Aethernea

by Cloe D Frost

  “The range of their concealment should cover their immediate vicinity. You wouldn’t be able to feel the branches or the grass until they walk past them.” Orie pointed out good-naturedly.

  If the bandits wrapped their minds around themselves to cover up their aura, then it would also cover any mana that was inside that mind cocoon, including the foliage in their vicinity, making them invisible for mana sense.

  Elaru’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “That might be the case, but wouldn’t it be even more noticeable if grass and branches started popping in and out of existence?”

  If their mana concealment spread to foliage then as they walked foliage that entered their concealment would suddenly become invisible to mana sense, and foliage exiting the range of their concealment would suddenly become visible.

  Orie opened and closed her mouth several times. In theory, Elaru’s method was possible, but in practice, whose mana sense would be sensitive enough to pick up such small anomalies in a large forest?

  Orie wanted to argue but couldn’t quite find the right words to express her thoughts. She dreaded she would say something potentially insensitive or unkind.

  After several seconds of indecisiveness, she settled on: “Will you be alright? Enhancing the precision of your mana sense to such a state must be very tiring.”

  Elaru shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “It’s only for a short while. It won’t tire me out at all.”

  “That’s good.” Orie didn’t persist on the topic further, deciding to pursue another train of thought. “To be able to find the movements of bandits in such a way, your abilities are worthy of admiration. However, what if the bandits are standing still?”

  “Then they would be even easier to find.” Elaru declared confidently, her mouth curving into a small smirk.

  If Orie had been an elibu, her ears would have surely drooped at the statement, however, since she wasn’t, the only thing that fell was her shoulders.

  She displayed a helpless smile before motioning for Elaru to explain.

  “If they had set up camp, then the area around them would be void of wildlife making it glaringly obvious. Creatures would vacate their vicinity and avoid coming close, while their concealment would hide the grass around them. All in all, it would create an obvious clearing. Not to mention that if they set camp, there would be equipment in the area – tents, sleeping bags, and who knows what else. It would be a lot of effort to conceal it all. And if they don’t conceal it, I will be able to feel the difference in mana density of their equipment and the air around it.”

  “And if they are treading carefully? Flying invisible above the forest?” Even Orie was aware that she was grasping at straws here, but she still clung to hope.

  Hope that crumbled as soon as Elaru’s playful smirk appeared. “If your bandits were capable enough to both turn invisible and conceal their presence perfectly, you guys wouldn’t have been able to catch any sign of them, let alone follow them to this forest. Why would such capable people bother robbing someone for mere 500 gold and even kidnapping their pet? Don’t tell me they were bored and decided to play a prank?”

  Orie hung her head in shame, tucking another strand of her hair behind her ear. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything else. Even the examiners weren’t allowed to direct how the examinee tackled the problems presented in the practical exam.

  In a thoughtful attempt of comforting her, Elaru landed back on the ground and patted Orie on the back: “Even if I don’t give it my all and fly at a leisurely pace, I’d be able to sweep this entire area within 5 minutes. If I don’t find any trace of them in that time, I can go back and try to track them down using another method. I’d lose only a bit more than 5 minutes of time. Considering that I don’t need 10 minutes of time to take care of a couple of bandits, I’d have plenty of time to go back and try another method of tracking.”

  This attempt of comforting only made Orie feel worse about the whole matter. She, as one of the examiners, was very clear on the exact abilities of the bandits, and she already knew that there was no chance of Elaru going back and trying another method.

  This brute force approach…would totally work.

  Not just that, assuming that Elaru’s abilities corresponded to what she claimed them to be, this method was the simplest yet the most effective solution to the problem.

  Not only would she be able to find the bandits with almost one hundred percent certainty, but it would also be in the record time of 5 minutes. Not to mention that it would save her a lot of effort in finding and interpreting the clues…

  Orie finally gave up, she smiled helplessly and softly murmured: “Alright… please, lead the way…”

  And thus, the strict peacekeeper and the thin black-haired woman also accepted the invertibility of the situation.

  The short black-haired woman let out a soft, almost inaudible sigh. No wonder this girl gave Grisia so much trouble…

  The gray-haired peacekeeper rubbed his chin in thought before nodding. “If her mana sense is truly so fate-defying, then she would be an excellent addition to the peacekeepers.”

  He proceeded to take out a small, folded piece of paper from his pocket and unraveled it in front of him. He then took out a pen from the same pocket and scribbled down “Elaru Wayvin” on the list of names.

  Trying to recruit a Shadow into the Peacekeepers? The black-haired female looked at the list from the corner of her eyes and couldn’t help but wish her colleague luck: “May the fates be in your favor.”

  Startled by her encouragement, the gray-haired man looked at her suspiciously for a moment before murmuring. “Much appreciated.”

  As the examiners agreed with her method of doing things, Elaru let out an internal breath of relief.

  Most people in this situation would be worrying about how to find the bandits in such a short amount of time, Elaru on the other hand, was worried about how to come up with valid reasons as to why she could find them so easily.

  Actually, back then when she was inspecting the map, she had already used her Aethernea of Sight to do a sweep of the designated area, and she was able to find the bandits right away.

  However, she couldn’t just say “Let’s go that way.”, appearing to find them by dumb luck.

  She could make a prediction of their position, for example, saying that bandits are likely to have settled down near the river. After all, tracking was an art of finding things that had much more to it than simply following tracks. A large part of tracking laid in fine detective work and deducing where things were.

  However, in the current situation, all the deductions she could make would be flimsy, for she didn’t have enough information to make them. Even if she found the bandits following such unconvincing guesswork, the examiners wouldn’t be impressed and would deduct her exam points.

  After abandoning the idea of predicting their position, she tried to actually follow their tracks. She took a quick look at the tracks leaving the clearing, but they were going north towards a crossroads, at which point it was difficult to say in which direction the bandits went because it was filled with many tracks leaving in different directions. Even though she knew the position of the bandits, finding how they got there would be troublesome.

  She would need to do a much deeper inspection to find the path the bandits took.

  She would need to gather clues, distinguish the different tracks, and use all her knowledge of tracking.

  In other words, she would uselessly waste much time and effort.

  And what kind of person would willingly waste so much time and effort to find that which wasn’t unknown? Especially if it went contrary to her goal of showing off her ‘mana sense’.

  And thus, Elaru fell into a difficult predicament. She had to come up with a brilliant plan that would allow her to ‘find’ the bandits.

  In the end, she decided to just…use math.

  She narrowed down the search area and created a seemingly random sweep path that covered the ent
ire region, but was actually drawn to go towards the bandits first, making it so that Elaru wouldn’t actually need to sweep the whole region.

  As she turned her back at Orie, she took the opportunity to quickly wipe off cold sweat from her forehead and let out a silent sigh. Man, this exam is hard!

  * * *

  Two slim bodies flew through the sky with a speed of an arrow, not even leaving a multicolored blur behind. A beautiful redhead accelerated them onwards, hugging the brunette around the waist.

  The only sound that could be heard other than the whooshing of the air as it hit their faces, was a soft rattling of objects inside Orie’s leather pouch hanging around her neck, that kept bouncing up and down, hitting her bosom.

  The two seemed to have blended into their surroundings as the birds didn’t seem to notice them at all. The scene of the two beautiful females hugging, surrounded by the sea of green, might have been a picturesque scene if it weren’t for the pale face and the tightly shut eyes of the brunette.

  * * *

  Coming up in the next episode:

  That face full of grievance made Elaru feel awkward and guilty, like she was a bandit bullying a weak and gentle virgin.

  To balance out the reactions of the other two, Zerel’s eyes glittered mischievously. His mood was, in fact, so good that he didn’t forget to add oil to the fire. “Wait, Thaddeus, go back. I think we flew right past them.”

  “Aww! Look! He be purrin’!” The man exclaimed with a toothy grin, his fingers full of calluses digging into the soft fur. The short, balding man with a golden earring sneered at him. “What do ye think he is, a lunar? Fishbrain! He ain’t purrin’, he’s hissin’!”

  “What are ye doin’?!” The man gaped so wide he could have swallowed a tiwi.

  * * *

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  Episode 120 – Pirates

  Episode 120 – Pirates

  Previously:

  Upon entering the world of her exam, Elaru is faced with a peacekeeper who introduces the goal of the exam – finding and apprehending several bandits. Orie Tonrai, her exam partner, gives Elaru a map of the area which allows her to narrow down the potential whereabouts of the bandits. Elaru decides to quickly fly over the area and detect the bandits through her mana sense.

  * * *

  Two slim bodies flew through the sky with a speed of an arrow, not even leaving a multicolored blur behind. A beautiful redhead accelerated them onwards, hugging the brunette around the waist.

  The only sound that could be heard other than the whooshing of the air as it hit their faces, was a soft rattling of objects inside Orie’s leather pouch hanging around her neck, that kept bouncing up and down, hitting her bosom.

  The two seemed to have blended into their surroundings as the birds didn’t seem to notice them at all. The scene of the two beautiful females hugging, surrounded by the sea of green, might have been a picturesque scene if it weren’t for the pale face and the tightly shut eyes of the brunette.

  * * *

  Occasionally, she would involuntarily open her eyes and look back worriedly (Can prof. Iphis keep up with this speed?), before closing her eyes hastily once again to suppress her nausea.

  The redhead, on the other hand, had a nonchalant facial expression, yet her back, drenched in cold sweat, revealed her true thoughts: Darn it! Why are you guys so slow?

  She had wanted to showcase her awesome abilities, starting with her great flying speed, but who knew it would turn out like this?

  Orie couldn’t keep up with her speed, so Elaru was forced to carry her along. To make matters worse, Orie wasn’t the only one who had trouble keeping up with her speed – the examiners on their trail fell behind soon enough.

  Perhaps the problem lay in the fact that she had concealed their presence and made Orie and herself invisible? Without being able to feel them or see them, they might have some difficulty following them…?

  No, it was most likely the fact that the only argel of the three had two elibu deadweights he needed to carry along, while she only had one. – Elaru concluded. Orie and her were slim and light females, but that peacekeeper had some muscle underneath the uniform, and those fancy robes of Zerel’s certainly weighed enough to count as a half a person.

  When the camp site of the four bandits appeared in front of the two, Elaru wasted no time and quickly landed in the bushes nearby. If it was her alone, she would have continued hovering above the bandits and waiting for an opportunity to attack, however, her instincts told her that she should land as soon as possible.

  And indeed, her judgment was as outstanding as ever, for as soon as Orie’s feet touched the ground she stuttered forwards and started emptying her stomach in the bushes.

  While Orie’s body shook, Elaru kept awkwardly patting her back in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture. (Is this the fabled motion sickness papa told me about?)

  Orie felt so ashamed she wanted to disappear then and there. She wished she could just crawl under a rock and hide. Her face was red, her eyes turned glassy, and she was biting on her lip.

  That face full of grievance made Elaru feel guilty, like she was a rogue bullying a weak and gentle virgin. Yet, she couldn’t help but also feel aggrieved due to the ordeal. How was I supposed to know that my speed might cause such a rare ailment?? They won’t deduct points for this…right?

  In an effort to redeem herself, Elaru plucked a handful of nearby flowers and offered it to Orie, hoping that the flowery scent would alleviate her nausea. But when the flower scent mixed with sweet, aromatic smell coming from the leather pouch around Orie’s neck, the results were less than satisfactory.

  Orie looked down at the bouquet of wild flowers and felt even more embarrassed. Her performance was inadequate, embarrassing! It was simply soiling Muni’s flawless reputation. She even troubled a poor examinee to take care of her. A fail of an examiner!

  She was supposed to be a supervisor whose role was to draw out more information from the examinee that would help in their scoring. She was supposed to offer suggestions and advice that would serve as trick questions, but in the end, not only did she fail to dig out anything she was supposed to dig out, she was even dragging down this poor redhead.

  After a minute of retching, Orie finally managed to calm down a bit, or rather, she emptied her entire stomach, leaving nothing more to spew out. Elaru snapped her fingers and disintegrated the vomit so that the smell wouldn’t spread and alert the bandits.

  She wanted to offer a handkerchief to Orie, but she realized that she didn’t have one. Why would she need a handkerchief when she could simply Cleanse all contamination?

  By the time she determined what cloth on her body would be the most suitable to tear off to serve as a handkerchief, Orie was already wiping her mouth with her own.

  As she was wiping her mouth, Orie’s eyes landed on the inconspicuous silver bracelet on her wrist, and suddenly, she felt like crying all over again.

  * * *

  Meanwhile, the remaining three examiners were greatly confused by the sounds of throwing up coming from the bracelet on Zakaria’s wrist.

  The strict face of the peacekeeper showed signs of worry, while he attempted to bring their flying speed higher. Zakaria pretended to not hear anything, her expression remaining as aloof as ever.

  Unlike the other two, Zerel’s mood was so good he didn’t forget to add oil to the fire:

  “Wait, Thadi, go back. I think we flew right past them.”

  Zerel completely ignored the unsightly expression on Thaddeus’s grim face, and continued: “I think I caught a whiff of vomit a few bushes back.”

  * * *

  After Orie regained her composure, Elaru suggested for Orie to remain there, hiding in the bushes at a safe distance, while Elaru took care of the bandits. Since Orie couldn’t help her subdue them, she would only be a liability.

  Noticing ho
w Orie’s smile turned stiff, Elaru hastily added: “I need you to stay undetected and fire a signal flare if I run into trouble. If both of us end up captured without notifying anyone, our mission would be a complete failure.”

  In the end, Orie agreed to keep watch while Elaru stealthily made her way towards the campsite.

  Now that she was alone, she felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She floated through the forest silently, invisible to both sight and mana sense.

  On the way towards the camp, she noticed that the bandits had surrounded all paths towards their campsite with traps of various kinds. Most of them were completely nonmagical, making it difficult to detect with mana sense. Luckily, she had expected such a thing, so she was paying extra attention. Otherwise, even her Aethernea of Sight wouldn’t have been enough to notice every taut string and covered hole.

  While she was making her way towards the bandits, she noticed that the three examiners had finally caught up with them. They picked up Orie inside their invisibility barrier (probably to question her on the wretched sounds they had heard) and flew above the forest to monitor the situation better.

  The four bandits had set camp on a small meadow next to the river and were in the process of grilling fish.

  Even though the mission information stated that there might be more than four bandits, Elaru could only see four of them in this campsite. The others either didn’t exist and served to make the examinees reevaluate their plans or hadn’t arrived yet.

  The most eye-catching bandit of the four was a large, burly, bald argel with a scary looking scar covering the right side of his face. He stood straight and rigid like he had something stuck up his behind and monitored the surroundings alertly. He had the bearing of an expert that would scare most people, yet, Elaru’s expression as her eyes landed on the man was rather…unusual. Wait a second…these guys…!