’s chaotic mind.

“It’s fine, right? I think it’s great that both of you encountered us. It’d undoubtedly be boring with just us two men here.”

Aki and Umi rolled their eyes at Vinayak. They could discern Vinayak’s intentions at a glance. He was clearly just glad that he could spend the next few days with his crush in such close proximity.

Akio, who had noticed Vinayak’s motives as well, chuckled with a sweet smile. She could completely relate to Vinayak, for she was looking forward to spend the next few days with Aki. Another low chuckle escaped her mouth as her warm gaze turned towards Aki.

“I’ve been wanting to ask this since yesterday morning…” Aki abruptly spoke up. “How was the city?”

Akio, Umi, and Vinayak were three of the students who had accompanied Shainaq to the city the previous morning. The city was extremely close and the whole class could’ve reached it yesterday itself. However, Shainaq insisted that they’d roam the forest to train and head to the city afterward.

“Ah, yeah, you didn’t come with us, did you? God, it was awesome. Shainaq is so much more than he seems, it was quite unexpected.”

“It was quite an interesting experience. The city was really big, so we didn’t really explore much of it. It reminded me of our Shibuya on Saturdays. There were just so many people and everybody had somewhere to go, it was a giant mess.”

“Yeah, but it was like everybody knew Shainaq. Wherever we went, Shainaq would just naturally get the V.I.P treatment.”

Vinayak, Akio, and Umi spoke in succession, each had a wondering expression on their face. Aki’s curiously towards both the city and Shainaq steadily grew.

“The city was just fascinating. It had large buildings, tempting restaurants, attractive la- Cough, cough! Anyway, It was super cool.”

“Hmm…? Is that so…?” Aki muttered. “But you guys must’ve had problems communicating, right?”

“Yeah. We just followed Shainaq the entire time. It was impossible to do anything on our own.”

“It couldn’t be helped since we didn’t know the language or the culture. He was the hen and we were the baby chicks.”

Umi’s reply to Vinayak was laced with blatant sarcasm. These few could be said to be at the top of the social hierarchy in their previous world, but now they were just lost children who were being taken care of by an entity whose intentions were still a mystery.

The mood of the group took a hit. Akio frowned and spoke up with significant momentum.

“Umi, it’s not all bad, and you know that. We should just stop thinking so pessimistically and enjoy the freedom that this world has provided us.”

Umi faintly smiled as she turned towards Akio. Umi was aware that her life right now was many times better than the one she led at the Ohori house, and she also understood where her best friend was coming from, so she conceded without arguing.

“You’re right.”

It is natural to fear the unknown, as such, neither of them pursued the matter further.

“Let’s eat already, I am really hungry!”

Vinayak enthusiastically intervened to improve the mood of the group. Aki, who hadn’t said anything, sighed in relief as the group’s morale increased again. He nodded in affirmation.

“Yes, I am feeling a little famished as well.”

Aki was about to stand up and get to work, but Akio was quicker as stood up before him and placed her hands on his shoulders, urging him to sit. She beamed at him and said with a sweet voice.

“You don’t have to worry about it. We are kinda intruding, so we should at least do some work.”

“No, it’s al-”

“Stop being a worrywart.” Akio waved her hands with a smile. “You can plan our journey, that’s much more important. Let me handle your share of work as well, please~?”

Aki was ready to retort, but Akio’s pleading expression was something he couldn’t go against. Especially the ‘please~?’ at the end, it was a clincher. He simply sighed in resignation.

“Sorry for the trouble.”

Akio smiled and skipped over to her bag and retrieved utensils and other items used in cooking.

“So, do I get to rest as well?”

Vinayak, who was sitting beside Aki, inquired with a hesitant expression. However, all he received in reply was a cold glare from Umi.

“L-let m-me the fishes out.”

Vinayak whimpered as he quietly made his way to his bag and retrieved the leftover fish wrapped in a cloth covered with a tinge of [Lord’s Blessing.]

Aki took out the map from his clothes and began seriously studying it. Aki had the habit of tuning out everything that occurred around him when he was seriously contemplating or studying, and such was the current situation as well.

“Muranaka. Here.”

Aki hadn’t realized when Umi had approached him until he was called out, he raised his head only to see that Umi had brought him a pencil.

“Thanks, Ohori-san.”

Umi nodded expressionlessly and headed back to where the other two were preparing the group’s lunch.

Huh? Did she call me without an honorific?

Aki tilted his head in confusion, but he abandoned this line of thought soon enough. He resumed his work on the map with utmost concentration.

...

Aki was relaxing on the mat after eating, chatting merrily with the other three who were washing the utensils and discarding the fish frame a little distance away. Aki had volunteered to help with the cleaning, but Akio had once again insisted on taking care of his share. And since it was just washing utensils, Aki didn’t put much resistance and gave in. But it wasn’t before seriously wondering why Akio would do so.

“Can I have a moment?”

After everything was wrapped up and the girls were getting ready to move, Aki called out with the map in his hand. Vinayak, who was lazing around, came over immediately. The girls took a minute to clean everything up and pick up their humongous bags.

“I am thinking that this path will be the most optimal for us in this situation.”

Aki’s pencil traced a path that deviated from their current one along the river Saqh and went straight through a patch of the forest. However, it eventually led to river Saqh across the said patch after about fifty kilometers or so.

“It’s true that if we continue walking alongside the river we’ll reach this point eventually.” Aki circled the point where their current path and the one through the forest would intersect. “I don’t mind either way, but the distance would shrink by a lot. Although the animals along this path are quite strong, defending ourselves shouldn’t be much of a problem. This is just a proposal, I’d like your opinions. What do you all say?”

“I’ll go with whatever Muranaka-kun decides.”

“I mean, they’re both the same, so whatever.”

“Aki, let’s go through the forest. We haven’t encountered even one dangerous animal ever since we entered. I wanna fight!”

Aki smiled as he folded the map and stored it in his shirt. He crouched down and threw his monstrous backpack on his shoulders. One objective look and it was clear that the size and weight of all their bags were about the same. Another glance would tell that the skinniest among the group was undoubtedly Aki, it was no exaggeration to call him a bean sprout. However, for some unknown reason, his expression was the most nonchalant while carrying the bag. Even Akio, who could channel a relatively overwhelming amount of [Lord’s Blessing], was knitting her eyebrows a little.

“Everyone should remain cautious. There are many species inhabiting this area of the forest that specialize in stealth and movement. If you feel that anything is wrong, just speak up.”

“Okay~”

The three of them spoke up together and followed Aki for about two kilometers before switching to the path that cut through the forest.

...

“So, when she said that to him, he kept laughing like a maniac for no reason.”

“Ahahaha~ I can picture that. It must’ve been hilarious~”

“Yeah, and that guy’s laugh is so contagious. I couldn’t help but laugh too.”

“Haha- Huh? Muranaka-kun, is something the matter?”

Akio, who was walking beside Aki, suddenly stopped laughing when she realized that Aki’s expression had turned serious.

It had been about two hours ever since they began treading through this path. The road was about three meters across, with trees on either side of the path, the leaves and branches covered the sky over the path so the group could only travel in somewhat dim lighting, and the road itself was quite uneven as well, but it was expected. It was a path through a forest after all.

Their walking speed was rather consistent, they had already covered over ten kilometers in mere two hours. It wouldn’t be unusual to cover ten kilometers in an hour or so, but they were in a forest and carrying huge bags, not to mention the intervention of various animals.

They had encountered many beasts during their journey, but they only killed a very limited number of them as most of the species they encountered were herbivorous and couldn’t pose a threat to the group. Although nobody in the group was opposed to killing, they wouldn’t mercilessly take a life for no reason.

The only beast that gave them considerable trouble was an animal resembling a hyena. It concentrated [Lord’s Blessing] on its legs, thus possessing overwhelming agility. Though it was a herbivore, the animal’s sights were on the bags carried by the group. As such, Umi and Akio combined their powers under Aki’s instructions and managed to destroy one of its legs, and it died soon after due to excessive blood loss.

“There is a rather strong being nearby. I can sense a lot of small ones running away.”

The other three’s eyes widened at Aki’s muttering. They were unaware of any of this, even if they tried their hardest to listen, they couldn’t make out a single thing amongst the sounds of chirping birds, rustling leaves, and buzzing insects.

“How…?”

Aki understood what the others wanted to ask, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

“The weak have their methods to survive amidst the strong.”

The others couldn’t help but smile wryly at Aki’s nonchalant expression. However, they didn’t pursue the matter any further, for they trusted Aki, he was their friend after all.

“Where?”

Vinayak asked with a grave expression, he was familiar with Aki’s ability to remain composed in precarious situations, so looking at Aki having such an expression sent alarms throughout his body.

“I don’t know the exact location of the beast. But the animals are vacating that area. So it must be somewhere in that location.”

Aki pointed to the north-west.

“Huh? But aren’t we heading in that direction? If it’s really something dangerous, I’d rather go back and take our previous path.”

“I agree with Akio on this. It may add a hundred kilometers or so, but nothing comes before our lives.”

At this point, they could hear the animals screeching and running as well. The ground underneath their feet rumbled, all of them looked at Aki, waiting for his decision.

“I think we should move forward. The animals are running in our direction, there is a huge chance that they will band together at some point for survival, and if they brand us as enemies, I am pretty sure we’ll die. However, If we move forward and defeat the beast, the rest of our journey through should be pretty simple.”

Aki’s calm voice resounded and landed heavily on the rest of the group’s ears. Aki had actually downplayed the situation a lot. He could tell that there were some pretty dangerous animals currently passing them by on both their sides and running in the opposite direction of the unknown dangerous entity.

It’s already a miracle that we’ve not run into any animals yet.

It may be because they were on a road without any trees, but the animals chose to run through the forest instead of taking the well constructed path.

“I agree.”

“Let’s not waste any time then.”

Vinayak spoke up first without any hesitation. Umi followed soon after a moment of consideration. All three of their gazes headed over to the remaining member, Akio. Her shoulders trembled and her eyes revealed severe hesitance, she looked at Aki with worried eyes.

“Are you worried about me, Ayuzawa-san?”

“!?”

Akio was startled that Aki saw through her so easily. She bit her lower lip tightly and lowered her head a bit, nodding timidly.

“Thank you for caring about me. But it’s fine. As I said previously, the weak have their own methods. I can assure you that I will not prove to be a burden at the very least.”

“…Okay.”

From the beginning, Akio had no intention of opposing Aki’s decision, it was just that her emotions had gotten the best of her for a moment, she had unintentionally revealed her worry on her face.

“Then, we should start moving. Please do keep close.”

Aki muttered in a serious voice. The rest nodded and assumed a square formation. Their humongous bags drew quite a lot of unwanted attention, so the group decided to smear the bags with mud and grass to make the smell vague and appearance inconspicuous.

Though the group’s speed took a major hit, they continued on the path without stopping. They must’ve traveled about three kilometers before Aki’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s here.”

Aki hadn’t pointed at any specific direction, so the others could only look frantically in all directions with cautious expressions.

“I don’t know the exact location, but it’s in this general area. It can come at us from any direction, so don’t lower your guards.”

Aki’s senses were strained to the maximum as he used every skill at his disposal to detect the beast’s movements. Nobody in the group was aware of their imminent opponent’s lethality, but it couldn’t be low considering so many strong animals ran away from it in utter despair.

“Let’s continue moving. Maybe that animal is in the forest and we can pass it safely.”

“Ohori-san is right. It wouldn’t do us any good to just stand here and wait for it to find us.”

As soon as Aki finished his sentence, a chill ran down his back. All the hair on his body stood up. Aki rubbed his arms to calm himself down.

“What happened?”

Vinayak asked when he noticed Aki’s pale expression.

“It’s close. I can feel it.”

Aki trusted his instincts, and his instincts told him that their foe was close.

“We shou- Woah!”

“Aki!”

“Muranaka-kun!”

Vinayak and Akio watched as Aki was blown off from where he was standing. After flying in the air for less than a second, he slammed against a tree. It was good that the bag cushioned his collision, or his back could’ve been crushed by the impact.

“Ugh…”

Aki groaned. He got his arms out of the bag’s straps and barely managed to stand up. His expression was grave, but there were no signs of him getting seriously hurt.

“Muranaka-kun!”

Akio and the others rushed over to Aki after dropping their backpacks.

“Ahh… I am fine…”

Aki groaned again as he used Vinayak’s shoulder as support to walk.

“Muranaka… What happened?”

Umi, who was the calmest out of the bunch asked with a grave expression. She had prided herself in her kinetic vision and reflexes which were results of her intense training this past month. However, she couldn’t even sense what was it that crashed into Aki.

“Cough! Cough! It was a blood-striped mazen…”

Aki’s hands were on his chest as he violently coughed and spoke with a weak voice. Umi’s eyes violently shook when she heard Aki’s reply.

“A blood-striped mazen? Why is one of them in this area? Don’t they inhabit the west portion of the forest? Their tribe should be hundreds of kilometers away from here.”

“I don’t know either. I just saw it for a second when it attacked me, but it was definitely a blood-striped mazen.”

Aki’s voice continued to become calmer and his complexion returned to normal as well. He was currently channeling [Lord’s Blessing] at a rapid pace to recover, and it was clearly showing its effects.

“This is going to be troublesome.”

Akio, who refused to leave Aki’s side, muttered while frowning. Vinayak nodded in affirmation.

“For now, let’s focus on defense. Retrieve your swords and keep your eyes and ears open.”

Aki issued orders and headed over to his bag that was still stuck to the tree and fetched his sword. It was a normal sword that could be found in their previous world as well. It seemed that the evolution of weapons was somewhat the same in both worlds. This world was in the phase of developing firearms, and although the method of operating them was vastly different, it was a gun nonetheless.

Aki looked at the sword of about one meter in length. Its weight was about two kilograms. Normally, it would be difficult to wield such a blade in a battle because it would slow the wielder down. However, this drawback was invalidated because of [Lord’s Blessing], and even someone as physically weak as Aki could easily swing this sword around.

Since no student had any prior experience with the sword, and to not discriminate based on how much [Lord’s Blessing] one could channel, Shainaq decided to give all twenty-five students the same sword.

Aki held the hilt and turned his gaze towards the others. All their previous fights were so easy that they didn’t need to draw their swords, so this would be effectively the first time they would be fighting something truly life-threatening.

I hope the others haven’t run into anything dangerous.

Their group of four could be considered the second-strongest among the students, being inferior only to Asahi’s group. If any of the other groups were to encounter danger on the same level as a blood-striped mazen, it would be practically impossible to escape unscathed.

To explain what a blood-striped mazen was: it was one of the rather well-known variants of the already dreaded feline species ‘mazen’. According to Shainaq, mazen as a species closely resembled a lion-cheetah hybrid. It had long and slim legs, an aerodynamic body, and a terrifying speed resembling a cheetah. It also had the strength, courage, and a charismatic mane that took after a lion.

The blood-striped mazen in particular was very famous for its red-colored fur and steel-like teeth. Large groups of hunters were usually dispatched to hunt some of these blood-striped mazens, and their various body parts were sold for tons and tons of money. They may be strong, but they weren’t invincible.

“I can feel its gaze on us.”

“Ohori-san can feel gazes? That’s troublesome. By the way, is it a he or she?”

“Khavare, I didn’t have time to observe it in such detail.”

“What does gender have to do with anything in the first place?”

“What are you talking about Ayuzawa-san, gender does matter.”

“Can we please stop with this pointless conversation?”

“Vinayak, listen to Ohori-san.”

“Okay…”

The four grouped together with their backs touching, their vigilance was at its peak. They could hear the low growling of the blood-striped mazen reverberating in the surroundings. They could only fight on the narrow path, because fighting inside the forest amidst the trees would prove to be a huge disadvantage for them.

“It has great agility and strength, it can lunge at us from either side. There is no need to hold back, kill it at the first opportunity you get.”

“Understood!”

The trio nodded and exclaimed in unison.

“Where co-”

Before Vinayak could complete his sentence, or even before anyone could react to his sudden silence. Vinayak channeled [Lord’s Blessing] into his body, redirecting much of it to his legs and sword, and swung at full strength in front of him.

The power of Vinayak’s slash was borderline terrifying. The resulting wind pushed Aki and the others a few feet away, the sound emitted was enough to numb their ears, and even the ground underneath his feet cracked a little.

However, when the others recovered their balance and urgently turned their heads in his direction, all they could see was his sword trembling against a huge paw.

“Guh! Too strong!”

Both of Vinayak’s arms were shaking as he maintained his grip on his sword. He tried his best to keep his feet planted on the ground and not let his opponent push him back, but it proved impossible.

“Guh!”

Vinayak was sent flying with only one paw of blood-striped mazen. Vinayak landed a few feet away, his breathing was rough, but he didn’t seem to have received any major injuries as he stood up within seconds.

Aki was relieved when he noticed the lack of blood on Vinayak’s body. He turned his head and gazed at their enemy.

The blood-striped mazen stood over two meters in height, Aki had to tilt his neck backward to look into its sharp and ferocious eyes. As Shainaq had described earlier it had blood-red fur, a slim body, agile legs, and a fierce mane. Aki was studying the being with his sword in hand when he noticed blood smeared across the blood-striped mazen’s face, especially around its mouth, even its whiskers were dripping blood onto the ground.

“What do we do?”

Umi asked while still having a worried look at Vinayak’s situation.

“We can only fight head-on.”

Vinayak said as he raised his sword again. He channeled [Lord’s Blessing] the best he could.

There were two aspects to channeling [Lord’s Blessing]: compatibility and capacity.

Compatibility was the measure of how fluently and swiftly one can channel [Lord’s Blessing]. Capacity is the measure of how much [Lord’s Blessing] can one’s body hold, and how much of it could one put to use.

There were limits to these two, and exceeding them could cause strain on the human body. It was the same as lifting something, one could only lift a certain amount of weight, and if one exceeded that amount by too much, it was natural to be crushed. In both cases, it varied from person to person.

Capacity and compatibility were merely factors that were applicable before and during [Lord’s Blessing] was channeled by the body and thus are evaluable. These two are heavily reliant on the bloodline, background, upbringing, training, and other such external factors. Making royals, nobles, and such have stronger descendants. However, what comes after was entirely dependent on the individual and their skills.

How one uses [Lord’s Blessing] itself. How one uses [Lord’s Blessing] to interfere and manipulate other energies to use them in combat. How much one understands the energies and works with them to yield the best results. Such things that occur due to an individual’s will can’t be humanly evaluated and weee considered an important factor in determining one’s potential.

Right now, Vinayak was going all out. He was rapidly channeling [Lord’s Blessing] and had already approached his maximum limit. Beads of sweat accumulated on his forehead as he directed all the energy to his legs, arms, and the sword.

The other three did the exact same thing. They put their all in offense and bent their legs.

“Go.”

As soon as Aki’s voice sounded out, all four of them simultaneously darted towards the blood-striped mazen. The beast narrowed his eyes and shrouded itself in [Lord’s Blessing] as well.

Aki aimed at the beast’s neck, which was supposedly its blind spot. However, his blade was repelled and he was subsequently pushed off a few feet away by one of the beast’s legs. It seemed the others didn’t have any success either. Akio was the only one who managed to scratch the mazen’s side.

Akio and Umi had a severe height disadvantage, being around 160 centimeters, their head barely reached the blood-striped mazen’s stomach. So they could only aim at its leg or sides.

“This isn’t going to work… It’s playing with us…”

Aki was used to being looked down upon. He had seen many different eyes. Eyes filled with ridicule, contempt, hate, envy, jealousy, pity… He had been on the receiving end of many negative emotions for half his life. As such, he recognized the beast’s eyes. Those were the eyes of someone toying with their prey. Aki was astounded at the beast’s intelligence. It was letting them gather their power and then defending like it was nothing. It was slowly but surely breaking them.

This can’t go on…

Aki gripped his sword tighter.

Should I try that… No… If it fails, the backlash could kill me…

Aki’s eyes swam around. He could see all his friends’ grave expressions.

I am sure I can do it after a bit of research... I can make it work on myself, after all, so trying on another… But the hurdle is too high… Ah, fuck it! Let’s go for it, if I am successful, it’ll advance my experiments by at least three months.

“I have a plan!”

Aki screamed, drawing the attention of his friends and his foe.