"Teacher, where are we?" Leon asked, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. The jungle air was thick and humid, and his linen robes were stuck to his skin, caked with dust and sweat.
Im didn't slow down, his boots crunching on the leaf-covered ground. "You weren't paying attention? We've been heading southeast this whole time. Just keep going deeper into the mountains."
Leon's face fell, and he turned to Flower and Dahlia with a panicked expression. "Wait—Teacher, don't tell me you don't know the way? Or… are we lost?"
His voice got quieter as he spoke, his confidence fading with each word.
Im didn't seem bothered, continuing to walk forward. "Why would you think I know the way? You've been living near these mountains longer than I have. If anyone should be familiar with the area, it's you. This is my first time in this part of the jungle too."
The three apprentices' faces grew paler, and Im finally stopped teasing them, turning to face them. "Relax. It's normal for mages to explore unfamiliar jungles. You just need to remember how to find your way back."
Leon stared at him, disbelieving. "But I don't remember the way back. I can barely tell which direction we're going in—the trees are too thick, and the sun is always hidden."
He turned to Flower and Dahlia. "Do you two remember the path we took?"
Both of them shook their heads, their eyes wide with worry. All three apprentices looked at Im, their eyes full of hope.
Im grinned, crossing his arms. "I don't remember the path either."
When their faces turned ashen, he laughed loudly. "Alright, I'm done joking. I set up a beacon rune array in Linden Pine Valley before we left. We can sense its location as long as we're within its range. We just need to head toward the array's signal to get home."
Leon let out a long sigh, rolling his eyes. "Teacher, you almost gave me a heart attack. Don't joke like that—we're in the middle of the jungle, not back at the valley."
Flower raised his hand, his voice tentative. "Can we learn to sense the beacon array too? I'd feel better if I could find my way back on my own, just in case we get separated."
"Of course I was going to teach you," Im said, his tone turning serious. "Anything can happen in the wild. If we get separated, you need to be able to find your way back safely."
The apprentices straightened up, their expressions serious now. Im cleared his throat and began to explain.
"First, meditate on the Aes rune. Once you've stabilized it, adjust your mental frequency to match the array's resonance. This will let you connect to the beacon and sense its direction."
He walked them through the process step by step. The beacon array was simple—its only function was to send a directional signal, not to show distance or exact location. The stronger the signal they felt, the closer they were to the valley. The array's range was about 100 miles, which was more than enough for their expedition.
"Never set up a beacon array in a place that's easy to damage," Im warned. "If the array is destroyed, you'll be stuck. And never share your private beacon's frequency with anyone—even if someone gives you their beacon's frequency, don't pass it along to others."
He paused, letting them absorb the information. "Keep your beacon arrays simple. The more functions you add, the easier it is to interfere with, and the shorter its range will be."
After they'd practiced sensing the beacon for a while, Im told them to pack up and keep moving.
By midday, the sun was beating down through the jungle canopy, and the apprentices were exhausted. Dahlia was lagging behind, her steps slow and unsteady, her face flushed from the heat.
Im stopped at a small clearing, gesturing for them to rest. "Flower, come with me to find water. Leon, stay with Dahlia and make sure she's okay."
"Got it, Teacher," Flower and Leon said in unison.
Dahlia immediately sat down on the ground, leaning against a tree and catching her breath, her chest heaving.
"Dahlia, don't sit on the ground—there might be bugs or snakes," Leon said, tapping a dead tree stump with his walking stick. He hit it several times, hard, to scare off any creatures hiding inside.
Dahlia looked up at him, smiling weakly. "Are you taking your frustration out on the stump?"
"Not really," Leon said, straightening up. "I just don't want anything crawling on you. Watch this."
He held his hands out, and a thin, hot line of fire appeared between his palms. He moved the line along the tree stump, cutting it cleanly into thick wooden planks. It was a modified Flame Palm spell—he'd mastered it after months of working with the magic furnace, and it was perfect for cutting wood quickly.
"Now I can make a fire," he said, stacking the planks in a small stone fire pit he'd built with rocks from the clearing.
It didn't take long for Im and Flower to return. Flower was carrying a dead pheasant over his shoulder, its feathers matted with dried blood.
"Leon, your crossbow is amazing!" Flower called, holding up the pheasant. "I shot it straight through the chest with one bolt!"
"Straight through the chest? Do you even know where a pheasant's heart is?" Leon teased. "You should've plucked the feathers before bringing it back—now we have to do it here."
Flower was the fittest of the three—he'd trained as a knight squire before becoming a mage apprentice, and he still practiced Tai Chi with Leon every day. His stamina was far better than Leon's or Dahlia's.
Leon had been practicing Tai Chi the longest, but his mana-fueled energy wasn't the same as physical strength. Still, it had improved his stamina enough to keep up with the expedition, even with a heavy backpack full of supplies.
"Dahlia, once you catch your breath, try the static Tai Chi stance," Leon said. "It'll help you recover stamina faster and calm your mind. Then you can go with Flower to find some wild vegetables or mushrooms. Maybe we can catch another animal too—our rations are running low."
Dahlia nodded, slowly getting into the standing meditation pose. Leon had discovered a few years earlier that the static stance helped restore mana and physical energy quickly, which was perfect for long expeditions. He'd even started trying to meditate while in the stance, but it was too difficult—he needed a quiet environment to meditate properly.
By the time Flower had plucked and cleaned the pheasant, Dahlia was feeling better. The two of them went into the jungle to forage for food, while Leon started boiling water for tea and cooking the pheasant over the fire.
Leon's rations were hard, flat loaves of bread—similar to Central Asian naan, but denser and less flavorful. They were easy to carry and didn't spoil quickly, but they were almost impossible to eat without soaking them in soup or water first.
After lunch, they built a simple shade shelter using leaves and branches, and rested until late afternoon, when the sun was less intense.
"Teacher, isn't there a spell to keep us cool?" Leon complained as they walked. "We look like we're hiking through the desert, not a jungle. Where's our mage dignity?"
"Of course there are cooling spells," Im said, not slowing down. "But they don't last long. If I cast them every hour, I'd run out of mana, and we'd be defenseless if a magical beast attacks."
Dahlia sighed, wiping sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. "Teacher, couldn't we have brought some magical cooling items? They can't be that hard to make."
"I'm training you," Im said firmly. "If I did everything for you, you wouldn't learn anything. This is an expedition, not a vacation."
Leon thought he heard a hint of guilt in Im's voice, but he didn't say anything.
Over the next week, they traveled early in the morning and late in the evening, resting during the hottest part of the day. They tried to save their rations, but they still ran out quickly—they'd been lazy about hunting, only catching animals when they stumbled across them.
Wild animals were skittish, and the dense jungle made it hard to aim the crossbow. Leon had to use his Mage Hand tentacles to retrieve bolts that got stuck in trees. Im refused to use his spells for hunting, since he needed to keep his mana for emergencies.
Now that their rations were almost gone, they had to spend more time hunting and foraging, which slowed them down. But Im used the extra time to teach them survival skills: how to set up traps, how to tell if a plant was poisonous, how to manage their mana efficiently, and how to stay alert for danger.
By the end of the week, the apprentices' wilderness survival skills had improved dramatically. They could survive on their own in the jungle for months, as long as they didn't encounter any major threats.
One afternoon, Leon stopped suddenly, his ears perked up. "Teacher, do you hear that? It sounds like a lot of water."
The sound of rushing water was loud and clear, echoing through the jungle. It could be a large river or a waterfall.
The apprentices hadn't bathed in three or four days—they'd been too worried about snakes, parasites, or dangerous fish in the water. Now that they heard the sound of water, they were all eager to clean up.
They walked for almost an hour before they reached the source of the sound. It was a small waterfall, about 25 feet high, with a thin curtain of water falling into a deep, dark pool. The water splashed loudly, creating a fine mist that cooled the air around them.
The pool looked clean, but Leon knew better than to trust appearances. There could be parasites or hidden creatures in the water.
"Teacher, can we rest here?" Leon asked. "I feel like I'm going to smell like a swamp if I don't bathe soon."
His hair and clothes were caked with salt from his sweat, and his lips tasted salty when he licked them.
Im nodded, walking toward the pool. "We'll camp here for the night. Flower, come with me to check if the water is safe. Leon, Dahlia, set up the tents on that small hill—don't camp too close to the water."
"Stay alert!" he added, before walking to the pool.
The pool was deeper than it looked—Im's detection spell couldn't reach the bottom, but he didn't sense any magical creatures in the water, which was a good sign. There were no animal tracks around the pool, which meant few animals came to drink here—probably because there were plenty of smaller streams nearby.
When Im and Flower returned to the camp, Leon and Dahlia were almost done setting up the tents. Just as Im was about to speak, Flower ran over, his face urgent.
"Teacher! Look over there—there's something!"