As soon as the entrance to their small hiding space was covered by chunks of earth, Emery gently placed Silva to the ground. Right then, his knees finally gave in and he collapsed to the ground. He really did use every last bit of his energy to hide Silva and himself here.
He laid on the ground, trying to relax even as his mind blanks out on the precipice of unconsciousness. After a while, he wheezed out. "We should… be… safe here…" Emery said, silently hoping in his heart that none of the regular acolytes had any sort of good tracking spells.
To his astonishment, Silva casually casted a spell. Tree roots started crawling from the small space he left and slowly made the place a little bit bigger. In addition, the green roots grew all over the chunks of earth, closing the entrance gap and reinforcing it.
Even with one look, Emery was able to tell how strong the roots actually were. The roots appeared and felt similar to those she used in [Wall of Thorns], except this time, there was no thorn around each root. He then saw Silva closing her eyes, the greenish light slowly glowing. She had casted [Nature Sense] just like Emery had done before to check the surroundings
"Seems like none of them was able to track us down… The [Blink] spell you chose to use is great, but throwing the stone into the water as a distraction was a nice touch. You know what, Emery? You're not completely idiotic, I guess."
Right at that moment, Emery realized Silva was pretending to be sick and weak this whole time. Her pale complexion, stutter and the sweat covering her whole body seemed to have almost disappeared.
Realizing Emery was looking at her with mouth agape, Silva decided to explain.
"Yeah, I was playing sick there. Look, we were in a desperate situation, alright? I was about to tell you, but then you grabbed my arm and-" Silva shook her head, "Alright, the point is, don't blame me for this!"
All of a sudden, Emery could feel his head throbbing. At first, he thought the headache was due to the girl's shocking actions, but the fact that his body felt even more drained now proved otherwise. Emery slowly started to lose consciousness while lying there on the ground.
Emery wasn't sure how long he was passed out for, but the next thing he knew, he could feel a strong spiritual energy coursing through his body.
Emery opened his eyes and saw a strange-looking flower glowing right in front of him. The bloom was around the size of his arm, each petal wide open and its pistil seemed to be constantly bursting with fresh, glowing dew. Each dew carried a little bit of plant energy, filling the place with the refreshing aura of the plant element. The dew landing on his skin made Emery feel more and more refreshed, as the seconds tick on.
Silva was sitting not too far from him. Her eyes were closed, while she sat in a meditative position to better absorb the energy. When she felt Emery stir, she asked him with pride.
"How do you like my [Spiritual Seeds] spell? I reckon this is no less effective than your [Nature Blessing]."
Emery, who was lying on the ground, slowly sat and assumed a meditative position before asking. "Yes this spell is amazing, ..So how long was I out?"
"Around two hours, we should be able to continue the game within a few hours." Silva said.
Emery decided to concentrate on the symbol engraved on his hand and seek information about the current state of the game.
[Regular acolytes: 241/320]
[Elite acolyte: 44/50]
[Your total point: 10.000]
[Your current rank: 10]
Upon seeing his current rank, Emery felt a deep satisfaction to the point he didn't realize he was smiling. It was a relief seeing the effort of beating two elite acolytes was not in vain.
Unfortunately, he did not have the chance to bask in his happiness, as Silva snapped him out from his reverie by asking. "So, I assume you already have 10 thousand points?"
Emery nodded in agreement.
"Hey, even though you managed to kill the strongest elite, don't rest on your laurels and think as if you're a winner already! Considering the distribution of the points and the current number of acolytes left, the safest amount of points to aim for is 23000. That much should guarantee you a spot among the elites."
Emery was about to ask Silva how she could come up with such an arbitrary-sounding number, but Silva immediately continued explaining.
"My prediction might not be accurate for this Group 7 game. The points should be more spread out in our case."
"How so?" Emery asked.
"Can't you see? It has been only four hours since the game started, but 6 elite acolytes have already been defeated."
"But In comparison, there are also 80 regular acolytes defeated, so isn't this normal?" Emery replied
"Aaargh! Talking to you feels like talking to a duck! Didn't you know that every year, on average only 5 regular acolytes can get enough points to get to the top 50? But currently not even half the game has passed and there are already 6 defeated elites. And as you manage to beat Lodos, I assume there will be more regular able to get into the top 50 from this group"
Emery furrowed his brows and gave Silva's explanation some thought before nodding. It appeared possible the big alliance formed by Roran became a big factor in this matter.
Silva continued "So, how does it feel defeating two acolytes especially that Maniac Lodos."
Emery honestly felt some kind of achievement, but then he still found himself lacking a lot. Luck played a big part in his victory, so he wasn't entirely proud about it.
"Well I had help, so I can't really say."
Silva frowned again and said "You should give yourself more credit. Emery! You did really good back there. If I manage to do what you did I'm sure my family and clan would be very proud."
"Your family?" Emery asked, curious.
"Ahh, sorry I don't really want to talk about it. They... they are difficult. Can you believe that if I didn't make it into the elite class, they planned to outcast me? Such a great family, right!"
Although she said she didn't want to talk about it, she still did. Silva continued talking about her family for quite a while. Apparently her background was not simple, her clan was one of the most influential in the universe, and for her to succeed in the Magus Academy was very important.
Hearing the girl continous talk, Emery couldn't help but stare. Although she appeared tough and curse words followed each of her sentences, behind the white hair and pale skin, Emery could see a beautiful and smart girl. Combined with her wide knowledge and cunning personality Silva is an amazing girl.
Silva suddenly realized Emery stare
"Hey! Why are you staring?
Emery quickly tried to find the words and finally said, "I realized I haven't said my proper thanks for helping me back there."
Silva looked at him, her gaze a bit startled, before saying. "Like I said before, I really found you by coincidence. Just think of it as you finally getting lucky, while your bad luck rubbed off on me."
"But still." Emery shook his head. "You came to help me regardless, and for that, I am immensely grateful."
"Huh? If you really feel that way… How about this? Say you owe me one favor and you will do one request of mine. How about it?"
Emery did not hesitate to agree, fully aware his survival was thanks to her. "Alright. What do you want?"
"I… I want you to stop hanging out with your four lame friends and stay with me..." She suddenly panicked and repeated "...No! I mean stay with your own kind... the half blood"
Emery was startled with the weird request, but he gave a small smile anyway. "No, sorry I can't do that…."
"Huh, I thought you said you'll do one request? Alright, how about you just stop talking to that annoying girl, then?"
Emery again only managed to give Silva a wry smile. "Sorry, I dont think u can do that either"
"No?! Huh! I knew you wouldn't agree… If you want to keep wasting your time with those humans, so be it! Don't come asking me for help again later."
The situation immediately turned awkward. Not long after, Emery felt his whole body had finally been refreshed.
Silva asked, "So what's your plan now?"
"I plan to meet the others at the center"
"Don't! You should come with me meeting the other two elite half blood... they are not too far"
"Wow, how did you know that they are not far?"
"Not hard... one of my innate abilities is releasing a toxin into a body and later being able to track said person."
Emery quickly remembered his right arm, the one which was bitten by Silva before the game started. Before he was about to ask about it, a little glowing green bird flew through towards him.
[You receive a new message]
[Emery! Where have you been? Things have turned chaotic here, hurry up and come to the center!]