Morning rolled around, bright and sunny. A little too bright. John had passed out on the beach while reading a webnovel of some sort, and that was where the others had found him. He seemed pretty comfortable. Sand was mixed in with his hair and had crusted on about half of his face.

"Um… should we do something about this?" Lilith said worriedly. "Is he ok?"

Prota just sighed and walked over to her brother.

"John," she said quietly, poking him on the cheek. "John."

She had a good idea of what'd happened, and it was possible he might not get up. That wouldn't do. They needed him. She'd realized he'd carried her to bed and everything, but after what he'd said last night, she couldn't afford to just let him sleep in.

"John," she said, this time with a bit more urgency.

The twins watched in amazement as if the scene before them was a circus act. The boy on the ground stirred, groaned, and then rolled over as if facing the other way would make his problems disappear. The girl then said his name in a far more threatening tone, and the boy scurried to his feet, apparently afraid of something.

"Ugh," he groaned. "My face feels- oh."

He looked around, blinking his eyes sleepily.

"You guys all good? Everyone had a good sleep?"

There were nods all around, which was definitely a good sign. Prota was feeling incredibly fresh, and although her mana reserves were a little low, there was more than enough in her staff to keep her running. She looked at her hands, flexing her fingers, feeling quite alive and well. She hadn't realized it, but after being used to an environment where she needed to be alert at all times, Scholaris had made her feel a little dull.

This survival scenario had her feeling fresh again.

"Good. Oh, by the way. We're only fighting our way until day five," John said, dusting himself off.

"What do you mean?" Ryan said cautiously.

"I mean, we stock up enough food so that on day five, we can just kick back and relax."

Ryan frowned. "I thought grades mattered."

"If we make it that far, our grades will be top-notch, don't worry," John assured the red-haired boy. "But we're on a tropical island. White beach, warm days, clean ocean… unless you guys don't care about that kind of stuff. Look, I can guarantee good grades if we make it that far, so it's a matter of whether or not you like the beach."

"Well, I mean-"

"Come on, Ryan!" Lilith exclaimed. She seemed really excited. "We've never been to the ocean like this. Doesn't it sound nice?"

"Sis, we're in an exam. Don't you think-"

"We'll be fine. Like John said, our grades should be more than good enough if we can make it that far, right?"

The boy seemed dubious, but he was slowly giving in to the idea. Well, if this was a new experience, even he had to be tempted by the idea of an early vacation, right?

"Fine."

John grinned. Prota felt a sense of dread. He'd just managed to convince two others to finish working two days early. Well, if he said their grades would be fine, they probably would be. She knew he didn't care about them all that much, but even she saw that his claims weren't entirely baseless.

"Alright. How we feeling, by the way? Everyone somewhat recovered?"

"Hungry," Prota said.

She was. The stew from last night was good, but eating only one can hadn't been super filling. The twins looked as though they wanted to say this as well, but their dignity likely prevented them from doing so. Prota had only spoken up because she would never have less dignity than John, no matter what she did.

"Yeah, we've got four more cans of food left. Thank god we didn't give them up, huh…"

John went off to get more wood while the others stayed to clean up camp. Rearrange the stone, fold up the tent, and rinse off a little in the ocean, just to feel clean. Even after all this, though, John hadn't come back.

"Hey, Prota. Is your brother ok?" Lilith said worriedly as they sipped at their canteens.

"Nn," she nodded.

Usually, she would've been worried, but the system's health bar function seemed to be working fine. John was taking a few ticks of damage here and there, but it was nothing serious. She could even message him if she so wished, but he was probably just having a hard time finding wood.

"The more I see him, the more I find him interesting," the blue-haired girl sighed, resting her chin in her palm. "He's so- so- confident, I guess."

"A little too much," Ryan grumbled. "Isn't it a little suspicious? How well he's able to navigate? How confidently he just takes charge?"

"Oh, is someone jealous?" LIlith grinned. "What, do you wish you could do that?"

"Well- yeah, I guess," he muttered. "But still. He himself said he lacks a lot of mana, right? We've never seen him fight anybody but us, and we were pretty clueless back then. How does he manage?"

The question hung in the air for a few seconds before they both turned to Prota, who immediately got hit with a wave of anxiety.

"Um… can't say," Prota muttered, shaking her head.

The twins were sensitive enough not to question it any further.

"I'm back!"

John was half-jogging, half-sprinting with another load of wood. It would be enough for two campfires, one for now and one likely for when they returned. They got a fire started, and the same stew was eaten again for breakfast.

"You know this was good last night. It's, uh… it's not that good anymore. I mean, it's good food. But, like, for breakfast?" John said, frowning as he looked into the can. "At least we have spoons."

The trash was thrown into a bag in the tent, clearly meant for that purpose, and the group prepared themselves to head out. Lilith used her magic to gather fresh water for their canteens, and back into the wild they went.

"We need food. A lot of food. I guess multiple tents would be nice, too, but that's more quality of life," John muttered to himself. "Were bags on the list?"

"I don't know," Ryan said as he pushed a large, leafy branch out of the way. "The full list was never revealed to us."

"No?"

"...were you paying attention?"

John didn't answer that question.

The one thing they didn't need was a campfire kit. A fire pit was much more useful for cooking, as well as avoiding accidents in the night. If they got one, it would be left behind, as it would be merely dead weight.

The group had to consider how much they could carry. That was why bags were an object of John's attention. If they had to make trips back to the camp every two crates, it would be terribly inefficient.

"Look!" Ryan hissed, pulling John back. "Over there!"

A pack of large, grey wolves were sniffing around. There were five or six of them, it seemed, and while they weren't the shadow wolves Prota had met back in the dungeons, they still seemed dangerous.

"Grey wolves," Lilith muttered. "They're dangerous."

"One attack should wipe them out," Ryan said, getting ready to strike.

John, on the other hand, seemed wary.

"Hey, hold on a bit."

"What?"

"You guys were planning on using a large-scale attack to wipe them out, right?"

"Well, yeah," Ryan admitted.

"That might… make a lot of noise," John said, seeming to contemplate something. "Do either of you have fine control? Specifically Lilith."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Fine… control?"

John pointed to Prota, who flinched. Why was she being brought into this?

"You ever see her snipe enemies?" he asked.

Ryan nodded. "Well, yeah…"

"Think you could do that, too?"

"Yes!" Lilith exclaimed confidently. "I'm sure I can do it."

"Ryan, are you capable of shooting blades of wind?"

"Blades of… well, yeah, but I don't think it's at the level you're asking for."

"Yeah, don't worry about it," John said dismissively. "Alright. Prota, you know what to aim for, right?"

She nodded. It was second nature to her, after all. She fought almost exclusively to kill, meaning all her attacks were always aimed at vital points. She wasn't interested in showing off or being cocky. In the first place, she rarely had the opportunity to display such things. She wasn't going to change her habits, especially when there was no reason to do so.

"Um… aim for the head, right?" Lilith said, squinting to get a better look at the beasts.

"Yeah, but where in the head is important."

The twins didn't know about biology. It seemed that wasn't something taught in this world, so they'd have to get a quick lesson right now.

"See the snout?" John explained. "It won't really matter if you hit that. It'll just make the beast mad, and then we'll have a problem."

"But- that's part of the head, isn't it?"

"Do you know what a brain is?"

"Um… yeah?"

"Well, it's not in the snout of a wolf. You have to aim near the eyes, or you won't kill it in one shot."

One shot. Something about that rang in Prota's head. She'd always launched her icicles at high speeds, and it was usually enough to kill. But she could improve that even more, couldn't she? Her opponents were getting tough enough that she'd need a way to improve her basic spells. She wanted to learn bigger spells, yes, but given their mana consumption, they weren't always practical.

She thought back to John's pistol. A projection system to propel a piece of metal faster, fast enough to pierce skin and bone. Couldn't she do the same?

John was busy pointing to the wolves and explaining the plan, which was pretty simple: kill them without getting caught. Ryan was preparing something in case things went south, but Prota had a little bit more time to experiment.

She summoned an icicle, letting it hover in front of her chest. Next, she summoned a ball of wind, similar to what she used for her wind and fire explosions, but this time, there was no fire to synergize with. Instead, she tried to focus the wind around the icicle, stirring it up more and more until she could barely hold the icicle back with her magic.

"Alright, guys. Let's go."

Lilith chanted quickly, summoning an icicle, but Prota was at her limit. She let the ice go, and it flung forward at incredible speeds, but somehow, it didn't reach its target. John looked back in amazement.

"Wha- we'll talk about it later, ok?" he said, but his tone indicated that he was excited about something.

That was good. Right?

Prota stored the idea away for later. Right now, there was an objective to focus on. Her usual style would be enough for this.

There was no fight. Had there been one, it would've defeated the whole point of what John had been trying to achieve. Instead, they'd managed to silently dispatch the wolves one by one, and since they never howled or let out any kind of noise, no other beasts were attracted to the scene. In a few minutes, it was done.

"Alright," John nodded, dusting his hands as he got up. "Let's go."

"Just like that?" Ryan said, surprised.

John shrugged. "What? Were you expecting something else?"

"Well… I just feel like it shouldn't have been that easy."

John flinched. "Don't say something like that."

"What? Why not?"

"Just… don't."

Ryan was confused, but he let it drop. John had reacted so violently that the red-haired boy didn't feel the need to prod any further. Prota felt as if she knew. She'd seen him react to things like that before. Was there something about [Stories] where you shouldn't claim victory too early? She had no idea, but it was something to consider.

They walked up to the wolves and waited for John to look around. Eventually, he waved them over, and another crate was discovered.

"...more food. This one's a rice dish," John said, looking at the cans. "And a campfire. We can just leave that here."

He tossed the cans over, and everyone's hands were full. It wouldn't have been too much of an issue since they weren't heavy, but it did restrain their actions should something unexpected happen.

Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. In fact, their luck would turn out to be greater than normal as they stumbled across another bear corpse.

"...this isn't the one we killed, right?" Lilith said nervously.

"I don't think so. Too fresh," John frowned. "Even if it is, it doesn't hurt to look around, right?"

The crate was easily found. It seemed no other team had gotten to it yet, and inside was exactly what they needed.

"This seems a little too easy," John muttered as he pulled four large, heavy-duty bags out of the crate. "Hey. Are you guys… ok with all this?"

It was a little late to ask, but things like killing wild animals out of necessity weren't something most kids were used to. Granted, they'd been forced to fight each other in the previous exams, but there'd been a sort of understanding that it wasn't real. This, however, was very much real life. Dead animals and unfamiliar land were something children shouldn't be used to.

Well, John had no way of knowing that, but he was making assumptions based on his time on Earth. Maybe kids here were raised to be hunters. He shook his head. No point in overthinking it.

"I mean… we've been hunting," Ryan said. "With our parents, when we were young."

"Yeah," Lilith nodded. "I'm not sure if our classmates will be as comfortable as us, though…"

John nodded. Well, it wasn't the most unreasonable of excuses. He shook his head. He should be glad that they were getting along so easily. If the twins were the sort to be scared off easily, then they'd have an infinitely harder time surviving in the wild.

"Well, it works out."

There were four more canteens of water, but at this point, they had so many that they decided it was better to just leave them for the next team that found the crate. They closed the lid and carried on in search of more supplies.

~~~

"That's all you could find?" Draco frowned.

Unsurprisingly, the noble had simply gathered three poor souls to do all the work for him while he relaxed in their home base. He didn't have the intelligence to realize that he was being graded on his actions, and not simply how well he could survive, but he was smart enough to get others to do the work for him.

"The- the crates are so hard to find," one of the poor boys under him panted. "And there's so many wild beasts!"

"Do you or do you not want to make me proud?" the noble snarled. "It's just some dumb animals. Surely you can deal with them!"

"But- but-"

"If you can't bring anything back by tomorrow, I'll finish you off myself."

The noble sighed. He was getting a little hungry, having not eaten anything for a full day. One of their team was familiar with water magic, so they were able to drink their share, but food was something they'd need. That wasn't even on the top of Draco's mind, though.

"Ugh. Scholaris. I thought this was a school for the talented," he grumbled to himself. "Why should we have to go through this slop? This is the lifestyle for beggars and commoners, not nobles like me!"

It was a good thing John wasn't around to hear this.

"That's it. Come with me," Draco said, standing up.

The three starved, exhausted boys looked up, despair filling their eyes.

"If we can't find any crates, we'll just have to take supplies from other teams. Come."

~~~

"This is more than enough, right?"

Prota looked in amazement as everyone put their bags on the ground. At this point, they had more than enough supplies. A small, portable toilet of sorts. Dozens of cans of food, all of different kinds. A pot to make things easier to cook with. Prongs to potentially cook meat with. Fire starters, likely for teams with no fire affinity mages.

"Seriously. I gave this whole talk about conserving stamina, and then we just get to waltz over half a dozen animals like it's nothing. ■■■■ would have a lot to say about this."

"...sorry, what did you say?" Lilith frowned, leaning in as if she were having a hard time hearing. "I feel like I missed something."

"■■■■. Ah, shit. Don't worry about it."

"Hold on, you can't just say don't worry and then-"

"Don't worry about it."

Prota sighed as she watched the twins bicker with John. Well, it was good to see them getting along, at least. She knew what had happened. Her brother had tried to say something restricted. Seriously, it wasn't like he was spoiling anything. What in the world was being held back? Oh, well. She'd ask him about it later.

"Well, this is enough stuff for now. Come on, let's go back to the camp. We've got a lot more time, so let's just come back later."

Everyone nodded, and they made their way back. Even though no one really had a good sense of direction, it was pretty easy to tell which way they'd come based on the wide clearing John had made with his sword, along with the occasional burn marks from Ryan's fire magic.

Even after making it back, nothing of note happened. There was some minor discussion about whether it was safe to leave the food behind, but in the end, they couldn't continue to carry it with them.

"Hey," Ryan said after putting his stuff away. "What happened to fighting other teams?"

John shrugged. "I mean, are you suggesting we go hunt down other students? I'm down if that's the case."

"Wha- no! I'm just saying, your whole lecture with the coins and stuff hasn't really come into play."

John pressed his lips together, then licked his lips nervously. They were dry from all the heat and walking.

"Well… I didn't really account for the skill level of the other students."

"The what?"

This question came from Lilith, who had just come out of the tent. Prota was sitting on a nearby log, her feet swaying back and forth.

"Look, I was under the impression that all the teams were as skilled as we are. But as Ryan said, not all students can handle things like killing animals and surviving in the wild. We can. Our success might not be because we're good; it might just be because everyone else is worse."

It was a crude way of putting it, but John had a point. If everyone else couldn't handle the idea of killing wild animals or carving their way through the wilderness, then their team had an automatic win just by being able to do all those things.

"My whole thing with the coins was under the assumption that there were a large number of teams with skill level equal to ours. But if everyone's just trying to live… well, I guess we can do the same, right?"

There was a little bit of an awkward atmosphere. It wasn't that there was anything going wrong. In fact, it was quite the opposite. They were doing far better than they'd hoped. They had food for days, comfortable shelter, water, and with a sunny beach and warm ocean, they were essentially on a tropical vacation.

It was just that John's speech had hyped them up for combat. Everyone on this team had been training to become stronger in order to prove themselves in combat. Both Lilith and Ryan had their sights set on Prota, who had dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of experience ahead of them. Prota was constantly aiming for Destiny, and even higher than that, John.

To be told that they no longer needed to fight would be like building a spaceship only to be told that space didn't exist. What was the point? What had they been so excited about?

"Well, we've got some time. Let's head back in, grab a couple more crates, and then we can take an early rest. Maybe we'll find some chairs or a table or something, that would be nice," John sighed.

Morale now a little lower than before, they went back in, heading in a different direction. Before they'd gone even fifteen minutes, they found a crate with no animals guarding it. Strange, but a welcome surprise. Suddenly, the rustling of bushes made them stop. Everyone's heart rate rose. Someone was coming. The sound was too quiet to be that of a wild animal. This was a person.

John and Prota, however, calmed down upon seeing who it was.

"Oh. It's you guys."

Out of the woods came Destiny, dressed in light clothes, his sword strapped to his waist.

"Um… do you need this crate?"

They didn't. To be completely honest, it was fine to give it. But they had all been waiting for a confrontation for so long that at this point, no matter who it was, they would've tried to claim it for themselves. To use John's analogy, they had way more coins than they knew what to do with.

"Yeah. Come on, you're going alone. Surely you need less resources."

"I told you, John," Destiny said with a sorry smile. "This wasn't just about survival for me. I need to get stronger."

John grimaced, looking around him. He didn't know if they could defeat him here. Actually, he didn't know if he could defeat him, ever. But, at the same time, he didn't really feel like giving it. Destiny must've seen the look on his face, because he began to smile.

"Maybe I don't need this crate. But unless you guys are just going to back off, it seems we're going to have to fight."

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