"Any other questions?" Ngozi asked again as he looked at the group of participants. At that moment, a beautiful young woman with black hair raised her hand, prompting Ngozi to point at her, indicating that she could speak.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Master Iyanda, but do we have to turn in the same emblem we received, or can it be another one?"

Ngozi smiled softly at the question and explained in a clear tone, while looking at the intelligent girl with a hint of approval.

"You're smart, and no, it doesn’t have to be the exact same one. As long as it’s one of the emblems we just handed out, they will be accepted. However, do not try to forge them. It would be very easy to discover, and you would be disqualified."

"Thank you very much for your guidance, Master Iyanda." The young woman bowed deeply, grateful and excited because she had noticed the approval of the legendary Master-level. Once again, while looking at the participants, Ngozi asked.

"Any more questions?"

This time, it was Erik who raised his hand, attracting a few glances from the crowd. Ngozi asked while looking at the boy with some curiosity, wondering what the disciple of the order’s most troublesome pair might ask.

"Yes? What do you want to know, Disciple Erik?"

Without getting up from his 'throne'—something curiously recommended by Eleonora, who also seemed to enjoy showing off as much as Sigrún—Erik asked, ignoring the annoyance that, for some reason, everyone now knew his name.

"How long will we be here?"

"Good question, and there’s a time limit of one year." Ngozi responded in a calm tone, internally pleased that Erik hadn’t asked something strange, as his Masters usually did. But the boy’s next words ended his small moment of happiness.

"One year? Can’t it be shorter? I have things to do..."

Everyone present directed murderous looks at Erik, who, for some reason, didn’t realize they had to explore an entire damned planet to find a palace holding a special treasure. Managing it in one year without any artifact above Illuminated-level would already be a titanic feat, comparable to finding a needle in a desert. Yet, he wanted to reduce the already limited time even further.

"No, it cannot be less time. But if you find a 'pass treasure', you can leave earlier and still keep your spot." Ngozi replied, holding back the ironic smile trying to appear on his face. Hearing this, Erik commented with a visibly relieved expression:

"That sounds better..."

Ngozi shook his head as he looked at that young man, identical to his blond-haired Master who loved to overestimate herself—though it was better to ignore the fact that this trouble-seeker, in some strange way, always managed to get by with her foolish ideas.

"Well, I suppose there are no more questions." Ngozi looked at the participants one last time, who remained silently staring at him, and then he added with a small smile.

"Then, from now on, you will be transported to random parts of the planet. Good luck."

The moment Ngozi finished speaking, a bright flash emerged from the platform where the participants were standing, catching them all by surprise. In an instant, everyone was teleported to different places on the planet at random.

After all the students disappeared, Ngozi moved his right hand slightly, causing the platform to vanish completely. At that moment, the beautiful woman faded into the air, as if she were a mirage. Something very similar happened with the remaining traces of activity on the ground, restoring the meadow to its original appearance.

…

…

…

In the middle of a scorching desert, filled with blood-red sand, Erik appeared with a flash of light about 100 meters above the ground, still sitting, and immediately began plummeting toward the earth at great speed. This made him open his eyes slightly, surprised by the sudden sensation of vertigo.

Staying calm, Erik quickly created a platform of solidified Myst a bit beneath him, which he kicked forcefully, changing his movement from vertical to horizontal. At the same time, he spun his body in the air and then kicked another Myst platform, which this time propelled him upward. Just as he was about to fall again, he created a new platform right under his feet, ending up standing in midair as if stepping on the wind.

As for the wolves, who had been on Erik’s shoulders and also fell with him, they quickly began to hop on small clouds that emerged from nowhere beneath them. Since they were in their miniature form, they looked quite adorable—especially when they jumped back onto the star-haired boy’s shoulders, barking happily.

The clouds the wolves used to 'fly' were actually simple spells developed by Erik, which he had taught them with the help of their contract. They were essentially steps of solidified Myst covered with special cloud effects to make them look more mystical and spectacular, since his main intention in developing them was to make them look cool.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Although the wolves couldn’t manipulate solidified Myst like Erik, the spell worked in such a way that Myst steps were generated under their paws when activated. After a bit of practice, both Tiberius and Kaiser could easily master it, as the spell was quite simple.

Furthermore, to make them appear more impressive, Kaiser and Tiberius’s spells were slightly different. In Tiberius’s case, the clouds created around the Myst platform were deep black, seemingly absorbing the light around them. It looked less like clouds and more like an amalgam of darkness.

As for Kaiser, his clouds were gray storm clouds that released lightning in all directions at random intervals, giving the silver wolf a spectacular effect. When he covered his body with lightning, he looked like a thunder wolf god.

"They really dropped me in the middle of nowhere, how inconsiderate…"

Shielding his eyes with his hand—since the two suns in the sky were incredibly bright—Erik grumbled softly to himself as he looked around, seeing nothing but an endless sea of red sand as far as the eye could see. After a small sigh, he quickly shook his head and decided to summon his reliable contracted spirit.

"Ebonique."

From Erik’s back, a mass of black lightning materialized, rapidly taking the form of a serpent with tar-black scales, very much like an oriental dragon with limbs bearing five claws and impressive horns on its head that resembled a crown. Though it looked slightly different from its dramatic entrance before—now it was just a serpent that looked like a dragon, not one in full form.

"Where are we, Erik?" Ebonique, who measured a couple of meters, approached Erik and gently coiled around him while asking and creating shade for her dear contractor. He responded calmly.

"Honestly, I don’t know. I was suddenly teleported here, but what matters is that we need to find a palace with treasures so we can leave, and I can get to work on finishing polishing my latest project."

"Then what are we waiting for? Hop on, let’s go find that palace." Ebonique said cheerfully as she uncoiled from Erik, then grew larger, reaching about ten meters in length.

"Though I doubt we’ll find it easily. After all, they gave us a year to find a palace, and apparently there are several, so there must be some trick to it." Erik commented as he jumped onto Ebonique’s huge head. She replied in a cheerful tone.

"Well, you’re right about that, but we certainly can’t stay in this desert."

As she spoke, Ebonique began moving through the air at a blinding speed, easily surpassing the speed of sound several times over. Yet, this terrifying speed didn’t even ruffle Erik’s hair. He was comfortably seated atop the enormous serpent’s head, never feeling the aggressive air resistance that should have been present in such a situation.

Even stranger, no sonic boom occurred despite Ebonique’s ludicrous velocity. It was as if they were passing through the air rather than colliding with it. Still, Erik could breathe without difficulty. As usual, the laws of physics seemed not to apply to them—no inertia, g-forces, or anything of the sort.

...

After flying around erratically for a while, searching for anything that might resemble a palace or at least offer a clue, and finding nothing, Erik finally spotted a beautiful forest not far away. It was filled with all kinds of trees and plants, and adorned by several gigantic lakes. He quickly gave Ebonique’s head a soft pat and commented calmly.

"Ebonique, we’ve been searching for a long time with no success. This search will be lengthy. It’s better to change tactics. Let’s land in that forest—it looks like a good place for a base. Later, we can map the whole area."

"You’re right, it does look like a good spot."

After responding, Ebonique flew toward the forest and landed gently near a gigantic lake, which looked like a sea from its shore. Erik jumped from her head, landing calmly on the ground. Ebonique then shrank and settled atop her contractor’s starry hair in her smallest form, almost blending in.

With a relaxed step, Erik walked toward the lake and started looking around. Simultaneously, he extended his ethereal projection along with his mystical awareness as far as possible, aiming to get a sense of the area and the potential dangers lurking there. After a moment, he spoke in a thoughtful tone.

"Mmmm, it seems there are a couple of pesky critters around here, but I don’t think they’ll be hard to handle. This really is a great place to establish a base. We just need to find a good spot…"

"Do you want me to take care of them?" Ebonique asked from atop Erik’s head, but he simply refused as he explained.

"No, leave them to me. I have several things to test, so this is actually a good opportunity."

As he spoke, Erik moved his hand slightly, and dozens of what looked like copper spheres appeared on the ground. Each was about 30 cm in diameter, covered in countless tiny and intricate routes carved into their surface. This caught the attention of Ebonique and the wolves, who were hanging on Erik’s shoulders.

At the same time, a crystal tablet appeared in Erik’s left hand, its entire surface etched with runes. It emitted a holographic screen showing a blank space in the center, along with what looked like controls and buttons with different macros around it. Erik pressed one of those buttons, causing the copper spheres to come to life and rise into the air, then shoot off at high speed in different directions.

"What are those things, Erik?"

Ebonique asked, puzzled as she watched the copper spheres darting off in all directions. Erik responded while examining the three-dimensional map that began to slowly form in the blank center of the holographic screen.

"I call them ‘scouting spheres’, a small artificing experiment I worked on some time ago but never really used. They serve mainly to map an area, and they also work as a surveillance and early warning system, making them perfect for this situation.

Also, they use relatively basic runes and very cheap materials, so they barely qualify as Ascended-level artifacts, meaning I can use them freely to save a lot of time and effort."

"Why didn’t you use them before?" Ebonique asked, somewhat curious, as she looked at the holographic screen. Erik replied with a slightly embarrassed smile.

"I forgot I had them. Though, to defend myself, I can say they’re much slower than you, even if there are many of them. But anyway, since we need to conduct a thorough search now, I started thinking of ways to do it passively while I work on other things to make better use of my time, and I remembered them. So we can use them and maybe even make some improvements."

"You really are very interesting, fufufu." Ebonique commented with a little laugh, mixing amusement and pride. Erik replied, somewhat amused.

"You think so?"