Day 2, 8:00 am
It was finally the second day of the exam. Even though it was technically morning, the sky was still pitch black as the planet is night-time 75% of the time. Team Natalia was still fast asleep like they had no care in the world.
Suddenly, a powerful, boisterous, stomping sound was heard slowly approaching the cave from the outside. As a result, the noise woke up Haley who was sleeping closest to the cave's entrance.
She slowly opened her eyes and looked towards the entrance of the cave. There she saw the shadow of what looked like a huge bear monster the same size as some of the largest trees.
As the figure of the bear became bigger, so did the sound of the stomps. Haley stared at the huge bear, visibly shaking and shivering, cold sweat running down her face with a fearful look in her eyes. She was almost too scared to move. Almost.
'Where the fuck is that porter boy!! He was supposed to be on watch to warn us about something like this!! Don't tell me he fell asleep while on the job! So fucking useless!! We should have never relied on trash like him!' Haley inwardly cursed.
She scrambled over to Natalia's sleeping bag and tried to wake her up by vigorously shaking her with no avail.
In her mind, Natalia was the only one in the group strong enough to face that beast.
After a few seconds of meaningless shaking, she finally gave up and woke up the rest of the group instead.
"Hey! It's still early! Why the fuck did you wake me up, Moby Dick?!" Jay bellowed in annoyance, trying to open his eyes.
*Slap*
"STOP YOUR YAPPERING YOU BIG FUCKING BAFOON! I'M NOT THAT USELESS, TRASH PORTER! DON'T YOU HEAR THAT SOUND!! LOOK OUTSIDE," Haley screamed in panic at the top of her voice.
"Oh! Haley, it's you! I'm so sorry for screaming at you. But, What the fuck are you ta…" Jay said, looking at the entrance of the cave with wide eyes.
"HEY!! TRAVIS!! WAKE THE FUCK UP!! WE HAVE TROUBLE!! IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAVE!! WE WON'T HAVE TIME TO ESCAPE OR HAVE A PLACE TO RUN TO!!!" Jay screamed, now almost as panicked as Haley.
Travis then immediately woke up and looked at the entrance of the cave with a hint of seriousness in his eyes.
It was the only time that his life was truly in danger and on the line.
"WAW! That's a big monster!! Looks like fun to defeat! But, I would rather not die while facing it! So, Jay, on my mark, we attack! We need to hit it when it least expects it!" Travis said, with an awkward joyful and excited expression.
"Umm… Ya, I got it!" Jay nervously nodded, preparing a barrage of earth spikes.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"3!" Travis said, loading a bunch of astral arrows into his bow.
"2!"
"1!"
"Now!!" Travis said, shooting all his astral arrows towards the unknown beast which were followed by dozens of earth spikes from Jay.
As the barrage of attacks neared the mysterious bear looking monster, they were all snuffed out mere moments before impact. All the earth spikes and astral arrows were deflected by a strange-looking purple light.
"Fuck! It didn't work! What the fuck is that thing?!!" Travis shrieked, his fun and playful persona crumbling.
However, Haley and Jay were too scared and focused on the beast nearing them to even notice Travis's unnatural behaviour.
"Haley! Calm down! I'll protect you even if it costs me my life!!" Jay said standing in front of Haley, trying to act tough but failing miserably as his whole body was shivering in fear.
'Shit! I am done for!! I am too young and pretty to die!!' Haley thought, abruptly falling over on her ass, pissing her pants.
Suddenly, a familiar voice came out from the forest where the huge bear was located.
"Hey! What the fuck was that for! Are you trying to kill me!? I barely survived defeating this beast and this is the type of welcome I get!"
As the beast came out of the forest and into the clearing in front of the cave, it suddenly fell down revealing the tired and bloodied Moby who was carrying it on his back the whole time.
"Well shucks! It was just Mr. Porter the whole time! I thought we had another fun beast to defeat!" Travis said with a chuckle.
"What the fuck!! What happened!!! Weren't you supposed to be on watch! How did you get that beast?! Why are you so tired and injured!? How did you deflect all those attacks!? Explain yourself!" Haley demanded.
"Here, take a look at this…" Moby calmly said, showing his watch to Haley.
"I don't care about your trash, weak ass power…" Haley said, stopping herself as soon as she noticed his power level.
'7,150!!'
'What the fuck! How the hell is this abilityless trash so strong! He doesn't even have any magical equipment! I checked that myself! So that is his base strength!?! This means that in terms of base strength, he is the second strongest one on the team! There is no way he's been hiding his power level this whole time! That's impossible!!'
"Huh!! Explain yourself!!!! How the fuck are you so strong!!" Haley screamed in shock.
'Fuck! I was too hasty! He is much stronger than me now!! I shouldn't be so rude to him anymore or else it will end badly for me,' Haley thought, biting her tongue.
"Ok, let me start from the beginning…" Moby said with a deep long sigh.
"Yesterday, when I was on watch, my legs got really tired so I decided to take a little stroll to stretch. Then, as I was coming back from the walk, I noticed a pack of 5 wolves coming to the cave where everyone was staying."
"I couldn't come in and warn you guys as I would definitely be caught and killed by the wolves. So, I did the next best thing. I did not want you guys to die or get injured due to my mistakes and recklessness. So, I called out to the wolves to get their attention away from the cave."
"Luckily, it worked and the wolves now had their attention on me. I ran as fast as I could, speeding myself up with some martial arts until I reached a small clearing in the forest."
"There, I was completely surrounded by the 5 wolves. My back was literally against the wall. I had nowhere to run. I was too scared to even move, shivering in place, cold sweat running down my face. As the wolves were about to pounce on me, I closed my eyes and tried my best to accept my death."
"Then, suddenly, a loud howl came out of the forest and a loud stomping sound was heard."
"It was a huge Lycan or werewolf-like beast that emerged out of the forest and into the clearing."
"I thought it was going to attack me. But, instead, it attacked and killed the other wolves, leaving me alone."
"It let out powerful toxins from its body that immediately killed and dissolved some of the wolves alive."
"I felt so blessed and relieved. I was somehow saved by some unknown miracle."
"I then noticed that the Lycan and the wolves were too busy fighting. So, I used this opportunity to make my escape."
"Unlucky for me, as soon as the beast finished taking care of the wolves, it focused its attention on me."
"I was scared shitless and immediately started running in a random direction."
"Normally, I would have run to the hideout. But, I did not do that for 2 major reasons. The first was that I had no idea where I was and where the hideout was located. Especially in the darkness of the night. The second was that this beast looked really powerful and I did not want to endanger you guys because of my mistakes."
"So, I ran as fast as I could. Luckily, the beast was really slow and the trees were in its way ensnaring it's movements, allowing me to barely stay out of its reach."
"The beast broke down the trees like they were small twigs and naturally released a vicious toxin, killing and withering everything unlucky enough to be in its way.'
"After a few minutes of running, I managed to make the beast lose my scent and I hid in a random cave I somehow managed to find."
"Inside the cave, I found many weird statues and ancient-looking words and runes. In the middle of the room, I found a large looking altar with some sort of purple glowing orb placed on top of it."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"From watching TV and things online, I knew exactly what it was."
"An ability orb."
"I've never actually seen one in real life other than when I was offered one at the beginning of the school year. I was just too poor."
"As I heard the sound of the beast come closer, I panicked and took the purple ability orb and absorbed its power gaining the unknown ability that was inside it."
"As soon as I did, the beast lunged into the cave, destroying and dissolving everything inside."
"Luckily I managed to dodge its attack. I barely managed to escape the cave due to the new wildly boosted physique that my new Ability provided me."
"From the ability orb, I got some weird purple energy ability that I am not sure of myself."
"With it, I was able to defeat the Toxic Lycan beast. Since it was slow and gave off a strong toxic gas when anything got near, I defeated it by keeping my distance and blasting it from afar."
"I wanted to bring the body back here for points. But, even in death, its body still gave off a strong toxic gas that killed anything that got near. So, I just left it where I killed it."
"I spent the rest of my time trying to find where our camp was. I searched all night with no result. I was completely lost. That was until I finally found you earlier this morning."
"I got super excited so I decided to kill this huge bear monster to surprise you guys with a strong looking beast that would probably be worth a lot of points."
"I just wanted to be useful to the team after doing absolutely nothing during the last fight."
"I guess I really did surprise you guys. Just not in the way I wanted," Moby said with an awkward chuckle.
"What you say is very hard to believe. Other than your increased power level, do you have any evidence." Haley asked with clear skepticism.
"I have plenty of evidence. The corpses of the wolves and the Lycan. The broken treas, the dead and melted plants. And the remains of the cave."
"Plus, I can show you my new ability," Moby said, putting his hands out making a strange purple looking energy flow his fingers. Then, a beam made of the same purple energy burst out of his hand and hit the ground near them, causing a massive crater to be formed.
"See?" Moby said in a tired tone, heavily panting.
Everyone in the group stared at Moby speechless, their mouths completely wide open in shock.
'Prince charming? Is that you?' Haley thought with love-struck eyes.
"Hey, I could use some healing here, I think I'm going to pass out or die if I lose any more blood," Moby said, nervously scratching the back of his head.