"Here" I passed the diamond crystal containing a dark purple pendant inside it to Prince Theo.
Currently, we've just completed the second hidden point that we found. The first hidden point is from an ant nest where we found a set of earrings.
At first, we just killed all the ants before barely managing to kill the Queen which was bigger than a car. The other ants had the size similar to a bike.
While cleaning up the remaining ants, Prince Theo accidentally burnt a bunch of their eggs before he realized that killing those eggs also earned him points. Thus he decided to burn the nest down when I barely managed to take the earrings from the Queen's corpse.
Why did I take the earrings, you may ask?
It's because it looks pretty and not the womanly pretty but aesthetically pretty. For its unknown function, I would try to find an artifact appraiser later.
At a time like this, I hope that I also could have a system since Cedric's system not only have a sensing function but also could appraise artifacts on the spot.
Later we moved into a swampy area and not knowing what was inside the swamp water, we threw a few ants' corpses into it. As a result, the swamp didn't seem to have any living things in it but the water was acidic since it managed to corrode the ants' outer shield. If it was human, our skin probably melt right away after being in contact with the swamp water.
At the centre of the swamp was a big mangrove tree where there was a purple diamond crystal as big as an adult human's head, embedded in its trunk.
Seeing that we couldn't cross the swamp by swimming and none of us could use levitation magic or fly, I decided to use my psychokinesis and dug out the crystal before giving it to Prince Theo since I know it's suit him more in terms of functionality.
The pendant was a black mage pendant where it could store dead mana and also help regulate the mana inside the mage's body more efficiently. The level of the pendant also could be increased by embedding dark mana stone into it.
"Isn't this too easy? Where are the monsters?" He asked after seeing the hidden task was completed just like that, without any of us moving a single step.
"Isn't it better like this? We can save energy"
"Yeah whatever so should we start searching for the teleportation point now?"
"Sure"
Using his detection skill and also the unknown elemental that he contracted, he led me towards an area where a lot of students gathered around, hoping there might be a teleportation point there.
To be honest, not much was said about Prince Theo in the novel other than he always showed up whenever troubles happen, to represent the Hargan Royal family's responsibility in protecting its citizens.
His power was not explained much other than he's using dead mana and contracted with one elemental. That was it since he was an extra among many extras. Readers didn't interested in him much.
However, thinking about it again, I think if I could choose which character I wanted to transmigrate into, I would choose Prince Theo since he chose not to become emperor and managed to remain alive until the end when even the emperor at that time couldn't kill him.
He particularly had a great helper which was an elemental. Elementals couldn't be seen by or communicate with other than their contractor. It is literally a good spy if you wanted to observe someone.
However, being Ares was also not that bad but I had to be careful with my life planning and the choices that I would make in the future since it could affect my survival.
A few moments later, we arrived at a wide area that could occupy several big mansions.
Dozens of students scattered around the area busy fighting with goblins, mutated rabbits and mutated plants. We decided to take a rest on a big stone not far from the students.
Sitting on a huge stone, I occasionally used a sneak attack on any stray monsters while Prince Theo just looked around seemingly bored. I used my handmade slingshot to shoot a few small metal balls toward those monsters.
I wanted to buy guns but they were only reserved for normal civilians that didn't have abilities above normal humans thus people with abilities couldn't use guns.
They do still use simple weapons like slingshots thus me using them was not weird. I coated mana into the metal bullets to make them faster and more deadly.
Suddenly, the monsters that eagerly fought with the students run away as if they were afraid of something. The students managed to kill of few more of them before letting the rest run away seemingly confused about why those monsters acted like that.
-Pak!
-Dum!
It didn't take long before their confusion turned into realization upon seeing the creature that showed up in front of them. The grey stone golem with a height of 20 meters slowly walked towards the scattered students.
"Kyah-run!"
"They never teach us how to deal with a golem before"
"Is this thing supposed to be here?"
"Can we cut that thing?"
"Sh-should we run?"
The students started to panic and gathered closely together where the more courageous ones were in front and the rest in the back.
A few moments later, without waiting for the golem to attack first, they started attacking it either using long-range attacks like bows or short-range attacks using swords, daggers and spears.
Golems found inside low-level dungeons were not that dangerous since their movement was just average and they didn't have any attack ability other than a strong sturdy body and a big intimidating size.
Unfortunately, their attacks didn't cause any huge damage to the golem where they only managed to cause the golem's body to slightly crack or scratch. They continued to mindlessly attack, maybe hoping it would slowly damage the golem and killed it. This kind of tactic seems logical if you didn't know the golem's weaknesses.
Watching the scene unfold in front of us, me and Prince Theo decided to just observe first before deciding to help.
"Move aside you bunch of wimpy primates" someone shouted after a while.
Not far away from the attacking group, Amanda Manic was standing straight while holding a white bow before releasing a magic arrow with an ice property towards the golem attacking one of its legs joints. Later without saying anything, she continued attacking the golem's joints, making it almost tumble down. Each of her attacks froze parts of the golem making it difficult to move.
'She must've read about the golem's weaknesses before.'
Golems generally have a hard and sturdy body. The efficient way in killing it was either quickly blew his magic core, blew his head off or first immobilized it by attacking its joints before trying to find its magic core and destroy it. But it was not easy to find the magic core since it was inside the golem's body.
Seeing the attacks seem to be working, the other students followed suit and attacked the other joints. However, even after those torrential attacks, the golem only fall and was immobilized but still didn't die just yet. The students looked frustrated and stressed out.
Amanda just walked away after the golem fell as if she didn't care if the golem die or not. She might have guessed that there will be at least one person that would be able to give the golem the final blow.
The points of killing it would be divided properly based on the contribution of each student thus she didn't need to kill the golem herself despite knowing how.
"Hey, do you want to give the final blow or do you want me to do it?" Prince Theo suddenly asked me.
I thought for a while before answering since I knew both of us were capable of smashing the golem's head off. But there's no way for me to find the exact place of its magic core.
I could just smash the golem's head off. However, feeling that my way of doing it would be quite flashy and would attract a lot of attention, I decided to let him give the final blow.
"I buy you dinner today," he said after getting my answer before clicking his fingers.
-Boom!
-Crack!
The golem's head exploded and the ground near the golem's remnants shook. The students who were still discussing what to do next were shocked to see the sudden scene unfolded in front of them.
They only realized upon seeing their points have increased, signifying they have succeeded in killing the golem.
"Hey why do you let me do it when you're capable yourself?" he asked after we left the area.
"I can't use magic as efficient as you and I can only smash its head using my physical strength so everyone will see what I do."
"Hey I never imagined that you're a shy person," he said seemingly didn't expect that kind of answer.
I just rolled my eyes hearing his statement, feeling too lazy to explain it to him. We moved around some more before we came across Gina and Selina who told us they've found a teleportation point.
"You can walk straight from here and it's over there," Selina said emotionlessly pointing towards a direction while Gina tried to avoid eye contact with us.
"Oh thank you. So aren't you guys finish yet?" Prince Theo asked seemingly trying to be polite.
"There's still 45 minutes left and Gina wants to look at the plants around. We will teleport back later" Selina replied calmly while Gina nodded her head vigorously.
"Sure be careful", said Prince Theo acting like a good guy before we walked away.
"You sure talked nicely to girls" I commented.
"Said someone who I've never seen talking to anyone other than me in the class"
"I've talked with Cedric before," I said defending myself.
It's not my fault I've only talked to him since no one approached me and I'm not someone who would willingly approach a stranger first.
"I think I have to put 'stone man' as your contact number"
"...." I chose to ignore him and continued walking while he started laughing seeing me ignoring him as if I was sulking.
***********************************
[POV: Cedric Hel]
"Hey if you want to pass this gate, give 10 points to each of us or find another portal," said the guy with protruding teeth.
There are still 30 minutes left and I wanted to take a rest early after exerting my power a few times. However, four students currently guarding the teleportation portal and demanding people to pay or fight them before they could use the portal.
Even though I'm confident with my strength, I didn't feel like fighting them since they were nobles and making trouble with nobles was the last thing I wanted to do.
Amanda Manic also just ignored them and sat on a stone not far away from me, seemingly waiting for the testing period to end.
Seeing that none of the overseers interrupted with those bunch, they might have accepted it since there's no rule saying you can't extort other students' points.
The other group of students that were full of injuries on their bodies also decided to sit down nearby the portal area since they wouldn't be able to win the fight.
They also didn't seem to have that many points considering they didn't want to give away 40 points to those bunch of guys guarding the portal even when they clearly needed to go back and find a healer right now.
A few moments later, another two figures showed up to use the portal, dark skin with silver-grey hair guy and a red hair guy. Both of them nonchalantly walked towards the portal as if no one was there.
"Hey give 10 points to each of us first or fight us to use the portal," said the previous guy.
"Huh, why should we do that?" Prince Theo asked seemingly confused.
"Your highness the prince should rest early so just give a mere 40 points to us and you can use this portal," one of the guys said.
"Why. Should. I?" Prince Theo asked the same question.
However, before the leader of the group managed to reply, he was hit using a sword that was still seathed in its scabbard. His other friends were shocked by the sudden attack from someone who didn't make any sound at all since he showed up.
"Yo-you, do you think we are afraid of you just because of your family?! HGA don't care about family, they only care if you're talented or not," yelled one of the guys while the rest of them started to stand on guard, preparing to attack.
Moments later, the four of them pounced on Ares at the same time and Ares just hit them with his two swords that were still seathed. Each time he hit them, I could hear the sounds of bones cracking.
"These guys not only talk big but they are also talentless. I don't even want to know which family they came from"
Prince Theo commented while Ares was still in the midst of beating those four guys into pulps.
While Ares made those guys faint Prince Theo stole their smartwatches and throw three of them toward the group of injured students.
Later Ares threw away those fainted students into the portal like they were sacks of rice. He didn't seem to care whether those guys landed on the other side safely or not.
"Your highness why are you giving this to us?" Asked female students from the group consisting of five people.
"Didn't you guys remember that you guys were the one helping us attack the wave of goblins during the start of the test before and this is enough for our payments," he said before throwing a smartwatch to Ares.
Seeing that there was no more disturbance in front of the portal, Amanda was the first one passing through it followed by the injured groups. Ares suddenly came at me after he finished transferring the points to his watch.
"Wait for Gina and Selina lest other bugs come out," he said while giving me bread and a bottle of water before walking away.
I mindlessly accepted the pack of butter bread and a bottle of water as I was currently a bit hungry. I watched the two of them chatting and walked towards the teleportation portal before it suddenly shut down.
"...."
"Hey is this a joke?" Prince Theo grumbled before unsheathing his sword.
I felt an ominous feeling and my instinct was rarely wrong.
Ares started looking around as if searching for something. I put my guard up.
-Grrrack!
The ground suddenly shook, and low-pitched rumbles sounded as rock and stones ground each other. The sound of trees falling also reverberated all over the area. The cave dungeon felt like it was going to collapse anytime soon.
Soon bumps and cracks started appearing on the ground. While still thinking about what to do, a large reddish-black teleportation portal suddenly appeared on the spot of the previous green teleportation portal.
"We shouldn't go inside that right?" Prince Theo asked.
Ares just shook his head slightly before grabbing Prince Theo's hand and my hand to run away from the vicinity of the weird teleportation portal.
However, not everything would go as planned.
-Buk!
A reddish tentacle grabbed Prince Theo's right leg and caused him to stumble down. Ares quickly cut it off and we started running away faster.
However, it was useless. The same red tentacle started increasing in numbers. There was also a sudden gust of strong wind sucking us into the portal.
-Swish!
The gale of wind pulled us back and made it harder for us to move forward. Out of the blue, dozens of red tentacles wrapped around my body and pulled me into the portal.
Ares tried to catch me but didn't manage to do so as the same thing happen to him. Prince Theo started using magic but his fire magic didn't work within the strong wind.
-Ehmm
I couldn't even shout as the tentacle also covered my mouth.
The last thing I saw was the three of us getting sucked into the portal and then everything was darkness.