Only 10 people, including Kerren himself, were left in his group. Those who cried or whined were purposely abandoned behind.
Kerren and those behind him didn't like those and thought that if they were inside a real dungeon those couldn't be relied on.
As such, Kerren now had a group of people who could somewhat follow his words. Even if they were bad at doing that... at least they wouldn't cry if he asked them to just on an orc...
It's not like he planned to fight them, but if he had to?... Well, why not!? His current body was tall and looked somewhat strong, why wont he try fighting an orc?
There's no way they would be as strong as real ones, they were just illusory ones! Well, even if they were, so what? Kerren could easily overpower them with his raw strength!
Of course, it'll waste a lot of his mana, but... it's completely fine, isn't it? It'll regenerate on it's own some time later, he didn't plan on fighting anyway.
In case of emergency he can always eat some crystals and be done with it, why bother?
However, there was another reason he couldn't simply fight one... He didn't have much results at all! He was just an average low ranked student! Why would he possess such strength!?
Well... Kerren already had a plan in his mind... He could just fake his awakening!
He immediately threw away that plan. It was too dumb doing it here.
First of all, he wasn't sure if he could replicate it perfectly.
Second, he had a better plan in mind, why not just tell that he awakened already?
It's way better, as for why he didn't use mana? Well, he didn't know how to! But he noticed that he's strong, duh!
Perfect explanation - check.
Desire to lead people - check.
"Insane skills" - check.
Kerren was ready! Or was he?...
He didn't find any orcs yet, maybe he wouldn't even need to fight any?..
...
15 or so minutes later his group finally found something that wasnt a fake rock or a fake tree!
It was another group of people! However, it was smaller than they imagined.
After a brief conversaion between some students and leaders of those groups Kerren understood what exactly happened.
It turned out that the second initial group split into three! They couldn't decide on what to do since their opinions were too different.
Some wanted to go scouting, some wanted to make a camp, some even wanted to simply hold duels, for some reason!
However, Kerren still had a question in his mind...
- Listen, uhm, how do i say that... I came here following an orcs footprint, did you not see any or did you kill him or something?...
As he said it almost all of the students that belonged to another group looked at him in fear and some doubt in their eyes!
- Orc? W-what? Are you sure you're not hallucinating? -- the leader of the other group wasn't buying it.
- You've been standing on those for a while, i thought that you too followed them...
Kerren then pointed at the ground, there really was a giant footprint there!
The leader immediately jumped back, as if there was a reason to be afraid of a d*mn footprint...
- There really are footprints!
People from other group started screaming suddenly, did they not look where they stepped or something?..
Students of Kerren's group, however, weren't surprised at all, some even laughed at the scene before them.
Kerren himself was just standing there with a blank face.
-* Are those really students of a grand university? Why are they afraid of a damn footprint?
He couldn't wrap his head around it. They were too scared! However, their fear was not a problem...
Since those foorprints were fresh and those chickens made a commotion... Some heavy footsteaps started rinding in people's ears.
All of them immediately went silent as they could feel something heavy bang on the ground.
They soon turned their heads towards the source of the sound... There was an orc running towards them!
All who saw the orc immediately scattered with the exception of some students from Kerren's group and himself.
Kerren praised them internally, as they must've decided to follow Kerren to the end! Since he didn't run, why should they?
As such, he gave an order...
- Whoever is not a chicken - assist me!
With those words he ran towards the orc with some nice speed! He managed to intercept him before he got to some students that were closer to him.
Behind Kerren were 4 students that decided to assist him, all of those were well-built and seemed brave! Of course, that was on the outside, he didn't really know if they were afraid or not, but who cares?
Kerren then proceeded to attack the orc with his bare hands! Such an idea, of course, wasn't a smart one, but he was confident in his own strength.
Soon it became a hand to hand duel between him and an orc, other students couldn't even get close as they tossed each other around frequently, Kerren did wan't to end the fight too quickly as it will make people suspicious.
Thus, he acted like it was a tough opponent for him!
Even those 4 brave students that followed him were amazed! Initially they thought of overpowering the orc with their bodies or something, swarming on him, but...
Kerren managed to do that all by himself! It impressed them grealy! Such a brave and strong guy was definitely a good leader!.. If only they knew...