Even If No One Wants You, I Do

Chapter 58 - Why must God do this to Keira...

Normal text
Thinking
Onomatopoeia

Akali's POV
2 weeks later.

We were gathering in the arena as usual, waiting for the profs to explain the second segment of the competition. But of course, I'm hardly interested in listening to a bunch of old baboons rattle on. I was busy eyeing my pretty little crush. Senior Ahri noticed my gaze and instantly hugged Keira's arm, narrowing her eyes at me.

Lol. This isn't gonna stop me from staring at her.

Within a few minutes, one of the profs came out and announced, "Today will be the start of the second segment. This time, all of you will be competing among your own year group."

With a wave of his hand, a small paper materialised in front of everyone. I grabbed the note and glanced through its content. It was a list of relatively rare mana stones and monster materials, with a sprinkle of plant pictures that all looked the same.

"You are to collect all of the listed items before the end of 3 hours. For those who are unable to meet this goal, you are out of this competition. Of course, if you're feeling particularly lazy today, you can choose to steal these materials from others. So a word of advice. Best to go in groups. Once you gather all the materials, head for the exit. You have 5 mins to decide on your groupings."

I pulled Kai and Sera along, looking back at Senior Evelynn, "Well then, you're on your own, Senior. Be careful, okay? You can probably team up with Senior Ahri."

She nodded amusedly as I dragged both of them to Keira's side.

"Hey, Keira," I called out.

She turned her head and looked at me.

"Let's team up. It's better like this. Anyway, all these plants look the same to me. So I need someone to help me get those."

She chuckled cutely, "Sure. I can get the herbs."

Kai piped up, "I will get the monster parts."

Cain raised his hand, "Me too. No rocks and plants for me."

I snickered and joined in, "Okay. So all 3 of us will get the monster materials."

"Well, then that leaves me to collect the mana stones," Sera said.

"Perfect," I grinned.

At this moment, Senior Ahri said to Keira, "Be careful. If it's too dangerous, immediately activate the protection badge."

"Yes ma'am."

I patted my chest and tried to reassure Senior Ahri, "Don't worry, Senior. I will keep tabs on her. I won't let anyone touch her."

She raised an eyebrow at me before sighing, "Okay. Make sure to keep her safe."

"Of course! If anyone hurts her, I will rip out their arms," I replied confidently.

This time, Keira handed each of us a small bronze plate while explaining, "This is something like tracking magic. It will track the position of the other tokens. So all of us will be able to know each others' whereabouts. If you tap on it twice, it will show everyone's position. Just in case those garbage profs separate us, use this to find each other first. It's safer that way."

With this boring discussion out of the way, we were soon teleported to a mountainous region with dense forests surrounding its perimeters. And as usual, those douchey profs chose to send all of us to random locations. I should have known they wouldn't be kind enough to make things easier for us little minions. They're probably giggling away as they watch us struggle like ants for their entertainment. Currently, I was in the rainforest bit of the place. The air was warm and humid. There was hardly any breeze blowing through here. The wide canopies of the towering trees made everything underneath them dim and shadowy. I'm so glad I'm not the one in charge of the plant portion of the work. Otherwise, with their twinlike appearance and this dark-ass place, I would probably be here scavenging for stupid leaves until the day I die. I took out the bronze plate and marvelled at the tiny little invention Keira made. It would be so much easier to use than applying tracing magic to everyone and having them apply it to me. Plus, it's also less tiring and draining to my mana reserve since I don't need to constantly supply juice for the spell to work. I tapped twice on its shiny surface. A small mana screen instantly appeared above it. There were 4 tiny red dots scattered around the area. I zeroed in on the closest one.