NOVEL NEXT Chapter 219 – Surprise
Mage Teft's theory haunted Damion for the rest of the day. There was no evidence of anything sinister going on, but the timing of her assignment with him being required to take the excursion exam was awfully suspicious.
The exam would officially begin this weekend. After his last class of the day, he was required to report to the courtyard in front of the main entrance to the Spire. From there the school would provide transport to where the test would take place. Damion just hoped he would have time during the trip or the excursion to work on his artifact.
"You won't be allowed to take your communication tablet or regular tablet with you," Elicia said to Damion as he worked out the enchantments on his tablet.
"Really?" Questioned Damion, feeling rather annoyed.
"They don't want students coordinating over long distances with each other. You can make alliances to work together, which I suspect some nobles already have, like my cousin and his tagalongs, but otherwise you are on your own."
"I've got Phil, what other help would I need," Damion quipped as Phil flew down and landed on his shoulder.
The Snow Hawk had gone through another growth spurt and Damion was feeling the Ferocious Beast might actually be growing faster than he was. He suspected that when Phil consumed the Demonic Beast core it had dramatically propelled its growth, and not just magically. Phil had also grown physically and was too big to rest comfortably on Damion's shoulder, making him tilt his head to the side a bit to make room for the bird.
"Would you like me to take your tablet back to the dormitory?" Elicia offered.
"No, it's fine," Damion replied as he took his spare spatial storage artifact out of the Magic System Inventory and storing his tablet inside. "Anything else not allowed?"
"That should be it, but they'll check for your spatial artifacts for forbidden items."
"I'm not worried," said Damion with a smile. He pretended to pocket his spatial artifact before actually storing it back in the Inventory.
Elicia did not say anything, but she assumed, after Damion's demonstration in Teft Artifacts and Adventurer Supplies, that he had modified the spatial artifacts in some way, increasing their storage space. Since, she knew from when he first obtained them that the artifacts only had three cubic meters of space each. After his little display, there had been rumors going around that the Fontane family had kept secret their advances in spatial artifacts.
Now, with the confidence he was showing that the school would not be able to detect what was in his spatial ring, Elicia assumed Damion had made additional modifications.
"Good, everyone is here," Professor Moretti said as he looked around. "If you would Professor Klein."
Professor Klein, whom Damion had yet to meet, was an A Rank Spatial mage, which was a surprise to him. He had not realized Silver Spire had a Spatial mage, but after thinking about it for a few moments, he realized that if Erythraean Academy did, it only made sense that Silver Spire did as well. Neither school wanted to let the other have the upper hand in anything so having a Spatial mage was a must. Damion suspected the reason he had never seen the man before was because he likely spent most of his time inside the school's S Rank dungeon.
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Professor Klein stepped forward and cast a spell. A split second later a portal opened. Many of the students were impressed by the spell, but Damion was more focused on the location the portal was going to send them. As he watched the landscape on the other side of the shimmering pool of magic, it appeared that the portal was in motion.
"Once you step through this portal, you will be in a distant Yellow Zone closed off from most of the world by steep mountains. Even though the area is isolated, there are still Ferocious Beasts, Demonic Beasts and even normal creatures that can be quite deadly."
Professor Moretti's declaration was met with gasps from some of the gathered students, Damion, however, just waited.
"There are no cities or towns in this region, only wilds. The only reason this area is considered a Yellow Zone and not a Red Zone is because the Headmaster has personally cleared out all of the high Rank creatures. Do not get overconfident though, all the middle Rank and weaker beasts are still in the zone.
"As I call your name, step forward to be checked for forbidden items, then you will receive your tracking artifact, and you can step through the portal. You will be deposited in a random location in the test zone. At the end of the two-week excursion, professors will come to collect you.
"Anderson, Ronald!"
When the first name was called out, Damion knew he was going to be last. He noted each of the students as they were called up and walked through the portal. All the students set to go on the excursion were final term students and as far as Damion could tell, had all reached E Rank. Though, there were a few exceptions.
"Martes, Yuri!"
When Professor Moretti called out one of Thomas Sorin's cronies, Damion saw that Martes, like Geoffrey Thorn and Thomas, had each reached D Rank. Having his three would be nemeses as part of this excursion made Damion hope he would be able to encounter them. If he did he felt like this was a prime chance to take some well-deserved revenge for the harassment the trio had given him at the start of the school year.
The trio had backed off when they realized how strong Damion was, but they just set about bullying every other student that tried to make friends with him. Damion did not mind too terribly much since most of those students were either trying to trap him into joining their noble family or commoners looking to hide in his shadow.
He had made a few friends, though after the attack in the labyrinth, even people who Damion thought were his friends, like Gene, started keeping their distance. The incident had made many hate him, while others were even more enamored by him, but few ever approached him.
[Magic System]
[System Level: 2]
[User: Damion Wells]
[Age: 18]
[Magic Talent: EX]
[Magic Affinity: Ice EX, Water E, Poison D, Spatial D, Fire A, Earth D, Shadow C, Holy C]
[Mana: 3,538/3,538] (5%) - 3,714
[Magic Power: 8,120] (5%) - 8,526
[Mana Recovery: 51 P/S] (5%) - 53
[Strength: 114]
[Dexterity: 119] (5%) - 124
[Vitality: 195]
[Intelligence: 145]
[Experience: 6,800/10,000]
[Store Credits: 19,446]
Damion was quickly approaching B Rank. It was not for sure that he would achieve it before he graduated, but he hoped this two-week long test in the wilds would help him push his magic power and mastery of some spells to a new level.
"Wells, Damion!"
Damion stepped forward, he was as he suspected he would be, the last student to go through the portal.
"I only detect one spatial artifact, where is your other one?" Professor Moretti asked.
"I left it in my dormitory. No need to risk accidently losing both out there."
"Very well, go on through."
Damion stepped through the portal and an instant later he was falling through the sky.