"Now that everyone is split into their own teams, stay in a group and follow me to the entrance!" Clara was to take them to the entrance of the temple. This only happened on their first practical. After this, they would not even be given a ride to the location. They would need to find their own form of transportation and make their way to the site on their own. But for this first trip, they were guided to the location.
Yue was actually excited about this trip. Although she had been to many dangerous locations for her own training, her parents were always watching. This meant she was not always in any real danger. She felt that in order to get strong, one must face all kinds of dangerous situations. Only this way would she learn to really adapt to the situation. If she felt that no matter what, her life was never in danger, then she would be too relaxed. So not being under the eye of her parents for this training made her very excited.
Because of the fact that during a practical anything could happen, Yue was very excited. She did not care that the smile on her face made her look creepy in the slightest. She only cared about what was to come.
The smell of nature filled Yue's nose as they hurried through the woods. This was no walk in the park, that was for sure. As this was part of training, they were all running at a medium speed through the unmarked path towards the temple.
Steep mossy slopes, downed trees, thick thickets, and even tree roots that stuck up from underground, hidden in the fallen leaves, were all dealt with gracefully by Yue. The other students, however, were not so lucky. Some had slipped and fell on the mossy slopes. Others fell face first after tripping on a root. The girls complained about being scratched up in the thickets. Not only was Yue frowning at their inability, but so was Clara. "What the hell is the matter with you all!? With such little ability, why are you even in this academy!? You girls are crying over a few scratches. You boys can't even climb over a fallen tree correctly. Some of you even sprained your ankles climbing the slopes, causing you to need to be healed! Hah..."
Clara let out an exhausted sigh. She looked at Yue and smiled. She was happy one of her students was competent. She walked over to Yue and whispered into her ear. "I will have to ask you to look after them. Although they are not the nicest bunch in the world, and they try to bully you all the time. Please, for me, try to keep as many of them as you can alive. Although the academy has tried to confirm the reports on the goblins, only small signs of them have been found. I am afraid they might be hiding within the ruins. The academy didn't search thoroughly in order to keep all the monsters alive. Goblins are actually good monsters for new students to fight as well. "
"Don't worry. I have had to fight my way out of a goblin den before, I know how to deal with them. Although I do not like these kids, I will do what I can to keep them alive to a point. The first time they try to use me as a shield, I will let them die. Male or female, I do not care." Yue could see Clara was going to argue with her, so she added: "Mrs. Clara, everyone has a line they should not cross. If I get used as a shield, I will let them die or become breeders for the goblins."
Clara flinched at Yue's cold words. But she also understood what Yue meant. Everyone did have a line that should not be crossed. Although Yue never let others bother her much, she was never one to reward evil with good. If they messed with her, she would settle the score. It would be the same if they tried to use her as a shield. She would rather leave them to their own fates.
"I understand. I will not hold it against you if you are the only one to survive." Clara said with a sigh. She could only ask for a favor. It was up to Yue to carry it out. But if the kids still stuck to their stubborn ways, then she would understand.
It was nightfall when they finally reached the ruins of the moon goddess temple. This temple only had a single floor above ground, but there was a staircase leading down below it. Besides old ruins like these, which were fairly safe and filled with low level monsters, there were also dungeons that would mysteriously appear out of nowhere. They would only disappear if the dungeon core was taken out of the dungeon. But these dungeons were not for fledglings as they would require great skill to make their way through them, and each floor you descended would be harder than the one before.
The moon goddess temple was nothing like a dungeon and only had a few floors. The task for the practical was for each team to find a purple orb with the academy's symbol on it. They were placed on the lower floors a few months back in preparation for this practical before word of goblins being in the area had spread around. Since it was goblins and not anything else, the academy really only did a minor search near the villages to keep the villagers safe. As for the students, as Clara had said, they were perfect targets for new students.
"We will make camp here, and then you will enter the temple at first light!" Clara declared as she came to a clearing in front of the temple.
"We can finally relax!" One of the boys cried out. The whole group was sweating head to toe and looked like a wreck.
"I want to bathe!" A noble girl complained.
Yue sneered. She couldn't stand these girls complaining about wanting to bathe. There was nothing stopping them from stripping down and having someone cast water magic on them. But if they wanted privacy, they would need to go into the woods under cover of darkness, but the chances of being dragged away by something would rise by a lot. So it was either deal with it or show everyone some skin.
"We will do things in shifts. Vanessa, your group and Van's, and myself will take the first watch. Yue and..." Clara rattled off the next few groups setting up two shifts. Many people complained about only getting to sleep a few hours, but there was nothing they could do about it. Clara purposely put Yue on the second shift since, besides herself, Yue was the only one she could trust to protect everyone. Although Yue couldn't cast magic she was still the best fighter amongst the students as she was also trained to be a magic knight.