CHAPTER 30 - Encounter

Nearly five hundred meters away from where Azyl lay unconscious, a second-year student stood on a tree, a panicked look on his face. He had lost track of the student, who had suddenly started running towards the inner regions of the forest. He had been keeping a close distance to monitor the student when he had found him rushing to the lake. But he would not have thought that the boy would dart to the deeper regions. Was he crazy?

He could not understand, but right now, he was in trouble.

The senior students that were in the forest all had only one task. They had to be on the lookout for these newcomers who would take their initiation test and had to ensure their safety. Although the beasts had been cleared out, the academy still had sent these students as a precaution. But as it was called to be a task, it was arranged to be a competition amongst the students.

The students had to roam around and note the performance of the newbies. They would ensure to protect these kids, but also observe and report on their performance later. This was a way to find out if any student had a latent talent that might emerge in such an environment.

It would grant them points based on tasks and the number of students they observed. Like preventing any harm to the students or making sure no student performs any underhanded tricks while ambushing other students or even tracking one student from the start and completing a general report on every action of the said student. The seniors could choose from these tasks in advance.

In this manner, the academy would get a complete report about how a student performed and also maintain a competition between the senior students while protecting the newbies as well. But the second year student who had lost track of Azyl right now didn't look good. He had selected a really high tree to keep a lookout for the students that were in this batch and managed to note down three incidents till now. But when he had started following Azyl, things started getting troublesome for him. His task was simply to overlook the general situation in an area and there had been no problems till now. But his luck was too bad this time..

It confused him when he saw the kid running towards the lake. From afar, he could not recognise that he was poisoned and failed to intervene fast. But when he started running crazily toward the inner regions, he was even more stupefied. He immediately picked his speed to stop the student. He then quickly realised his speed could not catch up with him. The kid looked like he had taken some potion.

Panicking for a moment, he then followed to search for the kid and bring him back. But a few moment later, he heard a loud growl that was frighteningly close.

Immediately, he turned around and rushed back, afraid of that growl. Caught in this dilemma, he had no choice to accept his situation. He then quickly rushed back to the academy, to report this incident.

......

Azyl felt he heard a cry, but it did not sound human. More like a whimper, something a beast would let out. But that was not possible, right? Was this the cry from that scary-looking wolf like beast? Who could make it cry like that? He wanted to open his eyes and look, but his head hurt a lot, so he again went back to sleep. He felt that wasn't in any danger now so might as well sleep a little. Even the close encounter with danger failed to make him give up on sleeping.

A few hours later:

He did not know how much time had passed since he passed out. Slowly he felt awake. No longer affected by the poison, he was conscious.

The first thought he had was that it must be well over the time limit for the initiation test. He must have failed in the last phase. When he realized this, a strange feeling overcame him. It wasn't a sad or underwhelming feeling. He felt strangely motivated now that the initiation had ended. He had given his best in it. The last phase tested the meticulousness and resources that a student could use under pressure and he had uncovered at least one tablet. Even thought he messed up later, he felt he did his best.

Now that it was over, it motivated him to do his best this year to try for the next initiation that would take place and get into elemental class. He would not slack regularly, only rarely. And then he would get the chance to study elements and become capable of performing all the amazing feats he had heard and dreamt of.

Filled with new courage and determination, he had almost forgotten the situation he was in when a voice broke him out of his reverie.

"Oi stupid guy, what got you smiling like that? You realize that you would have been dead if it wasn't for me right? Why do you weak people even try to venture deeper into forest without knowing your own limits" The voice definitely sounded annoyed and close to him.

He did not recognize the voice.

He cracked his eyes to observe where he was now. Looking at the rock ceiling above his head, he guessed it was a cave. As he slowly sat up, it surprised him to see a girl staring at him. She held a stick in her hand, which he immediately judged was a strange choice for a weapon. Why would anyone use a stick? It seemed no fun to him.

"Um, Hello?" He spoke to her in a light voice.

"Oh goshhh! What do you mean hello? Do you even realize what kind of danger you had landed in? If it wasn't for me, you would be dead right now, probably in that Frost wolf's stomach. I hate people like you who overestimate themselves, only to end up in a disaster." she exasperated. He noticed how she repeated her dislike for weak people.

"Uh okay. My name is Azyl. Are you perhaps a senior student from the academy who was exploring in the deeper regions? Can you help me go back to the academy?" Azyl could not understand why this person seemed to be so irritated. He never had the concept of weak and strong people. He did not consider for a moment that the girl was implying him to be weak. In his perspective, he had ended up in that situation because of his carelessness. Its not as if he would have willingly ventured into the forest.

He decided not to bother her for her comments. She looked to be older than him, so he thought perhaps she was a senior student.

"What academy? Why were you even in the forest when you haven't even entered the first stage of cultivation?" She seemed confused at his response and fired questions back at him.

Azyl was confused now. Quickly thinking about his present situation, he realized that she was not from the academy. But then he remembered what she had spoken about: cultivation. Also, those cries from the wolf earlier made him think she must be a powerful person-maybe even an elementalist, who was not from the academy. This was the conclusion that he arrived at, but he had no general knowledge about levels among elementalist. Neither did he know where could she possibly be from. So he decided to ignore that as well and just get her help to get back to the lake. From there, he felt he could find his way back.

This kind of thought process defined how optimistically Azyl viewed the world. He di not consider the girl could be someone dangerous or even consider he might be in danger. Having lived in his village, loitering around, he was a prime example of being a plain white sheet. If Zewoulf were here, he would face-palm himself looking at his conduct.

Azyl just wanted to go back to find out about his result more than uncovering the identity of this mysterious girl who could be a cultivator. So he slowly got up to ask for her help, when another voice came from outside, interrupting his actions.