Soren Arden POV
"Hello?" Soren called out in a quiet voice.
He had purposely spoken in a softer voice than usual to try to make himself appear less intimidating.
Soren had already checked his bracelet to see whether or not Olivia was nearby, but she wasn't responding, although it was obvious why.
'Who would trust someone in a battle royale?'
But he had no choice except to act like this; he needed those quest rewards.
Out of every idea that had come to mind over the past week, this was by far the one that had the highest chance of succeeding, even more so than the one he had thought up for him and Felix.
Soren raised his arms in surrender, hoping that doing such a thing would make Olivia even a little bit less wary of him as he continued onwards in her direction, purposely making his footsteps audible.
As he got closer, a girl came into view.
A girl, only a little taller than Lilliana, with brown hair and eyes and a slightly chubby figure.
"「Information」" He whispered.
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[Olivia]
Age: 18
Gender: F
Race: Human
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'Bingo.'
"Hello?" She said brightly.
Seeing his arms raised in surrender seemed to lower the girl's guard more than expected as she spoke to Soren in a voice lacking any wariness whatsoever.
Realising this, Soren couldn't help but be slightly taken aback, but he responded nevertheless.
"Hi there."
"Who are you?"
'What should I say here?' Soren thought to himself.
He couldn't tell her that he was ranked 96th; otherwise, his whole plan could come crumbling down…
"Soren, I'm a magician."
Luckily, his name was still relatively unknown if he excluded his family name.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't have worked thanks to Soren's very unique appearance, but Olivia was what one might call an airhead; she rarely spoke to or cared about anyone other than Alex.
"Ah! Nice to meet you! I'm Olivia, a priestess. So why are you here, Soren?" She said, tilting her head with a look of confusion.
'She's so cute…'
He wanted to pinch those slightly chubby cheeks, but he restrained himself and spoke in the same polite tone as before.
"I'm looking for a teammate. I saw your name in the top 10 and remembered you from the mock duels, so I thought I'd give asking you a shot."
There was a key piece of information that Soren had looked past when he was trying to find teammates in the past.
He had assumed that only model students and battle junkies would take the midterms seriously, but there was another demographic that he had overlooked entirely, an even more desperate one.
Commoners.
To be more specific, people with no money.
Each semester, students were allocated a certain amount of funds to cover their daily living expenses.
As Soren had made clear in the past, that amount was so small that it was barely enough for those necessities.
But Stellaris Academy had an invaluable system for students who didn't think that allowance was enough.
This was the achievement system.
Students who demonstrated noticeable improvement in their studies or achieved remarkable achievements were rewarded monetarily, resulting in an increase in the amount of living funds allocated to them.
This meant that it was essentially useless for nobles and other class F trash who were on the verge of being expelled, which was why Soren had ignored such a thing until now.
But for the girl standing in front of him, it was a lifeline.
"A teammate?" She asked back with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, this midterm seems like it would be way too difficult alone."
"But why me?"
"Because you seem trustworthy."
What he said wasn't exactly a lie.
Right now, Olivia was the most trustworthy person in the entire midterm practical, even someone like Felix, who Soren considered a friend, wasn't as reliable as the girl before him.
Olivia was a naive girl, so naive in fact that she trusted an absolute stranger just because he was unarmed and raised his hands in surrender during a battle royale.
There were, of course, many downsides to such naivety, but for Soren, this was perfect.
Someone as naive as this wouldn't dare to backstab or betray, unlike most other students participating in the exam.
"Eh? Really?" She said with a sheepish grin.
"Yeah, so if it's alright with you, I'd like to team up."
"Hmm…"
She gave the appearance of someone lost in thought.
However, in reality, there was only one answer she could give in her current situation of being separated from her crush and desperately needing the achievement system's extra allowance.
"...Sure! Why not? You seem trustworthy, too!"
The smile on her face as she said that made Soren feel slightly guilty, but…
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[Rewards: Random Magic Talent, 150 Points]
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The guilt faded instantly upon seeing the translucent screen next to him.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
"Soren, you're so good at this!"
He smiled faintly in response to her compliment.
An hour had passed since the two of them had teamed up, and in that timeframe, they had already secured a grand total of 10 mana beads split equally between them.
Even better was the fact that during that hour, they had only come across a single student, and upon seeing a team of two, he backed off, leaving the two of them to continue collecting in peace.
Soren pulled up his sleeve to reveal his bracelet.
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– 1st - Amelia Einhardt (25 Points)
– 2nd - Raylin (13 Points)
– 3rd - Renen Karnstein (10 Points)
– 4th - Eiser Undyne (8 Points)
– 5th - Esper Rupindolf (7 Points)
– 6th - Carlen Frenun (7 Points)
– 7th - Edward Undilten (6 Points)
– 8th - Alex (6 Points)
– 9th - Annie (6 Points)
– 10th - Olivia (6 Points)
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'Safe.'
The plan Soren had thought of wasn't anything amazing; in fact, it was very basic, but it was working perfectly thus far, which was the most crucial part.
The basic idea was that since Olivia had already gained a single mana bead, he could reasonably keep her right in front of him at all times, even if they split the mana beads they found equally between them, and with her personality, she wouldn't question why or backstab Soren no matter what.
Then, as long as he kept Olivia in 10th on the leaderboard, he could easily overtake her at the end by just gathering a couple more mana beads, which he already knew the locations of.
It was a flawed plan, far from perfect, but all that mattered was the outcome.
Soren did feel somewhat guilty for essentially using Olivia.
However, at the end of the day, the plan still benefited her hugely; even if Soren crawled to 10th in the end, she would only be bumped down to 11th, which would be way better than she could do alone, being a priestess in class B.
"Are you doing okay?" He said as he looked up at the person who made this entire plan possible.
"Yup! I can't let myself fall behind when you're doing this well!"
'She's such a likeable person.'
There was a part of Soren that had been worried after seeing the differences between game and reality time and time again between Lilliana and Felix, but for now, Olivia still seemed to be the same as he knew, which was a relief.
He smiled and stood up from his spot.
"Shall we get going the—"
BOOM—!
Just as he was about to finish his sentence, an explosion rang out not too far from their current location.
The moment he saw such a thing, he realised he had been forgetting something during his time with Olivia and quickly pulled up his bracelet, swiping through the locations of the top 10 students.
'Annie's far, so is Edward… Esper and Raylin are together on the other side of the exam site…'
He kept checking through the students until…
"Shit."
A curse slipped out.
"What's wrong, Soren? Did something happen?"
He turned his arm to show Olivia what he had discovered, and her face immediately paled.
"T-That… Uhm, what should we do?"
There was only one thing they could do in this situation.
"Run."
Without so much as a moment's hesitation, Soren and Olivia fled in the opposite direction of the explosion, knowing that no matter what they ran into, it couldn't be worse than what was behind them.
————「❤︎」————