"What a stupid test," a young man, with short-brown hair and green eyes, said as he walked towards the flag in the distance.
He was the one who chose the shortest route among the participants. During the first trial, he was the first to arrive on the other side of the lake. Because of this, his confidence was at its peak and he thought that he was the best among the latest batch of examinees that were aiming to get enrolled at the Royal Academy.
Suddenly, a boar type spirit beast appeared out of nowhere and charged at him.
"Small fry," the young boy sneered as he raised his right hand, aiming it at the boar. "Boulder Smash!"
A boulder that was at least a meter big, shot out from the boy's hand and slammed at the charging boar's head with a resounding crash. The boar squealed in pain, but the boy wasn't finished by a longshot.
After getting a clean hit, he summoned a sword in his hand and ran towards the boar. Channeling his magic into the sword, the boy made a wide strike with the intention of cleaving the boar into two.
Sensing that death was upon it, the boar gathered every bit of its strength to try and prop itself up, but it was too late. With a strike that was strong enough to crush boulders, the sword in the boy's hand sliced off the boar's head from its body, leaving a shower of blood in its wake.
"Tsk, not even a challenge," the boy clicked its teeth as he continued to travel along the path that he had chosen.
What the boy didn't know was that something was watching him from the depths of the forest.
A demonic creature with a single eye on its forehead gazed at the boy with contempt. Although it only had a single eye, It had seen everything that had happened with incredible clarity. After seeing the boy's abilities, the creature confirmed that its prey was just a little lamb walking straight into a wolves' den.
It licked its lips in anticipation as its eye glowed with greed. It was looking forward to the delicious fresh meat that it was going to have for lunch.
-----
"Mama, did you feel that?" William asked.
"Meeeeh."
"Such a sinister creature," William frowned.
"Meeeeh."
"At least Grade B in the threat rankings?"
"Meeeeh."
"Sounds like a pain." William sighed.
Ella then stopped walking and turned back her head to look at William.
"... Meeeeeeh."
"... Are you sure, Mama?"
"Meeeeeh!"
William scratched his head, but in the end, he still smiled and caressed Ella's neck.
"As you wish, Mama."
"Meeeeh."
-----
Some of the students formed groups in order to clear the trial together. They knew that the forest was a dangerous place and there was strength in numbers.
One of these groups decided to follow the boy with dark-brown hair and head along the shortest route towards their destination.
Along the way, they also met several spirit beasts, but all of their ranks were quite low. The strongest threat that had barred their way was a dozen Giant Rats that were known for being territorial creatures.
As examinees who dared to enroll at the Royal Academy, and had managed to clear the first trial, these children were no pushovers.
After the gruesome battle ended, the group took a break to catch their breath. However, it was also at that moment when they heard several howling sounds in the distance. It seemed that the scent of blood had caught the attention of the wolves that were native to the forest.
"Forest Wolves!" a girl cried out as she hurriedly raised her staff.
The other children ground their teeth in frustration and rallied to her. She was the elected leader of the group and they promised to listen to her orders. The Wind mage immediately asked them to initiate their battle formation.
This group's lineup was quite impressive. They had a wind mage, a cleric, two swordsmen, and two archers. It was the standard party lineup when clearing out dungeons. Unfortunately, they were not only dealing with one or two forest wolves, they were dealing with a pack that consisted of thirty individuals.
Forest Wolves were also Class D creatures, but that only measured their individual strength. They were much more threatening when they fought with their pack.
The children resisted with all their might, but soon, they were overpowered by their sheer numbers. The first one to fall was the magician. Although not as smart as humans, the wolves understood who among the group of children had the greatest threat.
In order to prevent their sides from suffering losses, The Alpha Wolf in the party ordered five wolves to break through the formation and deal with the mage.
"N-No! Don't kill me!" the wind mage screamed as a wolf lunged at her. It bared its teeth in the air with the intention of biting the girl's neck until it snapped.
At this moment of life and death, the wind mage heard the whistling wind. A steel arrow appeared out of nowhere and struck the wolf's neck. The wolf that was about to end the girl's life crashed beside her, it was still alive, but it couldn't move its body.
While the mage was still trying to understand what happened, more whistling sounds echoed inside the forest. All the wolves that had aimed to kill the children dropped to the ground with steel arrows sticking out of their necks.
The Alpha Wolf immediately howled and gave the order to retreat. Although the other wolves were reluctant to leave, they had no choice but to obey their leader.
"Return…" A soft voice said as softly as a breeze.
All the arrows that had impaled the wolves floated in the air and flew towards a certain direction.
William, who was standing on a tree branch, gathered his arrows and climbed down from the tree.
"They are now safe, Mama," William reported.
"Meeeeh." Ella licked the side of William's face as if praising him for a job well done.
After that brief moment of family bonding, William mounted Ella's back and left the scene. His mother asked him to prevent any of the children from dying in the forest. Although it was a tall order, William decided to grant her request.
This was the fourth group that they had saved, and they still needed to save more. Ella's sensitivity was higher than William, so she could easily sense where the children were in the forest.
As the mother and son pair were busy in preventing the loss of lives in the forest, several hidden presences were eyeing them with interest.
"Grent, even if this boy fails the test, I'm taking him in." A man with a bow strapped behind his back stared at William as if he was the most beautiful brothel girl that he had seen in his life.
"It's a shame that he doesn't have a single strand of magic power inside his body," A lady holding a staff sighed. "If not for this fact, I would have fought you for him."
"Hahaha! Why are the two of you arguing?" A man who was two-meter tall chastised his comrades. "Even if you want him, you still need to wait until he clears the trials. Also, Andy, you are not allowed to use the backdoor to bring a failed candidate inside the Royal Academy. Rules are rules."
"Tsk!" Andy, the man with the bow on his back, clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Grent, can't you make an exception? I really like this boy."
"No means no," Grent flat out refused. "Are you a child? I'm not your mother so I won't spoil you. Just wait for a while, the main course is about to arrive. I want to see how that brown-haired kid deals with one of the lords of this forest."
"Lyla, that brown-haired boy is a magic swordsman." Andy glanced at his colleague. "Why aren't you giving him special attention? Judging by his ability, he is quite decent for a magic swordsman. That's a good catch, don't you think?"
"A good catch?" Layla brushed her hair to the side. "Are magic swordsmen that good? Oh please, I've had enough of arrogant and pompous nobles who only know how to use their power and influence to bully the pretty commoner girls that couldn't fight back."
"Ah, don't forget that they also bully other nobles who have a lower rank than them," Andy corrected her.
"That, too. This is why I hate nobles." Layla snorted. "All of them can just roll over and die for all I care!"
"You shouldn't have asked the anti-noble mage for her opinion," Grent commented. "As if you don't know that Layla hates noble brats to the bone."
Even though Grent said that, he wanted to see just how far the magic swordsman would fare against one of the Lords of the Forest.
"Let's go, I want to have front row seats while we watch the show," Grent ordered and the three of them headed towards the magic swordsman, who was about to face off against one of the most intelligent creatures that ruled over the forest.