''An Unpredictable Card''

With the spell casted by professor Fagulon, Aren passed through space and time to arrive at Moonlight forest. Even before he could open his eyes, dizziness assaulted him, forcing him to stay still. The experience was not like when he exited Magicwoods but rather similar to the time when he entered Deathlands.

After the while, the dizziness was gone. Yet, the words of Professor Mark were still ringing in his mind.

"Find your teammates quickly if you want to pass this test without much difficulties!"

'There must be some meaning behind this...' As Aren thought of this, he slowly opened his eyes and found himself in dense woods. Though it was no suprise for him, Aren was still impressed by the teleportation magic. He was longing to learn spatial magic which he desired.

'Wait, the Professor said apprentices would find their token after teleporting.'

Just then, he saw a small wooden tablet lying on the ground. As he picked it up, the piece of wood suddenly glowed and characters started appearing on it.

Participant's name: Syden Guniver

Team name: Svec

Moonstones collected;

Individual: 0 Team: 0

Other than this, it also showed a pointed mark showing towards left. Aren guessed it was the general direction of teammates which the Professor had told them about.

'But first I need to check out where I am.'

He quickly climbed a nearby tall tree and started looking at the far away distance. Other than the vast expanse which was filled by tall trees, there was a small river flowing too. It appeared that he was on the high ground judging by how he could even see the river flowing through the woods.

Aren took out the map of the Moonlight forest he had bought from Lucian and compared the surroundings it mentioned with his own. After studying the map for 5 minutes, he found out that he was on a small hill filled with Tanazar trees, accordingly which it was named as Tanazar hills.

There was no mention of moonsprings on the map but it did mention many small settlements of magical beasts living in the forest. For example, the ogre settlement which was 52 miles north-west from where he was.

The moonlight forest spanned for about 300 kilometres from 40 miles away the capital city to all the way to Olhen mountain Range. It was a large forest with many tribes of magical beasts living. The area they were sent to already had been cleared of rank 1 and greater beasts. So it was safe for apprentices to roam around.

However, if the students were unfortunate enough to accidentally barge into the territory of some powerful magical beast, then only death might be the quickest option to escape from the fate of being eaten alive.

Aren rolled the map and put it back in his pocket. After that, he climbed down and went towards the general direction showed by the wooden token.

It hadn't even been half an hour and he had already found a moonspring. His luck seemed good today. Well of course it would be good as he had bestowed himself the fortune of the students gathered in the hall.

With there being as many as 200 students, there were bound to be some with good luck. So when the teacher hadn't arrived, he had cast ''bestow fortune'' on himself. In a sense, he had stolen the fortune of others without them knowing.

Aren didn't rush after finding the spring but hid behind a tree instead. He could see that the moonspring was guarded by a wind wolf. Although it looked to be sleeping soundly now, Aren knew that it was actually a pretense to bait the enemies.

From what he had read, it was a magical beast which could somewhat use wind elements. Other than its agile speed and sharp claws, the beast also had three spell like abilities called Wind blade, wind barrier and tempest charge. Wind blade, as the name implied was wind elements condensed to form a sharp blade which would be thrown towards the enemies. Wind barrier made a defense of wind elements.

Tempest charge was actually an ability temporarily boosting its speed with wind elements and making its already spry speed more quick. However, this type of charge was different from the usual charge used by other beasts. If one couldn't cope with the speed of wind wolf, then he or she would quickly be killed by the numerous nimble attacks which seem to come from all directions.

Even for most rank 1s, they would have to put more effort to defeat an enemy like this. For spellcasters, things were much easier with their high spirit. Even so, they would also have to cast their spells quickly to take this magical beast down.

Aren though had already memorised the attack patterns of this beast. Even though he didn't have any attack spells, he was already confident in his abilities as a fighter.

After making a plan, he emerged from behind the tree. As expected, after he reached ten meters radius of the beast, the wind wolf abruptly jumped at him, its claws already reaching for his neck.

Facing this attack, Aren was calm. He met the extended paws with his own karate chop. Aren and the wolf both were pushed a meter away. Both of their strength were somewhat equal. If Aren was a strength based fighter, the wolf would have been pushed 5 meters at the very least. However, Aren's speed was still a tad bit higher than the wolf's.

He quickly immobilised the wind wolf with ''hold person'' spell and lunged forward. Powering his hand with runic force, he gave a low punch at the wolf's lower jaw from below.

However, it seemed that the wolf had managed to use wind barrier just in time and protected itself.

'Damn! this one is intelligent.' Aren became frustrated. Still, he didn't let it get to him. He quickly thought of his next move, then again initiated the attack.

The wind wolf, also having experienced a lethal attack, became wary of this fast enemy.

"Aoo!..."

Howling loudly, wind elements swirled around it as it suddenly vanished from its previous spot. Aren knew that it was using its signature skill, tempest charge. So he didn't hesitate and cast the already formed spell model of ''haste'' on himself. Other than that, he also enhanced his strength with ''lesser strength''.

Now both of them had about same speed but Aren's strength was greater. As the man and the wolf exchanged moves in the forest, dust blew and dull sounds of one limb hitting another was heard.

The man was like a black phantom, moving at top speed from one place to another while the wolf was like a indistinguishable grey beast which convoluted winds around its body in a rotating manner.

In about seven minutes later they had engaged in a fight, the victor already seemed decided. Naturally, it was Aren who had greater strength. The wolf, however, didn't seem to be content by its loss as it stubbornly attacked again.

Five to six wind blades were hurled towards him this time. He didn't dodge them either but quickly took out his spellbook. With him using only a sliver of his spiritual power, the pages of spellbook turned and stopped at the fourth page. As he activated the already written spell model, none of the wind blades managed to cut him.

'Heh, probability change sure is overpowered!' Aren inwardly sneered as he thought of this.

The wolf seemed to be infuriated when it saw this. It used tempest charge once again and did an abrupt lurch.

Aren turned the page to fifth and chanted the activation incantation, swiping his finger at the spell model.

Unpredictable Cards!

Just then, a sliver coloured card materialised on top of the wolf's head. Even before the wolf take another step forward, the card suddenly vanished and...

Boom!

A loud thundering sound of lightning sounded which had hit the body of wind wolf squarely. Due to the wind around it, the electrical energy had amplified, giving it a shock of more than 1000 volts.

After the dust settled, Aren saw that the wolf which was charging towards him just a moment ago had its body charred black, already dead.

Though that was only an apprentice level thunderbolt, it was enough to kill the wolf.

"What a terrifying spell!" Aren exclaimed.

It looked like ''unpredictable cards'' was a good spell with suprise elements. Nevertheless, it was only good when the spell didn't hit him instead.

Aren contemplated about the pros and cons of the spell as he went to the center of the moonspring. Fresh spring water was coming from it.

At the center was the thing he should collect, a moonstone. He took out his token from the robe, leaned down and touched it with the moonstone. Following that, the stone disintegrated while the number 0 of individual moonstone collections in his token went up to 1. Aren noticed that the team number had two on it after he collected one.

'Someone had already collected a moonstone faster than me?' He thought as he straightened his body.