’It’s probably been two hours since the assessment began,’ Liam noted internally as he lifted his head slightly to look toward the sky above.

The sunlight filtering through the forest canopy had shifted noticeably compared to earlier, enough for him to roughly gauge the passing time despite the dense environment of Nalim.

As his gaze settled upward, his eyes caught sight of several moving figures circling high above the trees.

At first glance, they resembled birds.

Vultures, more specifically.

Their movements were slow and deliberate as they traced wide circles through the sky, occasionally dipping lower before rising again.

But Liam didn’t trust first impressions in a realm like this.

Enhancing his vision slightly with Myst, his pupils sharpened as he focused more carefully on the distant creatures.

The details remained blurry due to the distance, but it was enough.

Enough for him to recognize the shape of elongated wings, unnatural feather patterns, and the subtle distortions of Myst surrounding them.

’Ravons,’ Liam thought calmly as he continued watching the circling demons overhead.

The creatures were infamous among demon species.

Scavengers by nature, but intelligent enough to track conflict, blood, and weakened prey from enormous distances. Worse, Ravons rarely traveled alone for long. Where a few appeared, more usually followed.

And unlike ordinary Feral-class demons, Ravons didn’t really need an evolution to be major a threat.

’Better get out of here quickly,’ Liam thought as his gaze lingered on them briefly. ’I don’t feel like dealing with Advanced Horrors right now.’

With that thought in mind, he pushed himself upright and slowly made his way deeper into the forest, deliberately remaining within the heavier shadows beneath the trees.

The open stream area was no longer safe.

Not after seeing those demons.

As he moved, Liam gave a low whistle, quiet and controlled, barely audible unless someone specifically listened for it.

It was meant for Smoke alone.

Almost immediately, the shadow wolf emerged from the darkness beneath a nearby tree, its massive form materializing soundlessly from the shade itself before approaching Liam.

"Found anything?" Liam asked calmly.

Smoke let out a low grunt in response before tilting his head slightly toward the side.

Liam hummed quietly.

Then he linked his senses with Smoke’s once again.

The transition came naturally now.

His perception expanded outward through the wolf’s senses, and almost instantly, he picked up the sound of flowing water again.

But this time, it wasn’t just the stream.

Listening more carefully, Liam realized the stream eventually connected to a much larger body of water somewhere ahead. The sound was deeper, heavier, carrying the steady rhythm of stronger currents moving against stone and earth.

’Sounds about half a mile away,’ Liam noted internally before shifting his attention back toward Smoke.

"Good job, Smoke," he said as he reached forward and gave the wolf a brief pat on the snout. "Keep doing this well and I might just forget Nyxie exists."

At that, Smoke gave another grunt, this one carrying obvious satisfaction.

The shadow wolf clearly agreed with his master’s statement.

As far as Smoke was concerned, the loud and endlessly sassy Nyxarion wasn’t needed when he was around.

The wolf then lowered himself slightly, allowing Liam to climb onto his back with minimal strain on his injured leg.

Liam settled himself carefully before speaking again.

"Just move through the shadows," he instructed calmly. "And there’s no need to rush either. We can just stroll there."

Smoke grunted once more in acknowledgment.

Then the massive wolf began moving through the forest.

He stayed close to the shaded sections beneath the trees, naturally blending his dark body into the environment as he moved. Between the heavy canopy overhead and the shifting shadows cast by the towering trunks, both he and Liam became partially concealed from above.

’This should help with not getting spotted by those Ravons,’ Liam thought as they moved deeper into the forest. ’And hidden from anything else down here.’

Even with all his precautions, Liam couldn’t shake the unease lingering in the back of his mind.

Before leaving the stream, he had already scanned the surrounding area carefully. Smoke’s senses had done the same. Neither of them had detected nearby demons, hostile creatures, or even traces of other students passing through the region recently.

And that was exactly what bothered him.

The forest remained too quiet.

Yes, the earlier blast he had unleashed against the evolved Gravecoil would have frightened many nearby creatures away.

But for the silence to persist this long...

For there to be almost no signs of life whatsoever...

It felt wrong.

No distant growls, no insects, and no movement through the undergrowth.

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

If not a threat, then at least the smallest sign of normal life would have eased some of his tension.

Instead, the silence only sharpened it further.

’This is getting quite annoying,’ Liam thought before his eyes briefly shifted upward, almost as though he were looking directly at someone far beyond the forest itself.

’Pray this growing irritation doesn’t cause me to hate you... Headmaster Thion.’

His gaze lowered again afterward, returning to the forest ahead.

Then Liam simply remained seated atop Smoke’s back as the shadow wolf carried him silently through the shades of the forest, steadily making their way toward the larger body of water waiting somewhere beyond the trees.

Carefully moving through the shadows for nearly fifteen minutes, Liam and Smoke finally arrived at their destination.

Before them stretched a large river, wide enough to span nearly a hundred feet from one side to the other.

The water was vastly different from the clear stream Liam had followed earlier.

This river carried a murky brownish tint, though not thick enough to completely hide what lay beneath its surface. The water still possessed a certain clarity to it, allowing faint glimpses of submerged stone and shifting currents underneath. It flowed slowly as well, too slowly for a river of that size.

Almost unnaturally slow.

Liam remained standing near the riverbank while Smoke settled quietly beside him, both of them partially concealed beneath the heavy shade of the surrounding trees.

On the opposite side, the environment changed drastically.

Unlike the forested terrain behind Liam, the far side of the river was rocky and uneven, shaped more like the base of a steep cliffside than ordinary land. Jagged stone formations rose upward in layers, creating a rugged incline that eventually led to elevated terrain above.

And beyond that elevation were trees.

Large ones.

Their canopies stretched across the upper portions of the rocky hills, making it obvious that the opposite side wasn’t barren at all. It was simply elevated terrain overlooking the river below.

’Quite easy to tell that river isn’t friendly,’ Liam thought as he quietly studied the slow-moving water before him.

There was something unsettling about it.

Not visibly dangerous or corrupted.

But wrong enough for his instincts to remain alert.

The surface barely disturbed itself despite the current, and the faint scent of Myst rising from the water carried a heavier density compared to the stream.

Liam narrowed his eyes slightly.

’It would be easy to cross if I just used either Shadow Step, Shadow Swap, or Void Passage,’ he thought. ’But that would reveal too much to the academy, and I don’t want that.’

The magical screens back at the academy were no doubt still tracking every student, and Liam had no intention of casually displaying abilities he preferred to keep hidden for now.

Pushing that thought aside, his eyes slowly moved across the opposite bank instead, carefully examining the rocky side for anything unusual.

At the very bottom of the rocky incline, near the edge of the river itself, several strange plants grew between the cracks of the stone.

They immediately stood out.

The plants were far larger than normal vegetation of their type, their stems thick and twisted while faint white veins pulsed beneath their leaves. Even beneath daylight, they carried an eerie pale glow that made them look almost unnatural against the dark rock.

Liam’s gaze sharpened slightly.

’That plant seems to be poisonous of some kind,’ he thought as he observed them from across the river.

The faint Myst radiating from them carried a sharpness that felt hostile to ordinary life.

Then Liam shifted his attention back toward his own side of the river.

And immediately realized the same species of plant existed here as well. Not just one or two, but clusters of them.

Some hidden beneath roots near the waterline, others partially concealed by thicker vegetation further back from the shore.

Liam stared at them quietly for a moment before shifting his gaze back toward the rocky side once more.

And this time, he noticed something else.

At a certain section near the base of the cliffside, the movement of the river changed slightly.

Subtle, but noticeable once seen.

The water appeared to disappear beneath the rock itself.

Liam narrowed his eyes further, studying the area more carefully.

The longer he observed it, the clearer it became. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

There was space beneath the rocky hillside.

A hollow section large enough for the river to flow underneath.

And as he focused on the angle longer, adjusting his line of sight slightly through the shadows and reflections dancing across the water, he saw it properly.

A cave entrance.

Hidden partially beneath the river at the base of the rocky side.

Partially submerged and almost completely concealed unless someone specifically looked for it.