Plan

In the Grobe Basin at night, the campfire crackled softly, bringing a touch of warmth to the chilly night. Kanne and Rabiñe, huddled under a thick blanket, were already fast asleep.

Frieren sat leaning against a tree root not far away, covered with a blanket, on duty for the second half of the night watch. Her long silver hair shimmered softly in the moonlight, and her emerald eyes gazed absently at the flickering flames.

In the silence, Rabiñe's indistinct murmurs broke the silence, tinged with a hint of praise in his nose, "See... I told you you could do it..."

Almost simultaneously, Kanne also chuckled foolishly in his dream, vaguely replying, "Hehe... is that so...?"

Frieren turned her head, looked at the two who could converse seamlessly even in their sleep, blinked, and commented in a voice only she could hear:

"We can even dream about being together?"

Then she turned back to look at the campfire, her lips curving into an almost imperceptible smile before quickly returning to their usual expression.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, the forest was filled with a thin mist and the fresh scent of grass and trees.

Frieren added the last bit of firewood to the dying campfire, and Rabiñe and Kanne woke up one after another. They rubbed their eyes and sat up, glanced at each other, and then immediately looked away, as if the harmonious dream they had shared the night before was just an illusion.

"Alright," Frieren clapped her hands, drawing their attention, "Now let's organize the information on the Stille."

Kanne spoke first, recalling yesterday's defeat. "Just as Frieren said, the Stille's speed exceeds the speed of sound; we can't possibly catch up with it at a faster speed. Most human Flight Magic can only achieve slow flight; high-speed flight is the privilege of a very few outstanding mages. As for that exaggerated speed, probably only Demon King could do that, right? Even if you, Frieren, are one of only three Great Mages in the world, it's probably still impossible..."

"Indeed," Frieren affirmed. If she had that kind of speed, she would have already caught up.

Kanne paused, then continued, "Moreover, the Stille possesses a body almost as strong as a dragon's; Ordinary Attack Magic has absolutely no effect on it. Even if we cooperated like yesterday and temporarily Frozen it with ice, it can quickly break free."

Rabiñe, arms crossed, added, "It's also very sensitive to magic. Even if we suppress our magic and sneak up, we'll be quickly detected and escape. And the biggest problem is that the Stille itself doesn't have much magic. For bird-like monsters that are already adept at hiding their magic, this little bit of magic is too easy to conceal. We can't find it using magic perception, and we don't know how many there are in this basin."

She sensed the magic emanating from the other examinees in the distance. "If there are enough of them, students from so many academies, even if they don't know each other, cooperating to share the spoils isn't impossible. But if the total number isn't known, it could very well escalate into a battle... although they probably wouldn't actually kill each other."

Kanne sighed, "In the end, we only spotted it twice. I think the students searching everywhere for the Stille made it more wary. The worst-case scenario is that it will never show itself again."

Rabiñe concluded, "Ultimately, even if we were lucky enough to discover it, we currently have no way to capture it."

"Don't worry about that," Frieren interjected calmly. "Actually, last night I conducted an experiment that might help in capturing the Stille."

Kanne remembered. "Oh! You did run away last night. What kind of magic was it?"

Frieren: "It's 'Bird-Catching Magic'."

Rabiñe asked in confusion, "Didn't you try it yesterday? That spell failed."

"Yesterday's was 'Bird-Binding Magic,'" Frieren explained. "That was a standard spell, only effective at capturing ordinary birds, with an effective range of about five meters. Yesterday, the distance was too far, so I could only try that. But the 'Bird-Catching Magic' I used last night was different. This magic originated in an era when there were more magicians and magic was more prevalent. It was a folk magic created by a group of people who lived by hunting, which I obtained by chance."

She gestured. "Its effective range is only fifty centimeters, very short. But after all, it's folk magic specifically designed for hunting, so it seems capable of capturing anything that roughly resembles a bird. Last night, I used it to successfully subdue the large bird that attacked Kanne. It's indeed a powerful binding spell; I think it would also be effective against Stille."

Kanne nodded in agreement. "Yes... indeed, its movements were instantly sealed off with magic."

Rabiñe pondered, "Fifty centimeters... Yesterday, the closest we got to the Stille was about three meters away. And we were detected at around twenty meters. Should we use concealed magic to get closer? Frieren, you should be able to perfectly conceal your magic, right?"

Frieren: "It's possible. But while I can perfectly conceal my magic, magic doesn't necessarily equate to complete presence. In that respect, Fern is far superior to me. Even if I conceal my magic, given the Stille's alertness, it's very likely it will discover me through other means. Unless I remain completely still in one place for an extended period, it's unlikely I'll go unnoticed."

She sighed softly, "What a hassle. If Lowell were here, she wouldn't need any magic at all; she could just use teleportation to catch it. As for Fern, it's obvious she could avoid being detected by the Stille. Come to think of it, out of the three of us, I seem to be the least good at this kind of test that requires speed and stealth."

She shook her head, dismissing her minor frustration. "But anyway, we have the method; now all that's left is figuring out how to get it to fifty centimeters."

Rabiñe frowned. "But this 'step' is still a long way off."

Frieren looked at the two of them. "Speaking of which, let me confirm again, do you have any other trump cards or ideas to capture the Stille? Any possibility is acceptable."

Rabiñe admitted, "If I have enough time to increase my magic output, I think my Ice-Freeze Magic might be able to freeze it completely. But the magic fluctuations will surge the moment I charge up, and it will definitely be detected and escape."

Kanne also pointed out his limitations. "If I could cast a spell in a place with a large water source and control enough water, I could easily trap it. But my 'Water-Riding Magic' isn't enough to create that much water out of thin air. For a body of water as large as the lake yesterday, my 'Water-Manipulation Magic' would require a large amount of magic power to be injected into it beforehand. But to control a body of water as large as a lake, the amount of magic power required to be injected beforehand is enormous. For Stille that is extremely sensitive to magic power, it would be like telling it, 'I've set a trap, come and step on it,' and it would never come near."

Frieren listened, her emerald eyes flickering slightly. "... It won't come close. I see, because it avoids waters pre-infused with magic... Hmm... it won't come close?" She repeated, as if she had grasped something crucial.

She remained silent for a few seconds, lost in thought, then her eyes lit up slightly, as if she had thought of something. She waved to Rabiñe and Kanne.

"Rabiñe, Kanne, come here for a second."

The two moved closer together.

Frieren put her arms around their shoulders and lowered her voice:

"So it is... so it is..."

Rabiñe's face showed surprise upon hearing this. "I see... But that would be too much of a commotion! It's practically declaring war on all the other teams, telling them 'We're going to do this here...'"

Kanne glanced at Rabiñe, then considered their current predicament, and hesitated, "But if we don't do this, we have no other way to find and capture the Stille. Even if we try to steal it from other teams, we don't know if they've already caught it..."

She looked at Rabiñe, her tone slightly provocative. "What, are you scared?"

Before she could finish speaking, Rabiñe pounced on her, skillfully straddling her and pulling hard on her twin ponytails with both hands.

Ouch! You're going to rip your hair out!

As Rabiñe punished Kanne, he looked up at Frieren and spoke in his usual resolute tone:

"I understand! Then I'll do as you say!"

She let go, stood up, and brushed the grass clippings off her clothes. She left Kanne, still sprawled on the ground with his rear end sticking up, looking every bit the defeated character in a scene from a classic defeat cinematic, grumbling to himself.

Frieren watched as her teammates "resolved" the internal dispute once again. Her cat-like mouth twitched slightly, but she said nothing, simply picking up the empty Birdcage from the ground.

"Then, let's begin preparations."

The rising sun pierced through the mist in the forest, illuminating the figures of the three who had begun their work.