Synergy

Pressing [Yes], the environment changed. Much like in the evaluation test and in F-rank portals, Yasuo found himself in the middle of a forest, in an open grassy area.

But this time it was different, as Yasuo wasn't alone this time. Looking to his right, he could see Nari wearing a serious expression on her face, and a bow in her hand.

Yasuo was dazed for a good few seconds, having feelings of surrealness of finally fighting alongside someone for the first time in his life.

"Yasuo focus, or we'll die!" Yelled Nari, who saw goblins spawn in, which made Yasuo snap out of thought.

With a few seconds having passed, the goblins had already spawned.

Unlike at the solo evaluation where only one goblin spawned in the first level, three goblins had spawned in level one.

Nari jumped back immediately as she was a ranged attacker and susceptible to close ranged attacks. "Yasuo, don't let the goblins get to me."

As Yasuo was all too familiar with goblins, he responded arrogantly. "Don't worry, the goblins wouldn't dare move when I am here."

Nari looked annoyed at Yasuo, who looked like he wasn't taking this serious. "Don't be stupid, the goblins -" Nari stopped scolding Yasuo when she looked at the goblins, and saw that they weren't moving.

"What did you do?" Asked Nari, who had slightly calmed down, but was confused as to why the goblins were just standing there motionless, not charging at them.

Seeing that Nari wasn't angry anymore, Yasuo smiled a little. "I have obtained a title that makes goblins instinctively fear me." Yasuo said proudly.

With Nari being the daughter of the guild master of one of the strongest guilds, she had received a lot of opportunities to receive achievements and titles, which was the reason why she was even more surprised, hearing of a title that she had never even heard of before, and a strong one at that.

Now that Nari was officially in a portal clearing group with Yasuo, she felt proud thinking about what heights they could possibly reach in the future. "Then let's make this quick and go to stage two with E-rank monsters!"

This was the exact thought that Yasuo had.

With Yasuo fighting in close combat, and Nari assisting him from behind, the levels progressed quickly. How Yasuo and Nari fought against the goblins, couldn't even be seen as a fight anymore, it was just a straight massacre all the way to the final level, level 30.

To much surprise to Nari and Yasuo, for the first time since they started the team mode, the monsters that spawned were exactly the same as in the solo evaluation, one goblin champion and two goblin warriors.

The goblin champion and two goblin warriors didn't stand a chance against the combined attack of Yasuo and Nari as they both had also solo defeated them in the solo evaluation.

~Level thirty clear: congratulations on clearing stage one: F-rank portal.~

As the message popped up, the environment changed and they found themselves back in the white room again.

They both still found it strange that the last round wasn't more any different from the solo evaluation, compared to every other level, which all became more difficult in the team mode.

As they began to theorize, Yasuo came to the most likely reasoning. "The most challenging part of a real portal clearing is a boss monster. I think the levels were created to simulate a real portal, and with only one boss being able to spawn per portal, the last level was probably the same to make it more realistic."

This explanation sounded pretty reasonable to Nari and Yasuo, so they just decided that the theory was correct.

"Are we going to start stage two today?" Asked Yasuo hesitantly, as he didn't want to come over as to pushy.

"Of course." Said Nari, who she was already planning to train the entire day. And what better practice than this. "But before we start, we will have to strategize again, and this time it will take a lot longer, because there will be a lot of different monsters unlike before where only goblins would spawn."

"Yes naturally!" Said Yasuo who was happy that Nari also wanted to continue.

They immediately began discussing strategies to fight the different monsters that could spawn. With each E-rank monster, they came up with the best way to defeat them, taking each other's strengths and weaknesses in mind, which, as Nari said, took way longer than their briefing for the first stage.

As it looked like it was going to take too long to think of a strategy for each and every E-rank monster that had been discovered, Nari came up with a suggestion. "Should we just discuss the five monsters that appeared in stage two at the evaluation test? If the team mode is the same as in the evaluation test, then the monsters will also be the same, only in higher numbers."

"Yeah, that's smart." Yasuo said, as they probably didn't have enough time anyway to clear a lot more levels that day.

At that exact same moment, Yasuo's stomach grumbled loudly, almost like a common occurrence at this point from going to eat meals too late.

Hearing Yasuo's stomach grumble and seeing him turn red, made Nari giggle. "Should we eat a meal first?" She asked with a smile on her face.

Yasuo hesitantly said: "…Yes please." as he wanted to keep talking about fighting strategies, but having a meal was necessary, so he gave in.

Going to the cafeteria together, they ordered lunch and Nari guided Yasuo to a table she usually sat at.

'Wow' Yasuo thought, as he saw a complete different view of the academy from where he was sitting, only having sat in one place so far.

"Enjoy your meal." They both said, as they began eating lunch.

As Yasuo's thought were still focused on combat strategies, he remembered that Nari said that she fought five different E-rank monsters.

"Nari, what were the monsters you fought in stage two of the evaluation test?" Yasuo asked, not being able to suppress his curiosity till after lunch.

With a fork in her hand, about to take a bite, Nari looked at Yasuo, whose eyes were sparkling from curiosity. "Oh, first I had to fight grey wolves, then giant scorpions, trolls, forest elves and lastly golems. I didn't manage to complete even one level against a golem, as I didn't have enough mana or piercing power anymore to break the high defence of the golem."

"Ah yeah, I understand. I made it to the second round against the forest elves, but didn't have enough mana anymore either." Yasuo replied.

Nari looked surprised. "Oh, then there isn't much of a gap between my rank four and your tenth rank." Nari said, as they were only two levels apart.

"If it wasn't augmented reality, I would have been able to go way further." Yasuo said to himself unconsciously, still regretting that he couldn't fight for longer.

Nari looked confused as to why Yasuo said this. "Why didn't you go further than?" Nari asked out of genuine curiosity.

"Oh!" Said Yasuo as he didn't mean to say that out loud. 'I probably should tell her. Keeping secrets isn't good anyway.' Yasuo thought.

Looking around to see if no one was listening, Yasuo leaned in and said: "Well, the dagger I showed you has a skill called [Mana Steal], which can literally steal a monster's mana. I used the dagger in the augmented reality at the evaluation, but it didn't work, so I ran out of mana. If that skill would have worked back then, I would still be almost full of mana and I could have at least gone for a few more levels."

"Wow.." Nari said, not being able to generate any other response, yet again being overwhelmed by another impressive secret Yasuo had. "Do you have any more secrets that I should know about?"

"I do have a few more secrets, but… I might tell you a little later… For now this is the last secret that will affect our fighting ability." Yasuo said, not wanting to reveal a few secrets about achievements he gained and such.

Yasuo was hesitant to say that he didn't want to tell her, thinking that it might be a sign of distrust, but Nari didn't seem to mind.

"I understand, I also have my fair share of secrets. As long as it doesn't affect us in combat, then you can have as many secrets as you want." Said Nari, with a sense of maturity about her.

When the conversation kept flowing naturally, continuing their talk about combat strategies against the five monsters they would first fight in the augmented reality, coming up with a strategy for these five monsters didn't take a long time and lunchtime quickly passed.

And finally they felt like they were amply prepared and ready to start the second stage of the team mode in the augmented reality.

With both Nari and Yasuo now excited about fighting the monsters together, practicing and improving their dynamic and pushing each other to their limits, they quickly left the cafeteria and returned to their bungalows, put their suits on and met up in the white room.

"Let's do this!" They enthusiastically said in unison as they clicked the [Yes] button, starting stage two of the team augmented reality.