Chapter 5: Survive
Their faces contorted in shock and concern, but something unexpected happened.
"Wind walk." A voice of a familiar tone echoed in their ears, and they felt being dragged by the hands quickly, but they didn't resist after seeing their savior.
It was a beautiful young lady looking around the same age as them. She had beautiful black hair and hazel eyes, attired in a green dress that concealed armor underneath.
"Thanks, Luna, you really saved us there," Sam acknowledged with a pant.
"Yeah" Adam chimed in.
"It's nothing," she dismissed it casually with a charming smile. "Someone was using strong suppression magic to hide those attacks' presence. I was trying to find that person, and I succeeded. It's her." She pointed her finger at a girl in the distance who was panting heavily, and beside her were people who seemed like her friends sharing their magic with her.
"She will be quite a trouble to deal with," Adam remarked to both.
"Yeah," Sam concurred.
"But she's too dangerous to ignore. I know you both don't have mana right now, but with the three of us, we could bypass these guys and reach her. I'm sure that we can defeat her in hand-to-hand combat," Luna justified.
And with that said, the trio ran forward, heading towards the girl. Her state seemed not so good, but she had some of her friends beside her, which could be troublesome.
Adam swung his mighty scythe at the people who headed towards them while Sam was distracting them and deflecting any weapon that was coming towards them, while Luna was taking care of people that were at long range. Although they were being eliminated, it was tiresome and time-consuming. But somehow, they managed to bypass these people. Luna boosted Adam's speed, who headed towards the girl with suppression magic.
"Time's up. All students shall cease combat this instant," the examiner shouted.
Many thanked their luck, while some cursed theirs, and our trio was one of them.
"Now... The second round of the examinations, the survival test begins," the examiner shouted once again.
This came as a shock to everyone; they didn't give any time to rest or replenish their energy. So many didn't even care and cursed out loud, but there was no reply.
The ground lit up once again with a similar pattern to the last time, and they were engulfed in a blue light and teleported to a different location. The destination was unsurprisingly a forest in which everyone was teleported to different locations. The forest had large trees with thick canopies; they had all sorts of weird flowers and fruits, so they didn't know which one was poisonous and which one was safe. They would need a wide variety of knowledge to know this, which most of them didn't have.
"Alright, everyone, the second round is a survival test. You need to survive in this forest with all kinds of plants and beasts for a week. Of course, attacking other teams is also allowed. If the number of survivors reaches a certain level, the round would be instantly over," the examiner said. "And a little word of advice, the deeper you go, the fewer chances of survival."
This test seemed easy, but it was easier said than done. The forest was filled with beasts, and most of them would attack at sight. This would make them use mana, and if the attacks were continuous, it would completely drain their mana and tire them. And if that happened, they would need to consume food, and they didn't know what was safe and what wasn't, making the test extremely difficult.
Some of them understood the fact, and some still thought it would be a walk in the park, which was quite wrong, as they were all separated, and the monsters surrounded them.
The trio was also separated; they were at a considerable distance from each other, and there was no guarantee that they would even meet at some point.
Adam got teleported to a place that showed no signs of people, but there was water 5 km away. Although the walk would be tiring and probably dangerous, he wouldn't survive without any water. He was already tired, and all his magic was depleted. So, first, he rechecked the area for any beasts, but he didn't find any nearby. So, he instantly started to replenish his mana. As all his reserves were completely depleted, it would take at least an hour or so to fully replenish it. He sat in a cross-legged position and quickly got into a meditative state. He started to absorb the mana that was in the area. And after around 20 minutes, he opened his eyes and drew out an array that would give him a signal when a beast or a human enters around it. And after drawing this array out, he closed his eyes once again and entered into the meditative state and started absorbing the mana around. The forest had slightly more mana than the outside, and from the looks of it, it would be 0.25 times more, which was although a small number but did help him absorb more mana quickly.
Over half an hour had passed since he closed his eyes the second time. Suddenly, his eyes flinched, and he felt a surge of energy rushing through him. He was at the peak of mid-stages in the intermediate plane before, and he was very close to his breakthrough, but he already stopped it once, and now that he already set up an array that would signal him when danger approached, he was somewhat at ease but not completely, as stopping midway sometimes endangers the person.
He took a deep breath and started to concentrate. A deep breath marked the onset of intense concentration.
---
Something was going on outside. A wolf-like creature slowly lurched towards Adam. Although it was quite far away, it wouldn't take much time for it to reach him. It seemed like it engaged in an inconclusive battle, injured in the eye, and some scars on its body. It could be concluded that it's reserves were not at the peak. If the fight continued, there would be a chance that both beasts would die, so both sides backed off and returned to their respective areas. But the area of the wolf was the same place Adam was currently going through a breakthrough.
---
Soon, ten minutes passed, and Adam finally finished his breakthrough. But he heard something it was like a beast was running towards him, but he couldn't see it. He could easily sense it, and it seemed like it was walking towards its domain, but the thing was the energy he was sensing that of a beast which was at the very peak of the intermediate plane. As soon as he sensed it, he tried to flee; the energy was very close, and he could be considered quite lucky; there was no way he would win a fight against it. So, he instantly tried to run away from the area, but as soon as he ran a couple of meters forward, the body of the beast became visible. It was a large wolf which was injured in its left eye and had minor scratches here and there. The second the wolf saw him, it emitted a fierce growl and ran towards him.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone