The following day, all the participants for this assessment gathered at the guild practice ground. I could see dozens of adventurers that often frequented the guild here — most had faces around or even younger than me and dressed in generic adventurer clothing. But there were also those that I’d never seen, not that I knew each one that was active in the city, anyway.

Right when I was puzzled about where the ZPL Trio was, they arrived just in time when it was about to commence.

“Ah! We made it!”

“…Praise be…”

“Haaa… Haa…”

The three were out of breath and appeared to have woken up late… Were they so busy with preparation yesterday?

I approached them and inquired, “You guys alright?”

“Yo there, Vincent! Somehow, yeah.”

“G-Good morning, Vincent.” Lara waved her hand meekly and said, “It seems that you aren’t late like us.”

“Haha. Vincent is punctual, unlike our Zeth. If it wasn’t for Lara’s reminder, we would have missed the time.”

“That’s true.” Lara nodded in agreement. “Next time, let’s make sure to not wake up late.”

“What?! But you two are also late—

“But that’s thanks to you.”

“I agree.”

The three were lightly bantering between each other like it was a common occurrence for them. Seeing them like this took me back to my friends in college…

Shortly, several guild personnel carrying crates led by Bernard came to the rendezvous location. He stood before the adventurers and announced: “Attention, everyone! We will now conduct the rank-up assessment. Let’s just cut to the chase. I’m Bernard and am here as the proctor for this assessment. Now, now, I know that some of you’ve heard about the rumors about strange hybrids running rampant in the forest not that long ago, but rest assured, most, if not all, of the hybrids around the vicinity have been hunted down. Thus, your safety is more or less assured.”

More or less, huh? Though I never found a single hybrid these past two weeks, the same couldn’t be said deep within the forest.

“Now, onto the assessment. This time it will be conducted based on a point system whereupon you must hunt down beasts inside the forest. The more ferocious the beast the more points you will get that will later decide whether you pass or not. Naturally, you have to be aware of any potential danger and prioritize your safety, above all else. With that in mind, the guild has prepared safety devices that will help you in this assessment.”

The instructor took out a badge with three pairs of wings from one of the crates, then added, “This badge here has been imbued with {Wind Shield} that will protect you once from any physical or magical attack. Moreover, it got a {Transmitter} spell that can be used to transmit your location whenever, wherever — people will immediately come to your aid. But beware that once the {Transmitter} is activated, you will be disqualified!”

Neat. That’s a brilliant way to minimize any potential casualties. But isn’t this kind of thing expensive?

After the announcement, the badges were distributed to the adventurers. When I got mine, I secured it under my coat so that I wouldn’t lose it.

“Remember, don’t lose the badge! Once you lose it, you will be automatically disqualified! We have eyes on you, so any kind of cheating or criminal activity that’s done in this assessment will be met with severe punishment! Heed my warning!” Bernard gave each of us a stern look before declaring, “I hereby announce that the assessment commences!”

We were then told to go outside the northern gate. But right before that, the contents of the other crates were revealed. Inside were the most basic camping necessities: tents, water canteens, and even dried foods; they were divided equally between all of us. It was more likely than not that the Adventurer’s Guild had prepared this from the commission money they got from the quests we did.

***

I stood before the dense woodland that had basically become my second home. The audible sounds of animals and whistling leaves still left me with goosebumps even to this day.

Because there wasn’t a rule not to group up, people were teaming up in groups of three to five. That was a brilliant move… but… I didn’t have anyone to ask to form a party and was a bit shy to talk to strangers.

“Vincent, wanna team up with us?”

Just when I was despondent, someone came to me with an offer. Turning around, Zeth, Lara, and Pallad hadn’t yet left for the forest.

“Y-Yeah. I’d be glad if you would join us.” Lara blushed lightly, clenching her hands together in front of her chest.

“You possess a great ability from what I’ve seen. Our party is definitely in need of someone of your caliber,” Pallad stated logically.

I didn’t really have any reason to reject them whatsoever. “Alright. Let’s form a party, shall we?” A smile slowly crept on my face. I was grateful for their consideration, and if they were to come to my dungeon, I’d try my best not to kill them.

Soon after that, we made our way into the dense forest. Now I was better aware of my environs since I wasn’t alone… Birds chirping among the trees, to small animals like squirrels racing on the ground, I observed them like I was in the middle of a recreation; having someone to guard my back was very reassuring. So this is what true adventuring feels like…

Thinking back, we needed to spend the night in the forest, so I raised a suggestion to find a shelter near a creek or river.

“We can’t be too close to the city as said by the instructor, but he reminds us not to go too deep either,” Lara said with caution.

Pallad strode to a nearby tree and tapped it. “The Great Elion Forest is packed with pine trees… but there are numerous other trees deep inside as well. We cannot be sure danger lies within; it’s more logical to stay near a familiar environment than not.”

Actually, the forest didn’t exactly have pine trees, but more like pine-like trees. But whatever the word used to describe these trees seemed to lose in translation and was stuck as simply “pine.”

“That’s not an adventure! Worry not. Be it everything — wolves, bears — since I, Zeth, am here to protect you guys!”

“But you can’t protect us from hunger, can you?” I chortled.

“R-Right.” Zeth placed his arms behind his back, gripping one wrist with the other hand.

The others chuckled in response to Zeth’s reaction to my statement.

Just now, there were movements behind the foliage. Then five canine creatures roughly the size of a large dog with gray fur and long bushy tails emerged from behind the thickets, surrounding us — two from the left and three from the right.

Baring their fangs at us, they looked thirsty for blood.

“Are those gray wolves?” I once spotted this creature from afar but didn’t dare to approach it for fear of provoking them. But speak of the devil…

“Should be. I heard their habitats are deeper in the forest…” Pallad brandished his sword. “Everyone, be alert; there could be more of them—”

One of the wolves on the right sprang at us, and in response, Pallad quickly swung his blade at the incoming wolf and bisected it in half. The innards of the creature flew about on the ground, painting the ground red, but we swiftly went to battle formation without minding the gore.

I took out the dagger that I just purchased yesterday. The gleaming of clean metal reflecting my face brought me a sense of confidence.

“Vincent, can you help by taking care of the wolves on the left with Zeth?”

“Sure, no problem.”

“Then Zeth, you help Vincent and protect Lara. And Lara, cast support magic when needed!”

“Roger that!”

“Okay.”

I really couldn’t judge a book by its cover; in times of danger, Pallad was the most rational out of them. He acted like somebody that had gotten some experience beforehand.

A moment later, as if they were waiting for that one movement, the two wolves leaped at us. I remained calm, simply moving to one of the wolves on the left, gripped the dagger in my hand, and swung it at it. Supported by the Lavish Set, my attack connected as the wolf pounced at me. In an instant, the wolf’s head was torn from its body and sent flying through the air — the decapitated piece bounced to the ground like a basketball.

The second wolf bared its sharp teeth and pounced at Zeth. He stood before the creature, lowered his stance, and swung his fist straight to the creature’s muzzle. With his gauntlet-clad fist, the wolf was thrown to the ground like a lifeless ragdoll. Killed in a single motion. Huh… his boasting isn’t baseless.

“Great one!” Zeth praised. “You took that down like nothing.”

“Same goes for you.”

I quickly scanned the area for more wolves, and after finding none, I glanced back at Pallad. Two wolves’ corpses were strewn on the ground, lifeless, with one having a burn mark on its head. The one that cast magic must be Lara.

Pallad brandished his blood-stained sword to the side, causing the blood to splash, before putting it back to its sheath. “Not bad.”

To tell the truth, I’d imbued the dagger with [Programming] to increase its sharpness by simply making it vibrate as desired. As a result, I was confident that it could even cut thick trees, like a buzzing chainsaw, and likewise cut wolves like cutting paper.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Lara asked, to which I shook my head.

After that, we cleaned up the place. Since we only needed to bring a small part of the beast we hunted to serve as evidence, we cut the left ear of the wolves. Cutting off the wolves’ furry ears made my heart a bit sad…

***

We advanced deeper, seeking a place to become our temporary shelter.

Strangely, we didn’t encounter any other adventurers. I mean, there were like several dozen of them at the start… Just how huge was this forest exactly? Was meeting Lorelei in the past like winning a lottery?

The sun was now right above us when we spotted a clearing; the searing hot air caused my body to sweat nonstop. Since we wanted to conserve our strength, we decided to have lunch there even though most of the reason was Zeth’s insistence.

We opted to eat the dried meat given by the guild to minimize our baggage. The forest was plentiful with edible plants and animals, so there was nothing to do except to set up the place.

“At last! I’m so hungry I could eat a cow whole.” Zeth took out a piece of dried meat and was about to munch on it.

“Don’t just eat meat. Here, have some vegetables.” Lara forced a spoonful of sliced vegetables from her metal lunchbox to Zeth’s.

“Eww! Here, Vincent, you can have my vegetables.”

“Hey, don’t push onto me something that was pushed onto you.”

“Aw, shuck.” Zeth ate the sliced vegetables despite his reluctance.

Anyway, I took out my lunch box — I’d purchased one from the general store previously. Chomping down on a piece of dried meat, my teeth were met with a solid, hard texture. Is this food? For a moment I thought that it was a brick…

I could only swallow down the complaint and kept on munching the hard meat. At least it wasn’t completely tasteless with a trace of salty and sweet mixed in. Still, as a modern man who used to eat fast food just recently, my stomach rejected the notion of stomaching this abomination.

Pallad took out a small metal container from his leather bag and passed it on to us. “Have some of this condiment.”

“Nice, you brought it!” Zeth’s eyes shone upon seeing the container.

“Pallad… you’re too generous.” Albeit her remark, Lara didn’t shy away from taking a pinch of the red powder within the container.

As it turned out, the spice was a special product from the village they came from. Salt was already a valuable commodity, much less said for this kind of spice.

“Here, Vincent, have a pinch.” Pallad offered me the container.

Taking the offer, I rubbed the spice evenly on the dried meat before taking another bite. Although still hard as a rock, now it tasted much better, slightly spicy and burning at the tongue. Surely, just a pinch of this red powder could change the whole taste. No wonder people in the past were seeking spices all over the world. This thing weighed in gold!