Two weeks were too short for Jack to come up with a perfect solution for Agos. In general, he could only teach Agos how to breathe and absorb through pores on the skin to limit the mana loss from the crystals. Whatever the case, there weren’t enough crystals for him to do more experiments. Later, Jack would only allow them to absorb the crystals by holding them in their hands to cut costs. Once they reached Jack’s mastery, they could direct the mana flows through their respiratory system.
It was much easier for Thomas as he had been practicing the same things as Jack, from physical exercises to mana manipulation. After two weeks, all three reached the improvement Jack had targeted.
Currently, his stamina allowed him to throw three mana-imbued cobblestones before succumbing to exhaustion. No matter how good his fundamentals were, he still couldn’t exercise the technique of compressing particles like Julia. Jack’s best result right now was launching dust in a cone shape with more power, a relatively useless technique.
Before he knew it, the field trip was upon him.
Lavia Garden was situated East of the city, in the same direction as going to school. After gathering and doing the checklist at the school campus, fifteen students were picked up by the carts, each with five and a supervising teacher. Usually, there would be teachers of different factions to tag along and examine the students' practical combat with suggested tests. However, some departments of the school were too busy with their tasks, leaving only the Maesters and Artificers to participate in this field trip.
Jack was disappointed about the supervising arrangement because in the last two weeks, he had only managed to learn about the Maester and Nightblade, reaching 15% and 30%, respectively, on the progression bar. His Arcanist and Warrior knowledge were coming to a halt because nobody had taught him anything. Arcanist because the principal was too busy, Warrior because it was too practice heavy, books weren't helping much.
Besides Thomas and Agos, the cart carrying Jack also had two other girls. The teacher was no other than good-old Julia. She had tied her hair up, leaving her robe behind for more mobility and comfortability, and instead, wearing a shirt and trousers with a small rectangular shoulder bag beside her. She was so afraid of Jack's troublemaking skill that she had volunteered to supervise this cart carrying this special student of hers, so much so that she even ordered the crew to keep silent the whole time.
The seat on Jack’s side was quite cramped because of Agos’ broadness and the heat coming out of the big round boy from facing the girls. Thomas didn’t seem to pay them any attention, but Jack could see his eyes glancing at the girls every few seconds. Jack didn’t bother to judge his seatmate or the girls. He simply stayed quiet like Julia asked and closed his eyes to practice breathing, preparing for his best condition. He was really looking forward to a confrontation with the monsters of Lavia Garden. It made him smile remembering the first battle in his previous life. He had wet his pants when the vines of the carnivorous flowers had managed to grab his legs, pulling him toward its jaws. That had almost been the end until Emily showed up and saved him. Everything had begun that day.
Julia squinted her eyes when she saw Jack’s suspicious smile. She noticed the mana flows around Jack being stirred up.
Principal Meinhard was right. He is better than the average student, Julia thought.
The cart moved off the road some ten minutes later. Traveling through the trail made it much shakier. Agos and Thomas hung on to their seats, not wanting to make a fool of themself stumbling down in front of the girls.
Ten more minutes and the cart finally stopped. Julia asked everyone to get down.
The students were instructed to line up before the Lavia Garden.
The garden reminded Jack of the zoo he once visited back on Earth. The outside was marked by an iron fence with barbed wire around it, creating a net. An arch gate was at the front, leading into a cubic-stone-paved road decorated with two lines of trees and flower pots on each side. The garden was of fresh green color. One could see from a distance sky-scraping trees reaching up, spreading out their shade, almost covering the whole area. Deep inside, the sounds of crashing waterfall hitting rocks created mighty echoes, reaching as far as the front gate. The air was cool and refreshing; taking a breath here was enough to comfort the body.
Saying it reminded him of the zoo because Jack could see pathways branched into the garden, dividing it into small areas where monsters were kept behind fences. Thomas told Jack that the central part was deeper inside the garden, where everyone could observe the monsters living inside a basin.
Julia stepped forward and took on the leading role.
“Due to the lack of a Warrior teacher,” she said, “the practice battle test will be postponed. However, the Maester’s poison experiment will still be conducted. You will get to choose your monster to experiment on. I will evaluate your results based on your reports.”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
She took out from her shoulder bag fifteen small pouches like the one she had used during class. Distributing them to the students, she said.
“They’re still anesthesia poison. Don’t raise your voice and ask me for something more dangerous. I know how recklessly stupid you can be.”
After finishing, Julia nodded to the other four teachers and led the students into the garden.
The students walked through the arch gate. Jack immediately felt the strong sense of earth and plant life surrounding him. By his side, Agos was slapping his belly and commending.
“Eating here would be awesome!”
“We don’t have that much money, Fatino!” Thomas said.
“Can we have a picnic here?” Jack asked.
“Of course. If you have the money, you can hang out here, enter the cage to kill the monster, and even have a grill party.”
“How can your penniless asses ever have a taste of that,” Patrick said beside Jack, his voice as condescending as ever.
“You…” Thomas came forward.
“Let it go, Thomas,” Jack stopped him.
Jack gave Patrick a glance and returned to his friends. Patrick wasn’t showing his usual grumpiness; he only smirked with his escorts by his side. Besides Pascal, there were two more. Of course, none was as beggarly as the poor kid.
The main path branched into smaller ones to visit different beasts and monsters. Every time he passed by a new cage, Jack would read the notes and observe the animals. Cobalt Crocodiles had tough skin, much like their name. They were rarely hunted and killed but instead bred and raised to produce hides. The Evil Vine immediately whipped toward the students, but was stopped by the fences. Barthtooths lived as small herds like a bunch of furry balls rolling around, but when they showed their teeth, they frightened everyone. And then, there was the Raging Blaze Gorillas. Their massive body and beautiful fur made Jack want to touch them. But, there was a reason for their name, as their grumpy faces always threw punches covered in a red flame at the fences, making a blue protective barrier flash up when the students walked by.
Eventually, everybody arrived at the basin. The sight below surprised Jack. The deepest part could go as much as twenty meters, the shallowest ten. In the center of it was an enormous floating black monster chained to the ground. Its head was slippery like a snake; its tongue moved in and out while sleeping with lengthened half-closed eyes. Its teeth were like those of the Barthtooth, sharp and uneven. Its four arms dropped down; they were skinny, their fingertips attached with razor-sharp claws. The creature had no legs but instead tentacles of different sizes.
“Cavernwraith,” Thomas said, “The strongest being in the garden. It took five low-rank Crusaders to capture and bring it back here.”
From the position of the Cavernwraith, the basin was divided into fan-shaped areas, each with its own ecosystem. One was flat and fertile, the other a dry desert, others dark and swampy, or perhaps barren and mountainous. Right under Jack’s spot was a green grass field with a small stream running through and a four-horned beast crouching down, enjoying the fresh water.
“Four-horned Boar,” Agos said, “A formidable opponent if you want to graduate.”
“Yes,” Thomas said, “the Hedgehog Mole was easy enough in comparison.”
“What does a Hedgehog Mole look like?” Jack asked excitingly.
Before he could answer, Thomas was interrupted by Julia’s angry roar.
Jack saw Julia say something to the other four and told the students to stay put. After that, the teachers all scattered away in different directions.
Thomas hurriedly ran toward the student group closest to Julia and returned.
“There are problems with the fences,” Thomas said, “some mana barriers are becoming unstable for some reasons. The teachers went to check on them and will return shortly.”
Agos startled, his chubby cheeks shaking.
“We’re so unlucky. On the bright side, this is the basin, the monsters locked in here don’t know how to fly. If they do, we’re screwed.”
“You and your stinky mouth!” Thomas frowned.
Jack looked around and only saw fourteen students. One of Patrick’s escorts was missing: Pascal. Patrick was holding something like an antenna in his hand, pointing at the basin.
“Quickly!” Patrick shouted.
The kid on Patrick’s right shot a stone at Jack. He had been channeling power and caught Jack by surprise. Jack turned his body, dodging the projectile while noticing a figure suddenly appeared under his eyesight. Pascal threw an uppercut kick at Jack’s left ribs. Unable to respond in time, Jack found himself flying in the air and falling down the basin.
The scream of Thomas and Agos echoed in his ears. Jack’s body was rolling by the cliff side. Jack peeked and concentrated his mana in his arms. He tried to position himself to land with his arms instead of anything else. Every time he touched something, the push from the arms helped him bounce back up and roll in the air before coming down for the next landing. Some three times like that and he found himself falling by a small stream. Even before Jack had a chance to catch his breath, he was startled.
“Oink, Oink.”
“Damnit, Patrick!” Jack grunted.
The four-horned boar looked at him curiously. Its breaths grew stronger and noticeably closer.
Jack pushed himself to his feet. He could feel his organs in shambles. His ribs were cracked and a flow of red hot liquid was pouring down from above his temple. He positioned himself facing the waist height but bigger-than-he-thought beast. The creature bowed his head, pointing the horns at Jack, its legs bent to gather strength. One second later, it charged toward him.