Lucas' POV
The cool morning winds scurried softly as we stood at a distance from the edge of the diabolic beasts zone of the Oslon City ....
Various military personels camped at the area for the patrolling of diabolic beast outbreaks scurried about their duties and constantly threw us inquisitive looks from time to time...
My class mates and I stood before the familiar instructor as he gave us some directives concerning how to navigate the wilderness survival practical assessment...
"You will all be divided into groups for the wilderness survival practical assessment.. Each group will contain three people..
The key of the assessment is simple, to survive by using any means necessary... Special rewards however will be given to those who manage to return with the corpses of diabolic beasts..
The corpses of the diabolic beasts can also be obtained by any means necessary "
The instructor's statement caused a chill to run down the spines of quite a number of students..
Surviving by any means necessary meant that even if one had to kill a fellow student to survive the assessment ,it would not be a problem...
Also, obtaining the corpses of diabolic beasts by any means necessary also included the fact that even if one managed to incapacitate or kill a fellow student to steal their dimensional bracelet containing corpses of diabolic beasts ,it would not be frowned upon..
I shook by head as I mumbled inwardly "As expected of Oslon City Academy's unconventional methods , this world is really cruel... The wilderness survival practical assessment is an attempt to expose us all to the harsh realities of this world... a world where the strong make the rules, and weakness is a liability that can lead to death... Also, they plan to weed out those who are weak from the class through this wilderness survival practical assessment...."
The instructor's voice traced into my ear again ".... Your fate is in your hands in the diabolic beast zone...There is no way any academy instructor is allowed to come to your aid in case you land yourself in trouble....
In fact , if non of you survive, so be it, even we, the instructors of the academy, have no way of coming to your aid in case you land yourselves in some sort of trouble.... You have one week to return..
Now the group pairings will begin"..
The instructor ignored the complaints from most of the students concerning the gruesome nature of the practical assessment of the wilderness survival class as he begun pairing us into groups...
A couple of my class mates glanced at me with annoyed and ominous glances as I stood at the same place relaxed , with a confident demeanor...
I was aware of what they were thinking, they would gang up on me during the practical assessment and get rid of me..
"It is obvious that they are jealous about my potential..." I sighed...
I theorised that some of them may have been even encouraged by their parents to get rid of me as soon as possible...
Who was I , a mere orphan... to steal all the glory that their children, heirs of major guilds and organisations were supposed to bask in?... In the eyes of some of the most influential families in the Federation ,I was probably some sort of malignant tumor that needed an excision ...
"I see.... Let them bring it on, even if the whole class gangs up on me , I will eradicate all of them... It looks like in this world, only with absolute demonstration of power can you have peace of mind." I mused inwardly ...
" Duke Michaelson, Stephanie Brooks, Lucas Grimstone... The three of you will be on the same team " ... The instructor's voice rung out for all to hear once again ....
Pin drop silence ensued in the environs for a few seconds ...
This was understandable...
Remember I mentioned that a number of my classmates were glancing at me with evil intentions, these two group members of mine were the lead of that bunch...
These two group members of mine were heirs to large conglomerates in the United Federation..
Duke Michaelson was the first born son of the Michaelson Family, and the heir to the famous Michaelson Guild..
Stephanie Brooks was the daughter of a large mercenary family, The Brooks family...
An altercation with these two group members of mine would mean an altercation with their backgrounds and the authorities their backgrounds commanded ...
I was the disciple of the Sword Blade, so what?... There were underhanded and covert methods their families could use to get rid of me were something to happen to them in the assessment.
Even though there would be no way for the families of my two group members to prove that I was the one who killed them were something to happen to them, I was perfectly sure that there were informants from the families of my classmates with influential backgrounds in the shadows...
From just the unspoken interactions earlier between me and my two group members, these informants from their families had probably predicted that there was meant to be an altercation between me and them ..
Thus if anything were to happen to them, it would be traced back to me, and a bounty on the dark web would be definitely placed on my back after we returned from the wilderness survival practical assessment.... How do I know about the dark web?.. well that's none of your business, just read what I reveal to you okay... ahem.. where was I?.. Ah yes..
But was I scared about a bounty that will be placed on my back?...
No way!!
I had the strength of an S ranker right now,owing to the armor of decimation ... Not forgetting the Sword of...
Oh ,about the sword, will tell you about it later okay... no spoilers...ahem..
As I was saying, I was ready to welcome the attack of multiple enemies..
After all, multiple enemies in my path would mean multiple affinities and skills to permanently mirror...
I would just overpower them,eliminate them, and permanently mirror their affinities...
Also,for the rest of my classmates , this was a wilderness survival exams, but for me... it was gonna be a harvest of affinities and skills..
The silence in the environs quickly disappeared as soon as it appeared, replaced with loud chatters that had a predominant theme of mockery directed towards me...
"It looks like this assessment will be a blood bath..
How can I reject their sincere offer to hand over their affinities and skills to me....
Indeed, these classmates of mine are a generous bunch..." I mused inwardly , my blood boiling with cold excitement..