On a clear path in the forest, carrying a bag big enough to reach over his head was a young boy.

He had glasses that allowed people to see his blue eyes. He was fairly short for his age however, as he was about 160cm tall.

The boy was currently reading a book while walking, his eyes tracing the words without a care in the world.

His black hair was neatly combed, while his skin was taken care of.

He was wearing a blue lab coat over some black garments. His steps were calm, he flipped the pages of his book every once in a while.

Eventually he came across a snake. This snake was bigger than the usual snake though.

The boy closed his book and looked up at the snake examining its body.

'That's a Poison Snake judging from its color.'

He sighed — dealing with second degree beasts was such a pain.

He contemplated whether to run.

But after thinking about it for a while, he decided against it.

'I need those points after all... it makes things more convenient.' He said, setting down his bag.

Opening it, he brought out something that resembled a crossbow.

He reached inside the bag again and brought out a bone. The bone was fairly large as it was that of a moderately big animal.

"Those boars are pretty common," he said, loading the bone onto the crossbow. "They make for easy resources."

The snake after assessing that this human wasn't a threat started slithering towards him.

"That's what I hate about you beasts." The boy sneered, "You always seem to underestimate me."

He fired the crossbow straight at the snake, hitting it dead in the eye.

The snake hissed in pain, thrashing about trying to deal with the bone sticking out of its skull.

The boy calmly placed the crossbow back inside his bag and walked by the snake.

"You should probably get rid of that... It's laced with poison."

The boy turned around to see if the snake listened to his advice but found it lying motionless instead.

"Well... I guess today wasn't your day."

He shrugged and kept walking.

He had found a clear path and had been using it ever since the test started.

He had run into a few monsters, but nothing above second degree so far.

'If I hunt the beasts in this region, I'd reach the quota on time...'

'But there's no telling when I'd be ambushed by the other participants.'

He walked deeper, passing by various plants that caught his fancy.

He would remove a container from his bag, place it inside, mark it, and move on to the next.

He did this a lot as he moved deeper into the forest. His bag never seemed to get bigger though.

It still maintained that slightly tall shape that made it impossible to see his head from behind.

He trudged along the road, still collecting plants.

He soon reached a point in the road that caused him to stop.

The path in front of him was noticeably darker than anything before.

The forest of monsters was normally pretty dark, with the tall trees with thick leaves.

But this place seemed to seep with darkness that was unnatural for this environment.

The boy stared at the darkness in front of him warily.

At other places in the forest, the other aspirants were doing the same. There wasn't any indication of what lay ahead.

The boy remained rooted in his position, refusing to move.

'Only an idiot would walk into the unknown unprepared.'

He set his bag down and sat on it.

He sighed, 'I'm honestly starting to think that getting points from the second-degree region is better than venturing into that...'

He didn't even know what to call it.

'Most likely, the third-degree region is beyond that patch of darkness.'

The boy sat for quite a while. He didn’t move from his spot.

'Should I check around...'

He looked to his left; it seemed the patch of darkness continued for quite some distance.

He wasn't sure if it even went around the whole third-degree region.

As he sat there thinking, he suddenly let out a laugh.

"Ha-ha! Wait I don't need to overthink this at all."

"All I need to do is wait for some other unfortunate idiot to try to get through the darkness!"

He laughed in pride at his genius idea.

He quickly glanced around him, making sure nobody saw him.

He then ran to hide in the bushes.

After getting comfortable he started looking at the path he just came from.

'This is my main reason for picking this path, if anyone was to follow me, I'd be able to see them.'

The boy stayed there for quite some time, but he remained vigilant lest he lose his chance.

He could swear that hours had passed even though barely 30 minutes had gone by.

There seemed to be no one aside from him on this particular route.

Was it possible he was the only one able to find this place?

What if the other participants were already ahead of him, or worse; almost done with the exam.

If he waited too long, he would undoubtedly fail. He couldn't let that happen at any cost!

Impatience gnawed at him. His hands kept sweating, his face was itchy and he had to readjust his glasses so many times.

He thought he would jump out of the bushes and run off into the darkness, caution be damned.

Before he could however, he heard the sound of running.

He turned to see what appeared to be a girl running in the direction of the darkness.

He ducked his head back into the bushes making sure he wasn't visible.

He monitored the outside path through the spaces in between the leaves.

The girl speeding in his direction had short red hair that fell to her neck.

She was fairly athletic, her arms and legs being a bit bulkier than other girls he had seen.

She was fairly tall, her legs long and her stomach flat and toned.

When she got to the darkness she stopped, skidding to a halt.

She examined the darkness in front of her with curiosity, putting her hand on her chin and squinting her eyes at the oddity.

Now that he was able to get a closer look at her, he was able to observe what she was wearing.

She had chain mail on, with a pair of gauntlets on her hands. A pair of grey combat shorts fell to her mid-thigh.

She also had combat boots on, reaching to her knees.

The girl had her hair tied up with some strands falling to her face.

Her head turned left and right, trying to look for anything that might lead to a solution.

'Hah! She seems like a brawler, the type to punch and ask questions later.' The boy sneered in disdain.

He was already imagining the funny situations that could happen to her once she entered that obviously suspicious place.

'So just rush in already!' He clenched his hands in anticipation.

"Hey you!" The boy flinched in surprise.

"Why are you hiding out here?" The girl was standing over the bush, looking down at him.