Death zone 2

"Please, don't kill me. Please. Please, help me."

The cave was silent and the wailing of the lone survivor amidst the grisly sight created a hair-rising scene for everyone at the moment.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Asher suddenly turned around and spoke.

"Please, save me. Don't kill me." The survivor cried.

He seemed to be convinced that whatever strange event that had occurred was somehow related to Asher. In fact, he wasn't the only one who thought the same. The others outside, whether survivors or those who had refrained from acting, all believed that Asher was related to their deaths.

"There seems to be a misunderstanding here." Asher sighed.

"I had nothing to do with their deaths. Instead, you should blame the cave."

"The cave?"

This time around, everyone was confused.

It only took a short while before Wendel's eyes flashed with understanding. Just right after him, Emma, Aurora and Lyn understood as well.

Just a couple of minutes earlier, they had witnessed a similar scene occur. The only reason they didn't refer back to that event was that Asher and his teammates had walked past that area and were unharmed, making them presume that it was free of any risks. However, Asher's words seemed to imply the opposite.

'But then how…!' Wendel began asking himself a question but before he had even completed it, he recalled a certain small action that he had ignored earlier.

"But why are you guys unharmed?!" The leader of the team of seven -now five- behind the cave yelled the question that was on the minds of everyone.

"We simply avoided them." Asher smiled, but in the eyes of the other students, it looked like the smile of a cold-hearted calculating devil.

Wendel sighed as he realized his conclusion was right. Just a few seconds ago, he had discovered the answer to the questions that plagued everyone.

Earlier on, when Asher was leading his team within the cave, they didn't walk in a straight line but made slight sidesteps and sometimes moved in a different direction. From the outside, it seemed as if they were avoiding the rotten monster corpses, skulls and bones that were within the cave. Since the cave was full of mysteries and most of the students were from noble homes and hence valued hygiene a lot, it was understandable that one would avoid these remains as they explored the cave.

Now, however, the truth was revealed. Asher had discovered the magical traps within the cave earlier and had led his team along the way to dodge them. For the ones that coincided with the remains, they steered clear away from them. As for the ones that didn't, they surreptitiously avoided them by making slight movements that from the outside, weren't so obvious.

A good example was earlier on, before the ambush had begun, Noah was at a certain spot six metres away from the cave's entrance. Instead of walking in a straight line, he suddenly turned towards the side, seemingly as if he had spotted something on the wall and began walking towards it. However, he had not gone far before he abruptly stopped and then resumed walking forward, into the depths of the cave.

Such a small action would have been confused as Noah spotting a weird symbol on the cave's walls and wanting to study it, but suddenly backing out at the last minute due to the eeriness of the cave. However, Wendel recalled that a student had walked in the exact path that Noah had before he began moving towards the wall. Unlike Noah, the student didn't diverge from this path and had gone forward which led to him exploding to bits.

When that event added with Noah's seemingly arbitrary movement was considered in one picture, one couldn't help but feel suspicious and now, Asher's words had confirmed that suspicion.

'They noticed it. No. Not all of them. He was somehow able to spot all the traps and informed his teammates via telepathy.' Wendel widened his eyes in shock, as well as fear.

Someone with a calculative and cunning mind such as Asher wasn't to be underestimated. If anything, it was best to avoid getting into conflict with someone like him unless necessary.

With Asher having explained everything, it didn't take long for the team leader to realize the truth and for the rest of their teammates to grasp a preliminary understanding of the situation.

"You, you murdered them."

A girl in the surviving team who was supported by a teammate stared at Asher with astonishment, fear and anger.

The survivors originally consisted of seven individuals but only six had survived; yes, six and not five. The last survivor was the young boy stuck within the 'death zone'. As for the one who died, he was a close friend of the girl hence the reason why she was sad and angry.

"Murdered them? I didn't lift a finger, and nor did I push them to their deaths. On the contrary, they walked right into it of their own volition." Asher said with a cold voice.

"But, but you could have helped them!" The girl yelled. "So why?!"

Asher's cold voice answered her once again.

"Greed. Fuelled by their greed and desire they dashed into this place without any regard for the possible dangers within. Even after witnessing the disturbing scene outside the cave, they charged right in while tossing away any ounce of caution. If they had proceeded steadily and cautiously like we did instead, then they would have been alive. The danger here doesn't exceed the fourth stage and the traps can be spotted with a somewhat intense scrutiny of the place. For a genius of the First Dawn academy, it's a big disappointment that they died in such a fashion; very undeserving of that title.

"You…!" The girl's eyes went red.

"That's enough." Her team leader cut her off. He then stared at Asher before sighing.

"What will it cost us to get your aid in freeing him?" The team leader spoke.

Asher looked at him for a bit before saying one word.

"Tokens."

The young boy sighed once again as if expecting that reply. He then pulled out his personal token and group token and ordered his teammates to do the same. The tokens were now gathered into a bag which they tossed into the cave on Asher's commands.

Asher utilized his mental strength to levitate the tokens and send them his way, but he made it look like he was expending a lot of energy doing so and hence, seemed struggling to those outside.

'So he has a third stage Guardian mental power.' Wendel narrowed his eyes as he realized that he had underestimated Asher despite rating him more than others.

For Asher to have been able to spot all the traps in the cave and send mental messages to all his teammates on how to avoid them, a second-stage Guardian mental power could barely even cut it and they would have noticed him expending his energy. To be able to do so without letting any slip-ups, at least a third-stage Guardian mental power was required.

Aurora wasn't surprised by this as the reports from her teammates as well as her prior experience clashing with Asher had already revealed this. However, the rest of the students present were, and couldn't help but develop some sort of fear towards Asher.

Despite being a null, he had managed to train his mental power to that of a third-stage Guardian mage and had his mana at the level of a peak second-stage Guardian mage. The combination of both made him roughly on par with a third-stage Guardian mage which further helped the students understand why Asher was ranked 10th.

Asher then sent some mental notes to the student stuck in the death zone, who then obliged and went around picking the tokens that had fallen off of the deceased students. Their bodies were gone but the tokens had somehow survived the assault, unlike those of the students who died outside the cave, and this was a good thing for Asher.

After those sets of tokens were handed over to Asher, he then sent a mental note to the young boy on how to escape. Apart from that, he had also sent a rough map of the positioning of the traps for the first 8 metres to the team leader of the boy's team. The traps began from the 5 metres mark from the cave's entrance so this map only covered three metres, but it was still quite valuable as it would save them some time.

After all of that was done, Asher turned around and began heading deeper into the cave while speaking.

"In the path of cultivation, one should always depend on themselves and avoid falling to their vices, otherwise, their path would be cut short. When you wield control over your mind and body, you will have then stepped onto the path of greatness. If you fail to do so, even with the body of a dragon, the soul of a phoenix and the spirit of a divine warrior, your path would still be cut short."

It seemed like Asher was speaking to the boy whom he had saved yet talking to everyone else including his teammates.

This time around, Asher didn't utilize any tricks and instead dodged the traps openly. Earlier on, his teammates had paused walking but seeing as Asher resumed moving, they followed his lead.