The five of us were currently walking through the forest, trying to find any kind of clue on how to escape.
"Hey, Kaine" Mina called me, "how did you know that the ocean was dangerous?"
"I just guessed, I mean why would the teachers make it so easy?" I answered.
"Yeah, I guess you're right" she sighed.
"Don't worry, we'll be fine" I reassured her.
"Thanks" she smiled.
We have been exploring the forest for about five hours and on the way fought a huge amount of monsters, they were all extremely weak so it almost always ended in less then a second though.
"This is boring" Daemon complained, "we haven't encountered anything worth fighting yet."
"Well, I think it's better this way" Sarah said, "we don't need to waste energy on those things"
"Hmph"
We continued moving forward, and I was looking for any sign of the ruins door or one of the "keys" to open it.
I knew the way to escape, but it doesn't mean I know where they are located.
"Do you guys see that?" Kyle suddenly spoke up, thus interrupting my thoughts.
"What?" Daemon asked.
"Look over there" he pointed at a spot between the trees.
And indeed, there was something shining in the distance, it was hard to notice but it was definitely there, as expected from an assassin.
"Let's check it out" I said and started heading towards it, this was definitely one of the monuments to get a key.
When we arrived, there weren't any trees around us anymore, the only thing we saw were two status of 15 meters tall atleast look down on us, they were a perfect replica of giant wolfs, it was majestic.
At the center between the two wolf statues was a pedestal, and on top of it was a stone circle with gibrish text written around it and a hole in the middle.
"Woah" Sarah said, "this is amazing."
"So what do we do with it?" Mina asked.
"Take the rock I guess, but watch out" I replied, as I perfectly knew what would happen once you took it.
"Okay then."
Kyle approached the monument and took the key in his hand, but as soon as he did that, the statues' eyes lit up with a blueish color.
The statue's eyes shone brighter and brighter until they couldn't anymore, and the next thing we knew, they jumped from their positions and landed on the ground infront of us, they weren't status anymore but actually alive as the rock surrounding them magically broke down.
"Wha-"
"Get ready!" I shouted, and everybody took a battle stance.
The two wolves growled and started approaching us, the closer they got, the more intimidating they became.
"Let's go!" Daemon shouted and rushed towards one of the monsters while materializing his magic sword in his hand.
And with a single swing, he cut down one of the wolves head before landing and laughing.
On the otherhand, Mina summoned her bow and started firing magic arrows at the second beast, thus heavily weakening it, and Kyle pulled out his two daggers and dashed forward to cut it's throat with two precise slashes.
The second monster fell to the ground and instantly we could hear a robotic voice along with a screen appear.
[Congratulation, you got the first key, two more to go.]
"Yes!" Mina exclaimed, "that was easy."
"Indeed, these monsters are weaker than I thought" Daemon added.
"We should continue" I said, "we still need two more keys."
"Right" Kyle nodded.
And so we went back to the forest and continued our search as the other four finally realized the usage of the rock circle.
The only thing they didn't know now was where to use them, but i'm sure we would eventually find the ruins' door.
We spent the rest of the day searching for the second key, but it was all in vain as we couldn't find anything.
"Let's stop here" I suggested, "it's getting dark and we don't know what might come out."
"Sure."
Daemon made a campfire using his fire magic and we sat around it to eat the food Mina cooked for us from monster flesh.
"Is all monster flesh this delicious or is it because Mina cooked it?" I asked after taking a bite.
She blushed but didn't want the others to see so she replied quickly, "it's just that I learned what kind of monsters are edible."
Afterward we decided that each of us would take two hours guarding the rest while the others slept.
I stressed a bit when Mina woke me up to inform me it was my turn, but I easely wiped off the monsters using "Trial and Error"
And thus the first day of the island arc ended.
***
It was the morning of the second day of the exam and we were currently eating breakfast around the campfire, it was just the meat we ate yesterday but it was still delicious.
"What should we do today?" Mina asked.
"I think we should keep looking for the other two keys" Kyle answered.
"Yeah, we can't waste time" Sarah agreed.
"Then let's go" I said, and we headed out.
And after three hours of struggle to go through the forest, we finally found another one of those monuments.
"Oh, looks like we're lucky" Sarah pointed at the two statues standing in front of us.
This time it was the status of two orcs, the thing that was surprising though was that orcs are known to be extremely weak.
"Pfft~ is this test is a joke or something" Kyle laughed as he approached the pedestal and took the key.
But this time, the statues reacted instantly and swung their giant fists towards him, he didn't have the time to react so he was sent flying to the nearby tree, dropping the key in the process.
Yep, the thing with these "orcs" is that they were still enveloped in the stone armor in opposition to the wolves who became completely alive.
And so the four remaining people prepared themselves for combat.
"You'll pay for that" Daemon charged forward and tried to cut one of the monster's arms.
"Die!" Mina shot multiple arrows at the other one.
Sarah used her water magic to try and freeze one of the monster's legs and immobilize it.
Yet they all failed miserably.
Daemon couldn't cut off it's arm, the arrows bounced on their stone bodies and a single step made the ice break.
But they continued, they kept going and going to try to kill them, but nothing was working, it always ended in them getting sent flying or kicked by the giants.
"GRAAAHHHH!!!"
Until eventually, the protagonist had enough and combined his sword not with fire magic, but earth magic, this was one of his supposed cool moments.
And this time when he swung his sword at one of the orc's arms, it finally broke.
But this also meant this was the time for me to enter the battle.
"I can't be slacking off while everybody is fighting after all."