Declan ground his teeth. Again.

During the last candle wick of time he repeated grinding his jaws so heavily that the youths around him could hear it. Then the whole cycle began again.

The bone that had been sticking out of his thigh disappeared thanks to the holy magic the priest. As a matter of fact, the young noble knew how much the [Seven Stars Church] charged for one of their senior priests to be dispatched. Even his father flinched at the price they charged but the academy had invited a whole batch of them just to nurse the injured on this outing.

Due to his clenched teeth, fist and muscles a kind looking old man kneeled by his side and inquired whether there were any complications from the healing.

He forced his anger down and attempted, as much as possible, to remain civilized and thanked the priest before sending him away. Burning aura surged through his veins, threatening to break out and submerge the world in his flames.

With the steam spiralling off his head, not even his trusted aides or relatives dared to come close and talk to him.

He just could not help himself. In front of his eyes that hateful face always resurfaced whenever he remembered the [Bronze Fleece Sheep] which broke through their ranks and started its rampage.

Despite his best attempts to rally the group, Declan had to watch and scream as the monster took out its anger on them. Bones broke and blood sprayed around as the sheep broke them, their weapons useless against the golden fur. With no hope to turn the situation around or even hurt the monster, their formation had broken apart and every student had to fend for himself as they tried to escape from the raging horror.

In the end, an instructor intervened precisely when the first injured students showed signs of being unable to hold on and scared away the [Bronze Fleece Sheep]. A single blue wave shot from his sword easily accomplished everything that two dozens youths failed to do at their breaking point. They paid hard for their failure. None of them escaped without at least broken bones and some members of Declan’s group still groaned on the stretchers as priests walked between the lines to continue their treatment.

Thankfully other groups suffered as well, which gave the sheltered crowd from the capital a bitter taste and also diminished the disgrace for the injured members. The blood and sweat counted as their payment for this harsh lesson and toughened their minds for the next time they faced off against monsters or delved into the Dungeon. Only now did they realize that behind every successful knight or top tier adventurer stood an untold amount of suffering and hardship.

 

Declan and his underlings still had the highest amount of injured among their group. Even when others had encountered a genuine third ranked [Golden Stone Sheep] they had at most lost a scout or a small part of their heavy shield users to tie it down while the rest fled.

As a result, his group also ranked among the bottom when it came to earning contribution points. After deducting the amount needed for treatment from the priests and paying for the broken gear, each member was barely left with two or three points.

None of them felt proud of that, the average big group like theirs earned around thirty points for each member, while the smaller groups got at least ten or twenty contribution points each member. The highlight were two of the largest parties, who each managed to take down a [Golden Stone Sheep]. After they returned to the gathering point, now that the day was almost over, the teacher in charge of recording their merits counted their achievements out loud and exclaimed each time he found proof of subjugation for a third ranked monster.

At least Declan’s crew avoided the embarrassment of their dismal point count since they were carried back fairly early. Seeing four or five person teams earn a higher amount than their group did not help calm his anger, he had planned out everything and expected a high cut for himself from the total earnings.

Everything went up into a cloud of ash, and as a noble he had to deal with the setback as well. Although he ordered everyone not to disclose the details of their defeat, however it was inevitable that it would come out in the end. A secret cannot be kept unless only one person knew it.

The loss in itself might not have a lasting impression on his reputation, but being toyed with and tricked by a small group of commoners— in addition to the wasted opportunity to obtain contribution points and promote the strength of his followers— would have all the other heirs attending the [Royal Academy] with grounds to laugh about him. His own family also valued competency, so a disappointment like this was bound to impact his standing in their internal competition as well.

In the end it all came back to their failed attempt to absorb the trio into their crowd. His entire fortune might have changed if it were not for the elf and her friends.

 

While Declan stewed in his own anger, figuratively and literally, with the steam coming from his fists, another group entered the camp and reported their exploits. The sun was soon about to set and the alloted time to hunt for contribution points would end soon. Those that only returned around the end either had a huge harvest with countless confrontations against the monsters or had trouble to find any fights at all and hoped to get at least a few more points before they had to return.

Among the returning groups, three figures in particular attracted attention, especially if you count the green wolf following them. What stood out about them was neither their tattered weapons or exhausted features, but the unusual creature slung about their shoulders.

Each of the warrior students coming from the [Royal Academy] had experienced their first true taste of monsters on this trip, but none of them had ever seen the giant snake the three were carrying. According to common sense and the briefing by the instructors, besides the [Stone Wooled Sheep], [Bronze Fleece Sheep] and [Golden Stone Sheep], no other creatures should reside in this stretch of woods. There was not enough time to venture into the next area that housed snakes either. These monsters would give merit points too, but the distance was too far.

“Yi, that’s strange. Bring that snake over, let me take a look what kind of monster you brought here.”

Even the teacher in charge of the registration felt surprised. He beckoned the trio over and inspected their prey.

“Did you catch this one in the forest as well? This seems to be a [Twig Dropper Serpent], good job on staying safe against this monster.”

After casting an [Identify] spell, the instructor seemed fairly sure of his information and nodded several times in a row. Seeing their look of incomprehension, he continued to explain.

 

“This is a rather unusual creature, they don’t stay in groups and instead rely on ambushes to feed themselves. With their brown coloured scales and camouflage skills they imitate branches and drop from trees when they sense prey coming along. With a quick bite they inject their victims with a paralysing and numbing poison before they drag the incapacitated bodies into a nearby hideout to strangle it to death.

Judging by the overall length and residual aura left in this carcass, the monster should have been about to advance to the third rank, maybe just lacking some food to complete the breakthrough. Good job on taking it down.”

Apparently monster trivia happened to be a hobby off this instructor, as he happily explained the details to the trio, as he prodded and examined the snake at the same time.

“You overpraise us, sir. It was a lucky coincidence that my contracted monster chanced upon the serpent as it gorged itself on a dead [Stone Wooled Sheep] left by another group. A quick and decisive assault was all it took to have my Little Lia succeed in breaking its neck. We did practically nothing.”

Nisha beamed and praised her little beast. The wolf seemed to all but roll her eyes at the comment of her master, unhappy at her current situation.

The modest response also brought the attention towards the wolf. Several of the recently returned groups blinked at her appearance and almost doubted their sights. Instead of the usual scaled golden fur, Accalia disappeared beneath a thick layer of herbs, mushrooms and all kind of roots, creating a green coat for the wolf.

Many of the other kids had strange looks on their faces. One or two of them also managed to spot a rare ingredient and had excitedly collected them as carefully as possible. Rumors of adventurers that found a legendary medicine while doing a low level quest and their subsequent sudden jump into wealth and prominence often made the rounds among the less noble situated youths.

None of them had seen such a sizeable collection of plundered resources. How many herbs, plants, flowers and other items had the group collected to make a whole new overcoat for a wolf as large as a calf?

 

“Weird, there are no open wounds on the skin, which makes it more valuable when it gets processed into an item. Looks more like someone twisted its neck. Anyway, let me see how many sheep you hunted and I’ll give you another reward for taking out a danger like this. Then you can decide if you want to sell the medicines you collected or take them home, the academy pays in contribution points though.”

Compared to the previous groups, the teacher was incomparably spirited and busied himself around the serpent corpse and appraised and listed the various herbs carried by Accalia. The wolf whimpered a few times before shaking off the green coat and hiding behind her master, uncomfortable with the instructor plucking various medicines out of her fur.

For a beast that had no problems with tearing apart monsters or humans alike if her monster pointed it out, the wolf was astoundingly shy around strangers.

Nisha blinked and wanted to explain more, and distract from the fact that she twisted the snake’s head out of habit when it tried to ambush her, but the time window passed without her being able to say a few more words.

Internally shrugging at the whole situation, the elf waved Unico and Lisa over to discuss their spoils.

The other girl basically skipped with happiness when she looked at all the rare plants they found. Whenever the wolf spotted a suspicious plant, they had her come over and identify it. After helping out at her parent’s shop countless times, Lisa had a lot of experience when dealing with all kinds of alchemy ingredients.

“Do you want to dispose of all of the medicines for contribution points? You can also take them home if you want to, there are quite a few rare ones mixed in. Apparently the farmer had never sent anyone to check out the surrounding forest, these herbs must have already grown for a long time to get this quality.”

While the dragon had no experience in harvesting medicines or concocting them into potions or pills, she had quite a lot of experience with forests and monster habitats.

“The contribution points sound nice and it’s probably quite a good deal to get them on the first warrior outing already, but I think I will take my share home and let my parents deal with them. Maybe I can also practice some alchemy with some of them, it’s a hobby.”

Lisa was torn between the choices, yet she decided to entertain her passion in the end and firmly nodded.

 

Unico seemed amused at the prospect of earning points, and ultimately put off making a decision.

“Let’s wait for the instructor to finish listing them first. We can see how many points we earned and then compare the worth of the medicines if you need more. Is that acceptable?”

With that he turned to the elf and resumed his usual nonchalant smile while they waited for her opinion.

“What are you looking at me for? We already agreed to share the points equally, no backing out now.

Don’t make me break my word and try to give me a bigger share, you know what I can do.”

At the playful threat her two friends shook their heads half in agreement and half in terror. The reason for that came over in the form of the teacher that tallied up the points.

“This … did you have more members in your group? Not that I want to doubt you, but this amount of points seems unbelievable.”

For the first time on this day he looked genuinely shocked.

Apart from five [Bronze Fleece Sheep] ear pairs in various tattered states, there were more than ten first rank proof of subjugation as well as a completely pristine golden pair worth two hundred points. Not even the biggest groups managed to earn a similar amount per member.

“I can give you another one hundred and fifty points for the snake, it’s quite dangerous and worth more than a similar second ranked sheep, but I really have to ask how you managed to subdue a [Golden Stone Sheep] with only you three.”

Compared to the previous times, the instructor spoke quietly and tried to not attract much attention. Nonetheless, quite a few of the students around exclaimed in surprise when they heard that such a small party managed to subdue a monster at the third aura rank, an entity akin to a demon for most of them.

Now that most of the surrounding youths looked over, Nisha playfully acted shy and turned her head away while she raised a hand to cover her cheeks to hide a blush.

“It’s all luck, I assure you. When we took a break, we chanced upon an exhausted and injured monster that seemed to have just finished breaking through and attaining an evolution.

Good luck beats early rising it seems.”

Combined with the lovely smile, the elf portrayed a picture of sunshine and harmony.

Unfortunately an enraged student screamed in the background and made many people frown.