The mist of the Misty Mountains was even more dense in the morning. Indeed, the dew evaporated, which further densified the fog, reducing visibility to a minimum, at less than five metres.

Worse than that, the densification of the air coupled with the scarcity of oxygen linked to altitude made explorations difficult for most people, even arcanists.

Without forgetting the wild fauna, which is very often deadly when one encounters a predator, which are present by thousands in the region.

The flora, mainly composed of pinaceae, covered the mountains with their shade, except for the rocky peaks. Ferns could also be found, as well as many mushrooms of different families, some of which were toxic to humans, while a few remained edible.

At the edge of this forest was a medium-sized hut. Made entirely of pine woods, about thirty people, adults and children alike, had taken shelter there for a night.

They were woken up very early in the morning by the woodpeckers communicating through the trees, which annoyed the less early-morning people.

In particular Sora, who was looking for her alarm clock all around her to stop it. Unfortunately, she couldn't find it, which was logical as she didn't have one.

So she quickly gave up the idea of stopping her alarm clock and decided to go back to sleep despite the almost deafening and continuous noise. An impossible mission...

So she stood up, her hair in a mess and her eyes surrounded by under eye bags. From a distance, she looked strangely like a ghost. She even frightened Lily when she went into the shared bathroom.

Tired from a six-hour night, which was far too little for her, she took twice as long to get ready as usual and even got lost on the premises. Luckily, she wandered around and eventually found her way back to the dining room.

The students were having their last breakfast before setting off on their adventure. So Sora did as the rest of her class did and went to sit down with her team.

"Hi...Gnnaahh," she said yawning.

This yawn in turn made Lily yawn.

"Hey, you could avoid yawning like that in the morning! Now I'm yawning too..."

"Well..."

Lily frowned and looked at her friend Sora with a dark glance.

"What do you mean 'Well...' ?"

"Well, first it was unintentional, and then, what does it change in the end? You've just consumed a few extra calories, that's all... "

There was a pause in the discussion. Indeed, Lily was thinking, and weighing the pros and cons. Quickly, she came to a conclusion, which unfortunately was not favourable to her.

"Good, very good. You've won. Hi anyway !"

So Sora sat down beside Lei, who devoured her breakfast without even paying attention to her surroundings. Sora couldn't help but let out a small grin, as this barbaric way of eating did not correspond to the Lei she usually knew. Loki, on the other hand, behaved much better at the table. This was the mark of a man of nobility. Nevertheless, a light in his eyes betrayed the pleasure he felt in eating his meal.

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'I feel that if he had not been restricted by his education, we would have been given a Lei no. 2...'.

So Sora started to have breakfast. She cut herself a slice of rice bread and then looked to the right, to the left. Then she finally looked at her slice of bread again. Her gaze had gone from depressed to simply panicked. Noticing this change in her expression, Loki was puzzled.

"What's happening to you, Sora?"

Sora didn't answer instantly. A theory had bloomed in her mind, and she was afraid it would come true.

"Mmmh... There' s no... jam? "she asked, a little frightened.

"Well, no, why ?"

Loki's frank answer had the effect of an atomic bomb in Sora's mind. Her face decomposed, and she had to work hard on herself so that she restrained herself from getting up and complaining to her teacher.

After ten minutes of deep breathing, Sora calmed down and resigned herself to eating her rice bread without putting jam on it.

---

"Well, it's time for each group to go one by one into the forest. You will leave in the order of groups 1 to 5, at three-minute intervals. Everything was explained to you yesterday, so I have only one thing to say: good luck and good luck. The first group will get their weapons and leave. »

Thus, the Hyacenthe group went first. In a few seconds, the four members of the group disappeared from the pupils' field of vision. Three minutes later it was Lei's group's turn.

The group slowly entered the forest. Each member was equipped differently: Lei used her katana and a dagger. and Loki didn't forget to take his gigantic claymore. As for Lily, she didn't use any weapons. Sora had brought a tantō, although she didn't really know how to use it in combat.

No sooner had they passed a few trees than Lei pulled out her dagger. The metal creaked slightly along the sheath. With a quick horizontal cut, she sliced the bark of the tree, which made a deep impression on it. This cut set it apart from the other trees.

At first, Sora did not understand what she was doing, but eventually she noticed that the cut showed the direction in which the camp was facing.

"Good. From now on, every fifteen metres, I will mark a tree in this same pattern. The mark will be in the direction of the next mark, so we won't get lost in this forest and fog. »

The three members of the team agreed with Lei's words, who put her dagger back in its sheath.

So the four travelled deeper and deeper into the forest. They met different wild animals, from squirrels to foxes, mostly animals that could normally only be found in a European forest. However, they did not yet encounter wolves or bears.

After two hours of walking, they decided to take a break after discovering a river full of fish.

"We should try fishing, shouldn't we? So that we can have something to eat for lunch and dinner. "Loki asked.

Lei nodded.

"Loki is right, it's better to stop for the moment and fish for our meal. »

Lily suddenly seemed excited :

"Good! Whoever catches the most fish wins! »

Unfortunately, after thirty minutes of fishing, no fish was caught. They had no nets or fishing rods, and Lei's singularity was too energy consuming to be used in this kind of situation. The other singularities were unfortunately not useful for this situation, as the fish could leave Lily's water spheres.

They finally gave up the idea of catching fish by hand, but still took water with them, as the water created by Lily had no minerals and therefore did not taste good.

They wandered around until nightfall. Not knowing how to fish and having no knowledge of mushrooms, the group ate foxes for lunch and dinner. Although the meat was difficult to chew, the taste was relatively good.

At each meal, Lily formed a barrier around the fire in order to camouflage the smells. At first this was inconvenient, but after a few minutes she got used to it. However, she was not able to maintain this barrier while sleeping, so they set up a guard system so she wouldn't be caught by predators at night.

That night was terrible, especially for Sora and Lily, who were not used to life in the forest. The different nocturnal animal noises kept frightening and waking them up. Especially Lily's guard shift was very chaotic.

So the next day they all agreed to find a place to sleep at night. They went deeper into the forest, towards the mountains, hoping to find an uninhabited cave.

Wild animals were becoming scarcer and scarcer near the mountains, but the flora was getting denser and denser. After several hours of walking, they arrived in front of a cliff. They walked along the cliff in the opposite direction to the camp, which was already several kilometres behind them.

It took them another few dozen minutes of walking before they found what they were looking for: a cave. Even better, this cave was still uninhabited, and it happened to be near a river! So the group decided to set up camp here. They took some leaves and gathered them in mounts to make beds. Sora was able to close the entrance to the cave with roots, leaving only small spaces to ventilate the cave so that they could make a fire without risking intoxication.

Unfortunately, they ate foxes for the fourth time in a row. Fortunately, this did not prevent them from sleeping peacefully, and this time without setting up a watch.

The next day, when they woke up, the sun was already high in the sky. It indicated that it was still far from noon, but that its rays had already been bathing the forest for a few hours. According to Sora's quick calculations, it must have been ten o'clock in the morning. A perfect time to wake up according to her.

They woke up quietly and went out together to fetch water from the nearby river. As they went out, however, wolves howled nearby.