CHAPTER 364: LAST ONE TO LEAVE

"That hunter is creepy." Lala murmured, burying herself in Coco’s hair. "Why does he keep looking at you?"

The garden fairy kept her gaze at the hunter with red eyes, who had done nothing, but let his gaze flicker towards Coco on every given chance.

Why would the high raining hunter look at Coco like that anyway? She hasn’t done anything wrong.

"Just ignore it." Coco mumbled, keeping her voice as low as she could and kept walking a few steps behind her team and Myra’s team.

The seven of them— Myra’s team, hers, and the high ranking hunter— are walking towards the gates of the city because the third stage of the examination will be starting in thirty minutes.

The guild master didn’t let them use any carriage nor the teleportation port because the instructors needed to bond with the teams they chose.

Unfortunately for Coco’s and Myra’s team, Greinzer is such a stoic and uptight individual.

Yura, Zuyo, and Lukas had tried to talk to Greinzer, throwing a joke here and there, but the hunter didn’t budge and just stared ahead— if not, he would be glancing over his shoulder to look at Coco, for some unknown reason.

His action made Coco take a few steps back and eventually found herself walking beside Myra, but soon, she also let Myra walk ahead of her.

Konoha, who could sense the stares every now and then, would get her eyes dilated and stare back at the hunter, silently daring him to continue staring at her master, but of course, Greinzer didn’t know this and continued what he was doing.

This exchange continued until they finally reached the gate, getting greeted by the sight of the guild master talking to the captain who is in charge of the city gates.

"Go stand outside." Greinzer spoke up and pointed towards the other examinees who were already outside of the city gates. "I’ll join you once we’re done with our quick briefing with the guild master."

Coco felt relieved upon hearing those words and was the first one to walk away from the group.

"Wait for me, Coco!" Yura called out and was the second person to follow the black haired woman out of the city to the outside of the gates.

"Well, don’t be too long ’cause I’m already itching to beat some monsters." Lukas said, more directly towards Greinzer than anyone else and followed behind the two women who left him alone with the other team.

"Be quick, teach’." Zuyo chimed in, waving a hand and running after Lukas.

Myra and the other man of their team, Julian, wordlessly walked away from Greinzer, their footsteps unhurried and dragging as they followed behind their energetic team member.

They watched as Zuyo smacked Lukas on the back, making the taller man stumble forward from surprise.

The two of them approached Coco and Yura, which soon got followed by Myra and Julian who immediately placed themselves behind Coco, hiding from the prying eyes of other examinees.

Unbeknownst to Coco, the moment she stepped out of the city gates, the other examinees’ shifted their attention to her, scrutinizing, mocking, and analyzing.

However, none of them have the courage to actually talk down on Coco out of fear that they may get clocked.

It took the high ranking hunters five minutes before they were allowed to go back to their chosen teams with a glowing machinery on their hands, the guild master was right behind their trail as he went to the entrance of the forest.

"Listen, everyone!" Mr. Covez called, catching everyone’s attention. "Your instructors have a counter that will record the number of monsters that your team has killed."

To prove what he was saying, the hunters raised their hands to let the examinees see the device they were holding.

"Each instructor has two counters for each team!" The guild master said, smiling gleefully. "But that doesn’t mean that you won’t help the other team to kill theirs if they were struggling."

"I’m sure they can handle themselves.." Lala commented, trailing off, frowning as she looked at Myra and her team members. "Because they look strong."

"The purpose of this stage is to see if you can operate with others even if you have a team you have to prioritize." The man said, slowly taking a step to the side and motioning towards the forest.

"Now, first team, please proceed." He gestured to the path ahead, letting the first team know that they were first to move.

"Already?" A whine came from the group, but they still moved along as their instructor led them to the forest.

"Five minutes before the next team has to move along." The guild master announced and walked away from the entrance, taking a seat on a wooden chair that one of the high ranking hunters just placed on the side.

"Five minutes for each team?" Coco raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "What number are we?"

As she asked the question, she turned her head to look at Greinzer who was already looking at her with an unreadable look in his eyes.

"This creep just keeps staring!" Lala huffed, her voice dripping with annoyance.

"We’re the last group to leave." Greinzer answered, a monotonous voice reaching their ears that sounded gruff with displeasure.

"What?!" Lukas and Zuyo simultaneously exclaimed, whipping their heads to look at Greinzer.

"What?" Greinzer repeated, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Why are we the last to leave?" Yura complained, motioning towards the entrance of the forest. "Aren’t we supposed to be the first group to leave? All of the instructors ran to us first when you were told to choose your teams!"

Everyone turned their attention back to Greinzer, their eyebrows raising to their hairline.

"She got a point." Myra stated bluntly.

"Don’t complain to me." Greinzer said with a grunt, shooting a glare at the whining examinees. "I’m not the one who decided for our group to be the last one to leave."

"Was it the guild master?" Zuyo questioned.

"Who else?"