*beep* *beep*
Beeping sounds echoed from one of the terminals within Conquest Division administration cabin.
Rex was currently filing in his reports from his last excursion with his team, which includes his findings of the tunnel and Claude, the campsite ambush, and their return trip back to Sector-07.
"This is such a pain... Why would they need both audio and written reports anyway??" He complained with irritations in his voice.
The only good news for him was that he's almost finished, as soon as the terminal successfully uploaded the files, then he will be done for the day.
"Hey, Rex." A woman's voice resounded from behind his back.
Rex turned around to find Rita walking towards him from the open gate of the cabin's entrance.
"What is it?" He asked curiously.
"You remember that Claude dude?"
"How could I forget about someone I had just written a full report about moments ago?" Rex pointed at the terminal behind him while staring at Rita with incredulous look.
"Shut up smart*ss. I've heard from Gill not long ago that he just went outside for his 2nd Division exam."
"Oh."
"...So?" He was becoming more confused as to why the girl was telling him all this. It looked to him that she was trying to make a point.
"What do you mean 'so'?? You've seen his skills, we can't let someone like him rot away inside the 2nd Division!" Rita frustratedly shouted.
It was one thing if he was still an outsider, but Claude had already been verified now. Which made him a fellow citizen to her and the others.
"Rita, the 2nd Division is still a proper combat Division." Rex lightly reprimanded her.
"I'm not saying they're not, I'm saying the right people should be given the right job. The guy has the making of a great warrior, he shouldn't waste his talent delivering food day-in day-out!"
"And they don't just deliver food... Are you sure you're an Alliance Ranger?" He felt speechless talking to her.
"Furthermore, what that guy has, is not something as trifling as talent... It's experience! Honed from countless dangerous situations."
He could still remember the scenes of him jumping towards an open jaw of a dire wolf charging at him. The precision that Claude had demonstrated then had even made him shudder.
"Of course, HOW he had accumulated those experience are something else entirely." Rex suddenly turned serious as he explained his point of view.
'Unexpectedly, he actually chose to take in those Nano Explosives... What sort of secret is he hiding?' He never believed for a moment that Claude was really an amnesiac like he himself had suggested.
"All the same! Aren't you going to do something?" Rita on the other hand was still trying to convince Rex to recruit the guy.
"Nope!" He gave a quick reply and pulled out a beer bottle to drink out of nowhere,
"What's the deal anyway? If you're feeling lonely go find Gill or something, you two seemed to meet up more frequently of late."
"Why do you guys always assume that everyone I'm talking to or talking about is someone I'm interested in?"
"Well, it's because you're WAY past your marriageable age. Which makes your every action reeks with the air of desperation."
"@#&$%!!!" That statement was followed by a series of curse words that rang throughout the entire hall of the cabin.
Rex was joking of course, truth be told, he somehow understood why Rita insisted on recommending Claude to be recruited into the 4th Division.
'We are far too short-staffed right now, and with the great migration coming...'
He pondered on as he looked towards the afternoon sky through the cabin's open window.
.
.
The sun had already past its highest point.
It had taken Claude a couple hours just to reach the area designated for the exam through the safe route recommended by Scarface.
But it hadn't been all bad for him. The travel had given him ample time to formulate plans on how to finish this examination in the most efficient manner possible, at least for the current him.
If everything were to go smoothly, he might even be able to complete the test in record time.
'I just hope I can finish them before the young trainees get here!' Sharing the field would be very troublesome for him.
Claude didn't dawdle for long, by the time he'd arrived on scene, he quickly started to implement the first phase of his plan carefully, which was to construct his base of operation.
The main point of his plans was to make full use of the geographical elements of the environment surrounding the designated area, Including the community of animals that lived in it.
He had taken great care to make sure his plans fell in-line with how the 2nd Division Rangers did things inside this forest.
.
Claude had asked the staff back at the equipment storage facility as to why there were no grenades or any kind of projectile weapon stored within the facility.
He'd been rather curious since he had seen Rex using a very powerful grenade before.
Back then the staff's answer had been quite enlightening.
He said that it's because as both the hunters and gatherers of the Alliance, unlike the rest, the 2nd Division had to be mindful of the environment since it was their place of work.
An ecosystem and the communities that lived in it were very delicate, and for better or worse, the people of the Procurement Division was part of that same ecosystem.
He had likened it to a fish farm. As the owner, one can harvest the resources with more efficiency and greater results by using dynamites or other forms of explosives. But then, it wouldn't be a farm for long.
No, as the farmer who harvest the resources, the 2nd Division Rangers had to maintain the balance between their hunts and the population of the preys among many other things.
And the usage of grenades or other such weapons with loud noises and lasting damage to the surroundings risk destroying said balance.
Be it through the factor of attracting other types of beasts in or chasing away the current ones out. In the end, it could as easily messed up the harmony and relationship dynamics between the flora and fauna of the environment.
(That's also the reason why the areas within our jurisdiction prohibit the entries of other Division's Rangers be it the 4th or the 5th. After all, if the 4th Division is the brave explorer, then we are what you might call the protector of this forest.)
(Although... Following the previous metaphor, this is one dangerous farmland we're managing... We're not even in full-control of the lands we put our hands on, let alone the ones outside of it.)
Claude remembered the staff's words perfectly.
It had given him a whole new perspective and newfound respect as to what the 2nd Procurement Division was all about. And he fully intended to follow through their examples of not harming the forest in his plans.
.
'First and foremost is the order of procurement...' He minded,
To Claude, the most obvious choice was to complete all the plants gathering tasks on the list first before moving on to the hunting part of the test.
The reasoning for that was simple, doing the hunts first would bring about the risk of attracting another crowd of carnivorous animals if he wasn't fast enough in finishing up the rest right away.
It was even more so since the items on the list that required hunting also required him to do the dismantling on his own.
'Plus, carrying plants and mushrooms makes for easier relocation should anything goes wrong midway through.'
As such, Claude had decided to finish up all the plants gathering on the list before nightfall.
He divided the plants gathering into two parts; They were the plants or mushrooms that were discernible by colours, or others that were mostly green in colour and were only discernible by shapes.
The former were by far easier than the latter.
Fortunately, most of the items on the list were all ones that were discernible by colours save for one called 'mirage moss', which was a very strong hallucinogenic.
'Guess this really is a test for beginners.'
Finding these plants was easy enough as long as one had good eyesight.
Most of the trees in this forest were very tall, Claude was currently giving a finishing touch to the makeshift camp he'd made on top of a tree branch using a variety of harness, ropes, and leathered fabrics.
Although the end product looked sort of rough and full of holes, it served his purpose of a campsite with good views of the surroundings.
"The crux of finding things is always a high vantage point." Claude mumbled.
'From the environmental survey reports of the last two years. The only dangerous enough predator that can reach this height level within the designated area is only...'
"The Grade-1 Flying Viper Snake. But even they are rarely spotted on this part of the area."
For him, the advantage of having the tablet on his hand was undeniable.
Even more than what the staff had introduced to him, the tablet also carried information like environmental and weather reports.
Combined with the flora and fauna catalogues that could be found within, it was like carrying around a cheat sheet that made him feel slightly guilty simply by reading it.
"Now, it's about time to start!"
.
.
It was once again another couple hours he'd spent on collecting plants and mushrooms.
"...And there goes the mutated goldenberry." Claude checked the next item off the list.
Even before the skies turned dark, he had already found 90% of the plants-related items on the list simply by sitting around looking on top of tree branches.
Although he had needed to find different trees to sit on a couple of times, Claude always managed to find around 4-5 batches at a time before going down the trees and collecting them.
Closing in on the hour when the skies were dyed red by the sun, he had already stocked up enough stuff in his 'camp' to finish the rest by day 2. Although there's still the matter of hunting, he felt quite optimistic on his chances of completing the test before the trainees started theirs.
'It's slower than I thought but still manageable. Though I should probably stop right about now...'
Loitering around the forest at night was never ideal. Even though Claude had taken out a night-vision goggles from the storage, it would still limit his movements and peripheral vision to a degree, reducing his overall response time to unexpected developments.
He'd rather turn in for the night and revise his plans rather than forcing his way into possible dangers.
.
Night came not long after.
Claude was seated leaning on top of his original tree branch that had been decorated with ropes and fabrics tied together alongside his harvest.
He was looking at the tablet for more information while going over his plans in his mind again and again, trying to find holes in them.
"The hunts and the dismantling are where it'll be most prone to go wrong. But the most problematic right now is the mirage moss..."
They would be spread all around the areas with high moisture levels. And Claude did have the knowledges of those spots thanks to the weather reports within the tablet on his hand.
But their locations overlapped with other normal types of mosses that also covered those areas. With how rare they were in comparison, it'll take too much time for Claude to forage through every single spots trying to find the moss with the correct texture to harvest.
'Are there really no other ways...?'
'This is the difference between book-learned and experience!' He thought, 'The regular 2nd Division Rangers probably had a few tricks up their sleeves to find them within the shortest time frame.'
"..."
Just as he was about to give up and forced himself to search every spots tomorrow, Claude unexpectedly found something amongst the different catalogues and reports he'd been browsing through the tablet.
"!"
'Hmm... Can this work?' He doubted.
"I should try it tomorrow, if it doesn't, then I'll just look for it amongst other mosses one-by-one..."
Claude felt ecstatic, it was the same feeling as when a person found the answer to a mathematical problem by accident without knowing any formulas.
'If it works, then I can finish the hunting part of the exam within the same day tomorrow!'