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~ Room 666, Dormitory of Artemis University

The rays of orange sunlight shone through the windows, only to be diffused by the curtains, illuminating the small room with a feeling of warmth.

I stretched my arms out as I sat upright from my bed. After the morning ritual of yawning and rubbing of eyes, I looked over to see if my roommate came back and was still sleeping… but alas, there was nobody there. However, she did come back at some point in time, as one can tell from the now empty and roughed up bed. Guess I was too late?

*Snap*

Now I remembered - isn't there that club gathering this morning? I jumped down from the bed but was still a bit wobbly. I pulled open the curtains, revealing the vast school campus bathing in the morning light… wait, it's not early anymore, the suns are already halfway to noon! I have still yet to pack my stuff, and walking there takes so much time, I'm going to be very late… unless, I have a plan...

No point wasting time staring at the beautiful scenery through the window, I quickly grabbed my small bag of clothing and threw inside whatever things I would think I need for the little trip! My heart is already beating so fast at the thought of the events coming up. Is this that excitement that children feel when going on a school trip?

After a quick shower, drying myself with magic and using telekinesis to levitate myself so that I can wear my clothes simultaneously, I took my bag and opened the window. I tensed and enhanced my muscles with a little magic, then forced them as hard as possible to push myself from the window, jumping off the building. Like a jet plane, I blasted myself through the air with wind magic while greatly reinforcing my body to be able to withstand the huge acceleration forces.

“WEEEEEEEEEE!”, I exclaimed as I flew through the campus at the speed of mach 1, getting a good view of the campus while protecting myself with an aerodynamic shell of solidified air. Though, the sightseeing took no longer than a few seconds.

I spotted my destination and also a small group of students gathering outside, seemingly to wait for someone… or me.

---

Ed said that we have a new member joining us for the trip this week, and he had just joined yesterday when Pion and I were at our classes.

This new guy, Earth, apparently saved him and also helped fight back the idiotic earth mages, well, as Ed described, “absolutely humiliated them”. He said he was a prodigious mind mage, though he does seem to know some other strange magic, like being able to create an “invisible barrier”. For some reason, he also emphasized that he has beautiful hair too.

Personally, I don't have much problems with having a magic-user join our team. Logically speaking, he would be great defense against other mages, and he would be a great addition to our small team of four. Though I'm not sure how reliable and lasting that defense could be.

Given that Myan had accepted him and Hylia allowed him on our team, there shouldn't be any more problems… though he sure is late. We have been waiting for almost an hour now. Did he get lost on his way here?

“Sooo, when is he coming?”, Pion asked as he sat on the ground, playing around with his little monkey.

“He must be on his way here already… Guh, it's my fault, I just told him to come here in the morning, I didn't specify what time it is… but Myan said that he would be here in a few seconds...”, Ed replied, looking down.

A few seconds? I don't see anyone in the vicinity, nor did Dyoll sense anything either.

Out of the blue, something caught my attention in the sky. It was a large, unusual looking bird… flying abnormally straight. Wait… that's not a bird! Is that a person?!

He was flying straight to our location, and seems to be slowing down and descending… and he starts falling down from the sky at an extremely fast speed, right into our location.

Without warning, large booms resonated through the campus. Deafeningly loud noise, almost as loud as a Banshee’s cry followed right after, forcing everyone to cover their ears, and even made Dyoll hide back into my bag.

In the midst of the noise, the thing that was falling then landed in front of our lab with a loud crash, creating a small crater in the brick floor.

“Hello everyone, sorry for umm... that, and being a little late?”

---

That was definitely a lot of noise that I created while flying, I mean, I was flying at the speed of sound right above the campus. I apologize silently to anybody who was still sleeping at this time.

Nonetheless, that took up no more than a third of my mana reserves, by using wind magic to blast myself to such high speeds was the most draining part of the whole trip and flying for just a few seconds already uses up so much magic. I really do need to optimize this flying magic once I have the time to do it.

Ed and Hylia was still shocked by the airshow and there were two other students that I have not met before. One a bespectacled, smart-looking reptilian with a little red dragon on his shoulder, and the other a smaller, more playful-looking cat-eared boy and a orange monkey sitting on his lap. They seem to have regained their composure and the cat-eared boy looks to be quite excited, while the reptilian went to shake Ed and Hylia back to life.

“Aah- Ahem! Ah yes, you haven't met them yet. So, Earth, our head researcher here is Lloyd with his fire dragon Dyoll, and our elf here, is Pion, with his monkey Gion. Lloyd and Pion, as you may already know, this is Earth, our new member.”, Ed eloquently introduced as we moved along. Hmm, so nekomimis are elves in this world. One would have thought that elves have a tall stature and sharp, long ears. Maybe this is a variant? He is pretty cute with that blonde hair and cute, fluffy ears.

As we made through the campus to the gate, there were whispers and discussions about, talking about the earlier noise and some even said that it was the wrath of the lightning god or something.

We quickly got through to the east gate, where even the rumors have reached. The rest of the team was staring at me as if I was some monster that has descended.

“Fine, I’ll try not to do that again, alright?”

We boarded a carriage, while Ed said to the driver, “To the Forsaken Woods, please.”

The driver immediately started moving out, driving through the city gates to the rough road outside. It was the same road that I had traveled on my first day and now I'm travelling back. I watched as the scenery slowly passes by as I relax to the sounds of nature and the cool morning air.

…

After a few hours of travel across the plains, we have reached a part of the forest where it turns into woods, with trees taller than buildings. There seems to be an old rock path leading further in.

I had been briefed on how to get my own companion on the way here. Ed said that it was an ancient ritual, with the instructions left behind by the forefathers of the Magical Beasts Research Team, which for a period of time, was left abandoned with no members, until Ed revived it. He also warned me not to disclose any information about this to anybody else, but I could be trusted since Myan said so.

The ritual is quite straightforward. It only has a location requirement, that is a certain place in this forest, and it is where we are heading right now. One has to blow a particular horn at the location, which was left along with the instructions, and one may hear or feel echoes of magical beasts that are compatible with you.

After hearing the echoes, it is just the matter of finding out which one feels the best, meaning that you would be more compatible with that particular magical beast.

After hiking across various obstacles and avoiding possibly dangerous magical beasts, in which was warned beforehand by Lloyd’s fire dragon, Dyoll, we reached a large clearing in the woods. It was a huge circular clearing of just grass and rocks, but that was not what attracted my attention.

It was a large tree in the middle of the clearing. A huge tree, as high as a skyscraper, was planted right in the middle. It was just... ginormous.

“That is a world tree. Impressive isn't it?”, Ed commented, looking at my expression.

As we walked down into the clearing and towards the world tree, I could see a little wooden house near it.

It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight.

The closer we got to the world tree, the larger it felt. The trunk was just huge, and the top was as high as my eyes could see. I could feel the overflowing level of mana in the surroundings, just peacefully flowing around the tree and into the ground. It feels like I am in the heart of the forest.

“As you can feel, this place is overflowing with life. We usually come here for training, but this is also where the ritual is held. We use this lodge which was left behind by our forefathers for our stay. It's not huge, but it's big enough for all of us.”, Ed explained while we went into the lodge.

“Wooh! Finally here!”, Pion exclaimed in joy together with his monkey Gion as he ran into one of the rooms.

“Take a rest. You will do the ritual after lunch, so go and find a room first.”, Hylia told me while she went into the kitchen.

I looked around, it does not have much, but it is still quite a large lodge. The main living room was large and had a high ceiling, reaching the roof itself.

There was just a long corridor with all the rooms and at the end of the corridor, it leads to an outdoor natural hot spring. It was enclosed in wooden fences, and the water seems to come from upstream which leads into the world tree. The water then flows off in a small stream to the outside. The ground was paved flat with rocks, and one could feel the warmth of the rocks and tell that the hot spring had been running non-stop for god knows how long.

Now that is another reason for me not to disclose any information about this place to anyone else.

I picked the room nearest to the hot spring and as I placed my things down, I realized that there wasn't a lot of dust, if any at all. The air here was so clean that there isn't any dust around, and there simply was no need for any cleaning and upkeep of this lodge.

After a quick dip in the hot spring, which was warmed up to the perfect temperature, we headed back to the living room for a quick lunch.

“There is this spot up near the world tree that has the best conditions for sounding the horn. Once you're up there, just blow as hard as you can into the horn. You'll know the echoes when you experience it.”, Ed advised as I followed him up towards the world tree.

He pointed to a spot up in the world tree where there seems to be platform. I climbed up a ladder built onto the tree, while Ed and the rest stayed at the bottom.

It was a small, flat area at the end of the ladder where the branches were parting from. It is really quite high up here, and I could even see the dirt road where we had came from, and the whole of the woods around us. There was also a mountain range not far either.

However, admiring the scenery is not my goal here, right now.

I could feel a lot of mana gathering at this area even compared to the clearing below. This feels like a convergence point for the mana from the flow from the branches. Not to mention a 360° view of the woods too.

I readied myself as I took the strange looking horn, made out of a shell of some sort, and blew into it as hard as I could.

It was loud. The sound itself could be heard echoing around, but that is not what I was looking for.

I waited for a reply. I could almost hear my own heartbeat.

“Wuuuuuu~”

It was a sound wave of a low frequency but it felt like it was directly resonating with my heart itself. Rather than hear it, it would be better to say feel it.

After some waiting and focusing, there were a few other of these resonances, and there appeared to be large movements in the woods. Trees shook in different spots in the distance, and birds flew and cry as things started awakening. Gahh- I must have attracted some high-level monsters now…

However, there was one resonation that stood out from the others.

It was a high-pitched resonation, unlike any other. As if it was metal. It pulled on my heartstrings so hard, it was as if it was calli- screaming at me.

Without a single doubt, at that moment, I knew that it was the one.

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