Chapter 47: Returning to the Academy (1/2)
Chapter 47: Returning to the Academy
The group of six headed to the edge of the forest, now that they had completed their 3 days. If they could protect the monster cores until they reached the outside, then they would be able to finish the assignment perfectly. And since the academy would not take the cores, they would be able to use it for themselves.
Traveling on the road, Jian Chen and the rest were very cautious. This was the crucial moment, since they could be ambushed at any given time. Jian Chen and Tie Ta were still full of life but Changyang Hu and the others were not in the best shape. If they were to be attacked by another strong group, then a fierce battle wouldn’t be avoidable, which was what Jian Chen wanted to avoid.
Jian Chen walked down the road with Tie Ta behind him while the rest followed in a straight line as they reached to the part of the forest where the white enchantments of the forest rippled outwards. With the end of the 3rd day, the enchantment had suddenly transformed to help the students who were lost to find their way here.
Jian Chen’s soul was lashing out around him as he checked his surroundings. The 3rd region was not as quiet as the 2nd region. Not only did they have to protect themselves from magical beasts, but they also had to protect themselves from other students. Other students were waiting around for the perfect moment to strike. So because of that, the closer one got to the entrance, the more dangerous it became. After all, the enchantment was showing a hole in itself to help lead students out, so many of them were trying to leave the forest and made themselves an open target for those other students waiting to ambush them.
A few hours passed, Jian Chen and Tie Ta were getting closer and closer to the 3rd region’s exit. The whole journey had been fairly peaceful, although at regular intervals, they’d encounter a magical beast carcass. Sometimes, there would even be 2-3 magical beast corpses lying in the same location.
A few hours of rushing later, Jian Chen’s group of people finally arrived outside of the 3rd region’s exit. They smoothly passed through and entered the 2nd region. At this moment, everyone could not help but sigh in relief. They all understood that their monster cores were secured, because after leaving the 3rd region, no matter whether or not others had gathered the required 2 monster cores, their task was complete. There was nobody here that would dare to steal their monster cores.
“Haha, I hadn’t imagined that the journey would be so peaceful. This was really against my expectations.” Changyang Hu happily smiled, his tone also carrying a hint of excitement.
Aoba also happily said, “That’s right, and here I’d thought that we’d fall victim to some surprise attacks. I didn’t think that the path would’ve been so calm. It really goes against all expectations.”
Darian reached his hand out to touch his Space Belt and smiled, “I guess the people stealing monster cores in the 3rd region had suffered from injuries, and didn’t have the energy to keep stealing from others on the road. In addition, most of the people probably have the same mindset as us, only stressing self-defense. As long as we safely leave the third region, we’ll be satisfied. None of us are interested in the idea of stealing monster cores anymore.”
“Yea, that’s right. What you said makes sense.” Tie Ta nodded in agreement.
Jian Chen shook his head and said, “The situation is not necessarily as you think it is. Actually, throughout the whole journey, there were still some people lying in wait along the way in hidden places ready to ambush us, you guys just didn’t notice them. Those people who were hiding in the darkness perhaps noticed that we have a large number of people, or they didn’t have the ability to discern our strength, so they couldn’t determine if they could destroy us. That’s why they didn’t make any movements towards us. Otherwise, there’s no way we could’ve safely left the 3rd region.”
Hearing this, the people’s expressions all changed.
Changyang Hu let out a long breath and said, “It’s a good thing fourth brother made sure we put on perfect acts of being completely undamaged. Otherwise, if the people knew that the four of us were injured, then I’m afraid we wouldn’t have been so fortunate.” Hearing this, Aoba and the others nodded in agreement, and looked at Jian Chen with gazes filled with respect.
“Alright, we should hurry up and leave. After we return back to the academy, you guys need to properly tend to your wounds.”
The group of 6 continued to walk towards the 1st region. As they got closer to the exit, the nearby academy gradually entered their lines of vision. Although there were definitely many people that had been unable to endure the task and gave up on it in the middle, at least 1000 people had entered the forest together. Even if more than half had given up, there were still at least a few hundreds of people remaining. However, the mere hundreds of people spread out in the enormous forest rarely met each other, so it was rare to come across others that had decided to remain in the forest.
Jian Chen’s gaze swept across the people around him that were similarly heading out of the 1st region towards the academy. He saw that most of the males sported naked torsos, and were covered with wounds. However, without any exception, all the people were in sorry states; their naked torsos were covered with dirt, and their faces could not be discerned with all the filth covering them.
Only some of the females still wore the academy uniforms. However, every single one of the uniforms had become beyond dirty, and there were tears all over the clothing. Even a beggar’s clothing was better than theirs. In addition, they used wide leaves to cover the parts that their clothes didn’t, making them look like extremely sorry figures.