NOVEL NEXT Chapter 53: Sudden
It took them a day and a half, but Zach, Dukiel, Violina, Anerias, Rierdan, and Nessa all made it back to the camp in one piece. They had been unable to suppress a lingering dissatisfaction and worry the entire trip, but it ended as nothing more than that.
Their frowns when they arrived, however, had the class worried that they had failed. It wasn't a big deal since they all made it back. But it could mean they would have to go without food for a while more.
The rest of the students were a little confused about their frowns when they explained that the danger of the tiger should be gone. But as long as they could hunt without dying, they weren't too caught up in the rafters about it.
They still had to be careful since the forest still crawled with dangerous monsters. But the possibility of death was different from certain death.
The students had also discovered that some of their levels had risen while Zach and the others were gone.
They had also quickly pieced together that the ones who contributed the most to killing the monsters were the ones who had leveled up. Interestingly enough, as long as they were useful, even those who could only support and not deal damage could also level up.
It had only happened to one of the supporters in the class, but that was all the proof they needed.
The discovery had made the class excited. They didn't know what leveling up meant more than a change to a number on their interface. But that was part of the excitement. They wanted to find out. If they hunted more monsters, they would level up again.
Like so, they could confirm their theory and the effects of leveling up.
Zach considered telling the rest of the class about his level and the theory he had drafted. But he decided not to.
He remembered how Violina had reacted. She had been skeptical.
Besides, after the tiger hunt, Zach just wanted to take it easy for a while. He missed the comfort of his dorm. He missed the calm of the campus academy and the peace that let him roam around without a single worry on his mind.
In the camp, it was all bustle and hustle, even during the night. He couldn't leave the camp without monsters or Underworld assassins coming up to him and asking for an autograph.
It sucked.
Well, it sucked for a couple of days. Then, the boredom of not doing anything set in. That sucked even more.
After going around sighing for another day, Zach eventually decided he could help his class and stop freeloading. He joined the hunts and helped secure a stable supply of food. He also went out of his way to find dangerous monsters and hunt them with Yanael and the A-ranks.
All the while doing that, Zach and Yanael kept an eye out for the Underworld's assassins. Since Dukiel and Julius had also stopped by the Giupusta Locale, Zach asked Dukiel to be careful. He also asked Dukiel to warn Julius so he didn't have to do to talk to Julius personally.
It didn't seem like Julius needed that warning since he didn't leave the camp at all and instead focused on doing what he could for the other students, whether it be supervising the campfires, cleaning up, or washing clothes. But Dukiel still told him about the assassins and that he should be careful.
He didn't get much of an answer from Julius after he told him that the assassins were most likely targeting Zach and Zach alone.
Zach and the other students committed to the life of camping in the Academy's forest. As soon as they got used to it, it became easy. But they didn't let down their guards that easily. They had already learned that lesson several times, both before the field trip and during it.
So, even when the monsters suddenly became more ferocious or stronger, the students didn't lose more than some skin and blood. No limbs or sensory organs were lost in the process of adapting to the forest.
It happened twice more during the field trip before it was time for the students to return to the life of civilized people at the Academy. The students didn't know what to feel about the sudden end of their field trip.
It felt…sudden. They had never been told how long they would spend in the forest or if there were any conditions they needed to fulfill other than to arrive at the camp on time, which they didn't even need to do.
Some even suspected that Jarron was up to something or had forgotten something again. But no one said anything since, at the end of the day, they were looking forward to sleeping in their beds again.
Although they wouldn't be going home, the dorms at the Academy were still better than the cots and the sleeping mats they had in the forest.
As an added bonus to that, the students didn't have to find their own way back to the Academy. Jarron would lead them.
It didn't inspire great confidence in the students, so they still kept track of where they went. But Jarron didn't lead them astray and safely brought them back to the Academy all without another monster encounter.
It seemed like another mercy from the benevolent instructor.
It wasn't.
They had hunted enough monsters to be covered in a cloud of blood and killing intent.
It wasn't much, and it certainly wasn't enough to deter the monsters sensitive enough to notice it when they went out hunting in small groups. But when the entire class gathered and moved, they scared off the monsters.
Coincidentally enough, Zach and Yanael had also hunted in the direction of the Academy. The route the class took toward the Academy was almost scraped clean of monsters.
It was a stroke of luck that let the students relax on the final stretch of the field trip. Most of them didn't relax, but it was still a relief that nothing happened.
And suddenly, they saw the end of the seemingly endless forest and the Academy campus that lay beyond it.
The forest line seemed like the gates to heaven to the students leaving the hellish forest. Some even collapsed to the ground. Others cheered and hugged the comrades they had gotten close to over the last month and a half.
A few were silent and looked at the forest with complex gazes.