Aren't You Curious?

Less than a minute later, Milia caught up to Linfel's group, much to their surprise. 

"Milia, why did you come? Aren't you ashamed of following these Rank F Class Students?" Donfin asked with a sarcastic smile.

Milia glanced at him and pointed at Alvin. "He is part of my Faction, so I can't just ignore his presence now that he came this far into the test. I was expecting him to have given up by the fourth or fifth flag at most."

Alvin's hand nervously rubbed the back of his head. In truth, he hadn't expected to make it this far. But now, standing beside Milia, he couldn't admit that. "M-Milia, I... I'm grateful for your support. Thank you for being here with us."

Milia nodded, while Nori found it funny. Milia was just curious about how they got this far. Alvin wasn't really the reason for her to come at all. "Don't mention it."

Donfin and Miranda looked at each other but understood there was nothing they could do. They would rather still be the only ones following Linfel, after all.

Linfel, on the other hand, just ignored them all and focused on the flow of Magic Energy. Several other paths appeared in front of the group, and it was always him to determine which one to take. With that, Milia didn't take long to understand everyone was just following Linfel.

"How does he know where to go?" Milia asked Alvin and Connor on the side.

"Magic Sensitivity," Connor quickly answered before Alvin could. He also wanted to appear to Milia. "Linfel seems to have a very high sensitivity to Magic Energy, so he can feel the Magic Energy flow in this Canyon. That's how we got to this place so fast, even though this place is considered a maze."

Milia looked at Alvin and Linfel. The more she knew them, the more suspicious they looked in her eyes. "You truly made a very interesting Familiar, didn't you?"

Alvin tried to change the topic straight away. "What about you, Milia? Did you have someone like Linfel in your group? You were just thirty or so minutes behind us, you know?"

"Oh-ho!" Milia faintly smiled. "So you guys got that far thirty minutes before our group, uh? Linfel seems even more interesting now. I truly wonder what kind of weird parameters you used in him."

Alvin wanted to kill himself right there and then.

Still, Milia answered his question. "The reason we got there that fast was because of Rirano. I don't know how he did it, but he seemed to have acquired privileged information regarding the exam ahead of time. It is not against the rules, but the field exams' information is usually very well-kept. All I can tell is that it was definitely not cheap."

Alvin and the others found it unfair, but there was nothing they could do. "Well, it seems like Rirano's information isn't as good as Linfel's Magic Energy Sensitivity. You were still behind us and would continue to be so if we didn't have to fight the Rock Breakers," said Donfin.

Milia took that chance to ask. "Donfin, we have spared a few times during the classes and other situations. I believe I know your strength quite well. It is not that I'm looking down on you, but I don't see how you and Miranda would be able to defeat two Level Two Rock Breakers on your own."

Donfin shook his head, though. "Miranda and I only got one of the Rock Breakers. The one one was defeated by Alvin and Connor."

Milia was taken aback, looking at Alvin and Connor as well as their Familiars. "Is he telling the truth?"

Connor quickly spoke. "We were lucky. The Rock breaker just left an opening, and we took advantage of it. I believe it didn't feel threatened by us and ended up opening its mouth too early."

Milia then looked at Alvin, who avoided her gaze. "Yes, it was luck, nothing more than that."

Linfel changed direction once again. "Through here."

Everyone's attention went back to him. They were in a relatively open space and stretched quite far. There were no other passages there other than going forward. Yet, Linfel changed direction and went to the wall. "Here where?"

Linfel's Magic Energy circulated as Fire and Wind Gathered. A fireball quickly took form, which he used to attack the wall.

*Boom!*

It wasn't an impressive attack or anything. However, it caused the wall to crumble, revealing a dark cave behind it. "This..." They truly hadn't noticed its presence at all.

Linfel entered with an excited expression. "The Magic Energy Flow is much stronger inside this cave. It is probably connected to much deeper into the Dark Canyons."

Linfel was right. Until now, no one could feel any difference in the Magic Energy in the surroundings. Yet, the flow here was so much stronger that even they could tell the difference, albeit barely. For Linfel, however, it was the difference between day and night.

Donfin quickly took out a circular device from his bag and threw it in the air. The device floated ahead of them, illuminating the path. Without wasting time, they all went deeper.

Back on the airship, the room of dead corpses was already gone. At the moment, only Xalafel and his two subordinates were watching the entire exam. Naturally, Xalafel was more interested in Alvin's group. As for the rest of the groups, the entire exam was being recorded. Excluding the recordings of Alvin's display of a double connection, everything could be checked later by other teachers and instructors.

"Where are the images?" Xalafel asked with a dark expression. "Dilwe, get it fixed."

Dilwe shook his head in response. "It is impossible, Principal. They have entered a route that has no surveillance."

"No surveillance?" Xalafel narrowed his eyes. "How can there be a route without surveillance? What were the organizers doing that they missed that one?"

Dilwe sighed. "Unfortunately, we will have to wait until they come out in one of the watched regions."

Xalafel laid back on his chair and nodded. "Fine. Just make sure whoever missed that gets fired later."

At first, everyone followed Linfel without questioning. After all, he hadn't led them astray before. But as they continued to run, Milia's voice cut through the air, tinged with a hint of unease. "Something's not right. There are no cameras here."

Everyone was taken aback for a moment. Quickly, they began to scan their surroundings, looking for the tiny cameras that were being used to watch the entire field exam. It didn't take long for them to reach the same conclusion as Milia. "She is right. There are none."

Linfel looked back at Milia. "Could it be I took a route the academy didn't know about? I'm only following the Magic Energy Flow."

Milia didn't know. "With all the equipment at the academy's disposal, I find it hard to believe they would have missed this place. It looked well hidden, but it wasn't hard to enter. Of course... it is not impossible."

Alvin, Donfin, Miranda, and Connor agreed. "That's true."

Linfel then stopped, looking back to the path they came from. Ever since they entered this cave, they haven't seen the light of the day yet. "Should we go back and take an open route? I can just ignore this cave and follow the next strongest Magic Flow."

Since they were a group, it was just right to have everyone's opinion.

"No," Donfin's voice rang out, filled with determination. "If this path leads to the deepest parts of the Dark Canyons, even if it's unknown to the organizers, it could be our ticket to victory. We could be the first to reach the last flag, setting a record time. Imagine the bonus in score and academy credits. It will definitely be more than just the bonuses the instructor mentioned."

"But wouldn't we be missing the previous flags along the way?" Linfel asked, curious. "After all, collecting the flags is the main rule. If this path is unknown, there will be no flags until we find an exit. Instead, we would lose many score points and academy credits by leaving the flags behind."

Miranda quickly shook her head. "Don't worry. If you get to a flag deeper into the Dark Canyons, the flags that came before will also be added to your score. After all, you could only reach the deepest flags by passing by the previous regions. That shows you went through the exam as intended anyway."

Linfel didn't need to hear more than that. "Great! Record time, extra bonuses, that's all Alvin and I care about."

'I care about staying alive a lot more, though,' Alvin thought to himself. Nonetheless, he also understood the great chance he had here. "I vote for continuing this path."

Milia and Nori agreed. "We are of the same mind."

Miranda and Donfin, as well as their familiars, were no different. "Then let's go!"

Linfel quickly flew into the distance, being quickly followed by the rest of the group... and a crying Connor closely behind. "No one asked my opinion..."

Alvin shrugged and pointed behind. "You are free to turn around and go back."

"So heartless!" Connor complained. "Are you still my little Alvin?"

"Your ass!" Alvin rebuked. "Also, I'm just as nervous. You aren't alone in this."

The Magic Energy Flow power continued to increase as they went deeper into the cave. Nothing changed for a while as they found no Magic Beasts on the way, making them think this place was completely sealed before. However, it didn't last forever. Suddenly, a faint green light could be seen ahead, catching their attention. 

"What are these?" Linfel stopped by the wall, pulling out a shining green rock. There were many of these all around, making the path ahead quite bright.

"Magic Stones, perhaps?" Alvin also got one in his hand. It's just that he couldn't feel much Magic Energy inside these rocks. 

Linfel shook his head, though. "It does have some Magic Energy, but it is not like the Magic Stones we use. It just absorbed the Magic Energy from the environment to become like this. It has no use for training. Even those Low-Grade Yellow Magic Stones are a lot better."

Linfel looked around. "I guess it makes sense. The Magic Energy flow in this place is a lot more concentrated."

"Let's not waste time and keep going," Donfin spoke. Since the rocks had no use, they had no reason to dwell here.

Linfel nodded and threw the rock away before guiding everyone once again. The number of green rocks continued to increase while the cave got wider as well. At some point, they turned a corner and were presented with an underground pond shining with the same pristine green light.

"This is so beautiful..." Both Milia and Miranda spoke at the same time.

Donfin couldn't care less about it, though. "Fuck the scenery! Look at the pond! It is a Magic Energy pond!"

"What?!" Miranda and Milia's expressions changed. They quickly followed Donfin's eyes to the pond and saw the Magic Energy circulating inside. "It is truly a Magic Energy Pond!"

Donfin and the others were ready to jump in the pond when Linfel's voice echoed in their ears. "That's the reason the Magic Flow coming from this cave was so high. It is all coming from this lake. What do we do? We still have an exam to take."

They immediately stopped. "Shit! He is right! We only have a day to complete the exam."

"But..." Miranda seemed unwilling to just leave. "Look at the color of the Magic Energy. It is green! It is the same as Green Magic Stones."

Let's not forget that the grade of Magic Energy follows colors. Yellow being the lowest, you then have Red, Brow, and this same Green in the lake. You could say the lake is full of Level Four Magic Energy, which wouldn't be wrong. There is no doubt Donfin, Miranda, and Milia were rich and they could get a lot of Red Magic Stones with their Background. However, Green Magic Stones are two levels above, and they would still be something hard to come by for them.

Linfel shrugged, seeming not all that interested. "What are you all excited about? It is Green Magic Energy. You can't absorb it anyway."

"Ah!" Only then did everyone wake up to reality. Indeed, they couldn't absorb this kind of Magic Energy. The level was too high. Alvin had explained to Linfel before that they could, at most, absorb Magic Energy one level higher. More than that, and the cores wouldn't even accept it. If they forced the issue, they would only destroy their cores instead.

Milia and the others were only Level Two Maguses and Familiars. Even they couldn't take that Magic Energy. Not to mention, the Green Magic Energy in the pond had a very dense Green Color. It was definitely a High-Grade Green Magic Energy. For them to be able to absorb it and integrate the Magic Energy into their cores, they will need to become Level Three Maguses and Familiar while also being very close to Level Four. That wasn't something that would happen anytime soon.

"Also," Linfel continued. "The big guy living inside this pond probably won't feel happy if we try to take the energy inside."

Everyone's expressions froze. They all knew Linfel could feel Magic Beasts. And this was a Green Magic Energy Pond, so the Magic Beast Living inside could only be...

"Ahem..." Donfin began to take a few steps back, very, veeeeeeery slowly. "I just remembered I didn't come to this exam for Magic Energy but for the scores instead."

Everyone vigorously nodded. They, too, went back while sweating buckets.

Yet, their eyes suddenly widened while their faces contorted. Just ahead, above the pond, a certain Wisp- Ahem! A certain Familiar floated and seemed ready to attack the pond. "Aren't you curious to see what is inside? Don't worry, I'll bring it out in a second."