"Ugh…"The moment I woke up, I immediately winced as a splitting headache lanced through my skull. Holding my head, I tried to sit up, only to collapse back down from the intense throbbing.
"Ara? Are you awake?"
A gentle voice spoke up above me. For a moment, the throbbing abated slightly and I realized there was something soft cradling my head.
Blinking my eyes open, I tried to look upward, only for my vision to be slightly blurred when I realized my gla.s.ses were gone. Even with my sense of sight impaired I could make out Anastasia"s pretty face staring at me from above.
"…Ana?"
"Oh, good. You recognize me. Seems like the injury to your head isn"t that bad after all." Anastasia nodded, pleased. "You were really lucky. To have survived even after being carried off by the blizzard like that."
"…blizzard? Did they carry me off to Blizzcon? Are they going to announce Starcraft 3?"
Anastasia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you"re definitely all right."
"I guess." Closing my eyes again, I savored the soft sensation below my head. The pain was dissipating slowly as I gathered mana to reinforce and repair the damage dealt to my head, and I suddenly realized the reason why I was feeling so comfortable.
Anastasia was giving me a lap pillow. She had my head nestled on her lap, while the rest of my body was spread out on the ground. Presumably to ensure I didn"t have any broken bones or whatever. Fortunately, everything seemed to be in order. I tested my limbs to make sure they were fine, and other than a few bruises, cuts and sc.r.a.pes, I was virtually unscathed.
That was a lot better than I expected. I had thought I would at least wake up with one leg heavily bandaged because of a sprain or something. As it turned out, I didn"t even need anything for my head.
"Whoa, I managed to survive a blizzard without suffering much serious injury?" I raised a hand to my head as I sat up, not wanting to exploit Ana"s kindness further. "Well, it seems like I have one h.e.l.l of a concussion, though."
Fortunately, with mana, I should be able to accelerate my healing. It wasn"t healing magic – all mages were capable of speeding up their body"s recovery processes. The more serious the injury, the longer it took to heal, which was why healing magic was so vital – also, healing magic helped restore lost limbs, destroyed organs and other stuff. It was a miraculous kind of magic that was capable of doing almost everything just short of reviving the dead.
It wasn"t my calling, though. I personally knew I didn"t have the apt.i.tude for it. I did take a healing cla.s.s once in Jing Tian High, and dropped out almost immediately. If I had continued, I would have completely flunked it.
"Where are we? How long was I out?"
"The Den of Dragons," Anastasia replied ominously. She glanced at her smartphone. "Hmm, I"d say you were out for a couple of hours at most. Not too long."
"Thanks." I struggled to sit up as I continued to ma.s.sage my temples in an attempt to coax the annoying headache away. Fortunately, the pain was gradually subsiding. "You saved me."
"No, actually…I didn"t." Anastasia gave me a look. "You got blown here. I followed you into the Den of Dragons, found you here, and decide to take care of you until you wake up. But I didn"t save you at all."
"Huh?"
"You were fortunate to fall into this chasm." Anastasia pointed upward and I saw that we were surrounded by ice walls. "I doubt the dragons will bother looking into here. Even if I hadn"t shown up, you would have been fine if left alone. You"ll just wake up and get out of here by yourself." She nodded and raised both of her hands. "So technically, I didn"t intervene. You"re still in the qualifiers. That is to say, you"re not disqualified yet."
"Hmm, okay. Thanks, though. I still appreciate you comng down here to accompany me." I glanced up, but I couldn"t see anything beyond the sheer ice walls. Perhaps I should summon Corvus and send them flying up to take a look. Not that they would be able to spot my team. "What about my friends?"
"From what I know, they are safe and sound. They will be moving on to Olympus City. I"ve a.s.sured them that I"ll keep an eye on you, so they will go on ahead of you."
"Wise choice." I nodded. Harrison would know how to lead the rest of the group. There was a reason why he was the captain. As for me…
I caught sight of a few of the Horned Boariceratops lying motionlessly in the abyss. Evidently they had been blown into this chasm by the blizzard, but unlike me, they didn"t survive the fall. Yeah, well…I couldn"t blame them. If this was a game or story, they were "mob characters" (a term I really hated because it just disregarded every living thing in this world and condemned them as insignificant), and I had plot armor protecting me.
Honestly, there were no such thing as mob characters, no matter how much Meatb.a.l.l.s insisted. Each monster was a potential threat, especially if I let down my guard. Similarly, the people in this world did not exist for me to beat up and defeat, no matter how much readers like Meatb.a.l.l.s insisted they did. That was blatantly disrespecting them, and completely unrealistic.
Unfortunately, that didn"t change the fact that they were dead, so I clasped my hands, uttered a prayer (to G.o.d for Christians, to Buddha for Buddhists, to Allah for Muslims), and then summoned Gemini to begin carving them apart.
"Oh?" Anastasia sent a curious gaze in my direction.
"No point letting the meat go to waste. And we should eat before we leave." I turned toward her. "You joining me for a meal doesn"t count as intervention, right?"
"Nope," Anastasia confirmed with a shrug. "Well, this is an emergency, so we have quite a lot of leeway as to what we can do in this particular situation."
"Okay." I nodded, and grabbing a few branches and twigs that had scattered into the abyss along with me and the Boariceratops, I created a fire. I wasn"t as skilled as Dong Fang Yue Chu or Bu Fan, but I at least knew the most basic of fire spells. It literally took me just a snap of my fingers to create a small spark and set the dry wood ablaze.
After that, I went to work on skewering the pieces of meat. Feeling awkward when she just sat there doing nothing, Anastasia joined me and helped with roasting the meat over the fire. She giggled as she watched the meat slowly change color.
"Boariceratops meat is supposed to be highly nutritious."
"Oh?" I glanced at her. She shrugged.
"That"s what I heard."
"Hmm…"
Even though I read quite a bit on monsters from various encyclopedias, none of them mentioned monsters as delicacies. So my knowledge regarding their nutritional value or taste was sorely lacking. On the other hand, Anastasia had been rasied as an a.s.sa.s.sin, and no doubt a major part of her training involved throwing her out into the wilderness and leaving her to fend for herself. She must have needed to hunt monsters for food in order to survive.
That was also the reason why she was so good at tracking my team and keeping an eye on us. If she hadn"t shown up to help us against Rei and his disciples, I would never have known that she was following us the entire time.
"…outside influence, huh?" I murmured. "I suppose the blizzard counted as external influence?"
"That"s right." Anastasia nodded before she nibbled away at a chunk of warm meat. "That"s why I have a lot of leeway in helping you…until you rejoin your team. Well…to a certain point. The moment we leave the Den of Dragons, you are on your own."
I nodded. "Fair enough."
A distant roar rumbled from somewhere above, and the both of us tensed. Taking a deep breath, I turned the skewered meat over in my hand as I felt a sense of dread crawl over me.
"This isn"t going to be easy…"
*
"We made it!"
Dong Fang Yue Chu breathed heavily when the whole team, minus me, strode through the doors of the Olympus City center. Many of the teams who had made it were resting there before taking the train to Aurora City. Well, those teams whose members were all accounted for, anyway.
"Yeah, we sure did." Theodore nodded, feeling an immense sense of relief as he looked around, almost as if he couldn"t believe that they were able to reach their destination.
"I never doubted us," Lily declared with a bright smile.
"Is everyone all right?" Harrison asked, checking on his team and carrying out his duty as captain.
"I am," Cody said softly.
"No injuries here," Craig a.s.sured him.
"None for me too," Lily added. She smiled at Pearl, who was still looking a little crestfallen. "It"s all thanks to Pearl"s healing magic."
"…but Richard…he"s not here." The blue-haired healing mage was unable to suppress a guilty look.
"A mere blizzard won"t kill him," Bu Fan said dismissively. "I wouldn"t worry about him if I were you. Knowing him, he"ll show up in dramatic fas.h.i.+on on the very last day, arriving just minutes or even seconds before the deadline."
Yue Chu gaped at him in disbelief, momentarily dumbfounded. When he finally found his voice, he tried to work his mouth.
"I can"t believe that you, of all people, have so much confidence in him." he then rolled his eyes. "And please don"t give us that main character and plot armor bulls.h.i.+t. This is reality."
"Well, putting that aside…" Bu Fan waved Yue Chu"s words away with a flourish. "The guy can nuke entire mountain ranges and wipe out hordes of rank A monsters. If there"s anyone who can survive the Den of Dragons, it"ll be him."
"Even if it"s Richard, he still has to be careful." Harrison was pondering thoughtfully. "He can"t recklessly use his Strategic-scale spell, or he"ll be in trouble when another dragon shows up. Never mind a dragon, he"ll be too exhausted to fight the other monsters that show up after he nukes the Den."
"That"s where the rescue team comes in, right?" Craig suggested hopefully. Sheila smacked him.
"Even if they send a top rescue team, they"ll have difficulty trying to extricate him from a horde of monsters. And it"s not as if they can teleport to his position immediately after he nukes the dragons. a.s.suming they survived following him through the Den of Dragons. Even the most skilled mercenaries avoid the Den as much as possible."
"That green-haired mercenary seemed extremely skilled, though." Theodore seemed to be gazing into the distance. "I daresay Richard is in good hands."
"…that"s true. We can only hope and pray for the best." Harrison nodded and sighed. Before they could continue, one of the tournament staff stepped forward, his military uniform immaculate and his short-cropped hair hidden under a purple beret.
"Congratulations on pa.s.sing the qualifiers!" He declared. He stared at their winter coats for a moment, realizing that he couldn"t see their school uniforms under the thick winter clothing. So he had to do this the hard way. "Um, which team are you guys from?"
"We"re the team from Jing Tian Academy," Harrison reported without hesitation. The soldier blinked for a moment, as if realizing something.
"Wait, that means…you"re the team who encountered a blizzard and almost got run over by a stampede of Horned Boariceratops? Yet all of you managed to arrive here safely?!"
"…not all…" Pearl"s shoulders were slumped. The soldier stiffened when he sensed the mood of the team, and he lowered his head apologetically.
"Oh…I"m sorry." He softened his tone. "Don"t worry, we have tournament staff stationed all over the forest. I"m sure they"ll be able to rescue your friend. For now, you guys should go get some rest, and get ready to depart for Aurora City once we bring back your friend."
Everyone stared at him in wonder. It was as if the soldier was a.s.suming that it was only natural for the mercenaries or tournament staff to rescue me and bring me safely back to the Olympus City center. That was quite the confidence they had.
Slowly, they began to feel a bit better and more a.s.sured. That was right. They should have faith in the authorities. Well…not exactly, but you know what I mean. Just like how you believe an ambulance will show up when you dialed the emergency hotline, or for the firefighters to arrive to extinguish the flames on your house, that sort of thing. I ain"t talking about politics here.
Harrison handed the tournament staff the badge, and he nodded in approval. He scanned it with his smartphone, and verified the ident.i.ty of our team.
"Good, I"ve confirmed that Jing Tian Academy has successfully pa.s.sed the qualifiers, especially since you"ve returned with the badge, and more importantly, with sufficient members of the team. Again, allow me to offer my congratulations. We"ll all gather back here, in the main hall, on the last day, before we proceed to Aurora City."
"Roger that."
With that, the staff dismissed the team, and they began to head back toward the dormitory they were a.s.signed to. As they did so, a familiar figure popped up.
"Oh? Aren"t you guys from Jing Tian Academy?"
It was none other than Ding Ke Po from Divine Divination Academy. Everyone turned to glare at him.
"What do you want?" Craig demanded.
"No, nothing. Just offering my congratulations to you guys for pa.s.sing the qualifiers." He then paused for a moment and crowed. "But you"re still slightly slower than us!"
"Yeah, yeah." Bu Fan was irritably waving the guy away. "If there"s nothing else, I"m going to hit the sack."
"Hmm?" Ding Ke Po stepped aside to allow Bu Fan to pa.s.s, but he noticed something was amiss. "Where is the guy wearning gla.s.ses? The one with black hair?"
"Richard?" Yue Chu shrugged. "Doing his own quest…he"ll catch up with us later."
Ding Ke Po paused for a moment, his sharp intuition allowing him to form a picture of the truth. He then smiled and shook his head.
"I wouldn"t worry about your friend if I were you. According to my extensive knowledge of astrology, that Richard fella is a child favored by the stars. He won"t die so easily."
"You"re an astrologer?" Harrison asked skeptically.
"I mean, he"s from a school called Divine Divination Academy," Yue Chu pointed out dryly. Ding Ke Po chuckled.
"That"s right! That"s why I say, don"t worry!"
"We might have to worry a bit, though," Cody remarked glumly. He was consulting his smartphone. Looking up, he sighed. "According to the rules, if Richard doesn"t make it before the deadline in four days…if he arrives in Olympus City after the deadline, then he will be disqualified."
That meant, if I didn"t hurry, I wouldn"t be partic.i.p.ating in this year"s national tournament at all.
Richard… Pearl clasped her hands in prayer, closing her eyes briefly. Where are you…?