Chapter 256 - Field Training
"There is, only that it's rarely encountered." Jenny glanced at him with suspicion. "I didn't think you'd be so knowledgeable."
"My older brother mentioned it." Arthur nodded, lying with a straight face. "The guardian spirit of truth, only the headmaster gets a chance to meet them."
"And a few lucky ones." Jenny walked back toward the cafe. "The champion of each year gets to meet the guardian for a reward."
"What kind of reward?" Arthur furrowed his brows.
"Enlightenment, they say. The reward is the knowledge that would make you a master. That's why everyone cares so much about the ranking."
"But there was no mention of a championship when the ranking was introduced." Arthur hurried after her. "Does that mean the ranking isn't the deciding factor?"
"Ugh, you ask too much." Jenny stopped and pointed at him. "The top fifty people compete at the end of the year for the championship. That's why ranking is so important. That will be all for today. I'll report back to Yurirl, you can go back to studying."
Before Arthur could ask anything else, she was on her way back to the cafe. He sighed and turned around to head back toward the academy.
Even as he did, the gaze never left him. It was at that time that he remembered Lilo's ability to elude his enemies. He helped Arthur before, so why couldn't he do it now?
'Lilo, can you create a barrier like last time?'
'Zzzz...' He was sleeping and Arthur chuckled. He used his mark to wake him up.
'Mm, what is it, master?' Lilo woke up and Arthur repeated the question. 'Yes, I can. But there are certain conditions.'
'Like what?'
'The barrier is immobile, so you'll have to stay in one place. It's also limited in range, depending on the illusion you'd wish to create. If someone enters the barrier, it'll be broken immediately.'
'Mm, that's no problem.' Arthur sighed in relief. 'I'll need you to set up a barrier later, so rest before you do that.'
Arthur sent a text to Sarah to set up a meeting in the library later that night. As he returned to the academy, he saw many students chatting excitedly about something.
Sadly, everyone avoided him at the moment. He had to look for Oliver to tell him what was going on.
"Field Training!" Oliver exclaimed excitedly. "Every year, Jerano receives many requests to either uncover mysteries or conquer the remote dungeons. The college allows us to take part in them as training."
"Are there any rewards?"
"Hehe, other than fame and prestige, what do we even need?" Oliver said but continued when he saw Arthur unconvinced. "We get Jerano Points and merit points based on our accomplished tasks."
"Uh-huh." Arthur nodded absent-mindedly. "I still don't see why everyone is so excited. They can hunt in dungeons all they want."
"It's because this is one of the few chances we have to hunt in the academy." Oliver shook his head. "Students aren't allowed to leave in their first semester unless it's on the field day. Most people use that to have fun outside. I guess you don't know what Jerano's students' privileges are."
"Privileges on the outside world?" Arthur furrowed his brows.
"Yes, Explorers Badges! They're allowed to go everywhere and act as the law! They're even higher ranked than most police officers."
"Wouldn't someone abuse this?"
"Well, that's why there was an interview. Those who would abuse this authority would get eliminated." Oliver slapped Arthur's back. "Rejoice for there are a lot of women after Explorers."
Arthur smiled and didn't say anything. The two walked together toward the cafeteria where they ate. As they were eating, they received a notification with the list of tasks.
Arthur skimmed through the list and found that they have been categorized for places and ranks. They were ranked from F to A to S and he couldn't accept any task about the E-rank.
There was a note below that explained the tasks rankings depended on their ranking. So, he couldn't accept rankers that were unbefitting of his strength.
He didn't mind, however, as he didn't care about these tasks more than the ability to head outside. He filtered the places he can go to and chose the Yalveran Union.
There was a single task in his home city, Kera. As he read the task's contents, Arthur grinned unknowingly. This incident was still on his mind so it was finally a chance to look into it.
[Help investigate the Undead incident in Mountain Range Rovero. You will be reporting to the Golden Warhammer Guild and The Yalen Kingdom about your findings.]
'It seems the pig's guild couldn't keep the incident from the eyes of Jerano. That's their guild? Golden Warhammer?' Arthur read the details and signed up for the task immediately.
"What?" Oliver looked at him with amazement. "You took that boring tasks? Why didn't you take a dungeon break task or something? It would bring you fame and also experience."
"Mm, I want to take it easy." Arthur then looked up for the field training day. It was in a week. He would have to make preparations to either strengthen his goblins and Kira or move them away from harm.
Arthur left Oliver in the cafeteria and headed toward the library. This late at night, not many students would be there. Coupled with the fact the field training has started, the library was almost empty.
Arthur sat and waited for Sarah, who approached and sat a table away from him. They stayed that way, reading, for an hour before he asked Lilo to construct the barrier.
"What did you find?" Arthur stood up and sat next to her. As nervous as ever, Sarah took out a book from her storage ring and handed it to Arthur.
"Mythical Creatures Worshipers," Sarah told him the title of the book, which was in a foreign language. "It's on page 147."
On the page, Arthur saw a mark identical to the one Jaran had made. Beside it was ancient writings in a language he couldn't speak.
"I've translated the page, here's what it says." Sarah offered the paper. "It's about religion in Thiria. They worship mythical creatures and study how to communicate with them."
"What about this mark?" Arthur took the papers and started reading through them. It was indeed about religion in Thiria, the biggest one even. It was about creatures that are revered as gods and their companions being considered prophets.
"The mark is for worship. It resonates with the Mythical Creatures in the area they are drawn as a form of communication. They are mainly used to reach out to those creatures."
"That's it?" Arthur asked with a frown. "There's no other functions for this mark?"
"None at all." Sarah nodded. "Am I mistaken?" She asked with nervousness. Arthur shook his head and thanked her. He left the library, breaking the barrier, and headed toward his room.
When he was there, he started reading the translated papers in depth. It was as Sarah had said, a mark to communicate with creatures. This proposed more questions than answers.
What did the Enders plan to do with these marks? Was there even a Mythical Creature in the forest? Even if there was, what would they need it for?
He thought he was getting close to an answer, but there were only more questions. The Enders were after the Key, so this creature might know something about it or in possession of it.
Even though it was late at night, Arthur left his room and headed toward the Runes Research Department. Even at this time, the rune masters and students were all over tweaking their runes or studying their lines.
Arthur headed toward the library and started looking through basic teleportation books. Even though there were no books that offered the different versions of this rune, there was plenty of information on how they worked and how to create a teleportation circle.
Arthur wanted to move his goblins either to another place or to his fortress. He also wanted to create an artifact or a circle that would let him travel from his fortress to his dorm.
These needed teleportation circles. He started reading the explanation on how the runes exactly worked. In a book called Basic Space Runes, he read how space was morphed into something tangible and manipulated.
For teleportation runes, the main aspect of space manipulation was folding. These runes were specialized ones that would act to fold space and compress it between two points, allowing the creation of portals in between those points that would instantly teleport people from one point to the other.
As for circles, they were different in the way that they allowed more space to be folded. Storage artifacts were different, as they would act to expand the space. These two were opposite to each other. That's why their principal was intertwined with one another. These concepts were novel to Arthur, making him stay all night to study them.