Chapter 96: UFO!

Cordelia POV

As I trudge through the forest, I found now a total of 9 gold nugget throughout the night training and headed back and hope that I can just find one on my way back, I can head in deeper within the forest where there should be more of an abundance of the gold nuggets, but I rather not dig too deep.

I found a student on my way back, a classmate, even though I believe I can beat them, I rather not attack my own comrades, I left there and fore 2 students with something weighing in their pouches, it could be a trick and they could just put stones instead of gold.

So I broke off sharp shards of metal from my dull blade and threw it at their pouches and sure enough, some stones dropped out with 2 and 3 gold nuggets falling respectively and fell upon the rocks.

It means they placed the gold nuggets on top so that when they negotiate with a stronger team, the other can peak through their bargaining chip and see the gold on top and assumed all of them are.

I don't care about all the other gold they're hiding in their bodies, I do want to get the highest score, but I don't care enough for that, i just need to pass my current training.

My opponents is a dwarf and a human, it's not impossible to escape with one of the pieces that fell. They're not creature of the night, and they should be tired, basing from their injuries, they're only healing themselves through smile first aid, not healing magic, meaning they don't have the affinity for it.

They charged at my direction, I steadied myself and when they got close, I dived at their legs and knocked them off balanced. As they fell forward, I used the metal blade to hit the human in the back of their head and knocked them out as I charged for the earlier dropped gold nuggets.

The dwarf then threw this makeshift bola that is made with some ropes and rocks at me and captured my legs. I fell down and the dwarf charged at me, I can used the slightly sharp part of the earlier broken part of the blade to cut myself out, but I don't have enough time.

I quickly reached out for a gold nugget and threw it with all my strength at the fallen human. It flew by the dwarf, but he then forgot about me and ran for his friend to save them from the hit as I cut myself out and quickly got up, i got the 4 remaining close 4 nuggets and dashed for the safe zone.

I then encounter 2 shadow mercenaries on my way back.

"Look! A UFO!"

And sure enough, they looked...I can't believe Perseus' childish antics saved me today, and I further cannot believed experienced hunters will actually falls for it because they never experienced these childish things throughout the tower and training.

I made it back to Craig and made sure he's not an illusion before turning in my work as I gasped for breath.

"Congrats, you've arrived 3rd." he said "Alvis and Greg came back first with 15 and 13 pieces respectively, don't be too discouraged, Alvis is a vampire, a creature of the night, this kind of thing should be easy for him, get some rest till the others come back."

"I'm glad I passed, I'm so tired, if only I can use offensive spells, it would have been a bit less tiring."

"If that happened along with everyone, we would have made it really expensive to repair the forest since those kind of mages are pricy." Craig replied

*****

Perseus POV

"Was me cleaning you up earlier not sufficient for you?" Valentina joked and stuck her tongue out "A warm bath in the morning feels really nice, but I've never had such a small bathtub before."

"This is a pretty good sized one, I'm not that tall and even then, it's hard to find a bathtub that allows me to stretch my legs fully, you know. We didn't even plan on having one, just showers, but we would've have regret it afterwards."

I don't think we slept a wink last night and now that it's morning time, we decided to take a bath just to clean ourselves up a bit. Though I think I do feel a bit sleepy now.

"We need to shower after this, you know, to clean ourselves more thoroughly." Valentina said "Though help me stand because no amount of healing magic would help my ache and soreness. Oh...I can feel something hard against my back..."

"It's your fault for tempting me." I whispered "This sight is a rarity."

"Well I got some stamina left in me." she giggled "Just be gentle...I'm still a bit sensative."

*****

Cordelia POV

Only about 20 people in the class managed to get 10 pieces of gold as they were stopped by the mercenaries often, but our class did at least managed to scrap by and become the class with the most gold nuggets and gave us the win with Alvis getting the longest break.

"Why do you want a break? Shouldn't you wish for more training? The 3rd years A class sometimes have to deal 3 days worth of work with no rest." Perseus said as he arrived in the hotel lobby.

"Did you sleep last night?"

"Not really, no. The 2 royals are planning to come visit and watch over you guys training tomorrow though, so rest well."

Oh, I was right, he really did stayed up all night to make sure the 2 royals are safe and sound because of the recent assassination attempt. Nice guy.

"Are they safe?"

"Yep, so for today, I'll go and investigate the assassins, I'm sure I can be absent to do my duties as a duke, right?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Craig confirmed "I would actually try to help you find any information as well when I'm free, if some organization is brave enough to attack the person with the most authority of this race...same danger could happen to other races."