After entering the forest, I was greeted by a wave of heat and the humid and musky smell of nature, it was hot and the lack of fresh air made it hard to breathe.
"Let's do this" I clapped both my cheeks and headed in the direction I thought would be best, of course I didn't know where the exact location of it was but... the novel explained we would need to follow a group of goblins to find it.
Goblins are creatures with an appearance similar to a human child, but their size is usually much smaller, their ears are long and their face is ugly.
They are also a very cowardly and weak race, and are the most common monster you'll ever find in this type of forest, the reason behind it is that their bodies are full of magic energy, thus making them a valuable target for other monsters and hunters.
The problem is that a normal person couldn't possibly kill a goblin without a weapon, a skill, or atleast something that could harm it, and goblins are naturally agile, me having no powers basically meant I was useless.
So of course, my best bet would of been to team up with other people to survive right?
Completely wrong.
Because an hour after the start of the test, the instructors reveal that you can steal other people's points by fighting them.
I'm not taking any chances, even Mina could betray me if it came to it.
[Anger meter 49/100]
***
After walking for a solid 40 minutes and running away from all kind of monsters and almost dying at every encounter, I finally found what i've been looking for: a small group of six goblins, their tiny feet making the most noise possible while walking through the leaves on the floor.
I hid behind a tree and observed their movements, I was planning on sneaking up on them to find their base.
But all of a sudden one of the goblins turned his head in my direction, revealing his hideous greenish face.
And then after he made some umcomprehensible noises, the remainder of the group started rushing in my direction.
"Fucking hell..."
I ran away, and saw the goblins were right behind me.
"How did they notice me?"
I was confused, and had no idea what I did to alert them, but none of that mattered, the only thing I was concerned about was staying alive.
I dodged a lot of trees and jumped over rocks, trying to throw off the goblins and slow down their chase, but no matter what, they wouldn't lose sight of me.
"Fuck, what am I gonna do now?"
I don't know what to do anymore, there is no way for me to beat them and my stamina isn't infinite.
Which means, until the end, even in this other world.
I am still weak.
[Anger meter: 76/100]
And just as I was thinking about giving up, the scene from a few days ago repeated itself.
"Try not to disappoint me, Kaine."
"You..." I whispered as I remembered the astral entity mock me.
I was suddenly filled with a newfound resolve and a desire to prove myself.
And as I looked ahead, I saw a tree branch go towards me at full speed, the impact would probably kill me on the spot and I was too slow to avoid it.
No.
I have to stop putting myself down, this is a new life, I can't live like before.
All I needed to do was try.
With the last bit of strength I had left, I ducked, the branch flew above my head and hit the six goblins, killing them all on the spot.
[Assist, +5 points]
That's one problem down, now the other one is... the tree demon standing infront of me.
Tree demons are a type of monster that have the appearance of a giant tree. Their body is composed of bark, and the leaves grow like a crown atop its head. Its mouth is located within a hollow area on the trunk, and can extend forward in a large jawed opening, it also has an a singular eye with a red pupil in the middle of the trunk, right before the leaves.
Basically, a huge ass tree monster with a lot of health.
It can attack using a lot of methods, and has a very high amount of durability, which is why normal humans can't kill them.
But even though my anger meter wasn't at it's max, I could still feel the aura of hatred enveloping my body.
"I'll fucking kill you."
Without hesitation, I sprinted towards the beast, it's branches coming in my direction at a fast speed, but it wasn't enough for it to hit me, I don't know what is happening to me but I can predict their movements, just like that time with Daemon.
I dodged and avoided them, and after jumping up on the tree and grabbing onto one of its many branches, I climbed towards the top and stood right above its head.
"Die."
Then I punched it's eye.
And kept doing so, again and again and again.
Over.
And over.
I'm a coward, so of course i'll attack the weak point of the monster, I can't risk it.
And during this split second of inattention and belief that I could win something in life, something unexpected happened: the tree demon moved, and the next thing I knew was that my leg was stuck between its teeth.
"Shit!"
It had grabbed hold of my leg and was chewing on it, blood was coming out and it hurt like hell, I could literally feel the skin tearing apart and the pain spreading.
"Get the fuck away from me you piece of shit!"
[Anger meter: 87/100]
My anger meter was reaching it's breaking point, and I could barely control my emotions, but it wasn't enough to activate my skill.
"HAAAAAH!"
I punched its head multiple times and tried to get out of its grip, but the beast wouldn't let go, and kept biting.
And so, I had no choice.
"Fuck, I really didn't want to do this."
I grabbed onto one of the tree demon's teeth and pulled, and then another, and another.
Until the beast's jaw was completely separated from its face, and all the blood was splattered on my uniform.
"I'LL KILL YOU, I'LL FUCKING END YOU"
I used the broken tree demon's teeth and tore it's eye open.
"DIE, DIE, DIEEEE"
I continued attacking its eye until the entire monster fell to the ground and stopped moving.
I had killed it.
[Tree demon killed, +5 points]
But even after getting back up on my feet, I still felt useless.
Everybody else in this class could kill atleast three of these things without much effort, and yet I almost died...
"Damn it, can't let myself despair on this, I won, that's all that matters"
But as I started walking in the direction I came from, I heard a voice inside of my head and a screen appeared infront of me.
[New Skill: Trial and Error]
[Keep trying over and over, as long as you keep trying, there will always be a way to win; this skill grants you above average strenght and speed using your aura of hatred without needing to max the anger meter.]
I guess it's good...?
Anyways, I need to go back on track, I can't afford to be late.
I kept walking for ten minutes after that, and all of a sudden I heard yet again another voice.
[1 hour has passed since the beggining of the test.]
[All of you might have killed a lot of monsters and got a large of points, but we wanted to make it more interesting.]
[From this point on, you can steal 20 points from another person by defeating her.]
[Good luck.]
Here it is, now the real test will begin...