- Oh! So you knew aswell? Mind telling me how you found out? -- Kerren immediately attacked the "leader" -- It's just that i had to spend some time to come up with that conclusion, but you knew all along? Why didn't you tell us then?
He wasn't going to make it easy for them. Every question of his directly attacked his non-existent "authority" that he seemed to like so much.
- That... Uh... Well, i just thought that teachers wouldn't make it easy for us so... -- he wasn't speaking confidently anymore.
- Then what type of monsters do you think we'll meet? -- Kerren interrupted him before he could say anything else, good tactic when you're arguing is to never allow the other person to speak.
- Uhm, spiders, obviously! This is a forest, who else could be here? -- this "leader" guy tried to pose as an all-knowing being as it seemed.
Kerren, of course, only exhaled instead of answering him.
- Guys, it turns out that this guy is no better than the other two. I give all of you one chance to choose. Either you follow me and we get the most points out of this test... or you continue following this guy and fail it completely, as he clearly doesn't know what he's doing.
Of course, saying that was breaking character, but he could justify it by saying that something just awakened inside of him and he couldn't sit still as someone incopetent was in the lead.
That was a bad excuse, but who really cares? People wouldn't bother too much about it, maybe he really was a hero of some sorts?
Whatever it was, students around Kerren started looking at each other. They doubted his words. Why would he try to split up again?
Then, one of the students braved up and asked...
- Why do you think that he doesn't know what he's doing?
In reality, many students wanted to ask this same exact question, and Kerren knew that perfectly as he came up with an excuse already...
- Dont you remember how lost he looked when we arrived here? He said he came here on purpose, but... Come back a few dozen steps and look above, will you see anything but leaves above you? How could he know that there's a mountain here, he couldn't use any skill or spells as he's not awakened, so... he came here on random!
It wasn't all true, however, who would notice such minute details? He didn't look lost, he didn't say that he came here on purpose either, but so what? People's minds were already filled with thinking, would they really think abou that, if they had one fact that they could prove very easily?..
Well, some of the students did go back a few dozen steps and looked above... Not only they couldn't see the mountain that was right in front of them, they could barely see the sky!
So, that means this guy was correct?... Their leader was lying to them?..
As they came back and wanted to say something, the "leader" started speaking...
- Do you really believe that!? So what if i didn't know where we are going? I assumed that this dungeon isn't infinite so sooner or later we will arrive somewhere! Also, what if he's wrong and we didn't meet any monsters because of me? What if i just walked around them, huh?
His counter-attack wasn't bad, but it just felt somewhat awkward. Kerren, however, couldn't help but exhale again, as if he was getting tired with this guy...
- Didn't you say that our enemies are spiders though? Why didn't you tell us about that before, so we would watch around to not step into their web or something? Or maybe you considered such information useless, as your genius self would just walk past all of them?..
Kerren didn't bother adding some tone here and there, he spoke like a tired guard who repeated the same line over and over again for the past 10 years.
- That...
- That's enough, really, stop embarassing yourself, maybe some people still want to follow you or something...
He didn't allow him to speak once more. He would just waste his time with spouting something that he will easily disprove, that was pointless...
- Listen, while we're here, arguing and all that, the other group might've started killing monsters already! We need to go as fast as we can, so whoever wants to join me - follow!
Kerren then started walked to where they came from. It wasn't a long walk back anyway.
As he did so, almost all students followed him, one or two stood near the previous "leader", whose face looked ugly now. Why would it not? He dared to steal his opportunity to rise!
Kerren himself, however, didn't even bother looking back at whoever came with him, as if he didn't care.
On their road some students tried asking him what he's going to do now, what was his plan and other useless thing.
He didn't bother answering them, the only response he gave to those was "Wait and see, unlike that guy i know how to do things properly."
It wasn't the same exact line all the time, but it was close to that.
...
After walking for some time Kerren finally saw footprints, those, however, weren't human!
Well, if a human was insanely tall and heavy, then they could look like that, but... Ah, those were orcs!
Kerren was puzzled by that, why would they put orcs in here? Barely any students awakened! Even if they did, to some even goblins could pose danger!
Orcs! They were practically "Hit me to d*e" machines! Of course, to Kerren it was the opposite, but to non-awakened?..
They had literally 0 chances against them! It was like a boxing match between a fetus and a professional boxer!
Of course, he could do some damage (think how), but that was unlikely! What the hell was their purpose!? To make them experience fear of de*th or something?
As he examined the footprints some students also noticed them. Fear started spreading in Kerren's group.
Some started to whine, some wanted to run god knows where, instead of talking to them, however, Kerren decided to do something else...
- Yo, listen, when you meet real orcs, are you going to cry like that too? Why dont you just quit? Go find some office job or whatever. Whoever doesn't stop crying in 2 minutes will be kicked from my group. If you think that this is unfair and i'm being too harsh... Maybe i am, what are you going to do? Cry more, report me? Good luck with that.
That was the complete opposite from his usual timid and shy personality! He was breaking his character!
Of course, he's doing that on purpose. He needs a reason to "change" after all, if he started acting like a dictator out of nowhere people would think that something was strange with him...
That little speech of his wasn't of much help, as some students were even more afraid of whatever is going to happen next.
Kerren didn't bother checking those or looking at them, he continued walking... This time, he followed the footprints!