( The next morning )
Sharp at 6, Max and Asiva wore full body armour and equipped their weapons as they started to sprint down the hallways of Dorm Wing D.
Apparently they were not the only ones who had the idea to start early, as there were thousands already heading out towards the open forest, but still considerably less compared to the sheer size of the total student population, about ten thousand at best.
70% of those ten thousand who had left their dorm rooms early seemed to be heading towards the shuttle terminal, which was about 500 metres from the dorm area.
" Idiots " muttered Max as he saw them queue up behind the shuttle spot, pulling and pushing each other to come to the front of the queue.
It was funny to hear the insults that they were hurling at each other, because the insults itself told Max that they were from upper echelons of society by how sophisticated their curses sounded.
" Oye, don't push me you bum ". Said one girl wearing a pretty dress in the line to the guy standing orc standing behind her, but the orc did not seem to care as he groped and fondled her openly.
" It will turn into a bloodbath soon at the shuttle ". Asiva commented as she and Max picked up pace heading into the forest.
Not many preferred to take the forest route on day one, this was because of the few second year students who had been brainwashing the juniors with horror stories of gruesome deaths at the hands of level 60-100 monsters when heading into the forest.
Since most enrolled students were tier0 or early tier1 at best not many had the balls to face such monsters.
However, this was a deliberate trick by the second years since they wanted to monopolise the forests for as long as possible, because 99/100 times the only monsters that one encountered there was between level 10-40.
Level 10-40 was still a difficult monster to solo kill, however, this is where party game-play came into picture and the strength of a good unit started to show as teamwork allowed people to make short work of such monsters.
Max and Asiva were only a two fighter unit. While it was not a huge advantage when going into the wild, lesser people in a party meant more merit and exp for every kill.
The two of them were oddly in sync from the very first time that they headed out together, having a good understanding of what monsters to fight and what not to fight.
For the first 10 minutes they did not engage in a single combat as they realised that they could easily outspeed level 5-15 mobs without needing to fight.
However, they were forced into action when facing a level 17 brown bear.
The brown bear blocked their path of advance and swiped his right paw violently towards Max wanting to take his head off, when Max blasted him with a fireball at pointblank range and Asiva planted her daggers straight into his eyes.
-120
-1020 critical hit!
Max caused a -120 damage whereas Asiva went straight for the critical, killing the damn brown bear before he even had the chance to complete a single attack.
Asiva was already tier 1 and her strength was no joke, the bear was sadly no match for her.
[ System Notification ] - Your party has killed a wild brown bear.
+200 exp
+LEVEL UP!
[ Varsity Notification ] - + 30 merit points for the kill contribution.
Current points tally - 1030
Max got 30 merits, whereas Asiva got 100, it was automatically decided by varsity as to who got how many points depending on their contribution to the kill, leaving no room for complaints.
The two did not stop after killing the bear as their fights only got harder and harder from then on.
For a full two and a half hours, Max and Asiva fought and clawed their way through the forest, circumventing other students wherever possible and avoiding fighting beasts that they were not confident of being able to defeat.
They reached inside the university gate bruised and battered at exactly 8:32 having collected a lot of merit points through the way.
[ Varsity Notification ] - You have safely reached the university grounds.
Do you wish to use 20 merit points to be restored to full health?
Max clicked 'Yes' as 20 merit points were deducted from his tally.
They had slain a combined total of 18 beasts on their way, with Max gaining 520 merit points total and Asiva clocking 740.
[ Varsity Notification] - Current merit points 1500.
Max was panting heavily and dripping in sweat from head to toe once he reached the university ground, while Asiva was holding her knees to let her muscles relax for a bit as she caught her breath.
" Hahaha " Max started to laugh as he allowed his back to hit the floor, as Asiva allowed a grin to form on her face too.
" Imagine a year of this madness, twice a day ". Max said
" We will come out strong ". Asiva replied as she extended her hand towards Max, and pulled him back to his feet.
The mood between the duo had improved significantly after the two and a half hours of nerve wrecking fighting, as although not many words were shared, they got a good feel of each other's fighting style.
The two started walking together towards the classes, as they saw a few hundred students having reached the university grounds, almost all covered in bruises and with tattered robes, a tiny fraction compared to the massive crowd at the dorms.
While there was still time before the first lecture and many more would surely arrive by then, it was a safe assumption to make that only 20% would manage to reach the university grounds overall.
Around 8:45 am,
The sun finally started to rise over the horizon as one of its rays touched Max's skin causing a sizzling pain to run throughout his body.
Max had torn his robes near his elbow area while fighting in the wild and upon coming in contact with the sun, that area instantly started to sizzle and burn.
Mas covered the exposed skin with his other hand, and grit his teeth to fight the pain, but unexpectedly at this moment Asiva tore a portion of her robes and wrapped it around Max's tattered arm.
" See you back here in break-time " she said as she walked away after tying it up as Max smiled and walked away too, thinking that the heartless princess was not so heartless after all.
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/// A/N - This bonus sponsored by patron Shadow118. Thankyou for all the support! ///