Arthur found a high tree that he sat on and took out food from his subspace. These meals have been stored when they were hot, so they were always delightful to eat.
He ate his crispy chicken sandwich. This chicken was fed mana-rich plants so its meat didn't differ much from the monster's meat and it was a lot tastier.
As he ate his lunch, he overlooked the many students that were struggling to form groups, construct camps, and fight against monsters.
'Emma, Oliver, Ellen, Amelia,' Arthur tried to remember who else was taking this exam, but he wasn't sure. After all, he didn't know a lot of people at his age to begin with.
He hasn't met Emma and Amelia yet, so he hoped they did well, albeit for different reasons. He didn't think Amelia was his friend and he wasn't particularly fond of her, but he had invested some time and effort into her so he would be happy to see her pass.
As for him passing the exam, Arthur wasn't that worried. The only worrisome thing is that he shows too much of his strength. He didn't know if this place was watched and he had already shown outstanding physical strength.
He can just teleport into the ruins and steal the crystals or simply have Ruki dive in to get them for him. In both ways, he would reveal abnormal abilities. He had already revealed his shadow and hoped it would be taken as a scouting skill.
This island was truly huge. After eating his lunch, Arthur traveled across the forest until he reached the end of it. Weirdly enough, he found a desert.
It was the first time that he was in such a landscape and the fact that an island had this variety made it more believable that this space was controlled by someone.
Arthur started running across the drylands looking for monsters to hunt. As the sand shifted, Arthur stopped in his tracks as a giant scorpion appeared.
The scorpion attacked with its tail but Arthur simply used his Restrain rune before killing it. His new rune was extremely useful against ordinary monsters that couldn't break through it.
[Perception has increased by 1.]
Despite being of the peak-mid-tier, this monster gave him a single point only. This proved to say that he was getting less from this tier since got stronger.
Arthur used his detection rune and searched along the desert for monsters. However, it seemed most of them were hiding as the scorpion was.
That's why he directed his range toward the underground and found several monsters moving in the sand. There were giant worms, scorpions, sandmen, lizards, and other monsters that he couldn't identify by their outline.
A sense of déjà vu struck him when he found the roots of the underlying structure. As he extended his range, he sensed the existence of a building that was buried beneath the sand.
'Is it another set of ruins?' Arthur pondered and decided to go there. He couldn't showcase his real powers in the middle of the forest but with how buried this place was, he might slip unnoticed.
He reached the structure after an hour and a half of running. The sand made it harder to run so it had taken him a while. Along the way, he hunted another scorpion and a stone golem and gained perception and stamina respectively.
Arthur looked at the inclined entrance in front of him as he sensed the mana overflowing from within it. The sand fell in a curtain once he stepped on it and peeked inside.
It was pitch dark with only a small hill of sand that had the light illuminating it. The rest of it was so dark that Arthur couldn't see it.
'Is it a large space?' Arthur squinted his eyes.
If there were nearby walls, then there would be a reflection of light that he can pick up with his perception. With that in mind, Arthur used his detection rune.
After making sure that there was no immediate danger, Arthur jumped and felt the air rush past his face. He landed on the sand lightly and looked around in caution.
Even though he had already used detection, he couldn't be overconfident. After all, Rae has managed to slip by his detection more than once.
He was standing in the middle of a giant hall. The entrance he had fallen from was a window that had been broken. Arthur looked around the hall and realized that it was mostly covered with sand.
If there was any furniture here before, then it must have been buried already. With light steps and cautious eyes, he started making his way through the hall.
As he reached the middle of the hall, the sand began to shift. Arthur frowned and jumped backward as he watched the sand gather.
'A sandman.'
Even though it had the word man in it, it wasn't a humanoid creature. As the sand gathered, the shape of a giant sphere began to form. Whips of sand gathered and condensed into physical tentacles.
Arthur couldn't sense its lifeforce because this monster could hide as sand. It used its core to control the sand to gain a physical form.
In its essence, this was another spiritual parasite like the one that controlled the undead.
The sand hissed as it surrounded Arthur. Standing in the middle of it all, Arthur looked at the sandman that had suddenly manifested. He didn't know what tier this monster could be, but it shouldn't be too higher given it was a part of the exam.
'Truly, Jerano is full of interesting things.' Arthur grinned as he took a step forward. A pillar of sand rushed toward him and Arthur constructed a barrier to block it. The sand spread in every direction around the barrier as it began burying Arthur.
Once the five seconds of the barrier ended, Arthur slipped into his shadow and appeared from within the darkness a few meters away.
The monster seemed to sense his existence despite not having any eyes and it attacked again with another pillar. Seeing its method of fighting, Arthur had a certain idea in his mind.
Earth Manipulation.
The sand began diverting in a one-meter radius around him. Before, this skill was too mana-consuming for him to use, but now it wasn't that bad. Furthermore, he was simply diverting the direction of the sand to the side.
This was the perfect chance to increase the level of this skill, as it was useful sometimes. He didn't have a lot of chances to use it in an actual fight since those chances are rare.
His mana was being drained rapidly because of the constant use of the skill. Despite being of a weaker effect than runes, their mana consumption was a lot higher.
However, Arthur also saw that the skill's percentage was rising rapidly. He came to a realization that the higher his mana became, the more rapidly he can increase the proficiency of his skills.
'Well, I can't keep this going.' Arthur realized that at some point, his mana wouldn't be enough to take the monster down. 'I never learned how to kill a sandman though.'
Such monsters had a core, but with how large the hall was, he had no idea where the core was. It wasn't necessarily inside of its body, although that possibility can't be ruled out. Arthur began walking toward the monster.
It seems the monster realized how ineffective its attack was so it started to control the sand under Arthur. As the sand parted ways, Arthur found himself diving deeper.
"A little shrewd, don't you think?" Arthur muttered as he looked at his sinking feet. Given the right environment, it seems even weaker monsters could pose a threat.
Arthur entered his shadow space as he traveled toward the monster. He appeared right below it and jumped before the monster could react. With a punch, the sand scattered everywhere but there was no core.
"You're starting to annoy me." Arthur frowned before he used his art. As he became connected to Existence a little, Arthur felt the connection formed between the sand and the monster. Tracing it back to its origins… "Found you." Arthur grinned before he rushed toward an inconspicuous part of the hall.
As the sand tried to block him, Arthur used his skill to divert it. He felt the core try to slip away from him but Arthur used another rune, Force, to push away the sand that was surrounding him.
He spotted a blue core floating and trying to slip away but Arthur dashed and threw his arm, turning the sand into a wall around it. With nowhere to go, the core was grabbed by Arthur as it tried to wiggle free.
A violent sandstorm surrounded Arthur all of a sudden as lightning crackled. Luckily, the parasite couldn't control the lightning so it didn't attack Arthur with its first volley.
Arthur injected the core with mana and watched as it turned into a purple shade similar to those crystals. The sand died down as the storm stopped and Arthur was left alone in the hall.