43: Student Enthusiasm

The Class Zero graduate students completed their impromptu investigation mission after another couple days of work. Roxanne’s hunting guild, the Wildheart Sentinels, completed their dual mission—extermination of mutated wildlife and investigation of an abandoned lab—just around the same time.

A few days after both groups submitted their results to the official Hunter’s Society, a new long-term mission appeared on their website’s homepage.

[Long-Term investigation:

Two groups working independently have discovered behavior attributed to artificial tampering with natural monster populations. Both group’s won’t be mentioned by name to preserve their anonymity; however, the location in which the two groups worked is of note.

The first group was operating in the north past all developed nations in the Forest of Tears. After performing a centipede extermination they found all magic stones recovered showed unnatural growths commonly seen in metamorphosis phases. The species observed however, had already breached its known maximum size.

Further investigation of the area revealed mana collectors deep in the burrows of the centipedes. These mana collectors condensed ambient mana into crystals for easy consumption. An attached image is included at the bottom of this write up.

The second group operated further west. They too were past all developed nations. However, they were not in the Forest of Tears, instead they worked at the plains meeting the east edge of the Dragon’s Teeth Mountain Range.

Though spatially separated in terms of where their missions were, both groups found very similar results. Comparison images between the mana stones they found are included at the bottom of this write up as well.

The second group, beyond exterminating a nest of monsters, also investigated reports of an abandoned lab near the base of the mountain range. Reports were correct and evidence was gathered (see bottom for images).

The lab seemed well-cleaned up, however some hand-written journals and documents were recovered. The facilities pictured also seem to suggest experimentation with machinery similar to the product being tested in the Forest of Tears.

This mission is open-ended and will reward anyone who comes forward with more information.

Current Hunter’s Society Urgency Rating: 3/10]

[Image_of_mana_collector_final_v2_v3_FINAL_actually]

[Comparison_Images]

[Lab_Evidence_Image_Folder_v1]

[Help us stay transparent! Donate to the Hunter’s Society today!]

“That was us!!” Thalia cheered as she woke up the other Class Zero Graduate students sleeping in their private compartment on the train. Groggy, each of them rubbed their eyes as she kept blasting them with information. “We’re one of the groups mentioned in this post! We made it to the front page of the Hunter’s Society website!”

“Bro... what...” Ashe grumbled, pulling out his phone to check the time. “It’s three am... why are you awake? Let us sleep...”

“You don’t understand we made it to the front page! For our investigation results!” Thalia laughed, shaking Ashe’s shoulder.

“Woah, woah, calm down, you don’t want to hurt Ashe,” Orion pulled Thalia off Ashe. The sleepy stupor in their train compartment dissipated bit by bit. “I mean like, he’ll survive, but I just don’t want to deal with that side of Ashe right now.”

“... True, me neither,” Thalia let go of Ashe. “Anyway, everyone, we did it! What now? Do you all want to head back into the field to do some more investigating? We could try and get some more rewards!”

“Let’s... not talk about this right now,” Scarlet put a hand onto Thalia’s shoulder. “It’s three in the morning Lia, dear. We all need some more sleep. Plus, we’re all quite worn out after these few days, so let’s go back and get some rest. Don’t forget we want to go back to the Luminary Institute, we should visit everyone.”

“You’re... so right as always,” Thalia grinned, hugging Scarlet who let out a cough after being squeezed. “Okay so what now then...”

“Now we go to sleep then,” Ashe yawned, flopping back down onto the bed. He rolled over and pulled the blanket over his head as everyone else let out murmurs of agreement. In a matter of seconds, the entire compartment had quieted down once more as Thalia sat there in disbelief with only the glow of her phone to keep her company.

“Well... I still want to tell someone...” Thalia trailed off. Looking back down at her phone, she decided to open up a messaging app. “Teacher Angelica here I comeee~”

[Teacher! Teacher! Sorry to disturb you late at night! But did you know, I, along with the other Class Zero graduates, were one of the groups in the new post on the front page of the Hunter’s Society? We made it we made it! We’re coming back to the academy in a day or two so expect us back soon! We want to visit and have fun and see the new student! Alright have a nice night!!!]

---

Angelica’s phone buzzed on the counter. She reached over and checked the message while flipping the pancake on the stove. After raising her eyebrows a few times, she sent back a couple of replies.

[Congratulations!]

[Now go to sleep, it's not good for young people like you to stay up so late.]

[Looking forward to seeing you all at school again. I’ll prepare some activities for you all. Let me know which days you all plan on being back.]

“Hmm? Distracted my dear?” A woman’s voice came from behind Angelica. She walked up and wrapped her arms around Angelica’s waist before resting her chin on her shoulder. “Thank you for making me some food right after I got back though.”

“Of course, Anne. I was staying up to greet you anyway,” Angelica smiled. She turned off the phone and set it down on the countertop. Turning her head, she kissed Roxanne who had attached herself to her. “I only need an hour of sleep a day anyway.”

“I’m still jealous,” Roxanne shook her head before returning the kiss. “What do you do with all that extra time?”

“... Grade and lesson plan,” Angelica sighed as Roxanne began laughing. “Really nothing interesting. Like just now, I was texting a student. She was telling me about the new front page post on the Hunter’s Society page. Apparently they were the first group mentioned. Wasn’t your guild the second group?”

“Yeah, we were,” Roxanne nodded as a wistful expression appeared on her face. Squeezing Angelica a little closer, she gave her a peck on the cheek. “You taught them so well.”

“I didn’t do that much, they worked hard,” Angelica shook her head. “What are your thoughts on this though? The Hunter’s Society only gave it a 3/10 which... feels a little low. But also understandable considering the current state of... everything else.”

“The ‘everything else’ will get resolved with time, a couple other large guilds decided to join in,” Roxanne shrugged. “So, it's not really a big deal. That’s why my team wasn’t called. I’d say this is... mildly worrying. It's not like we’ve never seen secret scientific experimentation so I think that’s why they’re rating it so low. I would’ve personally put it at a four or five just because of how complete their product was but... it is what it is.”

“Interesting...” Angelica mumbled as she plated the pancake. Another piece of butter went into the pan before she poured on another ladle of batter. “I was just thinking of taking the current Class Zero students out for it before your event in a month. Let them get some more experience, you know?”

“Not... a bad idea,” Roxanne ventured as her hand wandered away from Angelica’s waist and to the pancake. She ripped off a piece and tossed it into her mouth. Once done chewing and swallowing, she shrugged. “You know the students better than me... oh wait, well, there’s Nyssa too, how’s she?”

“Doing well, she’s made a fair few friends, don’t worry,” Angelica patted Roxanne’s head. “She’s been keeping her family a secret though, so you’re not allowed to talk about her when you come visit the school. Slade got away with saying she attends, but he wasn’t allowed to say anything more.”

“... Phooey,” Roxanne grumbled. “I was in the middle of writing an entire monologue about how great she was too. You know, for my keynote speech...”

“Girl, get it together,” Angelica raised an eyebrow. “People look up to you.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll write about you instead,” Roxanne kissed Angelica on the neck before yawning. “I’m joking, I’m joking, don't look at me like that...”

“I know, but I can’t just let you make all these jokes,” Angelica kissed Roxanne back. “You know, I’m in charge of writing the pamphlet about you they’re handing out. So you better not try something, I’ll do it right back to you.”

“Not fun...”