The Hidden World

“It seems that most of you already knew about this,” Mabel smiled. “I trust that your parents or siblings informed you about this whole assignment. So you already know what I’m going to say next. However, for those of you who do not know, I will be explaining the specifics for this hunt.”

The room fell quiet as she waited for the students to settle down.

“As I have already said, we will be going to the Libra Forest in order to destroy monster nests. This is will be your first practical exam for the year,” she explained. “You will all be split into teams of six. Who your teammates are is your choice but you must fill out the team form that I have. Now let’s go over what it is you will actually be doing.”

She tapped on the board behind her and a map appeared on the screen. A label on the top left indicated that it was a map of the Libra Forest.

“We will be dropping you and your team in a location in the forest. Your location will be different from the location of the other students,” Mabel continued. “You will be given the target that you will be destroying but will not be given the location of the target. You will have the weekend to complete the mission. Are there any questions about this?”

No one said anything.

“Moving onto the rules of this assignment. You are allowed one duffel bag’s worth of equipment. We will be checking these bags to make sure that they fit within the regulations that we will be sending you via email later today. No technology of any sorts is allowed in this assignment. The most advanced piece of equipment that you will have will be a weapon and your head. There will be absolutely no interfering with another group’s mission. We will be monitoring all of you. Any intentional interference of any sort will result in failure and possible expellment. If anyone of your members become incapacitated in anyway, you will fail the mission.”

There were some discontent murmurs and complaints following that last sentence from the students.

“If some of you think that this is too harsh or unfair, I’ll like to remind you that this is a team assignment,” Mabel said, giving the class a stern expression. “You are to work together with your teammates to finish the objective. And if any of you get injured doing so, then that means that your teamwork was lacking. There may be exceptions based on how this person got hurt, but for the most part any injury will lead to failure. Understood?”

The students didn’t say anything.

“I hope this silence means that everything is clear to you. This will be the only time that you will be able to ask questions about this assignment,” she warned. “Are you sure that there isn’t anything more you need to know?”

‘I don’t think I need to know anymore,’ Yuki thought. ‘It’s fairly self explanatory.’

“Okay. Then this topic is closed now. As I said before, you will all be receiving an email later today about this assignment,” Mabel reminded. “I will be giving you the rest of the period to hopefully form your groups.”

She sat back down and look at the unmoving students with a raised eyebrow.

“I thought I just said that you have the rest of the period to form groups?” she smiled. “That means you can talk unless you all are somehow speaking telepathically with each other.”

Some students laughed a bit at her joke and slowly the noise level of the room began to rise as students became more and more comfortable.

‘Oh. So that’s why they wanted us to create our own teams,’ Yuki realised as he thought about what Mabel had just said. ‘We should be picking people that we are comfortable with. And that means that better teamwork should be expected from these teams. That’s why they have no problem failing a group because of one person.’

“Um, hello?”

Yuki looked up at the source of the voice and saw the face of the male elf that seemed persistent on trying to initiate conversations with Yuki.

“How are you today?” Jared asked.

“What do you need?” Yuki asked back, going straight to the point.

“I was wondering if maybe you wanted to join my team?” he said. “I mean, that’s only if you didn’t already have one in mind.”

“Just request whatever you want and don’t phrase it as a question.”

“Please join my team,”

“Okay,” Yuki accepted. “Who is in you team?”

“There are three other people so far,” Jared replied. “They’re my friends. They’re sitting over there.”

He pointed at a group of students that were sitting together at the side of the room near the windows. They were looking over at Jared and Yuki, waving when they notice Jared pointing at them.

“So you need one more member,” Yuki said.

“Yeah. Those three are the only ones I’m comfortable around,” Jared admitted. “I’ve tried talking to others but they always seem to ignore me.”

‘That’s probably because he comes on too strong,’ Yuki thought.

“So if you can suggest another person to be in the team, that would be amazing,” Jared continued.

“I can ask Yuna,” Yuki replied. “She’ll probably agree. I don’t see why she wouldn’t unless she already has a team.”

“Yuna?” Jared blinked.

“Yes. Her.”

“Isn’t she, like, one of the most popular girls in our year?”

‘She is?’

“I’ll go ask her,” Yuki said, standing up. “Actually, I’ll message her.”

“Wait wait wait. I don’t think I’ll be really, um,” Jared started but he couldn’t seem to finish his thought. “I mean. She’s, you know, really pretty and it’ll be kind of intimidating if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Yuki shook his head. “I’ll ask her.”

He opened the screen of his watch and tapped on Yuna’s profile in his contacts. Over the last two months, they had talk a bit with each other but never for more than a few minutes at a time.

“Do you want to partner up with me and four other people? They need another member and the leader has been rejected by everyone else apparently,” he typed.

“Okay, sure. I’ll be happy to,” she replied quickly. “Just wait a moment.”

Yuki watched her as she talked to some other girls that were around her, giving them small smiles as she shook her head. The girls looked disappointed and waved at her as she stood up from her desk and walked toward Yuki.

“You didn’t need to reject them,” Yuki said as she came closer. “You could have joined them. I could find someone else.”

“It’s fine. I don’t know them anyway,” Yuna said. “If I’m being honest, the only person that I really know is you.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“H-hi, I’m Jared,” he stuttered, sticking out his hand for a handshake. “Thank you for joining my team.”

“Oh, you’re the leader,” Yuna smiled, taking his hand and shaking it firmly. “Who are the other members besides Yuki?”

“It’s those three over there,” Jared pointed. He beckoned to them to come. “I’ll let them introduce themselves.”

Yuki watched as the three maneuvered their way over to Yuki’s desk. As they did that, Yuki noticed Jared giving Yuna multiple quick glances and him looking away slightly pink. Yuna didn’t seem to notice a thing.

“Guys, introduce yourselves,” Jared said to the three that just arrived.

“Hello, my name is Benjamin,” an elf said. “You can call me Ben.”

“I’m Natalie,” a female elf introduced.

“And I’m Joseph, Jared’s brother,” the last elf finished.

‘All of us are elves,’ Yuki noted. ‘That puts us at a slight disadvantage. Other species have skills that elves don’t.’

“I’m Yuna,” she said.

“Oh we know who you are all too well,” Joseph laughed. “Isn’t that right, brother?”

Jared gave him a panicked look.

“I am Yuki,” he said, interrupting the banter between the two brothers. “So what’s the plan now that we have decided on our team?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Jared rushed to say. “We can’t predict what is going to be in the assignment. So I don’t know.”

“That’s a fair point,” Yuki nodded. “All we can do for now is maybe prepare some basic equipment that would be helpful in any situation and wait.”

“Oh, are you that girl that Jared was talking to us about a ever since the tournament?” Natalie asked.

“I wouldn’t know since I’m not Jared,” Yuki replied. He noticed that Yuna was giving him an odd expression.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m a male. It’s just that I’ve given up on correcting people since they always are wrong,” he messaged her.

“Oh, okay. I thought I was going crazy for a second,” she typed back.

“Anyway,” Jared said loudly. “We’ll go with your idea and just get some stuff that might be needed. We can meet up one day to organize a strategy or something.”

“To do that, you need my contact information,” Yuki said.

“Oh yeah. I do.”

Yuki reached out with the arm that had the watch strapped onto it. His contact screen was being displayed and projected. Jared stared at it with confusion.

“Do you not want my contact information?” Yuki asked.

“No no no, I want it,” Jared hurried. He typed it into his own smartwatch. “How about you, Yuna?”

“I would rather not give people my information, I’m sorry,” she replied. “But if you tell Yuki, I’ll know.”

“Alright, our plans are set then,” Jared said. “Hopefully we’ll see each other again in a few days and then we’ll beat that assignment.”

“Okay,” Yuki said, standing up as the bell rang. “I’ll be going then. See you all soon.”