Chapter 917: First Task (1)

The second pulse spread through the courtyard before anyone had fully moved past the first.

A hush fell across the gathered second-years as the air above the Southern District thickened with magic. Light gathered into a wide rectangular plane, suspended high enough for the whole courtyard to see, its edges sharp and steady despite the morning mist. Lines of text formed across it in clean academy script, each word appearing with the same cold precision as the projection in Beacon Hall.

At the same time, a smaller screen unfolded in front of Sheila, low enough for her alone to use but bright enough for Edith, Felix, and those nearest her to understand that it carried more than the public display.

The large screen finished forming.

BASTION TASK ONE: OUTER PERIMETER CALIBRATION

Three academy survey anchors have been placed outside Veyrhold’s perimeter. Recover and activate them before the sixth hour after sunrise.

Required anchor zones:

Western forest line.

Northern collapsed road.

Eastern ravine path.

Two activated anchors will grant partial completion. Three activated anchors will grant full completion.

Reward: updated environmental map, threat-flow readings, and structural hazard indicators for Veyrhold and the surrounding Eldervale region for the next twenty-four hours.

Failure: no academy environmental updates until the next task cycle.

Warning: Realm-Touched activity confirmed near all anchor zones.

Beneath the smaller screen in front of Sheila, two options appeared.

ACCEPT.

DECLINE.

A countdown began beneath them.

30:00.

For several breaths, no one moved.

Then the silence changed. It did not break into noise at once. It cracked in pieces. A whisper near the injured line. A sharp inhale from one of the archers. Someone muttering that the academy had terrible timing. Another student quietly counting the anchor zones under his breath as if the number might become kinder if repeated. Eyes shifted from the large screen to Sheila, then to Edith, then back to the words reward and Realm-Touched activity. The value was obvious. So was the problem.

The task had landed directly on top of the day Sheila had just built.

Liam watched the courtyard absorb it. Some students analyzed quickly, expressions sharpening as they understood what the reward could mean for mapping, hazards, and movement. Others looked less thoughtful and more frightened, especially when their eyes reached the warning about confirmed Realm-Touched activity.

A few glanced toward the outer gate as if the task might already be waiting beyond it with teeth. Chris’s face settled into careful calculation. Asher’s interest awakened immediately. Dylan looked torn between the central structure and the idea of academy anchors, which probably meant both sounded inconvenient in different ways.

Sheila let the courtyard sit with the task only long enough for the meaning to land.

"Give me a moment," she said.

Her voice cut through the rising uncertainty without becoming loud. Edith moved with her before the command was repeated, and Felix stepped close enough to record if needed but far enough not to force himself into the first decision. Sheila led Edith a few paces aside, beneath the edge of a damaged wall where the smaller screen remained before her, the countdown burning steadily at its lower edge.

Liam stayed where he was.

The courtyard did not become orderly simply because Sheila stepped aside. It became quieter, strained in a different way. Everyone understood that the commander was deciding whether to accept danger while they all watched the timer burn. The large screen remained above them, impossible to ignore, its reward almost insulting in how useful it was.

Sheila and Edith spoke low, but not secretly enough that Liam could not follow pieces of it when the wind shifted.

"The timing is troublesome," Edith said.

"We expected the academy to issue something soon," Sheila replied. "But not this cleanly against the morning’s objective."

"That may be the point."

"Probably."

Edith looked toward the large display. "The reward is difficult to ignore. An updated environmental map, threat-flow readings, and structural hazard indicators for twenty-four hours. That helps outside Veyrhold and inside it."

Sheila’s gaze stayed on the smaller screen. "If the structural indicators include the remaining districts, it could prevent us from walking into collapses or sealed danger zones. Threat-flow readings could tell us whether the outer region is shifting toward the walls. The map alone would be worth considering."

"Declining lets us focus on the central structure."

"And leaves us blind where the academy is offering sight."

Edith folded her arms. "Three teams would cover ground fastest."

"And drain capable students away from the restoration work," Sheila said. "Ariana, Dylan, Maxwell, Quenivarius, Felix, the Alchemy students, Forgemastery students—they are needed here. Pulling them out weakens the very reason we changed priorities."

"Three weaker teams would be slower and more likely to need rescue."

"One elite team preserves the workforce, but puts more risk on fewer people. If they are delayed, we lose full completion. If they encounter a threat beyond them, we may have to send support anyway."

"And declining costs us the reward."

"Yes."

The countdown continued.

Twenty-seven minutes.

Twenty-five.

The courtyard shifted uneasily while Sheila and Edith weighed choices that everyone could see but few could solve. The task was not simply dangerous. It was inconvenient in the precise way good tests often were. It asked whether they would abandon their internal plan for external reward, split themselves too thin, or refuse advantage because it arrived at the wrong time.

Ten minutes passed with the screen overhead and the courtyard held in tense restraint.

Liam’s eyes moved between the task and the two girls speaking aside.

The reward was too valuable to throw away. That much was obvious. A map, threat-flow readings, and structural hazard indicators would reduce mistakes for an entire day. Even if the central system came alive later, academy-updated data would give them information Veyrhold’s old mechanisms might not. Refusing that would be wasteful.

But three teams were ugly. Efficient on paper, stupid in practice unless every team had speed, combat strength, tracking, activation sense, and extraction discipline. They did not. Sending ordinary students outside the walls on the second morning after they had barely survived arrival was generosity to Eldervale’s appetite. Pulling Ariana or Dylan away from the reservoir work weakened the restoration plan.

Sending Chris might work for one route, but then he would loudly become the task’s hero if successful, and if anything went wrong, he would make failure someone else’s evidence. Charlotte was useful, but she had her own scouting work inside the Southern perimeter. Sheila and Edith needed to stay. Felix needed to record. Maxwell and Quenivarius were tied to the control system.

Which left the obvious answer.

Liam looked toward Asher.

Asher was still glaring at the task screen, arms folded, foot tapping once against the stone. He disliked waiting almost as much as he liked fighting, which meant he was already halfway to volunteering if someone poked his pride properly.