Chapter 76: Survival exercise 2.

'Last time I checked I am the one paying for it.' Blake still had more things to say, but he decided it save them for later because the attendant was looking at him in an awkward manner.

"I will have one basic dimensional tent, please..." 

[Please don't do it...]

"And I will love to check it out." Blake ignored the system's words.

[He f*cking did it!] The system 'face-palmed.

All items sold in the association's store were tested and trusted, regular checks were done to make sure defective products that may ruin the association's image were not given to any customer. That was why the system felt ashamed of his cheap and paranoid host.

'I won't take chances, what if it doesn't work when we are in the forest?' Blake didn't care about what the system thought.

The attendant brought out a dark green tent and poured in a bit of mana, automatically setting it up. On the outside, it was the size of a two-man tent, but when they got inside it was more than the size of a 5-man tent.

"The basic dimensional tent has a length of 7.2 meters and a width of 5 meters. It has a basic defense system that allows those inside it to see what's happening on the outside and also alerts the user if it takes any form of damage." Usually, not many people asked to check out the products because most of them were adventurers who already know about the products they wanted and because they could always return them if faulty. But since a customer asked the attendant had to do her job and explain the features of the product.

'If a basic tier dimensional tent has so much space and nice features, I wonder what features the advanced and intermediate dimensional tents would possess to have such price tags.' Blake thought when he remembered that the advanced dimensional tent cost 200 thousand gold coins and the intermediate tent cost 50 thousand gold coins.

'Imagine if I was able to forge dimensional tents, we would be f*cking rich!��� Blake fantasied.

[Learn how to forge something other than a sword or master the mana gathering array before thinking of that.] The system snorted.

'Must you be a party pooper?' Blake asked as he paid for the dimensional tent and imprinted it with his mana before heading for the exit.

On his way out he walked past the slim brown hair D rank adventurer, Lambert who went straight to Susan.

"Hello gorgeous, has adventurer Zero been here recently, or has he accepted any commission?" Lambert asked while enjoying the sight of her ample curves.

'Why is he so interested in Zero, he has been asking about him since that day, but one thing for sure he is up to no good.' Susan ignored Lambert that was trying to rip out her clothes with his eyes, as she thought of what to say that would not drag Zero into any trouble.

"He just left." Susan couldn't come up with anything and if she wasted more time it would be suspicious.

'F*ck!' Lambert couldn't help but curse at his bad luck, this wasn't the first time he came looking for this mysterious Zero that no one had set their eyes on. He had tried getting information from different sources, but none of them had any info about Zero.

…

When Blake returned to the school, after he finished up with his preparations, he used the rest of the day for cultivating.

During the week he had used all the beast cores he had except for the elite beast core. His plan was to go farm for more on his class free days so that he could save the elite beast core, but since the field assignment day had replaced it, he had no other choice than to use it.

[When you get stronger hunting elite grade beasts would be a piece of cake, but first you have to survive the assignment first. The more strength you can get the safer you would be.] The system advised.

"I wonder how far it would go." Blake looked at the beast crystal that was twice the size of his fist.

With the help of the normal beast sores he had absorbed, Blake had filled up both the 7th and 8th stars. When it was time for dinner, Blake took a break and headed for the canteen I order to stock up food for the assignment.

After stocking up more than 5 days' worth of food, Blake returned to cultivating till late in the night when decided to rest for the big day.

"Only if I had more of elite beast cores, I would be in the champion realm by now." Blake couldn't help but sigh. The effects of the elite core were magical, he had gone from almost half of the ninth star to almost filled 11th star.

(AN: hope it isn't confusing? For Blake to enter the champion realm he has to fill 16 stars and remember to enter the warrior realm you have to fill up 4, leaving him with 12 stars which he has almost filled up 7.) 

That was more than 2 stars and considering the fact that stars get harder to fill as one rises, Blake was more than satisfied.

…

The next day.

All the students of the elite class were assembled at the main hall, standing behind the principal were all professors that handled them in one course or another.

"Your field assignment is a team survival exercise and it will last for a week…" murmurs were heard all around the hall, but they were soon silenced by a spine-chilling aura that washed over them when Principal adjusted his monocle.

"I hope you all have made necessary preparations because you will be sent to an unknown part of the mina forest, you are to survive for a week before you will be brought back.

Unless you are in life-threatening danger you will not be saved and once you are saved by a professor, consider it the same as failing the exercise." Principal Lovren's words caused the students to gasp at the strict conditions.

'C'mon, why is it a team exercise, everyone knows I am a solo guy.' Blake felt like clawing at the Principal.

[Maybe this is the school's way of teaching people like you how to work as a team because you will one day work with a team.] The said in support of the school's decision.

'Having teammates means having a lot of unknown variables and since I have a big target on my back for being rank 1, it is most likely they would gang up against me. Even if they are not out for my neck, most of those in the elite class are nobles who know nothing about the wild meaning they will be nothing but dead weight.' Blake made a proper analysis and listed out a lot of demerits in having teammates.

[You have a point. It means you have to be very careful of both the beasts and humans, but if worst comes to worst you can leave the team and solo.]

"Because you will be saved by the professors doesn't mean you should be careless, because a professor might not be able to reach you in time so be careful.

A team will consist of 5 randomly selected students, everything gotten in the exercise would be for the team alone and whatever the team does isn't any of the school's concerns. Good luck to you all." After Principal Lovren was done, Professor Gibson took the center stage and began announcing the teams and their members.

After some minutes, Professor Gibson was now at the second to the last team. "Esmeralda, Layla, Luciano, Ansgar, and Blake." The lineup caused a lot of murmurs.

Normally when the first and second rank were in the same team, people expected a lot of friction, but it was awkward because the number 1 hadn't even been challenged and it seemed as if they were best of friends instead of sworn enemies.

"Each team will be warped to different areas and for those asking who is the team leader, the team is to decide not the school. All teams gather and move to your assigned warp array." Professor Gibson

"Seems fate wants us to be together." Luciano gave out a low chuckled as he came to Blake's side.

'You were meant to say no homo man.' Blake gave him a smile and said. "I don't believe in fate."

Esmeralda the rank 10 was the first to join them, followed by the aquamancer Layla the rank 12, and Ansgar the rank 9.

'I must say this team is really overpowered. We have a great attack and a nice defense, but not too sure about this Ansgar guy.' Blake noted their strengths and weaknesses.

They took their positions in the warp array before being warped to an unknown part of the forest.

(AN: Seems no one reads the author's thoughts :-( check it out.)