I patiently waited as I stood near the area. Groups of six students passed us a couple of times before they let us in. The door to Class F opened, a single student entered, then another.
Soon all of us were in the room. Six students were already inside, obviously taking up six seats. Due to this I chose to sit where no one was. Of course I was joined by my classmates. I wasn’t lucky enough for my area to be clear.
Four people being gone meant four empty seats so I hoped to be left alone. Other than that, there’s nothing else to note. The teacher for Class F coughed, a real cough.
Is he sick? I don’t want to sound rude, but can he go away? I’m not trying to catch a disease. However, given the academy record, I think I’ll be fine. I doubt this academy will allow such a harmful thing unsupervised. Still, don’t get too close to me.
“All everyone, now that everyone is sitting down, I'll explain the assessment,” he said, tapping his hand on the table. “They’re currently thirty six students here, six students per class. You'll once again be split further into six groups of six, each student being from a different class.”
“While we’ll be going to the forest as a class, the team on their own once they enter a dungeon. This is where the assessment comes into place. As a team of six, you are tasked with clearing a single dungeon. The difficulty is up to the participants,” he explained as drew a tiny map of the location on the board.
“Whatever you find is yours to keep, however, how it will be split among the six of you is up to you to decide. When we reach the forest, I’ll begin splitting people. So first things first, let’s go there.”
We followed the man as he led us to a forest near the outskirts. The route was specifically chosen for the tracking of our movements. Many staff members were around when we stepped foot inside the forest.
The value we held as the future of the government assured me and many others that if something unexpected happened then we’ll be safe. Well, there isn’t much to worry about.
It’s not like we’ll be attacked.
Once we made it, the teacher randomly picked one student from each class to make a group of six. Keep in mind all of us stayed close to our classmates. He pointed at me, and placed me in this group with five other people.
Since we still had time, I originally decided to keep to myself when a voice caught my attention. It seemed like someone had something to say.
“As we’ll be working together, I would like for the six of us to introduce ourselves. What do you think?” A female student said with a tiny smile.
Her deep black hair had white strands of hair. It wasn’t specific to anywhere as she had them if the ends of her hair up to her bangs. At least her normal, being a single color which was a grey, with a tiny tinge of silver.
“That’s fine with me,” I replied.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“Yeah!”
“Same here.”
Multiple forms of agreement were shown which prompted the girl to nod. She brought her hand and hovered over her chest.
“Well, I’ll start first. My name is Minori Arakawa, Class A. Please call me by my surname. I hope we can get along,” she said.
Since she was in Class A, I wanted to continue it from best to worst so I chose to go next.
“I’m Taetel Chaim, Class B. It’s a pleasure,” I said.
“I guess I’ll go next…?” A girl besides me whispered.
The burlywood brown haired girl scratched her head. Her lilac purple eyes wandered around until they stopped. She slightly sighed.
“Rona Pearson, Class C.”
Next up was a guy with dirty blond hair, his eyes being of a similar shade of color. He pointed at himself, a big grin on his face.
“My name is Rick Keller, Class D! Let’s work together!” he exclaimed, he stretched his arms as if welcoming us.
The girl beside him stared at him strangely with her indigo eyes, weird out by his eccentric attitude. She ran her hand through her navy blue hair.
“Cynthia Flanders, Class E. You may call me Cindy for short. Nice meeting all of you,” she said, her gaze downwards.
The final person was a male student. Crimson red hair, and pineapple yellow eyes.
“Leon Basset, Class F. It’s a pleasure,” he calmly spoke with a tiny smile.
I glanced at him for a moment before staring back at the girl. The teacher took his sweet time, not giving the signal to explore the area. I guess he wanted us to have a few minutes to get to know each other, so the chemistry won’t be too bad.
With introduction out of the way, we moved to a more important topic. The distribution of our findings.
“I suggest we work together and split the rewards based on performance,” Arawaka suggested.
“I agree. It’ll benefit all of us. In fact, I would like to split a certain percentage equally then we distribute it based on performance,” I nodded, adding my own alternative.
“I see. That’s a good suggestion,” she replied.
While it may seem unfair since the stronger students will get the better rewards, that’s only natural as they’ll be doing most of the work. By working together we’ll advance further than if we were alone. I even added an incentive for everyone to agree.
I don’t know a single person here who would like to return home empty handed. As such, with this tiny percentage of the reward being guaranteed it’s more likely for them to agree.
“None of us object, right?” I asked everyone.
“Nope.”
“Or course not!
“No….”
“Nah.”
We agreed upon the distribution, so we were left with not a single topic at hand. Most of us stood quietly minding our own business. I stood there as well, waiting for something, or rather someone.
“It’s been a while,” said a male voice.
“It indeed has been, Leon.”
At least you don’t let your emotions get the better of you. Unlike a certain girl.