"Wait!" Sylph called out as Lake’s figure disappeared into the crowded streets.
"Why does he keep running..." Sylph pouted as her wings fluttered furiously. She folded her arms, feeling irritated, and muttered sothing under her breath.
As her words ca to a halt, a violent gust of wind swept through the crowded streets.
"Hmph! Let’s see how far you can run."
....
In a side street on the opposite side of the stronghold, Lake carefully assessed his surroundings before heaving a sigh of relief.
He shivered at the thought of running into that troubleso fairy in fear of his brain cells disappearing again.
As he was about to relax however, a strong wind blew past him causing the small pieces of rubble and trash beside him to be blown away.
Lake raised his hand to block the wind as he waited for it to calm down.
When the wind finally passed, he lowered his hand as he wondered what that was about.
"Found you!"
Suddenly, Lake heard a soft voice from afar, causing him to be visibly startled. With his advanced hearing, he didn’t even need to concentrate to hear the flapping of a fly’s wings from a mile away, which was why he instantly recognized the voice.
That was why he was so shocked when he heard it.
"How did she..." He stood there in a daze, then suddenly rembered sothing that caused him to sigh.
’That’s right... My stealth skill didn’t work on her before...’
As he perford a silent prayer for his lost brain cells, a few seconds passed.
With the soft flapping of wings, a troubleso fairy flew down from the sky before landing right in front of him.
With an extrely exaggerated expression, he spoke in the most sarcastic voice he could muster, "My, Miss Sylph! What a surprise to see you here?"
"What do you an surprise! You clearly ran away from a mont ago!" Sylph fud when she heard Lake’s reply.
"What?! Why would I do that? Let think... A few minutes ago, I felt like running, so I sprinted off. Did you see then? Maybe you mistook my run for trying to escape from you?"
"Grrr..." Sylph made a low growling noise before folding her arms.
’She won’t bite, right?’
"Well then, if there’s nothing else, I wish you good luck on the exam," Lake said, quickly turning around to walk away.
"Wait!" Sylph shouted as she ran in front of Lake.
’Of course it wouldn’t be so easy...’ Lake sighed internally.
"You’re going to the dorm rooms right? Let’s go together!"
"Sure," Lake replied dryly, lightly nodding his head. He knew that even if he said otherwise, Sylph would still follow him, so he decided to postpone his plans to walk around the stronghold.
As the two walked, Sylph followed closely.
"So, what are your plans for the exam?"
"Hunting."
"What about the score? Are you aiming for first place?"
"Perhaps."
"Do you have any strategies or tips you could share?"
"No."
As the two walked along the streets, Sylph continued to pester Lake with several questions one after the other.
Lake had already given up resisting at this point and replied to her questions with one-word answers, to which Sylph had surprisingly little problem with.
Luckily, it didn’t take them long to find the Sacred Dorm as an agitated voice shouted at them when they arrived in front of the building.
"Sylph!"
Lake heard only one word before seeing a ’raging bull’ rushing towards them.
When Sylph heard the loud shout, she whistled innocently as she tried to hide behind Lake.
Turning his head to see Sylph using him as a shield, he suddenly smiled brightly as a thought occurred to him.
With the ’raging bull’ right behind him, Lake stepped out of the way without hesitation causing Sylph to be montarily flustered.
"Wait-" However, before she could call out to Lake, the ’raging bull’ had arrived in front of Sylph with furious gaze.
"Sylph! Where did you go?! How many tis must I tell you not to wander off without or Bramble besides you!"
"Uh-I was-"
"You were what?! What could you possibly be doing that would require you to move without us?"
"That- Well..."
Seeing Iris’s sharp gaze, Sylph froze up as she lowered her head.
"S-Sorry..."
Lake, who stood at the side, smiled happily at this scene, ’Finally gone!’
As he bathed in his sudden freedom, he looked at Iris in a new light.
He never paid much attention to the other fairies as he couldn’t read their fates or see through them. He did keep tabs on them from ti to ti through the fates of others, but he couldn’t really learn much by observing from a distance.
That was why seeing Iris, a fairy he never paid attention to before, make Sylph apologize, was such a surprise to him.
’Maybe I can use her to keep the troubleso one at bay...’
As Lake thought of this, he activated his stealth skill and slipped away.
He could eavesdrop from afar with his hearing, but if Sylph or Iris were to focus on him, it would beco even more troubleso.
Lake released a soft sigh as he entered the dorm, feeling as if he had just shed a heavy burden.
’In the future, I must pay more attention to my surroundings, lest she sneaks up on again.’ After making a ntal note, Lake inspected the dorm.
He was in a small lobby with a reception desk at the front. A few students lined up in front of the desk, waiting their turn.
Reading through their fates, he figured out that they were all looking for their room.
Seeing that the line was short and quickly decreasing, he thought for a mont before joining it.
As he waited, he also took the ti to look around the building. Turning his gaze to the Innkeeper at the reception desk, he examined the man’s fate and quickly learned about the building.
The dorm was originally an inn with three floors and a basent.
The first floor was where the Innkeeper and staff stayed and tended to the day to day needs of the business. There was a large dining hall made to accommodate up to fifty people to the west of the building and a public bathroom down a corridor east.
The basent was a storage area with a bunker hidden within it. He discovered that the bunker’s purpose was to serve as a hiding place in case a powerful beast breached the stronghold.
The second and third floors housed the rooms, and after obtaining his key, Lake discovered that his room was on the second floor. Unlike his dorm room at the Academy, this ti he had to share his room with others due to limited space.
He checked the ti and saw that it was almost twelve and the exam was about to begin.
Lake pondered for a mont before heading back outside. He could et his roommates later; for now, he had sothing else to attend to.
The Stronghold was ho to many hunters who entered and exited the Field on a daily schedule, and Lake planned to use them to gather information.
....
While Lake walked around town, other students were gearing up to enter the Field.
Most of them were students who had barely managed to pass the entrance exam and wanted to redeem themselves.
After attending several classes and going through Lake’s and the Academy’s hell mode training, they all thought that they had improved trendously and felt confident in themselves.
However, luck didn’t seem to be on their side.
When the first team of students rushed out, they encountered a stampede of bull-like beasts after walking for only an hour and were chased for another two hours.
The second team was slightly worse off, running into a Peak Rank One Gorilla that was eating. After failing to sneak up on it, they sustained severe injuries in the ensuing fight and barely escaped the raging primate.
The third group had the worst luck, running directly into a pack of Rank One wolves and being chased all the way back to the fortress. If it wasn’t for the guards firing warning shots at the wolves, they would have probably chased the group of students into the stronghold.
However, despite these grim results, no one was actually disqualified from the exam. Each student knew what they were doing and quickly escaped when they realized they were at a disadvantage.
Most of the accompanying hunters were actually surprised at how well each student handled themselves in face of danger as even active hunters would have a hard ti running away as calmly as they did.
Of course, this was all thanks to Lake’s training.
Lake’s training was brutal but highly effective in achieving its goal.
Faced with Lake’s relentless and demon-like pursuit, designed to play on and feed off human fear, these beasts were nothing to the students.
Even when they suffered severe injuries or broken bones from the beasts, they still got up and fled because they knew that staying still would lead to a more terrifying outco. Lake made sure they understood that...
The pain didn’t bother them either. After having their minds and bodies shattered and healed repeatedly for hours on end, they had beco familiar with pain and were no longer restricted by it.
Lake had heard about the students’ defeat in their first outing and wasn’t too surprised.
Although their strength had risen trendously under his training, compared to the Fitness Index of the beasts, everyone was still lacking a little if they wished to fight head on with the creatures of Myriad Bay.
In this exam, if they wanted to pass, they needed to learn how to work together and use their wits to hunt, not their strength.
Lake had long realized that this was the true intention of the Instructors when they set up the exam by reading their fates.
....
When Lake had finished gathering and analyzing his data, it was already five in the evening.
Returning to the dorm, he imdiately noticed the grim expressions on a few students in the dining hall.
Seeing the depressed faces of a few students, Lake knew that they must have gone outside and returned with less than pleasant results.
At this point everyone from Sacred Class were gathered in the dining hall chatting with each other as they ate so simple food brought from the inn.
LaKe ignored them, grabbed so food, and sat down. However, as soon as he sat down, Kate appeared opposite him and took a seat as well.
"Where have you been?"
"Wondering the stronghold." Lake replied as he stuffed his face.
"Why?"
"Information. There are many hunters walking in and out of the stronghold each day. I could learn a lot without having to risk going outside."
"But isn’t that also dangerous? What if they lied or were mistaken?"
"Who said I asked them anything?"
Kate tilted her head with a puzzled expression but soon seed to realize sothing, "Did you look at the corpses they brought back?"
Lake took a bite out of a piece of mutated at before replying lazily, "I’m surprised you managed to catch on."
Kate’s eyes twitched at Lake’s reply, "You certainly don’t look it."
"Is that so? Well, while it is true that I looked at the monster corpses, that’s only one part of the answer. I also examined the wounds and equipnt of the hunters. So had wet mud clinging to their heavy tal-plated shoes coming from the South. I suspect that area might be a marshland, slippery and challenging to traverse without proper gear."
"Another hunter had light scratch marks and pieces of wood sticking out of his armor coming from the north which makes think that the area up there is wildly overgrown and most likely filled with bug type and reptilian type creatures judging from the creatures he brought back."
"To the east, I saw a good few hunters coming back separately with a myriad of creatures. If I’m not mistaken, the map given by the Academy shows the area as a grassland with few hills. Judging by my sense of the hunters strength and gear, I think that the grassland may be a popular hunting ground for low level hunters so it should be relatively safe."
As Lake ate another piece of at, Kate watched with a slightly speechless expression.
Shaking her head, she asked, "Well then, what’s your plan now that you’ve gathered your information?"
Hearing Kate ask another question, Lake sighed as he put down his fork, "Kate, at this point we’re both familiar enough with each other to not have to beat around the bush. Why don’t you just ask the question that we both know that you want to ask?"
Hearing Lake call her out, Kate felt slightly awkward.
"Fine..." With a sigh, she looked Lake in the eye as her expression turned serious, "I want to team up with you for this exam."
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