Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 62: Volunteer

Groaning in a similar fashion to a zombie, Koko slowly rose out of whichever bedroll she was in, not wanting to get up yet needing to know where she was as she opened her eyes to look at her surroundings. She was in a tent made of brown fabric which had what looked like some kind of carpet spread underneath it. And she didn't appear to be alone inside of it either as at least twenty other women were inside of it, though they all seemed to be injured in one way or another while she was perfectly fine. Well, her body was fine, her hair was another matter entirely as it almost seemed as if it were full of static electricity.

Spending a minute to fight with her hair, Koko climbed out of her bedroll and moved to put her boots on, only to see that they were missing for some reason. And after searching through her bags that had been placed near her head, she eventually gave up in looking for them before she made her way to the tents exit, which seemed to be guarded for some reason.

"Oh, so you're awake." One of the academy's instructors said with a smile as she turned around an saw Koko approaching them.

"Uh... hi." Koko waved towards the woman who apparently knew her before she got down to business. "Do you know where my boots are? I could have sworn that I was wearing them when I was running for my life."

"They've been burned." The woman replied, making Koko wonder if her feet stank or something before the woman thankfully continued explaining. "The dirt of the forest seems to attach itself to anything organic before eating what it can and tainting the rest with a curse. Therefore everyone's footwear had been burned for safety reasons and we're providing metal boots instead which seem to be resistant to the soil's effects."

Only now spotting the pile of metal boots in the corner, Koko grumbled slightly as she moved over towards it, wondering just how much these clunky new boots would pinch her skin before she found a pair that fit her and walked outside.

"Headmaster Connar said that he wanted to speak with you when you woke up." The woman continued when Koko arrived at the entrance again, and she quickly thanked the woman before walking outside and shielding her eyes from what she guessed was the mid-day sun with her hand.

Finding herself surrounded by wooden walls, Koko knew for certain that she was inside of the fort that she and the other students had ran towards. However, she didn't know why they were still here seeing as she would have imagined that the adventurers would want the students as far away from such a phenomenon as possible, but that clearly wasn't the case seeing as she spotted several people that she knew patrolling alongside the adventurers and instructors on top of a catwalk circling the inside of the walls. She also spotted Wallace and Emily in one corner of the fort blushing at each other, but thankfully she didn't have to look at them for long.

"Koko!" Richard called out as soon as he watched her walk out of the tent, though he seemed to be in a hurry as he ran towards her. "You woke up just in time! Let's hurry up and go!"

"Go where?!" Koko asked, feeling a bit rushed seeing as Richard grabbed her hand and was nearly pulling her deeper inside of the fort.

"Headmaster Conner called for everyone that isn't currently on guard duty to assemble and that includes the students." Richard explained before they circled around the tent that Koko had been sleeping in to find a mass of people that were currently standing in front of what looked like a wide wooden stool which was currently being used by the headmaster as he was standing on it in order to look over everyone's heads. And as soon as he saw Koko, he nodded once in greeting before continuing to wait for everyone to gather.

"Do you know how long I was unconscious?" Koko asked Richard in a whisper once they joined the crowd.

"I'd say about nine hours." Richard answered, and Koko breathed a sigh of relief as she was worried that she'd been sleeping for longer. "To be honest, I'm surprised that you're up this early. From what I know, people are normally asleep for days at least after exhausting their MP as much as you did."