'This feels strange.' Blake thought.

In almost every exercise he had done so far Blake had automatically given the team leader role because of his rank and strength.

​​

This time he was forced to be led by someone else and he didn't feel comfortable leaving his success in the hands of another person.

"All teams have been assigned, and it's time for the team test to begin. Please step into the warp arrays." Professor Gibson said.'

One by one the teams made their way into the warp arrays that teleported to random locations in the designated location for the test.

'Let's just hope it isn't as chaotic as predicted.' Professor Gibson said as he turned his eyes towards the screen.

It was common knowledge that if commoners and nobles were to work together there would definitely be some friction between them.

So far, the 1st year students had been doing well but now that the 2nd year students were in the picture Professor Gibson couldn't be so sure about things going well.

…

At a largely controlled location deep into the Mina forest, the teams had appeared in random locations moment.

Having some experience from their previous tests, the first thing they did was scan their environment.

Some of the teams were unlucky to meet beasts, while teams like Blake's were lucky to be in a beast-free environment.

"Let's scout the area before regrouping back at this spot." Sach gave out orders.

The team of 6 quickly scattered in different directions at least 100 meters in order to make sure they weren't sneaked upon.

"Why are we coming back to the same spot, other teams are already farming points." Ansgar complained as he saw the points of other teams rising while they were still at 0 points.

"They can get as much point as they want, but this is for both our safety and success in this test." Sach's actions received nods from Blake and the others.

"The first thing I will like to speak on is the rules. They never mention that we couldn't attack other teams so we have to be careful.

Also, it never stated that we were to submit the crystals, meaning everything we get is for us." The last part was aimed at the commoners who worked for their

"The second and most important thing is that if we are to win this test, then normal magic beast won't cut it. The higher the beasts rank the greater the points, so we have to move to areas with stronger beasts." Sach said.

"We have no idea of where we currently are, neither do we know the center or edge of the arena. So how are we to know the location of a strong beast?" Ansgar said with visible annoyance against Sach who was still wasting their time.

'Too bad Luciano isn't here to shut him up.' Blake just like every other member of the team was irritated by Ansgar's nagging, but since their team leader hasn't done anything they decided to ignore him.

"While scouting atop the trees I saw a rocky hill and if my guesses are correct we should be able to find a lot of Elite rank beasts in the area, if not Knight rank too.

The higher the rank of a beast, the greater its intellect. It wasn't a good thing to stay in the open or on trees that were why most of them had used the hills as shelter.

'Things will be a lot more interesting.' From the mention of the hill in Sach's report, it meant there would be a lot scattered around the map meaning they would be a large number of elite and Knight rank beasts.

Unlike the location of their previous survival exercise which was a forest. The overview of the current location had a lot of hills pounds, craters, forests, and underground tunnels.

It could be said to be a perfect ecosystem to those that cared about animal life, but unfortunately for the beasts, those that were sent here saw them as either points or beast cores.

…

On their way to the hill, Blake's team were meeting a lot of beasts. Out of the total number of beasts they had slain, 90% of them were elite rank beasts.

This would have been a little bit scary if it were some months ago, but right now this was what mots them had been hoping for, especially Blake.

According to the rules they had agreed on, the one to kill a beast got the beast core and kill stealing wasn't allowed.

SLASH!

SLASH!

SLASH!

Blake breezed through the exoskeleton of 3 elite rank 7 poison centipede, wiping out the last set at the foot of the hill.

"What next?" Blake asked about their next line of action.

"Knight rank beasts won't stay in the open, so we should be looking out for caves." Sach said as they began scouting the hill.

Just after 10 minutes of searching, the team spotted a cave thrice the height of a human and 4 times the width. This was one of the dangerous areas marked on the map given to Sach

[There is a 3 headed venomous python in that cave, be careful.] The system warned Blake after scanning the cave.

This

"We have no idea what might be in the cave, but one thing is that we can't fight it in there. We have to draw it out of there." Sach said.

"I and Blake would be the ones to draw it out since we can easily escape. Be on your guards for an ambush and prepare to attack." With the plan drafted, carefully headed for the cave.

Hiss!

When they were 30 meters away from the cave's entrance, they began hearing the hiss of a 3 headed venomous python.

"Shit, it already knows we are here!" Sach quickly warned Blake, but it was at that moment that the 3 headed snaked sprung out of the cave, aiming to decapitate the upper part of their bodies in 1 go.