Chapter 217: Southern wilds 1
For the next three days, your squads will be deployed into the southern wilds. You will survive against terrain, beasts, and each other if necessary. Return alive, with the academy tokens, and you pass. Fail, and you prove yourselves unfit."
A murmur rolled through the courtyard. Shoulders tensed, eyes darted. Everyone knew the reputation of the southern wilds. Tangled forests that seemed endless even on maps, rivers that shifted course with the rains, and beasts that pressed too close to the borders of human settlements. It was no training ground. Sending students there was proof enough that this challenge would not be gentle.
Mr. Han waited for the noise to fade before continuing, his tone calm, almost dry, but carrying the weight of finality. "Some of you will think this is about fighting. It is not. Some of you will think it is about hiding. It is not. Survival demands more. It demands judgment."
His gaze swept across the courtyard again, resting here and there on certain students, each glance heavy enough to make them straighten or shift their weight.
Then, inevitably, his eyes settled on the front, on the one student who could never quite escape attention.
Jae.
He stood with Elise, Tirel, and Byun at his side. His name had only grown since the battle with the Shadow General. Admiration, suspicion, envy, all of it followed him like shadows, and the watching eyes pressed close now, eager to see how he would carry himself.
Jae, as always, gave them what they expected. His lips curled into a smirk, casual and sure. "Guess we’ll set the bar."
A ripple went through the crowd. Some frowned at his arrogance, others scoffed, but a few smiled despite themselves. Whatever else they felt about him, no one could look away.
The southern wilds were harsher than Jae expected.
From the moment their squad stepped beyond the carved boundary stones that marked the academy’s protective reach, the world shifted. The air was heavier here, thick with the damp weight of moss and river spray. The ground sucked at their boots in places, roots tangled beneath the soil like living snares. Even light seemed uncertain, filtering through the canopy in broken, dappled shafts.
The first day of the survival challenge tested them but did not break them. They moved as one, falling into rhythm almost immediately. Byun scouted ahead, his shadows spilling forward over the uneven ground, sliding into dark hollows where hidden threats might wait. Elise kept their energy balanced, careful with her mana as she tended to scrapes from thorns or the sting of sharp-edged leaves.
Tirel cleared their path with fire when needed, her flames burning away the nests of biting insects that clung to the bark or swarms that rose from the brush. She wielded her gift with the same sharp precision she used in class. controlled, efficient, never wasteful.
Jae led. He was at the front, pushing them onward, his eyes always scanning for the best path, the safest footing. The terrain was rough and the air clung damp to their skin, but he felt no weight in leading them.
If anything, it came naturally. He knew how to read the rise of the ground, the bend of the trees, the quiet that hinted at danger before it showed its teeth. Every beast they met, from prowling hunters to quick-footed scavengers, fell with little trouble. They were strong, but not strong enough.
By the time the second day waned and the sun slid low, staining the canopy in streaks of firelight, their squad had already claimed one token.
The construct beast they had fought was unlike the wild creatures, armored and unyielding, but when it fell it dissolved into smoke, leaving the token gleaming where its body had been. Elise pocketed it carefully, her expression steady but pleased.
Two more days and they would return early, walking back into the academy as the first squad to finish. Jae could already picture the looks on the others’ faces, the surprise, the envy. A small, private grin tugged at his lips.
That was when the air shifted.
It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t sudden. But it was absolute.
The forest grew still in a way that was wrong. The ever-present buzz of insects dulled. Birds stopped their chittering. Even the distant rush of water seemed to have vanished, swallowed into silence. The wild, which only moments ago had pressed in with its humid breath and endless noise, recoiled as though holding itself back.
Jae slowed. His steps faltered, then stilled. The others noticed the same moment he did, their senses brushing against the strangeness.
"Something’s wrong," Jae murmured, his hand rising to halt the group. His voice was quiet, but it carried weight.
Byun reacted at once, shadows spilling from his feet, slithering forward through the roots and branches like dark scouts. His eyes glazed slightly as he stretched his reach, probing the edges of the silence.
A long moment passed. Then his expression hardened. "Not beasts," he said, his tone clipped, eyes narrowing. "People. Too many of them."
Elise’s brow furrowed, her voice sharp with unease. "Part of the test?"
"No," Jae said flatly. There was no room for doubt in his tone. His instincts screamed otherwise. This wasn’t the measured edge of danger the academy instructors used to shape them.
The weight pressing on him now was different. Sharper. Heavier. It was the presence of something that did not care about lessons or growth. It was the kind of hostility he had only ever felt in true combat? the kind that cared only about breaking whoever stood in its way.
Branches cracked ahead, sharp as bones snapping underfoot.
Figures emerged from the gloom between the trees. At first, there were only a handful, faces hard, movements practiced, their silhouettes stark against the dying light. Their clothes were wrong for academy students.
No uniforms, no emblems of pride or lineage. Instead, they wore gear stripped of ornament, every strap and stitch practical, fitted for killing. Blades hung loose at their hips, worn from use rather than training.
And their faces, scarred, cruel, eyes glinting like wolves circling prey.