Emergency

"What do you think, Ares?" Arwin asked while approaching the red-headed boy, who was resting beside the bonfire. "Should we get going or wait for some time more? My followers will come wherever I go, but you are alone in this match, mate."

"I know that I am alone, despite reuniting a lot of you. After your group, I think five others came as well. Make the calculations and you will have a good number. There are just a few trainees that are missing, but to find them we will need to work harder," Ares said with his eyes closed. After walking and struggling for so long, a night of sleep didn't seem to be enough to recharge his energy, so he was resting a little bit more.

"Yes, you are right. However, that tempest is coming faster each day. I don't even know if my previous prediction is right. That's the thing."

Ares was concerned about that tempest as well. Always when he looked at those clouds, he felt that something huge was coming. The superiors would use it to their favor to test them somehow.

"To be honest with you, Arwin, I am more concerned about these earthquakes that come from time to time. It doesn't seem to be something as natural as the clouds... You know, this is clearly a test to see if we can survive on our own and in a group. However, these earthquakes seem to be out of place, don't you think so?"

Arwin felt another strong shake under his feet and nodded his head.

"Yes. I can't deny that I feel the same way. It doesn't seem to belong to the simulation at all. Anyway, we have no clue about it. The earthquakes are the most clueless part of all this enigma. We just gotta wait and reunite completely, so we can sort it out."

Ares decided to let that question for later since it seemed to be something not too relevant. In the end, they couldn't do anything to discover what was causing those earthquakes. Their only option was to wait and see with their own eyes.

"Well, since that's the case, let us move, then. It's better if we don't get separated again. Otherwise, things can go really bad for us."

Arwin nodded his head.

"I will make sure to keep them working and cooperating. These guys seem very arrogant, but they obey me, at least."

Ares shrugged.

"If you can tame them, that's perfect."

He took his battle-axe from the ground, attaching it to his back, then started to walk in the direction of the sunrise.

...

The higher-ranked guardians were still watching that trial. It had been some days inside the simulation, but not even an hour passed in the real world. It was fun to watch things going at that speed, but it didn't get in the way of their rating and was more practical like that.

"It seems that the trainees this year are very interesting, huh?" One of them commented.

"Interestingly boring. They aren't anything compared to the other years. The only ones that are showing some work are Arwin, Amelia, Ray, and Ares," a woman retorted, crossing her arms. Since the start of the year, she didn't really find someone useful in that generation of trainees.

"I think that you are being way too harsh on them. I mean, it's not like they were trash at all. They are doing well surviving in the wild," a short man said, shrugging.

Lancelot, who was in the middle of those Guardians, was staring at the crystal orb without paying attention to his surroundings at all. He didn't want to hear the comments of his friends but just appreciate Ares' performance.

That concentration, though, ended up being useful for something else. Something that he didn't think about at all.

"Are you aware of some kind of jargon that the trainees created to talk with themselves?" He asked, cutting off the subject that the other Guardians were talking about.

Everyone looked at him with confused expressions. Lancelot was acting very strangely these days.

Actually, he was strange all the time. He was just a skillful, but pervert, old man. He seemed to live his days just to perturb the lives of all females that crossed his way, which was something that caused a lot of harm to him already, but he never stopped.

Anyway, despite those traits of his personality, the old man was usually a common person.

However, on that day, there was something off.

"Why do you say something like this? What kind of... hmm, jargon?"

"I mean, they are talking about earthquakes a lot ultimately. However, as far as I know, there isn't something like earthquakes in the simulation. Those clouds can even make sense due to the part of the tempest and all... however, there is something strange about all this talk of earthquakes and such."

Now that Lancelot mentioned, those Guardians indeed saw a lot of trainees talking about that earthquake.

"But, so what? Maybe the Colonel decided to have something different for this year. She can change some things in the exam if she wants to..."

"Yes, and she made it before, but she always said it to us at some point. However, she didn't inform us anything, which is already very strange, in my opinion. There is something more...'

Lancelot scratched his head while trying to sort out what could possibly be happening there.

Then, his eyes widened once he realized something.

"Hey... this simulation is made out particularly from mana, right?"

"Most of it is made from mana," one of the Guardians informed. "Alas, maybe this one is totality made out of mana."

"Let's say that the mana inside this simulation gets dissipated, what would happen?"

"Well, that reality would start to... to crumble down... maybe like in an earthquake, for people who are still inside there."

Everyone in that circle looked away from the orb and began to stare at each other's faces.

Lancelot's face went pale.

"Call the Colonel. That's an emergency!"