"This island is quite large. It's shaped like a circle, with a volcano in the middle. It's hard to estimate the area, but it should not be less than 17 square km."
Vale didn't hunt monsters right away. He sat near the beach while drawing a map of the island based on his observations as he fell from the sky. He observed several locations that he thought were important on this island.
"The number of fifth-year students in each class is approximately 50 people. This means that there are approximately 200 fifth-year students at the Midvalley Magus Academy. However, considering that a number of students have given up, there should only be 170 or 180 students taking this annual test."
Vale then made a series of dots around the island map.
"Students fell around the island, they will most likely swim to the shore and continue forward while looking for monsters, shelter, water, etc. This means that the deeper one goes to the island, the higher the chances of meeting other participants."
According to Vale's observations at the moment he fell from the sky, there were two places that would be bustling with students. The first was a lake in the east of the island, the second was a mountain in the middle of the island. Those two places definitely had a lot of monsters or beasts being hunted. Thinking about that, Vale already had an idea regarding what he was going to do.
"Firstly, I shouldn't focus too much on points at first. As long as I kill students with high points, then I can get enough points. So, let's set a goal first. First, I'll head straight to the area around the lake and mountains instead of hunting monsters. Second, I will scatter the eclotus eyes plants around the lakes and mountains."
Eclotus eyes plants, a plant that had strange eyes on the plant's flowers. With some techniques, a magus could use it as a natural CCTV. Vale brought around 200 seeds of the eclotus eyes plant. He planned to scatter the 200 seeds around lakes and mountains.
Of course, he couldn't observe all the places because it is necessary to place the eclotus eyes plant strategically in a location where other students will likely pass by on their way to the mountains or lakes. If the plan was going well, Vale was confident that he could at least observe the students who are approaching the two places.
"With the eclotus eyes plants, I should be able to find Brenda's whereabouts. Helping her and making friends with her are important parts of my future plans," said Vale with a serious expression.
He stood up and erased all the island map on the ground, completely removing it until there was not even a trace left.
"Then I have to leave now; I can't underestimate the intelligence of the other students. Maybe there are people who have the same plan as me," Vale whispered to himself before closing his eyes.
After a moment, Vale whispered again, "Hidden in the dark, looking for trapped prey, dancing while watching death, feasting on joy, spider dance!"
When Vale opened his eyes, he felt his body was very light, and he noticed that something had happened to his hand. He jumped casually, but surprisingly, he managed to jump onto a tree branch as high as three meters.
He stretched out his hand, throwing the spider web out of his palm at a tall tree. Vale then swung between the trees using the spider web that kept coming out of his palms. He continued swinging for 30 minutes before finally stopping. Vale lowered his body to the ground, sat down, and leaned his back against the tree, breathing heavily.
He was exhausted after swinging non-stop using the spider dance. He lifted his trembling hands and noticed that his palms were red with a few bloodstains. At first, he wasn't too concerned, but after 20 minutes or so, he felt his hands getting very hot and hurting every time he swung. This was an effect he hadn't noticed while practicing the magic technique.
"I should be a quarter of the way there. If I calculate the rest time between each use of the spider dance, it should take around 180 minutes or about three hours to get to the area around the lake. This speed should be quite fast considering other students might not even have movement category magic techniques," Vale thought to himself.
Vale used the healing magic he had learned to heal both of his hands. He then rested for 15 minutes before continuing towards the area around the lake. He kept repeating the process of swinging and resting for three hours, and as planned, he managed to reach the area around the lake in the eastern part of the island.
Vale then looked for some fruit to alleviate the hunger that he was starting to feel. The way to distinguish edible and inedible fruit was actually straightforward: Vale only needed to look at the fruit that was often consumed by low-level beasts and monsters on the island.
According to the knowledge he had obtained from the Academy, low-level monsters and beasts did not have as strong of a digestive system as high-level monsters, so the fruits eaten by low-level monsters and beasts were safe for humans to eat.
Finally, Vale found a mango-like fruit that was being eaten by a group of low-level ape monsters. Vale killed some of the ape monsters and chased the rest away. He then took all the fruits from the mango tree, ate some on the spot, and kept the rest for later.
After dealing with hunger, Vale spent about five hours sowing seeds around the lake. He took his time finding a location where students would likely pass by and hid the eclotus eyes plants to prevent them from being found.
As there was no sun in this dimensional fraction, the students could not determine whether it was day or night. However, Vale was able to track the time and realized it was already 8:00 pm after he had finished spreading the seeds of the eclotus eyes plants. He then searched for a tall tree with a large trunk diameter and climbed it using the spider dance technique. Once he was high enough, he made a hole in the tree and entered it, camouflaging it with plants.
"The first day is coming to an end, and I've only managed to collect 10 points after killing that ape monster. Hopefully, my plan goes well. It's a gamble, and if I fail to beat even a single student at the end, I will fail, even though I'm an apprentice magus stage two now," Vale thought to himself.
Vale's plan for the annual test was indeed risky, but he didn't falter. He believed in his abilities and trusted that with good planning, he could defeat an apprentice magus stage three.
After a tiring day, Vale decided to rest in his hiding spot. From the sky, he noticed that there were few flying monster species on the island, mostly concentrated in the central mountain. Therefore, he assumed that high places were safer for resting.