The final exams had begun. Yuriko, who was not in charge of any particular group of students, was instead on the rapid response team. The difficulty of flight spells was quite apparent from the sheer amount of cursing and sweaty Magi faces. The dean had arrived, too, and Yuriko noted that even a Domain had trouble counteracting the Conflux’s imposed Laws. 

Fluffington followed behind her, running as quickly as she flew. Over the past week, she trained his stamina and Anima reach, which showed quite a bit of growth. From a single pace, forty inches, it was now at fifty inches of reach. He could run faster and for longer, too, but the breakthrough was when he used his Anima to support his body, much like how Yuriko used the Boost technique a few years ago. When she reached Actualisation, that technique had fallen by the wayside since it was no longer as effective, though she still used it on occasion. Upon reaching Transformation, any temporary physique boosting Animus technique became impotent. 

Based on Fluffington’s aura, he was at the beginning Growth phase, though only if he were truly walking the Ancient’s Way. After he bonded with her, she spent some time trawling through Damien’s memories and she found that Anima expression had been more common in pre-Shattering times, even for animals. Without training, or bonding with sapient lifeforms, they would not be able to progress towards Actualisation, but if they do, they become sapient, too. 

Hmmm, there was also the possibility that Fluffington was already sapient, and was a shapeshifter like the beastkin back home, but Yuriko wasn’t sure he would have tolerated the cutesy name she gave him. Hmmm, if he reached Actualisation would he detest her for naming him such? Was it too late to change it? 

She looked at her familiar and saw his tail wag in response. Fluffy, fluffy tail that doubled as a hug pillow. 

Nope. Fluffington it is. If he doesn’t like it, he can pick a new one later, ehehehe.

The golden wheat valley was now populated by hundreds of students. Yuriko had to go to the edges since that was where the elemental beasts were, but she couldn’t help but observe what the non-combatant half of the students were doing. 

They were split into groups of five or six, and each one staked a plot of land that was roughly twelve square paces. Then, they would carefully harvest the gold wheat by plucking and peeling the grain off without harming the stalk. Ah, Yuriko felt a bit of guilt from her earlier rampage, ehehe.

The process took a long while as there were quite a few wheat stalks in their plot. None of the groups were closer than fifty paces to each other, so they were quite spread out too. The grains were collected into a canvas bag, spatially expanded from the looks of it. 

A few groups had already filled up their bags while the plot of land wasn’t completely empty. From what Yuriko could see, the wheat was undamaged. The returning groups headed back to the camp, and then smelted the golden grain into ingots. If she remembered correctly, the goal was five ingots of gold for each team, and each ingot was about ten Jin, and each ingot was probably worth three hundred gold coins. 

It took her a couple of hours to make her way to the outskirts. The groups here were combatants, a mix of Battlers, Casters, and Guardians. She watched a group of fourth year students challenge an elemental goat.  

Two Guardian students, two Battlers behind them, and two Casters at the very back. The Battlers were moving to flank the goat which was still chewing on the wheat while the Guardians carefully approached.

The Guardian department would have been one that Yuriko would have enjoyed teaching in since they focused on physical prowess over Arcana Weaving. That wasn’t to say that they weren’t able to cast, just that the spells they used were often intrinsic circle spells that only affected their bodies or were mostly defensive in nature. One Guardian carried a longspear, while the other one had a poleaxe. The spear was at least four paces long, and there was a cross guard a dozen inches behind the tip to prevent the weapon from penetrating too deeply into the beast’s flesh as to get stuck. The poleaxe was just two and a half paces long, and the weapon head looked completely vicious. The two Battlers were using a buckler and rapier pairing, and they were already beginning to cast their enhancement spells. 

As soon as the group came within fifty paces of the goat, the huge beast snorted angrily and pawed the ground. One of the Casters worked quickly and managed to erect an earthen rampart just as the goat charged. It slammed into the barrier and ripped right through it as though it were paper. But it managed to slow the creature for a fraction of a second, enough time for the longspear wielder to brace his weapon and skewer the goat. 

At least, that was the plan. The point skidded off the metallic fur, and the fourth year student managed to jump out of the way. The goat’s hoof managed to graze the student’s leg, and there was an awful crunch and a high pitched scream. Yuriko’s Anima flared and covered the students, but she retracted it when the polearm wielder and the two Battlers struck. The other Caster pulled the longspear Guardian out of the way and began weaving a spell. A splint materialised around the leg, bound it, then snapped it back straight. 

In the meantime, the other four pummelled the goat. The poleaxe wielder reversed his weapon and slammed the creature with the blunt hammer side instead of the axehead. He managed to hit the goat on the horns, which stunned the elemental beast for a long moment. The Battlers and the Caster struck with Elemental Bolts, Stone, Wind, and Ice. The goat’s fur and flesh parted from the concentrated assault, and even if they didn’t all hit the same place at once, their foe was still battered. 

The goat roared and spat out plumes of fire, but the Guardian swished through it with his weapon. A thick coating of varied Elemental energies covered the boy, and neutralised some of the flames, and his uniform protected him from the rest. Still, his hair ignited as well as his sleeves. The boy ignored it and continued to slam his poleaxe against the goat’s skull, and evidently, he must have broken something, as the elemental beast collapsed soon afterwards. As soon as that happened, all three of them spun on their heels and ran away. The goat reddened, then exploded in fiery glory. The barrier Caster managed to conjure another rampart just in front of the goat’s snout, which had the effect of preventing the gore to spatter in the direction the others fled to. 

The group cheered, even the one who broke his leg. His face was pale, but he raised his longspear in celebration. Ah, the weapon was bent and the spearhead chipped. Yuriko watched them long enough for them to find the beast core, and they headed back towards the base camp. 

The next group Yuriko watched she had to rescue. The elemental goat surprised them when they closed in on the creature and it reacted before they were ready. She didn’t kill the goat but knocked it away. The students were unharmed, but shaken. They retreated back towards the base camp to gather their nerves before trying again. 

The next couple of fights were successful hunts. There were a hundred fourth year groups, and Yuriko didn’t think there were a hundred elemental goats in the first valley. Thankfully, the student groups had not been released all at once as there weren’t enough professors to watch over them. She waited along the path for the next group to come by, while Fluffington sat on his haunches and scratched his ears. He panted and gazed around warily. The puppy rarely barked, Yuriko thought, but then again, wolves didn’t do that a lot, right? He did whine a lot, however, especially while she forced him to train. Or when she bathed him. If she didn’t do that at least once a day, he’d stink. The Clean Spell didn’t work as well on his fur, and his Anima naturally resisted the spell’s elemental energy. 

Another professor, who followed along behind the next group, nodded to Yuriko. She returned the greeting then moved on, continuing her patrol. She flew a bit higher, enduring the pressure trying to make her land, and noted all of the groups that entered deeper into the valley. More importantly, she made note of the elemental goats scattered in the distance. 

She watched over another dozen fights which took the rest of the day. And by the time the Radiant Sun crossed the Veil, most of the fourth year groups were done. 

The next day, she had to follow the fifth year groups into the second valley. Most of the elemental goats in the first one had been hunted and killed. The harvesters continued to pluck the gold grains off the plants, and even the fourth year combatants helped now. 

She found Sofia and Juliette with their group, though perhaps it would be more apt to call them a temporary squad. She certainly did not recognise the students of the Guardian and Caster departments. 

Juliette waved to Yuriko when she was spotted. Their group didn’t skirt the edges and went straight into the valley’s middle. There were fewer goats here and they were of the smaller variety, but it was the ironscale wolves that were prevalent. And the fifth-years either needed three goat beast cores, or a similar number of ironscale wolf cores. What was the point of driving the beasts back then? Ah, to keep the weaker fourth years safe. She should have thought of that, ehehe. 

Yuriko found herself whistling a tune she heard in one of the taverns she and Blanca frequented while waiting for her students’ group to fight. They found a couple of smaller goats, but just as they were returning, a pack of ironscale wolves found them. 

Yuriko watched while Fluffington’s tail went low and stiff. The six students immediately conjured a defensive bulwark around themselves while the two girls started casting Fire Bolts and Wind Cutters. Both of them cast spells while performing Roaring Volcano and Sweeping Gale stances that Yuriko adapted for rapiers. The two Casters paused in surprise as the two girl’s elemental energies gathered twice as fast as normal, and the potency of their two-circle spells grew by at least half again as much. 

The ironscale wolves, four of them, tried to flank the group, but the harassment of the elemental bolts prevented them from coordinating properly. Yuriko nodded in approval as they drove away the ambushers. It was a pity they didn’t manage to kill at least one. 

“Alright there?” Yuriko asked. 

“We’re fine, professor,” Sofia answered, “But I think we’re going to head back for now.” 

“You still have two days to hunt anyway.” Yuriko said. 

“Yeah.” 

The group headed back to base camp while Yuriko continued her patrol. The other groups had to fight off more ironscale wolves and, like Sofia and Juliette’s team, the most they could do was fend them off.

“Do we need to cull them?” Yuriko muttered. But there were no more goats in the vicinity. 

“Ahhh!” A high-pitched scream. 

She flew towards the sound and found a dozen wolves tearing a fifth year group apart. Sunblades flew from her clothes and tore the beasts into steaming piles of flesh, and at the same time, she used her Animakinesis to pull the students away. Three of them had bleeding wounds on their limbs, while one girl had half her face torn off. She was whimpering and sobbing, while one of the casters applied a first aid spell. 

Yuriko pulled out a healing cube from her hip satchel and pressed it against the girl. Waves of purplish energy covered her head and plastered against her face. The skin and muscle wouldn’t regrow so quickly, but she shouldn’t bleed out now. 

The entire group was in no shape to move, so she wrapped them up with her kinesis and they flew back to base. At least they would live. Where was their homeroom teacher? 

When she returned to the second valley after delivering the kids to the camp, she was met with a deafening roar. 

The mountainside to the north erupted in a plume of dust and rocks, and a creature the size of a castle crawled out of the dirt.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep