How To Survive A Calamity

•[Skill <Lock On> has been activated.]

•[Lock On:

•[Description-: Increases your proficiency and aim with projectile weapons by 15%.]

Lock On had increased by one level over the last year, raising further Victor's proficiency and aim of his arrows.

With a biting sound, Victor's arrow's seamlessly pierced through the air.

-Xui!

It raced past the formation and penetrated deeply into the flames. With the passively enchanced eyesight of Appraisal and precision of Lock On, Victor didn't miss.

The arrow struck a stray Kobold which was much further away from the group and Deandra's raging inferno. It stabbed right into the head of the monster in between it's eyes at a terrifying speed, killing it simply, even going as far as seamlessly parting through the burgeoning sea of flames.

Like that, the strike went unseen.

The first confrontation in the simulated dungeon had started, with the first arrow and attack having gone loose.

And yet.

Victor lowered his bow and stared forward with a dark expression.

'No exp.'

Of course there wasn't!

The whole world was stimulated , even the Monsters were. Which meant, none of what was surrounding them was real.

Victor, more or less knew this at the back of his head but refused to acknowledge it. That was why he made sure he was the fastest to bring down the first group of monsters that they ran into.

And depending on the outcome of wether or not they would offer him any experience points would determine Victor's mood and determination fir the rest of the training exercise.

...Now he just wanted to go home.

Flames spread outward, drawing a seething boundary between the approaching monsters and the formation. Many had already lost their lives and bodies to the inferno, buying the cadets even more time to recompose themselves from the almost sudden ambush.

Pale blue magic circles unraveled down Trise arms as a glacial of ice burst forward, encasing the flames and scattered kobolds. At the same time, Chelsea moved, raising her spear.

The formation was tactical and swift.

Deandra would have her flames bolstered by Don's winds, creating a moment of disorientation to the enemy. Trise would then use ice magic from the backline to seal the targets in place, and block their retreat. And Chelsea could be the last damage dealer, with Victor covering the back and range with his bow.

Of course, this formation was only one amongst many discussed prior to. For more versatility, the members positions could be easily and more swiftly changed.

Don scattered his winds like vicious blades, reaping the lives of the monsters as heads and limbs fell and rolled. Deandra continued to walk a path through the ashen forest, forging forward with vicious flames.

For the small ambush of Kobolds, the group of cadets were like a calamity fortress, the pathetic monsters didn't stand a chance. They were overwhelming, the kobolds were swiftly wiped out.

And by the time it was over...

Deandra evaporated the stains of blood off her blade then looked around at the traces of battle spread around the vicinity. Even the simulation replicated the smouldering sensation of the scattered heat, and the putrid smell of smoke and burnt flesh.

Deandra felt her stomach churn at the sight.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The ambush hadn't been large, however, the extent of damage caused by the confrontation was by no means small. Most of it was caused by the first wide flame attack that reaped the most lives.

After that, terrifying looking icicles could be seen piercing from the ground, encased in these glacial structures were the dead frozen figures of Kobolds with blood smearing the inside of the ice.

"Tsk. Disgusting." Don retched, taking a step back.

Did the simulation have to go this far, he thought.

It had to be remembered that none of the cadets had any prior experience to such a thing. For most of them, it was their first time even seeing monsters, talk less of brutally killing them

Don took a step back and suddenly turned around.

If even he had such an averse reaction to this level of gore, then what about him.

He caught sight of a familiar figure, and his expression scrunched up as he stumped towards him.

"Hey, you!"

Victor was bending over one of the torn up and burned corpses of the kobolds, when he suddenly heard Don's sharp voice call out to him from behind.

He was closely studying the realism of the reflection of the Kobolds. Any organism or objects stimulated in the chamber was conveniently referred to as a 'reflection', a terminology.

The young man with brown hair blankly turned around and met Don silently with a flat gaze.

Don sneered at Victor. To his suprise, Victor didn't seem to be openly showing any averse reaction to the sprawled corpses and morbid environment.

"And what were you doing?"

Victor raised a brow, responding to Don's scoff without only a glance.

"I said, where were you when we we were under ambush? You just stood at the rare hiding away didn't you? Maybe you'd serve better as bait, at the very least." Don ranted on.

The ambush was by no means underrated, but due to the solid make up of the group, they had successfully dispersed the monsters with zero loses or damages, and did so swiftly, too.

But the small psychological shock and reaction to having reaped life, although merely a reflection, for the first time was enough to fill Don with some unsettling emotion he felt the need to vent on.

And who else was the perfect Victim than Victor, the supposed dead weight, who just stood at the rare without doing a single thing throughout the entire time.

At this point, Victor directed an exasperated glare at Don's annoying face.

"Did you hit your head or something?"

But before Don could retort over his wounded pride, Deandra's voice cut in.

"That's enough! Remember where we are, there could be more of these monsters lurking nearby. Do not break formation!" Deandra growled.

She glared intensely at Don who meekly flinched back, backing down with a lump of words stuck in his throat. Deandra glanced at Victor fleetingly, once, then looked away to give her next orders

"We'll continue forward soon, but first, Don and i will scout the surrounding in case there's any more Kobolds or monsters still lurking in place for a second ambush."

Saying so, Deandra gestured and nudged at Don with her chin. Begrudgingly, the haughty young man bit his lips and went after her, following Deandra's figure as they ventured into the grim forest.

The shattered moon was still high and scattered, and the somber greyish blue sky was as still and unrippled.

A couple of meters away from rhe rest of the group members.

As Deandra looked around cautiously, spreading her perception and awareness, suddenly, she stopped in place.

A faint draft of wind whistled through the ashen dry leaves, making them billow eerily. Within the shades of the forest, Deandra's pensive expression became even more folded as she looked forward.

She took a step forward, the toasted, dried ground crunched underneath her feet.

Laying dead against the ground, right there was the lifeless corpse of a Kobold with its long tongue sticking out of it's open mouth that featured terrifying fangs.

The corpse was more or less intact and in one piece, unblemished by any surface wounds or ugly scars. Nor was it charred to cinders from flames, or frozen to figures by ice like its numerous brethrens.

Instead.

There was a single long arrow sticking out from in between its now blank eyes.

"...Uh?"

Deandra's eyes widened slightly.

The position of the arrow...it was a clean shot, undisrupted.

Certain ideas began formulating inside her head. Clearly, she recognised the arrow deeply, and cleanly lodged into the dead Monster's head.

But from such a distance...

***

Meanwhile...

Back at the area of confrontation, with the rest of the group members.

Victor, lowered against the ground im a squatting position, frowned with one had touching his quill next to him.

'I can't find it.' the one arrow he fired off at the beginning. Just how far had it gone anyway?

...Those things were surprisingly expensive too...

With a dejected sigh, Victor rose up straight to his feet and felt his motivation and drive plummet more quickly.

The Simulation Chamber was indeed an ideal environment for training. A room that could stimulate and recreate, to near perfection, almost any circumstances or conditions recorded in its system and circuits. Even going as far as teasing the perception of the human brain and the body's senses.

Victor sniffed the air and his nostrils tingled.

In the first place, exclusive use of the Chamber was something someone as lowly ranked as Victor could only dream about. The current situation was only possible due to Deandra's status and rank, and external prestige...

Alas, the Simulation Chamber was almost useless, or at least lost half of its incredibleness, since It didn't offer any actual experience for killing reflections of monsters.

In simpler words,

'I want to go home.'

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Well, it would be over in a few more minutes. The group had a limited amount of time to explore the reflected world.

And in a few days, it'll all be real.