In a dense forest of purple plants, a young man with otherworldly looks appeared out of nowhere. He barely stabilised his footing before standing upright.

He looked around. The atmosphere was not so dark as the dawn approached. He was surrounded by forty feet tall plants with dense star shaped leaves. Unlike the ‘mainlands’, there was no snow everywhere.

‘Purplestar forest.’

He closed his eyes. Everything in his surroundings, up to a radius of eighty metres came into his ‘view’. He was able to sense every ‘presence’ and movements, even of the smallest of beings.

He suddenly opened his eyes and looked to his right, and smiled. He started walking slowly at the direction, without any sense of urgency.

At another spot in the exact same forest, a young lady teleported in. The moment she did, she lost her footing as she slumped to the ground.

“Ouch!” She barely got herself on her feet. She looked around and brought out her map. She pointed at the southernmost end of the map- ‘Purplestar forest’ was written underneath.

*Crunch*

She suddenly turned towards the source of the sound in alarm.

“Phew.” It was just a wild foxcat.

“Hello there.” A charming and graceful masculine voice entered his ears. It came from behind.

She turned back and immediately took a defensive stance. She raised both of her eyebrows, “Adrian Darkheart!”

“Oh my, a beauty like you recognising me- it is such an honour.” He gave a gentleman’s bow.

The young lady, who was wearing the light orange uniform of the Institute, remained silent.

He kept walking slowly, closing the distance step by step.

“Take one more step and I will-” An eerie aura locked onto her, making her unable to move. She resisted hard- but to no avail.

He looked right into her eyes with his abyssal ones. He smiled. “We are both descendants of sage Ervil, why should we engross ourselves in these bitter wars?”

The aura suddenly vanished, rendering her free from the previous paralysis. But she did not run, nor took an aggressive stance though her eyes still betrayed wariness.

“Yes, why fight? When we can spread peace, and friendship.” He opened his arms, as if he were inviting someone for a hug. “Let’s take the first step, shall we?”

She still had doubts, but when her eyes contacted his- all of that disappeared. She open her own arms to accept him in.

They locked themselves in a hug- a warm hug. The young lady smiled. For an ardent follower of sage Ervil and a lover of peace like her, what could be better than initiating the process of peace making?

So did Adrian. But his reason- was completely different.

The Institute student felt the arms around her tighten. At first, she did not mind. But soon, the hug became suffocating.

She tried to break away from the hug, but he did not let go.

She panicked. “Stop!” She used all of her strength resist the tightening ‘hug’ but all her efforts were futile. It became tighter and tighter every second. Worse, she was a wind circler- an augmenter at that. Being restrained like this was the worst case scenario for her.

She was now completely suffocated, unable to inhale. In desperation, she began to hit him with her petite hands but it was akin to ants tickling an elephant. She even tried to bite his neck.

*Crunch*

But before she could, one of her shoulders crunched, the ribs of the opposite side caved in. The punctured lung caused her to cough out blood. Tears wetted her face. But it did not stop Adrian; he pressed his arms against her body even harder.

She could not hold it back anymore. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!” A heart wrenching screech shooed all the birds away from the surroundings.

*Crack*

Finally her spine broke. She coughed out blood one last time. Her last breath? She lost all air from her pulmonary organs long ago. But now, her eyes were lifeless and bloody mouth was open agape.

Adrian finally broke the ‘hug’, letting her go. She tumbled to the solid ground.

He knelt- not to show respect, but to harvest her nameplate.

“You’re welcome. I made sure you die doing the thing you love.” He said as he stood back up.

‘ makes this too easy.’ He thought.

was one of the three sub properties he attained when he reached level 3. This allowed him to ‘corrupt’ people by making them true to their desires through destroying all sorts of doubts or mental obstructions.

If not for this, how could he have taunted a veteran like that earth circler who burrowed into his dorm into attacking him. The same could be said for that lieutenant in the Shalborn forest who initiated to attack him alone despite having teammates.

He began to walk again. He approached one of the tallest trees nearby and climbed to the top. He looked around until he spotted the tall mountain range miles away. It was his destination, and also the landmark that helped him calibrate his location.

He began his journey towards the Medial mountain range. He enjoyed his slow hike as there was more than four whole weeks until the event end. Even more so, he was not worried of anything. He had to face at most two existences that could put him in danger. As for the others, he could just avoid them. After all- the stronger a beast, the more territorial it was.

******

*Splash*

Princess of the Recruz Kingdom, Cornelia De Recruz, looked down. Her feet were wet. But her nonchalant expression belied her royal countenance. She looked around and confirmed where she was. A map was not needed to know that: she was in the Ivy Marshes.

Mud covered the ground with small water bodies here and there. There were green trees covered with all sorts of vines but they were sparsely distanced from each other.

She spotted the rising sun and calibrated her location and the directions. She did not have any destination in mind. Her plan was to walk around for the first half month and hopefully find some rare herbs, beasts or fellow Confederation Students. She would not mind if she walked into a level 3 Institute student. As long as she was not surrounded by two or more opponents, she was confident in her victory, or at least- survival.

She decided to go South. According to the maps, the Purplestar forest should be there. And according to her guardian back at the kingdom, the scenery was great. So, why not give it a try?

Twenty minutes into the hike, she had her first contact with the enemy- enemies to be precise. Two young men and a young woman, who were wearing light orange outfits, blocked her path.

Cornelia clicked her tongue. It has not even been half an hour since everyone was teleported in. But three, not two, students of the Empire managed to gather together and block her path out of everyone. What were the odds? How unlucky was she?

But unbeknownst to her, she was far from being the unluckiest Confederation student.

******

In a cave, devoid of any light. A young man fell on the ground out of nowhere.

He quickly stood up and looked around; not to scan the surroundings, but to make sure none witnessed this embarrassing event.

He sighed in relief as he was unable to detect anyone nearby. He dusted off his outfit gracefully and began to walk at an intriguing direction.

Though he was not able to see anything, he was able to sense the metals nearby. There should be a metal mine of some kind towards the direction he was walking to.

The overly noble Dolf Ironcross did not forget to walk in a noble way with his head held high and steps of equal length despite being in an unknown and undoubtedly dangerous environment.

‘Where am I?’ Though he asked himself the question, he did not stop walking. He was curious of the ores he detected. Probably, he could make a massive contribution and earn fame for his noble family.

Soon, he reached a massive compartment. Light entered here from an opening of moderate size.

“Hiss.” A whispering sound entered his ears.

He squinted and tried to look. But what he discovered almost sent the soul flying out of his body.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of snakes were slithering all around the ground. But that was not the cause of his horror- not at all. But at the centre of the compartment a hundred feet long silver entity spiralled round itself with its eyes closed.

‘Isn’t that… isn’t that the Ironhide Anaconda?’ He gulped. ‘The level 8 magical beast?’

‘Why do these things always happen to me?’ He wanted to cry.

******

It had been not more than twenty minutes since Adrian started his walk. The surrounding was same with tall trees and purple leaves. But suddenly-

*Whoosh*

A figure came out of nowhere and stood before him.

“I was wondering who gave Ria such a horrible death. But it was you, the witch’s son- Adrian Darkheart.”

“Tsk. I was just thinking of those two troublesome existences; and one of them appears not even thirty minutes into the Hunt. Should I call myself unfortunate, or fortunate?” Adrian muttered as he took a defensive stance.