"Why are they walking behind us?"
"Just ignore them, Kent."
"But dude, they are literally behind us."
As we paved our way through the forest, Kent talked about Alberto and the four members of his unit following us.
Nero asked him to ignore them so we kept walking.
"Huaaaa~" I was getting bored. I've done nothing but eat and sleep since I came to this world.
Sure, I've been doing some intense training for the last few weeks but that's it.
I wanted something challenging! Something life-threatening! Something that could give me an adrenaline rush!
Sure, the mock war is ahead but I'm getting bored right now. I can't wait for it to happen~!
"There!" suddenly stopping in her tracks, Anastasia shouted before pointing to the sky. "Up ahead."
Following her index finger, we saw the Steel Winged Eagle we were looking for resting on top of a tree branch.
Rustle–!
However, before any one of us could make a move, we heard a rustling sound of leaves from behind us.
"Well, what do you know? People are already here."
We looked back to find it was Grace Goodwill.
And walking behind her were William Sinoath, Elijah Steelforged, Ella Bright, and the mystery guy, Hugh Jass.
When Nero and Williams' gazes met each other, they greeted each other with a nod.
Huh, these two had already started to get along. Nice to see the plot developing so smoothly.
Nero and William— in the future, these two will share an unbreakable bond.
Over time when they'll graduate and serve in the United Military, their duo will come to be known as 'The Reapers Of The End.'
"Yes, we came here first," Amelia snorted. "So obviously that hunt is ours."
"Are you stupid?" chortled Grace. "By that logic, we saw it first so it's ours."
And glad to see these two girls are not getting along since this is part of the plot too.
Amelia and Grace hated each other in the novel. Since Amelia was part of Nero's harem, she was obviously hostile to Grace, who didn't miss any opportunity to seduce the main hero.
Tsk, this guy gets heaven-defying talent, good looks, hot milf as master, and a harem?
While reading, I didn't think of it much since this much is basic in power fantasy novels but right now, standing here, I was honestly feeling a mix of jealousy and anger.
Anyway, that wasn't the only reason why they both hated each other.
They both had a mutual disdain for each other because Grace viewed Amelia and Anastasia as obstacles in her pursuit of power.
Amelia reciprocated these feelings, and their enmity grew over time, while Anastasia chose to ignore her.
Even right now, these two girls were barely holding themselves back from creating a big fuss.
"Actually, you both are stupid," while Grace and Amelia were busy locking gaze, Alberto chimed in. "The right to hunt should go to the strongest."
"So, Nero?" Anastasia responded.
"What?" Alberto raised an eyebrow.
"You said the right to hunt should go to the strongest," Anastasia repeated Alberto's words. "That ought to be Nero. Remember the cafeteria incident?"
"You bitch–" before Alberto could show any hostility, Nero stepped in front of him with a big friendly smile on his face.
"Now, now, friend. Do you really want to do this here?" asked Nero with a calm voice.
"Do you think I'm scared of you…"
Tsk, boring.
This is the same old 'courting death' scene. The author really had no creativity.
Bored out of mind, I stopped paying attention to the scene in front of me and picked up a pebble from the ground.
Fiddling with the pebble in my fingers, I waited for the scene to be over.
"Why is that pebble slimy?"
From my left, a curious voice fell in my ears. I turned my head to look at the owner and found out it was the mystery boy.
Hugh Jass.
Huh? Was he talking to me?
Noticing his words, I looked at my hand and saw the pebble was indeed slimy.
Tak—!
Instantly, I threw it away with a disgusted face.
"Don't know. What the hell is this slime?" I said, looking at my hand.
Hearing my words, Kent leaned in to look at my hand and said, "Oh, this? This must be the saliva of a Three-Eyed Toad."
"Ewww!"
"Ewww!"
Both Hugh and I grimaced in disgust.
"Do you need a tissue?" asked Hugh.
"Ah, yes," I nodded and extended my hand. "If you don't mind."
"Yeah, sorry but I don't have it either."
"....."
So why the fuck did you ask?! Are you stupid?!
"Don't worry bro, it will dry up shortly," Kent gestured. "Interestingly, when it dries up, it creates a film on your hand that can be removed. It doesn't leave behind any fingerprints, so you could even commit a crime and not be traced."
"Kent, I'm both utterly weirded out and immaculately interested in that fun fact," I replied matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, same." Hugh nodded. "Where did you even learn something so weird?"
"Hehe, my father taught me the ways of a boy scout." Kent blushed, seemingly taking our comments as compliments.
"Shut the fuck up, you three!"
Right when we were in the middle of our weird talks, Grace yelled at us out of nowhere.
"If you can't add anything to this discussion, then don't talk about useless things and disturb me either!"
'Bitch.' That's what all three of us thought at the moment but we held our tongues.
"Fine, here's the deal," Nero offered a proposal. "We'll all play by the rules and work with our Units to independently hunt it down."
"That sounds so much fairer than what your teammate suggested," Grace said before continuing in a coquettish tone. "Then again, we can also work together."
"This girl is literally stupid," Amelia facepalmed. "Why would he work with you when he's not even in your Unit?"
"If you had a brain, you would've understood I was merely joking!"
"No, I have a brain and I understand what you're doing here. Do you want me to show you to the streets?"
"How dare you, commoner! Watch your tongue or I'll have it cut!"
"That registers as a threat, you know?"
"You!!"
"Hmph."
"You fuckers do whatever you want," while the two girls were busy fighting like cats, Alberto spoke up in a cocky tone. "My Unit has already hunted down one of the assigned mana beasts already."
Of course, his unit has already hunted Winged Jaguar and claimed one of the spots in the top 5 Units of this test.
So why was he following us? He was instructed to keep a close on Nero and observe his every movement.
As a matter of fact, Grace was given the same instruction by Kai.
"Whatever," Nero rolled his eyes and started silently walking toward the tree where our target bird was resting.
He signaled us to follow him and we, of course, obliged by starting walking behind him with silent steps.
In response, Grace too started moving and asked her Unit to follow her.
"Aeik!"
"Aaah!"
When Grace walked past me, her foot slipped and she tripped forward. But before she could fall face-first on the ground, I instinctively caught her by her waist.
"Get your hands off me," instead of thanking me, however, she scowled.
"Fine," shrugging, I took my hand back.
"Aweik!"
And as expected, since I let her go before she could regain her footing, she tripped and fell to her knees.
"Did you just push me?!" she bared her teeth at me and asked in an angry tone.
Okay, I might or might not have pushed her down before she could regain her footing. Who knows?
Ignoring her, I kept walking.
What I didn't notice back then was that the frustrated look on Grace's face turned into a vicious smirk.
Or at least that's what she thought but I noticed her facial expressions changing.
