Finn felt like Pagol, the jerk driver, was messing with them. Well, kind of.

At the very least, he had done this often enough that he would know if he was taking too long to arrive at the destination.

Anyway, he shooed them away. If they were a bit slow in standing up, Pagol's blade was ready to poke them.

"Good luck, fellas! You're on your own!" Jerk-driver yelled, waving his arms to them with a wide grin on his face.

"Tsk."

The three of them stood awkwardly for a while before they sighed. "Shall we?" he asked, heading to where Pagol disappeared to.

Unexpectedly, Remus shook his head. "That is the wrong direction."

This made the other two stare at him, confused. "Pagol headed here, and we came from this direction," he said, just in case he was in a daze and didn't see.

"Yes, but he made several turns."

"What?"

"He changed angles many times, mostly in subtle movements," he said. "They did this every time."

Damn

Now that he mentioned it, it was easy to assume they were heading straight when, in fact, the carriage was really going all over, changing angles subtly.

At this, he looked around and found a stable tree to climb. The other two did the same, finding their own trees.

They were at least 10 kilometers away from Lotus Town now, and this meant it was way beyond the horizon and impossible to see from where they were.

However, he could at least see where the mountains were, which was the direction of his Inn and therefore not the place where he'd want to head towards for this exam.

At this, he remembered the map that Syl gave him before. There were plenty of mountain ranges, but his was definitely the nearest to Lotus Town. He didn't say anything for now; however, he wanted to see what the other two would say.

Remus pointed in a direction, which was also where Finn was heading. "I agree," he smiled.

Remus looked at him. "You believe me?"

"This is your third time, isn't it? I'd rather believe in the experienced."

"...I could lie."

"But you're not," Finn said. "Besides, I live in the mountains, so I know we're not heading there.

"What? That's the danger z—" Remus and Marie stared at him. Definitely thinking he was joking around. "Sure."

"I really do live in the danger zone though~" he smiled. "When you become adventurers, you might become my customers too. If you remain my ally, I'll give you some discounts."

At this, the two just ignored him. They had no idea what he was rambling about, but it was clear that they had to start moving.

They all had their weapons out and used a triangular position as they walked. Finn took the front area, simply because Remus had trust issues and refused, while Maria had no idea where to go.

The other two guarded the flank and their rear, ready for monsters that came their way. The other two looked very tense, definitely afraid to encounter a monster, while Finn was just guarded, ready for any attacks.

Speaking of which, Finn seriously couldn't get used to how few monsters were here. After so long, they had yet to encounter one. Deeper in Level 1, one wouldn't go through 10 minutes of travel without encountering a small mob (assuming they didn't use repellents).

They only encountered a pair of monsters about half an hour after they were dropped. Finn stepped forward and immediately faced one, while the other two worked together for the other.

Fortunately, the other two were not too helpless. If they weren't, they wouldn't have upgraded a tier at all. Of course, while it was possible to level up by absorbing a small mountain of essence cores, a certain minimum physique was still needed if one didn't want to die by essence poisoning.

Syl mentioned it to him before, particularly in relation to absorbing cores beyond his rank. A similar problem could occur for those dependent on cores.

He did hear (this time from the adventurers) that there was a workaround called 'cleansing'. In this case, a certain specialization of healers would purge the body of undigested essence.

However, those were extremely expensive. Then again, most of the people who could afford to be completely dependent on cores could probably afford such treatment, too.

That said, he doubted his two teammates had resources like that, and this meant that even if they bought a portion of their cores from the markets, they'd still have had to train by themselves and gather a few cores by themselves.

He looked at the monster, which looked a bit like a turkey, but uglier and black in color. Without further ado, he swung his weapon with grace and expertise, and the monster barely stood a chance.

[Killed! Jujume (Awakened)]

Finn was the first to get rid of the monster, within a few strikes. The two gaped at him and struggled, unable to make lethal injuries even after a minute.

It was here that Finn really appreciated the difference between actual adventures compared to those who just stayed in the safe zone. There was also a factor of weapons, of course, though maximizing them would still need skill.

"If you need help, just tell me," he said, kneeling down beside the monster to get some meat as well as the core. He had used his ability on the pair of monsters and determined that one of them was tier 3 and had a core, so he attacked it first.

He could've attacked the other one immediately after dealing with this one, but he saw that his teammates were pretty decent. He'd like to give them a chance.

Unsurprisingly, they did not ask for his help, and they took care of it about another ten minutes later, which was relatively normal for a small team handling a monster of the same level.

The two heaved deep breaths as the monster they were fighting finally fell down, and they turned to look at Finn, who had taken care of another monster!

"..."

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