67. 1st Trial

Samuel immediately runs toward the box that Gildarts left behind. Everyone else is slow to realize that the trial has started. So they follow Samuel to take the item they need to deliver.

In the box, there are 4 backpacks. Samuel who arrives first quickly checks the backpacks before taking one and leaves as fast as he can. The other 3 who arrive almost at the same time don't even have time to check and just grab any backpack they can take.

"Heavy!"

The backpacks are heavy because they are filled with weights. But each backpack has a different weight. Samuel who has time to check obviously took the lightest backpack while the 3 of them get random weights.

Joy gets the 2nd lightest, Zico gets the next one, while Alex unfortunately gets the heaviest. Seeing that the 2 men are struggling with their weights, Joy understands that she gets the lightest of the remaining 3 backpacks, so she quickly leaves before they snatch her backpack.

Zico looks at Alex and gets worried if Alex will try to attack him to slow him down here. Alex won't do that, but because Zico has such a plan, he becomes suspicious of everyone else.

So he quickly leaves even though he thinks that Alex might have a lighter backpack. But it's too risky to stay close with the other candidates because he might get attacked. That's why Zico quickly leaves the location.

Alex is the only one who takes this calmly. He wears the backpack on his back and ties the front straps to make sure it won't fall or slip when he climbs. Then he looks at the giant tree and tries to find the best path to climb it.

"Alright, let's go that way."

After deciding on a path, Alex transforms into the tiger-sized Matatabi. Transforming into Son Goku, a monkey to climb a giant tree is surely the best thing to do. But right now he needs to run on land first because the tree trunk is located in the middle of the island while he is still on the coast.

So he needs to get there first and Matatabi is the fastest to run on land. There are many obstacles like cliffs, streams, hills, etc. But it's not that difficult for Alex to pass through them with his cat form and agility.

Even though he gets the heaviest backpack, he can move faster than the other 3. He even manages to pass Zico and Joy to reach the base of the giant tree. Samuel has started climbing while those 2 still haven't arrived when Alex arrives there.

Alex changes his form into Son Goku now that he is about to climb the tree. He becomes Son Goku with a size similar to Elfman's Full Beast Soul form. Then he starts climbing the giant tree with his ability to climb trees as a monkey.

It's actually not that difficult to just climb the giant Tenrou Tree because it has curved trunks that look like spirals. People can actually walk on it like climbing mountains. But it's not as easy as that because many parts are very steep and slippery, so it's still difficult to reach the top.

Alex doesn't have much problem climbing the tree though. Even in his normal human form, Alex is already a good climber. Now it becomes much easier when he becomes a monkey.

He passes Samuel who smartly uses his Explosion Magic to jump when the areas are hard to climb normally. But Samuel mostly just climbs normally because he knows he can't waste his magic power.

Samuel knows that the S-Class exam won't be this easy. There must be more to just climbing the Great Tenrou Tree, so he needs to keep as much magic power as he can. He doesn't even react when Alex passes him and only focuses on his pace.

Unlike him, Zico and Joy are totally wasting their magic power. They just want to reach the top as fast as possible while also sabotaging their rival's trial. Zico keeps making barrier tiles as footholds to climb while Joy uses her Vibration Magic to break the tree parts that she steps on, making better footholds for her.

Well, if they only do that, then they will have enough magic power to reach the top. But they just need to attack each other to slow down each other because they climb the tree at the same time. So they use more magic power to fight than to climb.

They will regret it later because when Alex who first reaches the top part of the giant tree, he suddenly gets attacked by many lightning bolts. There are many lightning lacrimas flying between the tree branches at the top of the giant tree that supports the "other island" above the Great Tenrou Tree.

In delivery jobs, there might be dangers like attacks from other Mages or Magical Beasts. So these lightning lacrima traps are here to simulate such situations. They need to pass these magic attacks to reach the top and clear the mission.

Alex knows he can try to destroy these lacrimas and it seems tempting because it will surely annoy Laxus. But it will waste a lot of magic power, so he doesn't do it and just focuses on passing through them.

Alex in his Son Goku form can jump and swing between the branches easily. He dodges the lightning bolts that keep coming at him until he finally reaches the edge of the top-tree "island".

There are some caves on the top-tree island that are actually used as the correct paths to get above it. But Alex knows there must be more obstacles inside the caves, so he chooses to climb it from outside.

As he thought, it's easier to climb from outside because there's no more attacks waiting for him. It's thanks to his monkey form that he can climb so easily though because if he is in his normal human form, then climbing the outside part will be much harder and dangerous than using the caves.

Without any problem left, Alex becomes the 1st to reach the top. Laxus who guards the drop point congratulates him with an annoyed face. Most likely because Alex could handle his lightning trap without any problem rather than him arriving here.

Alex finishes the 1st trial in half an hour. He still needs that much time even though he only focuses on climbing and taking the fastest path without wasting his time for anything else. Now he can rest while waiting for the 1 hour time limit to pass.

No one shows up even when the time limit is almost up. But then, just a minute before it's over, Samuel arrives and puts his backpack on the drop point. He falls on his back while panting heavily because he's very tired.

"Heh, good job, man." Alex offers a fist bump while smiling at Samuel which he accepts happily.

It's clear how hard Samuel has worked from the damage on his body. He has been hit by lightning traps many times, but he still pushed through. The traps in the cave that Alex chose to avoid also seem harsh seeing from how bad Samuel's wounds are.

"Time's up. Only you 2 pass this stage."

Laxus looks at the sand clock and ends the 1st stage. The other 2 candidates, Zico and Joy have failed. They fell after climbing half of the tree because they kept fighting and ended up pushing each other off the tree.

Makarov who waits on the tree base with Gildarts caught them, so they are fine. The examiners have thought of the safety of every trial carefully, so there's no need to worry even if someone falls from the top of the Great Tenrou Tree.

They won't do more trials today, so they rest in the camp that has been prepared. Zico and Joy are bickering the whole night, blaming each other for their failure even though both of them are equally stupid.

Meanwhile, Alex and Samuel are resting to prepare themselves for the trial tomorrow. Then the next morning after breakfast, Makarov announces the 2nd trial. The task for the 2nd trial is to look for flags scattered all over the island.

Alex needs to find blue flags while Samuel needs to find red flags. There are 10 flags of each color and they need to collect at least 7 before midnight. They will get rewards that can be used to help them in the next trial if they can collect all 10 flags, so they shouldn't just stop after collecting 7 flags.

Their time limit is just 6 hours to explore the island though, so they need to be fast because they don't get any clue for how to find the flags. Alex and Samuel quickly move to find the flags with their own methods.

Samuel who has visited Tenrou Island a few times before decides to check the noticeable spots like the lake, the base of the giant tree, the tunnel caves, etc.

Meanwhile, Alex just moves randomly to find at least a flag. He plans to use his sharp nose to smell a flag and searches for the other flags using the smell because he believes those flags smell the same.

Surprisingly, both of their methods work although they also end up finding their opponent's flags because all the flags are placed in noticeable spots and smell the same as they were placed by the same person too.

Both Alex and Samuel pass to the next round with Alex collecting 8 flags while Samuel manages to collect 10 flags. So for the 3rd round, Samuel will receive a reward that can help him and that is not good for Alex.

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Ch. 117: Edolas Fairy Tail