Days flew by like dust in the wind and soon it was the night before the festival. The food stalls and restaurants were lively as groups of friends hung out and had fun as they waited in anticipation of the incoming event.

However, the air was filled with tension as the freshmen who registered for the treasure hunt all gathered together with their respective groups discussing their plans and preparing however they could.

Just as the headmaster promised, students who will participate were given a layout of the area that will be used for the treasure hunt, giving them an idea about the terrain.

This crucial information allowed them to tweak their plans even further and because the information was public, everyone was on an even ground.

Now it was all up to who can be the most crafty and who can improvise on the fly.

It was now 7PM in the evening. While there were students heading back to their dorms eager to bring this day to a close, most of the freshmen population were still outside talking and brainstorming, but mostly just trying to settle their nerves.

Among these students were William Wright and his friends Mary Vallen, Julia Dean, and Sharn Glinthorn. The group of four were gathered together on a stone table under the light of a lampost.

“So, does anyone have any questions?” William asked as he retracted the image of the map projected from his ID.

“Tomorrow is the big day so if you still have things you want to add or disagree with now would be a great time to voice them out.” He continued.

All three of his female friends were in deep thought until Mary suddenly raised her hand.

“Oh okay, what is it Mary?” William smiled.

The serious looking girl wearing a tiny red beret then looked at William and adjusted her thick framed glasses. William still feels a little intimidated by Mary's outward seriousness and the circumstances of their first meeting was something he is clearly still embarrassed about.

“My question isn’t really about our plans, since despite how much we muse about what we are gonna do during scenario A or B, it is quite naive to think that things will go exactly our way.” Mary began her dialogue.

“But I want to know, what do we do in case one of us gets chained up?” She asked as she once more adjusted her glasses.

William was now silent and trapped within his thoughts. This was something that lingered on his mind as well.

The traitor barrier was definitely something he was worried about, it essentially gave them pseudo “lives” to worry about. And those lives are dependent on how much time there is left since it would take 30 minutes for you to be freed.

Sure you could cast spells, but trying to fight while chained up is like trying to box with both your hands tied behind your back.

As Mary and William were racking their brains in silence, Julia suddenly decided she wanted to join in.

“Why not just carry whoever is knocked out with us?” She asked in a happy and almost oblivious tone causing Sharn to shake her head.

“Yeah and just cause whoever is carrying to get all chained up as well? Good plan Julia.” Sharn replied.

“I think we have no choice but to retreat immediately so we won’t all get wiped out, of course with the one chained up in tow.” Sharn suggested.

“But we’d still be waiting for them to be free so we’d be wasting time anyway.” Mary pointed out.

“Yeah, this is pretty troubling.” William interjected in a very lamenting tone.

He then hung his head low and let out a depressed sigh. Right now he simply didn’t have the answers.

“Cheer up William. I don’t think it’s gonna be that bad!” The pink haired Julia cut into the conversation.

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“I doubt we’re the only ones nervous about. If anything I think those snobs at the Clarentum Inquisitors have it worse than us! Just think how much they will look down on any of their downed members.” She continued.

“Yeah I guess you’re right Julia.” He replied.

“Then I guess this whole worrying business is pointless huh? We can’t really plan everything out in the end so why not just throw caution out the wind?” Julia declared in her cheerful voice.

“Julia’s right." William agreed. "We should really stop over thinking this.”

William and the other two then turned their attention to the petite girl wearing an oversized hat. The almost ever silent and ever monotone Sharn finally joined the conversation.

“After all, as long as any of us holds the treasure box oncee the time limit expires, we all win.” She explained as a matter of fact.

“So if, for example, we manage to snag the box early in the game we should all just focus on running away and avoid as many fights as we can. But I think the best strategy we can do is to try and choose our fights.” Sharn continued and then paused for a little.

“Unless of course, you too want to be called a “hero” of this festival and beat everyone in combat.”

William suddenly went silent and looked up at the fake night sky that encompassed Inanis Orbis. He let out a sigh and then smiled.

“Well, maybe. Just a teensy tiny bit.” William admitted while scratching the back of his head.

“But yeah, thanks girls. This really seems like pointless mental gymnastics and I’m just stressing myself out.” he declared.

“Yeah, we should just relax and think about it tomorrow.” Mary agreed.

All of sudden, the three of them were caught off guard by Julia’s sudden loud scream.

“Guys Look! Look! Look! Isn't’ that cuuuuute?!” She said in a loud, high pitched voice as she pointed at something not too far off from where they were sitting.

The three then turned their heads to the direction Julia was pointing and soon enough they saw a small creature scurrying about underneath the light of a lamp post.

it was a white rabbit that was happily jumping around and eating the grass underneath its feet. It’s ears were lowered, dragging on the ground.

“Awww, I wanna pet it!” Julia then stood up and quickly approached the cute and fluffy creature silently minding its business.

“Oi! Be careful and move slowly. You might scare it, you know!” William called out to Julia as she suddenly stopped on her tracks.

“I-I know that! You don’t need to tell me hmmph!” She replied as she started tiptoeing towards the rabbit.

“Slowly.. Slowly..” She chanted in a hush voice as the gap gradually got smaller. Soon she was less than a meter away from the rabbit when it suddenly scooted upwards and faced her revealing something weird.

The rabbit’s other half was coated in black fur and was split smack in the middle. It was like someone painted half of the poor animal with black paint as some sort of sick joke.

However this little quirk didn’t dissuade Julia who still thought of it as something really cute. In fact she found it even more adorable now.

“Awww, look at him. All black and white!” She said as she continued to fawn over the little critter who continued to nibble on grass while looking at her general direction.

Julia made one more step closer to the rabbit and suddenly it immediately ran off.

“Oh no! Come back! I’m sorry for scaring you!” Julia suddenly freaked and gave chase.

Her friends then started chuckling over her blunder and watched in delight as she tried to chase the rabbit in vain.

“Julia!” William called out.

“You’re scaring the poor rabbit even more now! Let it go!” He said in a slightly mocking tone.

“You guys should just stay quiet! I’m going to pet this rabbit no matter what!” She declared with an amazing furor.

The rabbit continued to evade her approach, but it didn’t outright run away. For some reason, the rabbit would stop for a short while and let Julia get closer. Once she’s within a meter or so of the rabbit it quickly moves away, but it doesn’t seem to be running at its full speed.

Soon Julia managed to coerce into moving towards a lamp post. The rabbit ran towards the base of the lamp post that was shaped as a simple concrete cube that held the post in place and hid behind it.

The rabbit went behind the base and hid from Julia’s sight.

“Hehe.. I got you now you fwuffy wittle creatuwe!”

For some reason, Julia started baby talking and admittedly it was kind of disturbing whenever she slurred her words.

Closer and closer she got to the lamp post, but the rabbit didn’t seem to move away from it causing Julia to think that the rabbit was tired and simply gave up.

“Aw yeah now’s my chance! Come to mommy!” She declared as she ran full speed only to find that the rabbit had disappeared from its hiding spot beneath the lamp post.

“Huh? Where’d the little critter go?” She said as she continued to search round and round the lamp post.

“Give it up Julia!” Mary called out to her.

“It’s late and we really should be going back to our dorm!”

“B-but the rabbit disappeared!” Julia complained.

“Forget it.” Sharn interjected. “It was probably some sort of endemic magical rabbit creature that can only be found in Inanis Orbis. I mean it did disappear underneath your nose right?”

“Aww bummer. Oh well. Let’s go back to the dorms then. I’m sure I will meet that cute little creature again! I can feel it! It’s fate!” Julia exclaimed as she ran towards her friends.