Benedict Steelblade P.O.V

All five groups were keeping their distance from one another as they huddled together going over their plan once again. This competition was going to be the first point of contention for class ranking. While this year wouldn’t be the most impactful, all the high nobles came from different backgrounds it will still affect the noble landscape.

Worse of all is that everyone had a somewhat decent chance to win. Out of their entire class the stand out strongest are me, Goldmancer and Manashaper. While Goldmancer having Manashaper on her side would usually be enough to push me out of contention this trial system focuses a lot more on stamina giving me a chance to make up for the disadvantage.

That left the prince as the other contender. While he was much weaker than us he had the advantage with numbers, the difference between the seven on my side, eight on Goldmancer’s and ten on him wasn’t all that big since we were not only a bit stronger but also from stronger families with more money to spend on their gear. The problem came that he now had two full teams that he could go with whereas both me and Goldmancer would have to drag dead weight after the first round.

When I looked around before we left I was shocked to see that not only was Goldmancer not on the same team as Manashaper but she wasn’t in a team made up of only her people she was part of the split team. It seems she was going to save her full team run for when she had experience as well as not competing with me. It was a smart plan but one that would also mean I would have more to hunt this time around.

“Okay everybody can go.” Silvertongue said about five minutes after Ajax headed off. He also took off but I knew he would be roaming around us until we all started to split off at least.

As one we all dashed into the forest, only one of the prince’s group didn’t head towards the mountain, instead choosing to head behind the arch. We all knew the area there was small and limited but if they were the only ones there they stood to gain quite a bit before they could pick things off around the side as they spread to the rest of the floor. It was a smart move as nobody would go compete with them as they would also then be left splitting a small area.

The wolves and deer we encountered were pretty much a non issue, as long as we didn’t get sloppy and taken by surprise we should have no issue taking on most of them. Not only that but after the experience we had last time I was constantly aware of what was going on above our heads, no way I would let a griffin sneak up on me a second time.

“Kobolds a hundred feet in front of us.” our scout called out.

Most of my team was getting ready to charge them while the healer assigned to us was starting to hang back. Since kobolds had casters in their rank that was a necessity as if a spell hit the healer there could be nobody to heal him. It was a good strategy but it would also slow us down.

“Focus on their casters” I called out. “ Their weapons can’t get through our armor but spells might just bypass a part of it.

In truth unless one of us took a clean spell to the head I doubt the spells could do all that much to us with the gear we had on, but I knew the healer would insist that they had to heal any injury that we took. Unlike the rest of the team they cared little for the score on the exam and just wanted to get as much experience from the delve, this meant healing as much as possible.

A quick ice lance went right over my head taking out one of the kobold casters with a clean hit through the eye socket. “Got one, bombard them while I take out the other.” Rick called out as the fireballs took the kobold front line by surprise.

None of us got so much as a scratch as we cut apart the ten kobolds. We were even lucky enough to find a few staples of alchemical ingredients as we waited for the healer to catch up to us. While they were worth a little less than the kills there was no reason to leave points lying about.

The whole day had gone about as well as we could have expected. The one regret I had was that the griffin we found had gotten away. Rick had managed to get a good hit with his ice lance but sadly all it did was take out the back paw and not the wings he was aiming for. The griffin had been smart enough to fly away as it saw us charging towards it. Griffins were worth the most but there were so few of them.

“Let's head towards the help point.” Rick said as it was starting to get dark. “Not like we’ll get much more done today, better to start fresh tomorrow with full stamina.”

I nodded my agreement. These first two days were going to be the most stamina intensive as everyone rushed through the forest and the mountain to get as many of the abundant creatures that were there. After the initial rush died down people would need to take things slower as there wasn’t enough prey that you could run mindlessly and still find it.

As we arrived at the predetermined cave I was surprised to see Ajax was working at brewing a few potions. The guys had three cauldrons going at once and he looked to be mixing another set of ingredients.

“You lot need any help?” he asked without lifting his gaze from his work.

“We’re fine.” the healer answered. “Decided to make camp here that way all of us can get a good round of sleep without having to keep watch.”

That was the main reason for camping here, without a watch rotation we could all wake up earlier and get started again.

“You find any useful herbs?” he asked finally looking up from his work.

“Have found a few of them.” Rick said.

“Can I have them?” he asked as he stretched out his arm.

“No you can’t have them, they are worth points.” Rick sounded indignant, he still had a bone to pick with Ajax after the way the last delve went despite my hopes that the two would patch things up.

“I’ll still mark you down for the points they are worth.” Ajax said with a shake of his head. “This way however I get to save on some ingredients and you get to carry around less things, win-win.

Rick remained silent but handed over the herbs at my nod. I saw Ajax not down what we had brought before he started chopping them up and getting them properly prepared.

To be honest I was glad he was only an assistant for this tournament. Despite the budding friendship we had struck up last cycle through the physical combat training and spars my families informants had found out that he had a much deeper bond with the Goldmacers family. Not only that but he was a skilled hunter and that would be invaluable in a hunt like this.

All of us went a bit deeper into the cave and were quick to fall asleep in the next few minutes. When we woke up the artificial sun hadn't yet risen. I didn’t know how the dungeon worked but it seemed that at least this first floor shared the same night day cyle as the outside world. I had been warned that as we delved deeper that won’t be the case, some floors would have the same schedule, others would have an opposite schedule, some might have a sped up schedule and others were stuck at one point. I would hate to find a permanent night floor.

“Have you just kept going throughout the night?” the healer explained as he was standing next to a small pile of potions Ajax had placed on one side of the table. They formed a small pile which was honestly rather impressive. “And these would actually work like normal potions!”

That was indeed impressive. Unlike the slave we had learned to make in our first alchemy class, a proper potion was much harder to make. It seemed that he also had a bit of a knack for alchemy, especially since I didn’t see much of a puddle on the floor from failed attempts. I had expected to see one considering he was crafting inside the dungeon making things more unstable.

“Managed to make something from the herbs you gathered.” Ajax said as he pulled out three larger vials.

“And why would we want healing potions?” Rick asked, and this time I agreed with him we all had better healing potions given to use by our family, the little stand next to them said each potion cost ten points to get.

“These aren’t healing potions.” the healer said as he took up the much larger flask.

“They are Bait.” Ajax said. “Should work on the kobolds and the wolves but won’t do much for the deer.”

“They’re the real deal.” our scout said as he took a look at them with his item inspection skill. “Their quality is only fair but it might be worth getting one of them if we use it sparingly in the coming days.”

We were only allowed to bring healing and protective consumables with us so a chance to get some Bait potions would swing the odds in our favor. “Can anyone buy these from you or just us since we brought the herbs?” I asked.

“Anyone” Ajax replied. “It was agreed upon with the professor.”

“Damn it!” I cursed, this is where Goldmancers change of approach worked in her favor as now I couldn’t have the other two of my people use their points to buy the other two flasks so that the main teams would get them.