Chapter 3 - First Day of School (2)

It's the first day of school and we're already taking a test. Not only that, I'm going to be paired up with Erica, holder of the [Archmage] trait. The strongest in the class paired with the weakest. It's not a rare sight to behold, but why did it have to be me? 

As much as I want to see all of these characters up close, I think things would be safer if I just watched things from afar and let things unfold naturally, but I guess I have no choice in this case. 

"Hello, my name's Hale," I introduced as I walked up to Erica. 

She gave me a quick look and then back to the teacher as if I wasn't even worth her time. I know I'm weak, being at the bottom of the class and all, but I can't even get a greeting? 

Well, it's fine, I guess. I probably shouldn't get close to her anyway, since—

"Alright, now that all of you are grouped up, let me explain what you need to do. Your task is to kill 10 goblins and 1 golem. They can be found in the forest, north of here. Speed doesn't matter. Just get back here in an hour with proof of your hunt. 10 goblin right ears and the core of the golem. You all should be able to handle that, right?" said the teacher. 

As if it was always there, a big weapon rack appeared in front of all of us. There were a number of weapons to choose from. 

"No personal weapons allowed. Mages, no staves. Now, choose a weapon you're comfortable with and get to hunting." 

Everyone started to spread out into the field, heading towards the forest after choosing a weapon. I looked at Erica and she doesn't seem rushed. I picked up an iron sword from the weapon rack. It didn't feel too heavy or too light in my hands so I chose it and walked up to Erica. 

Suddenly, I was levitating into the air. Erica was using wind magic to lift me up, and then we blasted off into the distance. 

"Wait! Wait! WAIT!!!" I yelled while gripping the iron sword in my hand. With all this wind roaring at us as we flew through the sky, I don't think she heard me. 

I was scared out of my wits suddenly moving this fast in the sky. 

After flying for I don't know how long, we quickly descended to the ground. We were now right outside the forest. 

I had to sit down and calm myself. 

"Hey! You should've at least told me if you were going to do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!" I yelled at her. 

"It would've taken too long if we walked. Just be grateful I took you along," said Erica. 

"You're seriously unbelievable, you know that?!" 

She ignored me and looked the other way. 

"Look," she pointed to the forest. "The goblins are over there. Let's go." 

What a cold person. I sighed and followed her. 

After a few minutes of walking in the forest, she suddenly stopped. 

"Are you ready?" she asked. 

The goblins were in sight. There were 11 of them grouped up outside of a hut. Just like in the game, they were short humanoid creatures with a grotesque face, wearing leather armor while wielding daggers. 

"Yeah," I told her. 

That's what I said, but honestly I'm not too confident about having to fight for real. I'd never been in a fight before, much less in one where I had to kill. 

As we approached, the goblins noticed us instantly. Of course, this was thanks to Erica just walking straight to them without a care in the world. 

The goblins then charged at us, and I braced myself. The sword in my hand felt super comfortable, as if I'd trained for years with it. My trait, [Master of Weapons], must have been activating. 

Once the goblins got close, the ones in front jumped at Erica, and before the goblins could even begin to fall, Erica sent out wind slashes and split them through the middle, blasting their corpses toward the goblins in the back. 

The goblins stopped in their tracks, now covered in the blood of their comrades. The anger on their face was quite visible, but before they could act out on that emotion, Erica quickly sent out more wind slashes at them and split them apart. 

Unlike in the game, this was quite the gruesome sight to see. There was blood everywhere, covering the ground and nearby trees, painting them red. 

"There. I left the last two for you. If you're in a group with me, you should at least do some work, right?" said Erica. 

The remaining goblins didn't seem like they wanted to fight anymore, and as if snapping out of the horror they were seeing, they ran away. I chased after them, sword in hand, and began to swing my blade. 

I slashed at the goblin behind the other, and the monster quickly went down. The goblin in front turned around tried to save the goblin on the ground. 

I could see it's face full of desperation, but my body didn't hesitate to fight. The goblin ran at me and aimed towards my chest. I easily deflected the dagger and returned a stab through the goblin, killing it. 

I took my sword out of the goblins chest and killed the goblin on the ground. With that, the requirement of killing 10 goblins were over with. 

I looked at the deep red liquid on my blade. I swung at the ground to get it off. I couldn't stand to see it as my adrenaline was wearing off. 

I looked back at Erica to see she was cutting off the ears of the goblins with her wind magic and putting them into a bag. 

"I'm done over here," I announced. 

"I see."

She came over and cut off the ear of one of the goblins next to me, leaving the other since we only needed 10 ears. 

"Let's go. I already know where the golem is." 

She was already moving on to the next objective. 

Erica once again lifted me up and flew us through the forest, this time much slower but still at a fast pace. I didn't mind this time as I was still thinking about how I'd killed those goblins from earlier. 

This was the first time I'd killed anything like this. Having to use a weapon to kill something that even slightly resembled a person really bothered me. If I'm to live in this world, I have no choice but to get used to it. 

Suddenly, we stopped. I figured we'd reached the golem Erica was talking about and looked around to see where it was. 

The golem was standing in the distance, resting. It was a huge golem standing at about 10 meters tall. It's body was made out of giant white rocks with mold and plants growing on it. 

Erica let me down and started casting her spell. 

She made a huge ball of water in the air and then started rotating it. She then launched the ball of water at the golem's chest, the attack carving out the body to reveal the golem's core. It was a scarlet red color and glowed, showing the golem's life. 

Erica quickly made another ball of water, preparing for her next attack. 

The golem, having taken damage started making it's way towards us. Although the golem was quite intimidating, considering it's size, it's movements were slow, basically posing no threat to Erica. 

Erica then launched her second ball of water at the golem's right leg, blasting it away. The golem lost it's balance and it started falling. Erica wasn't going to wait for the golem to fall it seems as she started casting another spell. 

Bursting from her hand, a spear of lighting shot at the golem, piercing through the golem's core. The core no longer glowed and with that the golem crashed into the ground, never waking again. 

Erica seemed really used to situations like this. In all our fights so far, if you could even call them that, Erica didn't let the enemy have a chance to retaliate, always sending out attacks before the enemy could even react. 

"That was quite amazing," I admitted to Erica. 

"Of course. That much is natural. I'm going to get even stronger from here on out." 

Erica then flew us down to where the golem's body was laying and there it was, the golem's core. It wasn't a smooth sphere but it was still spherical in shape, having flat spots all around it. It was as big as a cow and it looked like it weighed as much as a cow would too. 

"Let's get going," said Erica. 

Having finished our test, it was time to leave. It hasn't even been that long since we'd entered the forest and we were already leaving. Having a person thing strong sure is nice for situations like this. 

As expected, the core was too heavy to lift with our bare hands and so Erica carried it using her wind magic. Lifting me as well, we flew into the sky and then blasted off to where our teacher was waiting for us. 

At this point, I didn't even mind getting a ride like this.