'Ah, dang, I'm tired,' Alec thought to himself as he rolled into a sitting position and rubbed the sand out of his eyes. He had not been eaten by any worms.
'Did Nicholas say something when I fell asleep?' Alec opened his eyes properly and looked around.
'Well, fuck. That explains why I didn't sleep well.'
He was in the middle of a forest. Moss, grass, and dirt beneath him. Trees and bushes around him. Leaves above him.
Not a hint of civilization in sight.
'What did he say? 'Sorry. They made me do it.'? Guessing that has to be Benjamin. He did say I was going to regret it.'
Alec scratched the back of his head with a frown. He was in trouble.
This was probably the forest behind the Academy, so it wouldn't be too far from the Academy, even if…
'No. If it is Benjamin and his goons, they could have carried me quite far.' Benjamin, Claas, and Theo were all nobles in the warrior division. They had trained since they were young, and from what Alec had heard, they were pretty talented when it came to Aether and aura training.
If they wanted, they could have carried him far and made it well in time for the first class.
However, infuriating as they might be, they weren't stupid enough to venture into the depths of the forest, where the stronger monsters resided. They had most likely dumped him just far enough that he wouldn't make it back.
Alec clenched his fist angrily.
'I knew it!'
His brother didn't write kind books.
Just because he had squabbled a little with Benjamin, the noble scion plotted his death. It was disproportionate, at least to Alec's Earthen standards. But in Miteria, it probably wasn't out of the ordinary.
Alec sighed.
'I guess I should try and find my way back. Those three lumps of meat probably left a bunch of traces for me to follow.' Alec stood up and scanned his surroundings as carefully as possible.
He used [Appraisal] at the same time to look for poisonous plants to avoid or edible ones to eat.
He was getting hungry.
He found a few berries that he could eat as long as he didn't eat too much. There were a few plants whose roots he could boil, but he didn't have water or fire. But if it came to it, he could probably eat them raw, so he stuffed them in his pockets.
One thing he didn't find, though, were the traces of his abductors. He walked in a circle a few times around the place he woke up, but he didn't spot so much as a single boot print.
Alec closed his eyes and sat on a stump.
'It's still early morning, considering my current hunger. And the forest is…to the south of the Academy.' Alec re-read the information he had stored in [Reader] to help him figure out which way to go.
'That means I should go north. Since the twin suns of Miteria also rise in the east, that means I should keep them to my right. Simple.'
Alec stood up.
'Before that, though, I need to break a rule.'
Wilcox had specifically told them not to use magic after awakening their Aether and condensing it to mana. It was only after they condensed their first circle that they could start playing around with spells.
It was partially the lack of control one had over their mana outside their body at that point. But it was mostly because zero circle mages had so little and so weak mana that most spells drained them completely and instantly, which wasn't good for their mana flow.
Discharging small amounts of mana just to get used to it was more than fine.
Consuming enough mana to power a spell could lead to injury.
If Alec's mana had been something naturally offensive like fire or lightning, he could have relied on that if he was unlucky enough to run into a monster.
But discharging his formless mana in its current state did nothing. It was completely useless. He had tried briefly before training with Basra yesterday. It dissipated almost immediately.
He had to convert his formless mana into an elemental attribute and then put it in a spell formation.
He had the spells in [Reader] and almost ready to use. But he only had enough mana for one attempt, so he couldn't even practice drawing the spell formation.
He could only hope that his advantage when reading spell formations and being able to see them in front of himself would make it easy enough that he wouldn't fail.
Mentally prepared, Alec started walking in what he assumed was north. He walked and walked, thinking that the slightly musty smell around him was from the forest.
The dense foliage of the trees made it difficult to see the sun.
He was still tired. He was in a stressful situation, where his life was on the line even more than usual. He was in an unfamiliar place.
And Alec was distracted by his hunger.
He was not in the best condition.
He missed critical details.
By the time he noticed that the suns were gradually slipping down the sky, it was too late. He had already walked for several hours. The slightly musty smell around him hadn't faded because he had left the area.
It had faded because he had gotten used to it since it was so close to him.
Piece by piece, he laid the puzzle.
Benjamin hadn't just abducted him. He had made sure Alec wouldn't wake up by sedating him.
He had used a common sedative that the infirmary used when patients had trouble sleeping. Alec had read about it. He had even seen the plant it came from in Moira's greenhouse.
In small amounts, it numbed pain and made people sleepy.
In larger doses, it knocked them out. A common side effect was suppressing hunger.
Alec wasn't sure if it was intentional. He doubted it.
But he had tricked himself into thinking it was morning when it was actually late afternoon.
He had been walking in the completely wrong direction for several hours. And now, it was dusk.
'I'm going to kill that bastard when I make it back.'
Alec's stomach rumbled in agreement.