This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

After running the simulations in the space and settling on a direction for Bea's evolution, Kain returned to the Exchange Hall, prepared to trade for the 3 items.

However, he ran into an issue. He was only able to barely afford the cheapest Cerebral Core, deducting 430 credits from his previous 435.

Leaving him with only 5 credits to his name. He was seriously regretting giving the worker that tip right now.

"I haven't felt this poor in a long time…why the hell are they so expensive? I'd have to complete dozens of Bronze-grade missions to even afford one of them."

Kain understood that due to the mental attribute being more rare, materials of this attribute would cost more, but that could not prevent him from venting.

'I also have that Black mission to complete, but I have no idea when they'd even assign it to me. I'd hoped to have the evolution completed before the mission, but it looks like that dream is hopeless'

'However, maybe this is for the best. I'm still not sure how the concealment abilities of Bea's evolution will compare to her current form'

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Another month passed with Kain going through the mundane routine of a double-major student.

He had completed two more missions with Bridge and the others, but unfortunately, none were as lucrative as that first mission, and he still hasn't raised enough to even exchange for the second evolutionary material.

Additionally, he likely won't have a chance to complete another mission this week due to their very first field assessment in their Wilderness Survival course.

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They were now in the middle of the woods about an hour walk from their university.

"Listen up brats! Now is the time for you to put the theoretical survival training of the past month to use!" Yelled Professor Flint, a tall broad-shouldered man with a grizzled beard and weathered skin, as his beady dark eyes stared holes into the rowdy first years. He was the professor responsible for the survival courses of each year level.

"Since this is your first assessment, and you are all weaklings, your first assessment will be easy and take place in these very woods surrounding the university.

"You will be split into teams of 5 or 6. Teams that I have already organized, and I don't want to hear any bitching and complaining about you being separated from your friends

"Each team will be given a unique task that you must work together and complete. You have until Monday morning, so 3 full days, to complete your task.

"Now line up before me to receive your task and group number"

Kain and the others all glanced at each other nervously. They were hoping to be in a group with each other. After all, they had gone on several group missions together since the semester started and already had a decent understanding of each other's abilities and excellent teamwork.

Kain received a badge and an envelope with the number 2 on it.

Unfortunately, Bridge's badge had a 7.

It appears that the top 10 students of the year were all separated into different groups, and then the other students were all randomly assigned to each of them.

The twins were also separated, while Elias was in one of the only two groups of 6.

The only two groups with 6 members, groups 9 and 10, also had the two students with the lowest rankings, with Elias and another student being the last ranked out of 53 students.

From this arrangement, Kain could see the effort made by Professor Flint to make the strengths of all teams relatively equal.

Thankfully, Kain had Finn within his team of 5. Therefore, he wasn't with only strangers.

The other 3 members were 1 boy and 2 girls.

One girl, Aria, was petite with long, curly auburn hair and sparkling blue eyes. Her clothes were surprising vibrant, leading Kain to believe that she did not have much practical experience in the wild. After all, who would wear a rainbow coloured sweater into the wild? They'd be a walking target for spiritual creatures. Not to mention, Kain couldn't even see any armor on her.

The other girl, Fiona, was tall and quite robust looking, with a freckled face and blonde hair. She appeared to be the quiet type, and thankfully she had the foresight to wear more practical clothing.

The last boy, Liam, had slicked-back silver hair and piercing green eyes, along with an aristocratic air. Just from looking at him, and the equipment he was wearing, one could tell that he probably comes from a legacy family with an old history. He was also the student on the team with the second highest ranking after Kain, Rank 12.

While Finn also had a decent ranking at 17, the girls were ranked at 45 and 51, respectively.

'However, Elias was the last ranked student and he is quite skilled. Hopefully, these two are not too bad.'

Kain opened up the envelope with their assignment and read it aloud to the group.

"Collect the flag attached to the antlers of the Astral Stag leader intact."

The Astral Stag leader is typically of Yellow-grade, while the members of its herd made up of its lovers and children usually range in strength from White-grade to Orange-grade. It is very unlikely that the herd will have a second Yellow-grade Astral stag.

It had the rare star attribute and had the unique ability to collect spiritual power collected from the stars into its antlers. Therefore, its antlers were a common ingredient used by Pharmacists in potions used for improving cultivation.

Their task was just to capture the flag, not to hunt the leader or eliminate the entire herd. Therefore, if the other members of his group were not too powerful, Kain also had the option of just trying to sneakily obtain the flag without fighting.

'The Professor was correct, this first field assessment isn't too difficult'

Kain didn't know how very wrong this conclusion would turn out to be. He will soon be cursing all nine generations of Professor Flint's family in the very near future.