"This feels amazing...!" Matthew murmured to himself with a faint smile.
He played with the drops of water as he wanted to and finally, after a few minutes, he stopped and sat down on the clear water.
Gazing up at the vast blue sky, he could hear the soothing sounds of the wind, water ripples, and rustling bushes.
"It already passed a day after the practical test started, and so far, I've only got three flags including mine."
"I should get moving..." Matthew stood up.
"After all, only if I get all the flags I can choose a prize from the Academy's Treasure House." He stretched his arms.
"My Ice-Mana Circle seems to have gotten stronger, maybe because I've observed that "substance" with water..."
"Well, time to go!"
Enveloping his legs with mana, Matthew dashed forward, causing the water behind him to surge up like a missile.
SPLASH!
"Now... Let's see if the 2nd team is still on that same camping spot." He uttered with a small grin.
He travelled through the forest making sure not to make any noise and being careful enough with traps.
Then, he climbed a high tree where he had a view of a grand cave that seemed to have two students guarding it.
"Yup... they didn't move at all. I have an idea..." He smirked to himself.
He picked up a rock from the ground and enveloped it with mana, but that was just the beginning.
Then, he took a deep breath and a faint red aura covered his body, and slowly that red aura was transmitted to the rock.
"Hah... hah..." Matthew breathed heavily.
Now, using that red 'substance' was getting increasingly harder. Before, because he only had a little bit of it, it was easy to manipulate but now that he has a greater amount, it takes a lot of stamina to do it.
"Alright... Huff!"
Matthew pushed his arm backward and then, like a thunderbolt, he swung his arm throwing the rock directly at the inside of the cave.
At that moment, he also injected mana into his eyes and looked at the cave.
Now, his eyesight had increased and he saw how the cave was composed on the inside and where the students were along with a few traps.
"Kuhh... I only have a few minutes..." He whispered to himself.
He jumped out of the tree, landing just a few meters in front of the two students guarding the cave.
"F-fuck! It's Matthew!" One of the students cursed loudly.
In an instant, the other student went back to the cave to alert the other students while the other stood in front of Matthew holding his spear.
"Huff..."
"[Desperation]"
Swoosh!
Matthew reappeared behind the student and knocked him out with a smack on his neck.
Then, he entered the cave and slowly continued going forward.
He closed his eyes and started relying on his memory to navigate the dark cave.
His senses seemed to have heightened and he focused himself solely on them.
The moment he heard the sound of rock moving themselves, he snapped his eyes open and dashed forward.
BAM!
A giant rock fell on the position he was in. Noticing the size of the rock, Matthew's eyes narrowed.
"These guys... are attacking to kill!" Instantly, Matthew spread his killing intent through the cave.
The blood-red aura got more intense as he did that, but because he was currently under the effect of his skill, he could easily control it.
"There's no time..."
Without even thinking twice, Matthew once again dashed forward and directly condensed a fireball and injected it forward.
That moment, the cave had illuminated himself and Matthew saw the exact position of the students.
"You guys are dead!" He coldly uttered.
He grabbed his pistol and three consecutive shots came out of it. The bullets pierced a few rocks that fell into the student's head.
"KEUK!" One of the students cursed in pain.
Matthew took the chance and approached him, kicking him exactly on his chest.
"Argh!"
With just a kick, the student was knocked out, but that was just the beginning.
As the red aura on Matthew's body increased, so did his killing intent. He directly crushed two students into each other.
And then, he approached a group of five and directly used his sword to swiftly knock them unconscious.
"Mhm... I got the flag." Matthew murmured to himself after picking the flag from the leader's body.
But, what seemed strange was that he only knocked out 11 students, meaning that supposedly there were four remaining.
"Maybe they got eliminated?" He thought.
With a small shrug, Matthew left the cave. He knew that his body was already fucked up especially when he overused the red substance.
However, when he exited the cave, he found over thirty students, including Leon's team, staring at him.
"Oh, god damn it." He clicked his tongue as he looked at all the students pointing weapons at him.
"But... why is that bitch looking at me with pity?" Matthew clenched his fists, brushing his thumb across his lips to wipe off the blood.
"Ah, Matthew! Now, you have nowhere to go!" Leon declared with a smug grin.
"Hahahahahh!"
However, to Leon's surprise, Matthew started laughing out loud.
"Hahaahh... the team that I let escape is actually pointing weapons at me saying that I have nowhere to go? That's funny, pfffff!"
"Why are you laughing? You think you can take on thirty students alone?" Kennard arrogantly remarked.
"Just because you're a bit stronger doesn't mean you're unbeatable. What a grand delusion!" He added with a teasing smirk.
But instead of reacting, Matthew simply shook his head, smiling.
He turned to Stacy, and his smile turned a bit sinister.
"Stacy." He called out to her.
Stacy tilted her head, wondering why Matthew had called her.
At that moment, Matthew grinned darkly.
"I forgot to mention, but your lips were really soft." He spoke with a wicked smile, licking his lips as if remembering a familiar taste.
It was, of course, a lie, but Matthew knew about the male lead's obsessive nature.
So, they would jump towards him full of anger in just a few seconds...
"YOU FUCKING BASTARDD!" And sure enough, as Matthew expected, both Kennard and Leon dashed towards him.
"You guys never learn." Matthew remarked with a faint smile.
In that instant, he fully used the red substance at his disposal, he could feel his mana about to erupt, but he gritted his teeth and continued using it.
Due to the insane amount of pressure, the students started bowing down to Matthew.
Facing the two male leads, Matthew couldn't resist the urge to kill them directly, after all, they were annoying as fuck!
But, he couldn't kill them, at least not yet.
Approaching them, he stomped on both their heads, using them to support his body. He looked down, mocking them.
"Hey, how does it feel to kiss the ground again?" His eyes shone with a dangerous glint.
Kennard and Leon gritted their teeth at his words, but suddenly felt the pressure lift and immediately attacked Matthew.
Quickly jumping backward, Matthew avoided their strikes.
'Fuck... I'm really at my limit...' Matthew cursed inwardly.
He took a step back and looked at his surroundings. But, seeing that nothing could help him, Matthew sighed.
As for the reason why he was acting so calm, it was because he could still defeat them all.
However, he would need to stay in a hospital for at least a few months, and he didn't have time for that to happen.
And the other reason, it's because they are still scared of him. He could see deep into the student's eyes, they were really scared.
Especially since they can actually suffer big injuries, and knowing Matthew's strength, that caused them to fear him even more than they already did.
"Hey, Princeyy~," Matthew spoke teasingly.
"W-what?" Leon took a step back cautiously.
"Those thirty students aren't enough to defeat me, how about you bring more students?" He spoke with a calm demeanor and a confident smile.
"Don't worry, I'll be waiting for ya~" He added with a teasing tone.
Hearing his words, Leon clenched his fists as a vein popped on his forehead.
However, before he could say anything, Kennard grabbed his shoulder and shook his head.
"Tsk... Alright! You better stay here!" Leon declared.
With that, Leon's group and the other teams went away, and it seemed that they were really going to team up with another team...
'That worked...? Bruhhhhhhhhhh...'