After a whole week of traveling underground the group finally arrived at the Bog Mountain. The first wyrm that broke the surface was naturally Ruthsbane's his wyrm was the strongest and the second was Isol's group. All of them were after the week of travel and they didn't look like they experienced any troubles during the journey.
It took 15 minutes for the rest of the wyrms to finally arrive and their condition was not as good as Isol's group. Some of them had blood on their bodies and some of the apprentices were even missing. The number of apprentices dropped from 30 to 21. As Isol observed those apprentices he noticed that their luck was fluctuating between normal and low.
He had a guess for why this was happening. Just like a mc from any novel or anime the protagonist's unnatural luck was able to cause accidents to any villains that was after them. Accidents like the villains suddenly facing an attack from a third party or during a competition the villain suddenly awakens his hidden injuries. The accident that happened to the other groups was naturally an attack from a third party.
He wondered if his luck was high enough would a earthquake just suddenly happen killing all the other apprentices and leaving him alive? This incident only resolved his belief to continue the path of studying luck.
"What happened to you lots?!"
Ruthsbane had an irritated expression as he shouted. 9 of his cannon fodders had perished or gone missing before they even arrived at the bog. With less people it would take a longer time for him to find the beast he was after.
Surprisingly the apprentice in blue cloak didn't die during the journey but his clothes was splattered with blood mixed with his own and some from the mole rats and other apprentices.
"Sir we were attacked by naked mole rats during the journey, I assume the same happened to the other groups, but I question why that group looks completely fine?"
He answered Ruthsbane with a calm tone in the beginning until his voice became deeper when he mentioned Isol's group. Obviously he thought there was some foul play that was happening, how come every looked suffered except theirs? There had to be something fishy going on.
"Hey don't accuse us without any proof!"
"Yeah maybe you guys were just unlucky, we didn't see any of those mole rats you're talking about."
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"Are you sure you're just not trying to make things up?"
Isol's group shouted back at him, clearly they didn't like to be falsely accused. That wasn't the bad part the bad part is if Ruthsbane believed him and did something unfortunate to them.
"Alright shut up you lots!"
"I don't want to hear it from you all anymore."
"We're going to trek into the bog and if you guys continue bickering I'll kill you before the monsters can."
Ruthsbane stopped the argument before it developed anymore and controlled the wyrms to stare at the groups. All the apprentices quieted down intimated by the wyrms. They didn't want to end up being feces by some ugly wyrms.
As the groups temporarily calmed down they finally had a chance to observe the environment. The roots of the tree were large and covered the swamp. The height of the roots were unknown. The crown of leaves covered the sky and they could only hear the buzzing and sounds of insects and some other critters.
"This is a new environment different from the tower and different from the missions the tower usually assigns, if you don't want to die then you better use these items."
"Hook them onto your ears and they'll hide your senses from most of the monsters."
All the apprentices received a leaf, the stem of the leaves were sharp and spiraled. They attached the leaves to their ears and all of them had unique earrings now.
"All right split up and look for the 8 winged rock dragon, you should have all received the amulet along with the leaves just crush it and it'll notify me of your location."
With that last sentence Ruthsbane hurriedly took flight with his winged wyrm and went to search for the monster. The students all looked at each other, they finally realized the seriousness of the incident. Without Ruthsbane guiding them they all suddenly felt weak and isolated. The apprentices seeing the look in each other eyes all started to group up like it was a common consensus.
Except Isol's group, they were ostracized from the rest of them. Clearly they still held a grudge against their group. Isol seeing the situation decided to move solo. He didn't want them to delay his search, as his goal was simply to find the monster and get out. He assumed that he would naturally find the monster, but if he found it then his luck would also decrease. He did not want his luck to be used up by random encounters in the swamp, as that would leave him vulnerable if he was luckless.
As he calmly walked away from the group his actions were observed by a group of apprentices with malicious eyes. They saw him leave by himself just now and they all thought he would be weak to their attack. The group led by the apprentice with blue cloak trailed after Isol. They casted abilities that would hide them from his detection but it was futile.
Isol already saw them, no one could escape from his eyes as long as they couldn't cover their luck. As he observed the group trailing after him he saw the luck, of the group changed from yellow into a black skull, clearly an ominous sign. Interested in what it would mean he didn't do anything and allowed them to chase after him. He was going to use them as guinea pigs to see the extent of what his luck could do to enemies.