36 Waterfall

Incidents with monsters steadily increased after the Demonic Mosquito's. Steven had suddenly become everyone's favorite person, his dimensional bag making it possible for everyone to carry off their haul. They'd been running for nearly 6 hours at this point, and by now most of them had figured out what was going on. Mr. Parker was driving all the monsters out of the path as he ran by and the Advisers were only allowing those slightly stronger than the students to get through.

So far they'd killed 8 Water Monkeys (who'd pelted them with poo and water for nearly 15 minutes before Mike got pissed off and used a special ability to blow them all away in a single shot), 18 Demonic Mosquitoes (These were easy to kill after the first group. Everyone there had learnt how to dispel illusions, just none of them were as sensitive to them as John.), 10 Fire rats (Snakey had leaped from her resting spot on John's shoulder before devouring several of them as they tried to attack from underground.), and 1 Metal Rhino.

It'd taken the combined efforts of the entire group to take the Rhino down, Rank 7 level 4 it'd shrugged off all of their attacks time after time. John's Soul Bullets had made all the difference, he hadn't been able to completely destroy the monster's soul in an instant but had slowed it down enough that no one had been injured. In the end, Quincy had slipped into another dimension before slicing out with his sword from inside the monsters body, chopping it's brains into tiny little pieces. Reappearing from the other side of the Rhino, Quincy was pale face and could barely stand. Several of his friends had basically carry him for the next hour before he'd recovered enough to run again.

Thankfully, it wasn't long after the fight with the Metal Rhino that the group came to a halt standing at the top of a cliff. Looking down, John couldn't even see the bottom, and he walked over to where a river went over the edge. He couldn't even hear the water hitting the bottom of the cliff it was that high up.

"Take a few, eat something while we wait for them to arrive." Mr. Parker's squeaky voice said, and John collapsed to the ground before pulling some jerky out of his backpack, wishing he had captured a larger monster. Several Tamer's preferred to travel by sitting on the back of their monsters but somehow his relationship with Snakey had been reversed and she'd traveled by lazily draping herself around his neck.

'My next monster is going to be big and fast so I never have to do that again!' John thought, remembering that Metal Rhino. Too bad they'd been in such a hurry or he wouldn't of minded trying to tame such a strong and rare monster.

Collapsing onto the dirt beside John, Steven said "Man, I'm starting to come around to your opinion. I think I'm going to have to charge everyone porters fees, my bag is just a failed product so I have to carry around 5% of the weight. That Metal Rhino weighs over a ton!"

"I would say to just dig out the core but Metal Attributed monsters are pretty rare, we can probably sell the meat to the Tamer's Club for at least 20,000 academic credits and the Maker's Club will pay at least 40,000 for the hide. They can make several Mid-Spirit Level Armors from such a large hide." John said.

"Yeah," Chris called from where he sat with several of the Maker's Club members, "40,000 is low-balling it, wouldn't be surprised if we get twice that number."

"So, you're here!" A deep voice called, and everyone turned to see another group had appeared on the other side of the cliff. While Gallandwell had sent 20 students, 5 advisers and Mr. Parker, the other group had 5 people who gave off an aura at least as strong as Mr. Parker, 20 people at least as strong as the Advisers, and over 100 kids.

"Yep!" Mr. Parker yelled back as he floated over the river and met the man with a smile. "You brought more people than usual."

The two stopped yelling as they got close to each other but thanks to his affinity to sound John was able to hear what the man said next. "They're here for experience, with the incoming Monster Wave we thought it was a good opportunity for them."

Nodding in understanding, Mr. Parker said, "The clans are nearly impenetrable to anything below World Boss, so if they want experience they'd have to leave the stronghold and Gallandwell is a pretty good place for the foundational realms."

Three boats slowly sailed down the river before stopping and three more people flew out to join in the conversation. "The Countries have sent the entire next generation, the monster wave will focus on the enclaves and we need a safe location for them." A female said as she spoke.

The group remained silent for a while before Mr. Parker asked, "Surely it's not that bad?"

The woman shrugged, "Maybe not, but the US ancestors said that the front lines are no place for anyone below Dao Seeking and sent everyone away."

"Russia and China agree with the US on this matter and have sent everyone over as well."

Mr. Parker sighed in exasperation, "Some notice would've been nice. We only had enough rooms for 200 people set aside. Carter, go make some arrangements!"

"Yes!" Mr. Carter yelled as he turned and ran back towards the school.

Several more followed along behind him and the woman said, "We'll send some people skilled in building along to help get things settled down."

Mr. Parker nodded in agreement before floating up a little and clearing his throat. He activated some kind of loudspeaker and started talking with his squeaky voice causing everyone to groan and cover their ears as the feedback whined at even higher pitched. Fiddling with the device for a moment, Mr. Parker fixed it and said, "Welcome transfer students!"

This time his voice boomed across the clearing and everyone took their hands off their ears tentatively, ready to cover them back up if the feedback returned.

"As I'm sure most of you are already aware of, this event is traditional. The best of Gallandwell High and the best of the 9 powers all face off with each other in a trial with pride and prizes on the line! We have more participants than normal this year, but it changes nothing. Your mettle should've been tested on your journey here, but what you've experienced so far is nothing compared to what you will experience inside the trial. To begin, jump off the waterfall. A formation at the bottom will catch you and send you into the trial space. When the trial starts you should be given a teleportation talisman. Use it if you're going to die! Every year someone dies in this event and it's my goal to keep the casualties down this year!"

As Mr. Parker was talking, the area of the waterfall seemed to expand and covered up nearly the entire width of the cliff. "Off you go!" He yelled, and John suddenly felt a force pushing him forwards against his will.

Unwilling to be pushed off the cliff like a coward John yelled "See you at the bottom!" to his friends as he jumped, his voice echoing while Steven followed behind him laughing.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Mike glowered as he tried to dig his feet in and stop the barrier from pushing him into the waterfall. "I didn't sign up for this!" He yelled as he was pushed over the wall. In all just under 400 students jumped or were pushed into the chasm while the adults landed on one of the boats and chatted happily over tea and crumpets...