And So, The Fourth Test Begins

"And now you have come to the fourth test,"

We stand at the entrance of a vast fenced forest while Professor Lauren explains the details of the fourth test to us. Apparently it's a forest occupied by low to mid-grade monsters, used primarily for testing and training. The wall around it is about ten meters high and heavily reinforced with magic. Most likely to keep the monsters out.

"In this test, you will be breaking up into groups of four based on the names grouped in the bracket outlined on the boards. The groups will compete to see who can exterminate the most monsters in the forest the fastest, before the time limit is up."

Hm? So it's a team game huh? I had assumed I would be facing off against the names in my bracket earlier, since I was told the exam would contain a combat section. I'm not sure I can work smoothly in my team, seeing as the other three names belong to nobles, making me the only, quote... 'commoner' among them, especially since two of them are steadily glaring at me with scowls on their faces right now. Plus, one of those names belong to a prince of the kingdom. Yeah I definitely don't see smooth companionship in my future.

Larien is cool, but even he can't control the hearts of other people. At least they'd be too busy sucking up to him that I'd be able to go off and do whatever I want. Seriously, the way they kiss this kid's ass, you'd think he was an angel sent to increase their riches or something. I could kill one of ten thousand monsters and they'd still be too busy waiting on Larien to notice.

Speaking of the devil. Larien walks up to me and whispers, "I look forward to working with you."

...Well, there goes my plan to sneak off and prove myself. Just thrown out the window, just like that. I say whispers but he more or less yells it to every examinee in my proximity, including the two other nobles in our group. He just does so in a really low voice. Now I can't even tell if he's challenging me or honestly doing this out of good will, but whatever it is, I can use it to my advantage.

I sigh and respond casually, "Likewise."

"Please break off into your groups and line up in front of the entrance," Professor Lauren continues.

"Remember, if you are participating in this section of the test, you will not be allowed to pull out until the time is up. The time limit is two hours. I wish you good luck."

I turn to Darius who has been stiff and silent at my side for a while. It seems he's still uncomfortable around Larien, though he frequently sneaks peaks at him. "I'll leave now. Good luck."

"Mm. Good luck," He responds with a wave, and I follow Larien to the rest of our group.

Larien shoots me a small smile before turning to the rest of the group and introducing them. "Let's work well together. These are Feran Daltroth and Turnan Jangar. And as you are already aware, I am Larien Augus."

The two nobles scrunch up their noses and stiffen at the fact that Larien reintroduced himself casually to me, and one of them says,

"Do we really have to work with this low talent commoner?"

Low talent? I'm more than twenty-five levels higher than you. And that's not even my real level.

"I agree. Teaming up with a pathetic orphan is dissatisfying." Turnan agrees.

Huh? How do they know I'm an orphan? Did they just make it up? I mean, that's what I stated on the application for the exam so I could by pass further questions about my family, background, and where I'm from. But they said it with such confidence and irritation that it's unusual, unless they actually knew that for sure.

"A wanderer without a home or proper name is truly detestable," Feran adds.

Yeah these guys definitely investigated me. They must have asked for information on my application. As expected of noble brats. Although you would think that with the amount the application fee costed and the prestige of the school, they would protect student confidentiality. Is that just not a thing here?

Well, it's my fault for filling in all that bullcrap anyway. Still, it was the best way to tie up lose ends about my background, though I am starting to regret it a little. It puts a slight dent in my plans but it'll bring me a lot of attention. Whatever, I'll just roll with it.

But before I can say anything, Larien sticks his hand out. First his face turned from slight shock to a phony smile hiding irritation. He couldn't hide the anger in his voice though. "What does heritage have to do with individual talent? Don't forget, he's a tier 4, level 51 mage, yeah? Let's stop this foolery and get ready for the test shall we?"

Damn. His mouth is smiling but his eyes aren't having it at all. He's supposed to be a prince but the kid's got spunk. He really reminds me of my younger brother. Though I can't say my brother is 'prince material'. Anyway, maybe that's why I'm getting fond of him. He's a good guy. I should kick his ass and have him understand the difference between us some time.

The nobles flinch and gaze in shock and confusion at Larien defending me. "Ugh. P-Prince Larien. It's just..."

"Look. The gates are opening. The test is about to start." Larien says, cutting them off.

I don't give them a second glance as I follow Larien into the testing area, and they grudgingly follow behind. The other groups disperse into the forest as well.

Just as I thought, the other two don't lift a finger to help me as we fight every monster we encounter. They focus their mana into support spells for Larien- not that the guy even needs it. Anything to be useful to a prince I guess. And I certainly don't need their help either.

I've already wasted thirteen grey-back wolves, and seven dual horned bears. All they've done is cast protection field on Larien while he exterminated twelve grey-back wolves, and six sting viper. The levels of the wolves were 9, the levels of the dual horned bears were 15, and the level of the sting vipers were 10. I'd say he's trying to match up to me. Looks like I'm not the only one here to impress.

I sigh and shoot an ice arrow at an incoming dual horned bear coming up from the rear. Before I can blink, a fire arrow zips past me to hit another bear from behind me. I turn to see Larien with a 'good guy' smile on his face. Yeah, he's most definitely competing with me right now. I guess it's nice to have a rival, though he's still too weak for me to actually consider him my proper rival, but his potential is basically soaring, so I'll entertain him a bit for now. Back on earth, I'm sure this kid would've been amazing. It's too bad that I'm going to take your country from right under you. Not that he had a shot at the throne to begin with, since he's the 'third' prince. Unless something happens to Princes one and two, I doubt he'd get a shot at the limelight. If I'm not mistaken, that's how the Halrio kingdom worked, like any monarchy I guess.

Speaking of earth, I wonder how everyone's doing? I just up and died without saying good bye to anyone. I didn't even have direct contact to the outside world since I got kicked out from home. Until now, I couldn't even tell what the sky looked like anymore. Though, I can honestly say I only miss about two people in my life. Speaking of which, if I leave out the ragged witch, the old bastard and baby bro. I wonder how 'he's' doing.

A loud growling sound draws me from my thoughts. We turn to the side the growls come from and a beast-like monster creeping behind the trees comes to view. Hold on, isn't that a werldhide? A werldhide is a mid-level monster with a minimum level of 26. No werldhide had a level below that, which is peculiar because all the monsters in this forest are supposed to range from levels 6 to 17. And the one before us is at level 29.

I suppose, this thing... this is supposed to be the cake of this test right? The test only has six minutes to go, and so far I think we're the group in the lead. They called this a bonus test, and I'm guessing this guy is why. If someone catches this thing, I'm guessing it's an automatic entry into this college.

And I'm definitely not the only one who thinks that since Larien just rushed towards the thing an casted a dozen fire arrows.

"Dermon Altruso!" He casts, forming one fire ball after another and shooting them at the werldhide.

In the third test, Larien's elemental affinity was fire, and wind. A good combination. It looks like he's proficient in fire magic already too.

In «Kingdom Crawlers», an element was selected randomly and assigned to your character if you chose a job class that involved magic. However, that didn't mean you couldn't master any spells of a different element. There were many ways to do it. Magic stones, relics, artifacts, spells, equipment, a whole lot of ways basically. And I used them all, so in the end I had an affinity for every element. Of course during testing limited it to ice. Though I found another difference between the Kingdom Crawler's Elrev and this one. In this Elrev, there is no element like lightning. There's only fire, water, ice, wind, earth, light, and darkness. Whereas Kingdom Crawler's included lightning, which I'm equally proficient in. So I guess that's a hidden card I have now. A type of magic this world isn't aware of.

Feran and Turnan stay back and watch as Larien hurls consecutive fire balls at the werlhide. The damage he's causing would be sufficient if only the werlhide didn't have that annoying trait of regeneration. It's why even though it's only a mid-level monster, it's still a pain to deal with. Their regeneration is almost on par with wyverns. I wonder how Larien will handle this.