Why Did You Summon Me?

Much like Bald Wu’ke and co., the other students threw themselves into setting up camps at their chosen locations. Amusingly, that became a chance to show off one’s creativity in problem-solving and/or the size of their pockets.

A few had the same idea as Bald Wu’ke’s team. They severed a few rocky spikes from the surroundings with their own techniques and built a makeshift fortress around their tents.

Some had managed to procure magical drilling equipment from the Alchemy Faculty prior to the Trial so that they could excavate a large cave out of a sufficiently large rock pillar — the idea was to make set their base one hundred-odd meter above ground much like a bird’s nest. This allowed them to be safe from the reach of terrestrial wild beasts, but it also made going in and out of their base quite bothersome.

Even then, some went even further and really let the size of their wallet shone—discarding the usual procedures of making camps, they just purchased a handy, three-minute-set fortress-in-a-pocket from the Engineering Faculty. When activated, the tent expanded into an impressive bastion built for attacks, defense, and instant packing when fleeing was needed. As if that was not enough to make anyone jealous, the interior designs, functions, and facilities were luxurious enough to belong in a bona fide hotel.

Finally, there was the simplest, most brutal, and symbolically human method that only the strongest and laziest students could do: colonizing a wild beast’s nest by force! That was precisely what Lee — the star student of the fourth-graders and one of the contenders for platinum-necklace of the upcoming graduation — did with the grace of a savage. Shortly after he found a den belonging to a family of bears, he had charged right in with only his battle cry as an announcement before lashing out severe beatings to Bear Pa and Bear Ma. In the end, the two had to abandon their home in fear while they held their recently-born cub, eyes still closed and mewling out protests.

It was probably one of the most unscrupulous tricks to resort to, yet it was logically sound. Any wild beast knew that one must first make the safest den they could for their offsprings to be safe from the harsh dog-eat-dog world outside. Not only that, every animal would only build their nest close to a place where food and water supplies were readily available.

The downside, however, was that these dens were always thick with the animal’s stench as well as its lackluster sense of hygiene — to a human. This meant that someone from the team would have to do some housekeeping before the den was truly habitable, and unsurprisingly, Lee was exempted from that kind of dirty work.

After being forced to split from his original teammates by Cactus Z, Lee had encountered a few of his juniors on the run and formed his new momentary team. As his reputation him, the juniors counted themselves lucky and gladly take up whatever errands he ordered them to do to be allowed in the team, including cleaning the den.

The events unfolded themselves simultaneously on an abundance of holographic screens spreading before Baiyi. He was sitting comfortably in the Kitty Cat Maid’s office at the moment, observing the students secretly, not unlike a security officer watching surveillance tapes in the operation room back on Earth.

It was one of the most basic security measures Da Xue employed to ensure that no one would have their lives thrown away for frolicking in the wrong neighborhood in Mount Parazonium.

Another measure the academy had taken was to have the Voidwalkers dispatched to annihilate every single monster that might beway over the students’ skills and proficiency levels prior to the Trial. Not only that, the metallic sheets where the students’ missions were inscribed had been equipped with a form of emergency eject button; if things ever went south, a transporting spell would be activated automatically and whisked them away from the micro-realm altogether. Of course, that also meant that whatever merits they had accumulated would be nulled, but at least they got to keep their lives.

The final line of security Baiyi had installed was the widespread surveillance magic cast all over the entire micro-realm: The All-seeing Eye. An Ancient Rohlerlian forbidden spell, it allowed its user to acutely observe the movement of every living creature in a given territory. It was by no means unavoidable; there were plenty of masking or counter-spells to deflect its effect, thus making it nigh useless modern times.

However, it proved its worth for the internal purpose of overseeing a practical exam. It was the biggest reason why Da Xue never missed a single move the students made, and why the faculty’s instructors always managed to appear at the right time and administer help to students who had found themselves in a pickle. This time, however, it also became a cheat for the likes of the Hitman Walker to know where exactly to appear to catch his students off-guard.

In conclusion, any danger presented in the Trial of Parazonium was cosmetic. At its core, the Trial was nothing more than a fancy, more “serious” romp in a very large sandbox.

“Now, where-oh-where are the Soul Armature Practitioner and the Hitman Walker, hmm?” Baiyi asked pointedly at Attie as he spied her from the edge of the screens. “I can’t find them.”

Normally, the Kitty Cat Maid would stop whatever she was doing and skipped over to her master asking for a hug-hug or a head-pat, but today she was immersed in her job as the star instructor of the Knights Faculty. Her slender hand was gripping on a long name list as she rated and scribbled comments on each student according to their performance.

Since the debut of the Mutated Monsters — featuring exciting members such as the Jawflower X and Watermelon Omega — she had been closely watching the students, evaluating them before awarding each their corresponding merits. These points would soon combine with the marks they obtained by completing their missions to produce their final performance score.

“Hmh. You shouldn’t be surprised that these two professors had the means to avoid your surveillance magic, Master,” Attie replied without raising her head. “Why are you looking for them?”

“What do you think?” Baiyi zeroed in sharply. “I thought I’ve made this clear: even though the Jawflower has the face that only a mother would love, I am its mother. So, what other reasons are there for me to ask for those two, Attie? How much, pray tell, are you involved in this scheme, hmm?”

The Kitty Cat Maid found her neck shrinking towards her collar. She shook her head and clarified frantically, “Uh, I know nothing. Not involved at all. Totally their idea!”

“Hmph. If they can’t reverse whatever they’d done with the Jawflower, the bitter coldness of the Void awaits them both,” Baiyi asserted frigidly.

“You should, um, look at the bright side, Master. With the Jawflower’s new size and strength, it will be able to protect the girls more effectively, right?” Attie suggested very softly.

“I’ll not allow my school to be turned into a dungeon crawling with magical beasts. This is a line that I’ll not cross,” Baiyi protested stubbornly. “Especially not at this time when the Church would find any stupid excuse to attack me or the academy.”

Attie pursed her lips in helplessness. ‘As if the Jawflower isn’t a magical beast in the first place!’ She thought to herself. ‘And what, are we pretending that the Fox, the Sunflower, and the Owl aren’t magical beasts as well? If this is the excuse the Church needs, I don’t know why they haven’t seized it yet. You think they’ll say “oh, that’s cool” with the Jawflower and suddenly change their mind with Jawflower X? ‘

Attie was only brave enough to snark her master in her own head than to say it out loud.

Thankfully, Baiyi changed the subject. “Say, Attie. Aren’t you going to make an appearance this time?”

“In this little-girl-state?” Attie stuck her tongue out at Baiyi, making a face. With her powers still not restored to its original level, she was still a loli. “I’m embarrassed just by imagining myself like this in front of the students! Lately, all of my classes were taught by someone else.”

‘You say this as if Mia isn’t basically an adult in a loli shell as well. Despite her disability, she’s still giving lectures! I think you’re just looking for an excuse to get out of work,’ Baiyi thought quietly.

He raised his head and returned his attention to the screens, watching closely as if he was looking for something.

“I wonder… Can the Magic Faculty copy this exam format too? Ya know, an epic trial or something similar. Our current practical exam format is a bit too conservative my taste,” he murmured under his breath.

Unlike the Knights Faculty, the curriculum of the Magic Faculty emphasized theories more than its practical performance, which was reflected in its exam formats. Their practical exam was as simple as taking the students out to a random field, who was then instructed to fire some spells at whatever target appeared that day.

After mulling over the possibility, however, Baiyi decided to drop the idea as he murmured, “Meh. Sorcery is a noble and graceful profession. My lads and lassies shouldn’t be playing in the mud like these uncouth brats here.”

While the academy’s most feared and respected Grand Principal Bai was spying on the students, they had already moved on to the next task of their survival: obtaining food and water. Since Bald Wu’ke and co. had already gotten their dinner for the night, their search included less-obvious resources such as salt and spices.

Short Morad was tasked to guard their new camp, while Hunky Joe and Bald Wu’ke ventured to the Lower Level. As they were departing, Joe asked his junior, “Ya’ know where to get salt?”

Wu’ke stiffed a little before his hand inched towards his storage pouch for the overpriced guidebook. Before he could open his pouch, however, Hunky Joe stopped him with a wave of his hand. “You know what? Never mind. I’ll get the salt, and you’ll get water.”

The Northerner’s shiny, hairless head bopped in affirmation. Getting water was one of the most fundamental skills for survival in the wild, even for Northern-style survival training.

The two split up. Just as Bald Wu’ke found a stream of clear spring-water from a fault in a rocky wall, Hunky Joe managed to espy a spike that stood out from the others. Unlike the other rocky spikes, which were dirt-yellow, this one had a few white spots on its surface.

“Lucky me!” He cried in glee before leaping onto the spike with his sword in his hand. With a swift, light cut, he shaved the surface of that spike, revealing white crystalline substance underneath its muddy outer layer.

It was a spike constructed from purely crystallized salt. One needed only to get a small chunk of it to dissolve into water and purify it several times to get basic, coarse table salt.

Hunky Joe gladly carried that large block of crystallized salt back to camp, but his luck did not stop there. On his way back, he stumbled upon something even more valuable than common salt — growing out of the shades of a particular rocky spike were a few blades of edible plants he found familiar.

He uprooted them and sniffed one of them tentatively. Then, when a rejuvenating scent of spiciness rocked his olfactory sense, he cried to no one in particular, “Whoa, this is great!” His mouth started to water at the alluring aroma.

The herb was a special type of cumin found only in Mount Parazonium. Centuries of trying to avoid being eaten by wild animals had forced this particular species of cumin to evolve into producing a sharper, almost-pungent scent than its distant relatives; but, it appeared to work well against all animals saved humans. To make use of its seasoning potential, one needed only to dehydrate it and grind it into a fine powder. After that, simply cast them over the chose food, roast or grill the mixture for a while, and one would be rewarded with a kick in their tastebuds!

In a place where most food could only be prepared by roasting, this small herb was more or less a gift from heaven. Many were addicted to its taste right from their very first experience with it, which was why some students put their missions aside for the first few days just to harvest as many cumin their luck would allow them.

Indeed, these spectacular cumin plants were not easy to be found at all. This was why it was crowned with the title “the Lucky Cumin”; it was even believed that if one could find even a single blade during the Trial, it meant that the student’s luck was high enough to carry them through the rest of the exam.