Lucas slowed down his pace as he entered the forest.
When instructors asked us to pass through the forest, most students might have thought that they have to get to the mountain cliff, on the other side of the forest but what they had never imagined in their wildest dream was that there are countless traps lay hidden in the forest.
One has to go through the forest overcoming the traps that are laid here and there in the forest.
Though Lucas was having a problem getting used to his loss of strength, still he kept on running on his track.
Making use of the physical strength of his body, he jumped over a fallen tree log and just as he was about to land, he sensed a log aiming at him coming from the side.
Bending his head in the mid-air, he avoided it and rolled on the ground as he landed. He wouldn't have been seriously injured even if he was hit by the log, as it was set in that way.
Due to knowing about the forest Lucas kept his alertness all-time high which helped him to avoid the danger.
'Instead of rushing ahead, it's better to take your time to first get used to this environment rather than charging blindly.'He thought.
As Lucas moved ahead, he noticed Parth was in front of him and he tackled the obstacles beautifully as if the forest was his home turf and he already knew where the traps were laid.
Lucas dodged the traps laid in his way. Every day's physical training and lifting weights had enhanced Lucas's strength, so even if he lost his mana he is not as weak as others.
The one who will suffer the most is undoubtedly the mage or the magicians.
Lucas's chest was hoisting up and down as he ran across the forest. Taking deep breaths, he tried to maintain a constant speed.
"Huuh" Lucas groaned, as he strolled on a small cord.
As soon as the cord broke a huge log came flying out of nowhere arrived in front of him aiming for him.
Although Lucas perception was quite high in comparison to other 2-Star warriors, still at the moment his agility has decreased. He was barely able to avoid it as a small part of the log brushed past him and slammed him.
Whissh.
Lucas entire body was sent flying backwards as he slammed on the ground.
Lucas groaned in pain, as his back slammed on the ground.
Other students mocked Lucas as they passed him avoiding the trap that has already been discovered by Lucas.
They passed the traps similar to those thanks to Lucas being the example.
Some looked down on seeing him while others passed without turning to look at him.
But their mockery didn't last long cause as they moved forward, some fell in the small pits and their body covered in mud while others that managed to avoid it were trapped in the nets which pulled them up towards the tree.
One girl laughed seeing her friend misfortune step on a loop that tightened around one of her legs and dragged her upside down to the height of the tree.
Looking at them Lucas laughed inwardly.
Lucas dusting off his body picked himself up and started to march again.
'So there are all lots of traps set across this place. Lots of people will fall into the traps unknowingly which will end up decreasing the number of traps. I don't have to make it fast, as it is not a competition where who arrives first will win nor there is any time limit to finish the course,' This was Lucas plan after all even he has good sense still he couldn't avoid the traps.
Clack.Clack.Tap.Tap.Tack.
The sound of feet tapping the forest full of leaves. broken branches dried twigs and fallen trees reverberated across the forest.
Lucas ran avoiding the traps, ducking the logs that came flying at him and jumping through the pits on his path without the intention of overtaking anyone.
A student who was catching on to him tried to overtake him to show he is superior.
He arrived at Lucas left and overtook him with a mocking expression but Lucas didn't spare him a glance.
Lucas had already met 4 out of 10 students who mocked others when they overtook him as if the competition to take a higher position had been engraved in their bones.
He didn't bother but still decided to teach him a lesson, as he noticed a small thin wire in front of them. Lucas increased his speed coming overcoming the boy, he stepped on the wire and instead of moving ahead, he took a few steps back.
Noticing something off he looked behind to find Lucas falling back and at that moment he arrived between two huge logs aiming at him and as he dodged them, he found himself in a massive web that appeared out of thin air.
His body was wrapped in the webs and pulled backwards.
The boy screamed as he was trapped in the webs.
Lucas was surprised seeing the webs as he hadn't expected the webs to be present there, luckily he killed two birds with stones avoiding both the traps and teaching this kid a lesson.
Lucas passed by the boy's side. He showed no expression whatsoever to what just happened here and kept running forward.
After a few minutes, he could see the steep rocky slope of the mountain up ahead.
Just as he was about to exit the forest he found Fredrick being trapped in one of the webs. Lucas wanted to mock Fredrick because it was written that he had become overconfident when he was about to exit the forest and put his guard down which resulted in this.
After you have been trapped here, you will be thrown back at about 500m or something after being trapped for 10 minutes.
As he came near the foot he could see the students climbing the rocky slope with their hands and legs as a support.
There was no equipment and the rocky mountain happens to be a thousand feet tall.
After you climbed it halfway there are boulders at certain heights. After reaching that place you have to roll the boulders up the slope of the mountain.
' Huff.Huff.Haaa.Haa'Lucas panted heavily as he arrived before the rock and looked up.
Just coming out of the forest has already exhausted half of his stamina. To clear the forest along with the trap was too difficult for him but before climbing ahead, it looked like nothing.
Just he looked up, he saw Parth being among the students who were at the front while others were not that far off.
Parth had already climbed more than a hundred feet and seemed to be in leads.
He surely had to go through harsh training from his childhood to perform like this,' Lucas mumbled.
Oblivious to Parth, his place in Lucas's heart has risen to some extent as Lucas saw him in a new light.
After recovering, Lucas started to climb slowly. As Lucas looked up someone who had reached a height of ten feet placed his hands on a protruding rock.
An opening appeared and from the hole, a pole shot out of the hole. The cadet was hit in his chest and was sent down the steep rocky mountain.
He screamed in fear after falling from the height.
But just the moment about he was going to hit the ground, a shield of mana bubble wrapped around him coming from his bracelet slowing his speed of descent and the floating bubble burst as he was about 1m from the ground.
The boy fell with a small thud and breathed heavily. He was scared out of his wit when he fall and thought today he will meet the maker today.
'Even this one has trapped too. Aren't the academies instructors love setting traps for others too much' Lucas mumbled inwardly as he looked at the fallen student who had already gone pale in fear.
Lucas stared at him for a second and started climbing.
Lucas stared attentively and fixed his eyes on the paths others had taken and followed the path to climb up safely.
As Lucas climbed higher and reached the height of sixty feet screams were heard.
"Ahhhh".
" Argh".
"Krghhhh".
Lucas looked up and noticed students falling from above one after another. Lucas frowned as the person falling slammed on another student where he pulled another one making him fall with them.
Another one fell whose body slammed into another student and headed toward Lucas direction.
Lucas pressed his body on a small hole and gripped another rock stretching his hand and sidestepped to the right, avoiding the person crashing against him as they fall.
Lucas groaned as he made use of his hand to get a grip on the rock.
Sigh.
Lucas heaved an air of relief after he avoided the fall. It's going to be troublesome to stay below the others. The ones at the up will subconsciously pull you down or slammed against the ones at the down which will make it harder for us to climb.
By now they all have realised that every course would have certain types of trap, so they trolled more cautiously than before.
After climbing up the steep slopes Lucas finally reached the top where they have to take this boulder to the top. Each boulder weigh about 100kg.
My hands and feet were already sore from climbing still I have to bear with it.
