Chapter 247: Speculations (1/2)

After he finished speaking, the early birds among the remaining newly enlisted students darted towards the portals. The students were teleported to the northern, western, southern, and eastern regions of the grizzly bear mountain range as each portal led to one of the four safe zones established by the royal frost fall academy.

'This examiner isn't simple. He is an A-rank mage. Maybe he is one of the Academy's Dean? Or a friend of Headmaster Yeon.' Whittaker's thought with narrowed eyes when he saw that examiner Rio cast a spatial spell without summoning his spellbook.

Only A-rank mage can assimilate with their spellbook. A mage can use elemental or special magic by himself once he has assimilated with his spellbook. All the spell pages become a part of an A-rank mage, after all, but that's why an A-rank mage is a thousand times rarer than a B-rank mage.

”I believe that each safe zone will be located at a similar distance away from the dungeon which is located in the central region. So there's no problem in choosing any of the portals, as we'll have to cover the distance to the central region ourselves. So let's take the same portal. That the way we will arrive at the same safe zone.” Shadow said to his teammates as he stood before the portal leading to the southern region.

Each portal is connected to different safe zones and they will split up if they won't take the same portal. Besides, the Grizzly bear Mountain range is very vast and spans over a thousand miles. Thus, it would be troublesome to locate the party members if they split up.

”Sure,” They naturally agreed with his decision as they were all sensible.

Shadow took the lead as he jumped inside the portal. Then, Whittaker and the rest also followed and jumped inside the same portal, one by one.

A second after taking the portal, they were transported to a campsite suited in the southern region of a vast forest with many overgrown trees and bushes that stretched to the horizon. The safe zone they had just arrived at was just as big as the training ground they just came from.

They looked around and saw that this place had a few shops seeking items at an extrovert price and a magic barrier that stopped beasts from entering the safe zone. Four war towers were located at each corner of this safe zone, and weapons that shoot out steel arrows, mana bullets, and magic beams were spotted at the top of these buildings. These weapons shoot down beasts that tried to leave the mountain range and head to the trading route.

Lastly, the portal they used to appear here was still open. That means they can head back anytime they want to.

It was the first time most of the students had arrived on another planet, and even for Quinn, it was a significant difference compared to the shelter he was at before. The streets were full of people walking left and right, with the children by their side.

”This safe zone resembles a fortress. It's like a mini fortress!” Yato said, ”I wonder why there are so many defensive system installed in this place, and there are also so many powerful mages and battle master.”

”I think they're overdoing it with the defenses.” Ruth couldn't help but say what he felt after he saw wide magic barrier that surrounding the entire safe zone, and the various things in his surrounding.

”Yeah, there are so many war weapons and even high-ranking mages and battle masters. It feels like they're here for another reason, rather than just providing a safe zone to us students,” Peter said as they walked through the streets bustling with students and guards.

Almost all the students here had some kind of beast gear on them. Though only the richest ones were fully equipped from head to toe with beast gear suitable to them.

”It's for protection,” Shadow said. ”If you carefully look around you, you'll notice that most of the guards stationed here belongs to the nobles family belonging to the cities located nearby this mountain range. Most likely, all of them were send here by the noble families to protect the trading routes in case we are too weak to hold our own against the monsters coming out of the dungeon. They will kill any creature that is about to escape the mountain range and enter the trading routes shared by the nearby cities.”