In the depths of the forest, a loud roar echoed. The commotion caught the attention of two humans, who found themselves facing a massive monster—a lion hybrid with a snake tail. The girl wielded a sword, while the young man moved with agility, using webs to support his movements. They were Vale and Frida, who had agreed to hunt down powerful monsters together.
"I'll distract the monster, and you attack it," Vale said. That monster had excellent defense ability and ferocious attacks. If Vale were alone, he wouldn't dare to take a fight against this monster.
Frida, who had fully recovered from their last battle, possessed incredible strength, leaving Vale to play a supportive role. She had developed her own fighting style, which incorporated swordsmanship and magic techniques. It wasn't a unique approach; over the tens of thousands of years since the first Magus was born, many new fighting styles had emerged. Some Magus focused on physical combat, aiming to suppress their opponent, so they could not use magic techniques.
Frida, equipped with a sword, belonged to this category of Magus who prioritized physicality. With a fearless determination, she charged towards the monster, unfazed by its fierce roar. She jumped nimbly to dodge the snake's head that attacked her, then swung her sword at the snake's tail, hoping to sever the connection with the lion.
The snake's scales suddenly changed color to darker, the moment the sword touched its scales, a clinking sound was sounded. The sword could not leave the slightest scratch on the snake.
The snake's scales suddenly darkened as the sword struck them, producing a clinking sound. The sword barely made a scratch on the scales.
"—Light flame of judgment," Vale immediately cast a spell and threw a small ball in front of the monster's face, which released a bright light, forcing the lion monster to shut its eyes.
Frida, already aware of Vale's plan, cast her own magic technique, causing her sword to emit a blood-red glow. Ignoring the blinding light, she charged at the monster and sliced off the tail that connected the lion and the snake. Despite the snake's hardened scales, Frida's strengthened sword attack cut through them effortlessly.
"Great, now let's focus on cutting off its head!" Vale's magic technique only lasted three seconds, but it was enough time for Frida to cut off the snake's tail.
The lion, realizing that it had to take down at least one of its opponents, prepared to attack.
The lion turned its gaze towards Vale, who stood a few paces behind Frida. It roared and leaped high, lunging towards Vale, thinking it could easily defeat him.
Despite seeing the lunge, Vale did not try to escape. He waited for the right moment to launch an attack. As the lion set foot on the same tree branch as Vale, he unleashed a magic technique he had prepared.
"Reincarnation of the forest: Binding!" Vale shouted.
This technique not only allowed him to grow trees from nothing, but also to create tree trunks or other tree parts from mature trees. Not content with this, Vale cast the next magic technique.
"Living tree thrust!" he exclaimed.
Several sharp spears grew around the tree the lion was stepping on, seriously injuring its entangled leg.
However, the lion was still strong enough to break free from the tree trunk. Vale immediately retreated as Frida arrived on the scene. She jumped up and stepped on the head of the injured lion before thrusting her sword into its neck.
"In this way, we managed to hunt down the first monster of our cooperation," Frida said after killing the lion.
"You should be able to defeat monsters alone and more quickly, shouldn't you?" Vale asked. Although he agreed to hunt powerful monsters, he believed that Frida could handle everything while he relaxed and followed her.
From the moment I heard your plans for this annual test, I realized that you are missing something significant," Frida said, looking at Vale seriously.
"What is it?" Vale asked, tilting his head. He did not understand what he was missing in his plan.
"Combat experience," Frida replied. "You are too focused on results, but the process is also a significant part. You must learn to fight powerful monsters or other students without resorting to surprise strategies. The experience of fair fighting is also important for a magus."
"You mean to fight fairly? For me, results are everything. If I can kill my opponent, I will. Assuming I can't do that, I'll run away. In case my opponent is much stronger than me, I won't attack them. A noble like you, who is concerned with justice and honor, will not understand my principles," Vale explained.
Frida frowned. She was not satisfied with Vale's answer, but she decided to let it go for now. They were cooperating for the moment, and minor disagreements could be addressed later.
Frida, who had been influenced by noble teachings, viewed Vale's cowardly fighting style as a flaw.
"If you only care about results, then there is no point in hunting monsters. Use your Eclotus Eyes plants to find students with high points. We will start hunting them," Frida ordered.
Vale nodded. The real purpose of hunting monsters was to accumulate points, but with their combined strength, it would be easier to directly hunt down high-scoring players.
Vale collapsed onto a tree trunk that had crumbled, closed his eyes, and began to use his eclotus eyes plants. The number of elotus eyes plants in the forest had drastically reduced, as they were destroyed by monsters, discovered by other students, or obliterated during fights. However, Vale had enough eclotus eyes plants to examine certain areas of the forest surrounding the mountain and lake.
Vale perused the scenery around the eclotus eyes plants one by one, searching for individuals with high points. Suddenly, his quest came to a halt as he noticed something peculiar.
"I found Brenda surrounded by a group of noble students. We should rescue her," Vale told Frida.