Good Willpower

Right above the unconscious bodies of Instructor Arashi and Array Master Sarkah floated a blue spherical object which glowed with a radiant blue hue around it.

But the next moment, darkness started to expand from the center of the sphere. The sphere's blue color struggled for a while but it was of no use. The darkness slowly but eventually overtook the entire sphere. It became pitch black as vegetation around the now black sphere started to erode and whither. 

Even the bodies of two unconscious men were subjugated to corruption. Their bodies visibly aged as their life force was sucked out. The vibrant vitality that both of them possessed was siphoned out. The sounds of bones cracking, organs and blood vessels rupturing could be heard from them.

Those men were Advanced Apprentice Mages, possessing the vitality of over 200 years! Yet, they were now reduced to such sorry state. 

Suddenly, their bodies were lifted up as the sphere started to intensely vibrate. At the same instant, an unfathomable sucking force attracted everything in the radius of 20 meters and those lifeless bodies are being absorbed into the sphere.

They slowly entered the sphere as if it was made out of water. They met no resistance and were completely assimilated!

The sphere's vibration intensified and the figure shimmered into existence beside it.

The figure lightly touched the sphere and its vibration gradually receded.

The figure took the sphere into his hands and warped in the direction of the jungle biome...

____

15 minutes ago, outside the boot camp. Hundreds of mages had panicking expressions since the powerful and uncontrolled undulations of the array attacked a couple of them and successfully managed to kill!

The array's commands were messed up and its functions were shuffled in random order. The array is perceiving all those outside the boot camp as enemies.

It erected a defensive sphere around the whole area as it covered space above and below the boot camp.

The Captain of Town Guards, Keith and the Town Lord Loid observed everything below them with complicated gazes as they floated above the defensive dome.

"Town Lord should I shatter the array?" Captain Keith asked.

"No need. The financial compensations that we will have to provide will be massive if the administration and the owner of Oswool Boot Camp survive" Town Lord said indifferently as he observed the mess below him with cold eyes.

"But Town Lord, Town's main array was breached, the perpetrator evaded the sensors of the array but failed to stop the alert before it went off. Although, we had no clue who did it and for what purpose, the Oswool Boot Camp's array went berserk right after the breach, what a coincidence. Moreover, don't you think that it will damage our town's reputation if we don't catch the perpetrator?" Captain Keith asked with scorn. 

Town Lord Loid looked at Captain Keith with cold eyes. They were on the same existential level so he couldn't utterly humiliate him unless he became stronger.

"If we destroy the array and somehow the higher-ups of Oswool Boot Camp survive, they will burry us with political accusations saying that it is our fault for letting an enemy breach the main array which in turn decimated their property. They will use their extensive political connections to pressure us and maybe eventually kick us out or get us executed because we will be considered nothing but a bunch of failures. If they all die there, no one will go out of their comfort zone to do anything to us" Town Lord said indifferently as he perfectly understood the situation. 

If everyone dies there, they will have way less political pressure to handle rather than coming out alive and doing their best to squeeze all the benefits from such unseen calamity.

Moreover, the Empire was in chaos right now, the manpower is lacking since princes are killing left and right for the throne and the Emperor doesn't even give a shit about the possible implications of such situation. He even pressured the Imperial Council to not do anything. He sure was a dumb ruler or he had a grander plan which might later unfold and bloom into fruition.

They didn't know that today's mistake will cause the downfall of the Empire. 

____

Andrew was advancing towards the center of the jungle biome. On his way there he met other cadets and had to engage in fierce combat, but like any other time, he defeated them with calculated moves.

The jungle biome's area was 3 km square. He was pretty far away from the center and it took him a while to get there. He slowly and cautiously walked not willing to take any risks.

Eventually, he arrived at the center. It was a large clearing surrounded by tall trees and lush vegetation. 

Andrew decided to climb up one of them and bid his time. He already spotted a few cadets waiting in ambush, but he decided to ignore them since it seemed like the majority of kids were here.

More and more kids gathered and hid themselves. Everyone seemed to become smarter or only smart cadets were left and short-sighted were eliminated since those remaining survivors took various hiding spots.

To think those kids already adapted to such environments and stressful conditions.

If Instructor Arashi was still alive he would be quite content with the results the kids showed in just one month.

The cadets waited patiently since it seemed like every survivor was present on the outskirts of this large clearing.

They didn't know how everyone ended up gathering here. After a short while of contemplation, Andrew's mind clicked in as he remembered a particular book called *What mages are capable of*.

Any living being can be influenced. Be that by seeing, hearing or just getting a feeling of something. The mages can naturally do it by manipulating mana. 

Although they can't directly order them to kill themselves, they can faintly nudge them in the direction of such thoughts. 

For example, a mage can manipulate the environment around the mortal to make him or her feel sad from the weather itself. 

Mages just manipulate mana to produce specific chemicals that will affect the behavior pattern of a living being.

Naturally, stronger mages can do such things to weaker mages. They will need to have a sufficient enough understanding of mana to create powerful enough chemicals to influence the mind of the mages.

Of course, there is also a method where a mage can directly influence someone's mind without the need for any chemicals. They just need to directly access the brain to manipulate it with precision. Just putting the hand on the head will be sufficient.

The person's mind is very fragile. That's why arrays of villages, towns and cities include protection against mind manipulation. Naturally, if the mage is too powerful the arrays will be nothing but empty air. 

The art of manipulation of one's mind and will is expansive and vast like any other magical subject, it has infinite possibilities and variations. 

Suddenly, the area started to darken. No one knew what was happening since everything was too sudden to be natural.

From a sunny day above the jungle biome, it transitioned into deep night.

Andrew knew that they were in an artificial environment since he read about them in one of the many books in the orphanage's library. It was an illusion.

Nevertheless, he felt confused since it was pointless to transition from a brightly illuminated place into a dark one. 

'Maybe Instructor Arashi wants to test our ability to fight in darkness?' he thought as he noticed an inconsistency.

'No, he would have done that from the beginning, plus he can put us into this biome anytime too as he told us in one of the lessons' Andrew deeply mused as he couldn't connect the dots.

He didn't know what the exact reason was but he felt like this will not turn out good for him.

He tightly gripped his spear as he readied to throw it at the nearest cadet but suddenly the whole biome shook.

He fell!

Thankfully, he reacted in time and caught a vine. Unfortunately, his spear slipped out of his hand which in turn dropped on the ground and alerted the nearby cadets.

But they didn't have the luxury to exploit the opportunity as deep humming sound spread throughout the jungle biome.

The kids started to visibly tremble as they fell unconscious one after another. 

Andrew's consciousness started to slip up but he swiftly reacted and reached out another sturdy and robust vine as he tightly tied it around his waist.

He tried to concentrate with all of his effort, not wanting to lose his awareness because of such risky situation.

He stabbed a crystal into his shin as pain spread throughout his entire body which didn't manage to cancel out the feeling of extreme drowsiness.

His leg was bloodied as a crystal was stuck in his shin. He decisively pulled it out as he stabbed his other shin. 

Waves of intense pain jolted his instincts. A massive amount of adrenaline was released to help him survive.

The humming noise didn't seem to stop but instead intensified!

At this point, all cadets fell unconscious except Andrew. 

He gnashed his teeth as he ruthlessly stabbed the crystal into his left thigh then his right one. 

Next, he went for his palms, forearms, biceps and shoulders. He did his best to avoid vital organs since it would mean death. The major blood vessels were also untouched since he didn't want to lose his mobility.

The humming sound finally stopped.

Andrew took a deep breath as he started to patch his wounds with healing leaves he had collected before.

He didn't know what was going on! Everything was a mess!

'Is it what it feels like to live in a world where beings can wield supernatural powers?' his ironical musing was cut short as a voice resounded right in front of him.

"Hmm? Still awake? Interesting" said someone.

Andrew lifted up his head as he saw a person clad in black robes casually floating in the air right in front of him.

"Good willpower" the figure commented as if sightseeing something in a museum.

"Young Master Noah really wasn't wrong" he said as he grabbed Andrew by the collar.

The next moment, the black robed figure and Andrew disappeared.