Barrier Decays, Cave Unsealed

"Another team has arrived." James whispered to the group.

Noah, Melissa, Luna and Owen glanced in the direction James hinted to while Asher remained calm and ignored their movements. He had already laced the surrounding thirty metres with his mental energy so he could easily spot any new arrival faster than James while also gauging their strength.

Over three hours had gone by after the impasse with Wendel's team and the twin's partnership. The group that had arrived at that point and interrupted the stand-off wasn't actually just one group, but three different groups that happened to be coming from the same direction.

With the addition of three new groups, Wendel had dropped his idea of attacking Asher and the twins as more opponents now meant more risks.

Six groups then stood in a stand-off and came to a temporary truce as they all realized that starting a battle now would end in their detriment rather than victory. There was also the cave ahead which contained unknown treasures and risks.

Right after agreeing to a temporary truce, they checked out the cave and noticed it was blocked off by a barrier formed from a special magical restriction which prevented anyone from going in. When they approached it, Wendel, Emma, Lyn, Aurora and even Asher felt a terrifying sensation that if they went any closer they would lose their lives.

Although the restriction prevented them from getting any closer, they did notice that the restriction was damaged which lead to a strange aura leaking from it. This bizarre aura was the source of the phenomenon in the surroundings, which happened to be the 'stiffening' of the mana flow in the region.

From what Wendel and Lyn had surmised, the barrier formed by the restriction was decaying slowly and would take at least three hours before it opened up. Asher had also checked it out and confirmed that their words were true. Unless the barrier decayed on its own, attacking it would put one at a risk of backlash from the magical restriction.

'It's already three hours now. The barrier would soon decay completely, and the restriction would naturally shut down.' Asher's eyes gleamed as he stared at the cave.

When that happened, there was a small chance that chaos would break out as some would try to harm others while getting in.

"Should we?" Noah whispered as he looked at Asher.

The three-hour time mark was already up and some were beginning to move closer to the cave. This in turn made Noah worried.

Asher had strictly warned them to stay at least fifteen metres away from the entrance without much explanation, but having followed him for over two years now, Noah and James had an unconditional level of trust in him, the same goes for Melissa. Only Owen had a slight frown while Luna didn't think it was her place to play the odd-man-out considering that the true members of the team had no problems with the order.

Asher didn't respond right away but instead maintained his line of vision to the cave.

The reason he had them stay away from the cave was because of the nature of the restrictions.

Wendel and Lyn had acknowledged that the restriction was from an ancient era as the knowledge of the First Dawn academy had no records of this. Asher had also surmised the same, but unlike them, he managed to get a glimpse of some of the other functions of the restriction thanks to his past life's knowledge pool.

Apart from forming a barrier that prevented people from passing through, sealing whatever was inside while also counter-attacking efforts from the outside made to break the barrier, the restriction also had a self-destruction feature that activated once the barrier decayed. As for the degree of explosion that would result, Asher was unable to determine it but he felt that a distance of at least fifteen metres would be safe enough.

"Not yet. Once it shows signs of opening up, then we can react." Asher finally responded.

Ten minutes went by, and the barrier was still up, but it was showing obvious signs of weakening. The previous day, it could still prevent light from escaping from the other side and so seemed as dark as the night. When Asher, Lyn, Aurora, Wendel and his teammates scanned it, the barrier was still opaque but transitioning to becoming a translucent material. At this point, it was in a state in between translucent and transparent[1], and at the rate it was changing, it would soon become completely transparent.

"A minute after it turns transparent, the barrier should be down and the restrictions off." Wendel announced.

Following his words, the crowd was filled with anticipation with some of them even having glimmering eyes at the thought of exploring the unexplored and finding precious treasures in there.

While most of the students were from noble families, it didn't mean that they had access to previous treasures or weapons. Only families of the Marquis ranks or special Counts and above did. This was because, although the Great Dawn kingdom had a few magic crystal mines, they lacked the right skill and personnel to utilize those crystals and produce treasures from them. It was like an oil-producing nation being unable to refine their oil, or a cocoa-producing country being unable to make chocolate, and so on.

This lack of proper personnel had led to a scarcity to magical items such that not even noble families of the Count rank could get their hands on them, much less Viscounts and Barons. Hence, the thought of finding a magical treasure in the cave livened the group and filled them with much anticipation and desire.

Four more minutes passed, and the barrier was now completely transparent. The only reason they could still see it was because of some weird refraction of light, which to a Guardian mage was quite obvious upon closer inspection.

'One minute.' Asher narrowed his eyes.

Not just him but also all the other students held their breaths in preparation for what would become a stampede. Roughly everyone intended on being the first one to get in.

Despite the fact that they knew the cave would house some threat and dangers, they were prepared to face those challenges for the slight possibility of a magical treasure. Considering that the cave was guarded by an ancient restriction, the treasure would surely not be average; at least a treasure of peak grade two Guardian class quality or above. If they were lucky, they would even find a grade one Guardian class treasure and maybe even a grade three Legendary class treasure.

While they wouldn't be able to use it, they could offer it to their families to be used as heirlooms or by stronger figures, or even trade it for more weapons, talismans and pills of lower quality. No matter how one looked at it, they would profit massively if they got first pick, so of course the students would struggle to be the first one in despite the potential dangers within.

[1] For those who are unaware, opaque means light can't pass through it so you can't see through it. Translucent means a bit of light can pass through it but not enough for the other side to be clear; kinda like a hazy fog, frosted glass, and sunglasses, even vegetable oil counts. Transparent means you can see clearly through it. Examples are glass, clear/pure water, and so on.