Chapter 125: First cliffside

The Volcano was a miniature version. Not that much bigger than a hill. But despite that, it had all the makings of a volcano with an open top and smoke brewing from its opening.

And near the crater, where there were a few lava spouts running down its cracks, was the flag.

It seemed that they would have to scale this miniature volcano if they wanted to take possession of this territory.

At the base of the volcano, the different groups had gathered together. And as they saw Michael and his group approach, a few people groaned.

"Urgh... another one?"

"We’re getting crowded here."

"We really need to finish this before the entirety of the Subterranean Burrows get here."

Each group had their own camp at the base of the volcano. It was where they had set up their temporary lodging. After all, scaling up the volcano was a very arduous endeavor. The dangers of the manmade eruptions would cause people to make evacuations back to the base.

Michael looked at the volcano and spotted a few R?zoň symbols scattered all over its entirety.

Those must be the traps...

"Let’s set up a temporary camp here," he said to the group.

They found an unoccupied spot in the base of the volcano. And as it turned out, one of their neighboring camps was someone that Delia and the others were familiar with.

"Delia? Is that you?"

A young man with very stylish hair approached them with a smile. He seemed friendly. However, from Delia’s reaction, it seemed that she was not receptive to his greeting.

"Hello," she replied coldly.

"Oh come on! We used to be classmates, and you treat me this coldly? I’m hurt!" said the debonair guy.

It seemed that this guy was the leader of the Academic Sector group that was also competing to gain the Volcanic Territory.

And behind him, there were thirty other people who all seemed to have their chins permanently raised up. This was especially evident when they saw Eren’s new members.

"Oh, they’re still here for the test? How did they survive the first test?"

"I’m still surprised that they found a group."

"Come on, don’t be mean. Not everyone can have the top ranking scholars in their group."

The debonair man looked to be even more smug as he heard this kind of talk from his group members.

"Who’s he?" Michael asked Delia.

"A prick," she replied. "His name is Sav, and as much as I hate to admit it, he is better than me."

Meanwhile, Eren’s new Academic group members all had their heads down in shame as they heard the jeers from Sav’s group.

After all, what they said was true. They couldn’t find a group to take them in. And unfortunately, this reflected poorly on Eren. so, they couldn’t help but apologize to him.

"Sorry about this, Eren."

"We’re dragging your reputation down the drain..."

"I think it’s best if we returned to our camp. At least there, we’ll be useful by protecting our territory."

Their confidence was absolutely shot. Hearing the laughs and jeers had worsened their mental state.

Eren looked at them with a smile. "Tsh. Don’t listen to these second-rate wannabes. Top scholars? Grades don’t make you better at Array Formations."

After hearing Eren’s words, Sav and his group frowned. They were insulted. They were the top students in their academic schools! They were better than everybody else.

And in all honesty, they could have been recruited by the big groups. Dantes had offered that they become his group members.

But they declined. After all, they believed that they could advance in the Second Test all by themselves. With Sav here, they could defeat the brutes of the Hunter Sector and prove the superiority of the Academic Sector!

"Big words," Sav remarked to Eren. "I bet you couldn’t even climb up to the 1st cliffside.."

The Volcano was divided into three distinct phases. Each one was demarcated by the large, completely vertical, cliffwalls at the mountain’s facet.

Each group had to scale through the different cliffsides if they want to reach the top.

According to the information given by Pang Cai, none of the groups had reached the third and final cliffside. Most of them hovered around the second cliffside as they couldn’t find a safe way to traverse it.

"Anyways, it was nice to see you, Delia. But I just have one piece of advice for you: withdraw from here and choose another Territory or else you’ll waste your time.

Better yet, you may think about choosing better company," Sav said, clearly taking a snide at Eren.

After saying those words, Sav left along with his other group members back to their camp.

"Don’t worry," Delia said to her group members. "He’s just saying those things to intimidate us. If they found a way to get to the top, they would have already done so."

Their Academic group members lightened up from Delia’s words. But it was clear that they were still bothered by what Sav had said.

"She’s right," Eren said. "That’s why we should prove them wrong. We’ll scale through the First Cliffside with ease."

Hearing Eren’s words, they were all surprised. They were going so soon? They hadn’t even finished making their camp here.

"Just trust me," he said to them.

"Hahaha! Follow the leader," said Abe.

"If Eren’s confident, then we should be too," said Sierra, clearly trying to motivate their other group members.

And so, the entire group began to climb up the volcano.

It was very rocky. Igneous rocks with jagged and sharp teeth prevented them from having an easy time as they slowly climbed up the slope of the volcano’s base.

But for now, it was easy. They just had to be careful not to slip.

It was at this point that the other groups noticed their movement.

"Look. It’s that new group."

"They’re scaling up the volcano already? That’s a disaster waiting to happen."

"No scouting, no preparations? Yeah. definitely."

Amongst those who were ridiculing Eren’s decision of climbing up the volcano was Sav and his group. They watched from their side of the camp smug looks.

"Haha. Let’s just wait and see till they get to the First Cliffside..."

Eventually, after a few minutes of climbing, Eren and his group had finally reached the first true obstacle on their path to the volcano’s apex.

It was an almost vertical cliffside with an incredibly smooth surface. Even an experienced mountain climber wouldn’t dare to scale up this ascent.

The only way to do so was to use Negative Reinforcement on their feet.

But of course, if it were that easy, then more groups would have made it past the First Cliffside.

Eren looked at the vertical ascent in front of him and saw the R?zoň symbols etched on its surface. They were spread around the volcano’s facet, like pockmarks.

Examinees with great mastery over Negative Reinforcement could easily avoid these traps. Eren and Celeste would find it easy to scale up the ascent without triggering any of the traps.

However, the rest of their group weren’t as skilled. That was why they needed the help of Array Formations.

He looked down at Delia and their other group members. "Now it’s your time. Use the Array Formations that I’ve taught you before."

Hearing this, their Academic group members were at a loss for words.

They barely had any time to practice yesterday! They weren’t ready to use it so soon, especially not in such a dangerous position. Any wrong move, and they could slide down the volcano and be met with its jagged rocks!

But Eren urged them up. "Come on. Just try it once."

Delia was the first to go up. She steeled herself and climbed beside Eren, where she could see the first Array Formation on the Cliffside.

And as she gazed upon its symbols, she was surprised to realize that it looked familiar.

She gasped. "This... this... the symbols looked familiar."

Delia raised up her hand and began to touch the symbols etched on the surface of the igneous rock.

As she did, the symbols began to glow a hazy red aura.

Below her, Sav and the other Academic Sector examinees raised their eyebrows in curiosity.

"She’s purposefully activating the traps? Is she stupid?"

"Hahaha! They’re truly clueless, aren’t they?"

"Watch them get blown off of the volcano, right Sav?"

Meanwhile, Sav himself was silent. After all, he knew Delia. She wasn’t as stupid as the other ones in her group. She would know it was stupid to activate the traps.

And yet, she continued to do so without minding the consequences.

Soon, the R?zoň symbols became even more prevalent. At any point now, the rock underneath the symbols would punch outwards and blow Delia off of the volcano.

But a few seconds later, the rock did ’punch’ outwards. But it did so at a glacial pace. It was slowly extending out gently, as if it wasn’t trying to knock Delia off.

And eventually, the rock was fully extended out, giving Delia a good platform to stand on!