"Yep, I got it."
"I'm glad."
Connor, Sohan, and Nia spent their time talking about various while Rando continued recovery. It was now 5:30 pm the group got distracted while chatting, but eventually, Connor and Sohan left to get their final points in while leaving Nia and Rando behind.
"Thanks for coming with me Connor."
The two walked through the forest, by this time most beasts would have already been killed or captured.
"No problem Sohan, so how many do you want to get before we're done"
"Hmm... maybe 3 to 4 more, could leave me satisfied, what about you are you going to try and gather more points?"
"No, not really I'm comfortable with my score for the time being."
"Why would you settle for less?"
"I don't want the attention, you should get that. It's why I asked you to sell the information though I doubt it really helped those who got it. They seemed competent enough already."
"Sure whatever. So mind if I ask a few questions?"
"Sure."
They trudged forward through bushes to find any surviving beasts. Sounds of artificially created rivers and flowing leaves from trees, Connor and Sohan have had the time to appreciate nature but are still astonished by the academy's ability to basically create a forest in 2 days.
"heh, isn't the academy pretty eccentric since it's just a simple test, honestly everything, since we came, has been irregular. They didn't ask us to let them hypnotize us, dorms rose from the fucking ground, they basically changed the requirements to enter the academy on a whim, and now this forest, what exactly did I sign up for haha?"
They weren't finding anything and ended up staying outside way longer than planned, there was no sign of students or beasts so Connor got bored and began conversing.
"Yeah, I have to agree with you there, especially about changing the entry requirements out of nowhere, pretty stingy but I've probably heard about similar things. When I say come from a merchant family I mean it business basically flows through our blood I've heard about a lot of things but I haven't had... the pleasure of witnessing things like this till today."
Connor nodded in understanding there wasn't much to say and so some awkwardness descended.
"It feels a bit awkward when neither of us has anything to say don't you think?" (Connor)
"... not really I'm sort of used to a heavy sort of silence so I don't mind a bit of awkward silence,"
Connor was of the same opinion, usually, he didn't mind keeping his mouth shut but he just really wanted to say something, but his lack of social interactions sort of left him mute. So he just chose to reflect on how to hold a conversation. Maybe he should read up on it?
The time they spent searching was uneventful, to say the least, eventually, Connor and Sohan would find things to talk about but there was just an overall sense of nothing.
The duo found a group that was just relaxing around a fire, laughing somewhat maniacally an odd bunch so they went in another direction. 3 hours had gone by and Connor was pissed, they had not come across a single beast, none in the trees, lakes, none even daring to bite their asses from underground.
There were marks all around the forest with remnants of battles, blood, and the like. Yet they encountered nothing, Sohan after some observing got the understanding that Connor was a proficient hunter at least, he seemed well acquainted with observing clues and finding tracks.
"So... Sohan what exactly does your family do for business?"
"Well, we provide adventurers with resources and on occasion provide heroes with special designer clothes and scrolls."
"Umm, haha... sorry but what do you mean by heroes?"
"Wait, wait, wait you don't even know what heroes are? Forget living under a rock do you live deep underground topped with a mountain?"
"I mean like I get the general gist of what a hero is I just don't get how that works, is it a job position, a title?"
"Well, basically you are a hero when you're in the top 50,000 of all adventurers it works as both a sort of promotion and a symbol of status. You do know what an adventurer is right?"
"I know that much the people who hunt beasts and clear dungeons are adventurers. Like beasts they are ranked from G to S, I just didn't know about the existence of heroes; since heroes exist do villains exist too?"
"Yeah, sort of the people that become villains are mostly either criminals or human supremacists that don't believe that we should be receiving help from races in other realms. God is it just me or does this feel like a convenient exposition dump."
"That's a weird way to put it but yeah it sort of does haha~ the one writing our lines must be so confused by the out of nowhere meta of this conversation."
So the two make their way back to the group feeling severely disappointed in the lack of beasts that they found while making fun of their author along the way."
"Honey I'm home~"
Connor spoke jovially entering the cave.
"Welcome back guys." (Rando)
"Any progress Sohan?" (Nia)
"Nada it was a complete waste of time. haizz..." Sohan waved his hand back and forth
"Not a siiingle one." Connor raised his index finger and said with strain.
The time now was 9 pm, the moon had already risen it had a light blue shade, unlike the jaded color it had 300 years prior. The crescent moon reflected beautifully on the leaves and water could be seen from a fair distance away gleaming in a neon blue color.
The 4 of them had come out of the cave and found a large message in the sky like a neon board pointing in one direction and a message that says "The test is over"
"It seems we get to finish a bit early, that's neat I want to sleep anyways." 'Bit disappointed I couldn't just run and parkour through the forest a bit more.' (Connor)
Sohan, Rando, and Nia nodded and found their way through the forest and found themselves aligned with 2 other groups along the way. Nia and Sohan dashed at high speeds leaving Rando quite a bit behind, and Connor sort of like a monkey swung among the tree branches. Making their way to the school building.
In the distance, around 15 minutes of running later, Connor's keen eyes could see some of the professors laughing the night away some with red faces, bottles in hand. If someone couldn't tell those people were drunk, this author would ask them to go to a doctor to get their eyes checked.
Dalil Kant, Professor Amber'sassistant sat on a nearby bench seemingly being one of the few to remain sober. He sighed and approached what seems to be some of the kids who reached earlier getting them to line up.
Connor's group came to a halt, approaching the teachers who finally seemed to recognize their arrival stood up and using various elements that went around in a swirling motion, and put on a stern expression, which to Connor just looks like them putting on masks to hide their gleeful expression, he could also get a better tell that they were no longer drunk as the glossiness in their eyes had faded and pupils were no longer constricted.
No one could comment on Connor's outstanding observation skills, so there was no reaction to him squinting his eyes and looking at each of them, they thought that he was just looking at him with scrutiny due to the way they were just caught drinking.
"*Cough* Sorry you found us like this kids, we were going to round up in around 10 mins." Dalil coughed into his hand with a little blush on his cheeks seemingly embarrassed in his work colleagues.
The other student and Rando all chuckled seeing their teachers state maybe it could be used as blackmail? Nia just yawned having lost her leadership gusto from inside the forest, Soha, stood bored and Connor just had a teensy smile as always.