While Class 2 was heading east, Class 1 and 3 were heading west. Yamato's group still had not moved from where they spawned in.
"Uhm, so, Yamato? Why aren't we going anywhere?"
"We can only choose a direction at random, and each would lead us either away or towards them, which are both suboptimal as long as you don't know which is which."
"But if we wait, won't we just be overrun by them?"
"Well, yeah but not quite. You missed that they have the same problem. We know from professor Reeds announcement just now with absolute certainty that they have to be in the canyon as well, and cannot be above the walls, otherwise the rule that prohibits someone from flying above the walls makes no sense. Thus, they will have to split up, which in turn forces them to either half their strength, or focus on one side but still be weakened. Or they just gamble and go all in towards one direction, but Yuki will make sure all possibilities are covered this time, so she will probably let one class act independently and just move into the opposite direction. Thus waiting and seeing whether we will be hit by the small group or the larger one will be mandatory if we want to build a functional strategy against them."
"Ugh… That sounds super complicated… You lost me after that we know they are in the canyon as well."
"Dumb sister, I understood everything, Yamato!"
"It's not a problem if you didn't understand everything, Lily. Important is that we find a spot from which we could defend ourselves better than in the open field. Preferably somewhere from where we can scout undetected, so a little higher up. Ideal would be if they walk past us, so we can watch and then later attack from behind. Or set traps… Either way we need to find such a spot. Can you look higher up, while I will look in the middle?"
"Sure, Andrew can do that. I will stay guard down here."
"You just want me to do all the work!"
"No I don't! It's important that we notice them early, didn't you listen to his plan?!"
While Yamato did appreciate her initiative, and he also believed her goal was not to be lazy, he was against the idea regardless.
"This exam is supposed to go up to seven days. It even has a deadline event in case it goes for too long. I don't think they are that close by that we need to worry about that on the first day. But still good thinking, Lily."
"Alright… Guess I will go up with Andrew…"
Meanwhile on Yuki's side, it did not go down as organized, which was starting to get on her nerves.
"Yuki? Shin and the rest of class 3 just rushed ahead and refuse to share their plans with us. What do we do?"
"Urgh, those fucking idiots… We don't even know who our target is yet… At least it's safe to assume it's no one from our class. I think they would have come forward when I asked earlier. But we can also hardly search everyone for the card… That will only make them distrust us more. Uhg… Yamato really got me already…?"
"What does he have to do with this?"
"Arina, haven't you noticed? He manipulated me from the start…"
"He… He did?!"
"When he talked to professor Reed about the rules, he didn't ask anything for clarification. He already knew he understood everything just fine. So why ask in front of everybody like that?"
"I'm… Not following?"
"It was to plant these two group forming ways into our minds. There would have been so many ways to form groups. We could have all gone solo, for all the groups dictated and just teamed up unofficially! Although that would have been a risk for other reasons, and it's unclear how this would work with more than two teams, probably adjusted rules for that case… But that option was earased from oir minds by his confident presentation of supposed exploits, which sounded great at the time but now not so much…"
"You're right… After his talk, the only discussion was whether we should form a group with everyone, or use an outsider to start one and have the rest join. Another option didn't even come to mind! That's scary…"
"Yeah, for me too… I didn't expect him to act this early, so I got careless… But now I will pay more attention. It just sucks now because I have no clue who the target is on their team, and no clue who it is on ours…"
"My glorious Master, I do seem to have been put into the palm of your hand already… I can't say I dislike that spot! However still… I'm filled with sorrow, knowing my own performance until now has already been outmaneuvered by your brilliance. I do promise to up my game, to be worthy of your love! Ah, how poetic~ I'm sure if he'd hear how much thought I put into that he'd praise me lots! Oh, how I miss and crave your proximity already! Instead I'm forced to work against you… But your wish is my command. Satiating your desire for emotion is my duty, after all. Even if it means having to team up with loser one, two and three over hear… I can't even remember their names. Do they even have any? Why should anyone but Master and I have names in the first place? Wouldn't numbers suffice for distinction of mediocrity from mediocrity?"
The person her prayers were directed at would answer them… If they were not busy trying to scout a location on a massive cliff which they would use to stalk and eliminate all that came through. Or so the theory. Such a spot would have to be perfect, since Yuki would probably notice anything unnatural. She might not let it show most of the time, but her observational level was almost on par with Yamato's, and her knowledge about geology and nature probably exceeded his even. Especially now, where she would give it her all, there was no room for mistakes, as a direct confrontation with her would inevitably mean defeat. If just she were the only problem he needed to worry about. Arina was also strong enough to give the three of them a pretty good fight. Maruyama, any class 3 student together with the element of surprise, Elara, or most of Class 1's students could end up being problems on their own. After all, their only objective was essentially to rip a card in half, which they would have to keep on their body at all times. So focusing on Yuki too much would only leave them vulnerable to everything else coming their way.
"Have either of you found anything?"
Both Lily and Andrew were levitating through the canyon walls, up and down. However each run took over ten minutes, since they were just that high up and they wanted to cover a wide area each time.
"Nothing over here."
"Same on this side."
"Will anyone even notice if we just blow up the wall this high and create our own spot?"
"Yamato said Yuki would notice anything. I trust his judgment of her."
"What if we… Dig into the ground!"
"That… Has the same problem? Are you listening, Andrew?"
"But it's way easier to make the ground look natural than a hole in the wall!"
"Yeah, but he also said it needs to be relatively far away from where they will most likely come through, since otherwise all our anti-detection spells won't work against Yuki."
"Urgh… So many variables! I don't ever want to fight against her again!"
"Really? I think it's quite fun."
"The hell it ain't! You'll switch up too once action begins to really show up!"
"If you say so…"
"You're always so condescending!"
"Do you even know what that means, dumbass?"
"It means you think you're so much smarter than me!"
"Can we just focus on finding something?"
"Now you evade cause you noticed you're losing!"
"No, I'm putting our focus back on the task at hand, instead of some irrelevant discussion that only slows us down."
"This isn't over!"
"Whatever… Oh, what about over here? Quick, go get Yamato."
What she found seemed perfect, the fact that it took them so long to find it themselves alone was reason to pick it. A group passing through would surely have even more trouble spotting it. Better yet, the entrance to the cave-like hole big enough to comfortably shelter all three of them was almost entirely covered in climbing tendrils. One would have to specifically look for it to have a chance at finding it, since it was that far up as well. Yamato estimated it to be around 700 meters, which was indeed very far up, however it needed to be if they wanted to fool Yuki. After inspecting it, Yamato agreed that this spot would be from which they would wait for whoever came through.
"Can you two try to build beds from sticks and leaves? I have to prepare a few things on the ground still. It might take a while, so once you are finished, you could just wait up here."
"Really? More work??"
"Shut it, Andrew… Yes, we can definitely do that, Yamato!"
"Thank you so much. And don't worry, it's really the last I ask of you."
They all went down to the ground again, though neither of the two could understand what exactly Yamato did there. He was cutting down multiple trees and uses the wood for something, but that was all they could tell. With the use of their gravity magic, moving the things they needed up was relatively easy, and they were finished in only one hour. The most difficult part was the long distance, but even that was not a problem since they had been training a lot since they entered the school.
It was beginning to turn dark, meaning the first day would come to an end. While Lily and Andrew were waiting for Yamato to finish whatever he was doing, he also came back with two fish for the two, caught in the river by hand, which they would now cook over a campfire which they could light easily in the cave despite the heavy wind outside.