Hunting Ground

"From today onward, everyone will spend their time here. If you leave the hunting ground, then you can't return to continue hunting. The point will be counted from the moment you enter and end when you leave," A teacher announced to everyone.

Char and the other student have arrived by the hunting grounds and are waiting for people from the academy to finish their briefing.

"If your life is in danger, don't hesitate to activate the distress signal! Remember, your life is the most important thing! Now, with that said, let the test begin!" the teacher announced before the students started to enter the hunting grounds in a race.

"Char, we need to hurry as well, they will leave us if we don't hurry!" Anne hurried him.

"We don't need to. Try to look around us and you will understand," He told her.

The girl looked around and found a lot of familiar faces as Aya and Robert, everyone there was from the elite class and best student of their year.

They did not race into the hunting ground like the rest of the students; they waited until the crowd thin out before they slowly entered the training ground.

"Huh? Why are they so relaxed? Won't the other student have a head start?" Anne did not get why everyone there decided to wait.

"If we join the crowd and enter the hunting ground, then we will need to compete with dozens of other students for one creature, the risk of others snatching our prey also high. Fights will inevitably break out." He explained.

"One or two leveled creatures worth nothing compared to the risk. Remember Anne, we will be here for 5 days, this is a marathon and not a sprint. And our true competitor is here, these people who are the best of our year. We don't need to compete with those riffraffs," he added.

"Ah! I see! We can also beat those who have a lot of scores to get their score too!" she said excitedly.

"I'm not so sure about that. To snatch their score, we need to kill their creatures, if they don't want to summon them, then we can do nothing about it. The weakling will hide while those who are strong will be tough opponents. In the end, the best way to gather score is to hunt creatures," Char shook his head.

"Oh!!! The former genius still has his brain with him! But what can that do? He will never get back to the top!" Robert said sarcastically.

"Oh! The current Academy best student loses against a skeleton! What can he do? He can't even win against a skeleton!" Char snapped back at the boy.

"You! I was just surprised by your trick! And I did not even summon my dragon! Do you think you can beat me if we fight with our summoned creature?" he grew angry.

Mana gathered around them. Within seconds a dragon twice as big as a human appeared, its red skin and yellow reptilian eyes looked dashing before everybody.

"Roar!" the dragon roared the moment it got summoned.

"Damn, a baby dragon already that big! This thing is basically a cheat!" Char lamented, but he did not back down.

"You want to fight here? Fine by me, all the teachers and your classmates are watching, I wonder what they will do when they see you start a fight even before entering the hunting ground," Char grinned.

"Will they help you? Or they might decide to gang up on you since you are their greatest competitor?" he cheekily said.

Those in the elite class were really competitive, their strengths were close to each other. If two of them were to fight Robert, then the dragon summoner would lose without a doubt.

"Ugh... Fine! I will let you off this once, but remember! If I ever find you in the hunting ground, then I will surely beat you up!" he backed down.

"Well, don't forget that it's you who is too scared to fight," Char sniggered at the boy.

Their argument did not go unnoticed. The other students were watching and waiting for the fight to start, but it ended up as a false alarm.

After an hour, every team already entered the training ground, Char made sure that he went in the opposite direction from the angry boy. He did not want to fight a pointless fight.

"With my skeleton's current ability, it should be able to fight Robert, but his dragon is another story. Only its astral body might deal damage, but dragons also have a powerful soul. It will be a thought fight," he thought.

The skeleton was only level 11, while the dragon should be a few levels higher, with its superior species and higher level. It has too much edge to Char's liking.

"I will need to improve more if I want to win against a dragon," he thought.

They passed through some student that was fighting against a group of wild creatures, but none of them bothered to intervene.

Char told Anne to follow him deeper into the hunting grounds. At the outer edge, they will only meet with creatures at level 1 to 5, which was not worth their time.

He looked at the tracking device on his arm; it looked like a wristwatch; it showed green light, which means it's connected to the main server. It also showed how much he scored.

"Char, don't you think it's better if we summon our creature now? It will be bad if wild creatures ambush us," Anne asked in worry.

"No. out here, there is only some low-level creature, it's our best chance to gain fighting experience against a group of wild creatures. That way we will not have a problem defending ourselves deeper in the hunting ground." He told her.

"Alright then, but don't come running for me when you are beaten by them," she shrugged.

"look, who is talking. You are the one who is clueless about all this thing," he did not back down. Their rivalry never ceased to exist.

It was then that a rustling sound came from deeper in the forest, "They are here!" Char warned.