The announcement hit the group like a rock thrown into a pond. For the rest of that morning, corruption zones were the only thing anyone talked about.

Cassian had the most practical questions. He had grown up near frontier zones and had heard stories from his father’s Explorer Guild contacts. "The ones near Rose Country aren’t the worst," he said, leaning forward in his chair. "The really bad zones are further south, near the old Trial epicenter. But even the mild ones have mutated beasts, corrupted plant life, and energy pockets that can mess up your cultivation if you walk through them wrong."

"How do you walk through them right?" Lyra asked.

"Carefully."

"That’s not helpful."

"It’s the most helpful thing I can say. The zones change. What was safe yesterday might not be safe today. You have to read the ground as you go."

— • —

Selene came back after lunch and gave them a proper briefing. She pulled up detailed maps on the screen showing the corruption zone they would be entering — a forested region called the Greymist Stretch, about sixty kilometers northeast of Orien. It had been a normal woodland before the Crimson Eclipse. Now it was something else.

"The Fourth Trial left behind unstable energy throughout this region," Selene explained. "The plants have mutated — some are harmless, some are aggressive, and some produce materials that are valuable to cultivators. The animals are the same: changed by the corruption, stronger than their normal counterparts, and unpredictable."

She zoomed into a section of the map marked with yellow hazard lines.

"The energy itself is the biggest danger. Corruption energy doesn’t behave like natural energy. It moves in pockets, changes direction, and can interfere with your cultivation if you absorb it by accident. Standard protocol is to keep your root channels partially closed while inside a corruption zone, to filter what comes in."

Iris raised her hand. "What are the rules of engagement for corrupted beasts?"

"Avoid if possible. Fight if necessary. Run if outmatched." Selene looked across the room. "I’ll be with you the entire time. But I will not fight your battles for you unless your life is genuinely at risk. The point of this exercise is to learn how to survive outside a training hall. If I step in every time something gets difficult, you learn nothing."

Yuelan was practically vibrating. "What kind of beasts are in the Greymist Stretch?"

"Mostly Tier 0 and low Tier 1. Corrupted wolves, overgrown insects, a few reptilian species that have developed energy-based attacks. Nothing above your level individually, but they move in groups and the terrain works against you."

— • —

After the briefing, Ren stayed behind in Room 3-C while the others filed out. He sat at his desk and looked at the map still glowing on the screen.

Corruption zones. Real field conditions. Mutated plants and beasts carrying energy that had been twisted by the Fourth Trial.

And materials.

That was the part he kept coming back to. Selene had mentioned it almost in passing — some produce materials that are valuable to cultivators — but for Ren, that sentence changed everything. His OPTIMIZE assessment from last night had been clear: the breakthrough from Germination to Sprout required genetic materials from plants and beasts that could only be found in the field. Realm-grade materials. The kind of rare biological substances that supercharged a seed’s evolution.

Corruption zones weren’t Secret Realms. But they were the next best thing — areas where extreme energy had forced plants and animals to evolve rapidly, producing materials that didn’t exist in normal environments. If he could find the right ones and absorb them properly, this field training might be exactly what he needed to push toward Sprout.

He pulled up the System quietly.

SCAN — preliminary.

Target: Greymist Stretch corruption zone (remote, based on available map data).

Estimated material density: moderate. Corruption level: Class D (manageable for Tier 1 cultivators with proper energy filtration).

Potential Sprout-relevant materials: unknown until on-site. Recommend active SCAN throughout field deployment.

’Active SCAN throughout,’ Ren thought. ’That’s the plan anyway.’

He closed the screen and leaned back. One week to prepare. Equipment, supplies, energy filtration practice, and whatever else Selene decided to throw at them before they left.

And then the Greymist Stretch. Real ground. Real danger. Real growth.

— • —

On the way out of the annex, he ran into Kaelen.

It was accidental — they both reached the corridor exit at the same time. For a moment they stood side by side, neither speaking. The near-clash from the crossing zone was still fresh enough that the air between them felt a few degrees colder than it should have.

Kaelen spoke first. He didn’t look at Ren. Just straight ahead, at the door.

"Corruption zones aren’t a training hall, Valis. Out there, you can’t control what people see."

Then he walked through the door and was gone.

Ren stood in the empty corridor for a second.

’He’s right,’ Ren thought. ’In a corruption zone, with real threats, I won’t be able to sandbag as carefully. If something dangerous happens and I have to fight for real, the mask slips.’

’But if something dangerous happens and I don’t fight for real, someone gets hurt.’ 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He thought about Lyra stumbling during the group test. About the energy burst he had taken on his shoulder. About Cassian’s close call that hadn’t happened yet but probably would, out there in the trees where the beasts were real and the ground was not a formation grid.

’I’ll figure it out,’ he told himself. The same thing he always told himself. The difference was that each time he said it, the problems were getting bigger and the mask was getting thinner.

Kaia pulsed once. Warm. Steady. As if to say: we’ll figure it out.

He liked the ’we’ better.

— • —

Author’s Note: Hello Everyone and Welcome to Arc 2. The classroom is behind them — corruption zones, real beasts, and the path to Sprout Stage lie ahead. Two new faces join the group next Chapter. Thanks for reading!