Outdoor Practical Evaluation (1)
“All talk and no action. Just do your job as the pack mule properly.”
I reflexively caught what Kado tossed my way. A black pouch a little larger than my palm. It looked ordinary enough, but the unexpected weight made my wrist sag heavily.
Rare-grade magic item
Distorts space to hold far more than its outward size suggests.
I got my hands on it way easier than I expected.
Volunteering as the pack mule had paid off. Hiding my true thoughts, I casually fastened the pouch at my waist.
As the sun began to set, the entire first-year class of the academy had gathered at the entrance to the forest designated for the outdoor evaluation.
The excitement and tension radiating from hundreds of students tangled together until even the air itself seemed to seethe.
High-ranking nobles in combat attire embroidered with their family crests, students checking their sword scabbards, others reconfirming the flow of mana with trembling fingertips—they clustered in small groups, discussing final strategies or sizing one another up in taut psychological warfare.
Amid it all, my eyes naturally sought out familiar faces.
The first to catch my attention was, without question, Ricotta.
She was the kind of presence that drew every gaze no matter where she went. Surrounded by noble scions clad in top-tier magic armor, she stood apart from them all. Chin propped on her hand as if bored, her ash-gray eyes were fixed solely, relentlessly, on me. That stare seemed to say, How dare you form a team with other guys without my permission? A chill ran down my spine.
I deliberately averted my gaze and turned my head—only to spot Basil fidgeting restlessly on the far side.
He appeared to have teamed up with two ordinary-looking students who didn’t stand out. Worry filled his eyes as he glanced back and forth between me and Ricotta, looking ready to dash over at any moment.
I gave a light nod to signal that I was fine. Basil nodded back, but the unease never left his expression.
Too soft-hearted for his own good.
For the sake of that guy’s happy ending, this farming run absolutely had to succeed.
Just then, Professor Madeleine stepped onto the platform and projected her voice with mana.
“From this moment, the first-year outdoor practical evaluation begins! Each team will enter their designated zone.”
At her words, the surrounding clamor fell silent in an instant.
“Remember this well! The moment you cross this boundary line, your family and status mean nothing! Only your skill will guarantee your survival! Survive and prove yourselves!”
Our team was Team 8.
We had been instructed to enter from the northern boundary of the Moonlight Forest.
Entry time was just as the sun began to set—the very moment the forest’s gate opened.
The entrance to the Moonlight Forest was a space utterly different from the academy’s bright scenery. As if a transparent membrane had been drawn across it, the density of the air itself changed the instant we crossed the boundary.
A cool, damp scent of earth and the strangely sweet fragrance of unknown flowers stabbed into our lungs.
From the moment we stepped inside, Kado walked beside me putting on a calm front, yet the way his eyes—brimming with wariness—swept every direction made it clear he was quite tense.
Hardly surprising.
With every step, the rustle of leaves tickled our ears like someone’s whisper. The soil underfoot was unpleasantly soft, and the sweet scent that left our heads spinning with each breath was an unmistakable danger signal.
I dredged up memories from before my transmigration, when I had cleared this game hundreds of times. The thing to watch out for most carefully in the entrance zone was…
…That.
“Hold it. Stop.”
“Huh? Why all of a sudden?”
When I stretched out an arm to block the two of them, Kado openly scowled.
Ignoring his irritation, I jerked my chin toward the front. There, in the darkness, a colony of mushrooms glowed with a dreamlike silver light. They were beautiful, like fairy lanterns.
“Wow! Those mushrooms are pretty! Kado, look!”
Abo let out an innocent exclamation and started to dash toward them. I hurriedly grabbed her arm.
“Don’t touch them. Don’t even get close.”
“Why? They’re just mushrooms. They’re only pretty.”
Kado’s tone dripped with scorn. As if it weren’t even worth answering, I picked up a pebble from the ground.
Words alone won’t get through to them.
I hurled the pebble hard toward the center of the mushroom colony.
It struck a cap lightly. With a soft tok, the mushrooms all at once spewed silver powder. The moment the surrounding leaves and grass touched that powder, they melted into black sludge with a nauseating sound.
“……!”
Kado’s face went deathly pale. He swallowed hard, unable to tear his eyes from the blackened, dissolving ground.
“Illusion mushrooms. They lure you with that beautiful light, then dissolve you with their spores and turn you into nutrients.”
“…How do you know that?”
Kado forced the words out. Suspicion and wariness were plain in his eyes.
Because when I was playing the game I thought they were material drops and got wrecked the second I got close…
“I said I’d do my role properly. Now it’s your turn—follow quietly.”
I answered nonchalantly and took the lead again.
Then Abo, still holding my arm, whispered softly.
“Amazing…”
I glanced at her. She was no longer smiling foolishly. Her eyes as she stared at the blackened grass were unnervingly calm, and the gaze she turned on my face carried a strangely chilling intensity.
“Beautiful, but dangerous. Just like… you, Saya.”
Was that… a compliment?
I forced the ominous thought away. Once this practical was over, I wouldn’t have to deal with her again. My only goal was farming the hidden items and traits in this forest.
We had crossed a small stream and pushed deeper when it happened.
“Wait.”
I stopped the team again. This time Kado halted without complaint and followed my gaze. Deep gouges remained in the damp earth, left by something.
They were far too large and sharp to be ordinary animal tracks.
What the hell is this…
There were no monsters like this in this zone.
Could it be a variable caused by me?
Just then Abo crouched and lightly traced the tracks with her finger.
“These… aren’t very old.”
“For now… we should change course. Avoid these tracks as much as possible…”
Before I could finish—
“KRAAAAAAGH—!”
From deeper in the forest came a horrific scream that no human throat should have been able to produce. The short, desperate cry was cut off in an instant, as if something had chewed it up and swallowed it whole.
“……!”
Heavy silence settled over the three of us. Kado’s hand was already on his sword hilt, his face rigid; my own mind tangled in knots at the unexpected turn of events.
Something was starting to go wrong with my farming plan for the protagonist’s happy ending.
And right then, Abo beside me curled her lips into a smile.
In a pure, childlike voice—yet soft enough that only I could hear—she whispered,
“This is gonna be fun. Right, Saya?”
The dense darkness of the forest where the scream had erupted overlapped with Abo’s brightly smiling face right next to me.
“...”
“We need to get out of here. Right now!”
As if voicing my own thoughts, Kado shouted in alarm. He had already drawn the sword at his waist. Despite his bloodless face, the hand gripping the blade was firm with strength. Arrogant as he was, he at least had the fundamentals of a swordsman down.
An utterly rational, normal judgment.
But Abo clung to my arm and refused to budge. She was still staring toward the darkness where the scream had come from, eyes sparkling.
“No. I wanna go see.”
“Abo! Do you want to die? Didn’t you hear that scream just now!”
“I heard it, that’s why I wanna go. To see what’s there.”
At this rate Kado and Abo would waste time bickering. In the worst case, our noise might even draw that unknown predator here.
Do we really need to go?
After a brief internal struggle I reached my conclusion. My goal was to lay the foundation for the protagonist’s happy ending. For that, I had to safely farm specific items and traits during this practical and strengthen myself.
A monster that didn’t exist in the original work, an unidentified danger—staking my life on such an uncertain variable was not something a veteran player did. That was the kind of reckless bravado Basil would pull. I had zero intention of becoming a hero who was kind to everyone.
At my cold silence, Abo—still gripping my arm—turned her head and looked up at me.
“Saya… you want to go, don’t you?”
Her eyes sparkled with expectation. Just like when I had burst the illusion mushrooms, she seemed to hope I would once again show her something beyond her predictions.
I firmly shook off her hand.
“No. We’re not going.”
At my immediate answer, the light in Abo’s eyes cooled in an instant.
“So the sparkle ends here?”
Abo murmured quietly.
She no longer looked at me. She simply turned her head toward the dark forest where the scream had come from. What rose on her face was disappointment… a faint trace of contempt, and a strange sense of liberation.
“Then I’ll go by myself.”
“What?”
“Abo, are you insane?!”
Kado and I shouted at the same time, but Abo seemed to have already made up her mind.
She turned back toward us and smiled brightly, like a child heading out to play.
“It’s fine. I’ll be right back. You two head for the destination first.”
With that, Abo moved without hesitation into the darkness of the forest.
“Abo! You stupid idiot!”
Kado screamed and tried to chase after her. I blocked his path and grabbed his arm.
“Move! Let go!”
“Get a grip, Kado! If you go after her now, you’ll be in danger too!”
“But Abo—my sister went alone!”
Kado’s eyes were bloodshot. He glared at me as if he wanted to kill me and snarled.
Haa… This guy completely lost his reason the moment his sister was involved.
So, left with no choice, I followed Abo as she vanished into the deep forest.
And within a few steps I caught up and wrapped my arm around her neck—gently yet firmly.
A perfect headlock.
“Ghk— keh— Sa… Saya! Guh—”
Damn it, this is supposed to be the veteran transmigrator’s hyper-efficient farming time, not some frustrating filler arc!
Do not interfere with my farming time any longer.