CHAPTER FIVE: Discovery

“One more lap…I think…and I'll…be done…”

Lavan’s lungs were wrapped in infernal chains while his legs were poked by burning pitchforks. His Quest helpfully identified how many kilometers he had left to run until its completion—unfortunately it literally required him to run—and it read less than an eighth of a kilometer was left.

“You can do it! Think about the reward! Your juicy, three-star reward for a two-star Quest!” Jalonra yelled with her hands cupped around her mouth from beside her tent as Lavan passed her.

And just like that, Lavan's will to complete his run redoubled, not only from the reminder of his mysterious reward, but the encouragement of a pretty girl.

‘Though she IS more distraction than help.’

According to Donovan, he comprehended the Ethos of Strength after dropping to do pushups for his Quest while cycling mana and thinking intensely about how being physically strong could help him survive and protect others. It was immediately after Donovan got into the workout zone, when he could neither see, hear, nor think of anything outside of his goals, that pain overwhelmed him similarly to when the goddess awakened their mana sight, and he awoke to find the prompt about the Secret Quest.

It was through moving quickly and feeling the wind in his face that Lavan hoped to gain some kind of enlightenment into an Ethos, preferably Speed, but Wind or Air would do.

Though he would love to be some kind of absolute unit who could blast through any defense with overwhelming might, evade any strike with extreme speed or teleportation, and take even the most devastating attack head-on and remain unscathed, Lavan tried to keep his expectations realistic. Even if he turned out to be a prodigy of combat, that would not guarantee whatever Ethos he may eventually comprehend would synergize with the way he fought. Vice versa, even if he comprehended some kind of amazing Ethos with awesome firepower, nothing guaranteed he could use it effectively.

So even though Lavan wanted most to become a badass, he would settle for being a support specialist like Donovan. The Speed Ethos, on the assumptions that it existed and that his understanding of it was not flawed, would give him the ability to make his allies faster, which could allow them to evade deadly attacks and move in on enemies for swift executions. If he couldn’t get that, he would be happy with Wind, Air, or anything similar, though they’d probably have more aspects than just speed and would dilute whatever buffs he gave.

‘But someone pretty cheering me on isn’t helping me comprehend any Ethoses,’ Lavan halfheartedly complained as he completed his Quest and collapsed onto his belly in the grass, his chest heaving, having understood nothing of the magic he wished to wield. Finally done with his running, he released his will on the surrounding mana, ceasing to pull it into himself—which he’d been doing because Donovan said it helped him comprehend his Ethos.

“Wooo.”

Lavan released a tired breath as he noted then ignored the blinking notification that signaled his reward for the Quest could be accepted at the press of a mental button. It wasn’t yet time to find out what an “Oruthen Peach” was. The exhausted young man rolled over to lay on his back before turning his head so that instead of uselessly staring at the sky he could get a look at his schoolmates working on their Quests. It was an encouraging sight.

Though his view of their camp was partially blocked by the ring of tents, Lavan saw a few students working together to cook lunch and dinner with their supplies of cookware, a decently-sized group all performing various exercises together, two people sharpening long sticks into makeshift spears, etcetera.

Thankfully, only one person’s Quest involved hunting what the prompt called a “Mortal-stage monster”—the only mention of monsters by the goddess so far. A small group of volunteers and Donovan joined the poor sap to slowly creep through the grasslands within sight of their camp in search of prey, but so far, they didn’t seem to find anything. Well, they had long since noticed regular animals such as small birds, lizards, bugs, and rodents, but killing them didn’t complete the Quest, regardless of whether the person with the hunting Quest did the killing, or even if he was buffed by Donovan.

Everyone feared that a capital-M Mortal beast was something magical in nature.

Lavan had wanted to join the hunt, but seeing as his Quest had a time limit while the other volunteers’ Quests were to practice moving sneakily or already complete, he was convinced to stay back.

“With stamina like that I can see why you don’t want to be a frontliner,” Jalonra teased as she loomed over Lavan, her long purple hair waving in the wind like the grass beneath her.

“That, and people…trust a leader who…devotes themselves to others…more…” he wheezed.

“I suppose. Well, feel free to join the rest of us who’re trying to comprehend the Earth Ethos. I think going for a classical element will be easier, and there’s wind everywhere, so you could go for that,” she said before turning to leave. Until now she had been watching Lavan’s back while he ran for his Quest, in case something happened while he was exhausted.

“Maybe…”

‘Unlikely.’ Even if he was going for the Wind Ethos and could just as easily feel the wind from within the camp, sitting still was antithetical to the form of magic he was searching for.

……

The grasslands were too damned quiet.

The rustling of grass was ninety percent of the sound around them and they were producing most of it. Sometimes a critter would reveal its position by fleeing, and other times large, bird-like creatures would take to the skies and caw far in the distance, but that was it if the wind was to be excluded.

And it was driving Donovan insane with anxiety.

The absence of immediate threats likely meant there were only hidden ones…but the Deity who put them in Yohmu wasn’t likely to drop them into a trap they couldn’t survive. That wouldn’t be entertaining at all. But without a defined enemy, the terror engine in Donovan’s primitive subconscious constantly churned out predictions of the worst outcomes.

Something was definitely just out of sight, it told him.

Something was watching carefully, it warned.

Something was prepared to pounce as soon they dropped their guard, it reminded.

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SOMETHING WAS RIGHT BEHIND HIM, it screamed.

Donovan paused his creep forward as shivers raced through him uncontested, yet he did not turn around.

“See anything?” Meeden whispered from behind.

Because he was leading the expedition. Only his peers were at his back, and he trusted that they wouldn’t let anything reach him from their direction… Or rather, he trusted that attacks directed at him were more likely to come from the direction he was walking in than behind where several people were in the way, so he never moved his eyes away from the land in front of him.

“No, I just think we should stop to rest. Easier to hear things move when we’re not also making a ruckus,” Donovan replied as he took a knee in the ankle-high grass and waited for the sounds of his temporary hunting party to cease as they also settled down. Only after reminding them to keep their guards up did he feel comfortable enough to look around.

For a moment he gazed at the speck some kilometers in the distance that was their camp, considering whether they should go deeper into the grasslands or return and head in the opposite direction since they had no luck going north. Travelling out of sight of the camp was not an option, and even having the ability to summon supernatural strength for himself and others—though less for himself, for some reason—didn’t tempt Donovan to think he would be safe in this world.

He thought back to what Lavan told everyone after they had their talk—repeating everything he’d reported to him about what he intuitively felt upon comprehending the Ethos of Strength, then insisting that nobody grow complacent in their safety even if they also gain some kind of magical skill. If somebody among them could so quickly gain such a power, then the native inhabitants must not have it so bad either and would eventually come for them with even more amazing abilities, Lavan had said.

Additionally, comprehending an Ethos made Donovan into a beacon, of which he had no off switch, thus monsters may come looking for the source of the aura.

At first, Donovan’s new blaring aura worried him quite a bit, but after hunting for this long…it made him think. Perhaps powerful monsters would see him as their next meal upon sensing him, but just like how smells and noises were used by herbivores, there were probably ordinary monsters taking advantage of his unintentional magical broadcast to know what to avoid. And since their hunting party hadn’t come across anything but ordinary animals since beginning their hunt…were all the magical ones fleeing him?

Of course, that wasn’t the only option, but it gave him hope for their safety in the grasslands. It could have simply been the case that they hadn’t come across anything supernatural yet, and that they’d all die upon doing so.

Donovan preferred imagining that he was the strongest thing around, though.

After a few minutes Meeden reported that they didn’t need to rest any longer so Donovan made the call for them to travel deeper into the grasslands. He’d contemplated returning to camp alone, or at least making considerable space between himself and the hunting party, in order to test whether magical creatures would appear in the presence of his temporary team, but ultimately decided against putting them at risk. He was, after all, not only their sole superpowered classmate, but their moral support. Even if it was the case that whatever came at them in this area wasn’t too much stronger than a normal animal, they might not have the spine to fight…or the reaction time, since any monster hiding in the grasslands were probably underground, ready to burst out of the dirt to snatch a victim.

So far they had traveled along the border between the grasslands and the forest, but now they headed east—in the direction the star in the sky rose from. Truthfully, Donovan didn’t expect any different results from their new trajectory. From what he knew, places with more surface area had higher concentrations of wildlife, and the sprawling plains before him were the exact opposite of that. They’d definitely have better luck finding whatever a Mortal beast was in the forest, but all thirty students had agreed to not venture into the trees without at least ten others for safety, while Donovan’s current hunting party had only 5 members.

‘This is probably a waste of time. Nothing but flat land all the way to the horizon. Still, we gotta explore, just in case—’

It was with great surprise to Donovan when the ground before him gave way to his foot, despite there being no visual clue as to a hole in the ground from above.

“GAAGH… Huh?!”

Donovan screamed as he strengthened his body with the single spell he knew how to cast before tumbling into what he thought was a pit, then gasped in surprise as he saw nothing he could understand.

“What?!” he shouted as he pushed off of bare dirt and rose to his feet in a hurry. Now standing, what was previously ankle-high grass reached Donovan’s waist, and his legs felt as though they were submerged in liquid that was not wet, nor nearly as dense as water. Maybe a dense gas? There was slight resistance to his movement as he jumped up onto the normal ground beside Meeden, who along with the other members of the party, began asking questions.

“Are you okay?!”

“What happened?!”

“Where did you go?! Your aura disappeared!”

Donovan quieted them with a raised hand before saying, “I’m not sure of what happened, but this grass…” He looked out at the perfectly flat biome with eyebrows knitted. “I think this grass is fake.”

More questions arose, but Donovan ignored his party as he released his magical technique to save mana and cautiously dipped his foot into the “grass” where he fell. The grass stirred at his touch, but he didn’t feel it, as though the plants were illusions that reacted to his presence.

He hadn’t come back up wet or covered in dirt, but Donovan knelt at the edge of the invisible hole and plunged his hands into the strange space anyway, cupping them in an attempt to carry some of the invisible substance that resisted his movement.

Nothing. His cupped hands carried back nothing. What was going on?

Seeing as how Donovan hadn’t responded to their earlier questions everyone was now silent, making it easier to relay his opinion to them.

“I think that the grasslands we see ahead of us are fake. It seems the ground near the forest’s edge is normal, but I bet that from around here…” Donovan turned to measure how far they were from the forest. “Some two-hundred meters or so from the trees is where the ground changes and the grass becomes an illusion. It could be that only this specific spot we’re in is special, but I have a hunch that the entire biome is like this. We can turn around and report our findings to the camp, or…”

Donovan looked Meeden in the eye, who finished his sentence.

“Or we can investigate it a little ourselves?”

Donovan nodded.

“My Quest still has a few hours left,” Meeden continued, “so I’m not really pressed for time. We could leave it to a vote.”

Two of the other three members immediately voiced their desires to gather more of their classmates before investigating, while the third—the redhead Loriel—shrugged her shoulders, asking, “What’s your take, Donovan? We could report this to Lavan and everyone else, but we’re only really losing time like that, right? We’re safest with you, and you can only buff five people, so involving anyone else won’t be useful. If us five with superhuman strength get hurt then there’s probably nothing a sixth or even a twentieth normal person could do to help.”

Donovan internally smiled at hearing Loriel name Lavan specifically—evidence that the sneaky guy’s plan was working—before peering up at the sky, thinking. He’d chosen three stars of danger and had expected to fight for his life the moment he was transported, but was instead met with…no danger at all.

It definitely wouldn’t stay that way.

Donovan believed the goddess was luring them into a false sense of security by presenting them with relative safety for at least the first day, and that everything would soon change. Thus, they should not waste even a second. He wanted to delve into the illusion of grass to discover what was beneath. From the glimpse he’d obtained of that new place before jumping to his feet, he knew there was opportunity to be had. His instincts told him so.

“There is risk, but there is also opportunity,” Donovan began, looking each member of the party in the eye. “Lavan’s and a few others’ Quests mentioned ‘spirit herbs’, while mine gave me some pills full of mana so that I don’t run out during a fight.”

He took his Quest’s reward out from his pocket for emphasis, turning the small box in his hand for a moment before putting it back. Those Sciem Fen Mana Pills were the reward for the Secret Quest, while he still hadn’t accepted the reward for his pushup Quest.

“Of course we should all support each other when needed, but like what Lavan said earlier after I got the pills, the person who earns something gets the first say in who it goes to or how it’s used. If we go in now and find treasures of any kind, they’re ours.”

Meeden and Loriel nodded along while the other two exchanged glances and wore pensive expressions. Impatient, Donovan jumped into the fake grass and sunk to his waist like before.

“You two can wait on the surface or head back to the camp on your own, but you’ve been outvoted, so us three are going.”