174 Awkward Beginnings (1/2)

The minute the names were announced, everyone's faces turned grim. Although they were expecting it, all the normal cliques were split up between each other. While they had no deep enmities with each other to say that they were comfortable working together would be a stretch — especially for the people with the blindfolds.

...

Aphina looked a little odd at first before a wide grin appeared on her face. She giggled to herself mischievously. Trevion glanced over and clearly noticed her expression. As intelligent as he was, how could he not know what she was thinking of? Feeling the future was dim for this team mission, he could only let out a sigh.

...

Eris, being her usual self, gave Efren a playful wink and hooked her arm around his shoulders.

”It looks like you will be my eyes for this mission. There's no hard feelings from the match, right?”

”No, it was a fair fight. I was the weaker party. I will try to accomplish this team challenge to the best of my ability.” Completely unbothered by her actions, Efren calmly lifted her arm, respectfully placed it back by her side, then took a wide step away from her. Throughout the process, his facial expression stayed at the same cold and apathetic expression.

”Tsk... It's as if you're afraid others don't know you're an 'ice' element magician. How dull...” Already feeling bored, Eris just looked at him with annoyance.

Efren gave her a blank look and promptly apologized with his monotone voice, ”my apologies, I was born like this.”

”...” Having met her match, Eris felt speechless. Truly, she could never get along with people like Efren.

...

Greyson looked at Cherell. Cherell looked at Greyson. The both of them just felt awkward. From start to finish, there really was not any words exchanged between the two of them until now. To say that Cherell was friends with Keaton would be oversimplifying their relationship, so Greyson did not want to automatically dislike her for Keaton's doings. In the end, she was of a lower rank and was not even the heir to her weak family. She was more of a follower to put it politely.

Perhaps, she did not want to act out against him and was following Keaton's orders? Greyson could only silently hold this hope in his heart. He tried to force a smile to sound her out.

”Hmph!” Sniffing disdainfully, Cherell quickly went from surprised to annoyed then finally calmed to no expression. Obviously, she did not care for being his partner, but she knew she could only hold in her opinions at this time.

The apprehensive feeling turned out to be correct. Greyson sighed and felt that this would be a long and painful process. He gave a helpless laugh as he took the blindfold the Duke handed over. It was made of fine silk so there would be no issues with discomfort. But couldn't he easily...

Greyson realized he was thinking too simply. Necrospiders were dark element magic beasts whose silk was well known for blocking out light. A lot of curtains in bedrooms have their silk weaved in to keep rooms dark even when the sun rises. It was also thicker and not easy to see through.

Hey, can we help? He heard Lucius's voice echo in his head. It was only then that he remembered he was not alone. At first, he felt excited, but simmered down because he felt that the Duke would not allow such an advantage. However, it wouldn't hurt to ask.

”Excuse me, Instructor, can I use my magic beasts?” He interrupted.

Hearing his question, everyone quickly looked over and finally seemed to notice the small animals. All of their eyes glanced at each one and looked back at him with similar strange expressions that read: I see... so you were that kind of person...

Already used to people having this misunderstanding, Greyson's lips twitched as he tried his best to ignore them. He only kept his attention on the Duke.

”Yes, I already noticed you had them earlier. I cannot allow their participation. Wouldn't them helping you completely defeat the purpose of this exercise? I have to place you guys into situations that will enforce teamwork. If you just work on your own with your magic beasts then this would be pointless. I would just be training you to walk around the forest blindfolded.” As expected, he gave a hard no.

Greyson just shrugged and told all of them to get off him and stay here or go run around as long as they don't get into trouble.

Worry more about yourself. I see a lot of tree and ground hugging in your future. Lucius just scoffed at Greyson's warning and precautions and shot back at him sarcastically.

Thanks, buddy. I can tell you are really sympathizing with me. Greyson dryly responded.

Well, anyway, don't forget about your dragon bloodline. Although you should not use right off the bat, if Cherell keeps messing with you and not taking the exercise seriously then you can use it. With your other senses enhanced, then you might not need your sight to get around. You could also hunt better. That's part of your strength, and I doubt the Duke would disallow something like that especially if you give teamwork a try first.

I know.

Even without Lucius's warning, Greyson was already thinking along those lines. He truly did want to train in teamwork with the rest and felt that subtly cheating would not be good. But he also did not want to waste his time if Cherell was determined not to cooperate with him.