Survival Exam (3)

About two or three hours had passed since the exam began. I was making my way upstream along the river, searching for a decent spot to pitch my tent. If I was going to settle somewhere, I might as well find a good location I could keep using.

"Why the hell is it so hot. Ugh."

I wasn't sure exactly where this island sat on the map, but it had to be somewhere near the equator. The sun was merciless, and the humidity clung to everything in a way that put me in a foul mood.

"I'm getting hungry. Might as well eat something."

I'd packed plenty of snacks on top ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of my actual meals. I sat down on a large boulder nearby and tore open a bag of potato chips.

Crunch.

Good thing I'd brought snacks after all.

"...What's that?"

I was taking a break, munching on chips, when something gold caught the corner of my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eye. Looking closer, I saw a blonde female cadet floating downstream from further up the river.

"Is that... Elise?"

Her face was underwater, so I couldn't make out her features, but I recognized the familiar figure and the length of her hair. I jumped to my feet, tossed the chips aside, and dove into the river.

I had no idea what had happened to her, but drifting unconscious in the water was not a normal situation. Her life might even be in danger.

I pulled Elise out of the water. Fortunately, she hadn't been under long enough — she was still breathing.

Cadets with a status window don't die that easily. Once you awaken one and start raising your stats, your body becomes something entirely different from an ordinary person's. Still, it was a damn good thing I'd found her. Swallowing a little water wouldn't kill her, but that didn't make her invincible. Another thirty minutes like that and she would have been in real danger.

"...Guess I'm setting up camp here."

Hauling a soaking-wet Elise somewhere else didn't seem practical, so I just settled in right where I was. As a precaution, I ran my mana through her body once. Nothing wrong internally. I just needed to dry her clothes to keep hypothermia at bay. Even without that risk, wet clothes are miserable.

I gathered wood that would serve as firewood and lit a fire. Then I stripped off Elise's cadet uniform.

Drying her down to her underwear would have been the most effective approach, but with her affection for me already this low, doing something like that might actually make her try to kill me.

The firewood popped and crackled as I spread Elise's outer clothes across the nearby rocks.

"...Nothing else to do. Might as well eat."

I had to keep watch over her until she came to. I set the frying pan I'd packed on top of the firewood and started grilling smoked duck.

"Good thing I packed everything."

A rich, greasy aroma rose off the pan, the kind that made your stomach sit up and pay attention.

Come to think of it, that smell might draw people in.

Well, if it was a heroine, I'd share. If it was some random guy, I'd just take his points. The cadets probably weren't feeling real hunger yet. It would be tonight or tomorrow morning before they understood what survival actually meant. I, of course, would be sleeping in a warm tent.

"Damn, that looks good."

I was plating the golden-brown smoked duck and getting the rest of the meal ready when I heard a faint rustling.

"Nngh..."

Elise stirred, letting out a small moan. I'd laid her down next to the fire to dry her clothes as much as possible, and the warmth seemed to be bringing her around. I kept preparing the food while watching her.

"Nngh... hah, hah..."

A moment later, Elise sat up with a gasp, breathing hard. She patted herself down with her hands and scanned her surroundings — she seemed to remember falling into the water.

"You okay?"

"Eek?!"

Elise whipped around, startled by my voice from behind her. For the record, I was heating up instant rice and eating smoked duck.

"You were floating down the river, so I pulled you out. Your clothes are drying over there."

I pointed at the rocks with my index finger so she wouldn't get the wrong idea.

"...Hah. Thanks. I'll be going, then."

Elise grabbed her still-damp cadet uniform and immediately tried to leave.

"Your clothes aren't even dry yet. Stay and eat something while they finish."

"What's your angle? You're offering to share your food?"

"There's no angle. We're both in the student council PR department. Besides, I've got more than enough food to go around."

I'd bought extra specifically to share with the heroines. Why was she refusing?

"...I'm fine."

Elise glanced at the meat, then turned away.

"Alright. If you get hungry, contact me. I'll share my location."

The Uninhabited Island where the special exam was being held had no cell service, so nobody except the professors could make calls. Cadets who'd encountered each other once, however, could contact each other if they wanted. It was probably a feature for forming alliances, and you could even share location data, so I'd set it all up while Elise was unconscious.

"What are you even thinking? Why would you share your location with me?"

"I mean... we're in the same PR department. We're friends."

I couldn't exactly say because I'm trying to seduce you, so I just blurted out whatever came to mind.

"...Hah."

Elise let out a sigh, as if she couldn't even be bothered to respond, and left.

If she was this hostile, she must have investigated me... but I couldn't be sure how much she knew, so I couldn't push. No matter how hard the exam got, Elise wouldn't give up. The expectations from her home country were enormous. Whether it was the title of France's premier prospect or being the daughter of the Iris Guild, both were massive burdens.

I knew she'd never quit, if only because of her inferiority complex toward her older sister. If things got tough, she'd come find me on her own. Sharing a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠little food and raising her affection would be a huge win. If she didn't come, oh well. I'd wait for the next opportunity.

Come to think of it, where did I hide the spare mana stones?

They hadn't been in my outer coat pocket earlier. Had I stashed them inside my clothes?

Elise frowned as she pushed through the tropical rainforest. Her waterlogged clothes weren't just clammy — they were uncomfortable and thoroughly unpleasant, and the insects clinging to her only added to her irritation. The surroundings were growing dark, and she still hadn't found anything she could use as food.

Mushrooms dotted the forest floor here and there, but after eating one that had looked edible and getting a stomachache, she wouldn't even glance at them anymore.

Should I have taken that meal earlier...?

The smoked duck Hoyeon had been eating kept floating in front of her eyes.

"No. Absolutely not."

She was genuinely grateful he'd saved her, but Elise knew that even that had been an act aimed at her body. Thanks to Sebas Chan's reports, she knew Hoyeon met with a different woman every single day. He was even maintaining indecent relationships with professors at the academy.

The Saintess and Professor Lim Sol... I'm disappointed in both of them.

Of all people, the two professors she'd considered the most decent people at the academy... Elise couldn't hide her disappointment. And her disappointment in Hoyeon was just as great.

I really wanted to get close to him.

The way he'd kept striving despite sharing the same mana disorder had been so cool. She never imagined things would get this twisted. She'd protected her pride by rejecting Hoyeon's help, but she was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hungry. To make matters worse, she didn't even have any mana stones, and she had no idea what to do.

Elise glanced at her smartwatch and checked Hoyeon's location. He was still in the same spot.

"...No. Let's look for treasure."

She didn't know exactly what the treasures were, but they were definitely items that would help with survival. If she could just last the week, a top ranking was guaranteed.

Awoooo—

A wolf's howl echoed from the distance.

Unable to use magic properly, Elise decided to hide somewhere for now. She'd lost the sword she'd brought when she fell in the river. She could handle weak monsters barehanded, of course, but her stamina had limits, so running was the right call.

Awoooo—

Bark, bark—

Elise wandered the forest all night, pursued by monsters. It was infuriating to be chased by such pathetic creatures, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Thud.

"Ah—!"

With her vision limited in the dark, Elise stepped on a vine and went down. She scrambled back to her feet immediately. It hurt, but she didn't have time to rest. Fortunately, after walking a little farther, she spotted a cave. Elise went inside and hid.

Skitter-skitter. Skitter-skitter.

The unpleasant sound of insects crawling across the floor grated on her ears, but the threat from monsters was far less here, so she felt safer. And so Elise fell asleep in the cave.

"Ugh..."

Elise woke to muscle pain throughout her entire body. After wandering all day without eating a thing and then sleeping in an awkward position on uncomfortable ground, every part of her was screaming.

No matter how she looked at it, this wasn't going to work. Elise turned on her smartwatch and checked Hoyeon's location. He wasn't in yesterday's spot, but he still hadn't moved from somewhere along the river. He seemed to still be asleep.

"I need to at least get some mana stones."

Hoyeon had a mana disorder too, so he was bound to have plenty of them.

I should've inspected his belongings more carefully.

Elise regretted it after the fact, but there was nothing she could do now. He'd packed that much luggage — he must have brought plenty of mana stones too. A bruised ego only lasted a moment. As long as he didn't demand her body, it would be fine.

Growl—

Rationalizing it to herself, Elise trudged toward the glowing location coordinates on her smartwatch.

The special exam app also showed how many survivors remained.

"Dropouts already, huh."

The special exam app updated the remaining cadet count at midnight, when the day changed. Out of over two hundred cadets, about forty had already been eliminated.

"Just sitting tight would get you to the halfway point. Everyone's an idiot."

Hell, if you just hid until the last day you'd be in the top ranks. A fifth of them had vanished on day one, so even doing nothing and making it through the first night already put you out of the bottom.

"But why haven't I run into anyone? Have I not been moving around enough?"

Of course, not all forty had been eliminated through combat. Most of them had probably withdrawn on their own. Surviving in this environment with no preparation wasn't easy. Some cadets would just forfeit quickly without caring about their grades.

From today on, it was a competition among the people who were actually trying. They'd be fighting like crazy over supply crates falling from the sky, treasures hidden all over the island, and boss monsters that awarded a lot of points. There'd also be cadets who conserved their stamina watching all that, then ambushed the ones who'd worked hard to accumulate points.

In the end, it was a game of reading the room. Step out too early and you become a target. Sit back waiting for an opening and you might end up with nothing.

"Not my problem~. Do whatever you want."

In the end, the winner is whoever survives last. And I'd just found a great spot. After Elise left, I'd finished eating, rested, and then kept moving until nightfall. This was the result.

It wasn't a cave, but there was a mountain right behind me and a river flowing alongside. I pitched my tent to get properly set up and was about to raise a barrier when I heard a rustling in the grass.

"Who's there."

I immediately conjured a flame in my hand and turned toward the sound, on guard.

"H-Hoyeon..."

The person who emerged from the undergrowth, trembling at my warning, was... Rumi.