Chapter 65- I'm a Survivor

With his announcement of the beginning of the game, everyone went into a frenzy.

Students began to run in different directions, but I remained where I was.

I was hoping for a different game mode, but Survival was within expectations.

We had a lot of students in these ranked games, and this was the perfect way to eliminate the weaker ones.

This being survival meant a number of things, one being that it could continue for days.

Which meant the first thing to do was not acquire as many points on the first day, but to secure a safe place where you easily rest.

There was no point in hoarding items if you only had a storage ring to keep them and that's if you had a storage ring.

While there was only me and a couple of students who were just looking around, Pith Orientation reached out and sensed where the most dormant mana resided.

I was at my most powerful where the sun wasn't directly on me, which meant I needed to be where darkness was.

Dormant mana usually meant caves, that was most ideal for me.

As I prepared to head towards the nearest cave, one of the students who stayed behind, approached me.

"Hey listen, I know how you are now, but I heard a bunch of students were going to form teams and I thought, if they're forming groups why don't I have a team with you?

To my displeasure, I recognized him as one of Camden's friends.

Of course, his name appeared when Pith Orientation identified him, but because he was deemed unimportant therefore his name was forgotten.

As fun as it seemed to either trick him into getting eliminated or even having a lackey, with this game mode it was better to focus on being the top ranker and not the villain.

"As if I needed help, especially with the likes of someone as pitiful as you.

Do yourself a favor and eliminate yourself so you can spectate me and learn something."

Having said those words, I turn and run off to the north where I sensed the dormant mana, hoping to find a cave.

Running through the forest was surprisingly easy as Pith Orientation mapped out the placement of trees every second.

Also the forest was free of resistance despite being a Survival mode.

After running for 15 minutes, I was sure there wasn't a single monster wandering to eliminate unsuspecting students.

Reaching the cave, I finally sensed something not human dwelling inside it.

Berserker Bear LVL 25

Health: 400

Mana: 100

Creeping inside, I found that it was sleeping next to a chest.

As I was in the darkness of the cave, it was too easy to dispatch the sleeping bear without waking it.

I cautiously opened the chest as I felt like any could be trapped.

The chest contained two bottles that when I probed with Pith Orientation, revealed that one held stored mana which made me assume it was a mana potion, and a medallion.

When my mana comes into contact with the medallion, a female voice rings out,

"You have earned 100 points. Letting someone else's mana come into contact will reward them the points instead."

The bears corpse begins to slowly disperse from my senses and I take this time to evaluate the situation.

I still entertained the idea of staying in a cave for the many advantages it provided me.

If I stayed in a cave, I was sure I wouldn't be bothered often as those who were less confident in their abilities would steer clear of any cave.

However, I felt this cave wasn't ideal.

It was too convenient to assess and wasn't that deep.

Storing the items in my storage ring and moving out of the cave, I began to ponder on other things as well.

Maybe for entertainment purposes, the games early stages were to let everyone get complacent, think it's going to be easy.

I was sure that one of the random events was where monsters would be now randomly roaming the forest.

Those who didn't have a shelter at that point was sure to get eliminated.

There was also the trouble of running into others.

Thanks to Camden's friend, I knew that groups of students were formed immediately.

So, from here on, should I encounter anyone, I should assume there's at least 4 together.

Continuing to head north towards the next dormant mana, I began to notice the land had a slight incline to it.

I was guessing that I was approaching a mountain.

This was good news for me as a majority of people would be less inclined to go through the effort of climbing a mountain.

Taking my time to traverse the mountain, I came across a settled pathway that led to a cave.

As I neared the cave, I picked up an even greater source of dormant mana a bit further from the cave on the path.

Confused I decided to investigate further.

As I approached the mouth of the second cave, I realized that it wasn't shaped like an ordinary cave.

This one was more like a tunnel that trailed well past the range of my senses into the mountain's insides.

The first was another just a bigger version of the bear's cave.

I cautiously make my way through the tunnel, taking care to not slip or fall all the way down.

I noticed as I went deeper, Pith Orientation actually became more disoriented.

The pictures of information that appeared before my eyes weren't clear and precise like before but shaky and looked like they were drawn on an Etch a Sketch.

I could only assume that whatever was down here had a certain level of control of the surrounding mana.

I soon picked up what was the cause of the disturbance through Pith Orientation.

While I couldn't get a clear shape of the monster, I knew enough to instantly think it resembled a snake.

As I entered the cavern where it was resting, I wondered why Pith Orientation hasn't identified it yet.

Focusing on the skill, I noticed that anytime the mana touched the creature, it would actually buffer for some time, then give up, opting to go around it.

Sighing, I had to activate Mana Sense along with Pith Orientation for the mana to complete it's task.

Draco-Covet Wyrm LVL 55

Health: 5000

Mana: 3000

Well, I wasn't actually expecting it to be this good.

Taking into account that it probably has a skill that disorients mana, I still could take it down.

But on the side of caution, I summoned a clone and sent it towards the tunnel.

If it had a skill that out right negated mana, I would be in trouble, and it was better to play it safe.

With my mind made up and everything set up, I carefully approached the sleeping monster.

Slowly drawing a dagger, I decided to strike at where I assumed the neck was as I had no idea where to locate its heart.

My blade sings softly then bounces off the hard scales of the monster.

I sigh in depression, 'Of course it wouldn't be that easy.'