Robert's vision was white for a while before he finally could see again. Everything was a combination of green and brown. He stepped on muddy soil and he saw a lot of trees as far as his eye could see. The air was so fresh it made Robert inhale deeply.

"Alright, everyone. Before you ask anything, let me explain the details!" Professor Matt shouted.

Everyone was murmuring about the sudden teleportation, but they went silent after Professor Matt shouted.

"You were teleported to the academy rainforest. Your job is to stay here for one week. First, take these orbs!"

Professor Matt called them one by one to take the fist-sized orbs. Each person got one orb.

"Now that you all have gotten an orb. Mark them with your mana!"

Everyone marked their orbs and the orbs shined a blue color.

"If you feel like you cannot continue the test anymore. Just channel your mana into the orb! You will be teleported to the shade shelter instantly. Somewhere in this rainforest, there are ten flags of the Vagusia Empire. You will get a bonus score if you collect them. One last thing, the academy won't be responsible if you die in this forest! if you want to quit, now is your chance! Any question?"

"Professor, what about the noncombatant examinees? Shouldn't we receive something as an advantage against the combatant examinees?"

"If you're weak, at least you need to be smart! Think of a way to pass this test! If you're neither strong nor smart, why should we let you study in the academy? We don't accept useless people."

"What should we do? This test is dangerous. I think we should quit now."

Some examinees were shivering, they wanted to activate their orb right away but they were hesitating. Fortunately, one examinee activated the orb, the other examinees followed right after. Their hearts were relieved after they activated the orbs.

"Since there is no more question. I will leave now. Good luck!"

After Professor Matt announced the test. He teleported back to the shade shelter.

Robert and his friends were standing nearby each other. While the prince and his lackeys are on the opposite side of the crowd. Robert realized there was a hidden meaning from Professor Matt's word because of his [Intelligent] trait.

"Hey, we should go away from this place!" Robert whispered.

Robert held Sharon's hand and started running away from the crowd. Sharon didn't understand what he meant but she followed him regardless. The others were also following him with confusion all over their faces.

When Robert thought they were far enough, he stopped running and looked around.

"Okay, I think this is far enough for now," Robert said.

"Now, explain," Sharon said.

"Yeah, we need some explanation." Grid said.

"I think I understand why Professor Matt told us to mark our orbs," Robert said.

"Isn't it so other people can't use our orbs?" Richard said.

"That is one of the two possibilities," Robert said.

"W-What is the other one?" Yuna said.

"What if other people could channel their mana to our orbs and it teleports us back to the shade shelter because the orbs have our mark?"

Everyone other than Robert gaped and raised their eyebrows.

"Why would they do that in the first place? We all should work together so everybody will get a perfect score." Sharon said.

"You're too naive, Sharon. This is a competition, nobody will work together unless they are top scorers like us! People with lower scores will try to make us fail," Robert said.

Everyone thought about it for a while and they thought Robert's statement made sense. If Robert's assumption was true. It was better to get as far away as possible from the crowd.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Grid said.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"First we need to create weapons first. Professor Matt didn't even give us anything except these orbs." Robert said.

"Great, I'll break some woods. At least we will have wooden sticks for now." Richard said.

"Wooden sticks? No, Brother. We will create spears out of them," Robert said.

Robert picked up a stone and channeled his mana through his fingers. He proceeded to scrape his fingers on the stone. His mana scraped the stone and made it sharper the more he scrapes.

"Done, a spear tip," Robert said.

"Your mana control is excellent! I don't think anyone here could do the same thing." Sharon said.

Everyone nodded their head.

'I guess that's why they agree to have wooden sticks at first.' Robert thought.

"Anyway, we could use these vines to tie the spear tips to the sticks," Robert said.

Robert created more spear tips for everyone and Richard tied them together.

"Now, we all have weapons. The next thing is to find a water source. It would be better if it is a river."

Robert led the way and others followed him. He walked to the lower ground to find a river.

"Brother, why are we going to the lower ground if we want to look for a river? Isn't better to go to the higher ground to get a better view of our surroundings?" Richard said.

"You're wrong Richard. Well, it is true we could get a better view of our surroundings if we go to the higher ground. But, higher grounds are the opposite of River's location. The basic logic of water is it always flows downhill. So, if we go to the higher ground, we will use twice the energies to get the same result." Robert said.

Richard's brain couldn't comprehend Robert's words. He just nodded at it so he wouldn't look stupid.

"You know a lot about surviving in the wild, Robert. Where did you learn these things?" Sharon said.

"I had read a lot of books in my Father's library since I got a lot of free time back in the Godwin's Manor," Robert said.

They continued the journey while finding some signs of a river.

"The vegetation here is lusher. There should be a river nearby, focus on your hearing." Robert said.

Not long after they were looking around. They finally found a river.

"Phew, finally we found a river," Yuna said.

"Let's make a camp here, one tent for men and one tent for women," Robert said.

They started to build camps nearby the river, Richard was collecting some woods while Grid was collecting leaves for the roof since they didn't bring any other items for camping. With their teamwork, the camps were built in no time at all.

They sat together at the camp to take a rest after the exhausting journey and work.

"We will use these leaves temporarily as a roof." Grid said.

"That's fine, we will go hunting tomorrow and we can replace the room with leather soon," Robert said.

Growl...

Everyone looked at Yuna. Her cheeks turned red because of the embarrassment.

"Hahaha, looks like you're hungry. Let's hunt some fish for dinner!" Richard said.

"I'll look for edible berries. I had studied about vegetation back in the village," Yuna said.

"Great, I'll create a stone pot while you guys are gathering the cooking ingredients," Robert said.

Without anyone noticing it, the sun was setting. All the work was done. A water source, a shelter, and foods were available. They roasted some fish and ate berries to fill their stomach.

"All right, it is time to sleep now. We will take a watch in pairs." Robert said.

"I'll take the watch duty with my brother," Yuna said.

"I'll do it with my brother too," Richard said.

The situation turned awkward. Sharon was left alone since their number was odd.

"You do it alone, Richard. I'll take the watch duty with Sharon," Robert said.

Robert didn't want to miss the chance and took it like a desperate man. Richard felt dejected because his Brother didn't want to take the watch duty with him.

"You guys go sleep then. I'll wake you up later." Richard said.

"Alright, I'll turn off the campfire so other people won't find us," Robert said.

They went to sleep in tents. After a while, Richard didn't know how long he had been staying awake. He could only take a look at the moon to estimate the time.

"I feel bad for Brother," Richard said.

He looked down with guilt all over his face. He pretended to be normal all this time.

"Why must it come to this? But, it is not the time yet. You're lucky there are other people here, Brother."

Unbeknown to him, Robert heard all his muttering. Robert was awake all this time, he knew Richard liked to mutter to himself when he was alone.

'So it wasn't my imagination at that time huh? What are you planning to do, Richard?' Robert thought.

In the women's tent. Sharon was struggling to sleep. She had never slept in the wild before. Just like Robert, she heard Richard's murmuring unintentionally.

'They looked like any normal sibling in public. Are they actually hate each other?' Sharon thought.

When the moon was right above him, he went to the tent to wake up Robert. Robert noticed his movement and pretended to sleep.

"Hey, Brother. It is your turn."

Robert pretended to feel sleepy when he woke up and went outside.

'Crap, now how should I wake up Sharon? Entering the tent seems unethical.' Robert thought.

Right when he was about to sit near the river. Sharon came out from her tent.

"I thought you are still sleeping?" Robert said.

"I just woke up, I'm not used to sleeping outside like this."

In the end, they stargazed together near the river.