The howl of beasts echoed loudly in the forest. Their voices were loud and resonated through the whole forest, causing a gripping fear to latch onto every student as they understood that this situation and this test weren’t about grabbing a flag, but also about surviving the monsters and beasts in this forest.
“This is pretty bad,” Hoyo said as he looked around. “We don’t know what’s going to happen right now, let’s stick together,” he advised.
“Fellow Students!” one of the guys shouted out, “Please gather around!” he called out.
The group of students all followed in as they made a circle around him. The young man was the same age as Ludwig, and he had a noble crest on his robes making his affiliation known.
He was of a tall enough height, handsome of appearance, and had a red head. Yet he seemed to be fully decked out for this dungeon. After all, he had a small wand strapped to the belt to his side. And the boots he wore were designed for long marches and hikes. Though Ludwig didn’t know if it was his normal attire, this seemed awfully too coincidental with the day of the exam.
Not to mention a waterskin and a small bag on the other side of his waist.
“Right, we all understand that this test was made to catch us off guard, and professor Olim Rambaldi got us good, but if you all listen to me well, I’m sure we’ll all manage our way out of this exam with good grads.”
Ludwig was a bit skeptical, after all, who is he to be able to harness the attention of every student?
“As you all know, I’m Bron Steelheart, our family is of enough renown that even the Imperial family has assigned several of our family members to be Mage Commanders in the imperial army, not to mention the Kingdom of Lotostra. Where we’re pretty much the strongest noble force of the kingdom, with that, I would hope that my fellow students trust me to lead us out of this perilous situation,” the young man said.
“I agree, if we have a Steelheart with us, this exam is as good as cleared,” someone said.
Several other students were nodding in agreement.
Ludwig wasn’t someone who’d personally go out of his way to contradict or ask why this man who was taking the lead was already decked out as if he expected this to happen, so for now he went with the flow and didn’t interrupt.
“So now we’ll split into two groups, one group will handle scouting and reporting, and the other group will be responsible for battle.”
“Keep calm,” Ludwig said as he noticed Hoyo about to ask something as he was raising his hand.
Though Hoyo dropped his hand, it didn’t skip the young man’s notice, “Seems like you had a question, your name was Hoyo right?” the young man said. Though he had a smile on his face, his eyes didn’t smile.
Seeing that it was too late to stop the interaction, Ludwig simply sighed in defeat.
Hoyo gave an apologetic look to Ludwig and answered, “Right, I was going to simply ask how are we going to be split up, not to mention we don’t know how long this test is going to last… and most of us didn’t bring any food or drinks,” Hoyo said as his eyes pointed at the waterskin on Bron’s side.
“Simple, we’ll handle it based on social norms,” he said shrugging.
Ludwig’s eyes looked as if they scowled, ‘social norms? That basically means that nobles get to sit down and relax while those of non-noble origin do all the work.’
Hoyo immediately spoke out, “That’s not fair though!”
“Nothing in life is fair,” the man shrugged, “Not to mention the nobles in our class have superior firepower, and we can’t risk them exhausting themselves doing scouting. While you three, and a few behind you are all known to be pretty weak or new.”
‘this is blatant discrimination…’
Ludwig sighed, but he also remembered this isn’t the same world he came from. And discrimination based on race, origin or color is pretty normal here. And they could do nothing about it, not to mention the nobles were of a superior number to those who are not.
The Black Tower Academy was after all an academy of magic, and only a select few can learn it. Nobles have access to mana-amplifying options since they were born, while most commoners can only dream of being a mage or a powerful knight. Besides a few exceptions. Ludwig wasn’t a noble, but was admitted through special means to the academy. And Kassandra seemed to be someone who is smart though her robes and her current physical state meant that she was definitely of a poor background. Hoyo though comes from a noble family, his family has fallen, and several other students behind Ludwig who had their head pointing down in shame were all in the same boat. Commoners who only earned the right to attend the Black Tower academy because either they were of a special race, or had happened upon an opportunity that allowed them to enter the academy, either by birth or by luck.
“Bron is right,” one of the pompous kids spoke, “You’re lucky you’re even here with us, if you were by yourselves you’d never clear something like this, so just do your job of scouting.”
“Right, and since you mentioned it, while you’re scouting do some foraging and hunting, we need to stay in top shape if we want to help you clear this stage,” another said.
The nobles seemed adamant about applying their ‘social’ pressure onto the commoners and the latter couldn’t refute or deny anything.
Hoyo was about to argue, but Ludwig held him once more, “Sure, I agree to that,” Ludwig said.
“Ah, we have a sensible person, on our hands, who are you?” Bron asked.
“Call me Ludwig, regardless, to do scouting I would need a few things, I suppose you have something we can use as weapons, right?” Ludwig asked.
“Why would you need a weapon?” Bron asked.
“Why else? If we’re scouting we need to be able to defend ourselves, what if we go to scout and die, then who will provide you any sort of information?” Ludwig shrugged.
“You do have a point, but what do you mean by weapon? Most of us here are mages, we don’t carry weapons.” He added.
“Then it will be a bit difficult to do that task, I mean without a scouting party it’ll be pretty difficult for any of us to progress in this test.”
“Is a short sword good enough for you?” one of the nobles asked.
Bron gave him a stern look, but Ludwig immediately interrupted, “Yes, it would be fine, I’ve been training the Imperial Art lately with professor Joana.”
Bron sighed, “How come you have a sword when you’re a mage,” he shook his head at his fellow noble.
“It’s a ceremonial sword of my family, not that I need it or anything, but if it makes him do a better job at scouting then lending him the sword is enough,” he said as he approached Ludwig and pulled a sword from a ring he had on him.
“I don’t suppose you guys have any other weapons for the rest of our scouting group?” Ludwig asked.
Bron shook his hand, “Fine, as long as you do a good job of scouting and reporting. Our fellow nobles are generous enough to give you their weapons. Just don’t be too lax and relaxed, we need you guys the same as you need us,” he said.
A few of the nobles pulled out some weapons, daggers mainly and a couple short swords, none of them looked worth using in an actual battle, but Ludwig had a plan in mind after all.
“I suppose you’ll be leading the scouting party?” Bron asked.
Ludwig turned, “I see no one refusing or wanting to step up, so I guess I am,” Ludwig said.
“Good, then report to us once every two hours, and we’ll set up camp here,” Bron said as he dismissed Ludwig.
Ludwig turned and saw that only ten of the people from the whole class were actually commoners. He, Kassandra, and Hoyo included.
He distributed the weapons he was given to the group and had a couple of spare daggers left that he kept for himself.
“What are you planning?” Kassandra asked as she was looking at the dagger in her hand.
Ludwig smiled at her and said, “We’ll clear this thing before they even realize it,” Ludwig said to her smiling.
After all, only he was able to see the content of this dungeon. The notification in front of his eyes was clear as day.