Vol 2 Chapter 186: Exploration
"Sorry, I often subconsciously make certain movents when thinking. I didn't an to offend."
Only after Veronica's reminder did Valerian belatedly lower her hand, wearing an apologetic expression: "I often do this with my younger sister at ho, so it was just instinctive..."
"It's fine."
Since the other party had stopped, Veronica saw no need to pursue the matter further. She gave a simple response to put the incident behind them and continued walking forward.
The trio continued exploring the maze in silence.
The maze wasn't particularly bright - one might even say it was rather dim. But all three present were fairly capable Magical Girls, their vision no longer affected by simple light or darkness, making it no problem to advance through the gloom. However, this conclusion seed limited to Veronica's personal perspective, because after walking so distance, she suddenly noticed the surroundings brightening noticeably.
Turning her head, she saw Valerian raising her hand to cast an illumination spell.
"Watch your step ahead - there are stairs."
Perhaps feeling awkward and apologetic about her earlier subconscious head-patting gesture, Valerian deliberately maintained so distance from Veronica, rely tossing the spell to float beside her.
Seeing this, Dogtail Grass quietly withdrew her already extended hand.
Veronica glanced at the light orb beside her, then at the stairs ahead, wanting to say sothing yet unsure what to express.
She wanted to say this was excessive concern, but rembered that "Gentian" was indeed seen as a child in others' eyes - there was no reason to reject such kindness. Explaining would only complicate matters, so she simply said "Thank you" before descending the stairs with the light orb and her team.
Following Valerian's directions, they went down one floor, passed several turns, and after about five minutes of steady progress, faint voices beca audible from the darkness ahead.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be another examinee team.
As they drew nearer, that team also noticed Veronica's group, abruptly cutting off their cheerful conversation to cast wary glances in their direction.
Everyone rembered the rules stated by the head examiner before the test: "Attacks or interference against other examinees are not prohibited" ant every team could potentially be an enemy. If two teams t with one side completely unprepared, elimination would likely follow.
Of course, even while being wary, their attention focused primarily on Valerian.
As one of the most famous examinees this year, most Magical Girls aiming for good results would have morized Valerian's appearance. Thus upon this encounter, they imdiately recognized her identity.
This was probably the downside of having soone from the Power Ranking List in your team.
After all, the sa examination rules stipulated that if an examinee was attacked and incapacitated by an opponent leading to elimination, as long as she could identify the attacker afterward, she would receive all the opponent's points from this event.
Now, with just one glance between teams, the other side had already recognized Valerian. They were clearly prepared - if eliminated by Valerian here, they could simply report her na afterward.
Amid this inexplicably tense atmosphere, Valerian stared expressionlessly at these Magical Girls for two seconds before slowly speaking:
"Hello."
The atmosphere froze instantly.
Hearing this simple greeting, the other Magical Girls found their prepared "intimidation" or "threats" stuck in their throats. After a mont, their leader hesitantly responded: "Hello...?"
"Did you find anything along your way here?" Valerian continued asking.
"Uh... probably not?" The other side answered after brief consideration.
"Alright, thank you. We ca from the staircase at the back right - we've explored that area and found nothing."
Valerian nodded politely: "If you're moving forward, you could take the left path."
"Oh... okay." The other leader nodded blankly.
"And about this maze - both walls and floors are imbued with utilizable spell formulas. Did you know?" Valerian added.
"Huh? What's that?" This ti, other mbers besides the leader spoke up.
So Valerian explained how the maze's spell formulas worked.
After this explanation, the opposing team completely dropped their earlier wariness and began exchanging information with Valerian: though unaware of the maze spells, they'd explored several dead ends through brute force and now shared all these with Valerian.
"Really scared there - the first team we et in the maze is number five on the Power Ranking List."
Their leader scratched her head and laughed: "I almost saw my great-grandma waving at ."
"You're so weak - I only got slightly weak in the knees." Her teammate took the chance to tease.
After brief information exchange, the teams bid farewell and continued exploring. The other team regained their earlier cheerfulness, their figures and laughter soon disappearing from Veronica's sight.
She didn't linger on the now empty corridor, but suddenly wondered: was their team's atmosphere perhaps too subdued?
From Valerian's performance so far, she didn't seem the taciturn type, interacting with others quite naturally. Dogtail Grass wasn't soone who rejected communication either, just currently sowhat shy.
None of the three seed inherently opposed to teamwork, yet for various reasons, their relationships hadn't progressed. While other teams chatted and laughed along the way, theirs seed under so silencing spell, remaining quiet for long stretches.
Was it her fault?
Veronica couldn't help thinking this.
Admittedly, compared to introverted Dogtail Grass and seemingly unaware Valerian, she was indeed most suited for "breaking the ice" in team relations.
In fact, precisely because she'd shown no initiative so far - even reacting coldly to Valerian's earlier instinctive affectionate gesture - the other party now felt awkward too.
If she were slightly more proactive in conversation, wouldn't that help team cohesion? Like when Valerian ntioned her sister - if she'd seized that chance to ask about Valerian's daily life, wouldn't that have created an opportunity for team bonding?
She did want to hide her capabilities, true, but that didn't an shirking all responsibilities as a team mber. Simply put, she wouldn't actively beco the "carry," but neither would she be dead weight.
Valerian's individual abilities were indeed strong - she should pass regardless. But "passing" and "ranking high" were different concepts. If their team's poor relationship developnt affected the other two mbers' rankings due to her inaction, that would beco her fault.
Yet as she pondered this, their exploration suddenly yielded new developnts.
—A shrub-covered wall that for so reason was emitting flickering light, extrely eye-catching, appeared before the trio.
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