In the class 1-2 spatial carriage.
Sitting on a sofa, I chat with Elaine and a few of our classmates.
Most of them just want to win favors from me sigh... it is quite tiresome to be polite when everyone is so obviously fake. At least I dont have to make facial expressions to appear interested, as I can change my tone to appear a little more lively. Elaine, on the other hand, sits on my left like a dead fish.
Im quite worried about her, this exam will take a great deal of walking and a lot of various other activities after all. Not only that but even if Elaine stays on the intelligence side of our little operation here, she hardly knows anyone and doesnt seem interested in knowing them too.
To begin with, why do I worry about Elaine? We have only known each other for a few days.
Whatever, it is what it is. Dwelling on it will not take me anywhere.
Some more time passes and Retse rises from his seat. With a respectable tone, he starts to talk with the whole class.
"Everyone, I would like to consider our class choosing a leader. From what we already know, it will be obviously needed"
Clearly, we are behind the other classes from what I heard from Iori and Elize. 1-1 and 1-3 already have leaders since this exam was announced. I dont much about 1-3 leader but at 1-1, it is that royal-looking dude.
The mood gets a little awkward in the carriage. Students start to stare at each other too afraid to call attention to themselves.
Retse looks at me with needy eyes hoping to find my agreement to lead the class.
Should I? Im more of a muscle person than a brain hmm...
To tell the truth, Im quite interested in acquiring this experience here. Experiences like this one dont come every day after all.
Soon everyone turned their hands to me with hopeful expressions. I stare at the ceiling with my usual apathetetic expression putting my fingers on my chin.
It would be good to acquire experience in leading early on without any danger of losing something important.
Anyway, is Cefelairia glaring at me? Her eyebrows are practically making a curve around her forehead from the way she frows it. Evidently, she doesnt want me in the leading role, why though?
Hmm... whatever, complain if you will.
"I lead, just dont expect me to be exceptional at it" I say nonchalantly while waving my hand
A tsunami of relief sighs fills the carriage and soon after, everyone starts to chat like normal again.
Well, of course no one would want to lead if you screw it up there is a good chance of this staining your name for a whole generation.
Nobles are so cowards here in Venfall. They think too much about the future. If I do this my father will say blablabla, if I do that my position in the future might blablabla. So tiresome.
I kinda admire the Empire in this regard. They are completely conquerors who hardly care about this kind of thing from what Claire told me. The empire in their name is definitely not a joke.
When I graduate and receive officially my military house. These nobles who cant do anything will not be allowed. Thinking about it, should I try to recruit Elaine in the future? I feel like she would be essential.
After some time lost in silly thoughts, we arrive at the forest.
Leaving the carriage I see everyone being organized into three sections one for each class.
Sigh... it was really hot inside this carriage. Im definitely not a fan of cramped spaces, all my memories about them are... horrible.
I stop in a space right outside the carriage.
Hmm... everything looks rather normal, dont know what I expected really, it is just the edge of a huge forest. Inside the forest everything seems green enough doesnt look like they tried to change the forest too much, at least I cant see much of a difference looking from outside.
I take a deep breath and run my left hand through my hair. The movement seemed to attract attention for some reason and now some girls are staring.
Hopefully, they let us trade our uniforms soon. This one is completely unsuited to forests. There are some supervisors around talking and arranging a small platform so it shouldnt be long.
After a few minutes of standing around chatting with Elaine, they sent us to trade one by one inside our carriages.
Our class color is black, so everyone needs to wear a black T-shirt, the rest can be what you want. So I chose to come with tight green shorts to make it easier to run around, a gray tactical scarf around my neck that covers my mouth slightly, and a baggy green jacket with the zip open in the middle.
Getting out of the carriage I look around to see.
Seminaris is wearing purple so her class 1-1 is team purple, class 1-3 let me see. Iori and Elize are talking right there with orange shirts so it should be it.
Wow, some people really are going all out on their forest clothes hmm. Is that a guy wearing clothes with branches on them? Crazy.
The staff members called us to organize ourselves by class in front of the platform and we did.
Soon a woman walks in the platform alongside multiple members of the staff. The woman steps on the counter to speak.
She is beautiful. A white skin almost pale and so smooth that the sunlight seems to reflect on it a little. Black long hair arranged in a ponytail leaving a few bangs around her forehead and ears. Long eyelashes and beautiful slightly round-shaped eyes. Her eye color reminds me of winter itself, it is a beautiful tone of cloudy gray.
Her whole body is covered by a white mantle with a few gray details on the edges. I cant see but judging by her thin and slim neck her body must be beautiful too.
She is truly pretty but... why do I feel this uneasiness? Something seems wrong but I cant figure out why.
Looking innocently to my side, I catch a glimpse of emotion on Elaine's apathetic face while staring at the woman.
Fear.
With a joyful expression on her face, the woman speaks with a feathery and gentle voice waking me up from my thoughts.
"Dear students, im Cassandra Evangeline, the chief supervisor for this exam. It is a pleasure to meet every one of you today. Oh, how I was anxious to get this role here *soft giggles* thanks to the director for giving me this opportunity"
The way she speaks is just so soft and motherly that makes me want to trust her. This just me more uneasy.
"Without further ado, let me explain the rules of this exam and a few more things. First, keep in mind there are mana sensors around the whole forest so we will always know where you are in case you get lost or dangerous things happen. Of course, there will be people watching from afar too, but dont worry they will be too far away for students to notice.
Now, we will be giving you a paper with all the information you will need to know about tokens that will be the current currency of this exam, more tokens mean more points for your class"
Im curious about how exactly we earn them but I guess they will put all that in the paper.
Cassandra proceeds.
"A little bit of fighting between students will be inevitable in this exam but dont overdo it, keep in mind this is only for sports and if you, for instance, get badly injured a staff member will rescue you in no time so just wait. If things get too out of hand we will intervene.
We will be giving a flag for each class, at the moment your leader sticks this flag in the ground it will be a violation for your class to take it out and the flag will mark your class territory inside the forest.
Bear in mind that inside the forest there are magical beasts who will attack but they should not be a life threat even if you are not used to combat. But, keep an eye out for the Juggernaut, he is a construction made of mana and molded into a knight figure, it is powerful from a student's perspective but it is so slow that if you walk away it cant do anything to stop you"
Interesting, this juggernaut will probably act like a wild card, a force of nature. We should localize it first and see what direction it is going so there is no danger of creating a settlement close to him. A pity but I cant use Penance raven form, there are too many people watching.
Cassandra's speech took a few more minutes before she let us organize ourselves in each direction to enter the forest. She gave us a paper and a flag with a pole.
We made a formation before entering the forest, with the noncombatant side of the class in the middle while those who can fight surround them.
I walk a few steps ahead of the main group to make sure everything is right and clean of beasts.
Hmm... it definitely seems like a normal forest even from inside. Then, what is this uneasiness im feeling? Ever since I saw that woman, Cassandra, my head is rigging like an alarm. I have a feeling Elaine knows something, but there is a high probability she isn't going to tell me. For now, I will just focus on my role here.
We walk straight for a few more minutes until I feel something.
I put my closed fist up to signal my class to stop. They promptly obey. I stiff my guard putting my hand on Penance's handle.
Seems like there is a beast close by but I cant really localize where. Concentrate.
I close my eyes to feel things around me better. Focusing everything on my other instincts, I feel something.
Just for a second, I hear claws scratching against a tree lightly.
I unsheath Penance and turn around dashing toward a tree branch just a few inches away from me.
With a clean cut, alongside the sound of blood and meat falling on the ground. A strange kind of bird got killed.
A chemar hmm... never saw one outside of books. So it is true that they camouflage well. Not well enough though.
I smoothly slice the air to clean the blood from Penance and proceed to store it inside its sheath.
Most of my classmates seem rather uneasy but shake it away soon after. I open the bird to take its mana gem.
Lesser beasts mana gems are worth 3 points, it is little but better than nothing.
...
After that, we walk for some more time and end up arriving at a clearing with a minor river in the middle so I choose to settle here for now without sticking the flag on the ground.
This place seems good enough for now, the little river in the middle will be a good source of water and saving of our mage's mana. The open space around the river is enough for us to build a decent settlement too.
All students under my command are aligned in front of me waiting for my command with nonchalant posses and chatting among themselves.
What exactly we are supposed to do again? Let me see the paper.
Build a settlement worth 20 points and can only be achieved one time. There are mana gems, which will probably be the main source of income for every class, there are some special quests like this baby salamander hunt and a few other beasts that give about 30 points.
So we have to focus on locating beasts and maintaining a sustainable life.
I clean my throat with a cough and proceed to speak with a serious tone.
"Come forward students who have experience with woodcraft"
None of them move, except, Cefelairia. She walks with confidence and stops in front of me with a light stare of disdain.
Only one hmm... it will have to do. She looking at me like this kinda pissing me off but whatever.
"Students who have no combat-related abilities move to the right, and those who have move to the left" I say with a serious tone
Takes a minute or two for them to organize themselves correctly.
Elaine seems to be on the non-combatant side with a dead expression and her body is sweating a lot.
Uha... she really is fighting demons to endure this environment and we just arrived. I will try to put her on a less tiresome work. If she walked with me, it would be more useful than working with trees. I fear that Elaine cant even grab a branch in this state.
"Elaine, do you wish to participate further? if you dont I will respect your choice of course" I say casually
She sighs cleaning the sweat on her forehead. Walking in my direction she says an apathetic 'sure' and stops in front of me.
6 students on the combat side hmm... too little but I doubt there will be much more in the other classes anyway. If I count Cefelairia who is a magician then it should be 7.
I ask Retse to step forward and he comes with a hint of uneasiness in his expression.
"Now, those who lack battle skills will be on Cefelairia's command, your objective is to create a basic settlement with what you have around, do whatever you need to achieve this and report to me if an uncommon situation occurs.
Retse will take reports and deliver messages to me. Elaine is my counselor" I say with an assertive tone
It shouldnt take much to build, there are a lot of basic spells to accelerate this type of work and everyone here is familiar with mana to some degree, though some simply choose not to specialize in it.
"In case of my absence, Retse is on command until I come back. For the combatant side, organize in pairs and go each to one direction of the forest, of course, dont venture too much just do a simple terrain recognition job" I say assertively
Looks good, we should not have any problem this early if it stays like this.
Everyone starts to move to do what I said. Elaine walks to my side so we can chat. We move to under a tree to sit down so she can rest a little.
I sit with my legs extended putting Penance lying on my side and me and Elaine proceed to chat casually.
"We need a countermeasure in case of attacks from other classes" Says Elaine apathetically
"Do you think they will try something so early on?"
"You probably already know but they are far ahead of us. The academy gave us 15 days to prepare for this exam, and well, let's say our class didnt focus on preparing that much *giggles*"
mmhm, I imagined that much. We came mostly unprepared. I was chosen as a leader inside the carriage haha.
Elaine proceeds to speak while grabbing her shirt trying to cool her body by shaking it.
"Class 1-1 and 1-3 may have the smarts of course, but regarding brute force, we are unmatched" Elaine says apathetically looking at me with a little smug on her face
I giggle.
Thats for sure, normal students are not a big threat to me at least in small numbers. Even if I cant use that much, my heritage is too much for a student to handle.
Hm! Still calling my strength 'brute force' is kinda rude. Matter of fact im elegancy itself while fighting.
Elaine reaches for her small bag and pulls out a drawing book with a pencil.
She taps on the drawing book and points toward the hill on our left.
"Take me there, I can draw a rough map of the region" Says Elaine apathetically
The sudden statement shocks me a little.
That would be extremely helpful. So there are people who brought other things besides weapons and clothes, better keep that in mind.
I get up and with a light smile forming on my face, I extend my hand to Elaine. She promptly grabs it and gets up.
"We have a plan then" I say casually