Eternal Freedom's Ascension

Chapter 164: A Sweet Bait

In another part of the hunting forest, Adela stood back and watched as her team of seven students fought against a tide of repulsive worms. The worms had slippery skin and spat corrosive fluid as attacks.

This made them difficult opponents. However, Class-B had already adapted and were gradually killing them.

’Hm, this level of synchronization is not bad...’

The girl smiled, gently rubbing her lower lip. Before her eyes, more and more of the ugly worms died, falling to the blades and abilities of her teammates.

She stood back patiently, waiting for them to clear the area before they moved on to their next target.

Suddenly, her ears caught the faint sound of something charging at her from behind.

She calmly turned her head, unfazed.

Some distance away, a single-horned creature looking like an elephant was charging towards her. Its steps shook the ground, making the trees around it sway.

’Oh. A mere Awakened Beast.’

As soon as her eyes landed on the creature, a simple runic equation appeared in her mind. Since her target was an Awakened Beast, the runic equation was simple—at least to her—and she easily solved it.

The instant the answer appeared in her mind, the creature froze and collapsed. The Nirad System’s message followed immediately after.

[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Horned Mass]

This was the power of her ability, and the horror of it. Her ability—Death Matrix—allowed her to see the life equation of any creature. If she was able to solve it, then she would gain control over the creature’s life or death—deciding it with a single thought.

’I’m really blessed with a convenient ability.’

With her smart mind and sharp intellect, she could easily solve most equations at her level. Even her classmates were no exceptions. Well, except a select few.

"Princess, we’re done here."

Someone walked over to her, holding a bag filled with essence crystals.

"Oh! Nice. Good job everyone." She smiled and clapped enthusiastically. "How many were there in total?"

The boy reported, "Exactly 28, Princess. We didn’t let a single one escape."

Adela nodded in satisfaction, then hummed. "Tamara, go get the crystal from the one I killed there."

With a subtly displeased expression, the girl complied and headed over to the corpse of the Horned Mass.

Squatting before the corpse, Tamara frowned in confusion.

’How the hell did Adela even kill this thing?’

There were no cuts or wounds on the creature. In fact, it looked very normal except that it was no longer breathing.

’It must have been her ability, right? However...’

What kind of bizarre ability could kill the target without physically touching it? A soul attack ability?

Shelving the questions at the back of her mind, she summoned a large machete and hacked at the creature’s head. In under a few minutes, she broke through the skull and plucked out the essence crystal.

Returning to Adela, she put it into the bag of essence crystals with the girl.

"Done."

Adela nodded with a pleased smile, returning the storage relic into her crystal core.

Suddenly, two students emerged silently, stopping before Adela. Tamara became tense, almost attacking instinctively. However, recognizing them as her classmates, she backed down.

"Oh? Got any interesting information?"

One of the two students, clad in a black spy cloak, lowered his head.

"I lost track of the Class-E student Kaiser Solace. However, I successfully trailed Sebastian Hemsworth—though it seemed he was aware of my presence."

Adela wasn’t surprised. She never really expected Kaiser to allow someone to follow his movements. However, she was satisfied with tracking Sebastian instead.

’He’s another one of the chess pieces worthy of my attention. Controlling him might require some effort.’

Nodding, she turned to the other spy she had sent. The girl lowered her mask, speaking carefully.

"Gaga asked me to give you a report that Apollo’s class has started using our tactics."

"Oh?" Adela raised an eyebrow, amused.

The girl nodded. "Yes. According to him, a group of five crossed them and tried to steal their essence crystals. Luckily, Gaga was present and repelled them."

"Hmmm..."

The lilac-haired girl hummed, a thoughtful expression on her face. She slowly smiled, her eyes shining with a perverse light.

"Another player in my game? This makes it more entertaining."

She wasn’t displeased by Apollo’s actions. Instead, she was fueled with excitement at seeing an opponent, and filled with the desire to win the game.

Refocusing on them, she gave a few orders and let them go. Tamara approached with a conflicted expression.

"Is it okay to release that information? It cost us a lot of credits to get it."

Adela looked unbothered. "Ara~ you shouldn’t worry. This is merely bait for the big fish. Even the most detached one would be curious."

Tamara paused. "The most detached...?"

The image of a blue-haired boy appeared in her mind, reminding her of that crazy guy within Class-E.

Observing her expression, Adela chuckled.

’Oh, my dear darling... looks like you’ve left an impression on our little Tamara~’

......

The Nirad Raid was going to last a few days, so the students were provided with camping materials. As the sky gradually darkened into a grey hue, the students regrouped with their respective classes at predetermined locations.

Kaiser returned to the Class-E gathering, standing atop a tree while the others sat around a campfire.

He raised his head to look at the dark grey skies.

’This should be a part of the Verdant Remains.’

Each region of the Nirad Realm was always different from the other. However, their different atmospheric and climate conditions were one of the most popular ways of recognizing each region.

Sitting on a tree branch, Kaiser summoned the Drunken Treasure, taking a long gulp of sweet wine from it.

’Ahh... this taste...’

He smiled, feeling the warmth of the wine slither down his throat. Today, he had been quite idle. He only killed a three-headed hydra and one Awakened Beast, the name of which he couldn’t recall.

While drinking and enjoying the cool atmosphere, he overheard a conversation between the students below.

"I heard from my friend in Class-C that there’s a part of the forest that has divine nectar. He said they’ll be exploring the place tomorrow."

"Oh, really? Nectar is like honey, right? It must be so sweet."

"Yeah. I can’t wait for them to go, and he’ll give me a taste when he returns."

"Why don’t we just go there by ourselves too? Maybe we could get a larger quantity..."

"That’s..."

Kaiser ignored it, immediately realizing this was a trap set up by someone. He couldn’t understand why his classmates would fall for such cheap provocation. There was no way nectar wouldn’t have creatures guarding it.

’Boring...’ His eyes widened abruptly. ’Maya...?’