Chapter 271 Traveling Far Out
Lyrian soon crossed over the walls of the academy, with Nova following shortly behind him. There, he garnered some more looks from the upper years again. After entering the forest, he began running far out.
To be most efficient, Lyrian decided that he would hunt any creature he saw on his way.
His way to where, exactly? Well, where he wanted to go was far. That's all he knew.
On his way, he killed another pair of Rubus tigers, a King Crocodile, and even a Garr—an animal specific to Zaryn. To his surprise, he had seen all of these creatures' body parts in his Alchemy room.
But it made sense. The most amount of materials that the academy had would be from creatures most commonly found right outside of the academy walls.
However, Garr's horns that he gained weren't as valuable as the ones he saw in class. This was because he wasn't able to cut the horns off of the large, buffalo-like beast, well enough.
The Garr was half the size of an elephant, and even though it looked like a raging bull, it was a predator of the jungle. Its hide was so tough that Lyrian found it awkward to perfectly cut the horns off of its head.
Still, they would sell for something, he imagined...
'I haven't sold anything yet.' Lyrian mused as he put the horns of the Garr into his storage ring.
'And my storage is almost filled up.'
At that moment, he jumped up onto the thickest tree he could find and began to climb it. Before long, he arrived at the top, above the forest canopy.
There, he looked at how far the sun had traveled west, indicating what time of day it was.
'It's gone down quite a bit.' He mused, looking down from the sky and forward at where he was currently heading.
A few miles away, he managed to see a pond that was past a fairly large drop-off.
'A pond huh... that's a gathering place for creatures...' He checked how much space he had left in his ring.
It was about 2 square feet now that some time had passed. 'That's good enough.' He said, beginning to climb down the tree.
Just then, Nova began chirping, staying up at the tree top. Lyrian looked up at the bird, wondering why it was making so much noise and not following him.
He climbed back up and saw that Nova was looking at the pond while yelling.
"Yes, I'm going to go there. What do you want to say?" He said to the bird, confused.
To make Lyrian understand, Nova then darted from the tree they were currently on, to the next, and then to the next.
"Ah..." Lyrian mumbled under his breath as he saw this.
"Good idea. It would be faster to just go across the treetops. I guess I was walking on the ground just to hunt, but not that I'm not doing that, this will be most efficient."
Catching up with Nova, he leaped from tree to tree before arriving at the drop-off not too far away. It took him a few minutes, however, since the actual distance was a mile.
From there, Lyrian jumped back down to the ground. He walked to the very edge and saw that the drop-off was straight down. Steep, with no curve whatsoever.
It was probably over 500 feet down. He saw birds flying at eye level, which surprised him. Clouds were still far up in the sky, but this wasn't going to be a small drop.
Looking left and right, Lyrian noted that his drop-off continued for as far as the eye could see. Thinking back, he realized that he hadn't seen it end even when he was on the tree top.
"Then... I guess I have no choice but to jump." He mumbled, taking a few steps back.
Suddenly, his back pressed up against something sturdy.
'Huh? I'm sure there wasn't a tree behind me.' He mused, turning around to see a giant creature behind him.
'A Garr.' He quickly dashed back a bit, startled by the creature. He was now right on the edge of the drop-off.
At that moment, he noticed the person sitting on top of the beast. Then, he also noticed that this Garr didn't look wild. It had an entire saddle and straps placed on its back.
The boy on top of the Garr wore a robe and looked down at Lyrian with a cold expression.
"What are you doing here, first year?" He said in a low voice, backed up with a hint of disdain.
Then, the robed boy sized Lyrian up and down. 'A peasant? How did he get into this academy anyway...'
"Boy, tell me, are you from Anaviotis?" He said, making his Garr step forward slightly.
Lyrian looked behind past his shoulder and saw that he was mere feet from falling.
With a serious gaze, he faced the rider. "I am Lyrian Theageld of Anaviotis. What's your goal in trying to make me fall from this ledge?"
"Lyrian Theageld? Ah... I see." The rider stopped moving his Garr.
Jumping off of its back, he neared Lyrian on foot. He looked a little taller and had a built physique.
Now, with a smile on his face, he exclaimed, "My name is Roswil Jecent, of Anaviotis as well. I'm a second year... It's a pleasure to meet you, MVP."
His tone was polite, as he reached a hand out towards Lyrian. Lyrian was slightly hesitant at first but decided to accept the handshake.
Most times, Lyrian found it easy to read whether someone was lying or trying to pull a trick, but right now, he didn't get those feelings.
As soon as their palms clasped together, Roswil stepped forward in a series of precise and quick steps. In less than a second, he pushed Lyrian back to where Lyrian's foot was halfway off of the edge—and held him there.
With a stern expression, Lyrian looked behind his shoulder again, and then at Roswil.
"Boy... you need to learn to not trust strangers—" Roswil was cut off, as Lyrian used his leverage to twist his body out of harm's way.
In one swift move, Roswil was now the one on the edge, and Lyrian was where Roswil last was.
The robed boy's expression contorted to shock as soon as he realized what had just happened.
Looking past his shoulder, his head quickly turned back to face Lyrian.
"W-wait!" He shrieked in horror.
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