Because of the blue-haired guy's impartial judgment, Noel managed to escape from all the bullies that came to his way. He even made sure to talk all the important stuff, leaving no gaps for the bully to exploit.
In the end, the group went to Shale to grab their tent, food, and water. The bully had his own armor and weapon while the noble guy seemed to have only his sword.
Noel, on the other hand, thought he needed some pieces of equipment to protect himself from the unknown danger, albeit they were a bit too heavy for him, whose current body had yet to completely develop the muscle.
Even Shale suggested to use leather armor instead. Its protection was far less than iron armor, but they still could reduce some impacts. It was perfect for the current Noel since it didn't affect his mobility.
As for his weapon, he had Ardagan with him. Of course, he took Ardagan out before leaving his room so that everyone didn't think it was a Spirit.
After they had taken care of everything, Shale said, "Your group will head to the forest right now. Just enter and find any Demon inside. I've said this in the class… Demon can be in many forms. They can have a beast form, a humanoid form, or even a fruit form. Before doing anything, make sure to confirm they are not demons."
"Yes, Instructor." Noel and the bully politely nodded while the noble guy asked, "Do we really need to bring back ten Demon Crystals? What if we bring more?"
"That's up to you. As long as you can bring back everything within three days, you're good to go. Of course, we keep a record on the fastest one to bring ten pieces… Just like your brother that is…" Shale smiled slyly as if he knew about the noble guy. Unlike Noel who was protected by the commander, he wasn't that scared against this guy, Alfred Starwood. To him, the commander was scarier than the noble.
Alfred gritted his teeth and turned around as if he couldn't wait any longer to hunt some demons.
Noel and the bully followed Alfred while Shale looked at Noel's back.
"Oi, wait." Noel panted while shouting to Alfred.
Because of the provocation, Alfred had been rushing to the forest. Even though it was close, the distance was still more than 3 km.
The fast pace made it hard for Noel to keep up.
"You're so slow!" The noble guy snorted. "If you can't keep up, you should just go back to the fort! I don't need you."
"I don't mind, but don't forget that this assignment is a group test. Even with the record that you seem to be aiming at, are you sure you want to get a note about how you abandon the team? What about the probability of someone dying because of you rushing? It will surely not go unnoticed unless you kill all of us right now? But that's probably the worst move you can make." Noel smirked, taunting and reminding him at the same time.
Even with his eyes, he could see Alfred's body shaking.
There was anger in his eyes. Even his face became extremely cold. However, he still said, "You have a way with words…"
"Isn't noble supposed to have a way with their words?" Noel shrugged.
"And do you think it will stop you from being the most useless here?"
"Of course." Noel smiled and raised a finger. "With so many people killing the demons, it will be hard for us to find one. That's why this test is luck based."
"…" Alfred couldn't refute it as what Noel said was indeed correct.
However, Noel added, "Of course, I was pretty lucky to listen to something when going to meet up with the group! It seems that the deeper region has more demons than the outer region. There are groups trying to go to the inner region to kill them. At the same time, we'll waste too much time when traveling, so I have a suggestion.
"Why don't we travel to the border between the outer and inner region. According to them, it's around 3 km from the edge… This way, we can travel between the inner and outer regions, allowing us to position perfectly that we can kill many demons and return with the shortest route possible."
"If we want speed, we simply need to kill the demons that other people fought!" The bully snorted. "Not only did they have weakened the demon, but we can also fight without using too much stamina."
Noel smiled. As expected of the bully guy, he truly suggested that option. Even he would say something like that, but after knowing a little bit of Alfred's back story, it was clear that Alfred didn't like a stain in his honor.
Just like he predicted, Alfred snorted coldly. "I compete fairly unlike you who love to do dirty jobs."
The bully glared at him for a moment before clicking his tongue and looking away. Instead of getting angry at Alfred, he directed that anger toward Noel, who obviously ignored it.
'To be honest, I really want to accept the offer to go back to the castle so that I can go alone, but I have never fought against a demon, so I need them to measure their strength first before gaining some confidence to fight them alone. So, I will cooperate with you guys for now.' Noel thought as he still had the mission to kill ten demons.
Meanwhile, Anna had finished all problems with the commander and immediately headed to the forest, finding Noel's group standing in the open.
'Mhm? Why did they stop? Did they notice something?' Anna furrowed her eyebrows. 'If I remember correctly, the Ancient Demon Tree was going to wake up soon… Due to that problem, the demons started acting strangely… I'm not sure about this but there's a small horde coming out of the forest to attack the fort during the test. Half of the trainees ended up dead, including Alfred Starwood, the younger brother of the sword genius, Helzhen Starwood.
'Still, why did they stop there? Did Noel notice that something is going to happen? It seems that Noel's secret is bigger than I thought. Should I follow him silently?' Anna thought, assessing Noel. Little did she know, she was completely misunderstanding Noel since she couldn't get close enough to listen to their conversation.