Shortly after the tents were set up, Qiana vanished into the nearby woods and only came back several hours later when the sun had just set.
She casually dropped off some more supplies at Sophie's feet before entering one of the tents and retiring for the night.
Qiana had already mapped out the surrounding area and managed to loot the pockets of quite a few squads that ventured too close to their base.
Sophie gently moved Astrid into one of the remaining tents and placed a warm blanket over her body. The Mendolesa girl whimpered softly but continued to sleep on as if nothing could wake her up.
Sophie assumed that she would be on the first watch for the night, so she climbed up a tree to get a better image of any approaching enemies.
The darkness of night was no problem as her golden eyes saw images as clear as day. It was oddly relaxing to hear the sounds of wind passing by and the rustling of small animals.
Exoplanet T-980 had two lunar moons that hung eerily in the night sky and the lack of pollution made all the stars clearly visible.
Looking up in the night sky, Sophie was struck by the passing thought of how tiny and insignificant she was in the grand scale of the universe.
If you had told her only a few months ago that she would be competing in the four great universities entrance exam…. she would have just laughed in disbelief.
How could such a talentless cultivator possibly be qualified?
Sophie still felt a small sense of loss when she reminisced about the period of time when Sui Meng was in control of her body.
The earth-born transmigrator had not been destroyed but the two personalities had perfectly fused, so she was truly alone in her mind now.
Howls and cries of battle could be heard in the distance between the different squads of students and even between the beasts on the exoplanet.
Just because it was night did not mean that the fighting would stop, rather certain squads took advantage of the cover of darkness to perform daring raids.
Suddenly Sophie's pointed ears twitched in a certain direction and she quickly turned around to take a look.
"Damn it! When I find that thief, I will rip his fucking throat out!"
"Did anyone see who did it? Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to search"
"We don't have a choice…. without food we have no chance."
It appeared to be one of the hunting teams that Qiana had robbed as they kept cursing and keeping an eye out for someone.
Sophie's eyes narrowed as she zoomed in to make out their figures in more detail. It was a team consisting of ten Servies who were zipping around with furious expressions.
The squad was only five hundred meters away, so Sophie just took a mental note of their position and silently drew out the blaster pistol on her hip.
She knocked on Qiana's tent flap and explained the situation quickly and then left before the drowsy girl had time to complain.
Lookouts were always supposed to remain at their post so Sophie could only apologise to Qiana in her heart as she had to wake up the irritated girl to replace her on duty.
Qiana was not pleased but Sophie had been keeping watch for awhile, so she reluctantly took her position as lookout.
Wait a moment….
Sophie walked past the supplies Qiana had dropped off this afternoon and a unique device caught her attention.
There was a small metallic cylinder that could fit in her palm with a red button placed on the side of its shell and a slit at the top.
Sophie cautiously pressed the button and a long carbon fibre rope burst out of slit as the device turned out to be a whip.
Sophie gazed at the weapon in her hand before a dreadful smile crept up the corners of her mouth.
Her eyes shifted automatically from their golden hue to a more reddish tinge.
Kill…. Kill…. KILL.
It was hunting time.
Azore Fernwink was the daughter of a highly respected Archmage and had an impressive affinity to magic.
Some even praised her as a future pillar of the Earth Federation and she had long broken into the qi spirit stage.
She managed to assemble a group of talented peers during the competition and had wiped out several teams of various races.
Azore disdained foreign races who attempted to learn magic and her father's warning that a Mendolesa warrior in testing site 13 was a great talent was immediately dismissed by her as an over exaggeration.
How could those muscle-headed brutes possibly have the intelligence to derive spell nodes and cast spells.
Magic was in the blood of the Servies people and only they had the right to explore the nature of mana.
Everything was going smoothly, and her team was in a good position for the last days of the competition until a mysterious event occurred several hours ago.
Someone had managed to bypass every single alarm and ward placed around their resting spot and stole all of their supplies.
What was the most frightening aspect of the robbery was that everyone was alert and vigilant, but none even realised what had happened until all their supplies had vanished.
They were not technically helpless as spell casting did not rely on the use of external weapons, but all their nutrient vials and tents were gone.
Morale amongst the squad was low which lead Azore to attempt to lighten the mood by bringing up the Mendolesa girl to mock.
"Hey, did you all hear the rumors?" she whispered.
"What rumors," one of her team members replied.
"Apparently a Mendolesa girl is trying to be a mage! Can you image a big hulking brute trying to manipulate mana?!" Azore joked.
"Hahaha! Oh, by the goddess that is a funny image," a Servie named Flix burst into giggles.
"Can those beasts even read??"
Laughter erupted and the team's mood was instantly uplifted when a panicked shout came from their scout up ahead.
"Someone has just triggered our wards!" a frantic cry was shouted out.
He attempted to fly back when a dark shadow grabbed his arm and the Servie was dragged into the bushes and an agonising scream of pain soon followed.
"Everyone stay calm and be vigilant," Azore commanded as she cautious took a step forward.
She waved her hands around in a strange pattern as the runes on her arms lit up with the magical flow of mana.
"Lux sursum hoc loco!"
Bright light flooded the area and caused the Servies to squint involuntarily but no attacker could be found.
Sophie was pissed off.
Really pissed off.
She had heard the mocking laughter that flowed from these stuck-up little pieces of shit when talking about Astrid.
Her rage seemed to be reflected in her eyes as the reddish hue darkened significantly.
Each member of the Servies team was looking left and right to spot her image but none guessed that she was above them in the trees.
Dark Waves Consume All!
Sophie flicked out her whip as layers upon layers of black shadows formed into a tidal wave of deadly qi energy.
Bang!
The waves crashed into two of the Servies which caused them to be flung backwards while bleeding profusely.
Three down….
Sophie had crushed their rib cages, so it was not long before the barrier device activated, and they were teleported back to the transport ship.
"Vites restringere eam," Azore chanted out another spell and vines erupted from the ground where Sophie had just landed.
They pierced nothing as Sophie had already dashed to another location. She stared down the Servie in the front of the team as a few thoughts flashed across her mind.
(You're wrong.)
"Glacies perforabit!" a frost mage called Raine shouted as ice shards appeared and shot towards Sophie's blurry figure.
They all passed by harmlessly as Sophie ducked and weaved between the slow-moving projectiles.
(Astrid can cast spells faster than you all can.)
Black Viper Art!
The snake- like creature formed from her whip swallowed three more members of the squad and they were instantly eliminated.
"What are you? A monster?!" one of the male Servies shrieked.
I am.
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