3rd Person POV :

Deep inside the forests of Eletril, multiple carriages came to a stop, each containing half a dozen students. One by one, the students withdrew from the carriages.

“Hey, wake up. We’re here,” the blue haired drake shook Ryoto awake. The others had already left the carriage and were admiring the view outside.

Ryoto slowly opened his eyes, and promptly jumped up from his seat holding up his fists. Upon realizing where he was, he relaxed, allowing his fists to drop, “Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright,” she waved his apology away. “Come on, the others are waiting outside,” she beckoned him to follow her as she too exited from the carriage.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Ryoto followed her instructions. Once outside, he glanced around for any threats, but all he found were the strange moving trees of Eletril. Seriously, it was like those things had a mind of their own.

“Alright everyone, in a few minutes you will be split up into your assigned groups and may head in any direction you like. A maximum of three groups can team up together, especially when you go looking for the mana heart. You cannot and will not face it alone, am I understood?” Professor Jonah instructed. They would have to intervene if someone decided to fight alone.

A series of nods answered him. “Alright, you may begin.”

“So, which direction do we go?” Hazel asked, stringing her bow.

“North-West,” “We need to go to the North-Western side of the forest.” Ryoto and Zach spoke in tandem, before glancing at each other.

Ryoto backed away, “Lead on, Zach.”

Zacharias nodded in gratitude, reaching into his backpack. He brought out a circular device, with a needle pivoted in the center. A compass.

Glancing through the corner of his eyes, Ryoto noticed two other groups heading West; Ashy, Frank, Azemption and Brena.

Using it’s navigative capabilities, the group of six headed North-West. 

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“Okay, this is getting ridiculous!” Hazel snapped as she stabbed the eye of a Simian Ape with an arrow. Those little shits had been plaguing them for hours. 

“...” Regulus had no words. He just swung his spear, keeping the monkeys at bay, every blow hitting harder than it had any right to.

“Don’t panic, Hazel. These are D-Class beasts, they shouldn’t be much of an issue.” Ryla reassured her, lightning arcing through her sword ever so often.

“Yeah, these monkeys are hardly a challenge. Relax, will ya?”  Ryoto snarked, hacking and slicing with both of his daggers, one ablaze with purple flames and the other coated in a clear liquid.

“Try saying that when all you have are arrows.” Hazel shoots back, glaring at the two.

“You also have a bow.” Zach pointed out, swinging his pole in an arc and sending a wave of compressed air forward.

Ryoto stabbed one of the apes through its chest, “Here hold this for me.” With his hand now free, he unsheathed another small dagger from behind his waist and hurled it towards Hazel, “Use that for a while.”

Hazel grabbed it from the air and stared at it for a while, “I don’t know how to use a dagger.”

“Wing it,” Ryoto retorted, turning back towards the dead monkey. “Thank you,” he pulled out his dagger from the corpse and returned to his one-sided massacre.

Hazel grumbled, this was not the way to learn melee weaponry.

“You guys are pretty strong.” Alaya commented, her whip swirled around her like a snake wreathed in fire.

“Considering some of us trained our asses off for years, I would be concerned if we weren't.” 

“Ryan, please watch your language.” Zach pleaded, Ryoto was too foul-mouthed.

“No thanks.”

Zach sighed, he’s not getting Ryoto to stop anytime soon is he?

“Their numbers have thinned considerably, it shouldn’t be long before we can rest now.” Ryla sighed in disappointment; seriously? Bickering in this situation?

“Thank god.” Hazel sighed in relief.

“We should be nearing our destination soon too.” Zach replied, just a few hundred more meters.

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Sure enough, they reached a clearing just a few minutes later. The apes had given up a while ago, choosing to retreat when their numbers reached dangerously low levels.

“Our first priority is finding water.” Zach stated after a while, having let the others rest. Not like most of them needed it though.

Hazel nodded, “I’ll get to it.”

“I’ll go look for some game then,” Ryoto jabbed a finger behind him, resting his other hand on the pommel of his dagger, “Zaiden, set up a campfire, Alaya can help you get the fire started.”

They both nodded back.

“Ryla, could you fly up and scout the surrounding area?” Zach asked.

“Sure. That way I will also be able to keep an eye on you guys.” Ryla stretched her wings out, put the goggles Hazel gave her on, and shot up into the sky.

Zach followed Hazel, planning on giving her a hand, while Ryoto walked into the forest, trying to mask any noise he makes while at the same time making sure he was invisible to the untrained eye.

.

.

.

Hazel could sense a faint amount of concentrated water mana nearby. Deducing it could be a water source, she walked towards its general direction, with Zach following her.

“So Zach, “ Hazel began, gaining his full attention, “How did you and Regulus meet?”

“Oh, I heard him mumbling about Sanctity on the streets one day, and decided to ask him about it. We’ve been friends ever since.” Zach replied a bit too quickly.

“You heard a random stranger talking about Sanctity and decided to become his friend?” Hazel repeated, dumbstruck.

Zach nodded vigorously, “Yes, why what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Hazel shook her head, “That’s perfectly normal.”

.

.

.

Regulus placed his palm on the ground, and a conical dome arising in front of him. It took him a few seconds to get it done, with a hole on one side. 

He stood up, “W-We need to get s-some dry wood and leaves.”

Alaya nodded, “Yeah, it shouldn’t take very long.”

They ventured into the forest, picking up dead leaves and branches from the ground. Alaya was right, and they were soon back with no issues.

.

.

.

Ryoto jumped from tree to tree in complete silence, fast enough that no animal would see him. He was following a wild bear, a dangerous animal to face. Well, dangerous for those who don't have magic, that is. There are few beasts with no mana in them, bears being one of them. This animal, who had once been near the top of the food chain, had fallen to the bottom.

He narrowed his eyes. The bear was directly under him, all it would take was one swift move. He jumped down, dagger held tightly in hand, aiming for the back of its neck. The blade met its mark, tearing through flesh and bone and severing its spinal cord. 

It died instantly. Ryoto pulled his dagger out, before driving it in again to confirm the kill. Satisfied with his work, he sheathed the dagger, but not before wiping the blood on it’s fur. He went to pick it up, stopping midway. He’d have to drag it all the way to the camp.

He sighed, accepting his fate. 

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Ryla POV

As I flew into the air, I was able to notice a few things off in the distance. There were only a few hours left before it became dark so there were already a few trails of smoke going into the sky. The other teams must have already started their fires. The closest one to our camp was one a few miles away; it looked like it was close to some sort of river or stream. I should probably tell Hazel about this. 

While I flew a little bit north-east of the camp, I noticed a good amount of bushes growing in between the gaps in the trees. We had to gather 7 or so herbs, so I might as well check and see if one of these is what we needed. There also seemed to be some sort of camp in this area, so I decided to land here.

As I landed near the center of the small camp, I took off my goggles and walked over to where 3 people were standing.

“Hey, you’re Ryla right?” one of them asked, noticing me and turning towards me.

“Yes,” I responded to him, ”and what was your name again?”

“Galhann, Galhann Maus.” he responded. 

“So that means you are… Marin, right?” I asked the cat beastkin standing next to him.

“Yep, that's me.” Marin said back.

“And I’m Rey, my teammate is out looking for some food,” the one named Rey told me.

“So, what brings you here?” Galhann asked me. “Is the rest of your team here too?” 

“No, it’s just me. I was scouting the area around our camp and looking to see if I could find one of the 7 herbs while I was out. Give them a surprise.” I told them.

“Them? Did you also team up with someone?” Rey asked. 

“Yep. My group joined up with Ryan and Hazel’s groups.” I said.

“Oh, nice. That means you guys have one of each element plus a fire, right?” Marin said back.

“Mhm.” I replied.

“So, how many of the herbs have you guys collected so far?” Galhann asked me. 

“None, actually. We were a little busy fighting some of the Simian Apes, didn’t get around to it. Have you guys collected any yet?” I questioned back.

“We, have actually found 2 of the herbs already. They grow a good amount over here because of a small hot spring.“ Rey's tone carried a tint of pride as he answered me. “You could probably pick enough for your team there, it's right over there.” 

“Thank you.” I told them, smiling. 

“No problem!” Rey said back.

I started walking out of his camp and towards the small bushes near the springs he had pointed at.

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3rd Person POV

After about an hour, all of them had returned back to the camp they had made. Ryla had been one of the first to return and showed Regulus and Alaya the herbs she had collected. 

“How did you find all of these Ryla? No matter how much we looked, we didn't find a single one of them!” Alaya asked her, curious about how she did what none of them could.

“I ran into one of the groups and they told me where I could find them. Pity there was only one though.” Ryla responded back to her. 

“T-that's not a problem, n-now there's only 6 herbs left, r-right?” Regulus asked.

“Yep. Also, the fire is looking pretty good.” Ryla told them, glancing at the dome.

The campfire they had built was burning decently well, and there was a stack of wood for the fire a few yards away with an earthen dome covering the top of it, leaving just enough of a gap for someone to be able to grab some from the pile. 

“Most of the work was done by Regulus. I swear he carried 2 entire trees worth of wood in one go,” she said, impressed with how much wood they were able to gather.

“...” Regulus wasn’t sure how to respond to that much praise.

“Well, I’m going to go back to scouting, and watch the camp from up there.” Ryla said, pointing at a tree.

A few minutes later Ryoto returned, carrying the corpse of a bear back to the camp, and started cleaning it.

“I-is that a bear?” Regulus asked, pointing towards the corpse.

“Should feed us all for a few days, unless the meat spoils.” Ryoto told them as he was cleaning it.

Ryla jumped down from the tree and helped with cleaning it. 

“Hey Ryla, what do you think about smoking the meat tonight after cooking some?” Ryoto asked her.

“I mean, sure, but how would we even smoke it? We don’t really have anywhere to do it.” Ryla replied.

“Regulus could probably make another earthen dome, we could hang the meat up there and put some fire in while we sleep. It normally takes about 6 to 8 hours to smoke meat anyway.” Ryoto said.

“A-and how are we going to cure it? W-we don’t have any salt with us.” Regulus told him.

“Sugar can actually be used to cure meat.” Ryoto answered.

“Where did you learn that?” Ryla asked him.

“I saw it in one of the books Zach was reading the other day,” he responded.

“That's great and all, but where would we get sugar?” Alaya questioned them.

“I’ll go look for Hazel and Zach.” Ryla responded, realizing what Ryoto was implying.

Once Ryla was out of sight, Ryoto turned back to the meat and started cutting it into small portions.

“I guess it would be easier to just smoke it without curing it,” he said.

“What? Why didn't you say that earlier?” Alaya questioned.

“Zach and Hazel needed to get back here soon anyway. Plus, I’m kind of curious to see if she actually brought some with her.” Ryoto told her.