"So what does your family do?" Leilani was the first one to speak. It was already night time, I made blankets out of the skin of animals I hunted; they both wrapped themselves in them. We all sat around the fire, eating the skewered meat I prepared.

"My mum is my only family, she works as a part time healer for the Vrimeon Hospital, but most of the time she stays home. I provide for us also as a hunter for the Hunter Association." I lied, biting into my meat.

"The military has kept a record of you, you're quite famous." Rakeria stared at me with curious eyes.

"What do you mean I'm famous?" I asked.

"Your ruthless killings, even I've seen your track record, you've hunted thousands of beasts from A to D rank. The military keeps track of people that may deem a threat to the kingdom in the future. At the moment your threat level is A rated." She picked up more meat and chomped it down.

I didn't know how they got this much information about me, it must have been the Hunter Association. Either Gramps gave this information to the hunter association to not get in trouble and they then passed it onto the Military.

Normal civilians weren't allowed to hunt beasts without permission from the Hunter Association, that's why Gramps must have made a deal with them, so I could carry on hunting.

Did that mean, the military had eyes on my friends as well? I knew what they would do, if they couldn't tame me, they'd exploit my weakness: my family and friends. I didn't plan on staying in this kingdom forever anyways.

The growth period was 10 years long, so I had time till I was 22, to reach S rank and become powerful enough to ascend to the Upper realm through the Tower of Truth.

"So do you have a girlfriend?" Leilani asked, looking at me awaiting my answer.

"No." For some reason, an angry Malia face popped up in my head as I said that and I almost dropped my meat.

"That's a shame, do you mind if I take you to my parents one day?" she asked, smiling. Both Rakeria and I were surprised by her proposal.

"Mmh, sure." I had no intention of marrying her if that's what she was thinking, I just needed good ties in the Elven Kingdom, that was my next destination after all.

"Let's wrap this up, I'm heading to sleep." I said, getting up and going to the river to wash my hands.

"Good night!" they both said, also getting up and going to wash their hands.

Damn I was knackered! I had managed to level up once today; now I was at level 66 but that required me to clear almost all the beasts in the perimeter. In a way, I helped everyone pass the first day.

I jumped on my self made bed and cuddled up underneath the blanket I made out of beast fur. The igloo made it cold but I made sure to keep a fire in both the rooms for warmth.

**

My sleep was broken when I felt some unnecessary movement. A strange warmth enveloped the left side of my body. A warm cushion? What's this soft thing touching my arm?

I drowsily opened my eyes and looked to the left.

WHAT THE-

"Oh sorry, did I wake you up?" Leilani's voice came out sluggish as she hugged my arm tighter. She was under my blanket with me! This psycho!

I screamed in my mind leaping up from the bed.

"What the hell are you doing?" I said, my face had turned red. Her shoulders were bare, meaning she probably didn't have clothes on.

"Sorry, I always sleep with someone and Rakeria's snoring is too loud. Can I sleep with you, please?" She looked at me with puppy eyes. Another vision of Malia's angry face popped up in my head making me shiver.

"No! Go sleep with Rakeria."

"But she snores so loud."

ZZZzzzzzzzzz!

Loud snores could be heard from the other room. Crap! This psycho was going to end up sleeping next to me. Leilani looked at me, biting her lower lip and smiled like I had lost the battle and I'd sleep with her now.

Ahhh hell nahhh!!! Like hell was I going to sleep with this elf girl! I didn't want to become a father yet!!

"You sleep on my bed then, I'm making another room." I said taking my blanket, she gripped my arm looking like she was going to cry.

'Don't fall for it Zeref!' I kept repeating in my head.

"Let go of my hand, this isn't funny anymore. I barely even know you and this is extremely inappropriate. Go cover yourself." I said moving my gaze away from her. She looked down at her chest then whimpered before running into Rakeria's room.

I sighed jumping back into my self made bed and cuddling myself under the warmth of the blanket.

**

The next few days went well, I did my job and protected the two while they also went hunting once in a while.

I helped them improve their abilities too, Rakeria had a branched Earth element; she could create small tremors and earthquakes under the ground. I also showed her how to use her dagger properly but she insisted that I keep her enchanted dagger.

Leilani on the other hand was a hard one to stay with. Every night I'd tell her off for trying to jump in my bed whilst I slept, it drove me crazy.

She also had a knack for nature magic, true of an elf; her magical prowess was strong and with practise she became more confident. She was able to handle hordes of Ground rats by herself and needed my help with other C rank beasts.

We survived without the other 2 noble kids, who died in the beginning and we went back to school after the 9 days were over. It was a good experience and our friendship became solid like steel. I didn't know what they saw me as but I took them as sisters, that I nurtured and helped grow.

"See you guys again." I waved at the two girls smiling.

"See you Zeref!" Leilani blew me a kiss, making me roll my eyes. Rakeria, on the other hand, gave me a respected salute before walking off with Leilani. Both of them didn't have many friends so in this 9 day period they had become best friends.

We were the last team to make it back and survived the longest, for that we got bonus merits. I made sure to wipe all the beasts near our camp everyday and leave a couple strong ones so the other teams would fail.

I was able to level up twice more in the 9 day period making this exam quite beneficial; I placed 30 stat points that I saved up into intelligence making it rise to 90.

Our group also earned a 1000 merits and A*s for surviving the 9th day and making it back. This led to a lot of backlash and reports against us from nobles, that we were possibly cheating. Thank God Xanxus was the principal and not some other snot nosed noble.

At least now the tests were over.