"That's nice. I wish I'm in your position. I don't want to fight." Nayo said as she looked down at her body. She showed her bruises on her that she received when she's fighting the students from other classes that were after the red flag.
Lynn didn't have a single scratch on her body while she has bruises all over her body.
"I wish I could do something," Lynn said as she lowered her head. This time, she couldn't do anything.
"...Lynn" Nayo looked at Lynn and she noticed the gloomy atmosphere forming in her. She smiled and patted Lynn. "You can do better next time. I'm sure that anyone will fall in love with you if you seriously chase your love."
Lynn looked at Nayo and smiled. "Thanks, Nayo."
Lumilia walked over and asked, "Where is Souta?"
"Um... I think that he went inside the tent to clean his wounds." Lynn replied to Lumilia as she looked behind her and tried to find Souta.
"Hmm..." Lumilia nodded her head and she looked at Lynn. She asked, "Then, how is it?"
She was surprised when she asked this because Lynn suddenly grabbed her shoulders.
"You know, Mila! Souta was super cool when he fought all the top rankers alone." Lynn said with an excited expression. She then lowered her head and said in a shy tone. "I-I think I'm in love with him."
"Eh...!" Lumilia was stunned when she heard Lynn's words.
"Ehhhh!!" Nayo was shocked beyond words. She then immediately shook her head and said, "Isn't that too fast! You're only with him with just one hour! I bet you and Souta didn't even talk to each other!"
"That's not it, Nayo! I really think that I love him! Also, we talk a lot before! He even saved me from the Irlin guy!" Lynn said to Nayo. She was really acting like a maiden in love, no, she already said that she was in love. So she's really a maiden in love.
"Really, I couldn't do anything to you. I just don't want you to get hurt." Nayo said with a sigh. This friend of hers was really helpless. She then recalled something that Lynn said. "W-Wait! Did you just say that Souta fought all the rankers alone?!"
Lumilia also looked at Lynn. She wanted to ask this but she got distracted because Lynn said that she's in love with Souta.
"Yeah, isn't that cool? He fought the top 1 alone and even beat them." Lynn said with a proud expression.
"Eh! Why are you proud with the things that you did not do?" Nayo looked at Lynn with a tired look.
"Ehehe" Lynn scratched her cheeks.
"Still, that's pretty impressive, no, that's impressive," Lumilia said with a hint of amazement in her voice.
She knew that Souta was strong and have the potential to be the top 1 ranker if he fought seriously, but not to the point where he could fight the rankers at the same time and still managed to beat them.
She turned her head and looked at Randolf. Randolf was the man who defeated the top 3 ranker Yuriko with just one spell.
She wondered who is stronger among the two of them. Souta or Randolf.
...
After a few minutes, the other group that was tasked to collect the red flags came back to the campsite.
Bryan's group brought back three flags and it was pretty amazing. The other two groups brought one red flag each while the remaining group didn't manage to collect a single flag.
Souta and Lynn collected a total of twenty-one red flags. This shocked everyone and didn't dare to believe when Lynn said this. They even asked Bargan for confirmation. It means that their class managed to collect a total of twenty-six flags.
In other words, they already secured first place with just this number. Almost half of the total number of flags was in their possession. There's a chance that one of the class managed to collect the remaining flags. But Souta thought that was impossible. It was because he recalled that he didn't manage to get all the flags on the battlefield before, so if he added those flags then all the flags he has would have exceeded the half of the total amount of flags.
There's no one who could get those flags under the protection of those rankers easily. Even Souta took several wounds in that battle.
...
Souta finished cleaning his wounds and bandaging his left hand. It took him a while because of the pain he felt went he cleaned his left hand.
"Oh~ it's complete." Souta wiped the sweat on his forehead. He then heard someone calling him.
"Souta, are you there?"
Souta turned his head and guessed that it was Bryan because of the voice. He stood up and said, "Yeah, why?"
"Teacher Bargan is calling everyone," Bryan replied from the outside the tent.
"Okay, I'm coming," Souta said as he exited the tent.
Everyone gathered outside of the camp and they went towards the place where every class gathered before. The institute was going to announce who's class has the highest in all classes.
And just like what Souta expected their class was the highest among the other classes. They scored a total of one thousand four hundred points. It was overwhelming as the second place only got five hundred points in total.
Everyone was happy as they score the highest in the special test but they knew that it was all thanks to Souta gathering more than twenty-one red flags.
'Naturally, it's all worth it, my effort that is.' Souta closed his eyes and smirked. At the same time, he heard a system prompt in his head.
*Ding!*
[Congratulations on completing the quest Special Test!]
[You've received 10,000 exp, 5 free attribute points, and 3 skill points!]
Souta smiled while looking at this. Just a little bit more and he would be able to promote his class to the second rank. His firepower would increase greatly at that time and his ability as a mage.
Right now, he learned three spells from his specialty darkness. All of this was just the basic spell of a tier 1 darkness attribute spell. His class rank would increase as long as he kept using his skill points in his specialty. He doesn't need to learn all the spells available in his skill tree. He just needed the most important ones which will help him greatly in the future.
He used most of his skill points in leveling the [Shadow Bind] spell to nine. It leaves him 4 skill points and right now he received 3 skill points as a reward for the quest that he completed. It needed 10 skill points to level up the [Shadow Bind] spell to ten. It means that he still needed another 3 skill points before he could level up his spell.
3 skill points wasn't a problem to him. One week was enough and he would get 3 to 5 skill points. Well, it depends on how busy he is this upcoming week.
'Hmm... I will free up my schedule this week, so I could focus myself on getting skill points.' Souta thought as he rubbed his chin.
"Hmm...?" Souta snapped out of his thoughts as he noticed that something was wrong. Looking around, he saw that most of the teachers and students were looking at him.
"I didn't break any rules in the special test."
Souta tried to recall if he did something wrong. He tried to guess why they were looking at him like that.
It's true that he didn't break any rules. It's just that his combat style was too brutal and merciless. Some of the students were afraid to look in his eyes because of what happened in the test.
"That's not it, It's not because of that."
He then guessed that it was because of his performance in the special test.
He fought the rankers that came after him alone using his overwhelming strength. Even the top 1 ranker didn't manage to escape unscathed against him.
Hmm? That's wrong. It's the opposite. They're the ones who are after him.
"You're becoming more and more famous." A feminine voice sounded beside him.
Souta turned his head and saw that it was Alice. Alice really grew closer to him as she's initiating a conversation to him. Before he was the one who would talk first and she merely responded to him. But now, it's different they could talk like a friend.
"I wonder about that." Souta shrugged his shoulder as he looked around him.
He saw that the people he fought before were looking at him. Gyron, Sena, Mark, Bonny, and the rest of the rankers. Souta raised his hand waved at them.
May quickly looked away she saw this. She recalled what Souta did to her before and this made her trembled in fear.
"What did you do to them?" Alice asked when she saw that some of the students showed fear at Souta.
"I just beat them," Souta said as he shrugged his shoulder. Alice and Souta continued chatting.
Lynn from the side just looked at Souta and Alice who are talking to each other. She wanted to join the conversation but she didn't have the courage to do so.