After four hours of walking, Sebas and Cecile recovered from their mana strain but the strenuous physical activity wore them down until they looked nearly as bad as Robert. The aspiring hero bore the pain in his side stoically as he marched on, the endurance built from his training showing its mettle.

Lanston and Orphelia were by far the most exhausted. The young scholar was constantly scaling every hill they passed, perching at the top to scan their surroundings and give them direction. Without even a sip of water or bite of jerky to replenish his energy, the strain was starting to show, his normally energetic demeanor reduced to solemn grunts and nods. Despite his exhaustion, he continued to do his job.

Orphelia bore the strain better despite having a duty just as demanding. The team followed through on their plan to seek assistance from another team. The first group Lanston spotted was a group with mounts, simple horses. Cecile successfully drew their attention with a bright arrow of fire but the other team refused to offer aid.

Orphelia didn’t blame them. They had clearly come prepared for a five-man expedition and, at the moment, her team was very much deadweight. Sebas did not make things better by trying to intimidate them into lending their aid, Robert too slow to quiet him before the damage was done.

Cecile’s offer of a substantial payday was almost enough to sway them but, in the end, they chose to focus on the test. Orphelia was disappointed as they rode off but didn’t bother to waste her energy complaining. Sebas had that covered, letting out a stream of curses so vile, she briefly wondered where the sheltered man could have heard them.

Lanston found them another team, one trudging over the wasteland. One far less prepared for the test and much more open to the idea of cooperation. However, the goal was to find a team in a better situation, not to struggle along with people in just as dire straits. Not to mention, they demanded boons they didn’t deserve for their assistance, their arrogance making even Orphelia’s lips curl in distaste.

Their response to her rejection was to resort to threats. As the healthiest member of their group, it came down to her to defend her team. All eyes widened in shock when she pulled two slim daggers from under her robe.

Summoning water, especially in such an arid environment, would take a considerable amount of mana. Better to rely on her martial abilities. Ones forged over years as a hidden asset of the kingdom. She took full advantage of their surprise and rushed them, unhesitatingly going for fatal blows.

Luckily, she didn’t need to reveal all her secrets. One mortal wound and a well-placed flame arrow scared them off, leaving her with minor injuries and a worsening attitude. The only good thing about their terrible luck was that Sebas stopped making snide remarks at her. Instead, his eyes were calculating, re-evaluating her.

Another problem. The pampered boys and girls, including the proud Robert who lived under the delusion that he had built himself up through his own efforts the same as the great Dunwayne, were not meant to know exactly how capable she was. After being trained all her life to battle the worst the kingdom had to offer, at eighteen, she should have been enlisting in the royal army and building her reputation. Instead, because of a deal made between her sire and the guardians of her charges, she was forced to be a babysitter for the next five years.

She did get something out of the deal. Besides the gold promised to her, the Grand Hall was a great place to continue honing her skills, though she would have preferred more hands-on instruction. It was also the best place to recruit talents for her real team, the ones whom with she would build her own legend.

Robert’s four affinities were very impressive. The boy was a once in a generation talent, maybe a one in ten generations talent. However, too many people had told him so. If he kept his head down and worked on his magic, Orphelia would be far more interested in him. Instead, he tried to be the superman they saw him as. He wanted the demeanor of a high noble, the spirit of a knight, the education of a scholar, and the fighting prowess of a dedicated soldier.

Most annoying of all, he wanted to be a leader. Perhaps one day he would be capable of such, but as an inexperienced pup in a world of monsters, he would be better served to rely on his teammates more as opposed to taking charge. There was a reason these talents had been brought together but Robert was far too caught up in his own magnificence to make efficient use of them.

The biggest example to date was the catastrophe with the unknown slime. It would have been simple to have Cecile and Lanston pelt it with spells from a distance but instead, he pandered to Sebas’ ego by allowing the utility null caster to attack and when that failed, tried to prove his superiority once again by having the mount gifted to him by his teacher scare it off.

That decision cost them their transportation and their supplies. Worse, after clearly seeing they were outmatched, the idiot ran up to the monster resposnsible with nothing more than a dream and got himself injured.

Worse than that, as if seeking to outdo his previous stupidity, he threw nearly his entire coefficient at it. The first thing his teacher should have taught him to never do. She could only thank the saints that the rest hadn’t followed suit or she might have simply abandoned them to their fates.

As amazingly terrible as Robert’s display was, he was still the best of the lot. Sebas couldn’t hold back his envy toward Robert long enough to get anything done. The petty boy had even proposed to Cecile when he saw the two of them getting close, thinking it a victory over the talented commoner.

Cecile was a bit better. Her biggest problem was that she simply lacked talent. With her basic fire affinity and average intelligence, she could only hope to be an above average caster at best. The biggest boon she brought to the team was the enormous wallet of the Guiness family and the wide network of connections all merchant families built but there was little need for them in a safe ‘sandbox’ like the Grand Hall.

She personally liked Lanston the most. Again, his talent was middling, the boy chosen more for his familiarity with Robert than anything else but his attitude was commendable. Curious and always willing to learn, he supported the team in multiple ways, acting as the resident monster expert, their scout with his handy spyglass, and even their cook when they didn’t have high-quality rations on hand.

Unfortunately, he had made it clear that he preferred flipping through books as opposed to wrestling monsters. She knew his determination would only be reinforced at the Grand Hall, where the greatest scholars of the kingdom gathered. It would be a surprise if he remained with the team another year.

Their conduct on their march only served to worsen her opinions of them. The fools truly thought the instructors had left them with no supervision. Sebas was correct when he declared that they would be passing the qualifier no matter their performance but he was quite mistaken that a poor performance would go unpunished. The thought of the scathing letters she would be sending to each of their guardians kept her mood up as she continued trudging on.

The more time dragged on, the more dire their situation became. The last thing she wanted was to be wandering about when night fell. In most places, monsters became more active, and more deadly, after sundown. If they could not find another team soon, she would have to give up the search and guide them to find shelter. That would be the end of the test for them.

The others thought they were in pain now. Tomorrow, they would all be statues, frozen with muscle ache and exhaustion. She could provide them with water but not food. They wouldn’t have the energy for another endless march.

They’d be lucky if their mana recovered to half capacity and the fools had no clue how to go about actually searching for the mamaroons, their whole plan to rely on the roc. The tenders had given them the chance to ask as many questions as they wanted but Robert had sauntered away, too concerned with his image to defer to someone else’s wisdom.

After another hour, daylight began to fade. She was dangerously close to stopping and directing them to find shelter but decided to have Lanston scale one more hill. She tapped his shoulder and he gave her a tired nod. She felt a little sympathy watching his tired figure drag itself to the top of the hill. He took a knee and put the spyglass to his eye.

Almost immediately, he let out an excited cry. “Orphie! I see smoke!”

She hated the pet name but her own excitement let her ignore it. “What else?”

He shook his head. “There’s a hill blocking my view.”

A tough decision. A fire meant another team. A shelter. Hopefully food. She’d been trained to endure hunger but that didn’t mean she found a growling stomach comfortable. Better, they could have a chance to pass the test with another team’s help. They couldn’t exactly fail but she had her own pride.

If they ignored the smoke, she and her tired team would have to make their own shelter and protect themselves throughout the night, a tough task. They could give up any hopes of finishing the test. Perhaps most trying of all, she would have to endure their complaints for a full day, listening to the children bicker back and forth until it was time to go. That alone nearly made up her mind.

There remained a dreaded third option. They could exhaust themselves to reach the fire only to find a hostile team. She doubted any of the initiates had the gall to gravely injure her teammates but the world was full of crazy bastards and she was tasked with keeping them alive. It was a slim chance but could she afford to take it?

“What are we waiting for?” Robert walked ahead of her, lips pressed in a tight line as he forced himself to increase his pace. “An already constructed shelter and a team with clear ability. This is precisely what we have been waiting for. We need to reach them before dark.”

Orphelia wanted to slap the back of his head and scream at him that charging forward without caring for the consequences didn’t equate to bravery but recklessness. She made a note to include his desperate need to face more life-and-death challenges in her review so he could appreciate being alive rather than believing it was owed to him.

It was too late to call him back as Sebas and Cecile had already started following him. She waved down Lanston. “Run ahead and make sure they’re going the right way.”

“Sure, sure.” He jogged off with newfound energy. At least the decision had revitalized them, doubling their pace from the last hour. Orphelia followed them more sedately, eyes snapping about as she watched for threats.