After spending the night in the forest, we made our way back to camp, the only big stop we had was to clean up in a stream of water, so we ended up arriving at camp a little after lunch only to find the camp in an uproar.
The students were running around like it was a race against time, which is very weird since there were still three days before the examiners passed this test to the next stage. I stopped a student I recognized from the southern aria who is looking at me like I'm a ghost or his biggest nightmare.
"Hi, what's going on at camp? Why is everyone running like the test is ending?"
"Because it's running out and you're the cause of it."
"What? As well? Explain yourself better?"
"In the morning an examiner brought the students together and said that today would be the last day of this phase and there's just time until the sun goes down to turn in the assignments after that they will give an explanation of how the next phase of the test will work. Everyone is rushing to finish as many missions as possible to increase their rank."
"I see, but what does this have to do with me?"
"Won't you finish a five-star mission? And how will you get it?"
There is something very wrong with that.
"Five stars? We finished a four-star quest and not a five, and even though we had finished a five-star quest you still haven't explained to me why you guys would be upset about our quests?"
"The examiner said this morning, the reason they sped up the test and because you've completed a five-star assignment, all the students are unhappy with you Ulric don't think being the principal's mascot will protect you from the capital's students. All of them are very angry with your team that screwed up all the students, several of them already have plans to attack your group in the next test phase and some who are complaining that you are cheating because the mission board doesn't even a mission with the five-star difficulty."
I thought the examiners might be upset with the method we used to kill that thing that gave birth to those magical beasts, but I didn't think they would do something like that. They're basically using the other students to punish us, but even though I admit that this method is quite original I still think it's an exaggeration that they lie or have actually changed the difficulty of our mission to use it as an excuse to finish this part of the test.
I hope to gain something from this, if our quest reward points don't increase, I will make a formal complaint about it. If they want to make things difficult for us, I'll make sure I get something out of it.
"Thanks."
After dropping the student, I turn to Amael and Vali who are looking at me like I'm to blame for all of this. They are not necessarily wrong but I will never admit it to them so I will blame it on the fact that the examiners are jealous of my brilliance and they must be enemies of the master, blaming her is a great way out
"I think we should go hand in the materials we got by stitches and go talk to the examiners later. They'll probably call us to talk before nightfall, by then we can finish doing everything we have to do and go rest while we wait to be called."
"Could be, but why do you always have to get in trouble?"
"True, in the last stages of the test you always get into trouble, I hope we don't get penalized the same way you were penalized during the rune matrix maze."
Good to know the two don't blame me too much, and I hope Vali is right I'd rather not have to go into the next test unarmed.
"Remember to avoid being around other students for now, a lot of them appear to be focused on missions so it's easy for us not to draw too much attention, I don't want to be the cause of conflict within the camp. It seems to many students who are interested in picking a fight with us just to feel better and vent their anger."
"I doubt that some of them can really be our opponent Ulric, those who aren't handling the test well end up being the weak ones who can't raise their rank or even rank."
"The problem is starting a fight and not winning it, even if you beat up a dozen weak Vali idiots, the fight will be a great excuse for other people in your region of the idiots you just beat to come help them. , and if between a handful of weaklings and a strong one leading you will end up being beaten or chased by the entire camp, the examiners don't get into conflict between the students since the students don't use lethal force or try to cripple the other students they won't move a finger to keep you from being trampled and having most of your bones broken or cracked."
"OK."
I broke away from my friends and covered my face with the little cape we used to protect ourselves from the rain, I hope this is enough to avoid being easily noticed by most students who don't know me well, I just hope I don't. nor a southern idiot who makes a fuss when he recognizes me or sells other students' information about my whereabouts.
It seems that luck smiles on me finally, during my entire trip I was not recognized and the bones I sold gave us a lot of points, according to the evaluator these bones that only have mana now have the ability to fuse and strengthen materials of the life and death element and that makes these bones a very valuable material.
I think the guardian we killed without seeing was more complicated than we expected, a magical beast with two attributes already complicated, but one that has two rare attributes and that are opposite must be a very strong enemy.
It is very rare to see a person or beast with two opposing elements, the simplest logic dictates that this type of service must die because the elements inside your body will attack each other and not live in harmony, but reality has a funny way of proving that she's right while the rest is wrong, although few beings like that I've read about several famous figures who had opposite elements in their bodies, most of them end up taking their place in history even if they're not figures with very legendary feats .
But unfortunately, my luck doesn't last long because before arriving at Hilda's tent since it would be very silly to go to the tent I was in before, I was approached by an examiner who invited me in a very 'gentle' way to follow him, and why that is not something I need to know right now.
It didn't take long for me to be sitting at a table inside and a tent was failing and the floor and earth inside it was slightly damp, by the time I stepped on the tent my boot sank into a small bed of mud. Obviously, the problem here is not the fact that my boot got dirty since I'm in my forest one this is normal, but the fact that the earth inside the cabin is wet while the earth outside is dry.
With a fair amount of mana and elemental energy running under my foot now, I feel like I've just walked into a trap, the damn water element mage who is hiding can easily attack me with his magic inside this cave so quickly that I don't even know if I'll be able to get out of my chair before I'm surrounded by currents or tentacles of water.
What hostile people.
It didn't take long for me to be up against another mage that has the shadow and wind element at its core, and by the look of his face is he happy? I'm getting signals that are conflicting, the water element wizard in the corner of the tent obviously has hostility towards me, but it looks like the conversation leader here is happy with me.
"Good morning young man, I think you must be overflowing with curiosity. By your face you should already be aware of the news so let's get straight to the point, you can ask me some questions now."
What a straightforward guy.
"So may I ask why it looks like my mission has had an increase in its rank and why the test is moving faster?"
"Straight to the point, good. Your quest has been upgraded to a five-star quest for a very simple reason, the last magical beast you killed from a very creative miner I must point out, it wasn't something the person who set up the quest intended. Due to various external factors, your last challenge was changed from a normal magical beast to that monster you faced but never saw."
"So, it was a last-minute change, so how much extra points are we going to get for completing a five-star mission?"
"A fifty percent raise, and not even negotiating, I'm being pretty charitable already. And about advancing the date this test phase is over and quite simple, we would do that before you complete the mission to be exact it would have happened tomorrow from one girl or another, but you have become a good excuse to distract the biggest part of the students."
So, I'm just being used as a simple excuse is this guy and so brazen in his way of telling me this because if I told this to another student they wouldn't believe me, they'll think it's just a pathetic attempt for me to blame it on examiners.
"What's the name and or type of that weird magical beast, we weren't even able to see her alive and after her death she just left a few bones and a handful of black snot."
"Yes, she is quite unique, but before we talk about her, we should finish official business. Your team did a great service to the realm by helping with this experiment and that's why the three of you received a realm reward that will not directly affect your performance or test result, these are separate matters in the end count your reward being delivered in a short time to your families and in your case it will go to your master when you return home you will have a nice surprise, and I guarantee you that the reward is not something simple and cheap."
"Thanks."
"Now official business is over."
The shadow and wind magician who was talking to me turned to the grumpy magician in the corner of the tent with a wild smile and a hint of mockery.
"You can leave now that official business is over. Get lost, idiot."
The mage in the corner of the room was about to attack us, his mana and elemental energy were raging inside his body, but the mage in front of me didn't even bother to look at the water element mage anymore. I guess the hostility the mage released wasn't completely aimed at me.
But in the end the irritated and humiliated wizard leaves the tent and a very subtle barrier has formed around the hut.
"Well now we can talk without worrying about others overhearing our conversation, Ulric."