-Red Dust Metal Rust Desert-

  "Crystal, how are you doing on your end? Do you need me to rush over there?" Wendy softly called out towards Crystal while she knocked away a few Glass Termites with her ice-covered fist. It took roughly two hours of carefully descending the Glass Termite hill before they encountered any of the monsters.

  Despite their current depths, sunlight from the surface reflected by the glass and metallic sand still managed to reach them, illuminating the surrounding tunnels. However, that didn't make traversing the tunnels any easier. The mostly transparent walls made it seem like there was more space in the tunnels than there actually was, making it a disorienting experience for the two students.

  The rays of light being reflected would also sometimes hit their eyes if they're not careful, momentarily blinding them. This was especially dangerous when the two finally had to fight the Glass Termites, as they seemed to be unaffected by the random bouts of blindness that the flashes of light would cause. The last big issue was the noise they would make, as any sounds made in the tunnel would sometimes get amplified. If they're not careful enough, it could even result in an explosion of sound. When this first occurred, it caught the two students off guard, and Crystal almost passed out, while the Glass Termites continued their assault, unaffected.

  "I should be fine for now. Just focus on dealing with the Glass Termites near you." Crystal encased the Glass Termites charging at her in ice. Seeing them attempt and fail to increase their internal body temperature, she sliced their heads off before they could get hot enough.

  At first, the duo were able to deal with the Glass Termites before they could heat up. However, as they delved deeper into the hive and encountered larger swarms of Glass Termites, the rate at which they could kill the monsters quickly started to slow down. Meaning that despite Crystal's best attempt at cooling them down with her magic, the Glass Termites eventually were able to reach a point at which they started self-destructing. To reduce the risk of both of them being taken out by a single explosion, the duo started distancing themselves from each other in a fight.

  At first, Wendy struggled to deal any meaningful damage to the Glass Termites. After a few battles and some trial and error, both of them eventually figured out that if Wendy encased her fist in Crystal's magic, she could smash the monster's tough exoskeleton while simultaneously cooling them down. It took a few fights for Wendy to adjust to the more punching-focused fighting style that encasing her fist in ice resulted in. Mainly since it greatly differed from her usual slashing and clawing fighting style that she used to use with her clawed gauntlets, but she eventually got the hang of it. Despite that, Wendy still chose to continue wearing her gauntlets in case the ice encasing her hands ever broke.

  Noticing a less dense portion of the swarm, Wendy took the opportunity to maneuver herself closer to Crystal. "Crystal, my ice fists are starting to melt. I give it a few more punches before they completely shatter." Crystal quickly glanced at the frozen gauntlets.

  "Cover my back for a moment, I'm running out of Mana." Wendy nodded before charging towards Crystal, who maneuvered herself into an unfinished tunnel. Shoulder bashing a Glass Termite into one of their sisters, Wendy then sent a flurry of punches at the monsters, knocking them away to make some space for the two of them. With their backs against the wall, Wendy was only able to get in a few more hits before her frozen gauntlets shattered into several chunks that dissipated into the air. With only her clawed gauntlets left, Wendy switched to defensive tactics like flipping the Glass Termites onto their backs to give Crystal more time. "Step aside." While downing a Mana potion in one hand, Crystal raised her other hand, pointing two fingers towards the encroaching swarm. "Freeze." Wendy rolled out of the way, just in time to avoid the wave of ice that shot past her. The wave of ice would encase any unlucky Glass Termite not fast enough to get out of the way of the attack in a thick layer of ice. "Ice Wall," Crystal changed while flicking her two fingers upwards, causing the wave of ice to suddenly shoot up towards the ceiling, forming a wall of ice between them and the rest of the swarm.

  Finally having some breathing room, Wendy went to finish off the Glass Termites on their side of the wall while Crystal drank a few more Mana potions to top herself up. With enough Mana to maintain the ice wall, Crystal slumped down onto the floor and took out some jerky and two bags of trial mix. Wendy waited until she stopped hearing sounds of the Glass Termites trying to break down the ice wall and went back to their mindless work before making her way to Crystal while she started unfastening her clawed gauntlets. "Hey, Crystal, do you think these have anything worth harvesting or should we leave them like the others?" Sitting down next to Crystal, Wendy set her gauntlets on the ground and leaned against the tunnel wall while eyeing the frost-covered, decapitated Glass Termite corpses.

  "From their size, those should just be more workers, so besides their cores, fire organ and intact chunks of their exoskeleton, not really." Crystal handed Wendy some jerky and a bag of trail mix.

  "Thanks." She took the items and started eating. "I already have two Storage pouches full of those things, so I'll just leave them be." The two of them managed to harvest plenty of materials from the hive to the point that they had to leave corpses intact to avoid filling their Storage pouches and bags. "What time do you think it is on the surface?"

  "From the light being reflected down here, I'd say it's close to midnight."

  "No wonder they suddenly started becoming more aggressive. This batch must be hunting parties going up to the surface."

  "Yeah, which means that it's probably not a good time to start heading back up." Wendy grimaced at the news before putting on a more neutral expression as she considered something.

  "How fast do Glass Termites typically reproduce?"

  "Roughly a thousand a day, though that's the rate at which normal Glass Termites reproduce. I don't know what kind the ones in this nest are, so I can't be quite sure if a thousand a day is right or not."

  "How long does it take for them to go from larva to full adults?"

  "It usually takes Glass Termites a day to hatch, two days to go from being a nymph to a worker. It takes four days to go from being a nymph to a soldier. And a month to go from a nymph to a juvenile queen."

  "Juvenile queen? I heard of a monster that managed to escape a Rift, establishing new nests, but is that something they do inside the Rifts as well?"

  "As long as the Rift is large enough, monsters that can reproduce and expand will do so like any other creature. The only reason why you don't see this happening in smaller Rifts is that monsters that can reproduce are rare to find in them."

  "Hmm, when the Glass Termites go out to hunt, how much of the hive leaves and how much typically stays behind?"

  "Depends on the state of the colony. Thriving colonies typically send out roughly seventy to eighty percent of their workforce, while struggling ones only send at most half, so that the other half can defend the nest."

  "Would you consider this colony one that is thriving or struggling?"

  "From the size of the termite mound, I'll say closer to thriving than not."

  "So they'll send out what, seventy-five percent of their workforce to go out and hunt?"

  "That sounds like a good estimate."

  "What about other factors, like whether there is an intruder in the nest or not?"

  "The only difference an intruder would make is whether the colony sends out any soldiers or not. There is no documented information on whether any other factors influence a Glass Termite colony to send out more workers to hunt. So I can't really give you a definite answer to that." Wendy nodded before absentmindedly eating the trail mix.

  "Hey, Crystal."

  "Hmm?" She replied with a mouth full of trail mix.

  "You know how the original plan was to hunt in this hive until we had our fill before leaving. And that whether we fight the queen or not depended on whether we managed to find her weakness or something similar."

  "-Gulp- Yeah."

  "How about a change of plan?"

  "What do yo-" It suddenly clicked to Crystal what she was trying to suggest. "Are you suggesting we actually hunt down the Glass Termite queen instead?" Wendy nodded. "You were fine with leaving the queen alone earlier. Why the change of heart?"

  "I've been thinking back to everything we've done in this Rift, so far. And I don't know about you, but I think I haven't done anything that would warrant a good score for this test." Crystal raised a confused brow.

  "Aren't we being scored on how well and how long we survive in the Rift?"

  "Yeah, we were told that, but do you really think that's all we are being scored on?"

  "I don't have a reason to doubt what our teachers told us, but I'm guessing you do?" Wendy nodded while ripping a chunk of her jerky before swallowing.

  "Yeah. Anyone in our year, even the worst of students, should be able to survive in a low-tier Rift like this. It doesn't make sense to me if all they are using to score us on is the bare minimum." Wendy shook her head. "No, my theory is that there are other factors that affect our final score that they just don't tell us about until the very end." Crystal was about to reply that the teachers would never do that before remembering how McGaron wanted to do something similar. Emboldened by the lack of any rebuttals, Wendy continued. "So with my theory in mind, I started to think of other factors that could affect our score, including what the academy might be expecting of us in the future." It wasn't hard for Crystal to see where she was going with this.

  "You think they are grading us on the strength of the monsters we hunt?" Wendy nodded enthusiastically with a wide grin.

  "Yes! Along with other factors, including how valuable the loot we gathered is and how well we can work with others." Crystal thought over her words for a bit.

  "I can understand being scored on our ability to work with others. Typically, you aren't allowed to enter Rifts by yourself, and most of the time, people go into Rifts in groups of three or more. The last thing you want is your party being wiped out because someone refused to work with their teammates." Crystal nodded before tilting her head. "But why the other factors?" Wendy's grin grew.

  "Why does the academy put so much emphasis on teaching us how to fight?"

  "To better prepare us to enter and conquer Rifts before they start spewing out monsters. Or if that failed, hunt down the monsters before they can cause too much damage."

  "Now, how is a Rift conquered?"

  "By entering it and locating the exit. Which typically but not always means taking down a Boss monster."

  "Correct! We are taught how to fight and survive in Rifts so we can hunt down Boss monsters! The strongest monsters you can find in a Rift. The kind of monster that, if they ever escape, would result in massive destruction and untold numbers of casualties. So it makes sense if they score us on how well we can take down powerful monsters, especially against Boss monsters."

  "Hmm, I can see the logic in that. But what about being scored on the kinds of loot we gather?"

  "The way I see it, having rarer and thus more valuable loot means you are actively taking down dangerous monsters instead of mindlessly killing cannon fodder."

  "I think there are three flaws in that logic. First of all, wouldn't being scored on our loot be a bit redundant if they are prioritizing whether we take down powerful monsters or not? Generally, the stronger the monster, the more valuable the materials you can harvest from it." Wendy let out a pained groan as her body slumped against the tunnel wall."

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  "You have a point there. In fact, now that I've said it out loud and after hearing what you had to say, I'm no longer as confident about that part. But I'm still sure about my first and last point." Wendy threw the rest of the jerky in her mouth. "You said you noticed some flaws in what I said. What were the others?" Crystal took out two bottles of water. She handed one to Wendy, who happily took it before washing down the rest of the dry trail mix.

  "The second flaw in your reasoning I noticed is the emphasis on hunting down powerful monsters rather than weaker ones. Learning how to take down powerful Boss monsters isn't the only thing we are taught at the academy. They also emphasized how to quickly and cleanly wipe out hordes of weaker monsters. In fact, most of the time statistically, it's swarms of weaker monsters that managed to escape the Rift who typically target civilians that have larger kill counts than the larger Boss monsters. So logically, if they did score us on monster kills, a single Boss monster should be equivalent to a swarm of weaker ones." Wendy tried to think of a retort to Crystal's comment, but couldn't.

  "That makes sense," She admitted. "What was the last flaw you noticed?"

  "If you are right about us being scored on what loot we bring back, I don't think how well we do would depend on the materialistic value of them. Yes, entering Rifts and bringing back valuable loot can be a very profitable endeavour. However, the academy never, not even once, put any emphasis on the materialistic value of what we bring back. It wouldn't even make sense for them to do so as well. The academy was originally built to train soldiers around the time of the first Rifts to combat the countless monsters that were plaguing humanity. There was never a point in the academy's history when it lacked funds. During the early days, governments all over the planet provided as many Credits as needed so humanity wouldn't be wiped out by the seemingly endless tide of monsters coming from the Rifts back then. Then, once society had stabilized and government funding started to dry up, the academy had more than enough valuable materials from all the monsters they had killed to be financially independent. If they weren't, do you think the academy would have a vault filled with priceless items that they are willing to hand out to students as prizes?"

  "I guess you have a point there."

  "I also think that focusing on the materialistic value of an item is fundamentally wrong when it comes to dealing with Rifts, especially if we are going with the idea that we are being scored on what we managed to gather." Wendy's face scrunched up as she tried to figure out what Crystal meant by that.

  "What do you mean by that?"

  "What do you think the academy finds more valuable and thus theoretically worth more points, a bag filled with Moon Petals or a single high-quality core from a rare, powerful Boss monster?" Wendy furrowed her brow at Crystal, not sure if this was a trick question or not.

  "Is it a Boss core from a monster we as students have killed, or one from a more powerful monster?"

  "I think in this situation, it's only fair that the Boss core comes from a monster we should be able to take down. But since the academy typically allows students to keep the loot they acquire in the Rifts. Let's say that whichever student acquired the Boss core had sold it to the academy. "

  "Well, either way, wouldn't the academy find the Boss core more valuable?"

  "Why do you think that?"

  "Well, isn't it obvious? Moon Petals are very common and can be bought in large bulk, while the rare Boss core, even if it's from a lower-tier monster, would be an item that is more difficult to acquire."

  "I can see the logic behind that. Then let me ask you this. Once acquired, what would the academy do with the Boss core compared to what they would do with the Moon Petals?"

  Uh, well, the academy does have skilled weaponsmiths and Enchanters, but I'm sure they have better materials than any Boss core we can bring. I guess they would keep it in the vault until they eventually hand it over to promising apprentice weaponsmiths or Enchanter."

  "That sounds about right. Then, until they do hand it over to a student and while it is still in the vault, how valuable do you think the Boss core is to the academy?"

  "Well, compared to the other items in the vault that they are willing to just hand over to students as prizes, the Boss core wouldn't be worth much at all to the academically."

  "Now what would they do with a bag of Moon Petals?"

  "I might not know much about alchemy or potion brewing, but I do know that Moon Petals are an essential ingredient for any Mana potion. Let's see, what else do I know?" Wendy tapped on the empty bag of trial mix on her lap. "Ugh, I should have paid more attention to Alab's ramblings. Ah, I remember now. Something about there being some scarcity? Wait, no, that can't be it. If there were a scarcity of Moon Petals, they wouldn't be so cheap."

  "You were kinda right the first time. There is currently a scarcity of Moon Petals due to their importance. As you said, Moon Petals are an essential ingredient for Mana Potions, with higher-tier ones requiring more of them. And as you might have guessed, Mana potions are vital when clearing Rifts, especially if you are a spell caster of any kind, doubly so for Spell slingers."

  "I might not know much about economics and stuff like that, but, as I said earlier, wouldn't a scarcity of Moon Petals drastically raise their price? You know, supply and demand?" Crystal shook her head.

  "There are three reasons that aren't the case. The first is the strict laws and regulations that regulate the price of Moon petals. Anyone who tries to manipulate the price of Moon Petals will be severely punished. You have to remember that a lack of Mana potions could easily lead to a group failing to clear a Rift. This, in turn, can eventually result in monsters being able to escape said Rift and wreak havoc on society. The last person who attempted to profit from the shortage of an essential item similar to Moon Petals was tried and later treated as a traitor to humanity."

  "Ah, I remember reading about that in my high school history class. I think his name was Arinic Stonewell."

  "Correct, Arinic Stonewell, a vile man who, after seeing countless people losing their lives due to a shortage of monster cores, tried to hoard what little was left for profit. He was lucky he was caught before any lives were lost, or he would have definitely been given the death sentence instead of life behind bars."

  'Hmm?' Hummed Wendy, momentarily caught off guard by how passionate Crystal sounded.

  "Moving on, the second reason is due to how easy it is to cultivate Moon Petals and how quickly they grow. In fact, my mom even grows some Moon Flowers in her garden. The only reason why more people don't grow them themselves is the fact that Moon Petals themselves don't have much use outside of being an essential ingredient for Mana potions, and that without proper equipment, they tend to quickly wither shortly after being harvested. It's tough to increase the cost of a product that's known to be inexpensive and simple to cultivate."

  'Moon Petals come from flowers? Wait, don't Mana potions require several dozen Moon Petals? How many flowers do you need to grow and harvest to get enough Moon Petals for just one low-tier Mana potion?' Wendy shivered at the thought of how many flowers would need to be in one location to harvest Moon Petals on a large enough scale to meet the current demand of Mana potions.

  "The third," Crystal continued, knocking Wendy out of her train of thought. "It's hard to store large amounts of Moon Petals. Like I said earlier, Moon Petals tend to wither shortly after being harvested. Even with proper equipment or treatment, the longest Moon Petals can last in storage at most two to three weeks. You can't even store large amounts of Moon flowers to get around this issue due to their relatively short life spans, even compared to other kinds of flowers. Waiting until the last possible moment is an option, but even then, the petals don't last that long once harvested. On the bright side, potion brewers don't have to worry about the age of the petals; a week-old Moon Petal works just as well as a freshly harvested one."

  "You know quite a lot about this topic." Crystal let out an embarrassed cough.

  "Sera and I enjoy chatting about things we like with each other. She can also be very passionate when she talks about potion brewing, which includes tidbits about the ingredients."

  "Really? It's hard to imagine that shy girl who barely talks to anyone actually being a chatterbox."

  "I think we got a bit off topic. Ahem, after hearing all that, what do you think the acadamy would find more valuable? The core of a rare Boss monster or a bag of Moon Petals?"

  "The bag of Moon Petals?"

  "Why?"

  "Because the Moon Petals, despite being cheap, are more valuable for clearing Rifts compared to the Boss core."

  "Correct. For the academy, an item's value comes from how useful it is for clearing Rifts, not from its materialistic value. So if you are correct, and they are scoring us on what items we bring back. Then we should be aiming for more practical items instead of ones that can be sold for a high price."

  "Yeah, that makes sense. But I still want to hunt down the Glass Termite Queen." Crystal raised a brow at Wendy.

  "Despite everything we talked about?" Wendy nodded. "Why?" Wendy let out a tired sigh.

  "Well, at first, I wanted to do it because of my theory on how they are actually scoring us. But after our discussion, I realized that in reality I just wanted to do it to prove that I can and that I'm not a coward."

  "What? Of course you can. And who is calling you a coward?" Crystal asked in a more serious tone, only for her to be left speechless when Wendy pointed at herself.

  "Every time I fought a powerful monster, it's because I had to," Wendy explained before Crystal could say anything. "Thinking back on it, when given a choice, I always chose to avoid the stronger monster."

  "There isn't anything wrong with that. We are taught that it's better to avoid difficult fights when we can, so we can fight for another day than throw away our lives on an unwinnable battle." Wendy shook her head.

  "Yes, I know that, but how far am I going to take it? It's easy to say I'll happily face a powerful monster I have no idea I could beat if it means protecting those who are defenceless. I could hype myself all I want when I know there isn't any actual risk to my life, like in these tests. But would that change in an actual life-threatening scenario? When my life is on the line, would I fight or would I once again take the easy route and run away?"

  "What brought this up?" Crystal asked with a slight frown. "This doesn't sound like a recent worry. Did something happen recently? If so, I'm always here to lend a hand." Wendy let out a light-hearted chuckle with a small smile.

  "No, nothing like that happened. It's just," she let out a deep sigh. "When I first came to the academy, I was stoked to have managed to make it. Then, after seeing my exam scores, specifically the ones from the physical exams, I thought I was meant to be here. I never considered myself a prideful person, but during the first few days at the academy, I was certain I would be one of the top students of my year." Wendy leaned her head back and stared at the tunnel ceiling. "I guess I was just used to excelling in all my classes at my previous schools."

  "I see nothing wrong with that. Pride and confidence are great motivators for self-improvement. You also make it sound like you are failing. Aren't you still at the top of most of your classes?"

  "My grade may seem good on paper, but when I look at how the rest of the class handles being in the Rifts, it's clear that I'm far behind. While I struggle to deal any significant damage to Bosses, Neomi can slice their limbs off in a single slash, and Jack can win the fight unscathed. While I get quickly overwhelmed in swarms, you can wipe them out with just a raise of your hand. While I flinch back at attacks coming straight at me, Alex is willing to sacrifice everything but his life to win a fight. And the more I watch Mari fight, the more sure I am that she is willing to die if it means taking down her foe with her. I can't even provide meaningful support to any party I'm in, like Sera or Jacob." Noticing some movement, Wendy glanced over to see Crystal looking straight at her with her hand on her shoulder.

  "I think you're too harsh on yourself and greatly overestimate everyone else. Yes, Jack and Neomi are good against a single powerful monster, but put them against one that can fight at a range, and they quickly find themselves without any options to retaliate. My magic may be good against large swarms, but I'm a sitting duck against an enemy that I can't hit. Alex's fighting style is one that no one with even a shred of self-preservation instincts should look up to, and Mari can be extremely reckless to an idiotic degree. While Sera and Jacob had to take remedial classes so they wouldn't fail combat class." Crystal took her hand off Wendy's shoulder and leaned back against the wall. "What I'm trying to say is that everyone has their flaws and that you shouldn't let your own blind you to your strength. For example, you're a great leader. Your orders are precise, carefully planned and easy to understand. I'm sure many people in our class look up to you because of that."

  The two of them sat there without saying a word, with only the skittering sounds of large glass-covered monstrous termites on the side of a melting wall of ice filling the silence.

  "Thank you," Wendy told Crystal as she sat back up. "I really appreciate what you said."

  "No problem," Crystal replied with a warm smile. The duo got off the ground and packed everything away. "So... Do you still want to try to fight the Glass Termite Queen?" Crystal asked after downing a Mana potion so the ice wall wouldn't immediately collapse in a few seconds.

  "Kinda, yeah. Not because of any insecurities or anything about what I said earlier!" Wendy quickly explained when she saw the concerned look on Crystal's face. "It's just that after calming down and thinking about the idea some more, I realized that this is a perfect opportunity to take down a Boss monster before the test ends. Boss monsters are rare, and the only other one I saw in this Rift was an elemental that I had no way of hurting and would need at least a party of six students to take down. We're pretty far down, and I'm sure it wouldn't take us long to locate the queen. Even if we don't find the Boss right away, we already know that the Glass Termites quickly lose interest if we hide away like this, so there shouldn't be much risk in us continuing to explore the area until we do."

  "Is there really a need to, though? We're doing really well so far, so I don't see why we should risk it."

  "It is because we're doing so well so far that I think we should do it. Given the number of points we must have accumulated so far, even in the worst scenario where we're eliminated, we're not at risk of getting a bad score in this test, let alone failing it." Crystal reluctantly nodded in agreement. "Now, think about what if we did manage to take down the Glass Termite Queen. If my theory on how we are being scored is correct, killing the Boss monster would rocket our final score to the top. And even if I am wrong, the Boss core alone can be made into a high-quality weapon or at least sold for a good chunk of Credits. And that's not even counting the other valuable materials we can harvest from the queen's corpses, along with the soldiers guarding her."

  "Regardless of any potential rewards, isn't it still a big risk. Wouldn't it be better to play it safe instead of taking this gamble?"

  "Here's the thing, it wouldn't be as big a risk as you think. How about this? I tell you my plan first, and if afterwards you think it's still too risky, we forgo fighting the Boss and make our way out of this place instead?"

  "Ok," Crystal nodded. "What's your plan?"

  'Awesome!' Wendy mentally cheered while doing a fist pump. "So you know how you told me that the majority of the Glass Termites leave the hive at night to go hunting?"

  "Yeah."

  "And that more of the soldier termites leave the hive to hunt as well if the colony don't sense any danger to the queen. Additionally, we also learned that if we block ourselves in long enough, the Glass Termites lose interest in us and exit intruder mode." Crystal slowly nodded. "During our time in here, we managed to kill a lot of the Glass Termites, and as you said earlier, it would take them a few days to fully restore their numbers." Crystal nodded once more, with a thoughtful look as she realized what Wendy was trying to tell her. "With all of that in mind, here's my plan."