The Villain's Story

A/N:I survived, also for old readers, the first chapter of the novel (prologue) has been compared rewritten,it's not lame like before, please do give it a read again.

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"...cold..."

Elijah said as he clasped his hands together whilst breathing hot air from his mouth on them.

He was currently resisting the urge to use his fire attribute mana to warm himself.

"...Elijah come on, just a little bit for us..."

Elaine, as well as his other teammates, looked at him with puppy eyes.

Elijah, while looking at them, firmly shook his head.

He knew they wanted him to use his fire attribute to warm the entire team but he still resisted with all of his might.

In this situation, his mana was extremely important. Who knew if all of a sudden a monster suddenly attacked them and he didn't have enough mana to kill it?

...although he didn't want to admit it, His team, except for Elaine, was severely lacking.

His team was composed of three boys including himself and two girls.

Elijah, Jake, and Dan were the boys, who were regrettably all sword users.

Elaine and Mila, were the girls who were also regrettably, all healers.

There was no tank, mage, or even a good damage dealer besides Elijah.

It would be safe to assume that Elijah and Elaine were carrying this team.

"Achoo!"

Suddenly, they all turned their heads towards the sudden sound and found Dan, who was a bit chubby to be sniffling his nose which was now red.

"..*Sniff.* weren't these su suits supp supposed to have cold resistance..?"

He said while his voice, along with his entire body was shaking.

His legs were trembling and honestly, it didn't look like he could fight.

Although neither Jake nor Dan wanted to admit it, they were trying to be like Elijah, Not wanting to use mana to enhance their body to resist the cold.

The girls were doing so, and even then they were feeling cold, the boys?

The difference could be compared to that of a Fridge and a freezer.

And unfortunately for Jack and Dan, they didn't have the fire attribute nor Elijah's extremely toned body.

This was extremely difficult for them.

But the fact remained, that they still held on...although they still used mana sometimes to get rid of the cold.

'She was right.'

Elijah thought to himself as he continued to walk ahead in this desolate white land.

He remembered Serena's words.

'The suits won't have complete resistance to Cold unlike what we most likely think, Shield never makes its exams easy, You would be a fool if you thought the suit had complete Heat and cold resistance, the suit won't be that safe to give the students an easy time as well. It is strong, but most likely not 'that' strong.'

She was right, and he was glad as hell he listened to those words along with all the other things she said.

It was then that he heard Mila's voice.

"Hey, Elijah can you use your fire mana? You can use my potion if you want."

She pleaded with him, however, what struck Elijah's mind was not her plea, but another shock to his mind realizing that Serena was right once again.

'Since they announced that it's a team test now, Expect your teammates to try to use you, it could be like...giving you their potion to ask you to warm them up or anything like that that benefits them in the short term. And since you are gullible, you'll easily accept. However, I want you to reject this and discourage the use of potions unless necessary.

The use of potions will deduct points. And I need you to acquire the most points you can.'

Shockingly, Serena was correct once again.

He thanked the stars that he listened to her words closely.

They were helping him because as of now he was currently following her advice to find a good spot to set up camp, like a cliff or mountainside on this floor. Or even a cave

'Camping out in the open is stupid, you'll have yourself open to all sides if you can find a cliff or hill, set up camp there, at least with the former you'll have one side safe, and the latter will give you a high vantage point. If you find a cave, clear it up and camp there only after confirming it's not a spawn location.'

And yet again, she was correct because a while earlier, he had told his teammates this info and they had agreed it was correct and this was the only reason they were putting up with this farce of not going inside the comfort of their tents and continuing to walk in this icy hell.

Elijah made a promise to himself today.

And that was to listen to Serena no matter what.

'I wonder if she's okay.'

He wondered, and opened his map up to see her location.

[Serena Soubuelle, 4367 km away, Cold.]

He focused his attention on the pink icon on his system map and confirmed that she was not in immediate danger.

He heaved a sigh of relief and continued to walk, believing in his map, which showed a cliff a few dozen miles ahead.

And that was the only place they could camp, for Elijah still failed to do anything even remotely like that on his map, even after expanding it to its limits.

He just hoped some other students had not already set up camp there.

***

*Sport*

Blood spurted out from the beheaded neck of what appeared to be a small fox possessing shite fur.

Its face remained calm as if that of a predator waiting for its prey.

Unfortunately, it had failed to realize that 'it' was the prey, not the other way around, for the two students that it had planned to attack had attacked it so swiftly it failed to even see its death coming.

And just like that, before the eyes of Alex And Alan, Its body began to disintegrate into blue light.

"Hmm?"

Muttered Alex because in the area, instead of complete nothingness, a white fox mask was present.

The mana of the fox had failed to dissolve into the labyrinth completely and had instead materialized into an artifact.

A very rare phenomenon had just occurred, where the mana of the monster had failed to dissolve into the labyrinth and had instead materialized into another suitable form.

Alex picked up the mask with excitement in his eyes as he checked its information.

[Artic Fox Mask]

[Grade:E-]

A mask materialized by the leftover mana of an arctic fox.

*It provides a slight increase to attacks imbued with the Ice Element.

*It provides a slight resistance to the cold.

****

"Hey Alan, this suits you more."

Alex said while tossing the artifact to Alan, who caught It and checked its information.

However contrary to Alex's expectations, Alan had just returned the mask to him and said.

"I don't need it."

Alex, in his confusion just looked at Alan, and....if he was not wrong, there was an

angry expression on Alan's face when he looked at the mask.

"Are you afraid of Foxes or something?"

Alex asked to which Alan responded.

"No, I just don't need it, it'll help you more."