Just before we had split up, I had gathered everybody in Team 3 and questioned every one of them about their stats and specialties.
I didn't pry too much, saying it was their choice if they wanted to show us their skills or not.
Naturally, I chose to go up first. Death's Vision was my only skill, and it was useless if I couldn't deal damage.
They seemed kind of disappointed at that, but I took back their interests once I showed them a small peek of Dainsleif.
I didn't actually need to hear their stats, by the way. I knew very well each and every one of their capabilities and weaknesses.
For example, Rokas' stats leaned heavily on the defensive side. His highest was probably C-, on the border of reaching C.
His agility was his weakest stat, probably around D.
All stats that you'd expect from a tank. Stats that catered towards NOT taking damage would later take a nosedive when he ranked up.
As for Percivale and his sister Alter, most of their stats were geared towards mana, as was what magicians were known for.
The difference between the two siblings was that the older Alter focused more on the "destructive" part of magic. Her skills usually involved causing a lot of damage to the surrounding area.
Percivale was, well, a softball who could be said to be more of a pacifist. Even when he was older, he never took action against his opponents first, choosing to only do so if they had hurt his loved ones.
"This should be a good place to start looking. What do you think, Alter?"
Currently, I was with Alter in front of a deserted restaurant. We were in the more uninhabited part of the city.
Who am I kidding, the whole city is uninhabited.
The only other people we'd meet are probably the other cadets. But even then, the possibility of said instance happening was low.
This city was abnormally large, too large to be called a city.
"Don't. Talk. To. Me." Alter replied, emphasizing her haughty tone in every word she said.
"Okay, okay. You don't have to respond. I wish we could at least work together."
I headed inside, bringing my sword out from its sheath. You could never be too careful. Who knows? There could be a monster lurking here somewhere.
Although clearly displeased with me, Alter still decided to follow me inside.
I had a reason for coming to this run-down building.
It was to find and look for one of the crucial items needed to complete this test. An item that could help us survive longer.
It wasn't announced by the proctors, but I knew they had placed hundreds of care packages throughout the city. Each one of them contained loot that could help the cadets survive.
Unlike the placement of the exit, the care packages' locations were fixed. I couldn't exactly remember where they placed the more valuable ones, but my brain could still remember a small part of where some of them were.
The one we were currently going to had a care package that contained food.
It sounded basic, sure. But in a place like this, where you had no reliable source of food, canned goods were a lifesaver.
Problem was, the way to get to said care package was most likely infested with monsters.
"It should be here." After combing through the entirety of the restaurant and having found nothing, we finally reached a door.
I didn't see it then, but Alter's eyebrow rose a bit when she heard me say this.
As I pushed open the large metal door, we were immediately greeted with a big change in scenery.
The world at the other end of the door looked vastly different from the one we were in. The walls were made of some type of stone bricks, materials that were uncommon during this time.
A dungeon. Yup. These care packages were often hidden behind dangerous situations. The rewards were always worth it, but the danger was indeed high if someone were to go in by themselves.
Thankfully, I had the wonderful Alter Eri with me to help. Although I did doubt that she would actually assist me.
"How did you know this was here?" She poked my back.
"Are we allowed to talk to each other now?" I joked.
Her facial expression visibly turned mad. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. Just don't blow me up.
"I didn't. I just happened to sense that this place had an awkwardly high amount of mana concentrated in it. Remember? I have a great sense for mana." I replied, lying.
"Ngh."
"Let's head in then. It's bound to contain something nice."
***
"I wonder how Leader Dignitas and Mistress Alter are doing now."
"D-don't worry about them, Sir Rokas. My sister has always been really strong."
I didn't completely trust Mister Dignitas, but I knew better yet than to judge people when they hadn't even done anything worthy of persecution.
My gut senses told me to trust in our Leader.
"I see. Then they must have slain a lot of monsters already."
Although I said this, we weren't doing too bad ourselves. Whenever we were engaging in battle, I would charge in first, taking the brunt of the damage.
While our enemies were distracted with me, Mister Percivale would unleash his mana to cast devastating spells that usually defeated them in a few hits.
For this, I was thankful.
Currently, we were inside a market plaza. Abandoned stalls lined every inch of the place. It made me think about how bustling this place would be if this was an actual world.
After swinging my sword down, I was able to confirm that the last wolf of the pack had been successfully eliminated. I walked back to where Mister Percivale was and handed him the bones from the monsters we had slain.
This was Mister Percivale's power: Spatial Magic. He was able to use his mana to conjure various holes in reality and use them to his advantage.
It was quite the sight when seen in battle. Miniscule black holes, no bigger than a coin, would appear in front of the enemy.
Although small, they had enough pulling force to be able to drag away their weapons and even disassemble their armor.
It was both powerful and graceful.
Every time we had successfully defeated an enemy, we would inspect their corpses and take whatever part was good.
Strangely enough, Leader Dignitas told me that we didn't have to worry about picking up food. He told me we could still take some, but he said that no more than a bag's worth of meat was enough.
Perhaps he had a method of procuring food that we did not know about? From how I could see it, he was quite the mysterious man.
My thoughts were stopped when I heard a rustle coming from the bushes.
"N-no way… this mana signature… a demon!?" Percivale suddenly said out loud.
What? A demon? Here?
I didn't recall the Academy ever telling us about the existence of demons. There was no mention about them anywhere.
Demons were generally classified into ranks, the same way humans were.
They would start off as mindless imps when at D rank and would then turn more humanlike the stronger they got.
"There's more." I turned my head in another direction, having heard noises there as well.
"This… many?" Percivale murmured.
From the looks of it, we were heavily outnumbered. More and more demons appeared from the bushes, until we were finally surrounded from all sides.
The demons in front of us were tiny– about half of Mister Percivale's size. Still, there were many, while we were only two.
They had small wings on their back, and their skin was darker than even the darkest of human skin tone.
This… was going to be difficult.
"Calm yourself, Mister Percivale. We must work together to get through this crisis."
"Y-yes." He quickly recomposed himself.
"Then, please stay close and assist me at all times. I will be making the first move."
I brandished my sword and tightened my grip on my shield. I would make sure Mister Percivale would not take a single attack.