The Evolution of a Goblin to the Peak

"Do you want to gather points in this outdoor training or not?" Souta asked his team members. He looked into their eyes with a serious expression. The challenges that the institute gave them were easy. He could complete it whenever he wanted.

"I don't care about it. I'll just go with the majority." Alice replied to him as she crossed her arms.

"I got it." Souta nodded at her, and he looked at Yujin, Lynn, and Lumilia. He didn't need to ask Lumilia at all. He already knew her answer, so that leaves Lynn and Yujin.

"It's fine for me. I wanted to test my skills, and fighting other students is a part of training too." Lumilia answered.

"M-Mila..." Lynn looked at her friend. She actually doesn't want to fight, but it seems that all of her teammates wanted to fight other classes.

Lumilia looked at her and placed her mouth closer to Lynn's ear. She whispered, "I thought that you wanted to fight beside Souta. That's the reason why you started to train, right?"

"B-But... I'm still weak." Lynn spoke with a downcast expression.

Souta heard her words. He looked at her and said, "You're not weak. It's just that your fighting style isn't compatible with your talent. You'll get stronger if you change it."

Lynn wasn't compatible with burst-type mage. She was too kind and probably couldn't kill a person. She was suited to be a support type or sensory type. If she trains her skills, she will become great at both types.

"R-Really?" Lynn asked with a doubtful expression. She thought that Souta was just saying good things so that she wouldn't feel down.

"I'm not joking. I'm going to explain it to you later." Souta said this to her with a smile. He then looked at Yujin with a serious look.

Lumilia stood up and said, "I'm going to get water." She walked toward the door and stopped. She turned her head and glanced at Lynn and Souta. She then opened the door and exited the room.

Alice was looking at Lumilia from the corner of her eyes. She followed Lumilia's line of sight.

"Hmm..." The corner of her mouth curled upward.

"Fine, we'll gather points," Yujin said with a sigh. He leaned his back against the wall and looked at the ceiling. "We have to get stronger, so we have to do it."

"Good... That's a good decision." Souta said as he couldn't help but grin. There's another reason why he wanted to complete the task. And that's because several quests popped up in his system when he received the challenges and tasks of this outdoor training.

This was the reason why Souta liked the special events at the institute. He could earn a lot of points by defeating other students. In this quest, he didn't need to put his life on the line.

Alice then opened her mouth and asked, "What should we do now? I already finished the solo challenge."

"Hmm...?" Souta rubbed his chin before he said, "Let's make this place our base of operations to complete the other challenge. Then, everyone will go out to complete the solo challenge."

He looked at Alice and added, "If you don't want to go, you can stay here. After all, you already completed your solo challenge."

"I'll go. I have nothing to do here," Alice shook her head and said.

"Okay." Souta nodded at her. "We have to do the challenges every day, so tomorrow, please wake up early in the morning. We'll complete our challenge then defeat the other class."

"You make it sound easy," Alice said to him.

"Um... Souta is strong. He fought several classes on his own in the special test before," Lynn said to Lumilia.

"Haha, don't be like that, Lynn. The other classes are training hard, so we don't know if their improvements are high or not," Souta laughed and said to Lynn.

Lumilia then entered the room. She gave everyone a glass of water. Everyone thanked her for the water.

"Hu~"

Souta exhaled after he drank a glass full of water. He looked at Lumilia and said, "I'll tell you our plan. After I explain it, tell us your opinion."

"Okay." Lumilia nodded at him. She then took out a towel and gave it to Souta.

"Thanks..." Souta took the towel in her hands and wiped his face. He then proceeded to explain his plan to her, to which she agreed.

...

Late at night...

Souta, Lumilia, Yujin, and Lynn have already finished their solo challenges. They didn't have a problem with it except for Lynn. Lynn was quite nervous when she fought a single, ferocious wolf.

Lumilia, Yujin, and Alice were watching her fights while Souta was coaching her. He was teaching her as she lost her composure. Because of this, the ferocious wolf almost injured her. Luckily, everyone was watching her, so they managed to decapitate the ferocious wolf before it caught Lynn.

It took them almost three hours before they managed to complete their solo challenge. Well, they got delayed because of Lynn. Souta didn't blame her because he knew that she was timid. He patiently coached her on how to hunt monsters.

"I-I'm sorry everyone, you got delayed because of me." Lynn bowed her head in front of her teammates.

"It's okay, Lynn..." Lumilia said to her friend with a concerned look.

Alice and Yujin didn't say anything. They just glanced at Souta, who was looking at Lynn.

"I'm going to tell the truth..." Souta said as he massaged his temples. "Your performance was bad. Too bad you're trembling in front of an opponent that you could defeat. You are not thinking of defeating it. You don't have any guards. You're full of holes."

Lynn lowered her head as she looked down at her feet. She felt her heart tightening every time she heard the words that came out of Souta's mouth.

"You're a mage, am I right? So you should know the basic fundamentals of being a mage." Souta looked at Lumilia and asked, "Teacher Bargan though it to us, right class rep?"

"...Yes," Lumilia replied to him in a low voice.

"You're a trained mage, so you could handle that level of monster," Souta said to her. He then sighed when he saw Lynn's eyes getting wet.

"Okay, this is outdoor training. I don't want to hear any complaints from you. I'm going to train you." Souta said, and he turned around.

Lynn opened her eyes widely when she heard Souta's words. She lifted her head and saw Souta's back. She then smiled and said, "Yes, I'll do my best."

When Souta was reprimanding her, she felt pain. Her heart was tightening. When she thought that Souta was disappointed in her, she felt like crying. She's supposed to show her good side to Souta.

"Okay, let's go back and rest," Souta said as he started to walk. He rubbed his chin and thought about what class was compatible with Lynn. Support type or sensory type, maybe hybrid, but it will become harder, and it will depend on her talent.

He should ask her if she still has points. That way she could redeem some spells and skills that would complement her talent.

'Well, self-defense comes first. She will not be able to complete this training if she doesn't know some fighting skills.' Souta thought as he took a swift glance in Lynn's direction.

Yujin looked back at the corpse of the monster that they had hunted. He pulled it towards the village.

...

They entered the Ibish village and met Randolf's group.

Randolf looked at Souta and said, "I know you. You're planning to take those points, am I right?"

Souta just glanced at him and didn't say anything. He walked away without saying anything to Randolf. Lumilia, Alice, Yujin, and Lynn followed Souta from behind.

"Haha, battles... In every big battle, you're always involved. You can't hide it." Randolf laughed as he walked outside the village. He then added, "Be careful of this village..."

...

After one day...

Souta's group has already finished their challenges for today. Their challenge was the same as yesterday; the only difference was that they had to hunt five monsters today.

It was already noon when they finished their challenges.

"Let's rest here for a while," Souta said to his teammates. Everyone agreed with him. Well, they knew that Lynn was tired and needed to rest to recover some of her energy.

"Are you fine, Lynn?" Lumilia asked her friend with a concerned look.

"Thanks for worrying, Mila. I'm fine. I could handle it." Lynn said this to Lumilia with a wry smile.

Souta looked around. He noticed something, so he asked Lumilia, "This is a large village. Am I right class rep?"

"Yeah, why?" Lumilia nodded at him and asked.

At this time, Yujin opened his mouth and said, "So you noticed it too..."

"Yes, you could barely see any people wandering around this village," Souta said.

"You're right. I'm wondering too, why..." Yujin said as he looked around.

"Now that you mention it... We were too busy yesterday to notice it." Alice nodded at them.

"Do you want me to go to the Adventurers Guild and gather some information?" Lumilia suggested it to Souta.

"Nope, we'll all go there. The institute didn't forbid us from taking any quests. We could earn some money from taking quests there." Souta stood up and said, "Let's take a look. Don't worry about the task. We can complete it anytime since there's no time limit."