The sky was clear, but Camilla’s spiritual perception had already spread out like the finest radar, silently covering the surrounding area for nearly a hundred meters. She walked at the front of the team, seemingly chatting casually with Emma.
Ever since stepping into the A3 Zone, she had felt a faint, elusive sense of… something being off.
It was too quiet.
It wasn’t that there was no sound—the chirping of insects and birds still existed—but it just felt like something was wrong. As if something was secretly watching them from the shadows, casting a faint layer of oppression over the originally natural vitality.
Moreover, that sickly sweet smell in the air… though very faint, mixed with the fresh scent of the forest, it seemed particularly abrupt. It didn’t smell like flowers, but rather like some kind of medicinal odor.
“Everyone, be careful.”
The smile on Camilla’s face faded a bit. She slowed her pace and warned in a low voice.
“Huh? I don’t feel anything? Isn’t it just a normal forest?” Salina, carrying her battle axe, scanned the surroundings with her blood-red eyes, unconcerned. “Are you just too tense from the last attack?”
Ludmila didn’t speak, but her hand holding her sword had adjusted to a posture ready to draw and strike at any moment. Her pure black eyes swept sharply over the surrounding shadows, clearly also on high alert.
Emma moved a little closer to Camilla nervously and whispered, “Camilla, the flow of magic power here… seems a bit chaotic. It’s not quite the same as the stable natural field described in the textbooks.”
The moment Emma’s words fell—
Screech!
Hiss!
Whoosh—
From the bushes and tree canopy shadows ahead, to the left, and to the right, sharp or low roars erupted without warning!
Shadows surged!
Seven or eight low-tier magic beasts of various forms, as if emerging from the ground, pounced from three directions simultaneously, directly assaulting the squad! There were creatures covered in spikes, boar-like Spiked-Tusk Boars, swift-moving Corrosive Lizards spitting acid, and two Nightshadow Bats circling in the air, waiting for an opportunity to dive.
Their eyes, without exception, glowed with an abnormal dark red, emitting a frenzied aura, as if controlled by something.
“Hah! So we really are getting mobs?”
Salina reacted the fastest. With an angry shout, her battle axe was already swinging. Crimson fighting energy transformed into a crescent-shaped blade of air, cleaving a Spiked-Tusk Boar that had pounced at her in mid-air into two halves!
Ludmila’s greatsword was also drawn almost simultaneously. A deep purple sword light flashed, precisely severing the head of a Corrosive Lizard attacking from the side, while she sidestepped to avoid the spray of acid.
Camilla pulled Emma behind her with one hand, her left hand quickly forming seals. A light blue Water Shield instantly unfolded in front of the two, blocking the sonic wave impact sprayed by a Nightshadow Bat and the charge of another Spiked-Tusk Boar.
“Big Emma! Teacher Emma! Please!”
“Y-yes!”
Although nervous, upon hearing Camilla’s clear instruction, Emma immediately raised the exquisite staff Lilian had given her. As she spoke, a strong light erupted from her as the center. “Flash Technique!” The tip of her staff lit up with a blinding white light.
The two Nightshadow Bats about to dive were caught in the light. They let out painful screeches, tumbling chaotically in the air, temporarily losing their threat.
“Well done!”
Camilla praised, her right-hand longsword leaving its sheath. Sword light flashed like lightning. Coordinating with Ludmila who had pounced forward again, they quickly dispatched another Spiked-Tusk Boar and a “Burrowing Worm” that had emerged from the ground, resembling an enlarged earthworm.
Salina had already cleared the magic beasts from her direction. Thick blood dripped from her battle axe.
The battle erupted suddenly and ended just as quickly.
In less than a minute, all seven or eight low-tier magic beasts were annihilated, their corpses lying scattered on the ground.
“Tch, is that all?”
Salina shook the bloodstains off her axe and curled her lip. For her, enemies of this level didn’t even count as a warm-up.
“Not right. These magic beasts… their attack patterns are too frenzied. It doesn’t seem like normal hunting or defense.” Ludmila silently inspected the magic beast corpses on the ground, her pure black eyes narrowing slightly. “Someone is pulling strings in the shadows.”
Camilla also crouched down, using the tip of her sword to nudge the corpse of a Spiked-Tusk Boar, carefully sensing the residual dark magic fluctuation on it, and that familiar medicinal odor.
Her brow unconsciously tightened into a deep frown.
“These magic beasts… were summoned. And… it seems they were also fed some kind of… forbidden drug…”
She raised her head, looking deep into the dense forest, her gaze becoming sharp as a blade.
“It’s the method of the Dark Demon Beast Legion.”
“What?!”
Salina and Emma were both startled.
“The Dark Demon Beast Legion? Weren’t they crippled? How could they appear in the academy’s practical combat zone?” Salina found it hard to believe.
“Maybe remnants.” Ludmila stood up, tightening her grip on her sword hilt, her black eyes squinting as she tried to find something. “Or… fish that escaped the net from the last attack.”
The sense of unease in Camilla’s heart grew stronger. Being able to summon and crudely control low-tier magic beasts wasn’t something ordinary remnants could do. Moreover, the other side was clearly prepared, using these cannon fodder to probe and exhaust them.
Tsk… What is the Student Council doing? Something this big wasn’t even recorded in the intelligence?
“Everyone, be careful! The enemy is likely nearby, and… I’m afraid they’re not simple!”
Just as Camilla was preparing to be “dishonorable” and preemptively set up a Summoning Hindrance Device, an intangible mental wave swept through the entire dense forest without warning.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—
“This is… Psychic Scream!”
Camilla, with the strongest mental power, only felt a bit dizzy and quickly recovered. Salina, protected by her magic prop, was also largely unaffected. Ludmila staggered, planting her sword into the ground to support her body, standing with difficulty through sheer willpower.
But Emma was different. Her strength was the weakest among the four, and she had no experience dealing with mental attacks. Having suffered excessive mental damage, Emma’s face turned pale, blood trickled from her seven orifices, and she slumped to the ground. Fortunately, Camilla caught her body in time.
“Hold on!”
Camilla reached into her satchel and pulled out a magic scroll. The magic sealed within was called “Mind Barrier.” The scroll was consumed in blue magical flames, and a translucent, square barrier immediately enveloped the four of them.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—
A second round of Psychic Scream struck again, its power even more terrifying than the last.
The sonic wave, tangible as substance, exploded among the trees. Luckily, Rimuru emerged in time, using its own body to block this strike.
However, the surrounding environment wasn’t so fortunate. After the ravages of the magical sound waves, the entire top layer of soil was torn up. Amidst the billowing dust, that hoarse, dry voice abruptly echoed through the woods.
“…Perceptive little girl.”
The voice drifted erratically, making it difficult to locate its source.
“Didn’t expect… you to notice so quickly… However, it doesn’t matter… The game… has only just begun.”
The voice carried undisguised malice and a kind of morbid excitement.
“Who is it? Come out!”
Salina’s blood-red eyes blazed with anger. She held her battle axe horizontally in front of her and shouted sharply.
Ludmila had already moved silently to a position slightly ahead and to the side of Camilla and Emma, her greatsword pointing diagonally at the ground, her entire body tense.
Emma’s face was pale. She gripped her wooden staff tightly and instinctively moved closer to Camilla again.
Camilla shielded Emma completely behind her. Her right hand held the longsword, while her left hand had already quietly reached into her satchel, ready to pull out a new Magic Tool depending on the situation.
“Come out?… I’m right here, you know… I’ve been… watching you all along.”
Along with these chilling words, not far ahead, on the trunk of that thick, grayish-brown Ancient Tree, that strangely shaped Wood-Head Ape slowly, stiffly stood up. Using its bloodshot, insane eyes, it looked down upon the four below from its high vantage point.
Chapters 88 to 93 seem to be the wrong story, translator…
The raws seem to be the issue here. Will try to fix it somehow.