It was safe to say that Ajax wasn't very happy after waking up.
"Y-You two..." Ajax muttered, his fists trembling. "I won't forget this..."
"Sure you won't," Raelis commented, "but let's move along now. It's time for us to head out and find a good place from which to defend."
"Defend? Why would we?" Ajax asked. "All these monsters are incredibly weak. Just let me at them, and I'll do what your lazy ass cannot."
"Stop it, you two," Alice chimed in as she walked past them.
Clea and Mathieu followed after her, and after a few short moments, so did Raelis and Ajax.
Raelis really didn't like Ajax, and it seemed like the feeling was mutual.
But on the bright side, at least he managed to get himself a new pair of daggers.
Despite not really getting along, they quietly made their way through the forest, encountering only a handful of Grade 10 Mana Beasts.
It seemed they had reached the center of the forest, as there was one giant rock formation stretching out into the sky and past the clouds.
Raelis glanced slightly higher and saw a spiral staircase leading up to a cave in the side of the mountain.
He pointed it out to the team and they held a vote to decide whether to go or not.
Like last time, the result was a tie.
"What now?" Ajax asked with a hum. "Are you going to break your promise again?"
"I let the vote play out purely because I was curious," Raelis mused. "I did say we'd only vote for important things, and this is very important. Yet you don't want to go settle down there, why?"
Ajax stared at him for a few moments, then let out a sigh.
"Do you seriously think staying in a cave and merely surviving would be enough for us to pass this exam? I mean, come on. There are over 150 teams, and you think they'd let us through after we managed to kill only a combined total of 16 Grade 10 Mana Beasts?"
He turned to the others in the group.
"You know I'm right. The preliminary exam was like that, and so is this. So my idea is simple... Make a lot of noise, attract a lot of mana beasts, and obviously get a lot of kills."
Raelis furrowed his brows.
This guy really is annoying... If we go up there, we'd be safe from the Grade 6 Mana Beast.
Down here? They weren't safe at all.
And he couldn't take the simple route of separating from his team, since that would count as an automatic fail.
After all, the headmaster and the other examiners were watching thoroughly.
Yet they still didn't interfere, even after several dozen candidates had already died.
But that was the brutal reality of this empire. The strong remain, the weak get tossed away.
"Are you sure you're not going to regret this?" Raelis asked one final time.
Ajax scoffed as he bumped into Raelis, then walked back into the forest.
So be it...
They went back the way they came from and immediately spotted another team.
They only had three people, which meant that the others had either separated or died.
"Heya!" Ajax called out with a friendly wave. "What do you guys say to teaming up with us, yeah? We'll help you if you help us type of deal."
The three candidates glanced at each other as if they had just heard the stupidest thing this week.
All of a sudden, they pulled out their weapons.
Two had spears, and one had a bow.
"Sorry, but I don't really trust you," the bowman said, nocking the arrow as his grin widened.
"I think I realized something..." he muttered, aiming the bow right at them. "There are so many teams... but what if we got rid of them? Hahah... we're guaranteed to pass then."
"You've lost your mind, it seems like," Ajax remarked. "Want me to knock some sense into that skull of yours?"
The bowman tensed and released the arrow.
It flew right at Ajax, and just as it was about to hit, Alice released an arrow of her own.
It traveled faster than the bowman's arrow, so fast, in fact, that when the two met midair, her arrow pierced straight through his.
Better yet, the arrow didn't stop there. It continued flying toward one of the spearmen.
They were startled and evaded by stepping to the left.
But that was only a trap, as another arrow appeared shortly after and pierced the spearman straight through the head.
Raelis raised a brow, and Ajax let out a hearty laugh.
"Hahaha! See? This is what happens when you don't think things through. But oh well..." Ajax trailed off, cracking his knuckles. "You don't have to worry about being left out. I'll make sure you join your friend soon enough."
"Settle down," Alice said coldly. "We don't need to fight. Just leave us alone, and we'll spare your lives."
"Hah?" The bowman rolled his eyes in annoyance. "And do you think I'm going to believe you're going to spare us after you just killed our friend?"
"We're going to spare you, yes," Raelis chimed in. "We just ran into you by accident. We don't hold any grudges."
Although he was trying to pacify them, he knew from their body language alone that they had already made their decision the moment they got here.
And his thoughts were confirmed once the bowman reached for an arrow, nocked it, and shot at Ajax again.
"Huh? Why me!" Ajax said as he extended his arm in an attempt to catch the arrow.
But while they were too focused on the arrow, Raelis had already vanished without a trace.
He had slipped away behind a tree, and now, he was staring at the backs of the two candidates who were unlucky enough to cross his path.
Raelis whistled, making the two candidates turn around in panic.
But it was too late, as his daggers were already at their throats.
—SHWIK
—THUD THUD
The two fell to the ground, dying the grass red.
Raelis glanced at their bodies and let out a shaky breath.
This was only the second time he'd killed, and he still wasn't used to it.
But even so, he calmly turned his gaze toward his team, who looked at him with mixed expressions.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he tilted his head.
"Shall we keep going?"