The forest became noisy soon. Not only the monsters, but the trainees inside the forest also added to the noises.
On the other hand, Noel kept his silence while looking around, trying to find anything glowing in the darkness. After all, they were either humans or demons.
After waiting for half an hour, Noel found a pair of eyes shining in the darkness.
In an instant, he knew it wasn't a human because the pair of eyes was at his waist's level. There was no way a human would be that short.
Taking out his sword, Noel came out of his hidden spot, showing himself.
As he expected, the pair of eyes started running toward him. The closer it became, the clearer he could see the demon's figure.
The demon turned out to be a snake. Although barely, he could see that the snake was at around 20 meters. That was why rising its head alone could reach one meter high. The body was big. In fact, Noel knew the snake wouldn't have a hard time in swallowing him.
'Finally! We have a demon snake. According to Sir Shale, Demon Snake is dangerous, but extremely useful! Its skin is usually used for clothing material, its poison can be used to deal with other demons, and its meat is one of the most delicious among others. However, the demon snake can incapacitate you easily, so you need…'
As he recalled Shale's lesson, Noel moved to the right, baiting the demon to a tree.
As expected, the demon circled the tree and started climbing it even though Noel only faked his climb.
Before he reached the top, Noel jumped off the tree, seeing two-thirds of the demon snake's body was already on the tree. Without hesitation, Noel struck this tree with all his strength, chopping it down.
The tree fell down, crushing the demon snake. However, the demon was sturdier than Noel expected.
Some of the branches pierced the demon snake's skin, but the demon snake could still move, snapping those branches from the tree itself.
"Tsk. As expected, it won't go down so easily." Noel clicked his tongue and started running again.
This time, Noel moved to a small plain within the forest.
Since a spike or a pitfall wouldn't work for a snake, Noel had prepared something else to kill the snake.
Noel entered a trunk lying on the ground and crawled inside to bait the snake. Of course, he wouldn't dare to do this if the snake was near him, but the snake was slowed down by the first trap. It was also injured.
So, Noel entered the trunk and crawled as fast as possible. This trap was best to utilize when there were other people, but because he was alone, he needed to do that first trap.
Luckily, the moment the snake entered the trunk, Noel's upper body had come out, allowing him to push himself out of the trunk, trapping the snake inside.
Noel smirked. Now that the snake had entered, it wouldn't be smart enough to move backward. Hence, the snake would most likely move forward to the other end.
With the addition of the snake's long body, it made the aim easier.
As soon as half of the snake body entered the trunk, Noel swung his sword as hard as possible, cutting the trunk as well as the snake into half.
The hollow trunk was split into two as Noel's sword cut half of the snake's body.
"Tsk. I couldn't see the snake body's earlier, so I swung in a wrong angle." Noel clicked his tongue and pulled his sword back before cutting the snake once again.
Medal: Military Service Merit
Requirement: Kill 10 Demons (6/10)
Reward: Military Service Medal and 3 Honor Points
Noel felt relieved when he checked his system. The snake had truly died.
"Well, I should skin the snake and take out its meat for food. As for the poison… I will do that later. At least, I should be able to get some money.
When he was about to pull the snake out, Noel heard a scream coming toward him.
"Move that way! I will stall them a bit."
Two of the voices were female while the other one was a male.
Noel put down the snake without hesitation and looked at the sound's direction while furrowing his eyebrows. "Should I save them? But that direction… I should have put a trap there… Tsk. I should go then!"
Noel clicked his tongue and rushed to meet these three people.
Surprisingly, he recognized one of the women in this group. She was one of the people that ignored him when everyone looked at them in contempt.
"She was that female with a sharp gaze. I don't know her name, but she's considered one of the best trainees. She's holding back two demons by herself?" Noel widened his eyes, finally knowing her true strength. However, there was a concern in her eyes.
"Her teammates seem to be useless. And that woman can't see where she is going because she's too occupied. If this continues, she will activate one of my traps and die."
Noel narrowed his eyes. "I should save them then. It's not like I'm going to become friends with them… I only save them simply because it can progress my mission." Noel shook his head and positioned himself between the woman and the trap. Of course, he was behind the tree.
Using the darkness, he hid until she was only a few steps away from the traps before leaping toward her.
He tackled her and pushed her to the side. Of course, Noel clung to her body so both of them crashed to the ground together.
"Gah!" The woman coughed when she received the tackle as it was quite painful. Even Noel used her as a cushion to soften his fall.
"You?!" The woman wanted to complain, but Noel ignored her and hurriedly stood up, looking at the two demons.
One of them was stabbed by the spikes while the other barely avoided it with only its thigh getting pierced by a spike.
"Hurry up and stand up! This is the best chance to kill them!" Noel shouted while stabbing the dying them to make sure it died.