The Hidden World

“So what’s the plan?” Joseph asked, the question directed to his brother. “Besides walking obviously.”

“I’m not too sure yet,” Jared replied. “I don’t even know what exactly I’m up against any more.”

[Are you going to say anything?] Akira asked.

‘No. Not yet. But once I have to, I will,’ Yuki told her. ‘I’m also going to need to say a few words to the group.’

Yuki looked ahead and found the back of Yuna who was leading the group as she located footprints and followed them. She seemed to be taking her time leading the group. She would pause every now and then and bend over to examine a footprint. Then she straightened and seemed to consider her next decision before continuing to walk.

‘She’s trying to not draw attention as well,’ Yuki observed. ‘I’m fairly certain that she could find the troll settlement much quicker than that and we could have been there by now if she wanted to.’

But Yuki understood why she wanted to keep a low profile. It was probably for the same reasons he had. A low profile means less attention which led to less conflict. Usually.

‘But life seems to be against me keeping a low profile.’

A few minutes of walking later, Yuki felt the faint presence of mana being emitted from something up ahead in the direction that his team was walking towards. Yuki recognized it as the mana from the barrier that was surrounding the area where the trolls were most likely living in. He glanced over at Yuna who had stopped walking. She had a thoughtful expression on her face as her eyebrows furrowed. It seemed that she too noticed the mana signature.

“What’s wrong Yuna?” Natalie asked.

“Be wary,” she replied. “But so far there’s nothing to be worried about.”

With that, she resumed her walk and the rest of the team followed her with no other comments. Yuki did a quick scan around the area to make sure nothing was following them and silently caught up with his team. As they ventured through the forest, the mana signature grew stronger and stronger. Within a few minutes, Yuki could almost feel the barrier approaching them. 

‘Well, let’s see if it’s actually there.’

Yuki sent mana into his eyes and the world around him lit up into a dazzling display of vibrant colors. Everything became sharper as his vision was enhanced. Along with this came multiple glowing specks in the forest, these specks representing areas where mana was concentrated. Yuki looked around himself first but as he expected didn’t see anything.

‘The spells that were placed to watch us are probably not strong enough for me to notice yet with my level of detection.’

He refocused his attention to his front and saw a milky white surface ahead. There were little swirls that flowed throughout the surface. From the surface, little vapor trails of Yuki assumed was mana were emitted. Yuki looked about and saw that it curved ever so slightly out of view to the right and the left. Looking up, Yuki found that it curved up into a central point that he couldn’t see.

‘So that’s the barrier,’ Yuki thought as he cut off the flow of mana to his eyes. ‘It’s quite big.’

Yuna looked up from the ground and narrowed her eyes. The others in the team seemed to feel as if something was off. Their eyes flickered about as they looked around at their surroundings. The mana being emitted from the barrier was strong enough for even the least sensitive people to notice even if they didn’t know where it was coming from. 

“Find something?” Yuki asked. 

“Can you feel it?” Yuna replied, still staring ahead.

“Does it matter? We still have to go forward.”

Yuna didn’t say anything.

“Just be careful,” Yuki said. “There isn’t anything you can do about it.”

“What are you two talking about?” Jared interrupted.

“Do you not feel anything?” Yuna asked him. “Like a tingling sensation or a feeling that something isn’t right?”

“A bit, but I think that’s just me being nervous,” he said with a tight smile. “Why?”

“Nothing, let’s go.”

They continued walking, the presence of the barrier getting stronger and stronger as they approached it. Yuna looked to become more and more tense as time went by. When they passed the border of the barrier, Yuki felt a tingle run down his spine as the mana passed by him. He saw Yuna stiffen for a bit and look back. 

‘Akira, do the scan again,’ Yuki thought.

[On it,] she replied and then hummed for a bit. [Yup, there are no more spells on you anymore. The barrier dispelled all of them. You should check if you can still use magic properly though. I don’t know if the barrier affects anything that happens within it.]

‘I’ll do that, thank you. I’ll call you again if I need anything.’

[I’ll be watching.]

Yuki snapped his fingers and created a fireball that hovered over his hand. Then he started to manipulate the fire, twisting and bending it into a variety of shapes until he was satisfied. The barrier didn’t seem to be interfering with magic within it. It only affect magic outside of it. 

‘That’s good.’

He snuffed out his fireball with a thought and looked up to see his teammates staring at him with inquisitive expression. 

“Do you all want something from me?” Yuki asked. 

“I didn’t know that your mana control was that good,” Joseph commented. 

“That’s nice,” Yuki replied. “Anyway. Everyone gather around and please sit. We need to chat for a bit.”

“About what?” Jared asked.

“That’ll be discussed during the chat,” Yuki said. “Now. Sit. Down.”

Yuna had already started to sit when Yuki first requested that they sat. The others soon followed her lead and sat in a small group. They looked up at Yuki who was still standing with inquisitive eyes.

“So how many of you felt something when we were walking about, oh, two minutes ago?” Yuki asked politely. 

No one answered. Yuna looked at Yuki with questioning eyes and he replied with a small shake of the head. She wasn’t the person Yuki was directing his questions towards. 

“No one? Not a thing? Not even a little tingle?”

“Well, I felt a tingle. But it went away pretty quick so I didn’t really think about it much,” Ben shrugged. “I was more worried about monsters and if those buggers were going to try and sneak up on us.”

“Mmm, so no one else felt anything,” Yuki said brightly, nodding his head. “Well, I guess that’s why you all are about to fail this little exam.”

“What? What do you mean by that?” Jared frowned. “We didn’t do anything wrong yet and we didn’t even start any combat yet.”

“The fact that we haven’t even done anything is a problem itself but let’s ignore that for now. Let me tell you what you all should have seen already,” Yuki lowered his voice. “There is a gigantic barrier that is surrounding this area that we have just entered. It blocks any magic that tries to enter and is strong enough that it would require a magical blast that could blow away a good chunk of this forest to break. But I’m sure that you noticed it, right?”

Everyone but Yuna looked at Yuki with a stupefied expression.

“Oh, you didn’t notice? Well then, let me tell you what else you should have noticed,” Yuki continued. “How about the fact there were no monsters anywhere near us when we were stomping our way through the forest? All of you should have noticed that, but only Benjamin did. Why is that?”

“Hey, give us a break,” Natalie complained. “We were still a bit shook from jumping out of a plane. And plus, those were really small things. How were we supposed to notice that?”

“If jumping out of a plane makes you that scared, then you shouldn’t have enrolled in the Academy,” Yuki replied flatly. “Unless, of course, the rest of the whole Academy are made out of little daisies and sunflowers just like you. And those weren’t small things. Unless you call seeing no monsters during a hunting mission normal. Or a gigantic barrier made out of enough mana that I could probably feel it all the way in Junction. You guys say that you are rank C, right?”

Ben and Joseph nodded their heads. The others didn’t respond.

“I made the mistake of assuming that you were at least mid rank C or borderline rank B. Well, I guess Ben and Joseph might be.  But the rest of you were all apparently just promoted from rank D.”

“Yuki, where’s this going?” Yuna asked. “We’re a bit short on time.”

“Ah, yes. We are,” Yuki nodded. “So, I’ll just cut this a bit short. That barrier has just cut off all connections we have to the Academy. They no longer have a visual on what we are doing. Also, that barrier was put up by someone that is probably a lot stronger than any of us and also wanted to keep people like us out of this area. This area is also the home to a lot of trolls who are under the control of a troll chieftain. So if you guys just continue to do whatever it was you were planning to do, I promise you that you all won’t be graduating because you’ll all be dead.”

Some of Yuki’s team open their mouths to protest but Yuki quickly shut them up by activating a quick burst of pressure. 

“Now, unless you want to die, I recommend that you shut up and listen to what I tell you. From this point on, I’m running this show.”