“Swish—!”
With a crisp, decisive sound, Li Xian swung his sword and severed the head of the Magic Beast before him.
“That makes five so far… but it’s still far from enough. Five low-rank Magical Beasts only add up to five points.” Li Xian said with a troubled expression.
It was already the evening of the second day of the assessment.
That meant in a day and a half, Li Xian had only encountered five low-rank Magical Beasts.
For now, all five points were credited to Li Xian.
Before gathering enough points, it was only wise to focus on accumulating what he could in order to secure first place.
Still, even so, if he kept killing just low-rank Magical Beasts, the points he could earn would remain very limited.
To gain higher points, he needed to find a Mid-rank or higher Magical Beast…
That said, it was already quite late.
The forest, which was dim even during the day, had become even darker and more eerie.
It was time to find a place to rest.
Li Xian skillfully found a relatively sheltered spot, then chopped down a few trees and built a simple hut.
Thanks to the experience he had accumulated during the past few days traveling through the forest, the hut looked quite decent.
It was inevitably crude but stable.
This competition wasn’t just a test of strength.
Spending three days inside the forest, whether or not you hunted Magical Beasts was one thing, but simply surviving was another challenge altogether.
That was likely why the Academy encouraged forming teams.
After all, if five people teamed up, even a simple outdoor shelter could be guarded on shifts at night, allowing rest in turns.
Otherwise, if everyone acted alone, in this pitch-black forest full of hidden dangers, no one could get proper sleep—and lack of rest would definitely affect the competitors’ condition and combat ability.
But for Li Xian and Sara, none of this was a problem.
They didn’t need to keep watch.
If any careless Magical Beast dared to come to them at night looking for death, Li Xian would welcome it.
Better yet, if a high-rank Magical Beast showed up—twenty points would be theirs immediately.
However, such good fortune never came so easily.
The whole night passed quietly, and by the time Li Xian woke naturally, fully rested, nothing had happened.
He gently shook Sara awake, who was clutching his clothes in a half-asleep daze.
Glancing at the time, it was already around eight or nine in the morning.
After quickly grabbing some food to get through breakfast, it was time to start wandering again to search for Magical Beasts.
But today, Li Xian’s luck seemed to be poor.
After several hours of roaming, he hadn’t found even a single low-rank Magical Beast, let alone a Mid-rank or High-rank one.
“Sigh… that’s strange. Staying in the forest shouldn’t make me unlucky, so why is my luck getting worse every day?”
Li Xian recalled that on the first afternoon alone, he had taken down three low-rank Magical Beasts in just half a day.
The entire next day only yielded two.
Now, half a day had passed without even a trace of a Magical Beast.
‘Something wasn’t right…’ Li Xian frowned.
It was one thing to not see any Magical Beasts, but after such a long time, not even spotting signs of their activity was suspicious.
This was the Northern Wildwood—the gathering ground for Magical Beasts.
Even if the area had been cleared, there should still be many signs of their presence.
But after walking for a long time, he hadn’t seen a single clue.
‘This was abnormal. When things go against the norm, there must be a reason behind it.’
Li Xian pondered as he walked.
Upon closer thought, the reasons why no Magical Beasts appeared where they should be seemed limited.
Either there was some danger in the area, or… there was some extremely dangerous creature.
Suddenly, Li Xian’s eyes brightened.
The first possibility could be ruled out because the Academy had pre-selected this location for the assessment and had already conducted safety inspections.
They wouldn’t let students be tested in a genuinely dangerous zone.
That meant the most likely scenario was that somewhere nearby, a highly dangerous—or rather, extremely powerful—Magical Beast was present, intimidating others so they dared not come near.
And a Magical Beast with such a strong territorial instinct… would have to be at least High-rank!
Thinking this, Li Xian immediately shook off his earlier discouragement and even felt a surge of excitement.
A High-rank Magical Beast showing up right in front of him would be a huge boon!
He then hastily pulled along Sara, who was already tired and complaining, to search the surrounding area.
***
“Karinya, is there really a Magical Beast here?”
At this moment, Ellie and Karinya were also carefully walking through a clearing in the forest.
“I don’t know, probably?” Karinya answered uncertainly.
To be honest, they had been wandering around for a long time, yet hadn’t encountered a single Magical Beast either.
She was starting to feel uneasy.
But turning back now would waste too much time.
More than half the allotted time had already passed, and so far, the two of them had only defeated three low-rank Magical Beasts.
That few points was far from enough.
No matter what, this was still a chance to prove themselves.
She wasn’t willing to return with just those three points.
So although uneasy, she continued to push forward with Ellie.
After all, the area had already been cleared once by Academy Instructors, and they carried Magic Amulets.
If any danger arose, instructors could come to their aid.
It should be fine.
“Hmm…” Hearing Karinya’s words, Ellie’s fear clearly hadn’t lessened much.
The previous experiences had left her with a psychological shadow about this forest.
She tightly grabbed Karinya’s arm, gripping so hard that Karinya frowned slightly.
But seeing Ellie’s frightened expression, she allowed it and gently ruffled her now slightly messy golden hair.
“If it really doesn’t work out, maybe we should go back… If we turn back now, we’d still have half a day to search other areas, and maybe we could find one or two Magical Beasts with some luck…”
“No.” Ellie bit her lip stubbornly.
“I know, Karinya. You really want to get points, right? So…” Ellie looked up at Karinya, her expression still tinged with fear, but her eyes held a trace of determination.
She was a princess.
Resources and lodging were no problem for her.
If it weren’t for Karinya, she wouldn’t even have participated in this assessment, nor returned to this forest.
“Ellie…” Karinya looked at the girl before her, her eyes growing moist.