Easter Bonus: A Meeting between Protagonists Part 3

“I don’t know why he’s so worried about explosions in a forest; I mean, if no one is around to hear it, does it really matter?” Alysara asked as they reached the gate leading to the forest. “What does the direction say anyway?”

“We can do this in any order, but our objective for the first test is to survive in the forest with little supplies,” Hestia reads the paper John gave us.

“So they expect us to get lost and have to forage and camp,” Alysara commented. “Runalymo can subsist on mana for about a month, but for me, it’s longer since I am stronger than the average Runalymo. How can you fare, Hestia?”

“I can survive entirely on the sun during the mornings and bank solar energy in my body to transform into nutrients for the night.” Hestia snapped her fingers, causing a small spark as if to tell Alysara they had this in the bag. She then continued reading.

“This can be done solo or in a party, and we must locate a golden dagger somewhere on the mountain” Hestia looked in the direction of the mountain. “Looks like it will take a few days just to get to the mountain on foot, but with our flying, that shouldn’t be an issue; we have to bring the dagger back as proof of our completion of the te—”

“I’m sorry! Please don’t kick me out of your group; I’ll never be able to complete these tests on my own!”

Alysara’s ears pivot to the source of the sound. She had long since seen them walking through the forest, but only now they came into earshot. A group of tired-looking boys and two girls are trekking out of the forest and toward the gate.

“We spent hours looking for you!” One of the boys yelled at a smaller girl. She has shoulder-length hair in a ponytail and is wearing a school uniform like the others in her group. “You can’t take five steps without getting lost, Aki!”

“Hmm? There are actually other girls other than us in this place? And here I thought we were surrounded by a bunch of boys trying to hit on us,” Hestia comments on the situation, looking curiously at the high schoolers.

“There are a few outliers here,” Alysara says before listing them. “Twelve girls, seven elderly people, and even a cat. But what I don’t understand is why are most people here so bland-looking?

“I’m sorry! I can’t help it!” Aki pleaded.

The group finally comes in line of sight, and the other girl puts the final nail in the coffin.

“You’re useless!” She coldly said. “A klutz, a failure, you have no hope!”

“Oi, hold on—” Hestia starts but suddenly the boys and the girl who were belittling Aki jumps in fright looking around as if a world-devouring monster is glaring down on them.

The pressure only lasts for a few seconds but it leaves the group shaking in fear.

“That’s no reason to treat her like that” Alysara stepped forward as if nothing had happened. Aki just looked at Alysara then at her group utterly confused as to what happened.

“W-well, if you like her so much then you take her into your group!” The other girl said, looking around with paranoia.

“Fine!” Alysara said, and with a wave of her hand, the dirt and grime from days of wandering through the forest fell off of Aki as if the world decided that there should be no dirt on the girl.

The other group quickly retreated, not daring to stay anywhere near where a monster might be.

“… Uhm, Alysara, I know you did the right thing there, but did you have to scare them off like that?” Hestia looked at Alysara with a raised brow.

“All I did was look at them,” Alysara said, crossing her arms. “That said, I usually only use that when fighting enemies, and it’s my most powerful skill, so I miiight not know my strength… Sorry”

“What do you mean by ‘look at them?’” Hestia tilts her head inquisitively.

“I sense mana through a metaphorical ‘touch’. What I did was ‘touch’ with more force; this results in the sensation of being watched, but since it’s my strongest skill…” Alysara leaves it at that to check on Aki. “I know you just left the forest, but we need to go in; it won’t take us long.”

Aki nodded, thanking Alysara for her help.

“Hold on; we’re actually going to take her with us. Just like that?” Hestia asked with a confused face at Alysara, stopping their discussion part way, but Alysara mentioned how she intervened, so she had to take responsibility now.

“Thank you very much.” Aki said with a bow, “I’ll be fine. As long as I can pass this test, I’ll do anything. I can’t do it on my own anyway. Last time I got lost and needed to be rescued by the instructors.”

Just then, the generic trio from the combat area arrived.

“I heard you ladies did really well on the combat tests. Doing the survival test now?” one of them asked. “I do not believe we had a chance to properly introduce ourselves! Allow us to remedy that!”

With a gentlemanly bow, each of them gave the girls their names, but they were so generic that Alysara immediately forgot them, while Hestia just sighed and walked away from them, ignoring them entirely.

“... Right. I am Alysara. We’ll be going now. We don't want to take up too much of your time.”

“Nonsense, Miss Alysara; in fact, we would like to formally invite you to our group! I hold the current record for the fastest time in bringing back the dagger. With me, you can complete this test easily!”

“Thank you for your offer, but we’ll be fine on our own,” Alysara said, leading Aki to the gate.

“C’mon,” The leader of the generic trio said. “Can’t you at least give us a chance?”

“No,” Alysara coldly brushed him off.

“Alright, then I challenge you,” he said with a grin. “If you win, we won't bother you anymore, but if we win, then you join our team. First to bring back the dagger wins.”

Alysara sighs in annoyance; their insistence is grating on her nerves. Under normal circumstances, she’d refuse, but she is certain her group can win. However, there are a few things she can do to make this challenge even more in her favor.

“Alright! However, can we let Aki take a break before we start?” Alysara asked sweetly.

“Sure! Take as long as you want.” The challenger confidently grinned.

Immediately Alysara separates half of her perceptive field and moves it toward the mountain to remotely scan it for the dagger. It doesn’t take long before she finds a cave with the dagger hidden under some rubble.

There are many caves in the mountain and hollowed-out trees, which makes her think they are all possible places for the dagger to be hidden. Normally it would take days or even weeks to find the dagger, but Alysara’s perception is far from average.

“What are you planning?” Hestia asked once the generic trio was out of earshot.

“I am remotely viewing the mountain, looking for the dagger, so we know exactly where to go,” Alysara responded in a soft whisper.

“So, you’re like a sonar or drone or something?”

“Kind of?” Alysara responded, “My [Sense Magic’s] perceptive field is quite large now, thirty-two kilometers in radius, and I can move it up to twelve thousand kilometers away, which makes me best at scouting and information gathering; however, in my realm, there are ways to retaliate against scrying skills, so it’s quite risky.”

“Is that so? Well, once you have the location, give it to me. We can shorten this whole trip into a few minutes or so and get rid of the three casanovas forever.” Hestia smirked, once again impressed by Alysara’s kit of abilities.

“That’s pretty fast.” Hestia’s confidence reminds Alysara of her dragoon dive attack and how fast that was.

Hestia nodded, flaunting her large wings around like a proud bird. “I don’t know how fast you can be if you go all-out — I’m reserving my curiosity, hehe — but after warming up at the previous tests, I think I can get it in record time. No worries.”

“Uhm, excuse me?” Aki came over, looking worried at what was happening between the two beast-like girls. “I’m sorry if I interrupted you, but… is there anything I could help with?”

Alysara shrugged at Hestia as if to say she had no idea.

“Hmm” Alysara put a finger on her lips in thought. “What can you do? I don’t think you have any access to system abilities, Classes, or Skills. How are you with magic or martial combat?”

“Uhh, not good at fighting, but I am good at magic, wind magic specifically!” Aki replies.

“That’s actually useful; it will help us fly faster,” Alysara comments. She then turns toward the generic trio and tells them that they are ready.

“On three!” the generic leader says. “One! Two! Three!” They dashed off as fast as Olympic sprinters into the forest. Aki, too, started to run but quickly noticed Alysara and Hestia weren't chasing after; instead, two large grins grew on their faces.

“Well, see you in a minute or two. Thanks for the information; I’ll get it done.” Hestia jumps high into the sky, far higher than any trained jumper or kangaroo could ever hope to achieve.

There in the sky, she stood before a green magic circle around her size appeared from behind her, and in the next second, her wings burst into flames. With a large gust like a rocket blast, Hestia was there a moment ago, only to fly forward like a jet plane.

Aki and Alysara were flustered by the large gale shaking the area around them, even blowing one or two young trees to fall onto the ground, only for this place’s magic to reset it back to its position.

“I thought my wind magic was supposed to help…” Aki said dejectedly.

Alysara’s grin disappears a moment at how fast Hestia could fly, only for it to regrow as she notices the three young men from before fall right on their faces from the wind. Trails of fire can be seen in the sky, but the girl in question was nowhere to be seen.

A few seconds later, Alysara felt Hestia’s presence again and could even hear her humming in the sky. As she landed back on the ground with the grace of an acrobat, she twirled the still dirty golden dagger in her hand.

“Well, that’s that,” Alysara remarked. “Now those guys will have to stop bothering us. Now, what’s the next test all about?”

“W-What about those guys? Aren’t you going to tell them?” Aki said after recovering from her shock.

“They are already deep in the forest; they’ll figure it out once they notice the dagger is missing. Plus, they can’t argue about ‘cheating’ and re-challenge us if they aren’t here.” Alysara replied.

“Right! The next test is the scouting test with three objectives. One, give an accurate count of the camp’s fighting force; bonus points for reporting on armory, food stores, etc. Two, free a dummy hostage, bonus points for not alerting any guards and sabotaging their supplies, and three, assassinate the camp’s leader.” Hestia reads from the instructions that John gave her.

“Well, I guess that’s my cue,” Alysara said and walked over to a bench; at the same time, three clones appeared with wings and flew off to the camp.

“Umm, aren’t we going to go to the camp?” Aki says, tilting her head as Alysara is seemly slacking off.

“I already am,” Alysara replied. “Objective one: fifty-three goblins, eight hob-goblins, four orcs, and what looks like a leader or champion orc,” Alysara started, a piece of paper made entirely from mana appearing in her hands. As she details the camp's description, words start forming on the paper, complete with a top-down map highlighting key points of interest.

Hestia sits next to Alysara and peers over her shoulder as the map and report was quickly filled in. It’s clear that Alysara is experienced with making maps, but this goes beyond a simple map; this is a full-blown blueprint detailed down to each individual weapon in the armory, exactly how much food and water, and more.

Every several minutes the map is updated; first, the leader was crossed out, indicating a successful assassination. Next, the prisoner read ‘retrieved’ and at the same time several places on the map were crossed out as the places were sabotaged.

A little while later, Alysara’s clones returned with a dummy – the prisoner – and set it down next to the bench.

“Do you think we should bring the boss’s head with us? Just to make sure they won’t say we cheated or something?” Alysara nodded to Hestia’s suggestion but offers a counter solution.

“The dummies are anatomically correct – probably to desensitize killing – I don’t want to carry a bloody head around, but his weapon should suffice.” Alysara sent out a clone to retrieve the weapon.

Meanwhile, Aki could only stare in bafflement at what had just happened. Not only did they undoubtedly break the speed in the infamous survival test, but they also managed to clear the scouting test while just sitting at the entrance. Aki couldn’t help but think of these two girls as the very definition of a cheat.

After all, if they aren’t, then how could you explain Aki, the least impressive person from her group, managing to clear two tests without even lifting her own fingers? This was like taking a cheat sheet into the graduation exam without getting into trouble!

“Okay, the last trial. Let’s get it done and go before the boys come back,” Hestia said before reading the information on the pamphlet. “Last test: tracking. We are to find the legendary white stag inside this giant forest and then hunt it down. To succeed, we only need to bring back the antlers. Clues will be spread around the forest, and each group has to compete with each other for the stag. Once the stag is dead, you must wait a day before it respawns.”

“... Well, there certainly are a lot of stags in the forest; it would be awesome if I could know which one is white,” Alysara said bitterly. “Any other identifiers? It’s mana signature? Size? Special mark?”

Hestia shook her head.

“I’d just go and kill all stags in the forest, but that’d probably count against us for environmental annihilation.” Alysara sighed and slumped her shoulder and foxy ears, somehow still maintaining an elegant air about her. After a second, her ears perk up and Alysara looks like she got an epiphany.

“We don’t have to kill anything; we can just catch all the stags in the forest and release any that aren’t white!”

“How do you plan on doing that?” Aki asked, tilting her head.

“Clones!” Alysara replies and conjures a couple dozen of them, “And sleep spells! Hestia, can you fly around the forest and try to scare all the stags to shepherd them into one location? It will make it easier.”

“Sure!” Hestia blasts off again, quickly vanishing into the sky.

“Anything I can do?” Aki asked, trying to be useful in some way.

“Can you drag an eight hundred pound deer?” Alysara asks.

“No…”

“Can you sneak up on a deer?”

“No…”

“Can you track down a specific deer in this large forest?”

“... No” Aki slouched her body in depression.

Alysara placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to be good at everything; it’s fine to ask for help when you need it. I may be good when it comes to scrying, mana, and magic but with physical labor and social things I am not. It’s alright to have weaknesses.”

“Thank you,” Aki said with a soft sniffle.

An hour later, a herd of deer has been rounded up, and with several uses of a spell channeled through the clones; the herd falls asleep. Hestia flies down to one and breaks off the antlers before returning with a triumphant grin.

“That’s all of the tests here done! Let’s go find John~!” Hestia cheered.

“He’ll be happy to hear that there has been no more explosions,” Alysara remarked and led the way to where John is, an administrative building where he seems to be going over some papers.

John looked up as the three girls marched through the door, the dagger, scouting report, Orc leader’s sword, and the antlers in hand.

“... How?” John asked, flabbergasted. “It’s only been what, two hours?”

“You underestimate the perceptive ability of the blind,” Alysara said, handing him the report.

“It’s so detailed! Right, triple S mark for all of you. Why am I still surprised after everything today?” He mumbled the rest before putting everything away. “Only two more sections for you to do, which one do you plan on doing next?”

“Let’s go down the list. Time for the social event!” Hestia announced before Alysara could say anything.

“H-Hold on!” Alysara tried to protest, but Hestia wagged her finger in rejection.

“We have to do it eventually, Alysara. Don’t worry, similar to how you took care of me during two of the tests, let me carry you for the leadership and politics part. No idea about the merchant thing, but I think I can figure something out.” Hestia grinned, trying to motivate the saddened Alysara before looking over at Aki. “What about you? Want to join?”

“Oh, no, I’ve already gotten past those two. I only have the combat section left before I can reincarnate, so thank you two sooooo much for your help today! Without you, I probably would have had to wait forever to find a group who would want to help me! Thank you! I don’t know if we will meet again, but if we do, I’ll make sure to treat you two to something!”

Alysara and Hestia thanked Aki before they parted ways. One girl had a new life waiting for her, while our two girls had to return to theirs. Two more sections remained, and John was hoping both would pass through them like anybody else.

However, something was telling his stomach that wouldn’t be the case.