"I'm in your group..." A voice of a man sounded in their ears.
Lumilia, Lynn, and Alice turned their head and saw Yujin walking towards their direction with a serious expression.
"You're here. It's reassuring that you're in my group." Lumilia said to Yujin.
"It's nothing," Yujin said as he shook his head.
'This team is quite good.' Alice thought and she looked at the other team of her class. Her classmates already formed their group.
She then saw Souta raising his hand while looking at teacher Alex. She looked around him and saw that he still hasn't formed a team. She wondered why.
"What is it, Souta?" Alex asked as he saw Souta wanted to ask a question.
"Teacher, I'm just wondering how will you grade us. Whole class, team, or individually?" Souta asked teacher Alex.
"Hmm...? That's a good question but don't worry about it. The institute already thought about it. I will grade you individually, your team, and your contribution to your class." Alex answered his question.
"In other words, we don't need to compete against each other," Souta muttered as he rubbed his chin.
"That's the point of it. You don't have to compete against each other as this event is focused on improving the strength of students like you." Alex said to him. "But the institute still gave the task to complete and it's not a mandatory one. If you want to get points then you could complete the task given by the institute."
"Thanks for answering my question teacher." Souta thanked him and he rubbed his chin. Although teacher Alex said that it was not a competition, the other classes were already treating this outdoor training like one.
Since Bryan and Lumilia were in his class he could advise them to focus on improving their strength but this wasn't the same for Brando, who was in the Shield class 1-A. He just hoped that Brando wouldn't forget their goal in this outdoor training.
"One more thing... I'm a tamer so I want to ask if I can summon my pet." Souta looked up at teacher Alex.
Alex nodded at him and said, "The institute already approve of it so you can use your pet anytime you want. It's a part of your strength after all."
"I see... That's good." Souta grinned as he rubbed his chin. He wouldn't summon Yuko right away. He would only summon her if he needed her.
Alice simply listened to Souta and Alex's question and answer. Since this was training, she will also try to improve her strength just like everyone. Improving one's strength wasn't a bad thing.
She then saw Souta walking towards them. Alice looked at her team and thought that Souta was really heading towards their team.
Souta smiled and he showed his number to them. "I'm also number three."
Alice was right. Souta was really a member of team 3. Their team composition was pretty good. If Bryan took Lynn's place and Randolf took her place then it was the most solid team in their class. Well, the individual capability was high but in teamwork, she didn't have any idea.
"S-Souta, you're in number three," Lynn said while stuttering.
"As you can see, I'm in team 3." Souta smiled and he looked at every member of this team. He was surprised when he saw the members of this team.
Lumilia, Lynn, Alice, and Yujin. This was a pretty solid team if he was to say it.
"All of you formed your team so I'll leave now. You can handle the rest and I hope you did well in this training." Alex said to them before he turned around and left. He left without saying another word.
...
"What do we do now?" Souta looked at Lumilia and asked.
Alice, Lynn, and Yujin also looked at Lumilia when they heard his question.
"For now, let's talk to other teams in our class. Since it's not a competition, maybe we could help each other." Lumilia said to her team members.
Souta smiled when he heard her answer. He will leave things like this to her as he knew that she will do better. She knew the purpose of this outdoor training.
She naturally became the leader of this team.
As expected of the class representative of the Mage class 1-B.
"Let's do what class rep said. We're here to improve our abilities not to fight against each other." Souta said to her. He then looked at Yujin, Alice, and Lynn.
They didn't have a problem with it so they agreed to Lumilia's decision.
...
They gathered their classmates and proposed to travel together. Lumilia also explained to them that it will not be a problem if they traveled together. Everyone agreed with her.
"That's good. I'm glad that everyone understood me." Lumilia said as she was glad that everyone agreed to her.
"Now that everyone agreed to travel together, can you tell us your plan?" Randolf suddenly said from the side.
"Why do you need to know it? Even if you know it I think you will not understand it like me!" Bryan said to Randolf.
"Ah." Randolf looked at Bryan and he shook his head. "I'm not an idiot like you. I need to know her plan so that I could act accordingly to it."
"Me? Idiot?" Bryan pointed at himself as he asked Randolf.
"You don't realize it?" Randolf looked at Bryan with a surprised expression. He then looked at everyone and said, "Everyone in our class knew it so I'm wondering why you didn't realize."
Bryan looked at his classmates and said, "Hmm... I recall Alice, Souta, Nayo, and class rep said that I'm an idiot. I thought that they were joking at that time."
"I only said the truth..." Alice commented from the side.
"I'm sad to say that Alice is right. I know it hurts but that's the truth and you should accept it." Nayo said.
"Okay, stop. Class rep has something to say." Souta said as he stopped the topic about Bryan being an idiot.
"Thanks." Lumilia thanked Souta before she looked at her classmates. She slowly opened her mouth and said, "I don't have a concrete plan for now but I think we should go to the nearest town first to see how the other classes approach this outdoor training. The problem is we don't have any money right now so I think that we should hunt some monster first to sell it to the town we will find."
Some of their classmates were shocked when they heard that they will hunt a monster. They didn't have any real battle experience like Souta, Randolf, Bryan, Lumilia, Yujin, and Alice so they were surprised when they heard it.
"That's a good plan. We should find a place to stay for tonight before making a concrete plan." Randolf paused for a moment before he added, "I'm also quite curious about what other classes think about this outdoor training."
"Hunting monster? it's easy!" Bryan said with a proud expression and he was excited at the same time.
"Haha." Randolf laughed and he looked at his classmates. He saw some of them have a calm expression and the rest have a tense expression on their face.
He smirked and said, "You lot think that you haven't experienced a life and death situation. Think about it carefully living is hard as you can die any time without you knowing about it. Also..."
"Also..." Everyone waited to finish his sentence.
"Even though you're not part of a big battle in the Gripin city, your presence was still there. If Souta didn't manage to defeat that fat nobleman, do you think that all of you would be here in this place?" Randolf paused for a moment before he added, "The answer is NO. Do you think that the institute would defend a mere student like you? Of course not, they will only protect those top students who deserve their protection."
Everyone understood what Randolf was trying to say. Everyday life was like fighting a life and death battle. They just didn't think about it too deeply just like what happened to the Gripin city. They thought that Gregory wouldn't kill them because of their status as a student of the famous Ladro Institute.
But when they thought deeply about it. Gregory was bent on taking about Lumilia at all cost. He already loses his face and he would kill anyone that blocked his way just like how he tried to kill Souta at that time.
"Do you understand it? Well, this training isn't for those spoiled children. You have to understand how life works and should know how to provide your own necessity because if you're too dependent on your parents or backer you will regret it one day once they couldn't provide what you need... Or once they die." Randolf said to them with an amused expression. It's pretty interesting to slap the reality in the face of these ignorant people.
"Adapt and become versatile," Alice commented from the side in a low voice. She understood what Randolf said because this happened to her before coming here on this continent.
