With the main outpost of the orcs destroyed, we didn't have anything to worry about anymore. While it may have seemed easy to kill them all at once, I doubted they could have escaped with too many of their forces.
I sensed three shamans when we were attacked by them, but none of them were Stellar Path wizards. There should have been some that escaped before we attacked their main base.
They might have disguised themselves as prisoners with an illusion spell, but it was highly unlikely that an orc would have learnt that.
"How many points do you have currently?" Tom asked while rummaging through the corpses of the orcs.
He insisted that we should search around in case we found any items that could help us later, which delayed my plans a bit.
"Enough to pass the exam," I replied, separating the corpses from the items on them. "Now we just need to focus on survival, and we should be good."
"You aren't after first place?" Tom turned toward me with a confused look on his face. "I thought all the nobles would go after it?"
"Oh please, I am not someone you could trust with that much responsibility. The reward for being first is a position in the student council. I'm trying my best to avoid it," I stated, throwing away the items that didn't have any mana in them with telekinesis. "There are a few more rewards, but I'm not in a financial crisis to chase after dog treats."
"...Dog treats? Haha... That's funny," Tom laughed lightly. "But seriously, don't you think it would be alright to stay high up for maintaining your family position?"
"I couldn't care less even if I got placed last. The only thing that matters after you join the academy is what you can do for it. It's your skills and talent that matter to them—reputation is the last thing they care about," I explained, storing all the valuables I could find. "...Wait, I haven't asked, but you didn't get cursed by any shamans before I got here, right?"
"I'm a hunter. We have Soul Marks implanted in us during birth. We can't be possessed by demons, and curses don't affect us unless the caster has a much higher rank than us... You didn't know that?" Tom gave a bemused look as he said that.
"No... And now I feel jealous," I stated.
My words were true. If I had a Soul Mark, I would be way less worried about Risa. Although she is my best trump card, I could never fully trust a Curse Path witch.
She seems fine to me, Moriarty commented, knowing what I was thinking.
"Shut it," I whispered.
"What?" Tom asked, hearing me say something but not understanding what it was.
"I said we should go. If you want to get more points for the exam, we can try to hunt a troll," I shifted the subject, walking out of the room.
Even if there were some escapees among the orcs, it wasn't my concern anymore. After losing so much of their forces, they won't try to attack the two of us anytime soon. If they're unlucky, then nature will take care of the rest.
Having slept for three hours after being knocked unconscious gave me enough stamina to pull through a few more fights. And having fulfilled my goals for now, I had free time to explore this zone.
Zones are one of the most interesting things I created in my novel, and even I don't know how many secrets they hold... They're mostly self-generated.
I've been trying to reverse these zone resonances to teleport them back to where they belong, but most of the zones readjust with the planet they end up in. So, I have to search for new ones every time I conduct my experiments on them.
I didn't do this for fame or anything. I was just curious about how far this self-generated stuff had gone. I made sure to take care of all the variables that could affect the future, but I wasn't sure if these things would one day destabilize and open a breach of some sort.
"That is an ideological thought you have... How do you manage to make things more complex than they should be?" Ryuk commented, heaving a sigh of annoyance.
"This whole life was once ideological to me," I whispered, stepping outside the outpost.
Now that the orcs have been defeated, this area feels a lot quieter... Moriarty spoke, as we saw a large tree coming toward us.
"Jinx," I moved out of the way as it crashed into the outpost.
KRRAAAACK—BOOOM
"I told you, that was a human!" someone screamed from amidst the woods.
Wait a minute... That voice... We need to get out of here! Moriarty screamed inside my head as we soon realized who it was. I don't want to be part of their sibling drama again.
It was the Tempest brothers who were approaching, and I didn't want to start an argument with them. However, if we ran away, they would chase us down just to say it was a mistake.
Mutatio. Moriarty quickly cast a shape-shifting spell to change our appearance, turning both our hair and eyes black. Since there was no way to avoid the brothers, it was best to pretend to be someone else.
The Tempest brothers hadn't changed much since the last time I saw them. The older one, Tobias, wore a navy blue battlesuit, and the younger one, Vincent, wore a sky blue battlesuit.
They both looked like they were in their twenties. Tobias had straight ginger hair, black eyes, and light-colored skin. Vincent, on the other hand, had light brown hair, blue eyes, and light-colored skin.
"Hey buddy, sorry for almost hitting you," Tobias apologized as he got closer. "You aren't hurt, right?"
"No, it just passed by—" Before I could finish my sentence, a large shadow loomed over us as we looked up, only to see a huge wave of blood rushing down on us. However, I didn't move to dodge it because its trajectory was completely away from me.
WHOOOSH–SPLAAASH
Unable to react in time, the Tempest brothers were knocked away from us.
"You alright?" Tom asked, transforming back to human form and taking out his melee weapons.
"...You know I only use violence when it's absolutely situational... But I'm a very unlucky man who keeps getting put in such situations," I sighed, taking off my disguise. "Step back."
"What are you—" Tom tried to reply, but before he could finish his sentence, a silhouette tried to rush up and hit him, which he barely blocked with his tomahawk.
"You managed to block my attack with aura at the very last second, huh? Looks like I was right about that chart after all, big bro!" Vincent said in shock. His voice, enhanced by his Echo Path aura, rang in our ears like a giant bell.
"Claustrum," Tobias chanted, creating a barrier between the four of us instantly.
"What! Why did you do that?" Vincent shouted at his brother as he bounced back from the barrier.
"Thank you very much, Tobias, and I am extremely sorry for the misunderstanding my friend caused just now," I apologized, catching Tom by the shoulder.
He wasn't in his best shape after all the fights he had gone through since yesterday, so I had to support him in case he fell. Hunters had great stamina, but at the end of the day, they were humans. Fighting for one and a half days without much rest was bound to tire him out.
"Allen, it's been a while. You know, you should've taken off the disguise when we arrived. While I'm also ashamed to apologize for my little brother, you could've prevented this whole thing before it started," Tobias replied, brushing off the droplets of blood from his shoulders.
"As I said, I wouldn't have tricked you in these ungodly hours if circumstances weren't dire. Both of us have just finished wiping out the orcs in this outpost, and we didn't want any unnecessary trouble. It was your surprise attack that put us on our guard," I explained. "Now, if you would be so kind as to let this go, we'll be on our way and act like this exchange never happened."
"...Fine," Tobias exclaimed.
"Wait... Leave him here, and you can leave," Vincent added, pointing at Tom.
"...You do understand that I'm someone with a schedule that leaves demonstrably less time to witness your childishness," I stated with a smile, looking at him straight in the eyes.
"Step back, Vincent. There's no need to fight amongst ourselves," Tobias pulled Vincent back by his left shoulder before whispering in his ear, "Don't get agitated. You can deal with him when Allen isn't around."
"You think we'll lose?" Vincent whispered back.
"...Allen is an unpredictable man. It's better to approach him with caution," Tobias answered indirectly. "If we fought right now, we might have a chance to win, but then you'd have to kill them both. I can't live knowing someone like him would come after me for the rest of my life for killing his friend in front of him."
"Why should we kill them?"
"That guy is a hunter."
"..."
Vincent looked back at us before backing away without a word.
The Tempest and Allen families had a purely symbolic professional relationship. We were neither allies nor enemies. We didn't have any personal grudges, which is why they decided to go easy on us and let us off the hook.
Vincent was hot-headed, but even he knew the consequences he'd face if he started a fight with us. If two major families clashed over such a small quarrel, not only would it bring public shame, but it would also give other families an opportunity to gain power.
Oh, politics! How I once hated that subject... I laughed in my mind.
Even if they tried to claim we started the fight, the video footage from the academy would prove otherwise—since Vincent threw a tree at me like an idiot.
"..." The brothers didn't utter another word, but their silence conveyed far more than speech ever could. As we walked away with our backs turned, their gaze lingered—heavy, unspoken, and saturated with emotions that words would have only diminished.