Chương 222: Wilderness Survival Exam Part 2

Ronald Anderson was not having as easy a time in the wilderness excursion as Damion was. As the first student to go through the portal, Ronald was excited and eager to prove himself. Unfortunately, he was mostly proving himself inept. Having a B Rank Wood affinity meant he should have been at home in a forested area, able to manipulate the trees of the test area to build himself a safe place to rest. However, the first group of trees he tried to make his treehouse camp in, turned out to be the home of a beehive.

Forced to flee the tree without his gear Ronald ran from the swarm, hoping to escape their stings. While not Ferocious Beasts, he ended up getting stung a dozen times before he was able to shake the bees off by diving into a nearby pond. That was his second mistake. The pond was home to an E Rank serpent Ferocious Beast. Ronald did not get a chance to identify the Ferocious Beast before the five-meter-long snake wrapped itself around him in an attempt to crush and suffocate him.

Luckily, he was able to grow the few twigs that were still clinging to his garments after his flight from his failed treehouse. With the help of Nurture Growth, Ronald was able to turn the twigs into sharp thorny sticks that, the more the E Rank Ferocious Beast squeezed down on him, the more it squeezed onto them, thus impaling itself with a half dozen makeshift barbs.

The Ferocious Beast was forced to release Ronald and was about to try another tactic when out of nowhere, the E Rank snake was hit with a blast of frozen air. Ronald looked around and saw a white bird with golden beak and talons swooping down on the snake. He recognized the newcomer immediately as the Ferocious Beast Damion Wells was always going around with.

It was a bit of a surprise to him, that the Snow Hawk had been allowed to participate in the wilderness excursion, but he figured the school may not have been able to stop it or perhaps had not bothered to even try. Either way, Ronald was happy to see Phil at this moment. Even more so when the Snow Hawk's talons swiped through the snake Ferocious Beast's body, severing it completely.

"Thanks, Phil," Ronald called as the Snow Hawk swung back around. This time Phil dove down and took hold of the two halves of the carcass, one in each talon, and flew off. Ronald thought it was almost comical that a bird not even a meter high was flying while carrying a five-meter-long snake, but he was glad that Phil had helped him. If not, he might have been knocked out of the exam on the first day. In the direction that Phil was flying, Ronald saw a column of smoke rising from a campfire.

Either the starter of the fire did not know that doing so would likely attract unwelcome visitors, or they did not care. Since Phil was flying in that direction, Ronald could not help but wonder if Damion was the one that had started the fire. Having been sent through the portal near the end of the rollcall, Thomas Sorin felt he was behind everyone else and was trying to quickly catch up.

He, like every other student in the class, had prepared an adventurer kit consisting of various things essential for survival in the wild. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Thomas, being rather wealthier than most of the class, had a well-planned out and provisioned kit. Keeping himself well and fed, and even safe, for the two weeks would be a piece of cake, all he had to do was set up his tent and wait for extraction.

There was no doubt in his mind that a number of the students in the class would do just that, but Thomas wanted to win. If he wanted to score high in the rankings, he needed to hunt down Ferocious Beasts to get extra points. He knew that would not be easy, but he and his friends had already come up with a plan. Being the Headmaster's grandson, Thomas was able to gain access to a map of the testing area and he of course shared it with Yuri Martes and Geoffrey Thorn.

The three of them studied the map enough that they were confident they would be able to find each other during the exam. They of course had no idea where they would each be sent in the test area to start, but they identified a large tree near the center of the test area. No matter where each of them started, they would all head to that tree to meet up. Once there, they could then work together to kill Ferocious Beasts and boost their scores.

Not long after Thomas entered the exam area, he saw in the sky Damion Wells, falling. The sight brought a smile to his face as he made a mental note to thank Professor Klein for taking care of his rival, but then Damion cast Ice Sword and floated safely down to the ground. He wanted to go hunt the Ice mage down, but Thomas knew he was no match for him. Even if he gathered all his friends in this exam, there was no way he could match Damion's strength.

If he snuck up on him, he might stand a chance of injuring the Ice mage, but when he remembered Damion had fought eight other mages at once, including a B Rank, a shiver went down Thomas' spine. As much as he would like to find some way to take revenge on Damion, Thomas knew he likely would never be able to. The young man was about the same age as he was, but he grew at a ridiculous pace.

Instead of heading in the direction Damion landed, Thomas turned and headed the other way, telling himself that he was just following what his grandfather had told him, to leave Damion Wells alone. Thankfully, the direction Damion was in was not the same direction Thomas needed to go to find his friends. As he walked through the forest, careful to keep a bit of mana channeling in his beast warding artifact, Thomas kept an eye out for any Ferocious Beasts that were not driven away by it.

When the sun was starting to get low in the sky, Thomas noticed Damion's pet flying overhead with a large snake trapped in its talons. He wanted to protest that Wells had help and should be disqualified, but he knew it would not make any difference. Damion had spat in the face of the nobles repeatedly, and nothing had happened to him. Only he had taken action to put Wells in his place, not that it had ended well. During the first week, Thomas had challenged Damion to a duel and lost.

Then he got Mage Bianco to hire a team of adventurers to assassinate him and still he failed. Thomas wanted to protest, to strangle the young man in his sleep, but it was beyond his capabilities, which further enraged him. Even when the Headmaster fired his cousin for failing to seduce Damion, the young man sidestepped the new threat by rehiring her himself. It was as if Mage Wells was doing everything he could to leave the ancient noble families no face.

Right now, Thomas knew he stood no chance, but one day he would. One day, he would be the patriarch of the Sorin family. One day he would reach S Rank. And one day, Damion Wells would start a family and forget about all the things he had done in the past, secure in his own power and safety. That was when Thomas vowed to strike.