Chapter 134 Assault
“Huuu—”
Kazumi carefully placed the herbs in her hands into a small bag woven from leaves. Seeing the number on the blue slime wristwatch on her wrist jump to 40, Kazumi let out a long breath and wiped the sweat dripping from her forehead due to her long concentration.
Looking at the remaining herbs in front of her, they turned into balls of blue mucus and disappeared into the forest as if their task was completed. A strange look appeared in Kazumi’s eyes.
This was almost a test for Kazumi. After receiving the test message from Sato Shinichi, Kazumi immediately analyzed various countermeasures. Whether it was the exam plan she wrote down, the things she prepared in advance, or the scoring method she envisioned now, all were the results of Kazumi’s deep thought over the past few days.
Of course, knowing that her actions were under surveillance, Kazumi would not do anything as foolish as to achieve impossible scores by simply boosting her score, thereby attracting attention.
She just intended to take advantage of this somewhat obvious loophole to find a quicker way for herself. At the same time, from a certain perspective, being able to accurately discover and utilize loopholes in the rules was also a point that could put her ahead of others.
However, things did not go as planned. The “outdoor examination room” that had completely disappeared in front of her prevented Kazumi from continuing her scoring plan. It also provided an answer to Kazumi’s long-held method of score calculation. However, at this moment, Kazumi inexplicably thought of a rather absurd rumor she had heard not long ago.
In the past, Kazumi had overheard other classmates chatting during class. It was said that all the training grounds in this academy were actually constructed by the academy head’s clones.
At that time, Kazumi had only treated it as gossip among young boys. After all, the combined area of the academy’s training grounds was much larger than all the teaching areas.
Although the academy head, whose capability was [Mucus], had the ability to split off a part of his body, it was impossible to reach such a terrifying extent in the young girl’s cognition.
However, the current situation made the young girl a little dazed. Both the special test points that seemed to be specially set up and the somewhat special scoring method gave people a strange feeling.
It was as if the entire forest was alive.
“Swoosh—”
She dodged a black shadow attacking her from the side. The dagger in her right hand accurately struck the vital spot of the black shadow. With force, the head, which was half the size of her palm, fell to the ground.
Looking at the poisonous snake whose head and body were separated, Kazumi silently cursed herself. She couldn’t relax her vigilance of the surroundings just because she was distracted. Moreover, the information about being attacked by beasts after completing the test had been provided by Inugami’s intelligence.
She rubbed her nose, raised her head, and looked at the quiet dense forest around her. Finally, she squatted down and began to process the poisonous snake’s corpse on the ground diligently.
The young girl no longer had any intention of exploring the will of the forest and the truth of the examination room. What she had to do now was probably just to deal with the impending crisis and complete this test!
…….
Time in the forest seemed to pass much faster than outside. The young girl pushed aside the branches in front of her and poked around in the grass with the wooden stick in her right hand. After finding nothing, she took a step forward.
At this moment, the young girl had long lost her previous high-spirited demeanor. Her hair was messy and stuck together, her face was covered in dirt, and her original new combat suit was tattered, showing that she had gone through a lot of hardship.
Kazumi now truly understood what a survival test was like. The feeling of the entire forest being hostile to her was like being treated poorly by an elf with -1000 favorability in a Western fantasy game. Except for not having supernatural occurrences like trees automatically growing vines to trip her, Kazumi had basically experienced all other challenges.
The powder specifically exchanged to drive away large beasts had hardly any use. Even if they left because of the scent on her, they would be driven by a certain guiding will to chase after her. Perhaps the only benefit was that when she completed “point tests,” due to the powder, the attackers were always small creatures.
Breathing in small puffs, Kazumi’s expression was not very good. Kazumi had already put the plan of boosting her score, or rather, performing well to get a higher impression score, out of her mind. The current problem was whether she could even reach the destination within the stipulated time.
Looking at the number 290 on her wristwatch, Kazumi’s slightly stiff face slowly softened. No matter what, the accumulated score was almost enough. Now she just needed to rush to the central black tower immediately and pick up one more score along the way.
【But, the distance…….】
Looking at the sky, which had already darkened, and the distance between her and the central black tower, Kazumi couldn’t help but furrow her brows.
Both the increasing difficulty as her score accumulated and the travel time that was just enough for her to reach the central black tower proved that this forest’s will was being manipulated by someone behind the scenes.
As for whether it was the powerful academy head 【Blue Demon】 or the current examiner 【Kagemori】, Kazumi was not sure.
However, this was also why the young girl did not use 【Black Coffin】 to quietly collect animal corpses inside. Originally, the young girl was somewhat covetous of the animal corpses, and she was confident that she could do all of this silently in the blind spots of the cameras.
But after knowing who was controlling the test behind the scenes, Kazumi immediately gave up on this somewhat tempting and dangerous plan. Before she developed more, it was best for her to play it safe.
【No matter what, I’ll try my best to complete it!】
Leaning on the wooden stick to support herself, Kazumi felt her stamina had slightly recovered. She took out a few red berries from her pocket and put them in her mouth, replenishing her body, which felt weak from not eating for a long time.
The sour juice melted in the young girl’s mouth, stimulating her delicate taste buds. Forcing down the urge to vomit, Kazumi swallowed the berries, wiped the juice from her lips, and walked forward.
But before she could take a second step, the young girl seemed to sense something. She suddenly rolled to the side and burrowed into the bushes next to her.
Where the young girl had been standing, a sharp wooden spike gleaming with a faint light stood upright.
【This is!!】
Kazumi, who had regained her mobility, immediately straightened up, her dagger felt in her waist, and she looked vigilantly at what was happening in front of her.
And with a “rustling” sound across the grass, a slender figure wearing a wooden mask appeared before the young girl.
