Chapter 12: Rewards

Kiefer Claw reached out his hand as if he is expecting them to give in. He smiled sinisterly to them. His green eyes shows no consideration and hardwork, yet his talons on both hands are filled with stains from the monsters it pierced.

Philip shielded Kray with his hand. He has already endured enough and is one step close to passing the exam. He doesn't want someone to snatch something from him and treat it as if it is theirs.

"Screw off punk." Philip said in a firm tone,

"I am not talking to you, loser." Keifer sneered.

Three more kids stood by him, side-by-side. An axe user, a dual wielding dagger user and a stuck up arcane lady user, who seem to look very sorry to even be here.

"We shouldn't do this, sir Claw." The arcane user tried to convince Kiefer in a weak voice. You can tell that the arcane user isn't part of their group because she looks out of place and always seems uncomfortable.

"How many times have I told you to shut up?!" Keifer angrily shouted as he pushed the Arcane user to the ground, her tears fell off to the side as she tightly bit her lips, her brown hair in shambles and her blue robe dirtied.

"Hey! You stupid chupacabra! That is not how you treat a woman?!" Chester shouted, of course, seeing a beauty will not escape his eyes also because she is being bullied and he doesn't like bullies,

"Chupacabra?! Hahahaha. We have a comedian guys!" Keifer laughed maniacally as the other two also laughed horribly.

"He must be the class clown or something." The axe user added,

"He must be because he is a joke." The dual wielding user also added,

"Just give us the damn egg and we won't hurt you too much." Keifer firmly said,

Geraldine hid behind Kray while Crimson is prepared to cast a spell at the side.

Kray's brows locked tighly. He never liked injustice, all his life, he lived without recieving justice, to his family, to his hometown. He also experienced too much of Philip's bullying in the past, this one is no different. He will never be push around, he will fight back even if it is one-sided.

"Who are you supposed to be to take our efforts? I don't care if you are the principal, king or one of the legendary party! I won't allow myself to be used by anyone who thinks too highly of themselves!" Kray said with a powerful tone,

"Me? Thinking too highly? Hahahahahah. You are not even worth entering my eye. What level even are you? 10-9? Even lesser? I'm level 15. My friends are level 13 and 14. I am way out of your league." Keifer said looking down at them.

The arcane user could only looked to the side in disdain. She just got partied with them because she had to party with. These guys are lacking one members somehow and by the time she entered their party, she finally understood. She was just too naive and too easy to be influenced. It's a fact that the world is not full of rainbows and butterflies. She just still didn't saw it.

"We'll see about that! Chester!" Kray shouted,

"You got it." Chester confirmed as he played his lyre in the tune of 'Lullaby'.

"Huh? My eyes feel very all of a sud-" The dual wielding user uttered as he drop sleep to the ground while the axe user almost doze off but seems to shake the sleep off.

"Bastards. Give me the egg!"

Keifer jumped at the guarding Philip. Philip could only defend with his arm, his weary and old medium armor already passed its age that it could barely even stick his body, a few more strikes could break his medium armor. Lacerations are slowly showing around his body, his cheek and all around his hands.

"Heaven's Lasso!"

"Entangle!"

Geraldine and Crimson casted their spells simultaneously rooting the axe user in place and bind Keifer as he struggled to the ground.

"Huh?! Yuck tentacles!" The axe user exclaimed as he struggle to break free of the vines latching onto him,

"What the hell?! Get this off me!" Keifer struggles so much as he quiver in place,

"Keif! They are getting away!" The axe user exclaimed,

"Fuck! Hey, idiot! Wake up! Stupid idiot! Ahhhh! You can't ran forever! Dog!" Keifer keeps on shouting,

After Chester finished playing his song, Chester grabbed the hand of the arcane user and the six run the hell away. Kray forcefully carried Philip by the shoulder. Philip wanted to push Kray away but he is bleeding everywhere so he doesn't have much strength to even push anyone.

They ran a good distance in a random directions before resting in a safe enough location where Keifer and the gang could not locate them. Luckily, they didn't run into a monster or it would have been more problematic.

The group sat on the ground panting while Geraldine focused on treating Philip with his injury.

"We need to get out of this place and give the egg to the facilitator and be done with this." Chester panted, he is still holding on to the arcane user's hand.

"Heal!"

"Ummm." The arcane user uttered,

Chester looked at the uttering Arcane user who seem to have a flustered face.

"Ca-can you let go of my hand now?" She asked,

"A-ahhh... Sorry." Chester let go of her hand as he tried to do it in a dreamy way like a main character from a romantic movie,

"Sorry if my party wants to take the egg from you." She apologizes to everyone,

"You don't have to be sorry. Those scumbag are the one's who needs to say sorry." Chester said in a deep and manly voice,

"Oh." She uttered.

Chester stood up in place pat his thighs from dust and reached out from the arcane magic user.

"Here. Let me help you stand up. What is your name, my fair lady?" Chester asked as he said in a very romantic voice.

The arcane magic user's cheek reddened as she reached out for his hand as Chester helped him stand up.

"My name is Sally. Sally Bluelight. I am a level 13, arcane magic user." She said,

"I am Chester. Chester Note but you can call me yours because I am." Chester said.

She reddened even more. How easy is she to read, she must be exploding inside.

The two frolick with cheeky smiles and cheeky words coming from Chester. Kray could not stop sighing in cheerfulness.

'Chester, you lady killer, you.' Kray thought,

Philip tried to struggle a little until the pain eased and he fell asleep.

"Whew. My mana regeneration can't keep up with the amount of mana I expend today." Geraldine said,

"Sorry about that." Kray said with an apologetic look,

"What are we supposed to do now? Do we return to the facilitator now?" Crimson asked,

"Let's hide in here for a bit then go back to the entrance to turn over the egg. Those scumbags might still be looking for us and we have to atleast avoid them entirely." Kray said,

"What about my lady with us? We can't just leave her to the likes of those wretched men. I want to make sure she is safe." Chester continued his romantic voice as he placed his hand on both her shoulders. Feeling this, her face reddened even more yet didn't really push his hands aside,

"We will take her with us, I think we can still invite other members." Kray said,

"That is for the better. Don't worry little Angel, I wont leave you behind." Chester said then turned his gazd back to the flustered Sally. Such a lady boy could not hold his urges to be sweet and gentle to beautiful ladies.

"How about leaving their party and joined ours? There is no rule to not invite more members to the cap." Crimson suggested,

"That is what I just said..." Kray rolled his eyes,

"C-can I?" She asked hesitantly,

"Of course you can, my baby." Chester said,

Her face bright red and she took a deep inhale before placing a hand on her bosom, she exhaled what could be the pent up stress with coming along with the likes of Keifer. She opened her party window and left Keifer's party.

"Here. Let me invite you." Kray opened his party window and invited Sally, Sally accepted the offer the party is now consisting of 6 members.

"Let us add you as a friend too." Geraldine said,

"We-were friends?" She smiled happily, she has been lonely most of the time. Her parents are always away and she isn't allowed to leave the house much so she doesn't have much friends other than her pet, a Gray Mane Wolf. Her parents were shocked knowing that she wants to become an adventurer. Feeling the guilt of grounding their child, they supported her.

"Yes, we are friends now, okay?" Geraldine stood up held the hands of the teary Sally,

"Hmm." She smiled happily as Chester placed his hand on her shoulder as she looked at him grateful.

Everyone added Sally as their friend and she happily accepted them.

After a half an our of rest. Philip finally woke up, he expected to see Kray and his party leave him but he was surprised to see Geraldine in front of him, resting also. He sat up and saw Crimson talking non-stop about chains to the sighing Kray and Chester and Sally frolicking.

'What the hell?' Philip thought. He doesn't really trusted people too much. He knows how much Kray and Chester hates him, though he hates them too for some reason but there wasn't any reason for them to wait for him, they can just leave him because they already got the goal, it only needs to be delivered.

He also clearly remembers something that had happened to him, the time of the Mace Gang and how his subordinate left him to dust when things go south. That time he lost trust in people and mostly thinks only for himself. As long as it will benefits him, he is alright but if he doesn't get benefits, he doesn't care. So his train of thoughts is that people don't care about him so he doesn't care about them also that is why he concluded that his party left him but it wasn't the case.

Geraldine then opened her eyes and saw the sitting Philip.

"Guys. Philip is awake." Geraldine announced,

"Finally! Heheheh." Kray grinned as he scratched his cheek. He is getting annoyed to Crimson's non-stop blabbering about why elemental magic is better than being a chain weapon user,

"Awww. I was already at the goodpart. Looks like we need to go. I'll talk to you more about the details on why I am not focused in chain weapons." Crimson happily said.

The four stood up and Geraldine stood up and reached her hand to Philip. Philip can only clicked his tongue and stood on himself.

Geraldine wasn't really affected by Philip's action. She knows the pride of men when women helped them even though Philip just doesn't trust anyone and doesn't want anyone's help.

"Let's finish the exams." Kray happily said.

After moving through some mobs and killing some. The party walked past the mobs and reached where the nesting of the Green Bush Rat and exited the forest.

They were greeted happily by the facilitator.

Kray hand over the egg of the Iron Beak Pink Maruda to the facilitator.

"Oh. Excellent done. Looks like you are the first group to have passed the exam." The facilitator happily grinned then noticed an enrollee from Batch A.

"Why do you have an enrollee from Batch A with you?" He asked,

"We had a quarrel with a party and she seems to not enjoy their company so we took her with us." Kray said,

"Oh. hahaha. Don't worry, the monitoring team also saw that scene and added it to their evaluation. There are no worries if you can't complete the exam but of course completing it would recieve a benificial reward to give you guys a little boost like how quests works." The facilitator said,

"And what would be our reward?" Chester asked,

"Since your party is capable and could handle situations on your own. You will be given a one week pass to enter the Beginner's Forest and train here." The facilitator happily said.

Kray and Philip widen his eyes in surprise. Philip cannot just pass this. Entering the Beginner's Forest was prohibited to other non-combat or non-support user. You would need a permit if you are not capable or an adventurer. It is one of the laws of Tigwa.

Philip looked at Kray. He needs this 1 week free access to Beginner's Forest and train like hell.

'One week to train!' Both had the same train of thought and excitement,

"The result of the evaluation will be posted at the main gate next next week on tuesday so try to look whether you are still qualified and on what batch you all will be assigned in." The facilitator added,

"Great." all of them cheered.

'With this I can catch up pretty quick.' Kray thought ending their exams in a great result.

"But! In order to use your free pass, you need to be atleast a party of 5 members." The facilitator raised his finger up and expound the details.

Philip dropped a sweat from his side burn.

'Tsk. I wont be invited by these fools. Fucking shit.' He thought,

"We can invite other people?" Chester said as he grinned at Philip in a mocking manner,

"Yes. you can but their are already a six of you so I don't think you still need to. Any other question?" The facilitator said as he waited a good minute before continuing,

"Here is the free access pass and congratulations in passing the exam. See you next next week. I am sure you passed." The facilitator laughed as he handed Kray the free access pass then he placed it in his inventory.

'Time to crunch some levels next week.' Kray grinned happily.