[Mira's POV]
Inefficient. Looking back on our battle, we were ineffective in what we did. Clyde would have been in serious trouble if Alya hadn't warned him.
I need to convince Clyde to work harder on his training after this exam. He was in danger of losing his life, and I didn't want to witness that.
"Be careful touching these frogs." "Wear any protective gear when handling them."
With the possibility of the frogs being poisonous, this was the last place we wanted to get poisoned.
"Hey, Mira. What do you think this terrible power is? It's still bothering me how I can still feel it."
Unlike me, Clyde hasn't adapted to this energy. While I still felt it, I no longer felt stiff from this energy.
"It should be fine if we don't provoke it. The teachers shouldn't have sent us to a quick death. Otherwise, there's no point in this exam."
My words were to calm Clyde down. I wasn't sure if this dimension was as safe as I said. One thing is for sure: this monster would have attacked us already if it cared.
Listening to my words, Clyde had calmed down to a certain degree. We continued on our path, searching for any monsters we could find.
"Mira, I sense some people up ahead. How should we go at it?"
"Do they know that we are here?"
We were lucky to have Beatrice here. Her previous work as a hunter came in handy in situations like these.
"The others don't seem to recognize our location."
"Then let's leave before we get into a confrontation."
"We aren't going to fight them."
Beatrice was surprised I had suggested this. The same went for Alya. Did they think that I was a battle maniac or something?
"No. There's no point in fighting this early. They have nothing for us to get this early."
This was only the first hour. Wasting our stamina in a seven-day survival test was something we didn't need to do. With that path blocked off, we hurried up and left the area.
With a new path to follow, more monsters appeared than expected. Another swarm of monsters, which were flying insects, had appeared. They were flying beetles that had sharp needles as their horns.
Alya was about to faint from the sight of these creatures. I understand these creatures were disgusting, but fainting in this situation would worsen our condition.
"Clyde, take Alya, and we will run for it."
There were too many monsters for us to handle. With Clyde protecting Alya, we ran for it. I occasionally used my magic and burned down any insects coming toward us.
Seeing me use my fire magic, the insect stopped chasing us as we ran. Scared of my magic, we were lucky they didn't continuously chase us. Sighing in relief, the four of us took a breather.
"Sorry for being a hindrance..."
"Don't say that! There's nothing we can do about a swarm."
Clyde attempted to cheer Alya. My brother is too kind sometimes, but that makes him easy to be around.
"Beatrice. Do you think we could gather the corpses of those beetles? They have left, but we can't be sure when they will return."
"We have already provoked the beetles once. Doing so would make it worse."
I can see what she was saying. We were already lucky when they retreated. The next time, we won't be so lucky. A tint of disappointment inside me could be felt when we couldn't retrieve those monsters' corpses.
"Alya, are you okay?"
Before moving, we had to check whether Alya was ready to continue. If she couldn't, all we could do was wait.
"I'm fine. Thanks for asking."
Looking at her, I could see she was slightly exhausted but would be fine with a few minutes of rest. I have decided to make a decision and let her take a small break.
"Let's take a small break."
Clyde smiled at my small gesture while Beatrice sat down behind a tree, letting out a stretch. Alya let out a sigh and sat on the floor.
"Beatrice, you have hunted for a long time, right? How much do you think we could hunt a day?"
While Beatrice has told me stories of what she has done, she never told me how much she could hunt. I was interested in how much she could do.
"If you want to know, it's not a lot. Our tribe fought only monsters for food and the ones that attacked our town. We don't excessively kill everything. We only kill what we need. But if you want an estimate, we can do a hundred if we keep hunting at this rate."
A hundred may seem like a lot, but our world's best students competed here. I can't expect that our speed would be good enough to be up.
"That's enough resting. We're going to keep going."
On my call, all four of us got up well-rested. Alya's exhaustion had disappeared, and we had steadily started to get it back together.
A while later, we found a cave. The cave we saw had a wide entrance, making it long enough for twenty people.
"Beatrice, do you sense anything dangerous inside this cave?"
There were many possibilities inside a cave. Glaring at the entrance, I could feel this cave was a deep one.
"Not for the time being. There are many monsters inside."
"Then let's give it a try."
If it were too dangerous, we would escape. The other three didn't object to my choice, so we entered. a
"AHHH!!!!!"
Inside the cave entrance, we saw bats swarming the cave. These bats were not hostile, so all they did was fly away. Alya screamed in surprise, shocked to be sneaked up on by these creatures.
It was a shame that we couldn't see much without a lighter. Knowing we couldn't see, we lit up the whole place with a lantern.
Looking at the cave's floor, I could see many monsters of insect variants there. I hope Clyde can calm her down. It would be tiring if she kept screaming at every sight she saw.
"A giant monster is approaching."
Beatrice spoke once she sensed something coming up. Alya already knew what to do, with her job being straightforward. With the monster approaching, we got ready to attack.
My lightning magic was ready; I only needed to wait for the monster's sight. Appearing in front of it, I launched my magic straight toward it.
"Attack!!! Its hurt!"
The lightning that I launched had hurt the beast. I ordered both Beatrice and my brother to attack the bear.
Slowed down by my attack, the two attacked in sync. The bear roared in pain while being cut down by Beatrice and Clyde.
With the bear too absorbed in the other two, I charged for another spell. Sending an icicle spear, I sent it to the bear's head.
My magic had landed on the bear's forehead, but the thick skin and skull prevented it from hitting its brain. The pain from my magic had given me a chance with Beatrice. She quickly decapitated the bear by chance.
"Is it dead?"
Alya asked while watching from behind. Beatrice, who had experience in this kind of work, cut down its head once she got the chance. I appreciated how efficient Beatrice was.
"It's dead, lets separate the body. Having too much would waste our space."
Doing just that, Beatrice and Clyde quickly cut them into pieces. Before we could finish, all of us could sense something coming.
"Becareful! Alya! Stay back! We can't have you here!"
What we killed was the child of a bear. Three more bears had arrived, and they all screamed angrily, seeing their kin die. There was no way to leave unless we killed these three. Without a doubt, they would chase us to the depths of hell.
Our battle was fast-paced as the bears attacked us without a second thought. I felt terrible that my brother had to take two attacks from two different bears, but this was the optimal situation.
I had to assist Beatrice and Clyde at the same time. If I could sneak a kill on the bear on Beatrice, it would make it easier for Clyde.
But before assisting her, I should lift the weights behind Clyde's back. The eyes of the bear were my first target. I reshot an icicle spear into the bear, this time into its eyes.
With my shot landing, the bear roared in pain and started to hit anything in its path. Not even its kin was spared from the attack. Confused, Clyde used this chance to take advantage of this situation. He cleanly sliced the bear on the torso and rapidly attacked until the bear was mauled.
I didn't expect Clyde to have this in him, but right now, it was welcomed. We hurried up and finished the bear that had lost one eye. Hitting all its weak spots, we quickly finished the rampaging bear. Beatrice had also beaten her bear.
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