Of course, that brought back terrible memories of the other time when Alicia and the others held a campfire party outside Jing Tian City, only for a rank B Crastrate to crash the party and ma.s.sacre a good number of students. Charles did caution against the use of a campfire, reminding the students that the heat, light, smoke and noise would draw monsters toward our location. Then again, like many normal animals, monsters tended to avoid fires because they could be destroyed by the ferocious element. There were plenty of exceptions, but the students didn't let that fact get in the way of having fun.

But other than the campfire, there wasn't much we could do about the food and drinks. Charles was pretty resourceful, fortunately, and organized a hunting party. That was something I excelled in, so I joined in, and we managed to get a bunch of Blood Boars and other monsters for barbeque and grilling over the fire. A few other mages also collected jars of water, and using natural herbs and honey found in the forest, concocted sweet drinks that we could enjoy. Even better, those herbs and spices that grew in the wild could be used to season the boar meat that we grilled and barbequed.

Wait, several readers cried. If you can eat monster meat, then why can't you gain the properties or physical strength and magic of those monsters?

Because no such convenient plot device existed. Come on, dudes. Do you guys gain the ability to fly after eating pigeons or birds? Do you grow hooves when you eat pork or beef? Do you grow feathers after eating chickens? No, right? So what made you think we suddenly gain new magical abilities and whatnot if we eat monster meat? They were no more nutritional than normal animals. What, you think this was another one of those cheat stories where the protagonist exploited the system and gained an infinite number of abilities by eating lots and lots of monsters, to the point where the writer essentially lost track of how many abilities or what abilities his protagonist has?

No. I wasn't some overpowered Mary Sue protagonist who could conveniently gain new abilities through eating monster meat and stuff. Sorry, but such convenient stuff doesn't happen in reality.

Even so, that didn't stop monsters from wanting to eat us, so I offered to stand guard and watch from the perimeter of the campfire, to ensure we didn't get ambushed by a bunch of ravenous monsters while we were busily celebrating the demise of Ji Xuan.

"Here, eat something." Theodore ventured over and pa.s.sed me a huge chunk of seasoned Blood Boar meat. I gratefully accepted it and began eating it. "You're the one who volunteered to hunt these guys. It's only natural you get to eat them."

"I got them for everyone to eat." Honestly, this wasn't the first time. I had been hunting throughout my stint in the forest. Lilith probably knew best, because she had no choice but to eat with me after I hunted a Blood Boar and roasted it over a fire. Actually, she was pretty grateful for it, because it beat the bland rations that we had been handed at the beginning of the training camp.

Speaking of which, she was currently hanging out with the other girls, Cecilia and Kureha, who were shadowed by Chang Cheng and Doug, and a couple of other students from Kureha's school. They did trade a few words with me earlier, but other than that we didn't have much interaction. What? You think they were heroines in some harem story who would inexplicably stalk me? Lilith only accompanied me because she relied on my help to evade Ji Xuan's a.s.sa.s.sins and strike back at them. Cecilia and I hardly had any interaction at all, and she wasn't interested in me. Kureha appreciated my help, but that was the extent of our relations.h.i.+p. She wasn't, as some readers suspected, a "harem member." Seriously, girls weren't going to fall for me just by virtue of me walking on two legs. They had completely no reason to fall for me and start behaving like brainless cardboard stalkers whose existence revolved solely around me, and trying to win my affections.

They had better things to do with their lives, and their own personal goals and social lives. They had no reason to overly worry about me or cling onto me like 99% of the heroines in Chinese web novels or j.a.panese light novels. The girls I met didn't exist solely to fall in love with me. They were real, living, breathing people with their own lives, agendas, personalities and social circles. Not desperate, thirty thots that existed to cling onto my arm 24/7 and start behaving rabidly and becoming jealous whenever I met a new girl, or deciding for some inane reason to come to a tactic understanding and accept being in a harem that centered around one guy.

They weren't that shallow or one-dimensional. And let me be frank, just because a beautiful girl showed up in front of me, doesn't mean she was automatically a love interest or harem member. Give them more respect than that, please. Beautiful girls and strong female characters could exist on their own without being automatically subjected to the bulls.h.i.+t love interest or harem member treatment. I knew that ran contrary to popular belief and readers seeking wish fulfilment power fantasies where they could self-insert themselves into a bland, boring protagonist (yes, I know I'm bland and boring) while reveling in the feeling of being surrounded by beautiful heroines who existed solely to pander to their "alpha" male ego and indulge in their harem fantasies.

Sorry, but this was not that kind of story.

"Your s.h.i.+ft is over, Richard. I'll take over for the next couple of hours."

Harrison came over, chewing on some barbequed Blood Boar meat. I shook my head.

"Nah, I'm good. I'm not really fond of dealing with crowds and I don't like partying. I'm fine staying where I am."

"Aw, you're no fun." Theodore snorted. "You should learn to live a little."

"I have. I'm still alive and living, am I not?"

"That's not what I mean…"

"He's just pretending. He knows what you mean." Harrison sounded dismissive. "And this is an order from your leader. You're not allowed to work overtime. You did your part and you deserve to have some time off. Go enjoy yourself."

"…yes, Great Leader."

I sighed and bowed submissively.

"You mean the Great Ruler," Theodore joked. Both Harrison and I glared at him.

"Hey, don't go raising a death flag. The last time some guy tried to be the Great Ruler, he ended up dying in the weirdest way possible. I mean, he was always meant to be a comic character, often labeled as The Great Pig by his friends, but when Mu Chen finally decided to encourage him to become the Great Ruler together with him, he went and died in the next episode…to some weird sneak attack. And instead of getting medical help or treating his injuries, Mu Chen and his friends wasted a lot of time wailing and acting sad over the tragedy as they watched Su Ling die. Like, seriously? Why didn't anyone treat his wounds or call for a doctor/healer?"

"…what are you talking about?" both my friends stared at me, bewildered. I scratched my head and sighed.

"Oh, looks like you guys didn't watch the animated adaptation."

They still had no idea what I was talking about, so I gave up and wandered back into the party, with Theodore tagging along. As I did so, Charles approached.

"Thanks for your hard work." He nodded in the direction of Harrison. "You guys don't really have to stand watch, you know. You should just relax…all of us have earned it."

"Nah. I didn't survive this long just to let my guard down and get killed by monsters right after the final boss battle."

Charles chuckled at that, then he shook his head and gestured to a makes.h.i.+ft table. We ended up using one of the trees we had chopped down for firewood to serve as a table, placing its trunk across the clearing and placing the bottles there.

"Go get some drinks. I recommend the honey tea. Somehow Claudia succeeded in brewing some tea with the leaves we found."

Claudia was one of the students at Charles's Pendragon Academy. Just like Charles, she was also dressed in gleaming silver armor, but with red and white hints. Instead of the White Tiger crest that Charles sported, the white heraldry on her gleaming armor was resplendent with crimson crosses. Harrison had called her a Paladin, as if that meant anything.

She was also a great tea brewer, and had somehow succeeded in concocting red tea with the leaves she found in the forest. I swear, she practically cooked up her own homebrewed Earl Grey tea in the Spiritual Road with nothing more than a bottle and a mess tin.

I took Charles's advice and went off to get some tea, remembering to get a cup for Harrison, who was on sentry duty. Charles went off to speak to Cecilia and the rest. I wasn't interested in eavesdropping and honestly, who the girls socialized with was none of my business. So I wandered to a quiet spot and practically dozed off.

Before I knew it, dawn was breaking over the horizon, with the forest bathed in gentle sunlight. Harrison was also asleep, having long since rotated out of his s.h.i.+ft and handed it over to Theodore.

However, even Theodore had completed his s.h.i.+ft and went to rest, and Charles's cla.s.smate was keeping watch now, sipping from his bottle some tea as he stared into the forest blankly. Fortunately, unlike that time with the campfire incident, there was no monster that crashed our party and ma.s.sacred the survivors.

"Gawain…right?"

Gawain looked up as I approached. I waved and plastered on a smile.

"You can go rest now. I'll take over."

"No need for that. Everyone's going to wake up soon anyway." He raised his bottle in salute. "I wonder what's going to happen next."

"That's a good question." the both of us jolted, startled, at Charles's voice. We didn't realize he was awake and nearby. He didn't seem to notice our astonishment, and continued calmly. "I believe most of us think we'll just go back to competing against each other and collecting blood tokens. After all, the reason for our alliance is gone. There really isn't anything tying our coalition together anymore."

"So…we're going to start fighting again?" I asked dryly. Charles shrugged.

"Honestly, I would prefer to avoid that if I could help it. I'm sick of fighting in the Spiritual Road, of all the cutthroat compet.i.tion. It's precisely because of such nonsense that people like Ji Xuan resorted to such lengths to dominate over the others." He glanced up at the brightening sky. "Furthermore, it was so difficult to convince everyone to establish this alliance. I would hate for it to be dissolved so easily. It felt like we were…comrades, you know?"

"I know how you feel, but that's not for me or you to decide." Gawain sighed as he continued crouching down on the dirt, his blue and silver armor unmarred by the soil somehow. I bet it was magic. "It's probably not even up to anyone here, but to the teachers and higher-ups who organized the Spiritual Road."

"…yeah. I know." Charles took a deep breath. "But if there was another way, I would…"

He never got to finish his sentence. The heavens split open and a golden pillar of light shone down on the campfire site. The three of us stared up in awe, our jaws dropping.

"What the h.e.l.l?!" Theodore mumbled as he jumped up, fumbling around. Harrison, in contrast, was already prepared for combat, beginning to cast his spells as if he had never been asleep. Similarly, Claudia was already up and armed, her armor looking as resplendent as ever. Cecilia, Kureha, Lilith, Chang Cheng and Doug were also braced for battle, despite having woken up only seconds ago. There was no sign of them being bleary-eyed.

I was kind of jealous. I didn't possess such battle sense or instincts. Normally, when I was rudely roused to wakefulness, I would be half-confused and partially in a foul mood at having my sleep disturbed.

"Relax," a voice boomed from above. "I'm Ling Dao."

"The director in charge of the Spiritual Road and the ultimate authority," Charles whispered in a reverential tone.

As if he hadn't heard him, or he couldn't care less, Ling Dao continued, his disembodied voice continuing to resonate across the entire forest.

"Today, I declare the Spiritual Road over. All of you have braved the ordeal with admirable resolve and tremendous tenacity. Well done. You have survived until the end of the Spiritual Road, and for that, you shall be rewarded handsomely for your efforts. You will be granted your spot of choice among any one of the Five Great Academies."