“I think we should begin by familiarizing ourselves with the skills of each other’s contracts.” Kain began. Considering that he was the highest rank and the envelope with the task was given directly to the top 10 students only, it seems as though they had already been pre-assigned as the group leaders.
The others began to just glance at one another while remaining silent.
After all, most of them were unfamiliar with one another, and in 2 months the information they give to each other now may be used against them in the re-ranking.
“I will go first then,” Kain eventually decided to take the lead in breaking the tension, “My initial contract can create a poisonous fog while my second contract is with a Vespirae Queen.”
At this information, everyone except for Finn looked shocked. How could the second-ranked examinee be bound to a Vespirae?
However, they still had the sense to not look down on him. They had all taken the same entrance exam. They were also aware of how many beasts he had killed in that exam thanks to Soren Lysander’s outburst after the exam. Therefore, they figured that there was more to Kain than meets the eye.
Finn, likely to show support for Kain was the second to disclose his contracts, “I am bound to two snake-type creatures of ice and earth attributes, respectively.”
Aria spoke hesitantly next, “I-I only have one contract. A Cantata Chime. I bound it to compliment my talent… which is to calm down the aggression of attacking spiritual creatures by singing.”
Once again everyone looked shocked. Surprisingly, this student that was third from the bottom had a talent. Especially one with such practical effects. Kain reconfirmed that there was no truly simple student at a top 5 college.
“I am bound to a Crystal Ore Golem and a Boulder Tortoise,” said Fiona. Both earth-attribute contracts didn’t have the best offensive strength, but had probably the most formidable defence among creatures of a similar level of strength. Kain was able to guess that Fiona was able to slowly cross the Bridge by using her contracts as shields.
Everyone then turned to Liam, who after a full minute still hadn’t spoken.
Under the pressure of all their gazes, and likely knowing that not sharing anything would likely not allow them to succeed in their task, he finally opened his mouth. “Hurricane Gryphon. Whirlwind Wraith.”
‘Rich man!’ Both of them were Gold-quality species at birth, not requiring an evolution to reach such potential. Contracts of such a high quality were quite rare for the first two contracts, even within a top 5 college. Once again, Kain confirmed that Liam was likely from one of the so-called “noble” families.
“Great! Now that we have a better understanding of one another, we can hopefully find a way to capture that flag.”
Due to the restrictions of their respective affinities, it was difficult for beast-tamers to form a fully comprehensive team of spiritual creatures on their own.
Although Kain did not know the full information of their affinities, he guessed that Finn was limited to snake-type contracts, while Fiona and Liam appear to be limited to earth and wind attribute contracts.
However, Aria’s affinity was still a mystery. The Cantata Chime was a bell-like spirit with wind sound, and mental attributes. It has almost no attack power, but Kain could see how its ability to amplify and complement the singing of Aria by producing soothing notes would be uniquely suited to her.
If he had to guess, she probably had a sound and/or mental affinity. After all, wind-attribute contracts should be much easier to find and she’d have her second contract by now otherwise.
Due to the limitations of their respective affinities, colleges would often foster an environment of working together to accomplish tasks. As a result, likely all future field assessments will be in teams.
Thankfully though, Kain had heard that due to the more challenging nature of future field assessments, students will have the opportunity to select their own teams which would likely have better teamwork.
“Before we begin there is one thing I would like to point out. I understand that some of you may not have any practical experience in the wild, however I do. I hope that if I give you instructions you understand that they are for practical reasons and listen.”
Although Liam seemed resistant to being bossed around, and the other two unfamiliar with him also appeared hesitant, eventually they all nodded.
“Great! First things first. Aria, please change. Your flamboyant sweater is practically a walking bullseye out here. I don’t know how you could think it’d be appropriate to wear rainbow clothing out here. You should also have already been equipped with your gear from the moment we entered the forest.
There are no safeguards in place to bring us back to the college when we encounter danger, if a powerful creature attacks, you can die.”
Aria’s face turned as red as her hair before quickly nodding and lifting up her sweater.
Finn quickly covered his eyes, but it was easy to see the gap between his fingers that he could still see through.
However much to his disappointment, underneath the sweater was a black T-shirt. Which she then covered with a brown leather light armor.
“Great! Do you have any weapon that you could use since your contract has no combat ability?”
Aria embarrassedly shook her head.
‘Sigh. How on earth did she not end up in last place?’ Kain was now even more curious about Elias’ performance during the exam that would warrant him having a lower score than her.
Liam began to even look at Aria with disdain as she lowered his head, but Kain honestly couldn’t even blame him. She seemed to be seriously lacking in common sense. Who goes into the wilderness without a weapon?! Just what kind of high school did she go to that she lacks even the most basic knowledge of survival?
Having a weapon. Not wearing flashy clothing. These are the absolute basics of the basics. So much so that the Professor didn’t even feel to reiterate the obvious. Likely they had rarely admitted a student as clueless as her in the past.
“Now let’s go over the knowledge we have about the Astral Stag from our Advanced Knowledge for Beast-Tamers course.” Thankfully, the target was one they had learned about in another course. Kain wasn’t sure if everyone received targets that they had learned about in the lectures of their other course, or if they were just lucky.