As the daily training of Emmett continued to progress, his master gradually became much more relaxed regarding his strict physical safety.
She began to purposefully create intense magical drills that would seriously harm him if his mental concentration faltered for even a single moment.
"Being so incredibly strong at such a young age is also a severe hindrance," his teacher explained carefully.
"It prevents you from gaining genuine practical experience because you can simply overwhelm your regular opponents too easily.
This lack of struggle could have a deeply negative effect on your combat mentality as you grow up.
No matter exactly how strong you become, the very second you drop your guard, you could easily be injured fatally."
Therefore, his teacher was now bringing him on a real adventure deep into the untamed parts of the northern forest. She had officially accepted a subjugation quest, and the two of them were setting out to complete it together.
"Always ensure that your senses are highly alert, but make sure your mana is always completely suppressed. It is a great way to ensure that you will not become an immediate target," his teacher said toward him as the two of them leisurely walked down the overgrown dirt path stretching out in front of them.
"Would having a dedicated vanguard and a specialized healer not ensure us to be much safer than traveling without them?" Emmett asked his teacher.
Despite being incredibly strong for his age, he was not so entirely confident that he would not die if he got careless, especially out here in the frozen North where exceptionally strange and dangerous monsters constantly lived and roamed around.
"Do not worry too much. I know how to heal wounds as well," his teacher said warmly. "I am a versatile all-around type of mage, so you will not have to worry about our overall safety. Furthermore, I already know that you also strive to become a similarly versatile all-around type of mage."
Emmett simply nodded and continued walking closely alongside his teacher through the thick trees.
After walking for quite a while, the afternoon sun was already nearing the horizon to set. His teacher carefully looked around their immediate surroundings and decided it was finally time to make camp for the night.
"This clearing is a great stopping point. We could set up our base camp right here," she said.
She then took off her heavy backpack and pulled out the large canvas tent she had prepared for their wilderness adventure. She also began to take out various metal pots and pans to properly cook their evening food.
"Can you go and gather some solid firewood? I will prepare the ingredients for our food," his teacher then said to him.
Emmett immediately followed her direct instructions. He made sure his rapier was securely sheathed at his side.
He began to walk deeper into the dense forest, remembering that he had been strictly taught by his teacher to never cut fresh wood right near their camp, primarily to maintain a much better hiding station and conceal their exact location.
While walking quietly among the trees, his sharp senses and innate mana detection suddenly flared with intense warning. He immediately ducked down low and rolled rapidly over the rough dirt.
Right before his very own eyes, the exact spot where he had just been standing was instantly attacked by a giant monstrous bird.
The creature looked exactly like the massive birds that Frieren and her companions would eventually encounter during the First Class Mage Exam.
He immediately pointed his finger and fired off a lethal Zoltraak spell. The bright magic hit the monster squarely and killed it in an absolute instant.
However, before he could even take a breath to relax, he felt the heavy magical signatures of many more monster birds swarming near him.
He felt them violently stir into a frenzy, most likely provoked by his sudden burst of mana disturbing the peace of the forest, as well as the loud and piercing shriek that the dying bird had just produced.
'Just my absolute luck,' Emmett thought to himself bitterly. 'It seems that I unconsciously wandered directly toward the main nest of these dangerous monsters.
So, this is exactly what the teacher meant when she warned me about dropping your guard for even just a single second, especially out here in the northern part of the continent.
Granted, I am only five years old, but I absolutely need to make sure that my threat detection becomes like a second nature to me, exactly like my continuous concealment of mana.'
Emmett quickly unsheathed his sharp rapier.
He fully knew that he could not escape the area anymore because the entire flock of giant birds had now begun to take airborne positions all around him.
Emmett could have sworn that he counted more than twenty of the large monster birds circling above. They all simultaneously began to start attacking Emmett.
In immediate response, he magically coated his steel rapier with freezing ice while also summoning multiple sharp ice spears to float defensively around his small body.
When one of the vicious monster birds swooped down and attacked near Emmett, it was immediately stabbed by Emmett using his enchanted rapier. The magical contact instantly froze the monster bird solid.
While managing that close-quarters threat, Emmett simultaneously fired off another powerful Zoltraak blast toward a second bird that flew directly at him.
To protect his blind spots, he summoned a thick circular ice wall around himself to successfully block the coordinated diving attacks of multiple other monster birds.
Suddenly, directly from the surface of his defensive walls, a massive ice spear extended forcefully outward. It pierced several of the diving monster birds at once, killing them highly efficiently.
But before he could even relax for a fraction of a second, Emmett got hit by a massive gust of wind magic generated by the remaining flock.
The sheer force threatened to launch him airborne, a terrible position where he would have far less mobility than the flying beasts.
Thinking quickly, Emmett created a sturdy ice pillar directly from the soles of his feet.
He used the frozen column as an anchored platform to push his physical body firmly toward the ground, ensuring that his upward momentum died completely and perfectly canceled out the lifting force of the wind.
At the exact same time, Emmett thrust his free hand out toward the specific bird that had sent the huge gust of wind.
"Pheasant Beak," Emmett cast aloud.
A magical bird constructed entirely out of solid ice flew out rapidly from Emmett's arms. The frozen projectile flew true and violently struck the bird that had attacked him.
Since Emmett was now falling back down toward the ground due to natural gravity, he quickly summoned a sloping ice tower that closely resembled a smooth slide.
He used this frozen ramp to catch himself and make sure his steep fall was not fatal, primarily because he had not yet learned how to properly cast flying magic from his teacher.
The fierce fight continued relentlessly as Emmett slowly and methodically killed off each of the remaining monsters.
He also steadily altered the physical environment they were fighting in, heavily freezing the forest to severely limit the aerial movements of the flying monsters.
After another grueling hour of intense combat, Emmett finally struck down and killed off the very last monster bird.
"Very good job," a familiar voice was suddenly heard calling out from the nearby bushes.
Emmett did not show any kind of surprised expression upon hearing her. He had already felt her familiar magical presence hiding nearby much earlier while he was still actively fighting against the monster birds.
"Teacher," Emmett said politely. He turned toward her standing figure. She currently wore a highly proud expression on her face as she turned around and looked closely at the totally frozen surroundings he had created.
This confirmed that she had watched the entire battle unfold and had fully accepted his necessary use of the forbidden ice magic in a genuine combat situation.
"Can you please do something about all of this?" his teacher then asked gently.
Emmett looked around the battlefield and finally noticed the absolute frozen tundra that was now existing right in the middle of their lush forest.
Breathing in heavily, Emmett concentrated deeply and actively absorbed all of the ambient magical energy he had just released to power his massive ice spells.
He successfully pulled the mana back into his own body through the complex state transformation of the ice melting.
This technique was an extremely useful ability to have if a mage ever ran completely out of mana during a fight. Fortunately, Emmett had not yet reached his absolute limit.
After a few quiet minutes of concentration, the entire frozen landscape finally turned completely back to normal, except for the physical damage left behind in the affected area.
Emmett and his teacher then peacefully collected enough dry firewood together.
The two of them returned to their camp and comfortably cooked their warm evening meals.
"So, exactly how was your very first monster subjugation quest? Was it suitably interesting?" his teacher asked with a small smile as the two of them ate their delicious dinner while sitting around the crackling campfire.
"Was that whole ambush actually the official quest? I honestly thought we were going to be fighting something exceptionally strong," Emmett then asked in reply.
He felt quite confused about why his incredibly skilled teacher would purposefully accept a simple gathering and subjugation quest like this one, especially since he had personally seen her reject a different quest just last week that offered a massive reward of more than twenty gold coins.
"Well, it was strictly meant for your very first practical experience," his teacher then said, as she carefully began to explain her logical reasoning.
"I certainly would not want my precious and talented student to actually die during his very first official quest out in the wild.
However, after successfully completing this one, you should definitely expect much more dangerous and significantly harder quests in the future."
Emmett could completely understand her cautious perspective, and he nodded his head in firm agreement regarding the very last part she had just said.