Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 119 - Search Plan Explained

Previously:

Upon entering the world of her exam, Elaru is faced with a peacekeeper who introduces the goal of the exam – finding and apprehending several bandits. Orie Tonrai, her exam partner, gives Elaru a map of the area which allows her to narrow down the potential whereabouts of the bandits. Elaru decides to quickly fly over the area and detect the bandits through her mana sense.

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Orie's eyebrows furrowed even more. "But this method isn't meant to be used for long range travel. Will you be alright?"

If it were used for long distance travel, the mage would have to constantly recast the spell which would both require a large amount of mana as well as being very mentally and physically draining.

Elaru blinked her long black eyelashes charmingly. "I think you misunderstood. I don't intend to run on air."

As if to prove her point, Elaru's body started floating upwards, startling Orie.

"Why would I run when I can fly? The speed I can reach with Acceleration is a whole order of magnitude higher than my running speed."

Orie gasped at floating Elaru, finally understanding the purpose of this whole talk. This examinee had access to pure mana! Instead of searching for tracks to find the bandits, Elaru intended to fly over the entire region sweeping it with her mana sense!

Episode 119 – Search Plan Explained

"Uh... that is to say... you are not going to look for tracks??" Orie's wide honey eyes stared at Elaru flabbergasted. Her left hand involuntarily flew up, tucking one of the stray strands of hair behind her ear. This...! This...? This method also works??In fact, Orie wasn't the only person with a dumbfounded expression, the expressions of the remaining examiners, who were observing the proceedings from several dozen meters away, were also quite colorful.

They had prepared a complicated scenario, testing a wide variety of tracking techniques, containing twists and turns and false leads.

Yet...in the end...their examinee would just skip it all and solve the problem by brute force??

Didn't they waste all that time and effort for nothing?!

The face of Thaddeus Iphis, the peacekeeper who had explained the mission to Elaru Wayvin earlier, stood frozen with his jaw stiff and his gray eyes unusually narrowed.

Next to him stood Zakaria Everlith, a short and thin middle-aged elibu, who looked as if a blow of the wind would be enough to snap her like a twig. She was usually the calm voice of reason, rarely showing much emotion in her milky green eyes. Yet now, her phlegmatic disposition cracked with a soft tremble of her lower lip. Even her long black braid seemed to slump.

The only examiner who didn't have a constipated expression was Zerel Reysic, who chuckled in delight, his eyes narrowing into crescent moons due to his wide smile. "Well, well... a rather interesting method, wouldn't you say so?"

No one responded to his question.

"Um... are you sure this will work? What if the bandits are concealing their presence?" Orie voiced her protest.

Elaru tsk-tsked as if Orie said something wrong. "Mages who can perfectly conceal their presence don't grow on trees. If they were so capable, they wouldn't need to resort to petty thievery."

The redhead chuckled softly before continuing. "But for the sake of argument, let's say that they are capable of doing so. Concealing their presence wouldn't make them vanish. They would still be very much corporeal. Their movement would cause branches to shift, grass to be trampled on. I just need to find an area where I feel the foliage moving without any apparent reason."