Start of the mission

A small opening above the pool provided enough sunshine to illuminate the entire space. The clear water glistened as the rays of light reflected off of it. As we approached the lake, I came to a sudden realization. This was not a mere pond, but a holy lake! The adults must know its true nature but the students were completely oblivious. Colourful Koi roamed in unison around the constraints of the pond.

Most of my classmates went around looking at everything with a fine-tooth comb but we were only allowed to rest for an hour. Some of the orcs took a quick swim in the holy lake and witnessed its magical properties first hand while others meditated on the humid grass. They were surprised when their bodies were covered in bubbles but even more so when they began regaining their energy.

"This looks like heaven, doesn't it?" Lucas said.

"It sure does. Now I get why the Emperor stayed here," Charlie replied.

My only thought was to find out why Azule took a liking to this place; there had to be something other than the beautiful setting but no matter how much I tried, I could not find anything and it was now time to leave. I looked back at the paradise before exiting the cavern.

Adriana and Martin wore saddened expressions as they turned their backs to the wonders of the cave.

"Will we get the opportunity to come back here?" Adriana asked one of the teachers.

"Only the upper echelon, teachers and youngsters such as yourselves are allowed to come here; so you should strive to either become an instructor or if you want to come here whenever you feel like it, get stronger and become part of the nobility."

In the afternoon, although we were on the brink of exhaustion, we went hunting once again, but this time, the teacher did not bet anything. The orcs' breathing was out of control and they were desperately trying to calm themselves down.

"Teacher where's my reward?" I jokingly asked.

"You brat, how ungrateful can you be. I was tutoring you yesterday. Isn't that enough?"

"So what you're saying is that you don't uphold your promises," I said.

"You're looking for a beating! you'll obtain your gift soon," he replied.

As the dazzling sun set, covering us in a shroud of gloom, we feasted on the meat we had just hunted before heading to bed for some well deserved shut-eye. Before calling it a day, I stared at the roof of my tent and thought about my father; an entire month had passed since he died and I still could not seem to get him off of my mind. The fond memories of him raced through my head as tears filled my eyes.

'Will I be able to move on from these terrible memories once I get revenge?'

I cleared my thoughts and closed ny eyes as tomorrow would be a tough day; we would be entering the inheritance!

[The next day]

At exactly four in the morning, I was rudely awaken by Lucas who was once again shaking me.

"Stop shaking me, I'll die at this rate."

"You sleep like a log, that's the only way to wake you," he replied.

"That's because humans actually need to sleep."

When I left the tent, the sun was not even up and we were still surrounded by darkness. Adriana, Charlie and Martin were already up and were waiting for us at the edge of the clearing.

"Grab a bite to eat, meanwhile, we'll inform the teachers of our leave," Martin said.

"Won't they come to check up on us?" I asked.

"Don't sweat it," he replied.

Martin returned with dangling arms and a beaming face.

"They agreed to it," he said.

"Great! Now let's talk our the tactic that we'll use for the trials," Charlie said.

"We have five members in total. Don't take this the wrong way Lucas but I think you should stay at the rear," he added.

"No offense taken, I know that I'm far weaker than the four of you, so I'll stay behind and carry the bags," Lucas replied.

"Thank you for understanding. Moving onto the four of us, I was thinking that Martin and Adriana would be our tanks and lead the way while Jett and I would be the damage dealers," Charlie said.

"That sounds like a plan."

"Sounds good to me."

As soon as we finished our discussion, we initiated our trek to the mountain. Even though the path was barely visible, we still managed to navigate through the forest without any issues.

"How did you manage to not trip once today?" I asked.

Just then, Lucas let out a loud grunt as he tripped over a rotten branch.

"Forget what I said," I added.

Even though everyone tried to put on a happy face, I could tell that all of us were nervous. I was rethinking if this was even a good idea; something about this did not sit right with me and a gut feeling was telling me to turn back.

"If something happens, just run," I murmured to Lucas.

"I won't go without you," he replied.

"Just do as I say."

The sun began to rise as we walked through our elongated shadows. After a painstaking walk, we reached the mysterious fog.

"Is there always fog here?" I asked.

"I guess so."

Without a second thought, we pierced through the fog and followed Charlie's map to find the two boulders. Even though it was not simple, we managed to make our way to the entrance of the inheritance. The rocks were still as intriguing as last time; I inspected the mechanism in the center of the crescents and weirdly, it was just a simple button.

"This can't be it right?" I said.

"A button?" I added.

"It's definitely weird. You'd think that they'd make it hard to enter," Martin said.

"Press it," Adriana said.

As the palm of my hand pressed the stone button, the sound of gears grinding and knocking noises echoed throughout while the boulders began to move.