Bell woke up two days later at the sight of Ryu.

"Where... Where am I?" Bell asked as he struggled to sit up. His clothes had been changed into a lighter one and a bandage was wrapped around his head.

"Big brother, are you okay?" Ryu asked as soon as she heard her brother’s voice. "Does it hurt?"

"Not really, just feeling a little dizzy, but, I’ll be fine" Bell replied and stood up holding his head. "How long was I unconscious?"

"Just a few hours" A female answered from the desk, he hadn’t noticed her before now. "You should be more careful"

"Daria!!? Ouch..." Bell felt dizziness wash over him as he fell back on b the bed, he quickly regained himself. "What are you doing here?"

"Well..." Daria acted like she was thinking about something before speaking up. "the exam will be starting in three days time, so I wanted to show you the best shop in town for some supplies. So I followed you here because I was also curious to know where you stay, good thing I came when I did, if not you’ll have lost more blood than you did"

"What was that anyways? The dagger wound wasn’t that deep yet it was bleeding out so much"

"That’s because the dagger was enchanted, which is surprising for a group of lower ranked adventurers" Daria sighed. "I’m just glad that nobody was killed"

"Why are here, Daria?" Bell asked and adjusted himself to a sitting position on the bed.

"Well, I just came to give you these" she said and brought out a bag from behind the chair she was sitting on. "It contains a few pieces of armour and some healing potions, you’ll need them"

"Why are you helping me"

"Huh?"

"I know you heard me"

"...Well..." Daria stood up and walked halfway to the door. "I might need you to help me later, so you take them as early payment"

"I hope I don’t have to risk my life again"

"No, but it might get risky if you’re bad at it"

"What?"

"I will be out of town for a few days, so we’ll talk when I’m back" Daria said and opened the door to leave but stopped. "I almost forgot, can I have the monster cores?"

"The one you gave me?"

"Yes"

Bell stood up from the bed, picked up his bag and took the monster cores and gave them to Daria.

"Okay, I’ll be going"

With that, Daria left and closed the door behind her.

"That lady is strange" Ryu commented then lay down on the bed.

"Well, I didn’t have much of a choice when I met her" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

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Three days had passed since Bell last saw Daria and luckily, he hadn’t ran into those adventurers. He had decided to rest easy and just forget about them or what they said to him, it was better to focus on the adventurers’ exam.

He packed everything he thought he will be needed, which was just some fruits, some potions and the armour Daria had gifted them. Bell wore his normal clothes and wore the black gown that inside the bag, as for the armour, he would wait till the starting of the exam before putting them on.

He left left the inn after he had given Leai all the money he had with him.

"Does this mean you’re not coming back?" She asked with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Not really. I just thought I gave this to you before I leave, for the few days that I’ve been here and I’ll pay the rest when I get back"

"Okay" Leai said, a smile appearing on her face. "Then I’ll keep your room ready. Please, stay safe and good luck on the exam"

Bell could only nod as he left, holding Ryu with his right hand and holding the strap of their bag with his left.

Even though he left early for the Wildcats guild, It seem that he didn’t come early enough as the guild house was almost empty. An adventurer he met there told him Sir Frederick had already led the rest of the candidates out of the capital but he could catch up of he hurried. So he headed to towards the gate of the capital and thankfully caught up to them, as usually, Sir Frederick was giving some speech and finished immediately Bell got there.

Bell looked around to notice that they were about fifty candidates or even more and just like every other persons he had encountered, they didn’t really seem to care to look at his direction and unlike him, they were all fully prepared.

"Let’s go!" Sir Frederick roared as his horse began to move towards the west of town and everyone followed, walking behind him like soldiers on their way to war.

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Few minutes, or maybe hours had passed since they had started walking, Bell’s legs was starting to get too heavy for him to move, he had carried Ryu on his back few minutes after they left the capital and the sun wasn’t making it any easier. Even the other candidates were starting to get tired, some had even passed out.

"Sir Frederick, please we need to take a break" Bell couldn’t pinpoint where the voice came from but he was sure that the request came from a boy.

"Come on!, You can’t become adventurers if you can’t even walk this far!" He yelled as his horse increased it’s speed.

"But sir, we’ve been walking for a long time. I can’t go any further"

"You don’t need to, we’re already there"

They stopped at an opened field right next to the entrance of a forest. All of the candidates, including Bell, fell to the ground, trying to catch their breath, he was thankful that he had put on the armour if he he would have ended up like some of the candidates who fainted due to the heat.

Sir Frederick walked to near the entrance and spoke out.

"You’ll be camping out here for the Night and you’ll be leaving before sun rise"

"Leaving to where?" Another candidate asked.

"Into the forest, of course"

"But we didn’t bring any supplies for camping" This time it came from a girl

"Then you’ll have to find another way to survive. As adventurers, you might get trapped in a dungeon without food or water and forced to hunt monsters instead, this exam is specially designed for that experience. Beside, you can choose to go in now if you want" Sir Frederick took a dramatic pause which made some candidates consider the option. Then after some time, he suddenly spoke up again.

"I’ll be waiting at the other side of the forest and only those that makes it out alive within seven days can call themselves adventurers" with that, sir Frederick rode away on his horse, leaving everyone behind.

Everyone panicked including Bell, he hadn’t brought anything except for some fruits and the armour Daria gave to him. He didn’t even think about bringing water and the fruits wasn’t even enough for the day, he doubt anyone will be will to share.

But he wasn’t the only one who had that problem, most of the candidates weren’t even well equipped with the proper equipment. The ones who had sword didn’t have an armour or even a shield and the ones who managed to get some armour didn’t have proper weapons.

Bell was lucky Daria had bought some things for him but with no water and not enough food, he had no choice. If he want to past the exam it better he just go into the forest right then.

"Come on Ryu, we’re leaving now" Bell stood up and help his sister then they both walked into the forest as everyone else stared in awe.