"Ahhh," he muttered. "That was way too close."
After pushing his way through the vine-covered forest, Kaelen finally reached the rocky terrain where he had started. Ahead of him stretched a long, empty field.
In his "Kai" form, he scanned the area, observing every change in the terrain.
Thankfully, no one seemed to be following him—no one except Liam and Olivia, of course.
That crazy kid had actually done it, which surprised Kaelen a little. Who in their right mind would sneak into the chimpanzees' territory and steal their food?
If Kaelen had been even a little slower to escape, he wouldn't have made it out alive. It had turned into a win-or-lose situation.
The chimpanzees were the strongest monsters in the forest—not because they were numerous or particularly powerful, but because once battle began, you couldn't catch or stop them. They were everywhere, and they always attacked from a safe position.
That kind of factor could decide a fight. Even the bear they'd been tracking for days had been left behind by the chimps, heavily wounded and dying.
Kaelen heard a rustling sound from the forest and sharpened his senses.
A few seconds later, Liam emerged from the trees. The mage looked fine apart from a few scratches.
He was panting heavily.
Then the black-haired mage, Olivia, stepped out. Her dark eyes were clouded with exhaustion and sleeplessness.
This trial pushed every mage candidate to their limits. Sleeplessness, hunger, stress, and the fear of death—these were the main challenges they had to endure.
"Those monkeys were ridiculously fast. Little bastards chased me like I'd kidnapped their grandmother!"
The young mage was still trying to catch his breath. His chest heaved violently; his face had gone pale from excessive mana use. The veins in his neck stood out as he wiped the sweat from his forehead onto his shirt.
Kaelen couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the physically weaker mage. He himself wasn't in great shape either, and things were only going to get harder from here.
"You think Estelle made it out of there alive?"
Liam asked Olivia curiously.
"I don't know. Why are you asking me?"
"Because you're a seer."
"Ugh."
Olivia threw her hands up in exasperation, rolling her eyes as she moved a few steps away from him.
"We've got the most useless seer ever, guys. I want a goddess of spoilers instead, alright?"
Liam gave up and shrugged. Sometimes even Kaelen couldn't understand the dynamic between those two.
But one thing he did know—Estelle wouldn't die that easily. He knew her from his past life.
Even thinking about that made the hairs on Kaelen's neck stand on end.
They'd probably cross paths again in a few days. Until then, Kaelen would do his best to avoid her.
"So, what now?"
Liam turned to Kaelen as the second day in Pheniyet's constructed domain came to an end. The sun was rising from the eastern horizon, glowing faintly over the fading shoreline.
"What now? You're on your own from here. I was with you for a day because you caught my interest. The rest is your problem. Don't forget—this is still a test."
"Oh, come on, that's cold. If even I'm sad, imagine how hard it'll be to cheer Olivia up after you leave."
Liam grinned playfully.
Having someone like Kaelen as a teammate had obviously been to their advantage. Kaelen hadn't seen either Liam or Olivia fight yet, but he knew how dangerous children raised by the great clans could be. They'd been hiding their true strength this whole time—because Kaelen was there.
"And you…"
Kaelen turned toward the mage standing a few meters away. Olivia's black hair fluttered in the morning breeze, her eyes filled with uncertainty, as if staring into a distant future.
"There's a reason I accepted your request. A favor.
I saved you from a cursed fate. One day, when I ask you for a favor, you'll have to accept."
Kaelen extended his hand. Olivia hesitated, glancing at it warily.
"A favor, huh? That's a very vague word. What exactly do you want from me?"
Kaelen's expression hardened. He began channeling mana into his palm.
Liam stepped in, trying to calm the tension.
"There's someone whose weakness I want to learn in the future."
"What kind of person?"
"Someone who caused me a lot of pain in my past. Someone who stole something very, very precious from me."
"I see."
Olivia didn't press further.
She extended her hand.
Kaelen grasped the black-haired girl's hand and transferred his mana into her.
"I, Mage Kaelen, request a favor from Mage Olivia Nightshade, in accordance with my will. Do you accept?"
As the mana flowed into her, Olivia began to speak:
"I, Mage Olivia Nightshade, accept Mage Kaelen's request. As long as the information he seeks does not harm me, our agreement shall stand."
What they had just formed was a mana pact — an agreement bound by mana itself. It was a promise engraved into the soul.
Anyone who broke its terms would suffer immense pain—or worse, death.
Liam couldn't understand why Olivia would agree to such a one-sided deal.
After all, Kaelen was the only one who stood to gain from it.
"Good."
Kaelen released her hand.
"Then I'm off. See you around, kids. Try not to die."
Cracking his neck and loosening his brows, Kaelen turned toward where the forest met the rocky terrain and began walking away.
Once Kaelen was gone, Liam shifted into his "Kai" form and activated the fifth form of mana—Mef.
Mana surged into his eyes. The landscape for nearly two kilometers became visible to him.
"He's gone."
He was no longer within sight.
Liam's suspicious gaze turned toward Olivia.
"How long are you planning to keep staring at me?"
The girl sat down on a rock and scolded him.
"Until you decide to explain yourself."
Liam shrugged.
"Why did you make a one-sided pact? A mage's contract is engraved into the soul. Even if you die, your spirit remains bound until the terms are fulfilled. Have you lost your mind?"
His words were met with silence. The sun now illuminated the island clearly; shadows had vanished, and the darkness of night had fled.
Sunlight hit the pale-skinned mage's face as Olivia took a deep breath.
"Liam, do you think it's easy to escape the strings of fate?"
"You're joking, right? That's got to be insanely hard. Maybe even impossible. My father once tried, and… well, you know how that ended."
Olivia sighed, sadness shadowing her face.
"Yeah. It's difficult. But we weren't bound by fate from the start—you know that, don't you?"
"Yeah. We had no purpose here other than why we were sent."
"I think Kaelen knew that too. He only accepted my deal to gain information in the future."
"Escaping fate shouldn't be that easy—especially for mages like us who haven't even reached Level One yet. So why did you tell Kaelen that?"
"The reason we came here was never really to register at the academy. Our master sent us to gather information about Estelle Escard.
If we refused to enroll, she would've killed us."
"Was all this really necessary, though? After everything we risked, we still don't know anything about Estelle Escard. The master's not going to be happy."
"Yeah. But I found something more interesting."
"Kaelen? Sure, he's interesting—but not that strong. His mana control's still unstable. Probably self-taught, without a mentor. Even if he improves, how far can he really go?"
"It's not about how strong he is. What I said to him was true—fate's threads don't surround him."
"Is that even possible?"
"Oh, I don't know. Something else surrounds him, that's all. It just caught my attention."
"So Kaelen might be useful to us?"
Liam raised an eyebrow. Sometimes he could read Olivia easily; other times, she was like a locked vault. To understand her thoughts, he had to piece together fragments—because her prophetic powers worked like that. She could see glimpses of the future, but they came to her like crumbs scattered in a bowl of soup—small, incomplete fragments.
"Yes. I've decided, Liam—we're going to enroll in the academy."
"Nope. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."
Liam raised his hands defensively, trying to stop the black-haired mage—
—but Olivia had already made up her mind.
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