”Hey man, I’m sorry by the way,” Kent said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
“Sorry? For what?” I asked, confused.
“You know, I should’ve said something when Amelia was—” he replied, avoiding eye contact. But before he could complete his words, I cut him with a shrug.
“It’s fine. We aren’t that close anyway.”
“…..”
We walked in silence for a moment, the only sound being the crunch of leaves under our feet as we made our way through the dense woods.
Fortunately, we came across the rest of our Unit pretty quickly.
Everyone except Anastasia was huddled under a towering tree. The thick canopy provided much-needed shade from the sweltering sun, and the sturdy trunk offered a good resting spot.
“There you guys are,” Nero waved at us with a wide smile.
Honestly, I can not read this dude. One moment he’s quiet and cold, the other he’s grinning and acting normal.
“I bet he must’ve slowed Kent down,” pointing at me, Amelia accused.
“Actually, I was the one who fell and Lucas had to walk back to help me,” Kent waved his hands, lying in my defense.
“Liar,” Amelia humphed. “You fell but there’s no dirt on your jersey?”
“A-Ack… you’re smart,” dropping his head, Kent admitted to lying.
Rather than her being smart, you are just dumb, you idiot.
“Whatever, you both are now here. Now all we gotta do is wait for the message– Oh, it’s here!”
Tring—!
Right when Nero was in the middle of his speech, a message notification popped up in all of our smart bracelets.
However, as if agreed upon beforehand, all of us ignored the message and only Nero clicked on the notification.
We all gathered around him when a bright blue holographic screen projected out from his bracelet.
“It says here, our preys are Winged Jaguar–”
“Pass.”
“Hard pass.”
“No thanks.”
Did I know what a winged jaguar was? Hell no. But still, no thanks.
“—Black Scaled Bull, Silver Skinned Giraffe, and lastly, Steel Winged Eagle. All of them are described to be [Bronze 1] ranked mana beasts. There’s also the map of the outer forest linked with the message.”
“Hmm, those are all hard choices,” Amelia touched her chin and commented. “I think we should discuss our team’s composition first.”
“Agreed,” nodded Nero. “We have three archers, one swordsman, and 1… Wait, Kent, what are you?”
“Oh me? I’m an archer.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
The silence was deafening. 4 archers in a team of 5?! Is this Academy serious?! What’s with this unbalanced composition?!
“Hahahahaha! I’m kidding! Oh my god! Look at your faces you all! Nyahahahaha!”
T-This guy!
I was barely holding back an urge to beat the living shit out of this elven boy’s face. One look and I could tell Amelia and Nero were on the same boat as me.
“G-Guys, stop gritting your teeth and clenching your fists. I was only joking!”
“Haaa,” sighing, I rubbed my eyes and said. “Just tell us what you are.”
“I’m a scytheman,” Kent confessed. “Although I wanted to use a bow like my mom and dad, I had a talent for scythe.”
“You have no talent for sharpshooting even though you’re a pure-blooded elf?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“Nhh hmm,” Kent shook his head.
“Weird,” I couldn’t help but mutter to myself.
Elves are known for their exceptional skills in sharpshooting, while dwarves have a natural inclination toward crafting and forging.
Additionally, humans are known for their ability to adapt and vampires for their ability to deceive.
There’s even a saying in this world on that: Act like a vampire, shoot like an elf, create like a dwarf and adapt like a human.
“Hey, expecting me to shoot well just because I’m an elf is racist you know.”
“But there’s even a saying on–”
“That saying is racist too!”
“But–”
“Racist!”
“They say–”
“Racist!”
“Your mom’s—”
“Racist!”
“Okay fine, I’m sorry.”
“Hehe, good.”
After one-sidedly winning an argument, Kent finally got an apology from me which he accepted with a goofy smile.
“You guys done?” asked Nero with a sigh. “Now let us focus on the test at hand. Since we have three long-range, one close-range, and one mid-range fighter, our hunting target should be Steel Winged Eagle. So does anyone have any objections?”
“Nope.”
“Same here.”
…We waited for the third person present here to answer Nero’s question but the response never came.
As a result, we all turned to look at Amelia, who was standing with her back against a tree, deep in thought. Her charming forest-green eyes were lost in a world of her own and her fingers were pressed firmly against her chin.
“Amelia,” Kent called out to her.
“Uh- yeah?” shaking out of her thoughts, Amelia replied.
“I asked a question,” said Nero. “Do you have any objections to setting Steel Winged Eagle as our hunting target?”
“Oh, no. Not at all.”
“Okay, so it’s decided,” declared Nero before turning back to Amelia. “By the way, what were you thinking?”
“Oh, uh, you know we have three archers in our Unit. That doesn’t seem to be the right team composition.”
“Right team composition?”
“Yeah. You know, the Academy assigned us the Units based on our rankings and preferred weapon of choice. So why did they think putting three archers in one Unit would be a good idea?”
“Wait, they assigned us the Units based on our rankings and primary weapons?”
“Yeah, I didn’t know that either. They did that?”
At Amelia’s explanation, both Nero and Kent frowned in puzzlement.
“One look at us and it’s clear to see,” I interjected. “Kent and I are at the bottom of the ranks here. My potential isn’t great either. To balance things out, the Academy paired us with three high-rankers.”
“I-I see,” said Kent, scratching his head. “Man, I should start training seriously.”
“Oh, I never noticed,” Nero frowned his eyebrows even deeper.
Amelia, on the other hand, had a look of disbelief in her eyes.
What? Did she not expect me to notice something so basic?
Although, in a split second, the look of disbelief in her eyes vanished and it turned cold again.
“As he stated,” Amelia said. “Additionally, upon examination of other units, it is apparent that their composition is not as disorganized as ours, for the most part.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “If you look at other Units, you’ll find they have 1-2 long-range fighters, that’s it.”
“Yes, so the question arises, why is our Unit assigned three archers? I really don’t understand.” the black-haired girl clicked her tongue.
Well, it’s because your theory has one big hole in it, you dumb girl– is what I wanted to say to her.
You see, the academy didn’t assign us the Units based on our primary weapon usage. They assigned us the Units based on the weapon and type of fighting style we have the most potential in.
For example, Lucas, in the novel, was a spearman.
Anastasia, despite being the best archer in the world, excelled more at hand-to-hand combat.
So both of us were not using the weapons we had the most potential. It wasn’t the Academy’s fault that the composition of our Unit was messed up. It was our own.
“Wait, what if someone in our Unit has a dual profession?” suddenly, Amelia snapped her fingers.
Woah, she guessed it. This girl’s analytical abilities were good. Unfortunately, she would never be able to guess who has the dual profession in our group.
𝓷𝔬𝚟𝐞𝓵𝔫ℯxt.𝓬𝑜𝗆
“Oh, that? Isn’t…”
Right at that moment, Kent spoke and I remembered he knew I had a dual profession!
When I asked him to provide me with a Lvl. 3 spear art, I had to tell him that I had two professions: Archer and Spearman!
Fuck! I don’t want him to reveal that information to everyone now!
As Kent slowly turned his head towards me while speaking, it felt as if time had slowed down…
I also turned my head to look at him, and through my eyes, I conveyed to him the message to stop talking!!
No! No! No, you idiot! Stop talking!
“…Isn’t Lucas— huh?”
Oh?
He stopped?! He stopped talking! He took the hint! I gave him a hint and he took it!! This guy CAN take a hint!
“What? Isn’t Lucas what?” Amelia frowned.
“O-Oh… I was saying, isn’t Lucas looking kinda pale?”
“What? Really?” I asked while touching my face and putting on an act. “This heat will be the end of me.”
“What? How does that relate to the topic we were discussing?” the black-haired girl spoke in a ridiculing tone.
Step—! Step—! Step—!
However, before Kent could reply, we heard the sound of someone coming our way.
Kent and I immediately guarded up, but Nero nonchalantly waved his hand and said:
“Don’t worry. It’s Anastasia. I sent her to do a reconnaissance of our surroundings since she said her eyesight is good.”