A loud bell rang in the whole mountain.

The students stopped fighting as they looked up in the sky.

Souta sighed and he fell down on his knees. He was exhausted and his body was covered in bruises. His left hand was covered in blood and his skin was gone.

"Huff... that took most of my strength," Souta said in a low voice while gasping.

He managed to test the limit of his strength in this special test and he knew that he could fight several first-year students at the same time with his current stats.

He guessed that he could probably match those second-year rankers. But he wasn't sure what rank he could fight.

The students here in the Ladro Institute was powerful. They were even stronger than those Rank E to Rank D adventurers. It was especially to the third and fourth-year students. That's why most of the students that graduated here become influential people in the country like the city of the Ladros city and the Captain of the Royal Guard.

Ailene looked at Souta for a few seconds before she turned her head to her comrades. She went beside Irlin and Grunge who was heavily injured. She casted [Heal] on them to stopped the bleeding of their wounds.

"Next time, we will win. We greatly underestimate him this time." She said in a low voice while healing her comrades. That last spell of Souta took her in surprise.

The students went to help their injured comrades. Suddenly, a group of teachers appeared before them. They brought the healers of the institute with them.

They help and treat the students who suffered injuries in this special test.

One of the healers approached Souta. Souta looked at the man who was wearing white clothes and shook his head. "You can heal the other first. I can handle myself."

"Are you sure?" The healer asked him then he looked at Souta's bloody left hand.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I could still use this hand and it's not that deep." Souta nodded his head and looked at his left hand.

"Okay, I will heal you later." The healer said to Souta before he turned around and left to heal the other students.

Souta looked at the healer's retreating figure. He then heard footsteps coming from behind, so he turned his head and looked at it. He saw Lynn walking towards him with flags in her arms.

"Um... Souta, are you okay?" Lynn asked him with a concerned look.

"Nope, I'm not okay as you can see," Souta replied to her and he slowly stood up.

"I-I'm sorry for asking, t-then let me help you." Lynn walked beside him and held his hand.

"It's okay, I could still walk." Souta shook his head. He then smiled at her and said, "Let's go to our campsite. I'm sure the others are waiting for us."

Lynn looked at his face before she nodded. "Ah, yes. I think Mila is worried about us."

"Mila?" Souta looked at her with a questioning gaze.

The two talked to the teachers here saying that they will go back to their campsite. The teachers agreed to them and let them go back to the Mage Class 1-B campsite.

Souta glanced at Lynn. He could see that she was excited to go back to the campsite. He opened his mouth and said, "You're quite excited to go back."

"Yeah, I want to show Mila the flags that you collected," Lynn said with an excited expression while looking at the flags in her arms. She wanted to tell Lumilia how cool Souta when he was fighting someone. The scene where Souta protected her from Irlin kept repeating in her mind.

"It's true that I collected those flags alone but without you, I wouldn't be able to gather a lot of flags." Souta shook his head and said. If he fought alone then it would be a different story. He had to hold the flags while fighting the enemy that was after it. The difficulty was harder if Lynn didn't join his group.

"E-Eeeehhh!!!" Lynn was surprised when she heard his words. She lowered her head as her face turned red. "I-I didn't... d-do anything..." She said in a tiny voice while stuttering.

"You did something." Souta paused for a moment before he continued, "You hold the flags, that's all. Haha!" He then laughed at her.

"Mmm... You're teasing me." Lynn puffed her cheeks. She then remembered something. "I did something, I help you stop the bleeding of your wounds."

As soon as she mentioned this, she looked down at Souta's left hand. She opened her mouth and asked, "Are you really okay?"

"That, really I forgot about that..." Souta lifted up his left hand and said, "This? Yeah, I can handle this. I will treat it back at the campsite."

"Do you want me to cast a healing spell on you?" Lynn offered.

"It's okay, don't waste your mana for something like this." Souta declined her offer. He wouldn't let anyone bothered his left hand.

"It's not a waste if I could heal your wounds," Lynn said.

"Nope, I could handle this." Souta shook his head. He really wanted someone to treat his left hand but that would reveal its creepy form. So he could only grit his teeth and bear the pain he was feeling.

"I see..." Lynn lowered her head in disappointment. She just wanted to help him and nothing else.

Souta glanced at her and sighed. "Fine, you can heal the other wounds except for this left hand."

"R-Really?" Lynn looked at her.

"Yes." Souta nodded at her.

The two of them walked for a dozen minutes before they arrived at the campsite of the Mage Class 1-B. There they saw their homeroom teacher, Bargan, was helping clean the campsite. All the campsite was a battlefield because that's where the red flag of each class stood.

It's not just Bargan was here, the healers and cleric of the institute were here and they were healing the students of other class here.

Souta looked around and saw the girl named Yuriko among the injured people. Yuriko was the top 3 ranker and it's not easy to injure someone like her. He wondered who caused her to look like that.

Lynn looked at him and saw him looking at the injured students. She looked there and didn't saw Bryan and Alice. These two people were the ones that come to her mind when she thought that Souta was looking for somebody. Lynn knew that Souta was always with these two. If not Bryan, it was Alice.

Souta turned his head and saw that the red flag of their class was still in its place. It means that no one managed to take their red flag.

"Hmm...?"

He frowned at this. The top 3 ranker was injured in their campsite. If she was here then it means that her target was the red flag of their class.

The question is... who among his classmates was capable of stopping the top 3 ranker of the whole first year? Not just stopping her, it even inflicted heavy injuries on her body.

Just who is capable of this feat among his classmates? Is it Bryan? No, Bryan wasn't here so it's literally impossible. Is it Alice? Hmm... There's a possibility.

Souta shook his head and placed those thoughts in the back of his head. He will learn the answer to his question later as he's going to ask the class rep about what really happened here.

He looked at Lynn and patted her back. "You can go now to teacher Bargan and let him count the flags that we collected," Souta said.

"Yes, I will do that." Lynn nodded at him before she ran towards Bargan.

Souta looked at her figure before he shook his head. He went inside one of the tents here and asked the cleric for some bandages.

He will cover his left hand using the bandages.

...

Lumilia noticed Lynn running towards Bargan with a bunch of red flags. She knew that her partner was Souta, so she looked around and didn't find Souta. She didn't know that Souta was just inside one of the tents bandaging his left hand.

After a few minutes, she saw Lynn finished talking to Bargan and gave the red flags to him. Lynn then approached her with hurried steps.

Before Lumilia could say anything, Nayo who was beside her said something first.

"Lynn! Where's Souta? What did you two do to get that many red flags?" Nayo said as she placed her hand above her eyes and looked around trying to find Souta. She quickly gave up when she didn't see Souta. She turned her attention to Lynn and checked her body. "And looking at you, you still looked the same. You didn't have a single scratch on your body."

"Ehehe~ actually, Souta was the one who did most of the work. I'm just in the sideline watching his battle." Lynn said with a wry smile.