The Treasure Hunt

The five friends scattered across the academy grounds, forming a pentagon. As they waited patiently in their positions, Lodre’s final message sounded across the fields.

“Uhh… It is almost time. You’ll have exactly one hour,” he said, checking his watch, “Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Good luck.”

The moment he finished, students stormed the Drezore woodlands from all sides. Atsuo was keeping pace with other students in the most concentrated area. He was not at the front, but not in the back either. He made sure he was relatively center to all of the students, preparing to take down as many as he could with him.

After what felt like fifteen minutes, the mob shrank a little. As they moved further up, Atsuo started hearing a familiar voice.

“Should we spread out?” someone suggested.

Atsuo recognized it to be Greener, the Drezore student with an attitude. Before they could take action, with other groups following suit, Atsuo decided to act.

“We’ve ran quite far…” Atsuo spoke, making himself audible enough for everyone to hear, “what if there’s nothing here?”

“YOU–” Greener began, but was interrupted.

“Atsuo!” called another familiar voice, approaching him.

It was Crollo. Atsuo started feeling horrible for the guy and his unaware group after what seemed like an unassuming reunion.

“If only we saw you sooner, we’d invite you to our group!” Crollo sighed.

“You don’t want me in your group” Atsuo whispered honestly.

“Hmm?” Crollo uttered, “Why’s that?”

“You should probably look somewhere else” Atsuo whispered quickly and ran off to the front of the mob.

He stopped ahead of them, and turned around. He looked right in Greener’s eyes.

“I don’t think you’ll find anything unless we join groups” Atsuo said with a deadpan expression.

He sat down on one of the logs in the forest and stared back at the perplexed crowd of students.

“What a weirdo…” someone said.

“Are you alright in the head?” asked Greener.

“Who on earth would collude with you?!” said one of Lord Kaiser’s fanatics from earlier.

Some ignored Atsuo, while others threw insults at him. Ultimately, the mob scattered around the woodlands, vigorously searching for the Tyche beetles. Atsuo was left all alone within a hundred-meter radius.

With his job presumably done, he started wondering about his friends’ progress.

***

Lord Kaiser and Crod were the fittest in their respective areas and didn’t waste time scouring the forest, ahead of everyone else.

After twenty-five minutes since the beginning, they met near the border of the Treasure Hunt at about eight and a half o’clock.

“Crod!” Lord Kaiser shouted, “Found anything?”

“No,” Crod answered, approaching Lord Kaiser, “Any luck on your side?”

“No…” Lord Kaiser said grimly, “It’s either luck isn’t on our side, or them being good hiders was an understatement…”

“Maybe they’re on Rivia and Eskasa’s side?” he asked.

“Maybe” Crod shrugged.

“I’m usually good with nature, and can feel the life energy of the living things around me, but not today it seems…” Crod said.

Suddenly, Lord Kaiser looked up at Crod.

“Have you tried meditating?” Lord Kaiser asked, hoping that he didn’t.

“No, w–”

“Can you do the thing, like with the bird?” Lord Kaiser urged him.

“…I can try…” Crod said uneasily.

He sat down in his meditative position, and began assimilating with nature.

As time passed, Lord Kaiser restlessly watched multiple birds settle on Crod’s body.

‘Not you’ he said anxiously, with his arms crossed, tapping his foot on the floor.

Suddenly, he saw a loud buzzing come from behind him. He went as stiff as he could, holding his breath.

The next moment, he saw a Tyche beetle sit down on one of Crod’s shoulders. But that wasn’t it, he watched three more beetles crawl up Crod’s legs.

Lord Kaiser was too stunned to speak.

After five more minutes of nothing, he told Crod to get up and observe himself. Crod glanced back at Lord Kaiser in disbelief, before returning together to the academy grounds.

It was a huge success.

Meanwhile on Rivia and Eskasa’s side, a group of students beat them to catching one by pairing up with three other groups, believing that getting one point was better than nothing.

As such, the both of them returned empty handed, hoping that their friends had better luck.

***

Atsuo’s time alone was boring, but he played a major role in reducing the competition, so he saw to his job until the end.

After more than twenty minutes of empty searching, some students came back to Atsuo, who hadn’t moved an inch.

Some had a change of heart and wanted to form an ‘alliance’ with him, but even if Atsuo did, this was not his sole decision to make. Lord Kaiser, Crod, Eskasa, and Rivia, would all have to be present and agree, finding whom would take much longer. As such, he rejected them, saying it was ‘too late.’

And then there was Greener.

“Look what I found, clown” he said, showing the beetle to Atsuo.

‘WHAT’ Atsuo thought to himself, ‘This can’t be…’

Atsuo started to sweat at the thought of his misfortune not working, but was determined not to show his emotions, and doubled down.

“Are you sure… that’s a Tyche beetle?” Atsuo asked.

“Huh?” Greener uttered in disbelief.

“Open your eyes… it clearly is…” he said with some doubt in his voice as he looked at the beetle.

Atsuo was resolved, maintaining his serious expression as he stared down Greener, to which he clicked his tongue and started moving back towards the academy.

Praying that his misfortune worked, Atsuo got up and also began returning to see the results.

By the time he arrived, the time indicated that the competition has already concluded.

He saw his friends and decided to go ask for details.

“There’s our misfortune magnet!” Lord Kaiser called out to Atsuo, after seeing him coming over.

“I trust you all did good?” Atsuo said expectantly, waiting to hear the results.

“Our three academies are in the lead by 63 points” Lord Kaiser said proudly.

Atsuo laughed in astonishment.

“Did it really work that well?!” Atsuo asked, thinking about his spreaded misfortune.

“No, Crod here is just too good at meditating” Lord Kaiser said, patting Crod on the back.

“It would be fair to say you had a role to play in it.” Crod told Atsuo, “We heard no one could find anything in a ten-mile radius, south of the academy.”

Atsuo grinned, thinking about his success and the fact that Greener got the wrong beetle after all.

“While we did get a huge lead, we can’t relax just yet” Rivia said.

“We know” Lord Kaiser and Atsuo replied simultaneously.

Suddenly, Lodre came on speaker, with the next announcement.

“It’s almost time for the next event. In ten minutes, please gather at the back of the academy” he said.

“Well then, shall we?” Eskasa asked.

“Yeah” they answered in unison and went to their next destination.