"Finally all those boring exams are finally over!" Jace sighed in relief.

"How do you think you did?" Naz asked, locking her arm around Jace's. When did these two escalate it that far?

"There are kids here." I pushed past them, breaking up their arm lock.

"Hey! Someone's jealous today." Jace laughed.

It was the morning of the next day and we were called out to the school hall, all 200 of us. We didn't know why but we were going to find out.

"Okay listen up you maggots! I'm Mage Knight Eleus and your instructor that will watch over you. This is your final exam so listen carefully." A strong, well built man in silver armour stood on a pedestal. He had blonde hair and bright blue eyes that inspired confidence; he stood tall with his longsword and shield by his side.

I could tell he was powerful, my Inspect skill had disappeared and merged with my demon eye so I couldn't tell for sure what his level was or what mana pool stage he was, but I could feel his mana pressure.

"This final test will combine everything you've learnt so far. Each of you will be randomly put into groups of 5 and you will randomly be spawned with your group in the middle of the magic forest in the east. We've created a perimeter of 5 kilometres by 5 kilometres, where there are only D and E rank beasts.

"Your task is to survive as long as you can. Each of you will spawn with a survival button, if you feel like you're in danger just press that button and I or one of my other colleagues will teleport to pick you up or you will be teleported back to school, depending on if the teleporter is currently in use.

"You are not allowed to fight or harm your teammates, anyone who harms their own teammates will immediately be punished and disqualified from the test. You need a minimum of 3 out of the 5 in your group to survive to continue with the exam, once your numbers drop below 3, you will automatically be brought back.

"In addition, the Perimeter will close down by 500 metres every night until the 9th day where the box will only be 500metres by 500 meters, so make sure you plan your rotations smartly. Those students who survive till the end will receive an A*. Surviving 7 or 8 days is an A, 5-6 is a B and 3-4 is a C. Anything below is a fail, in this test you won't get the other letters.

"From the 6th day onwards we will release B rank beasts to make the test harder. Good luck students and make sure you press your survival button if you're in trouble.

"Now brace yourselves. In 10 seconds you will be transported."

I could hear a couple screams of distress as the students realised what the man had just said. A vast majority of students never ventured outside the safe haven of school and the city walls so this test must have been their worst nightmare.

A white light covered all of our bodies and we were transported.

**

A dense greenery surrounded me as well as 4 other random faces I'd never seen before. The sun's rays seeped through the thick green of the forest, leaving patches of light and dark.

I didn't like my situation one bit. If it was just solely surviving, there would have been no issue but this was a different situation; I had liabilities that I had to protect otherwise I'd fail. This exam was basically a babysitting exam.

"All of you gather round. I've decided that I shall take command, as the only noble here among you peasants it's only right that I lead." A chubby kid spoke, gold rings shining on his fingers.

Great, just what I needed, a bratty noble kid.

"Who are you calling a peasant?! Do you know who my father is? He works in the Hunter Association." Another boy argued, this one was about 5 ft 2 and had a decent build, his face was filled with freckles and his hair was greasy.

I turned my head to the last 2 people. One of the girls was truly blessed with beauty, she had emerald green eyes and curly black hair, which matched with her white skin and curvaceous body.

I struggled to believe she was 13, even her height, she stood tall at 5 ft 6. She shied away when she met my gaze and moved closer to the other girl for comfort.

The other one was average, she had black hair, tied up in a ponytail and a little acne. I could tell she had a fighting background with her good build and hardened knuckles, maybe her family was in the military.

"Ooohh! Look at what we have here. Aren't you a beauty? " The chubby kid stopped his arguing with the short boy when he glanced over. He stopped talking and moved closer to the attractive girl at the back.

"What's your name?" the chubby kid demanded trying to touch her. The girl looked like she would cry, so I had to step in.

"Just leave the kid alone." My voice came out cold and strict as I gripped the fat kid's wrist. The military girl made space like she was showing respect.

"And who may you be? Another peasant." The shorter kid stood in front of me trying to act big. I controlled my urge to rip the two brats to shreds and took a deep breath instead.

"We're not allowed to harm each other, so please refrain from touching her." I said in a serious tone, hiding my urge to kill.

"Shut up peasant! Know your place. Who are you to give me orders?!" the short brat shouted and a couple birds flew away from the tree branches.

"Incoming!" the military girl shouted.

I had sensed that a couple D rank beasts were coming but I didn't think any of them would notice either.

"Ground Rats!" the short boy yelled as he started to run in the opposite direction. I scoffed as the chubby kid also began running following his noble peer.

Ground rats were C rank magical beasts, they were nimble and 10 ft tall, they didn't have much except for their long and sharp claws. Running from them wouldn't make sense as Ground rats always attacked as a group surrounding their prey from all sides.

"Don't run." I said to the girls and they seemed to listen. The military girl got into a fighting pose and pulled out an enchanted dagger, the pretty girl on the other hand was frozen still out of fear.

"Aaaaaarghhhh!!"

CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

We could hear distant screams and loud noises of bones breaking, as the two noble kids that decided to run were torn to shreds and eaten by the countless ground rats.

I didn't want to show the two girls my lightning element so I decided to use Ice magic instead. The ground rats had finally made their way to us, one leaped towards the girl cowered behind me. I conjured an Ice spear and hurled it at the beast, the spear penetrated through its thick skin and impaled the ugly beast to a nearby tree.

Flicking my wrist a barrage of mini Ice spears were shot at the charging ground rats, when one fell another jumped over it but they all met the same fate.

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

I saw the military girl completely frozen too. She must have just tried to show some strength but failed when she saw the opponents she was facing. I didn't blame the two girls for being scared as it was probably their first encounter with such beasts and they were ground rats at that. Hideous creatures.

"Pass me your dagger," I said and the military girl immediately handed me her dagger, "Both of you don't move from that spot and close your eyes."

They didn't hesitate to follow my instructions and did as I told them.

I spun the dagger around my fingers like a butterfly knife before I darted round and slashed at the remaining Ground rats. One by one I killed them all leaving blood, guts, intestines and chopped heads all over the forest floor.

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

"Okay, they're all dead now, I suggest you two follow me. We need to find somewhere to stay otherwise other beasts will come." I said flicking the dagger, removing blood from its blade. The girls opened their eyes slowly and looked around at the mess.

The military girl's face went green as she puked to her side, meanwhile the other one stood frozen in place like a statue before she also tilted her head to the side and vomited. When there was nothing left to vomit, I handed them handkerchiefs so they could clean up a little.

I began walking away and they both rushed after me like baby chicks.

This was the best case scenario for me, two not so annoying people to protect. I could easily survive with them if unprecedented circumstances didn't occur.

"Th-Thank you for saving us. I'm Leilani Ithirae and I'm an elf." The shy girl spoke from behind me, I gave her a quick glance from the corner of my eye while walking.

"Thank you for your brave actions, I'm Rakeria Grimsworth, my family works with the military. I'll make sure to owe you back in the future." she gave a salute.

"Zeref." I smiled at her.

"I-I know you. You're the guy who represented our school for the tournaments. You played against my brother's school-" she was interrupted by the noise of screams from a distance and an ear splitting roar. She squeaked, holding onto Rakeria

"We better get moving," Rakeria suggested, following behind me.

I needed to find a place to hide these baby chicks and protect them. After that performance, I didn't trust their abilities and for some reason I couldn't access my dimension ring. The teachers must have done this so the nobles wouldn't just take out food from their dimension rings or spawn defence towers.

This made the test a real survival test, it would require hunting skills, tracking skills, fighting skills and most importantly camaraderie. The Mage Knight never said teams couldn't hurt each other, only teammates, so all this meant we could only trust our team mates and survive with them.

"I'm Zeref Amara." I looked back and smiled at them, the military girl's face paled when she heard my name but Leilani just smiled back with her pearly white teeth.

The direction I was running in was north, for some reason we spawned right at the edge of the perimeter, I had to take these baby chicks to a safer location. C and D rank beasts could filter through the barrier, so staying near the edge was a bad idea.

This was truly a dangerous test, most would fail.

I stopped running and sat on a large rock, we stopped near a small river; having water was the most important and for food I could hunt for us.

"We're going to set up camp here." I said looking around and scanning the area, I faced my palm towards the ground and created walls of ice, I formed an igloo using ice mana. There were two 3x3 metre rooms with a door connecting them both.

"I'm sorry, it may get cold in the night, I'll make sure to place a fire in each room. You two will share. Is that fine?" Both of them nodded eagerly at my words.

"Our dimension rings don't work here so, I'll bring us food and stuff. You guys can go take a wash in the waterfall down the river or just wait here for me, I'm going to get some firewood."

"Please! Don't leave us alone. What if they attack us again?" Leilani's eyes started to water as she held my hand for safety, fear of the unknown was making her paranoid.

"Don't worry, this place is safe and Rakeria is here, she's from the military." I reassured her, before letting go of her hand.

"B-But I can't…" I couldn't hear what Rakeria said as I ran through the forest.

I took off my eye patch, removing all the limiters from my body. I sighed in relief, spinning the Rakeria's enchanted dagger around my hands.

Now I could see the different beasts around the forest. Even if the two were in danger, I'd be able to save them. I made sure to only be 1-2 Kilometres away from them, I could cover that distance in seconds using 'Lightning Aura' if I had to.

Time to grind!

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]

[You have earned 2000 EXP for killing a C rank beast!]