“Ice Shield!”
The student narrowly avoided my attack.
It was a trap.
The moment they sidestepped, thick vines burst from the ground and wrapped around one of their legs, lifting them upside down.
I stepped forward and removed the silver chain from their hand.
“I’ll be taking that.”
A smug grin spread across my face.
The student groaned.
“At least put me down first, Li Qiang.”
“No way.”
I laughed.
“The spell will wear off in five minutes.”
Leaving them hanging, I began heading back toward Professor Rose.
Honestly, how did we get here?
Well…
It started earlier that morning.
Imara, Simon, and I had just taken our seats when Professor Rose entered the classroom looking unusually cheerful.
“Good morning, class.”
Several students immediately looked nervous.
That smile never meant anything good.
“Today we’ll be keeping the theoretical lesson short. I know all of you already learned about the locator spell from Professor Fall yesterday, so I won’t bother explaining everything again.”
She turned toward the board.
“Instead, I’ll show you the two magic circles required for the spell.”
With practiced movements, she drew two detailed circles.
Pointing at the first one, she said,
“This symbol means track or follow. That should make sense considering it’s a locator spell.”
She then pointed at the second.
“And this one means owner or belonging.”
She tapped the board.
“Together, these two circles and a target item form the locator spell.”
After giving us a moment to memorize them, she turned back around.
“Now then.”
The smile returned.
“I hope you have that in your heads because we’re going outside.”
Simon leaned toward me.
“Somehow I don’t think this is going to be as fun as she says.”
I couldn’t help laughing.
Professor Rose pointed toward the door.
“Follow me.”
As we walked through the academy grounds, Imara looked excited.
“I don’t know about you two, but I know this is going to be fun.”
I nodded.
“I’m actually looking forward to an outdoor activity. We’ve been inside too much lately.”
Simon gasped dramatically.
“I can’t believe the book nerd is saying this.”
I playfully shoved him.
“Shut up, Simon.”
He sighed.
“You’ve been spending too much time with Imara. She’s a bad influence.”
Imara immediately wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
“Hah! I wish.”
Soon the entire class was following Professor Rose across the academy.
At first, I thought we were heading toward one of the training fields.
Then we walked right past them.
Confused murmurs spread through the students.
“Where are we going?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“I thought this was spell casting class.”
Eventually, Professor Rose stopped.
“We’re here.”
I looked up.
The forest entrance.
As expected, everyone looked confused.
Professor Rose smiled.
“Hidden throughout this forest are five items that belong to me.”
She held up her fingers.
“A silver chain. A ring. A wand. An earring. And finally, my jade hairpin.”
Immediately, I understood.
“Using the locator spell, your task is to find those items and bring them back to me.”
She then produced a basket seemingly out of nowhere.
Inside were dozens of cloth strips.
“Each of these contains a small amount of my blood. Take one.”
A student raised their hand.
“What are the rules?”
Professor Rose’s smile widened.
“The only rule…”
She paused dramatically.
“…is that you cannot kill each other.”
The entire class went silent.
“Everything else is fair game.”
Oh no.
This was going to be chaos.
Almost immediately, Imara marched over to Siana.
“You’re going down.”
Siana blinked.
“Uh… okay.”
Professor Rose clapped her hands.
“Ready?”
The class tensed.
“Go!”
Students exploded into motion.
Some formed teams.
Others immediately began casting spells.
Imara sprinted into the forest without hesitation.
Simon stretched.
“Well, see you later, little prince.”
Then he vanished into the trees.
I watched everyone rush ahead before shaking my head.
They’re forgetting the most important part.
They still have to cast the spell correctly.
Taking a moment to form the circles and stabilize the mana flow, I focused on Professor Rose’s chain.
A faint pull appeared in my mind.
There.
Now I had a direction.
Following the spell’s guidance, I stepped into the forest.
The locator spell worked surprisingly well.
As long as I concentrated, I could feel the direction of the chain.
The difficult part was maintaining the spell while moving.
Several times I passed students sitting on logs or standing still with frustrated expressions.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one struggling.
Eventually, the pull became stronger.
I was getting close.
Then I heard movement.
A student emerged from behind a tree.
The chain was in her hand.
Our eyes met.
Neither of us said a word.
Then we both attacked.
A blast of ice shot toward me.
I dodged and sent several vines toward her.
The fight didn’t last long.
Now she was hanging upside down from a tree while I walked away with the chain.
Life was funny sometimes.
By the time I returned to the forest entrance, several students were already there.
Standing beside Professor Rose were a guy name sam and Fin.
Looks like they had finished first and second.
I handed over the chain and cloth.
Professor Rose smiled.
“Well done, Li Qiang. Third place.”
Not bad.
A few moments later another group emerged from the forest.
A girl named Mia stepped forward and handed over the jade hairpin.
“Well done, Mia. Fourth place.”
Students continued returning one after another.
Eventually, almost everyone had gathered.
I looked around.
Where were Simon and Imara?
Then I heard shouting.
Followed by laughter.
Then the forest shook.
A moment later Simon burst out of the trees.
Behind him were Imara and Siana.
Both looked ready to commit murder.
Simon laughed.
“Finders keepers!”
Unfortunately for them, Simon had already reached Professor Rose.
With a dramatic flourish, he handed over a ring.
Professor Rose accepted it.
“Well done, Simon. You found the final item.”
Imara and Siana finally slowed to a stop, both breathing heavily.
I looked between them.
“What happened?”
Imara pointed accusingly at Simon.
“Siana and I found the ring at the same time, so we started fighting over it.”
Then she jabbed a finger toward Simon.
“Then this little snake appeared and stole it!”
Simon placed a hand over his chest.
“Stole is such an ugly word.”
“You stole it.”
“I strategically acquired it.”
“You stole it.”
“We’ll agree to disagree.”
I couldn’t help laughing.
Looking toward Siana, I expected annoyance.
Instead, she simply looked disappointed.
That was new.
Professor Rose clapped her hands.
“Alright, class.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“I hope you learned something today.”
She looked around the group.
“I won’t spell it out for you, but every one of you experienced the weaknesses of this spell firsthand.”
Several students groaned.
“Work on those weaknesses. The locator spell will be part of your end-of-term examination.”
That immediately got everyone’s attention.
“Class dismissed.”
The rest of the day passed quickly through lectures.
By the time classes ended, Simon and I were walking back toward the dormitories.
Imara had already left for combat club practice.
Simon looked exhausted.
Dark circles sat beneath his eyes.
I am m asuming that today was a hard day, because looked like he hadn’t slept properly in days.
“Long day?” I asked.
“Mhm.”
“What about you?”
I sighed.
“Alchemy.”
Simon winced.
“My condolences.”
I laughed.
Soon we reached the dormitories.
“See you later, little prince.”
“Later, Simon.”
We headed our separate ways.
When I entered my room, Rowan was fastening pieces of light armor.
“Heading out?”
He nodded.
“Adventure Club assignment.”
“Already?”
“Apparently red-eye rabbits don’t collect themselves.”
Fair point.
I placed my bag down and changed into more comfortable clothes.
As I buttoned my shirt, Rowan glanced over.
“You have Private lesson today?”
“Yeah.”
“Good luck.”
“It’s only gardening.”
Rowan lowered his book.
“That’s what you said about spell casting.”
“…Fair point.”
He smirked.
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
A few minutes later Rowan left for his assignment.
Shortly afterward, I headed for the indoor garden.
My first lesson with Professor Hart was about to begin.