Stay away from me!

'The... smelly guy?' Was she referring to him?

Chauv's expression distorted hearing what that brat had said.

"You, how come you are here?" Katty said as she looked at him warily. Big brother Aren had told her to be careful of this bad person.

Even before Chauv could say anything, she had already labelled him as a ''bad guy''.

"Stay away from me or you'll also end up like that bear." She again said as she started showcasing her staff.

But, wasn't she forgetting something? That bear wasn't killed by her, how could she say that?

Chauv was confused.

With his fast speed, he had crossed the distance of 10 kilometres in a flash. When he came here, he saw that the little girl was fighting a dark bear.

As she also had blue ring aptitude, Chauv was sure she could finish off this bear on her own. Though, in her case it may have been difficult but nevertheless her power was genuine, so the guardians which she couldn't beat were those guarding the larger moonsprings.

However, he didn't want to wait until she did that and then appear. If he did that, then she would certainly believe that he was here to steal the fruit of her hard work, the moonstone.

But if he made an appearance a little earlier and helped her in killing this bear, she wouldn't be that suspicious. Moreover, he was from the same team as her. She might even be grateful to him for what he did but now...

"It might be a misunderstanding. Look, I'm from your team. I may not be the Uh... that smelly guy you're thinking of."

With how things turned out, Chauv could do nothing but put on a harmless smile and try to explain himself.

But, that brat seemed to not take it. She cautiously proceeded towards the moonsprings all while ''keeping an eye on the bad person''. Picking up the moonstone, she brought it near her token and collected it.

Looking at the number 0 which finally went up to 1, she seemed satisfied. She put away the token and started going her on way.

"Hey, don't ignore me!"

Although Chauv was looking clam outside and even trying his best to be approachable, anger was already boiling on the inside. When had he, Chauv Stanley, been subjected to this type of humiliation.

However, he couldn't be angry at this point. He couldn't touch her, nor come near her but he could still talk to her. Chauv decided to proceed with what he had in his mind.

"You might be wondering why there are so few moonsprings here."

Katty's steps which were fast, visibly slowed down when she heard that. She wanted to collect moonstones quickly, so she had no choice but to stop when Chauv threw out his bait.

"Actually, I know about a secret information which no one knows." Chauv's said in an alluring manner. His face now was exactly like a merchant trying to sell his goods in an ''extremely discounted price'', as claimed by all cunning merchants.

Katty, whose back was facing Chauv, seemed to have difficulty turning around at this point.

But, in another moment she turned around and said as if it was such a hassle.

"Fine, I'll listen to what you have to say, considering that you didn't try to rob me on spot."

'This little...'

"You see, the reason why you didn't find a moonspring until now isn't because the moonsprings are far away but because you are actually heading in the wrong direction. You should've just went the way from where you were teleported. The was even a large moonspring there." Chauv leaned on a nearby tree as he said this, preventing himself from erupting in fury as he did so.

"Wh... what you said might not be true!"

For a while, some hesitation appeared on her face which was quickly replaced by suspicion and lastly regret. She tried to turn around and head towards the river but her gradually moving foot on other direction said otherwise.

As if to reassure her, Chauv continued,

"If not, then why would I come here. I knew about it so I headed in this direction. Well, If you really are not coming, then bye."

There was no hesitation when he took large steps towards the direction from where Katty came. He even had that ''Sigh, the world is so cruel, there is no place for good people'' type of look as he distanced himself from the little girl.

"Wait! I'll also come bu...but don't you dare come near me. You smell bad."

Katty's cute voice was heard as she followed him from behind.

...

Aren continued on his journey towards the river. He had to reach the other side of the river and meet up with Katty before it was too late.

On the way, he didn't bump into any students. It may have been due to his luck or something.

As it was the first day of the test, most of the students were busy searching for moonsprings. In fact, the real just hadn't even begun. In this test, there were certainly not enough moonsprings for all of the students. So when all the guardians are defeated and when other apprentices couldn't find another moonsprings, how would they collect moonstones?

The answer was simple, fight. They would fight and snatch the moonsprings of others. The stronger would want to collect more moonstones while the weaker would try their best to hide.

This was the real test, the test of elimination. Here, the weak simply had no choice. Their only option was to quickly find moonsprings, collect moonstones and hope that other stronger apprentices wouldn't find them.

Aren kept his pace slow after he was exhausted from walking fast.

3 hours later, when the sun was tilting towards the horizon, intending to rest for the day and let the night arrive.

Aren, who was walking through the dense number of trees, suddenly stopped. He could sense intense magical fluctuation up ahead with his spirit. It was as if there was a big fight going on.

Judging by the high amount of opposing elemental energies gathered in the same place, it seemed that more than five apprentices were engaged in a fight.

As it was in the way he had to take, Aren decided to see who it was. Of course, he wouldn't engage them like. If there was two parties battling, then he would only be a free meal for them.

He went ahead, hid at an appropriate distance where their spiritual power couldn't reach and started observing them.

He could see that there were eight apprentices engaged in a fight but there was a strange thing happening.

Seven of them were fighting with one apprentice in red robes. Even so, they were the one that were at a disadvantage here!

"Tsk, why did we had to bump into Fernando here." an apprentice said in frustration. He was dodging the fireballs that were thrown towards him. He appeared to have difficulties doing so though.

The fireballs were not like the usual tennis ball sized but rather just a little smaller than footballs. They were very close to rank 1 Fireballs.

Even the light shield the apprentice had cast was no match for the fireballs of this Fernando he was talking about. In another moment, the shield broke and the apprentice was hit by a fireball. Even before he could cast another defensive spell, another ring of fire appeared under his feet.

Caught by the fire from below and above, the apprentice was burned to ashes.

Seeing this, looks of despair appeared on the faces remaining six apprentices.