I never got back with my friends again. After the argument I had with Alice, accusing our trainer, Cassian, of murdering our teacher, my old friends decided to ditch me, mainly because I ended up being the weakest in the class, and they didn't want to associate themselves with me.

We determine the strength of each individual by their total level. This is increased by gaining any experience, like strength or endurance.

3 months have gone by. A lot has changed between me and my classmates. Our class average total level was 32.

To put into perspective, the average level of a human in this world is 13. The highest level in our class is 53, with that being Chad. The lowest level, you guessed it, is mine which is 11. After months of training, I didn't even manage to exceed the level of an ordinary human in this world.

Chad, having the highest total level in our class, gets treated differently from the rest of us. He got new expensive equipment and obtained private training with the strongest swordsman in our kingdom's army.

I get treated like an outcast by my classmates, but surprisingly, the royals haven't treated me any differently from the other kids in my class. These 3 months were painful, mentally and physically. I was constantly made fun of. After the first month, all of my peers who were appointed to the swordsman class could cut straight through the straw dummies, while even now I can only cut halfway through. Ever since my friend group abandoned me, I haven't been able to talk to anyone.

Today is the first day that I'm leaving the kingdom. There have been issues about some spiders that have been on a killing spree for months, even before we arrived in the kingdom. I'm hoping I can get some experience from this quest so I can at least surpass the average level.

I exit my chamber and follow my classmates toward the school's outdoor area like the usual morning routine. I'm already expected to be prepared by wearing my armor and bringing my weapon of choice, being a shortsword. My armor isn't anything special, just a kettle hat with leather protection.

As I approach the rest of my classmates, I see our instructor Cassian, and Aelfric, Chad's private instructor, and the kingdom's strongest swordsman. Cassian prepares his speech.

"Good morning everyone. Before I begin, I want to congratulate all of you for all your hard work and training. Today marks the 3rd month since you've been summoned to this world. Now, as all of you were informed, today is going to be our first practical mission. A spider infestation has been growing for the past 6 months in a nearby forest. You will all be assigned a zone to clear, in premade groups. This will be your first public appearance, and the public is anticipating and expecting results. You're already quite famous in the kingdom of Thaurnen. If anyone has questions, I advise you to speak up now... No questions? Ok, we will be leaving at this moment."

My body is stuck between fear and excitement. On one hand, I'm excited that I'm finally leaving this... Prison. I had many strict rules sanctioned on me. I was never allowed to go past the training areas. I was not allowed to leave my room during the night, and there was always surveillance all day.

We approached 2 massive decorative doors with detailed symbols on them. Cassian nods his head and 2 guards on top of the wall surrounding the doors pull a rope which opens the doors. Finally, after 3 months, I'll see the city for the first time.

As I looked around, I just realized the scale and size of this kingdom. I could see for miles on end. There were over 5 layers of walls, and I couldn't even see the end of the furthest wall away.

It seems like a ceremony has already been prepared for all of us. We walked in a straight line whilst many different people were standing behind a line, surrounded by guards on both sides. It was loud, everyone was chanting, whistling, and screaming in celebration.

1 hour later.

We've been traveling in a carriage for the past hour, even then I didn't understand the full size of the kingdom. It took us 40 minutes on horses to pass by the main city. In the countryside, I've seen many different villages on my path to the forest. It seems like the Kingdom I reside in has much more power and land than I initially thought.

We finally arrived at this forest, and it was much different than I imagined. The trees are massive, way taller than anything I've seen on Earth.

Cassian is the first to exit the carriage, he rolls out a scroll with what I assume contains the information and teams.

"We've arrived at the forest. I hope you enjoyed the ceremony the generous inhabitants of our kingdom prepared for you. You will see a lot more of that in the coming months, especially if you perform well on this quest. I will announce the groups now."

Cassian tells each of our classmates their assigned groups and what part of the forest they will cleanse.

"Chad, Alice, and Calder. You will be terminating on the south side of the forest. Chad I will provide you with the map and compass."

A relieved expression washes on my face. With Chad on my team, I have guaranteed protection from the spiders.

Chad, on the other hand, looks at Cassian with a dissatisfied look on his face. He walks up to me.

"You listen to me now. Everyone talks about how weak you are. Don't get in my way, or I might just accidentally hit you in the crossfire."

After announcing all the teams, Cassian gave us a health and stamina potion. Embedded inside the potions are spell scrolls fused with water. Spell scrolls are a way of casting a spell without using your Zyth.

Me and my team started walking towards our point. It's been quiet for some time, but that ended when Alice decided to strike up a conversation with Chad.

"So, what do they teach you at your private sword lessons?"

I would've expected Chad to brush her off, but surprisingly he replied enthusiastically.

"Oh, I'm past the beginner and intermediate sword lessons. They're teaching me how to infuse Zyth into my sword so I could have more sharpness in my swings and stronger defense."

I could see a sparkle in Alice's eyes. Is she trying to hook up with Chad?

"That's so cool. Like how strong would you say you are?"

"I could take on any knight in the king's army. I'm told I could soon surpass Aelfric, and potentially be the strongest swordsman in the world."

We've been walking endlessly in a straight line for some time now. I decided to step in and ask Chad about our location.

"Uh- Chad, w-where are we right now?"

His expression reflects that he's annoyed at my sudden intrusion in his conversation with Alice and himself.

"I don't know, here you take the map."

"w-WHAT the hell? If you don't know our location, then where are we!?" I scream.

Now he looks very angry at me. What's up with his mood swings?

"WATCH YOUR TONE! Who do you think you are? I said that I don't know where we are, go fix this!"

I instantly backed down from this confrontation, Chad could easily cut my body in half.

"Uh-, yeah I'm sorry about that. I'll go check the map immediately"

I looked at the map and realized we had already passed our point about 5 minutes ago.

"We missed our point a couple of minutes ago, we have to go this way.."

I navigated our team back to our designated area.

As we approached closer, we could hear in the distance the sound of screeching. I would lie if I didn't say I was scared myself. Then suddenly, a giant spider, larger than an SUV, lands right in front of me and screeches loud enough that I felt like my ear drums were going to rupture.

"AHH WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT" I scream whilst bolting away.

Chad confidently steps in and raises his sword, with one swing he slices the spider in half. He glares at me with a look of disgust.

"Seriously? You're supposed to represent the strongest part of the Thaurnen's army, yet you're running from these pathetic spiders!? What have you been doing for the past 3 months?"

Alice, for some reason, decides to step in.

"You said it earlier, he's the weakest in the class. He's even weaker than the average human!"

"I didn't think he'd be this weak. Why is he still here? The army has no use for him."

"d-Dude can we just go back to the mission," I reply in a sympathetic tone.

"Alice, I can't believe you used to be friends with this wimp," Chad says, ignoring my previous suggestion.

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"Yeah well, our group aren't friends with him anymore after we found out how pathetic he was."

I'm on the brink of tears. I charge at Chad and attempt to slap him in the face, which I succeeded, sadly. He saw that slap coming and he could've easily dodged it, but as a way for him to humiliate me, he didn't. The slap did absolutely no damage, not even the skin on his cheeks moved.

Alice gritted her teeth and stared at me with resentment, before making this outrageous comment.

"We should kill him now. How about he spray that monster honey on him and let him run, that'll be more interesting."

"W-wait are you serious" I pause intending to hear her say that it was some sick joke, but I was only met with silence. "WHAT?! WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO KILL ME?" I reply whilst my voice trembles.

"Umm, that's kinda the point. Cassian ordered us to kill you."

"WHAT DID I DO?"

"Well, you're weak. We don't need you in our army, and you know all of our strengths and weaknesses. You might want to get revenge and tell other enemy Kingdoms our powers and secrets. So we need to dispose of you now before our identities become public."

I start crying out of fear. "NONONO I PROMISE I WON'T. I CAN JUST LEAVE AND NOT COME BACK."

"It's not personal, actually it is. Every time I see you, I get secondhand embarrassment. Everyone talks shit about you, it's pathetic even looking at you. Now, would you rather Chad give you a quick fast beheading, or would you rather I spray the monster honey on you?" Alice said coldly.

Monster honey is a special chemical that attracts monsters and makes them go berserk. The strongest grade could attract monsters from a 10 KM radius. Monster honey is one of the worst ways to die because the beasts won't even bother killing you, they would EAT you alive, and your only salvation is bleeding to death.

I decided to immediately run away as fast as I could. I looked back and used my Vrin to scan Alice's emotions, and I could tell that she enjoyed my misfortune.

I could hear Alice say something behind me. "He ran away, predictable. Chad could you please spray the monster honey on him."

"I don't follow orders from you, but I'm only going to do it because I'd rather my first kill be honorable, not like this," Chad replies.

I was stupid to think I could outrun Chad, his Vrin is literally about speed. Chad managed to empty the entire bottle of Monster Honey on me within seconds. I took one last look at Alice and Chad, and I noticed that Alice was laughing.

Minutes after the monster honey was spread on me, I could already hear an assortment of monster sounds. Looking up I could see spiders jumping and swinging between trees preparing to ambush me. To my side, I could see giant lizards quickly approaching me. I could tell that I probably only had a few minutes to live.

As I was running, a spider jumped off a tree and landed directly on top of me, pinning me to the ground. It screeched in my face and raised its claws towards me. I don't know if it's the adrenaline, the fear of death, or even the anger and resentment I harbor towards my class, but I used all of my strength to stab the spider's head. The sword went directly through the hard shell around the spider's head and directly stabbed the brain. The spider's blood started flowing out of its head.

The blood smelled like shit, but at that moment I had an idea. I grabbed some nearby grass and spread it over my body in the area with the monster honey, and then rolled it into a ball. While I was doing this, I let the blood spill on me and I spread it using my hands all over my body. Once I created a couple of balls of grass with monster honey, I threw them behind me and began running forward. My plan worked, I was running past the monsters and I was hidden from the monster's scent.

The grass balls were emitting the smell of the monster honey and the blood was masking my scent so I was invisible to the monster's noses, and since all the monsters were going berserk over the honey, they completely disregarded me when I was running past them.

I'm unarmed, I left my potions with Chad and Alice, I'm covered in spider's blood and my clothes are in tatters. With lacerations all over my body and being in the middle of a forest, I have to dress my wounds quickly before I get an infection.

7 hours later

I've been running in a straight line for quite some time now, and it's looking like there's no end to the trees. The more I progress, the fewer monsters I see. Surely that means I'm approaching some kind of exit to the forest?

The coldness of the night is something I didn't account for. Earlier I ripped my undershirt to dress my wound, which did not help with the warmth. My legs are in indescribable pain, every step feels like glass shards penetrating my skin. The only thing I see for miles are trees. I can't just lie on the ground and fall asleep, the only place safe to sleep would be on top of the trees and I've never climbed a tree in my life, I don't even have the strength to lift my body.

I start gripping the branches and slowly start climbing up the tree. Each branch feels like barbed wire. My hands are covered in mysterious exotic bugs, for all I know, these bugs could be poisonous.

I couldn't care less about the pain or fear of being poisoned. I'm so tired that I'm climbing a tree with one eye open, and the other half-closed. All I need is sleep, then tomorrow, if I survive past this night, I will try to go back to the kingdom.

I'm about halfway up the tree, I would go higher if not for the fact that I cannot even lift my arm. All the adrenaline wore off, I could feel pain all over my body. I started climbing to a stable branch, where it could support my body weight for the duration of my sleep. I lie down and look at the sky.

It's a full moon, the sky's the most beautiful shade of blue. This could be the last thing I see in my life.

4 hours earlier.

The first quest for the king's strongest unit in their army had been completed. After 3 hours of spider extermination, Alice and Chad had finally completed their task and their other assignment of killing Calder. They are reunited with their other classmates. Cassian notices their return.

"How did it go?"

Alice remembers her attempt to kill Calder "Oh yeah! How do you think it went? You don't see him with us."

"Is there any proof? I had asked of you to bring his head to me." Calder whispers.

Chad steps in. "We didn't directly kill him, rather we sprayed monster honey on him and let him run away. We'd figure after the monsters ate him alive, they would start attacking each other, two birds one stone. There's no surviving monster honey being sprayed on you, and especially not him. He was slow and weak, mentally and physically. There's no way he could've escaped his fate."

Cassian puts his hands on his chin. "Well, that explains the ground shaking, and the crowd of loud sounds in the distance. Though I would've preferred you provided me with some proof of his death. I will excuse you this time, but next time, FOLLOW my DIRECT orders. I'll put him on a wanted poster and order my guards to search for him."

Alice and Chad look at Cassian with a confused look.

"You don't think he survived, do you? He could barely run for 5 minutes straight and we haven't heard anything in over 7 hours. Even if he hypothetically could run for that long, we would still hear the screeching of the monsters chasing him." Alice said.

"No, I don't believe he survived. But there were some rare instances where an ordinary citizen spilled monster honey or something similar on themselves and managed to live. I'm doing this as a precaution. You should never assume anything. Now you two, go round up with your classmates and we'll start heading back to the city." Cassian replied.

Once the rest of the classmates returned and stood in a line, Cassian began his speech.

"Congratulations everyone. I'd consider this quest a MAJOR success and I'm proud of all of you. Sadly, we've lost one of our classmates to the spiders, Calder Whitetree. His body was mutilated due to the spider's attacks, it couldn't be brought back. I ask that none of you speak of him or ever mention his name again, we wouldn't want anyone to know our first mission led to the death of a classmate. Now, let's have a one-minute moment of silence for young Calder."

That one-minute silence only lasted 15 seconds. Macsen, a classmate of Calder, abruptly interrupted the silence.

"You know what, fuck this. Let's all be honest, none of us cared about Calder, he's better off dead. He was weak, pathetic, and a sore sight."

Linnea, another classmate of Calder, had different opinions on the matter, and she decided to speak up.

"I will admit, he was weak, but I don't think he should've deserved death. Why did we even allow him to go on this mission? Experienced adventurers couldn't take on this quest yet we sent out an almost ordinary teenager, there was no way he could've handled himself. "

Linnea looks at Cassian, demanding an answer.

"He was sent out with Alice, one of the strongest and smartest mages in your class, and Chad, who has the potential to be the strongest in the kingdom. Chad could handle 10 spiders attacking him simultaneously. He could've easily protected Calder." Cassian answers, with a fake sympathetic look on his face

"Chad, how could you let Calder die? You're supposed to be an honorable knight!" Linnea asks Chad.

"DON'T SCREAM AT ME, YOU DON'T THINK I'M SAD TOO" Chad screams at Linnea, pausing to compose his phony emotions "Sorry about that outburst. I tried to save Calder but he ran away. If he stuck beside me, I could've protected him but he- I guess he got scared and decided to run. I tried to chase after him... But-" Chad wipes a tear from his face "But I was surrounded by spiders on all sides. I exterminated all the spiders but by the time I traced his steps, I saw a horrifying corpse of a once alive man. You don't think I'm traumatized!? You're right, it's my fault, I'm the one who let him die."

Linnea quickly runs over to Chad and apologizes.

"I'm- I'm sorry I wasn't thinking straight. I never said it was your fault, and it isn't. You didn't have control over Calder's actions, so you couldn't do anything. Let's just get back and get past this situation."

On the ride back to the Kingdom, everyone was discussing the topic of Calder's death. Most of the class resented him because of his strength. When the class suddenly gained power upon entering this world, they began judging each other based on their strengths, and new friend groups were formed like that. Calder, being the weakest in the class, was the most despised and this swayed people's feelings over his death. Although some naturally kind individuals, such as Linnea, went against the majority opinion and respected Calders death.

As the class returned to the Kingdom, they were surprised by the praise from the cheerful crowd of the citizens of Thaurnen. The carriage stopped near a stage, and all onboard left the carriage and walked up the stage. There were 20 seats, each accounting for every classmate, yet one chair was missing, Calders.

Cassian stepped forward on the stage and made a motion with his hands indicating to the crowd to be silent. Once it was quiet, Cassian began his speech.

"Welcome citizens, and I thank each of you for attending this celebration. Today marks the completion of the first quest for the elite unit of the king's army. Their training proved effective, as there were no complications during the assignment. We would now like to introduce each of the soldiers."

One by one, each student stands up and introduces themselves, with each being met with an absurd amount of clapping and cheering. All of the classmates of Calder are already being treated like royalty.

After the celebration ended, the class was instructed to enter their classroom for one last speech by Cassian.

"I know I, and many others already mentioned this, but we're all proud of your accomplishment today, truly. Because of the success of the mission, we are granting you the freedom to roam around the city and talk to any of the citizens. You must all work together perfectly in sync, and because of that, you must know each other's strengths and weaknesses. This quest was sort of a... Loyalty test, which you all passed. We couldn't have the risk of you running away so I- we were forced to keep you here, which I apologize for. Now everyone, return to your dorms and have a good night's rest, you all deserve it."

The class returned to their rooms, except Alice, who still was thinking about the warning that Cassian gave her. Alice knocked on Chad's door.

"Alice, what do you want?" Chad yawned.

"Well, I was thinking about Calder, you don't think he survived do you?" Alice whispered in a soft voice.

"Seriously, is this why you woke me up? Calder's dead, there's no chance he survived. Why are you so fixated on Calder, you're the psychopath that suggested that he should've been eaten alive, you aren't regretting it, right?" Chad replied in a serious tone.

"I'm not a psychopath!" Alice looked at the ground. "But… I do feel kind of bad, maybe a quick decapitation would've been a better fate for him. I wasn't thinking right at that moment."

"I'm not the person you cry to. I'm tired and it's late, we can talk about this maybe sometime later, ok? Now go to sleep." Chad abruptly closed the door before Alice could reply.

Alice slowly walked back to her room, with thoughts of regret flooding in her mind. She thought to herself, maybe what she did was out-of-pocket. She laid on her bed, and before drifting off to sleep, she remembered the memories she had with Calder before coming to this world.

END OF PROLOGUE.