33 Risen#re

"Media, you spent a lot of time on the south-eastern part of the map," Lirian said thoughtfully.

"I'm pretty sure that you have a plan that will take us through those parts," Lirian pointed to the lower part of the map with such accuracy that it left everyone stumped.

Cole hopped in his face with a curious look on his face, "Aren't you supposed to be blind, how do you even know which part of the map Media was so focused on?" he looked at Lirian with sharp eyes, that kept darting across every inch of Lirian's face.

Lirian raised a hand and flicked Cole on his forehead, he was getting too close, "It's possible to observe something by listening closely," he said with a bored tone as if it was just general knowledge.

For someone like Lirian who had once achieved the Dao of all sounds, it was easy to tell things apart just by listening, although if he wanted to achieve mastery again, he would have to focus his training on perceiving the sounds of the world.

He had heard the difference in the sounds of her strokes, in the south-eastern parts of the map Media's strokes were very close and focused, and at many times he could hear the friction on the paper lessen as the graphite slid over parts that were already smoothened out by the previous strokes of the graphite.

Cole rubbed his head where Lirian had hit him it had gone slightly red, he looked at the map closely, and sure enough, the south-eastern path was the most exquisitely drawn part.

He hadn't paid too much attention to it, because while the drawn-in parts were detailed, too much of the area down there was blank.

If they went into the heart of those areas, it would be difficult for them to direct themselves without any landmarks, and the reason the area was completely unmapped was that there were far too many trees in that place.

In short, even if they managed to find any land marks on the ground, the huge trees would get in their way and block the view.

They all began to discuss those same points, as Media heard the negatives being repeated, over and over again, she felt the determination she had built up wither away.

Lirian didn't stop them, in fact, he needed to hear every negative about the area, with his hearing he could pick up only so much from the strokes, but the more intricate details were hard to pick up on without a working set of eyes.

With everything he heard he was surprised that Media had chosen such a route, in all honesty, it sounded like they could lose a few people as they scoured through those parts.

When had heard enough he knocked on the wooden armrest of his couch, to gather their attention.

They all stilled and looked at him, "What is it your greatness?", Edith asked sarcastically, even after hearing Lirian's explanation for why he was helping Media she couldn't stop herself from feeling jealous.

The was a slightly cold edge in her voice that Lirian didn't fail to notice, 'This girl,' Lirian sighed, 'I'll have to do something about this when we are alone,' he thought with scrunched-up brows

For now, he ignored the comment and pointed at Media, "I'm sure that you have a reason for wanting to go down this path?" he inquired; he was certain it had something to do with whatever she had learnt in the commanders' quarters.

He could hear Media's knuckles crack as her small fists tightened, she nodded her head quickly causing her long green hair to bounce up and down.

"If we go south there is a river that we can reach in three days," she started, for ordinary people rivers were important when it came to planning their route, but if you had a mage around any water-related problem could be easily resolved.

So it did make them raise their brows a little when she began with heading towards the river but as she slowly continued, they grew interested, "The rivers will have a lot of different creatures coming to it, by moving along the river, we'll be able to gather data on the different animals in the region and it will give us a good point of reference for our location."

Just as they thought she was finished she continued, "Plus, the river will lead us close to the area I want to go to," she pointed to an area on the map, the location was close to the border of a level 3 zone.

She noticed their frowns and rushed to explain herself, "In the commanders' quarters there was a record about an ancient sculpture found close to the border as well as an ancient road, if we want to find an ancient site, this is probably the only chance we can get."

The thought of finding an ancient site made all of them look up with sharp eyes, if they found so little as an ancient clay pot, it would give the entire expedition team more merits than they could care to count.

Any old relics would give the main exploration team of the planet, a new site for excavation, and could help them learn more about the people that used to live on this planet.

Tobias, quickly shot down that idea however, "We don't know how far the river runs, we'll be lucky if the river goes in the direction we'll be heading,"

"We can leave markings to guide us back to the river, we can carve marks into the trees, or we can paint the trees along the way," Wentian offered his own thoughts on the matter.

"Let's stick to carving into the trees, we don't want to go around changing the forest too much, we don't want to disturb the habitat of the forest, the fewer fights we have with the creatures the better," Edith quickly added as she slowly regained her focus.

Her party had made a similar mistake once, they painted the trees in bright colors to highlight their route back, but on the return journey, they found many creatures gathering around the painted trees, and the creatures were very violent.

The trip forward had been a complete success but the return trip had been a nightmare.

"But won't it be difficult to spot the carvings?", Media wondered, in a forest filled with trees it would be difficult to look for markings on a few trees.

"If we were moving in a small group, yes, but with three thousand people looking out for the marks we should be fine," Lirian concluded the discussion on the route.

"Was there anything else in the box?" Lirian asked, he heard something shaking around inside it when they were coming to the room.

Tobias slipped his hand into the box and pulled out the last item.

He looked at the watch he retrieved from the box and activated it with a push of a button, a menu popped up, and nodded his head in understanding, "I see," he murmured while everyone else nodded along.

Lirian shook his head, he wondered if they were purposely not saying what it was just to poke fun at him, "Hello, unlike all of you I can't see," he said pursing his lips together.

"haha," Tobias scratched the back of his head as he laughed, "Sorry my bad," he chuckled in a not so apologetic tone.

"Stop keeping me waiting, what is it?" he asked while wrapping his hands tightly around the arm rest.

"What's the matter, I thought you could observe just by listening?" Edith snapped with a bemused smiled that was wasted on him.

Seeing that things might get out of hand, Cole quickly answered him, "It's a menu with the supplies we can buy for the trip, we have a 50 000-credit allowance to fund the entire expedition."

Lirian brought a hand to his chin, as he remembered commander Pexis's words, saying that the commander of the expedition would handle all the supplies and accommodations for the students.

"Since some of you feel that I'm shirking my duties I'll be happy to do all the buying," Lirian teased them with deliberate passive-aggressiveness.

Wentian turned his head away, he had been the one to make a big deal about Lirian passing on all his duties to Media.

Media and Edith both went for the watch when they heard Lirian, it was apparent that Lirian would need someone to read out the items on the list.

They both got to it at the same time, and a stare-down began between the two of them, Media wanted to show her thanks to Lirian for helping her out in her time of need.

While Edith wanted Lirian to rely on her, but when she saw that Media also wanted to help, she was reminded that Lirian was an ass for getting Media to help him instead of her, when she thought of it like that she had half a mind to back down and not help him at all.

"Urgh, what is going on with them?" Cole complained as he saw the beginning of a fight.

"Girls," Wentian commented, ", we need them but we'll never understand what goes on in their pretty heads," he concluded while shaking his head.

Tobias rubbed the back of his head after wisely putting the watch down and retreating, "It's like my dad once told me, 'Be careful of horny men and petty women'."

Looking at Edith, he found it hard to believe that the usually calm-headed beauty was being so... petty, it didn't suit her at all, but what was even more unusual was the determination in the eyes of the usually sly but soft-spoken Media.

Lirian got up and walked between the two girls in a staring contest, he reached out and snatched the watch without them even realizing and went back to the couch.