Chapter 5: They Gather at Grimwoods

The day of the trip had arrived. All the first-year students gathered in front of the school. There were six classes in total, each separated by ability. Kuren was in class 1-A, the top. He had managed to make it in by studying day and night before the entrance exam. Even then, he barely managed to enter class 1-A, considering his swordsmanship wasn’t very impressive. But now, his grades were dangerously low. He had to improve otherwise Professor Monaco would send him down to the lower classes. And Kuren had no intention of letting Flane stop him from getting a better education.

As the students waited for the teachers to finish their preparations, Kuren fidgeted nervously. In his bag were two vials: one vial contained a sweet-smelling green liquid while the other contained a clear liquid that smelled strongly of disinfectant. The green liquid was a mixture of Adenium Obesium extract and rosary pebble dust. Kuren found the ingredients quite easily. Even though the flower was poisonous, it was still commonly used the medicine students in the academy. Its poison was quite effective in numerous medicines. Kuren stole the extract from a cabinet in one of the laboratories. While he was there, he also grabbed some rosary pebble dust, a common ingredient that had numerous effects such as delay and a minor relaxant. Kuren needed the dust for the delay in the recipe. If he was going to poison Flane, he couldn’t take the poison and die instantly. Kuren would be caught red-handed. Kuren added 8 g of rosary pebble dust to create a delay of 4 hours. He planned on poisoning Flane’s food in the Grimwoods. Then, while they walked in the forest, Flane would have die from the poison four hours later. If the teachers inspected his body, they would find that he died from the poison of the Adenium Obesium flower, which was commonly found in the Grimwoods. Hopefully, they would assume Flane had accidently come into contact with the flower or eaten some of its petals. Of course, when Flane succumbed to the poison, Kuren planned on being far away. It was not a flawless plan, but Kuren thought he had covered his tracks nicely.

The other vial that Kuren had brought did not have any poison in it. Just in case, he stored an antidote in the vial. It was an antidote that could cure all poisons. Well, not really. It was actually a purgative. When taken, it would cause the recipient to throw up, excrete, and defecate any toxins in the body. He had found the recipe for this all-purpose purgative in the back of the marked-up book he had found. It seems that the reason why this antidote was not widely used was that it forced the recipient to not only throw up toxins, but blood and bodily liquids. If there was too much poison within the body or the victim took too much of the purgative, there was a high chance of the victim dying from blood loss or simply throwing up his or her guts out.

Kuren had packed it in case he or an innocent bystander accidently took the poison. He had no intention of dragging anyone else into this. He had thought about Melodi, but she had never tormented him like Flane had. Well, she had left a mark on Kuren’s chest. After Flane was taken care of, he would see if he could get Melodi to stop bothering him.

The teachers finally completed their preparation for the mass teleportation spell that would send them to the Grimwoods. Before starting the spell, the teachers began counting the students, making sure everyone was present.

Teleportation was not a simple spell. It required preparation, mana, and resources. One could not simply teleport to any place one wished. The destination needed to be marked with a tethered rune. The party teleporting needed a rune tethered to the first. The longer the distance, the more mana the casters had to pour into the runes. The chant for the spell stayed the same no matter the length: [Spacium Concateno]. Artificial magic required two parts in the chant in order to operate. The first part was the family that the spell belonged to, such as Ignis (fire), Ventus (wind), and Spacium (space). The second part was the actual construct that created the spell. For example: Concateno (connect), Globus (ball), and Gradior (stride/step). The teleportation spell [Spacium Concateno] allowed the user to temporarily connect two places with two tethered runes. These runes were quite expensive, but they were reusable. The Grimwoods rune was actually tethered to more than just one rune. There were many people who tethered their runes to the one in Grimwoods to allow fast travel. Other examples of spells are [Ignis Globus] and [Ventus Gradior]. [Ignis Globus] is the only spell that Kuren can use with consistency and actual results. It conjured a ball of flame. In Kuren’s case, the most he could do was a tiny flame. [Ventus Gradior] was the spell that Flane used against Kuren in their spar. It allowed Flane to take a single step and traverse the distance between the two. Obviously, Flane’s talent for magic was much greater than Kuren’s.

“All right everyone! Get ready! We will be teleporting to the Grimwoods shortly! If you’ve forgotten something, too bad! We’re not waiting for you!” one of the teachers shouted at the classes.

Kuren could hardly contain his nervousness. This was it. All the torment and bullying that he faced. It was all going to end here.

“[Spacium Concateno]!” The teachers casted the spell, and everything turned white.

* * *

In the depths of Grimwoods, a lone man was walking in the shadows of the trees. He suddenly stopped and cocked his ear as if he had heard something. He stood there, completely still. A few minutes passed.

“Damn. They’ve found me already. I’ve led them across the entire continent at this point. What the hell are they doing this far south?” The man stood there thinking about his next moves.

“These woods should be big enough to lose them again. Maybe some of those rumors were right. A magic beast might just come down and have them for a little snack…heh heh.” The man chuckled at the idea. After laughing, he closed his eyes.

“…I have 7 days before I can fight again. Until then, I guess I’ll stay here.” The man made his decision and began walking through the forest once more.

Unbeknown to the man, a figure hidden in the shadows watched him from a distance. As he walked away, the figure’s glowing eyes disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

A cold wind passed through the trees. Kuren shuddered. Grimwoods. It was just as creepy as he had imagined it. The black trees seemed so foreboding with their twisted and gnarled branches.

“What’s wrong? You scared? You afraid some big bad monster’s going to snatch you up?” Flane came from behind Kuren and grabbed his shoulder. Flane’s friends snickered as he mocked Kuren.

“Don’t worry. If you’re scared, you can always come running back to me!” Flane and the others laughed uncontrollably.

Kuren glared at them out of the corner of his eye. Keep on laughing, Kuren thought. There would be no mercy. The vialed poison in his bag would the end of Flane Adenium.

The students began separating into their individuals classes. Three teachers would be accompanying each class of twenty. Professor Monaco and two other teachers walked up to Kuren’s class.

“Welcome to Grimwoods, class. Accompanying us today will be Professor Styria and Legith. Please listen to instructions and no one will be in any danger. To start off, we will be going deeper into the woods, so stay close.” Monaco instructed the class and began moving into the forest. Styria and the students followed him, and Legith tailed the class from behind.

Half an hour passed and the class reached a clearing. Monaco motioned for everyone to gather.

“All right everyone. In just a few minutes, we will reach the chasm. Magical beasts and other animals tend to crawl up from there, so it may get a little hectic. As long you all remain calm, we will protect you. However, do remember the point of this trip is so that you may become experienced in real combat. Please don’t hesitate to fight one of the monsters wandering around as long as we are there to supervise.”

The students nodded enthusiastically. They never had the chance before to take on real enemies with their magic and weapons. They all carried a sword with them. Some had brought a longsword. Others even had a claymore. Kuren himself was using a sword borrowed from the school. He couldn’t buy a sword for himself.

Kuren glanced at Flane. The boy had an ornate longsword attached to his hip. The sheath was made out of glossy leather and had a luxurious shine to it. The sword itself had a jeweled hilt. When Kuren glanced back at his own borrowed sword, he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Was he really going to take down a magical beast with this lump of steel? Magical beasts were animals that had been corrupted by raw mana. Unlike humans, animals could usually survive when they absorbed raw mana. The problem was that the raw mana changed their body structures and their minds. They became stronger, but they also become much more single-minded. They became focused on one thing: survival. They would do anything to live: consume their own children, kill their packs or clans, and attack multiple enemies alone.

In all honesty, Kuren would rather not fight at all. He just wanted to focus on studies for now.

“We are handing out lunch now! Please line up and get your meals!” Monaco shouted. Students began to line up in front of the teachers.

Flane came up to Kuren and hit him on the shoulder.

“Hey buddy, you don’t mind grabbing me lunch do you? Thanks, I knew you would say yes.” Flane left without even giving Kuren a chance to reply. As he walked away, Kuren’s mouth began to curve up ever so slightly. Did his chance already arrive?

Kuren was standing in line as he waited for his turn. When he reached the front, Monaco handed him a bowl of hot stew. The teachers had created a cauldron with a simple shaping spell. Then they poured the stew from their containers and boiled the stew with a flame spell.

“Next.”

“Professor Monaco, I’m getting a meal for Flane too.” Monaco turned to look at Kuren, with an eyebrow raised. He gave an extra bowl of soup, a little skeptical.

Kuren took the two bowls and started walking back towards Flane. He paused. He began to think about the vial of poison in his bag. Should he do it now? Kuren shook his head. It was too early. It was the very first day. They hadn’t met any flowers, so it would be too suspicious for Flane to be poisoned now. Kuren would have to wait until they ventured deeper into the forest.

Kuren handed the bowl to Flane and turned away. As Kuren walked away, Flane kicked Kuren’s right ankle. Kuren screamed out in pain and fell, dropping his bowl of stew. Kuren looked at the spilled stew on the ground while his ankle throbbed in pain. How many times has his poor ankle been hit? As Kuren got up, Flane laughed together with his friends. With gritted teeth, he went back into line to get another bowl of stew.

“…I hope that you don’t seriously expect to get another bowl.”

“No, I just spilled my bowl, so I wanted to-”

“Enough. We are not here to gorge ourselves on food. Get yourself ready. We’re moving soon.” Kuren angrily walked away. As he swore he would get revenge on Flane, Melodi walked up to him.

“Hey clumsy. You know I don’t mind if you have some of my stew, right?” Melodi smiled winningly at him. Kuren was already starting to shake his head when Melodi leaned in and whispered, “You know I mean that you’re going to some, no matter what you say.” Kuren stopped and nodded his head in defeat. Kuren walked with Melodi where she and her friends sat. He sat down and Melodi tried to spoon-feed him some of her stew.

“No, please don’t do that.” Kuren tried to protest. Kuren really didn’t want to drag attention to himself. Melodi put her spoon down and narrowed her eyes. “Do you really think you have a choice?” As Melodi leaned in, Kuren suddenly became aware of a certain boy hostilely glaring at him right now. He nervously swallowed. Melodi leaned in once more and gave him a spoonful of stew. Kuren closed his eyes and ate the stew.

Flane was watching from a distance. He was absolutely wordless. That Kuren was being spoon-fed by Melodi right now. That Kuren. Spoon-fed. By Melodi. One of Flane’s friends, Dennius, noticed that Flane’s bowl was shaking.

“Hey Flane, are you all right? You’re kind of shaking right now.” Dennius asked Flane.

“What the hell do you think?” Flane flung his bowl at Dennius.

“Hot HOT!” Dennius danced around as the hot stew landed on him. Flane looked shocked as Dennius tried to get the stew off him.

“…sorry man…” Flane whispered to Dennius. Dennius looked back at him and smiled.

“Don’t worry about it. Just don’t get so heated all right?” Dennius told him. Flane nodded his head and looked back at Kuren. That bastard. He was going to make that little prick pay. He smiled as he thought about the next activity. They were going to fight monsters near the chasm. Knowing Kuren, the little coward would probably try to avoid fighting altogether. Well, Flane wasn’t going to let that happen. His grin grew wider. Enjoy your time with Melodi, Kuren. Because you’re going to be spending time with some of the locals next, Flane thought.

* * *

“Have you found him?”

“Yes, milord. We’ve found his tracks. He seems to be fleeing further south.”

“Is that so? If we don’t stop him now, he’ll reach Centulus.”

“Would he really run to the human capital? Doubtless they are searching for him too.”

“If he manages to make it to Centulus, this entire operation will be over. We are already far too close to Lombania to my liking. The city of Lombania is notorious for its abundance of spellblades. We need to capture him now.”

“Very well, milord. Also, we also have found something interesting within the forest.”

“What is it? Spit it out.”

“A group of students is camping near here. They wear the insignia of Lombania on their clothing. There also seems to be three mages accompanying them, perhaps their teachers? The group seems to be planning on heading to the chasm.”

“Are there any others?”

“Yes, but the other groups are scattered. They are too far away to interfere.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Remove the trash.”

“As you wish, milord.”