This was the first expedition for the freshmen, that’s why rather than felt like it was a bothersome, they all felt excited about this activity.
Shi Shen, of course, went to the meeting place with the male lead but he bid him farewell as soon as he found his teammates.
The three of them were 16 years old so they were taller than Shi Shen by quite a lot. Ulric Walter was the teenager with blue hair, his father was a wealthy merchant, Gawain Rolfe had brown hair, his family was famous in the confectionary industry and last but not least, Rowley Greene had dark green hair as Count Greene was the captain of the Cross Royal Knight.
Ignoring the three’s unfriendly look, he walked to them with a faint smile.
‘’You came quite early.’’
Ulric coldly humped,’’We’re not like someone who doesn’t know his place and still act arrogantly.’’
Shi Shen amusedly lifted his brows. He just smiled at them without saying anything and simply waited for the instructors to activate the transportation array.
Soon enough, the mage instructor from the entrance exam’s day stepped up to activate the array.
In his right hand held a wooden staff as he chanted a spell. Not long after, the space before them suddenly lit up with radiance light as complicated rune appeared on the floor.
He turned around to look at them then warned them for one last time,’’Try to stick together as much as possible. If you were to meet any danger, make sure to use the teleportation charm that was given to each of you by your teacher right away, get it?’’
Everyone shouted in unison,’’Yes!’’
Hearing this, he slightly nodded his head then spoke,’’Team 1, 2, 3.’’
Shi Shen was in team 3 so he unhurriedly walked into the array with others under the eyes of other students.
The moment he stepped on the array, it felt like he suddenly got sucked into something as his surroundings quickly became distorted. A few seconds later, the chatter noise made by students was replaced by the sound of bird chirpings and the rustling sound of the leaves.
Besides the four of them, no one was in sight. Even the other 2 teams that came with them were disappeared. It seemed like they got scattered into different places.
Shi Shen’s eyes lightly swept across his surrounding to pinpoint their current position in the forest.
All of a sudden, Rowley talked,’’I reckon that we landed on the outer part of the forest, north-east.’’
Gawain widened his eyes in shock,’’How do you know?! All I see are trees and grasses!’’
Instead of directly answering, he walked to a nearby tree then explained,’’Look at the mosses that grow on this tree and don’t you smell a faint scent of a swamp? Among the places that have high humidity in the air, only the north-east part fits the characteristic. In addition, the forest is not that thick so it is probably an outer part. Number 1, don’t you think so?’’
The last question was directed at Shi Shen to which he replied with a nod so Gawain grabbed this opportunity and said,’’How about Rowley be the leader of our team? He is the most capable here!’’
Ulric quickly supported his idea,"That's right."
Seeing this, Shi Shen was simply too lazy to talk to them so he just waited for their show to end.
Suddenly, Rowley turned to talk to him,‘’Stewart, give your teleportation charm to me. I will keep it for you in my spatial ring.’’
Shi Shen lightly chuckled,’’No need to. I can keep it by myself.’’
Rowley just shrugged his shoulders looking like he was not offended by his refusal,’’ Okay, let’s get going then. We will hunt magical beats as much as possible before the sunset.’’
Ulric and Gawain excitedly cheered as they hurriedly followed after him.
As for Shi Shen, he gave a glance toward a certain place in the forest before unhurriedly followed after them.
Those three started their hunting spree without caring whether the beast was the low level and would not gain them that many points in return. On the other hand, Shi Shen from time to time would pick up herbs that he came across without killing anything.
Seeing his action, Ulric mockingly said,"If you are waiting for a high-level beast to come, I think you might not hunt any single beast in the end!"
Therefore, Shi Shen gave him a sideways glance then faintly answered,’’The point will be given according to our performance so my performance won’t affect the team and I advise you not to kill too much.’’
Ulric was furious upon hearing this but didn’t know what to say back so he vented his anger on those pitiful beasts.
Rowley heard their conversation and made a look toward the golden hair boy.
So far, he has never seen this boy fought so he didn’t know how strong he actually is.
However, be able to stand side by side with the Crown Prince was nothing to scoff at. His father worked in the palace so he came into contact with the Crown Prince the most as his instructor, that’s why he never failed to hear his father sing praise for him.
Therefore, Rowley didn’t dare to let his guard down around him even though he was way younger than he is.
While he was in his deep thought, a loud roar was suddenly heard from behind causing all of them to look back in surprise.
A pair of green eyes with a straight slit was currently locked on all of them. The beast was 2 meters in height as its mouth was slightly opened letting its numerous pointy fangs to be seen in plain sight. Its saliva was overflowing from its mouth to drop to the ground creating a zi-zi sound. The stone that came in contact with that fluid instantly corroded.
Before they could even react, the beast suddenly rushed forward causing the three’s face to become ashen as they frantically ran away.
That was a middle-level beast! How come they so unlucky?!
However, they soon figured that one person was missing so they unconsciously looked back only to see the golden hair boy leisurely climbed the tree instead of running like them.
Seeing this, they were about to shout that he was stupid when what happened in the next second cause them to be shocked silly.
That beast actually bypassed him!
Therefore, without saying anything the three started to climb the big tree before them.
Meanwhile, Shi Shen lazily reclined against the trunk of the tree while watching the show. Upon seeing them followed his tactic, he gave a hollow laugh.
The three who haven’t caught their breath yet suddenly became horrified once again when the beast actually hit the tree instead of going away!
Gawain who had the lowest fighting skills became panic,’’Why does it attack us instead of him?!’’
Ulric angrily bellowed,’’ Perhaps, that cheap guy secretly put something on us to attract it!’’
Rowley’s face was extremely dark at this moment but right then he suddenly realized something so he resentfully gnashed his teeth while staring at the boy’s direction.
‘’It was the scent of blood!’’
The two heard this and their faces immediately turned a shade darker as they recalled the boy’s words.
‘I advise you not to kill too much.’
‘’Anyway, it won’t go away unless the smell wore out so we can only kill it.’’
Done saying this, Rowley sheathed his sword then nimbly jumped to another tree to land on the ground and attacked it from behind. Ulric and Gawain followed suit to fight with the beast.
This beast’s habitat was the swamp so its speed on the land was considered to be slow but its attack and defensive power were rather high so for amateurs, it was quite troublesome to deal with.
Rowley fared the best among the three but after all, he has never engaged in a real battle so he lost a bit of his composure while dealing with the beast.
After fighting for a while and the beast got distracted by the two, Rowley quickly jumped on its back then thrust his sword on the top of its head.
But contrary to his thought of seeing his sword embedded in its skull, his sword wouldn’t budge even one bit no matter how hard he tried.
The beast became even angrier as it violently shook off the thing that stepped on it. Due to this, Rowley lost his balance and fell off.
‘’Ugh!.’’
He groaned in pain as he hit the ground but before he could even get up, he saw the beast started to pounce on him causing horror to fill in his eyes.
However, before the beast could pounce on him, it suddenly got kicked and heavily slumped on the trees that several trees got knocked down by it.
Didn’t know since when but the golden hair boy suddenly appeared in front of them. Gawain and Ulric were mortified upon seeing that giant beast flew away with just a single kick.
Shi Shen was not in a hurry to kill it so he turned to ask the three,’’Who want it?’’
His meaning was clear. Who will get this beast as their hunt?
Although the beast looked to be weakened from that kick, the three still didn’t dare to risk their lives fighting it that’s why Rowley gloomily said,’’The one who killed it.’’
Shi Shen gave an oh. He then sheathed his sword as he dashed forward meeting head-on with the beast that has just gotten up.
He dodged the upcoming attack then slide underneath it. Its abdomen's skin was the softest and also its fatal weakness.
Without further ado, he thrust his sword deep into that part then sliced its belly open before quickly got out and maintained a 3 steps distance away from it.
Blood instantly got sprayed all over the place as a loud shriek issued by the beast resounded throughout the forest before it helplessly fell down to lay on the cold ground.
Shi Shen casually shook off the blood from his sword then sheathed it back. He took out a handkerchief to wipe off the blood that got on him.
He could kill it with just one swing but thinking again, he should practice killing in another way to improve his skills.
With a light wave of his hand, the beast disappeared and was stored inside his spatial ring.
Finally came out of his stupor, Ulric scowled,’’Why didn’t you warn us beforehand?!’’
Shi Shen leisurely replied,‘’I did.’’
‘’How can that be called as a warning? You actually want us all to die, right?’’
Hearing this, the corner of his lips tugged into a smile,’’I thought that all of you are more knowledgeable than me, a commoner? If you could figure out that we are in the north-east shouldn’t you know about what kind of beasts that you should be aware of?’’
With this much, Ulric was left with nothing to say. If he were to say that they didn’t know, wouldn’t that mean they are stupider than a commoner?
Didn’t want to lose face in front of a commoner, Gawain finally opened his mouth to retort,’’We should work as a team so you should put the team’s safety as priority!’’
‘’And here I thought that you exclude me from the team since the beginning?’’
Gawain was slightly embarrassed but he still refused to admit it,’’It was only you who want to work al-‘’
‘’Enough!’’
Rowley put an end to their conversation. He looked toward the boy then solemnly said,’’It is no use in arguing with each other. Let’s move as a team from now on.’’
Even though he didn’t want to admit it but if they were to lose the other person, it would be hard for them to even last past tonight.
Since Shi Shen was not a narrow-minded person, he gave his usual elegant smile without a tinge of annoyance on his face,"Sure."
However, Rowley felt a chill run down his spine once he saw his smile.
This kid was not as harmless as he portrayed himself to be.
After this incident, no one dared to hunt anymore. Only when Shi Shen said that they had already walked out of the danger zone did they relax and ate their lunch.
They then resumed in hunting but only hunted those worth killing ones.
Seeing that the sun began to set, they quickly went to find a place to settle for the night.
After walking some distance, they chanced upon a cave. Rowley took the lead to inspect the place before letting others entered once he found that it was safe to stay.
The three might came from a wealthy family but the school did teach them survival skills, therefore, they had no problem creating a bonfire.
The only problem was that...no one knew how to cook.
They did say that they would act as a team from now on but Ulric and Gawain couldn't bring themselves to associate with a commoner so they made a clear stance in not sharing their food with him.
They were rich so they had stored plenty of ready to eat food beforehand that's why not be able to cook was not a problem for them.
But Rowley was not like them. A while ago, the boy could store that giant beast in his spatial ring so he guessed that his ring was even more high quality than theirs.
As for where he got it, it was not hard to make a guess….
Therefore, Rowley was not worried that the boy would starve.
The three began to eat their fill when suddenly Shi Shen said,"Someone is coming."
It had to be said that, the trio didn't like him but they unconsciously listened to him so they instantly adopted a fighting stance while fixing their gazes at the entrance.
Not long after, a small figure dressed in black attire gracefully walked over with his hands clasped behind his back.
Rowley exclaimed in shock,"The Crown Prince?!"