Conner Brown had not moved toward the deep zone. He had not intended to. His strategy had been built on what his cultivation level and Dustin's could sustain across three full days without overextending—consistent mid-zone hunting, Rank Two cores accumulated steadily, and a score built through volu rather than depth.
It was working.
By mid-afternoon, the Brown pair had collected eleven Rank Two cores between them—fifty-five points, accumulated through the particular grinding efficiency that Conner's patient approach produced when applied to territory he had assessed correctly at the start. Dustin moved faster between targets, covering more ground per hour, flushing the Rank Two beasts from their positions toward Conner's established intercept points with the quick-footed coordination of soone whose speed complented rather than competed with his partner's solidity.
Conner's Three-Direction Sweep was well suited to mid-zone hunting—the staff technique's wide coverage managed the irregular ground and unpredictable approach angles that mid-zone beasts used without requiring the pinpoint positioning that sword techniques demanded. He moved through the mid-zone with the grounded patience of soone who had decided what the next three days required and was executing it without deviation.
He did not think about the deep zone. What was happening over there was not part of his competitor's plan. His sights were set on this place. By the ti mid-afternoon rolled around, hitting fifty-five points was just laying the groundwork.
He swept another Rank Two beast from the undergrowth with the staff's leading arc, and Dustin was on it before it recovered its footing. Fifty-five points beca sixty points.
During the second hour in the eastern section of the mid-zone, the Clark pair encountered a challenge that cost them so unexpected ti in their hunting.
Rachel Clark and Evan Clark made their way into mid-zone territory with impressive efficiency in just the first thirty minutes. Their strategy mirrored that of the Brown pair, but the Clark Clan executed it with a unique thrift of movent, allowing them to cover ground quickly while keeping noise to a minimum.
They had collected four Rank Two cores before the fifth target had led them into a section of mid-zone territory that two Rank Two beasts were actively contesting between themselves.
The contested territory dispute between two mid-zone beasts produced a radius of unstable beast activity that made clean individual hunting impossible—the contested beasts' aggression extending outward to anything that entered their dispute's proximity, including Rachel and Evan.
Three attempts to extract a clean target from the contested zone's edge had produced three encounters that cost energy and ti without producing cores.
Rachel had withdrawn from the contested section after the third attempt. Her posture when she pulled back carried the particular quality of soone making a strategic retreat that they would not call a retreat.
They moved north around the contested section and resud hunting in the cleaner territory beyond it.
By mid-afternoon, they had fourteen Rank Two cores. Seventy points.
Rachel Clark did not know that the Brown pair had fifty-five. She would not know until the extraction point. She hunted with the information available to her and managed the numbers she could control.
The Brooks pair had spent their first day in a pattern that was neither the Brown Clan's grinding consistency nor the Clark Clan's efficient mid-zone approach.
Max Brooks had made a decision two hours into the first day that Zara Brooks had not questioned — not because she agreed with it imdiately, but because Max's cultivation level and combat output made his assessnt of what was achievable worth following without requiring a detailed explanation first.
They had found a Rank Three beast at the mid-zone's deep edge. Not in the deep zone proper—at the transition boundary, where Rank Three territory occasionally extended into the upper mid-zone in the established ranges of particularly dominant beasts.
The beast had been in a position that Max's cultivation level could manage with Miller's support.
The fight had taken eleven minutes and cost both energy reserves they would feel in the second day's early hours.
The core sat in Max's collection storage ring alongside eight Rank Two cores. One Rank Three plus eight Rank Twos—sixty points.
Max looked at the forest ahead as the afternoon light began its decline through the canopy. His energy reserves were lower than he would have preferred for the first day's end. The Rank Three fight had been the correct decision on points. It had been a more expensive decision than the points alone suggested.
Day two would require different managent.
The Walker pair had not been visible to any other pair since entering.
Harvey Walker had taken Aaden Walker directly into the deep zone within the first hour without any of the mid-zone assessnt that every other pair had spent ti on.
His cultivation level made the mid-zone's Rank Two territory irrelevant as a primary target — not in terms of the points it produced but in terms of the energy it cost to produce them.
A Rank Two beast cost Harvey Walker a fraction of what it cost the Brown or Clark pairs. Which ant the calculation that made the deep zone worth the risk for other pairs was different for him—the deep zone was worth the risk because the mid-zone was simply not efficient enough to be his primary theater.
By mid-afternoon, the Walker pair had four Rank Three cores. Eighty points.
As the afternoon faded into evening, Harvey stared into the growing darkness of the deep zone, his expression still focused and forward-looking, just like it had been on the training ground, during the competition announcent, and while marking the boundary stakes. There was no difference in his deanor. The forest had not revealed anything that would make him alter his expression.
Aaden had taken a hit in the second Rank Three encounter — a grazing strike across his right shoulder that had not broken anything but had reduced that arm's full output range. He managed it without ntioning it. Harvey had seen the changes and quietly adjusted their formation for the third and fourth encounters, without discussing it at all. Four cores. Eighty points. Day one.
Harvey looked at the forest. The competition floor was not going to be enough.
He said this to Aaden without turning toward him. Aaden understood what it ant. They were eighty points through the first day. A pair hunting the midzone consistently could accumulate sixty to seventy points per day.
Three days of that were close to two hundred. The only way to guarantee the Walker pair finished above that ceiling was to go deeper. Or to take from pairs who had already collected.
Harvey had not decided which approach to use on day two. He had not ruled either out.
Night ca to the Forbidden Forest in a way it did not co to the city outside it.
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