Chương 224: Wilderness Survival Exam Part 4

While Damion was busy working on his artifact, the other members of his class were exploring the area. They were either trying to find a safe place to hide for the duration of the test or fighting Ferocious Beasts in hopes of scoring high. Thomas Sorin, thanks to the information he acquired before the exam, was able to make his way to his rendezvous with Geoffrey Thorn and Yuri Martes. With the three of them together, they believed they had little to worry about in the area.

The chances the school would have let a C Rank Ferocious Beast stay in the area was minimal, and if they had, it would be a weaker beast. Thus, the trio began moving around the area, hunting as many Ferocious Beasts down as they could. Unfortunately for them, no one in the final term with them was a Spatial mage. This meant they could not collect all the carcasses of the Ferocious Beasts they were killing. Which led them to a different problem. None of the trio liked to get their hands dirty.

If they were to collect just the valuable materials from the Ferocious Beasts, they had to do the field dressing themselves. Since the three young men were pampered nobles, they had never actually done this themselves and none of them wanted to. This meant they had a growing pile of Ferocious Beast carcasses, which was quite likely going to attract more dangerous beasts.

"If we keep killing at this rate we're going to end up with a mountain of corpses and every hungry Ferocious Beast in the area coming here for lunch," Thomas told his companions.

"What should we do then?" Geoffrey asked.

"Move on to another area? Or should we focus on killing the Ferocious Beasts that come here?"

"I say we move on," Yuri suggested.

"These are all F Rank anyways. They can't be worth that much in the way of points. If we find some D Ranks, then we can keep those to turn in for more points."

"And who is going to field dress those D Rank carcasses?" Geoffrey asked.

"Whoever we find first," Thomas declared.

"There are over a hundred students in this test area. And we are the strongest here. Any of the other students would be happy to join us with the promise of protection. And our fee will be they have to ready our kills to be turned over to the school for points."

"That will work. Is there anyone with a spatial artifact we can borrow?" Geoffrey asked, eliciting cold stares from both Yuri and Thomas.

"I mean anyone else. There are enough nobles that someone in the class has to have an artifact."

"My grandfather wouldn't let me borrow one, what makes you think other families were more generous?" Thomas asked.

"Fine. Forget I asked."

"Artifacts with spatial stretching should be able to handle the valuable parts," Yuri cut in.

"If we find a few of those, we might be able to get enough things to fit."

"Spatial stretching has its limits," Thomas disagreed.

"We would need everyone's artifacts just to fit the beasts we already have here. Let's just find a few of the commoners to field dress our kills. They can skin them and dry the hides and organize the other parts. They should be happy to receive our protection." This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

While the noble trio set off looking for fellow students instead of Ferocious Beasts, Ronald Anderson was having another close encounter with a serpent Ferocious Beast. This one, however, was not an aquatic snake. The green two-headed snake Ferocious Beast was a Wind Earth Snake. One head was able to spit out Earth Shards while the other spat Whirlwind Spheres. As a Wood mage, Ronald was sorely overmatched. The only lucky break he had so far, was being able to slow down the serpent with vines he grew as he fled.

"Ha! Take that," Ronald shouted as the vines he grew finally managed to find purchase in the V were the Wind Earth Snake's neck split. The vines he tried to trap the serpent with before had only wrapped round the snake's lower body and it was able to free itself. Now, the vines were entangling both the Ferocious Beast's heads.

"Constrict!" Ronald shouted as he clenched his fist. The vines wrapped around the Ferocious Beast suddenly tightened, pinning the snake to ground. Ronald walked over and was about to stab his wooden spear into the Earth head of the Wind Earth Snake when the Ferocious Beast suddenly started attacking the ground. In the moment it took Ronald to figure out what the snake was doing, he missed his chance to finish the beast off.

The Ferocious Beast managed to loosen the soil around the base of some of the vines enough that it could rip them free of the dirt. When the Wind Earth Snake pulled Ronald's vines from the dirt, the Wood mage stumbled backwards. Despite him willing his vines to squeeze the Ferocious Beast, they were not able to overcome the strength of the snake's flesh. His only hope left was that the vines were tight enough to suffocate the Wind Earth Snake before it could strike.

"Dark Blade!" Ronald heard the spell called out and then watched as the Wind head of the Wind Earth Snake was cut off. A split second later and the Ferocious Beast's other head was laying on the ground.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Ronald cried out to his rescuer. When Ronald finally got to his feet, he saw his rescuer was Inara Tynan. He was about to rush over to her to thank her again, but her cold glare stopped him in his tracks.

"I'm keeping the heads," Inara declared. Ronald did not mind, after all, he had been unable to kill the Ferocious Beast, the spoils naturally belonged to her.

"I can't believe I had to be rescued twice in the first two days," Ronald said feeling a bit depressed.

"Twice?" Inara questioned.

"Who saved you the first time?"

"Mage Wells' pet Snow Hawk." Inara's eye twitched at Mage Wells' name. As much as she liked him, she did not want to admit that to anyone.

"Say, Mage Tynan, you wouldn't happen to want to team up would you?" Ronald asked, hopeful that the Dark mage would say yes.

"What would I gain by teaming up with you?"

"I can keep watch. Help you field dress Ferocious Beasts. Watch your back during a fight." Ronald searched his head for other suggestions of what he could offer her, but he knew he did not have much.

"Look, I know I'm not an offensive type of mage," Ronald plead.

"My affinity lends me to alchemy and gardening. Don't think I don't hear what others say about me. That I have no place trying to get an Adventurer License. But I want to prove them all wrong. Most mages with an affinity like mine stay in cities and do research or work as alchemists. I just… I can't stand alchemy. Please help me." Inara's mouth twitched as she struggled to contain her laughter at Mage Anderson's situation. His honesty was refreshing, but she still did not see the benefit of bringing him along.

Still, if she got into a really bad situation, he could at least be a useful distraction for her as she fled.

"Fine," Inara told him.

"We can team up. But you have to do what I say, when I say. No questions."

"Of course, whatever you say Inara."

"It's Mage Tynan to you," Inara said sharply.

"Yes, Mage Tynan."