The early morning in the Grobe Basin was still bitterly cold. It was especially chilly by the lake, where a thin mist hung like a veil over the water and the woods. Even though the sun was already up, the fog showed no sign of dispersing anytime soon.
Anyone else who spent the night in a place like this would have frozen stiff!
Fortunately, the mages taking part in the exam did not have much to worry about. Most of them knew spells to keep warm, retain heat, or block out moisture, so the damp cold was not a major problem for most mages.
For example, at one team's lakeside camp, the air still carried the smoky scent of last night's bonfire, along with the... distinctive aroma of leftover roast meat. The three mages camped there were hardly worried about the cold, damp fog.
That's right!
This was the temporary team made up of Annie, Moli, and Lei As!
The three of them had stayed put since the night before, and even at dawn, they were still camped on a relatively flat, sheltered stretch of pebbly shore.
The previous night, the three of them had accomplished something that would leave every other team dumbfounded and gnashing their teeth. Namely:
They had not only managed to capture the exam target, the "Meteoric Iron Birds," but had caught ten of them!
Those prey, whose feathers were as hard as iron and whose speed exceeded the sound barrier, had given countless applicants a headache. But catching them wasn't enough for the trio—they dealt with them in a downright extravagant fashion!
Aside from setting aside the liveliest-looking one as their task item, they decided, in the spirit of avoiding waste and making things harder for the other teams, to turn the remaining nine into