The sun was close to setting on the second day as it had already been one and a half days since the cadets had landed on the island. Many of them had claimed different areas and formed a group with other cadets. They had built their shelters in these areas and were working hard to protect them against any beasts or cadets who chose to become hostile against them.
However, not all the cadets had the basics figured out or had the luxury to do so as there were still many cadets who were wandering aimlessly on the island, trying their best to survive. Some didn't play nice with others and decided to survive alone while others were cut off from their group.
There were all types of different situations happening on the island and the officials sitting around the round table had to keep track of all of them. Some were easily understood and didn't need much attention while some needed careful observation.
The hot topics currently around the table were about a boy who had been speeding nonstop across the island in desperate need of something which was unknown. He was completely ruthless and left everyone in a critical state who had dared to or accidentally crossed his path. The patrolling officer's report also included the order that he had given to the boy and the officials approved of his decision.
"Leon Czolgosz. Oh boy... This is going to be troublesome." An official said after he reviewed Leon's file and learned about his family background. It would be quite a hassle for them if they were to remove him from the test as Leon's father was in a position of power where he could basically make it so that Leon can appear again next year.
They won't be able to apply a penalty on him as compared to regular cadets and the officials definitely didn't want to get involved with people such as Paul Czolgosz. It wasn't that they weren't strong enough that they would be intimidated by him but rather the annoyance that would come with dealing with such a petty case.
They would rather just not give Leon a penalty and get it over with. For now, they were just going to keep observing Leon and make sure that he doesn't take the beatings too far. If he does, then they would have no choice but to remove him from the test.
A few other reports were also displayed on the screen. These reports were all marked with red which meant that a major event had taken place and was interesting enough to retain the officials' attention.
One of them was of an individual who was able to slay a High tier beast all by himself, another was of a battle that had broken out against two groups of cadets over resources that were near the border of their two territories, and finally, it was the follow up on the report of the cadet who had been carrying his poisoned friend on his back for almost a whole day now; searching every loot crate he could find for an anti-venom but so far no luck.
*************
The sun had completely set and the night had set in once again. Near the entrance of a cave somewhere on the island, two cadets could be seen sitting around a makeshift campfire. One of the was cooking some food while the other one looked to be resting.
Mako had found a safe place for the two of them to spend the night. It was a secluded cave in the middle of nowhere near a small stream of water. After making sure that the perimeter was secure and there were no cadets or beasts in the vicinity, Mako placed Bill inside the cave and left him there so that he could rest.
He then gathered materials to build a fire and even caught some rainbow trout in the stream that was close to the cave. After doing all that, Mako returned back to the cave and got to work. He quickly set up the fire and prepared the rainbow trout by gutting the fish and cleaning all the scales.
The fish could definitely use some seasoning, but Mako didn't have the luxury to season his food and he would have to just have to get with what he had. He skewered the fish on a clean long branch and set it on the fire to start cooking.
After an extremely long and tiring day, Mako could finally take a breather as he leaned back against the wall of the cave and relaxed. However, he couldn't truly relax as the system kept on reminding him of the time that was left and it was quite stressful.
He still hadn't been able to find an anti-venom even though he had found 2 more crates during his search. He had absolutely exhausted all of his energy and it was currently sitting in the double digits.
Mako put his hands in his pocket and activated his system. He accessed his inventory and took out a rejuvenating pill. He pulled the pill from his pocket and quickly popped it into his mouth.
He couldn't have done this before since Mako was constantly on the move and low on energy. If suddenly he started recovering energy, the people observing him would become suspicious but now that he was resting, he could pop the pill which would just help him recover his energy at a faster rate and nobody would know since he wasn't planning on moving in the night.
There was no difference between the healing pill and the rejuvenating pill in terms of appearance and it won't look suspicious at all as it would be like he was taking one of the healing pills he found in the crates.
the real reason; however, is that Mako wanted to recover his energy fast so that he could be prepared if anything unusual happened in the night.
Mako also looked through his backpack which was getting quite full from all the items and crystals that he had stored inside. Mako tried to start absorbing the crystals again like he was going to the night before, but then he was greeted with another prompt.
[Medium Tier Sabertooth Spider Crystal]
[Does the user wish to absorb?]
[YES/NO]
[Absorption time: 2 minutes]
Mako wasn't going to spend the next 2 hours absorbing these crystals that who knew had what effect? He decided to just keep them in his backpack for now.
Mako was just so tired at this point that he didn't even want to look at the system's screen and so he decided to just try absorbing them another time when he was full of energy and free from the worry of finding Bill an anti-venom.
************
Mako started recovering his energy at a much faster rate than before and was able to recover it fully in about four hours. During that time, Mako just meditated and tried to make progress with his resonance. He was definitely close and believed that he could achieve it during the test if he meditated regularly.
During that time the fish was also done cooking and Mako quickly dug in. He was also quite hungry from carrying Bill all so it was devoured pretty quickly.
Mako also ate his fish and fed some to Bill as well. It pained him to see Bill be reduced to such a state after what Bill had done for him during the beginning of the test. He wanted to resume his search right now, but his body was failing him.
He hadn't gotten any sleep for two days and was continuously pushing his body. Right now, even though his body had recovered his energy, he was too tired to continue pushing and he had to take a break.
He laid down next to Bill and as many sounds of the jungle continued to sound in his ears, he finally closed his eyes and got some sleep.
*************
[Early morning the next day]
*Bzzz* *Bzzz*
A device started vibrating in Mako's hand which quickly woke him up from his sleep. He checked the device and quickly understood what was happening.
From one of the loot crates, Mako had found a laser trigger trap that would send a notification to a small device if anything was to cut the laser by walking through it. Mako had set up the laser trap near the entrance of the cave so that if anything was to make its way inside the cave, he would be alerted.
Mako quickly slapped his cheek a couple of times to knock off the drowsiness and equipped his combat blade in preparation to counter anything that could be coming inside. Mako waited for a few moments until he started hearing faint footsteps.
The footsteps became louder and louder as from the sound alone Mako was able to assume that it was a person, but due to the echo in the cave, he couldn't pinpoint if it was just one or several. Even though he was still tired, he had recovered enough sleep that he could fight with his full strength for a while and was ready for whoever was coming inside.
*Stomp* *Stomp* *Stomp*
The person finally made it inside the cave it was the last person that Mako had expected to see.
"LEON?!" Mako shouted in disbelief.
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