Chapter 94: The Third Mana Core Badge Appears

High in the monitoring gallery, Victor leaned forward, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the railing.

Is this it?

He wasn’t about to break protocol and rush in. He was simply calculating the exact response time of the academy’s rescue mechanisms in case of a fatal emergency. The screening rules were absolute, even for an S rank investment target. But that didn’t mean he was going to let a valuable asset bleed out on his watch.

Just as the distance between Mia and the beast closed to three meters, a girl with short hair crashed into the fray from the flank.

"Get down!"

Mia dropped instinctively.

A jagged rock shield materialized, skimming mere inches above her hair.

CRACK!

The projectile slammed directly into the Black Horned Hunting Beast’s lower jaw, violently jerking its head off course. Mia used the opening to roll away, while the girl skidded backward from the recoil.

"Didn’t you tell me to run?!" Mia climbed to her feet, staring at her.

The other girl gritted her teeth, wiping sweat from her brow. "I couldn’t just stand by and watch you die!"

The words made Mia freeze for a fraction of a second. This girl had been among those who had kicked her off the team earlier because the central badge zone was too dangerous for a Level 8 student. Yet here she was, risking her life to save her.

She had simply been making a decisive choice for the team. In fact, all of them had been, Mia realized.

"Can you still fight?" the girl asked, breaking the silence.

Mia glanced down at her right leg. "Yes."

"Then help!"

The dynamic had shifted instantly. No one treated her as a Level 8 liability anymore, especially after realizing just how terrifying her vision and insight were.

With such an asset, they actually thought they stood a chance!

Mia locked her eyes back onto the Black Horned Hunting Beast. She watched the flow of its mana, the twitch of its muscles, and the transfer of kinetic power through its body right before it struck.

When she’d fought the Iron Toothed Wild Boar, this perception had been a blurry haze. Now, it was razor sharp.

It wasn’t a sudden system upgrade, nor had she unlocked a new skill. The brush with death had simply forced her to actively harness a perception she’d always possessed.

The beast crouched, preparing to lunge, but this time, Mia beat it to the punch.

"Right!" she barked.

The other three scrambled to the right and a split second later, the beast pounced left, its jaws snapping on empty air.

"Left hind leg!"

Concentrated firepower tore into the limb. The beast shrieked, losing its balance.

"It’s pivoting! Front!"

"Now!"

The commands came at lightning speed. Yet the four of them moved with seamless, deadly coordination.

Two minutes of relentless assault later, the girl slammed a massive rock shield into the beast’s face, pinning its head. An arrow found the old wound. A final, jagged rock spike erupted from the earth, piercing its abdomen from below.

BOOM!

The Black Horned Hunting Beast crashed to the ground, dead.

But they didn’t celebrate. The four of them stood in heavy, ragged silence. Mia collapsed onto the dirt, her mana reserves completely drained.

"You..." The girl stared at her, chest heaving. "When did you learn to do that?"

Mia shook her head, struggling to articulate it. "I can just... feel it. A little bit."

"A little?" The girl gestured wildly at the dead Level 16 beast. "You call taking down a Level 16 a little?"

Mia fell silent. Okay, maybe that was an understatement.

Just then, a third pillar of magical light erupted in the north, less than a kilometer from the old forest sector where Leah was currently navigating.

Across the arena, every student’s identity card buzzed in unison.

[Regional Announcement: The third Mana Core Badge has been discovered.]

Out in the field, Leah halted in her tracks. Ryan looked up, his expression tightening. Mia, miles away, was entirely oblivious to the alert.

But high in the gallery, Victor’s attention snapped sharply to the main screen, his gaze fixed on the countdown timer for the first badge’s next locator refresh.

It was ticking down to thirty seconds.

Leah’s position was about to be broadcast to the entire academy. Worse, the sudden appearance of the third badge in the north was already acting as a magnet, drawing a massive swarm of nearby students toward the sector.

In other words, Leah was about to carry the first badge straight into a meat grinder of a competition zone.

...

When the third pillar of mana light shot into the sky, Leah was resting in a dense forest where grayish white tree roots intertwined.

She remained where she was, considering her next move.

After experiencing several battles, she had gradually come to understand one thing: the most dangerous places in the survival screening were often those everyone considered full of opportunities.

When large numbers of students rushed toward the same target, what should have been a simple magical beast hunt could easily turn into an uncontrollable melee.

Moreover, she was still holding the first badge.

Leah glanced up at the distant pillar of light, then lowered her head to check her storage ring. Only after sensing that the badge was still safely inside did she stand up again.

There were still more than three hours left before the screening ended.

During this time, she had to make a decision: should she continue carrying the first badge and making herself a target, or look for an opportunity to compete for another badge?

Both choices carried risks.

Keeping the badge meant facing an endless stream of pursuers. Giving it up voluntarily would be equivalent to handing over the "core cultivation qualification" she had already obtained.

More importantly, she couldn’t keep running forever.

"Let’s observe the situation first."

Leah adjusted her gloves and began moving north.

She quietly advanced along the edge of the forest, conserving her mana by leaving [Astral Chains] and [Starfall] unused while avoiding the groups of people converging toward the third badge.

However, before she had traveled five hundred meters, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the bushes ahead.

Three figures rushed out of the undergrowth.