Lake returned to the shore after discovering the existence of the Rank Three creature sleeping beneath the bay.
Knowing that he was up against a Rank Three creature caused him a great headache and threw a wrench into his plans, but it was still within his tolerable range.
A few changes had to be made to the original plan, and so extra preparation was necessary, but he should still be able to handle it.
As Lake thought of this, he quickly observed the fate of the nearby hunters fishing on the shore. Their halos were still flickering, and he couldn’t see beyond a certain point, but Lake was able to confirm how much ti he had remaining with this.
’Let’s see... There’s roughly twelve hours left before that corrupted creature wakes up and causes chaos. Round it down to ten hours to give so leeway, and that’s barely enough ti to sort everything out. Kate and the rest seed to have left already, so I guess I’m on my own until they show up later.’
With that final thought, Lake turned his eyes back to the crystal-clear waters of the bay. He had a lot of work to do before it was ti, so he got started right away.
He didn’t have any information on the creature at the bottom of the bay or how the following disaster would unfold, and he didn’t even know if it would only be the Rank Three creature attacking or if it would be a swarm of creatures rising up to attack, so Lake had to make adequate preparation for every possible situation.
First, he created several magical traps at several points along the shore to slow down the approach of any creature and outright kill them if they were weak enough. He did this by modifying several material components he gathered from the creatures living in the bay, which served as excellent spell components for his traps.
Thanks to this, he was also able to collect a large amount of fate from all the creatures he had slain. Although he couldn’t confirm how much RP he had as the system was offline, he was still able to absorb fate, so he assud that the system was still passively collecting RP in the background.
After a few hours, Lake was able to set up over three hundred traps with several variations and effects concentrated on the north side of the bay, where he planned to have the battle. A few students had also started to arrive during this ti, sticking around the shore as they watched Lake constantly dip in and out of the bay to set up his traps.
Although the students didn’t quite understand what exactly he was doing or why he had called them to gather so suddenly, they knew better than to question him. They all sat under the shade of a few trees in the grass, a little ways away from the shore. They had co earlier than the appointed ti Lake had set, but they still chose to sit down and take a break. This wasn’t because they were lazy, but because they still had so lingering fears from Lake’s nightmarish training.
They didn’t know why Lake summoned them, but they would rather be rested up than have to deal with whatever they had in store for them while half exhausted.
After setting up all the traps, Lake finally turned his attention towards the students, or more accurately, the guardian hunters accompanying them. Despite their training and recent progress, the students were still too weak to be of any aningful use in the battle against the Rank Three creature, so he had to rely on the guardian hunters assigned by the Academy as his main force.
He never had a chance or reason to observe deeply into the skills or backgrounds of these veteran hunters before, but now that he had to make use of them, he was going to make sure they had the best environnt to work with.
Using his Observer of Fate ability, he could still read each guardian’s past and was able to roughly figure out their skills and specializations. Using that information, he started to formulate the best way to alter the surroundings to fit their needs.
This level of magic and calculation would’ve normally been difficult for even Lake to perform in the past, as his thoughts were still fairly monotone despite all the information he had stored in his brain, but after integrating with the Mage role, his magic and thoughts had been taken to an entirely different level.
His thoughts were more free and flexible, allowing him to approach things from angles he previously could have never fathod. His magic had risen to the level where he could cast spells that could completely transform terrain, manipulate weather, and even cause natural disasters, akin to a force of nature. However, due to his still small mana capacity and limited mana strength, he still couldn’t push his skills to their maximum potential yet and could only perform small-scale feats of nature.
Because Lake was repeatedly casting several spells of this level, his mana was being drained at an incredible rate, to the point that even his Mana Heart’s natural recovery wouldn’t have been able to keep up if it weren’t for the dense amount of mana filling the Field.
When Lake started altering the terrain, the nearby hunters that were fishing by the shore were given a fright and hastily retreated from the shore in a panic. When they reached safety and turned around to see what exactly was going on, they saw that Lake was standing in the center of everything with a calm expression.
Seeing Lake’s student uniform and young age, these middle-aged hunters thought that he must have been scared stiff and couldn’t retreat in ti. They also noticed that the sudden changes in the earth weren’t as drastic around Lake compared to other areas and were about to rush in to grab Lake and run out quickly, but were quickly stopped by the nearby students.
The students reaction left the middle-aged hunters sowhat confused, as they didn’t understand why they would stop them from saving their fellow classmates.
’Could it be that they want that student to die? Is competition in the Academy so scary nowadays?’
However, when these students only shook their heads and pointed at Lake, they were stunned by what they saw. Each hunter had different reactions, but they were all equally astonished by the sight before them.
Lake had casually stepped onto a platform that had risen from the ground before that platform rapidly extended towards the sky, riding atop it with his arms folded behind his back. Eventually, Lake ascended high into the sky, getting a birds-eye view of the area as he swept his gaze around. Wherever his gaze landed, the earth would start to shift and rise, altering the terrain.
"...."
The middle-aged hunters were left sweating buckets at the sight, which gave them an even deeper fear compared to when the earth started shifting around them.
"Has martial arts developed to such a level that even kids could play god now?" One middle-aged hunter asked with a blank expression.
"No, I don’t believe so." Another middle-aged hunter replied nervously.
"Then has technology developed to the point where we could play with a world editor tool in real life?"
"Ignoring the absurdity of that remark, we’re currently in a Field, so it’s definitely not technology."
"Then is it magic?"
At this comnt, everyone fell silent, not sure how to reply.
****
While Lake was altering the terrain, an unsuspecting trio happened to arrive and witnessed the very scene of Lake rising into the sky on a pillar of earth.
They were all staring wide-eyed with their lips pressed firmly against each other, not muttering even the slightest sound. The sight before them left them speechless and even made the trio forget to breathe.
It was only after Lake started altering the terrain with his gaze that the three finally snapped out of their daze.
"I knew Lake had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, but this is sothing else." One of the trio, dressed as a student with a set of weapons on his back, spoke with a still dazed look.
The other one dressed as a student only nodded his head slightly, still staring at Lake’s nonchalant figure with an unreadable expression.
Naturally, the pair of students were Allen and Bradford, who ca to check out what Lake was doing after hearing of his summons. However, they really didn’t expect to see such a sight before them.
’Was Lake really human? How the hell can he manipulate the terrain like that? I knew he could do so pretty incredible things, but isn’t this pushing the limits of a martial artist? Wait, is this even martial arts?’
These were so of the thoughts flying through both Bradford and Allen’s minds as they continued to stare at Lake’s magical performance.
As for the last man among the trio, he looked to be soone in his twenties and held an old-style film cara. When he finally snapped out of his daze, he realized that his hands had already started to record the scene before him on their own.
When he noticed what his body was doing while he was in a daze, the man was once again shocked by his body’s strange tendencies.
"I guess I really am ant to be a reporter." The man gave a defeated smile before completely focusing his cara on Lake.
This man was Leon Ashward, the reporter who ca to the Field to record and interview the students while they took their exam.
He had originally been following Bradford and Allen around, getting a few nice clips and interviews since yesterday that he planned to write an article about. After all, both Bradford and Allen were talented students, ranking among the top five first-year students at the Academy during the entrance exam. Bradford had placed 2nd in the entrance exam and showed skills that far surpassed those of his peers, while Allen was the grandson of the Hundred Weapon Master.
Just these few points would already make an interesting article that Leon felt many people would be interested in, and even if all that fails, both of them were born with good looks. He could just take so decent shots of their faces, and he was sure that the article would do well.
He had initially been just going along with the flow, trying not to get in the way of Bradford’s and Allen’s exams while getting his material for his article. However, after stumbling upon the sight of Lake, it was as if a switch was flipped within him.
Usually he had to first ask the student’s permission before he could start recording them, as the Academy greatly valued the privacy of their students, but his body seed to be reacting beyond reason and wasn’t following the clear logic in his head.
Because of this, Leon’s thinking had been greatly simplified.
"Record first, talk later."
With these four words, Leon gave it his all to get the best angle and shots of Lake’s handso figure and godlike abilities.
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