Chapter 86: Revealing

Eren led the entire group to the pit. Beyond it was another expanse that led to multiple other tunnels and burrows that further branched out into winding paths and chambers.

By now, most of the other groups had started their expansion outwards in search for their first Territory.

It was a mad dash to be the first to get their Flags.

After all, these Territories contained the resources they would need to replenish what they would consume. Everybody had guessed by now that this Second Test would last for a long time. A few days at the very least.

Meaning, they would need to establish their own Territories and Camps with enough food, sunspores, and resources to keep up with the amount of members each group had. That was one of the downsides of having a big group.

And as of this moment, not a lot of examinees had a massive amount of sunspores in their inventory. Perhaps, only Pang Cai had enough to actually conquer a Territory if he wanted to.

So, most of the groups first decided to replenish their stock of sunspores before heading out.

"Eren, I heard that that tunnel will lead us to an entirely new forest of sunspores!" said Sierra. She went ahead of the group and got information from some of her friends outside this Division.

"We must go now or else we’ll have nothing to harvest," Abe agreed.

But Eren shook his head. "No, we won’t need to do that. We have to first establish our base camp. And that means that we have to conquer a Territory."

Sierra and the others looked down at their pockets, patting it and feeling an extreme lack of sunspores. "Are you sure? We won’t have enough to last an hour."

Celeste then looked at Sierra. "Don’t worry. Eren has a plan."

Despite their worries, they chose to believe in Eren’s plan. Part of it was because of Celeste. They trusted her a lot, seeing as she was the one who saved them from the Quicksand Pit in the first place.

If she trusted Eren, then they trusted his plans too.

"I’ll use up my inventory of sunspores first," Sky offered.

But Eren rejected it. "No need. We’ll use mine."

He took a bundle of sunspores from his pockets and crushed their stems. Immediately, their cap lit up in a bioluminescent light that illuminated the entirety of the tunnel that they were in.

It was enough light for the entire group. Sierra and the others gasped. It was wasteful, after all.

Eren used 10 sunspores at the same time. That would only last for a minute. But if they used three sunspores, spread out amongst everybody, then they could save up on their inventory for later.

"I need to be able to see what’s ahead better," he argued. "There could be traps ahead."

Seeing as he wouldn’t budge on this, the group decided it would be better to follow him instead of complaining. They would be wasting precious light if they were to stand here and argue.

Eventually, they walked through the cold burrow. By now a minute had passed completely.

And yet, the light in Eren’s hands remained bright. It hadn’t lost any of its luster.

"How..."

"That’s impossible... I haven’t seen him use another sunspore!"

"Is that sunspore different? Why does it last so long?"

Sierra, Abe, Sky, and the rest of the group were astonished to see Eren’s clump of sunspores last for more than two minutes without any signs of dimming.

They’d never seen such a thing.

Celeste, on the other hand, stared curiously at Eren’s hands, wondering how he was able to do what he did.

"Is that how you were able to get those sunspores?" she asked him.

"It is," he answered.

"Will you tell us how?"

Eren stopped and turned to look at her. "You wouldn’t understand it."

It wasn’t an exaggeration. Normal humans wouldn’t be able to replicate the technique he used to replenish sunspores. It was basically a Martial Manual in and of itself. Using words would not suffice. They had to read it from an Array Formation so that it would be imprinted onto their minds.

"You can replenish sunspores?!"

"As long as you have it in your hands, it’ll last as long as you want? That’s OP! We won’t need any sunspores at this rate!"

"Wait, can you reuse a broken sunspore?"

"I can." Eren revealed his abilities truthfully.

The group became much more impressed with him. And in return, his influence within the group became bigger.

They grew excited at the prospect of basically having an unlimited amount of light in their group, similar to a flashlight!

"If you can do that, then does that mean that if we gather more broken sunspores, you can repair them and we can sell them for other ingredients?!" Abe’s question perked up the rest of the group.

Eren smiled. "I have already done that."

"You should have told us that from the beginning!" Henry exclaimed, shaking Eren’s shoulder vigorously.

Sierra stopped him. "Lay off him. Eren, I’m guessing that this is a secret technique that you learned, right?"

He nodded.

"There’s no reason for him to tell us that before," she said. "I would keep it to myself too if I could do that."

"But now, you told us. Does that mean that you trust us?" Sky asked.

Eren gave them all an affable smile. "We’re officially part of a group now. We either all fail together, or we all pass."

They all smiled at his answer. He had imparted within them his trust, and in return, then trusted him a lot more as well.

But in truth, it wasn’t as much as ’trust’ as it was a tactic.

Keeping his sunspore replenishing technique a secret was no longer a viable tactic for success. In fact, in this Second Test, it would benefit him well if more people knew about this ability.

He had big plans here in the Second Test. And it required him being put in the limelight.