Adventurer Green Rank Examination – Moving to the Camping Section
After the intense practical exam, the number of exam candidates decreased to less than 20% of the total number.
A sizable portion of this year’s newly registered adventurers took the exam for the first time, resulting in tough results.
The Adventurers’ Guild cannot grant escort assignments easily, which require Green Rank, easily, that is probably why.
Anyway, after the combat exam concluded, we moved on to the camping exam.
The camping exam involved leaving Vardmoi, entering the Eastern Forest, spending a night at a campsite along the way, and returning.
While several examiners accompany us, they generally won’t intervene even if monsters appear.
The idea is for the candidates to cooperate with each other and overcome any challenges they encounter.
Moreover, the Guild provides the necessary camping equipment.
This included tents, cloaks, insect repellent, ropes, and other items.
On the flip side, if we were to camp on our own, we’d have to carry these essentials ourselves.
By the way, I have them all in my backpack.
The tent is a one-touch setup with Goddess’s protection against monsters.
However, I won’t use such a conspicuous item for this exam.
The actual exam starts after we have lunch at the Guild.
We begin by dividing and sharing the equipment among the candidates and deciding who will carry what.
Naturally, there was a bit of dispute over this as well.
Most candidates wanted to carry lighter loads.
Those like me, who are accustomed to carrying somewhat heavy loads regularly or have strong stamina, quickly decided to take on heavier burdens and left the discussion.
However, for the rest, who were trying to minimize their loads as much as possible, it took a while to reach a consensus.
In the end, the older candidates distributed the equipment based on body size, but is this arrangement really okay?
I have almost all the camping equipment I need for myself, but the ones carrying lighter loads will have a hard time camping properly without helping each other.
We departed for the campsite a bit later than planned, so we picked up the pace to make up for the lost time as we entered the forest.
This was a measure to reach the campsite in the forest while it’s still relatively bright outside.
However, moving quietly and swiftly through the forest requires quite a bit of effort.
As a result, some candidates began to fall behind, and the examiners didn’t say anything about it, emphasizing that it’s up to the candidates to help each other.
To reduce the burden of those falling behind, we lightened their loads, but then someone had to carry the extra items.
This led to another dispute over who should carry them, but the adventurers that we are, sorted things out quickly and immediately made a decision with a single word.
We needed to reach the campsite soon, otherwise, we wouldn’t make it on time.
As we continued walking towards the campsite, the bushes in front of us rustled, and a wild boar emerged.
Luckily, we were downwind, so the boar hadn’t noticed us, and we could have passed by without any trouble.
However, one of the candidates accompanying us acted impulsively and launched an attack with a bow and arrow.
“GROWL!”
The boar, with an arrow stuck in it, got agitated and charged at us.
But it got entangled in Talat’s thread midway and couldn’t move, allowing me to finish it off by thrusting my spear into its eye socket and piercing its brain.
Phew, that was close.
“… Did you kill it?”
“Yes, it’s taken care of. Let’s bury the boar’s body quickly and head to the campsite.”
“Idiot, what are you talking about? This is precious meat. Obviously, we’re going to butcher it.”
“If we start butchering it now, we’ll be late for the campsite. Besides, if we butcher the boar in this open area, the smell of blood might attract other animals or monsters.”
“Ugh… then, use your Familiar to drag it to the campsite, and then you can butcher it.”
“The smell of blood will still be a problem. If there were a river nearby, we could wash it away there, but there’s no river around here, right?”
That’s right, there are no rivers or springs nearby.
I had looked at the map of the surrounding area before we left for the campsite, so I knew that.
“But…”
“That’s enough. Lily’s judgment is correct this time. Besides, Lily is the one who brought down the prey. Whether to butcher the prey or not should be Lily’s decision. It would be better to butcher it and use the meat if we had the time, but we don’t have the luxury of dismantling a large animal when we’re short on time.”
The examiner intervened, and the arguing candidate reluctantly backed down.
Afterward, I used Earth Magic to dig a hole, and with Fire Magic, I roasted the boar’s body until it turned to bones before burying it. Problem solved.
Once I finished dealing with the boar, we continued toward the campsite.
We managed to arrive at the campsite only slightly later than the planned time.
While other candidates seemed to relax after reaching the campsite, there was still plenty to do, such as setting up tents and gathering wood for a campfire.
Ignoring the dispersing, conceited examinees who were being looked down upon by the examiners, I proceeded to set up the tent I had brought along.