There were 20 of them in total, and six of them were injured from the battle. Other than the one who lost his hand, the rest of the injuries were not a big issue after bandaging the wounds. However, most of them were exhausted and they could not help but take a long rest where they were.
The one who mistakenly ate the poisonous wild fruit had already woken up, so it did not look like the poison was life-threatening. The only problem was that he looked dispirited and had no strength at all, which meant he still needed help in order to move around.
“Monitor, that was pretty good swordsmanship.” They had started to test out calling Xiao Lin the monitor after that battle.
Xiao Lin smiled, “My Basic Swordsmanship is already at LV3.”
Everyone was shocked; other than the monitors, no one had access to information about the attributes of others. They were still stuck with the impression of Xiao Lin’s total basic attribute points not exceeding 10 during the admission test.
Basic Swordsmanship was very easy to level up at the start, but the difficulty greatly increased when the ranks went up. There were only very few people in class that managed to train any of their skills up to LV3.
“Monitor Xiao, what spell did you use earlier?” A girl said with a tone of admiration.
“Ice bullet.”
“Isn’t that a Black Iron-rank spell? Is your Basic Meditation already so high leveled?”
“It’s a skill attached to my wand. When the test is over, if you all have enough redemption points, you can consider commissioning one for yourself.” Xiao Lin decided to help advertise that third year senior. He also added, “However, my Basic Meditation is already at LV3, so I do have the ability to learn some novice spells.”
Everyone sucked their breaths in, Basic Meditation LV3 was even more surprising than Basic Swordsmanship LV3; everyone knew how hard meditation was after one month of classes.
Xiao Ling suddenly remembered something. “Gu Xiaoyue, how did you know about the desert iguanas earlier?”
“Library.”
“Huh?”
“There’s a library in the academy.”
Xiao Lin facepalmed; Dawn Academy did have a library, but everyone was usually so busy training, not many people went there. It would seem like he should make some time to go take a look after the test.
Everyone leaned against the rocks as they chatted, using the limited shade the rocks provided to avoid the blazing hot sunlight.
The students that were following Xiao Lin did not have great scores in the admissions test, even though they trained as well, but their abilities were still not as strong as others. They understood that they would probably never get the chance to be a monitor, so they adopted a nonchalant attitude, not offending Xiao Lin, but not completely acknowledging him either.
However, the battle earlier had caused them to look at Xiao Lin more favorably, especially the guy who was saved by the ice bullet. Everyone subconsciously began to think that it would not be too bad if Xiao Lin continued to be the monitor.
“Lu Renyi, what are you looking for?” Everyone had a basic familiarity with each other, and someone looked at Lu Renyi rummaging through the iguana’s corpse and could not help but ask.
Someone immediately joked, “Monitor, you said we could hunt the monsters here if we ran out of food, but let me make myself clear, I absolutely will not eat this plaything!”
Other than the arrow that he missed right at the start, Lu Renyi did not do much earlier. He had already recovered most of his stamina, and was braving the hot sun to rummage through the corpse. He finally brought the two blades from the iguana and smiled, “I was lacking a way to defend myself, so I’ll use these.”
“Are you sure we can bring the things from this world back to the academy?” someone asked.
Lu Renyi gaped. “Ah, I did not consider that.”
Xiao Lin recalled what Department Head Song told him before and said, “I’m afraid you won’t be able to. The novice weapons from the admissions test were given by the school, and not part of the world itself. Do you feel that this world we’re in right now really exists?”
“It’s probably fake.”
“If it’s fake, then why do we need to deduct out lifespan if we die?”
Xiao Lin deliberated and said, “I understand it like this: everyone should be familiar with online games, right? To us, the people in the games are all fake. However, if there is some super skill that can cause us to turn into data and enter the game, then to us, it’s still real.”
Some of them nodded in understanding, while others had a confused expression on their faces.
Xiao Lin shook his head and smiled, “Basically, what I mean is that the school’s mock practices seem to be fake for outsiders, but it’s definitely real for the participants. Ah, fine, I actually don’t really understand it clearly myself.”
Lu Renyi laughed out loud, “Even though this is a simulation, I still feel it’s real. Look at that falcon up in the sky; it’s circling around, probably attracted by the corpse.”
“Falcon?”
Xiao Lin raised his head and squinted, in the vast blue sky, there was a black falcon circling around. Of course this was Planet Norma, so that creature might not be a falcon; he could only say it looked like one.
Xiao Lin suddenly stirred as a serious expression showed on his face. He asked, “I remember when he entered the test environment in the afternoon. There was a falcon in the sky then too.”
Lu Renyi thought for a bit and replied uncertainly, “I think so. I can’t really remember. Why are you asking?”
Gu Xiaoyue’s expression changed suddenly.
Finally some other students seemed to realize something, but they did not want to believe it and were visibly in doubt.
Xiao Lin stood up and brushed away the dirt on his body. “Judge Academy once sent their elites to investigate this area, and they are definitely better than us at avoiding detection, but they were still detected by the troops here. If it isn’t some detail that could be easily overlooked, I don’t think Judge Academy would have been exposed those years ago.”
“So you think that the falcon above us right now is a scout from the Thunder Kingdom?” There were still some people in disbelief.
“Even if it noticed us, how is it going to warn the troops? I actually did notice it following us around all day, but I didn’t think much of it,” a girl said.
Xiao Lin reminded them, “Don’t forget, we’re not on Earth anymore. That thing might look like a falcon, but who knows what kind of creature it is. Furthermore, magic exists on Planet Norma; there might be talking animals as well. There might even be spells that can directly communicate with animals.”
That caused everyone’s expressions to shift. Planet Norma was a place filled with magical wonder. There was still a lot that they did not understand or did not know.
Xiao Lin sighed. “No wonder the compulsory task had us already being discovered as a condition. It might be a little late, but at the very least our movements from now on should not be exposed to the enemy! Lu Renyi, get rid of that thing!”
Lu Renyi had recovered quite a bit of his accuracy after the rest; he pulled bow and shot numerous arrows at the target. The falcon struggled for a while but, like a kite that lost its strings, it fell right down.