Irina and Sylvie, drawn by Morse's actions, turned their attention to where he was pointing.
To their surprise, a small squirrel made entirely of mana walked past them. Its body shimmered with an ethereal light, as if following a fixed path in the forest.
"A mana formula disguised as a squirrel?" Irina said thoughtfully, squinting as she observed the magical creature. Seeing such a complex life form mimicked by a mana formula was truly amazing. Capturing and analyzing it would yield even more points.
Sylvie couldn't help but giggle. "It's so cute! Can we catch it?"
'Hmm... she has no resistance to cute things.'
Irina noted Sylvie's reaction internally, chuckling softly at her enthusiasm.
"Of course, we can. But remember, our goal is to find these formulas and understand them. Let's cooperate and capture it without harming it..."
Whoosh!
Just as she was about to continue, suddenly, an arrow flashing with green light flew past her ear.
Thwack!
The arrow struck the poor squirrel's leg, hindering its movement. However, the squirrel didn't dissipate but staggered a few steps from the magical impact.
"Ah!"
Sylvie gasped, worried about the creature's safety. "Did you have to do that?"
Irina, with a hint of annoyance and curiosity, turned to Morse. "What was that for? We were supposed to catch it unharmed!"
Morse, unfazed by their displeased looks, calmly retrieved another arrow. "Relax, it's just a mana formula. We need to see how it reacts to attacks, don't we?"
He seemed composed, as if he hadn't just shot an innocent squirrel. "Besides, it didn't die. The mana formula is still intact; what you saw was just an illusion."
As he said, if the mana formula had been destroyed, the squirrel would have dissipated. This indicated that the arrow hadn't caused any real damage. Actually, this was beneficial for their task, this squirrel was probably different from other formulas.
It would likely escape quickly.
"But..."
Even so, seeing the cute squirrel struggle like that tugged at the heartstrings.
"For someone who burns monsters to ashes, you're quite sensitive about a little mana squirrel," Morse commented, his tone as flat as ever.
Irina glared at him, her annoyance growing. It was because what he said was true; she had killed countless monsters and even felt pleasure in battle.
'But I wouldn't stoop so low as to shoot an innocent squirrel,' she wanted to retort, but she didn't. She knew he would just shrug it off, not caring.
"Sigh... let me see."
Irina sighed and approached the struggling squirrel. She reached out her hand, her palm shimmering slightly with mana. A magical aura enveloped the injured creature, and she carefully observed the formula's reaction. The squirrel wriggled, but showed no signs of dissipating.
"Fascinating," Irina murmured, her eyes fixed on the magically affected squirrel. "The structure of this formula is remarkably resilient. The impact of the arrow seems to have altered its movements, but it hasn't disrupted the magical construct. Interesting."
She took out a sophisticated device provided by the academy for the examination. This device was used to record and analyze mana formulas, an essential tool for investigators, and the skills of awakened beings would also leave traces of mana formulas.
However, the device they had was a simplified version of the real equipment, but it could still complete the task.
Irina brought the device close to the mana squirrel and activated the recording program. A minute later, the squirrel vanished, leaving no trace, the mana absorbed by the device.
"That's it, let's go." Afterward, she continued to lead the group deeper into the forest.
Along the way, none of the three spoke. Sylvie was busy observing the environment and controlling her eyes, while Irina was observing Morse.
'That guy...'
Looking at those flickering purple eyes, Irina thought to herself.
'He's quite smart.'
But she didn't understand why his ranking was so low. After experiencing the entire semester and exploring multiple dungeons with him, she admitted that Morse was a fast learner. He might not be a genius like herself or Sylvie, but he was at least far above average.
She had sparred with mages in her family since she was a child, and she knew that he had learned mana observation in a shorter time than most mages in her family.
'Tch, I can't make fun of him anymore.'
Now that he had finally mastered the use of mana observation, she had lost her chance to mock him.
'Though, perhaps this isn't a bad thing.'
His reaction speed was astonishingly fast, and most importantly, the time he took to assess situations and make decisions was nearly zero.
He didn't hesitate when making plans and acted quickly, just like he did with the squirrel.
'Although I don't want to admit it, he's much better than me in this regard.'
Although it might hurt her pride, she wasn't the kind of jerk who refused to acknowledge others' achievements.
'Okay, I might have been that kind of jerk before.'
And so, the group ventured deeper into the forest, searching for squirrels. Since all three of them could use mana observation, they quickly found mana formulas disguised as part of the forest.
Irina used magic to trap the monsters attached to the mana formulas.
Although she was a mage primarily focused on fire-based explosive elements, this was a capture mission, and she used other forms of magic as well. Even so, her other magic was equally powerful and swift, proving why she was called a genius.
Morse still simply used his bow and arrows. As for Sylvie, her performance surprised both of them the most, because she could actually "charm" the mana formulas, rendering them immobile.
The scene was quite strange, and it was obviously the first time Irina had seen it.
However, this peaceful time didn't last long.
......
'Something's not right.'
I thought as I walked through the forest.
'The presence of other students has noticeably decreased.'
In the past hour, we had been exploring the forest and recording quite a few mana formulas on the device. Since many first-year students were also in the forest, we would normally have encountered others, perhaps even clashed. But our "clever" leader came up with a brilliant idea.
She deliberately released her aura, making other students aware of her presence.
'That's definitely something Irina would do.'
Her approach wasn't bad, most students wouldn't want to fight her in the forest, she was basically one of the strongest students in the academy.
It wasn't wise to antagonize her, and most students knew this.
However, there was a small drawback to this method, which could be detrimental to us.
That was the other highly ranked students, those who could contend with Irina head-on. If such people were around us, they would clearly know our location, and they could hide themselves in advance, giving them the advantage.
I slowly approached Irina and whispered:
"Did you notice?"
"Notic..."
"Shh..."
Seeing my gesture, she naturally lowered her voice and looked at me.
"Notice what?"
"..."
It seemed that this girl still maintained that carefree pride of hers, she deliberately released her aura, but didn't pay attention to her surroundings...
'Do I need to crush her pride?'
I thought about it, but quickly gave up on the idea. Despite her flaws, that was precisely what made Irina a strong person.
"What are you talking about?"
She still seemed a bit slow in terms of perceiving her surroundings.
"You really need to be more careful when you do things like this."
"What do you mean..."
Just as she was about to continue, she suddenly stopped. It seemed she had finally realized something, her stats were much higher than mine, if she observed carefully, she would definitely be able to perceive the details I noticed.
'I really wish she could curb her arrogance a little, maybe she would be even stronger if she did.'
"Sylvie."
She immediately looked at Sylvie, then turned her attention to me.
"Protect her."
But at least, she knew one of the core rules of teamwork.
If there was a healer, you had to protect her. And I knew that Sylvie couldn't protect herself, I immediately rushed towards her, sensing the incoming attack.
"Wh..."
Bang!
As Sylvie looked at me in confusion, I quickly grabbed her and tackled her to the ground just in time.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Countless ice spikes materialized where we had just been standing, deadly ice crystals assaulting us.
"Stay down," I whispered to Sylvie, already hiding behind a large rock in front of us.
She didn't ask any further questions, it seemed she had gotten used to this kind of situation during her first semester dungeon exploration.
'Good, at least she's not a burden.'
Having someone who panicked easily in the team wasn't a good thing, I guess I should thank her first team for giving her that experience.
Boom! Whoosh!
In that instant, flames erupted around us. I glanced over and saw Irina's eyes burning with determination. She skillfully manipulated the flames, forming a wall of fire that intercepted the incoming ice spikes.
"W-What's happening?" Sylvie asked, her eyes wide with surprise as she watched the clash of fire and ice.
'Well, this scene is indeed unusual.'
The amount of mana gathering around us was extraordinary, it was understandable that Sylvie felt overwhelmed since she couldn't sense her surroundings with her new abilities.
"Stay calm and quiet," I advised, my eyes fixed on the source of the attack.
In this game, there was only one person who would confront Irina head-on.
"Heh... you're still the same as ever."
Emerging from the shadows was an exceptionally beautiful girl, with long silver hair cascading down to her waist and eyes as blue as the winter ice sky.
"Seraphina."
Irina's rival, and one of the strongest characters in the future, stood before us.
Seraphina Winslet.
