Chapter 26: Reaching The Cave
"That's really a good report," muttered Chief Instructor Zhang Kong inside the tent at the base of the stronghold as he listened to the report his subordinates brought him.
"The girl, Zhou Min, is truly a capable fire mage. She's really to my liking. And as for the boy—what was his name again? Damon? Yes, Damon—he did well too. Reacting quickly, cutting his comrades loose, and giving the correct orders to the fire mages while maintaining his calm under pressure. He has a talent for leadership."
"Write both their names down, along with Zhang Xiaohou," Zhang Kong ordered, impressed by the report as he assessed the squad's talents.
From the beginning, the bounty and obstacles that Damon and the other students faced were all part of Zhang Kong's plan. He didn't intend to fail or pass the students without reason. This practical examination was Zhang Kong's way of teaching them the struggles of the wilderness while assessing them from the shadows under the guise of a bounty and testing how they handled the obstacles.
Sending students on a bounty hunt was almost like sending them to their deaths, but Zhang Kong wanted them to experience the true might of magical beasts and gain real experience. As for their safety? He had no intention of letting them fight a real monster. He had cleared the traces of the one-eyed wolf and instead had a summoner and his summoned beast deployed to give the students an encounter with beasts without any direct threat.
"Chief Zhang Kong, this Damon is the brightest and strongest student in our school. His primary element is lightning, and he reached level 2 in just a year since his awakening. He has gained excellent control over his lightning," said Zhang Jianguo, one of the teachers.
"Oh, really? This Damon does sound interesting. What's his background?" Zhang Kong asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
"Nothing special, he's just an orphan. But his talent is exceptional and really strong," Xue Musheng added with a smile as he introduced Damon to Zhang Kong.
***
'The Lightning element is on the verge of breaking through...' In the dark realm of his spiritual world, Damon mused to himself as he watched the four Stardusts of different colors hovering in the air.
The brightest Stardust glowed fiercely in red, while the lustrous black Stardust beside it emitted an aura similar to the fire Stardust.
Over the past half a year, Damon's growth in the fire and shadow elements had stalled. He had now shifted his focus entirely to his space element, prioritizing practicing the fire and shadow elements rather than cultivating and growing them.
The purple Stardust also glowed brightly in the void, finally reaching the brink of breaking through to the third rank after a year and a half since his awakening.
The three elements glowed brighter, but what Damon focused on most was his space element. The silver Stardust radiated a bright glow, illuminating the void. Although it didn't shine as brightly as the red or purple Stardust, its radiance was still notable.
As Damon observed the Stardust, he sighed before leaving his spiritual realm, only to find one of his classmates standing in front of him, holding a bottle and looking at him with concern.
"Hey Damon, are you alright?" one of the girls asked as she handed Damon a bottle of water.
Damon set aside his thoughts about his level and decided to engage with his classmates for the moment.
"Yeah, I'm fine." *Gulp* "How's Wang Sanpan?" Damon asked after taking a drink, resting on a rock along with the other students who had just escaped the Hundred Grass Valley.
"He's fine. Just some minor cuts, nothing serious," the girl replied happily as she continued chatting with Damon.
"By the way, you were really cool back there. I couldn't even move out of fright, but you just jumped in and cut those vines down. You looked really cool," she said, her eyes sparkling as she gazed at Damon, who just laughed awkwardly.
"Thank you, I guess..." Damon gave an awkward laugh, not knowing how to react to the compliment. They both talked for a bit before the girl finally left.
'Sigh... I had completely forgotten about the vines, thanks to the map that stopped me from entering. Otherwise, it would've been a mess getting stuck,' Damon thought as he looked at his squad taking a break after running through the field as fast as they could.
For Damon, he hadn't broken a sweat but still took a rest on the stone while continuously monitoring the area with his map for any nearby threats.
'It's been seventeen years since I read the novel... Leaving aside major incidents and characters, I've forgotten a lot of the minor incidents, I guess...' Since his regression into this world, he had been recalling all the moments from the novels to avoid forgetting things. He had also made a diary where he wrote things down, but mostly the important ones he could remember. After all, Versatile Mage has more than 3.5k chapters; remembering everything about it is humanly impossible for Damon, who was just a normal human.
Damon watched his classmates tending to Wang Sanpan's injuries while he kept his eyes on the map. Today, he had forgotten about the demonic vines, but thanks to his map, which indicated danger ahead by shading the area in red, Damon had stopped and didn't enter the vines directly. Before Damon could analyze the threat, Wang Sanpan had already entered the danger.
'Anyway, it's good it saved my brain some thinking...' Shaking his head, Damon thought as he watched the map of his surroundings, where a group of twenty was approaching Hundred Grass Valley, just a few kilometers behind them.
'Group one has also arrived...' Mu Bai's group, which was group one, had already crossed the river and was strolling just a few kilometers behind Damon's group.
'I guess they're not planning to take any rest...' Damon thought as he looked up at the top of the mountain they were currently on, where a dark cave was clearly visible.
"Today will be the last day..." Damon muttered to himself as he eyed the dark cave, the so-called den of the One-Eyed Magic Wolf that they were supposed to hunt.
"Damon... is that cave up there the one?" Xu Zhaoting, who wasn't far from Damon, suddenly asked as he looked at his map.
"Yeah..." Damon acknowledged.
"Oh, finally we've reached it. Sigh... finally, we'll be able to go home." Hearing the confirmation that they had indeed reached their final destination, Xu Zhaoting let out a relieved sigh. The past ten days, where they had to travel more than a hundred kilometers into the forest, were nothing less than torture for the students used to the comforts of the city.
"Everyone, take a break. The cave up there, as you can see, is our final destination! Rest or meditate; we all need to be in our best condition. After all, we'll be facing a magical beast!"
Damon announced to the squad, and everyone cheered, some planning how they'd enjoy themselves once they reached the city, while others talked about how they'd beat the crap out of the magical wolf.
Haha, beating the crap out of the wolf? Let's see whose crap gets beaten out first...
Damon thought as he observed the students nearby, squinting his eyes at the dark cave.
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