Watching the 6 other members of his group fight, revealed that Cardin and his band of boot lickers, were indeed rather capable when it comes to fighting Grimm. Even the two additional fighters were quickly integrated into their formation and while it was nowhere near perfect, it got the job done with only the occasional hiccup.
A swipe to slow here, a wrongly held block there, sometimes letting a Grimm get too close to the backline. But all in all the Grimm were killed with decent speed and Y/n did not have to step in because the group lacked skill, however the mass of Grimm demanded for Y/n's intervention.
Y/n: "Stay near mister Gunde, Fen." The wolf nodded and sat down, ready to kill any Grimm that was stupid enough to come closer to the worker driving the carriage. With a small grunt Y/n got up from his seat and walzed up to the closest group of Grimm.
Grimm-Splitter was true to its name and quickly turned the beasts of darkness into puffs of smoke. However there was little to know enjoyement from this fight. No excitement. The Canis, their Alphas and the Boarbatusk here and there were nothing compared to any of the Grimm Y/n had fought before. He still could remember the Initiation and his struggle with the Grimm he currently crushes under his feet, quiet literally too, as he had stomped on at least 8 Canis skulls by now. And the fight had just started less then a minute ago.
But the fight was only interesting due to his passive making him feel any excitement.
It is a well known fact that the easier something is, the less it adds towards reaching the next level. Not because you get less experience, for a Blacksmith the first nail made will give the same experience as the millionth, but it takes more experience for every level.
Take a Hero-In-Training as an example. The average level of the students applying to Beacon is 14. It took these students around 7 years of training to get to that level, as most households tend to start training their children at age 10. Since the only ways to gain experience for any Hero class are either completing Quests or killing enemies, it is common practice for Heroes to take their child out on hunts, where they will help them kill low level Grimm until they are strong enough to hunt those Grimm on their own.
In Vale the Grimm most young Heroes will hunt until they join Beacon, are Canis. It took Y/n a bit over 20 Canis to level up from level 12 to 13, and by the time he left the Trap Dungeon he was level 22 and had killed hundreds of Canis.
Now at level 43 it would take a couple thousand Canis to get him to level 44 and tens of thousands for the next level.
Every person on Remnant, even the odd case that was Y/n, instinctively knew when what they are doing no longer is worth the effort, when the work needed far outclasses the little experience rewarded.
For Heroes that usually means that they needed to find bigger Grimm to slay, harder Dungeons to clear, more difficult Quests to fulfill or stronger enemies to kill.
As such the current Grimm Y/n was slaughtering while thinking about what tonights dinner will be, really were not worth it. Hundreds of them now are equally valuable as a single nail back when he was level 10, that is to say, not much.
Thinking about it Y/n realized that the other three Class types had it a lot worse than the Heroes. They could only reach a specific level, usually level 40 for Soldiers, 30 for Nobles and 20 for Workers, due to not being able to go out and look for more valuable tasks.
A Blacksmith could go out of their way to gather rare materials and spent hours forging a set of armor, but if they can't sell it, it is not worth it. So instead they will work with common materials, repairing or forging regular items.
A Lord could go and gather more citizens to rule over, but Y/n was certain both the King and the other Nobles would have something to say if one of their fellow Lords suddenly has a far bigger population under their watch than what they had before.
And Soldiers, there are only so many criminals in Vale, and even those wont be of a high level either.
Additionally one only gains experience when finishing the work.
Only once the weapon is fully done does the Blacksmith gain the experience.
Only when a project is funished does a Noble get better.
Only once the Grimm is dead does a Hero grow stronger.
And only once the enemy is slain does a Soldier get more powerful.
This however means that unless there is a war or the criminal had to be put down before facing a court, Soldiers do not get any experience.
A very dedicated Worker can reach a higher level than the average Soldier guarding the Gates of Vale. Plus, if the two have classes that have the same Stat modifiers the two would have the same base stats. On paper a Worker, Soldier, Hero and Noble all with classes sharing the same Stats and on the same Level, could fight evenly matched. However that is only if you ignore outside experience and Skills.
The Worker and Noble would not know how to wield weapons very well. While also lacking skills helpful in a fight.
The fight between a Soldier and a Hero would be evenly matched as both sides will have skills aiding them in combat. Unless the Hero is a magic user, that fight has so many other factors effecting it.
Focusing back on the slaughtering of Grimm Y/n's gaze fell upon Cardin, who was currently staring down an Alpha Beowolf. The Fighter looked tired, but not struggeling. The rest of his group looked to be in similar states.
Grabbing the Beowolf that tried to snap its jaws shut around his throat, Y/n flung it with such a strength that it exploded into a puff of smoke upon impact with its alpha. The bigger Grimm was staggered and Cardin smart enough to use the moment to let his mace turn the beasts skull into a fine powder.
Cardin: "Thank you." The boy said, not even hesitating. Something which surprised Y/n.
Y/n: "You could have killed it without my help." Y/n said while ripping open another Beowolfs jaws. "The others are approaching and the campsite is almost cleared. You 6 can rest, I will deal with the rest."
Sky: "You sure?"
Y/n: "Yes, this is not part of the exam. Allow you to get the thirst for fighting out of my system before I will have to sit back and watch you have all the fun." That said Y/n quickly got into a sprint and rushed, axe raised high above his head, into the mass of Grimm that still stood.
The six members of his group watched him slowly disappear into the ever thickening cloud of dying Grimm. They occasionally winced at a particularly brutal takedown. They even felt pity for the Grimm, who are not even smart enough to run away.
It was not long till the next group of students arrived and they too were too stunt at the brutality shown before them.
Coco: "Damn Y/n is really letting lose... if that doesn't bring back memories I hoped to surpress until I die." The Archer, leading the group of second and third year students tasked with protecting the campsite and acting as emergency backup, said as she saw Y/n turn an Ursas head into thin powder using another Ursas leg.
Group after group arrived and soon the campsite was fully prepared. Tents have been set up for the groups. Campfires have been lit. Meals were being prepared.
Y/n was still slaying every Grimm he came upon.
It was till the sun began to rise on the next day that Y/n stopped killing Grimm. He was not fully mindlessly slaying them left and right, instead he first established a sizeable area around the camp that is clear of Grimm and once done he began to clear the quickest routes to every Dungeon he knew that would be cleared.
His passive "Workers Endurance" helped him not get tired. Weirdly enough the slaughtering of lower Grimm is considered mundane task by his passive.
Once the sun had fully risen over the horizon Y/n heard the loud banging of drums, used to wake up the students. The sound was followed by a chorus of groans.
It did take a bit till every student had fully risen from their slumber and prepared for their task ahead.
Only few of them knew that they will embark on the third big task of a Hero today.
Thanks to the 3rd and 4th year students that visit his forge and especially thanks to his friendship with Stahl, Y/n had learned that the jobs of a Hero can be devided into 4 groups, known as tasks.
The first and easiest task is a hunt, which means the slaying of Grimm outside of Dungeons and without being on a Quest.
The second task is a Quest, which can be slaying Grimm, clearing a pool, investigating certain things or fighting bandits too dangerous for the Soldiers to deal with. Hunting and bringing Heroes that abandoned their duties also fell into this group.
Then there is the third task, clearing a Dungeon. This can either be done with or without the added fact of it being the goal of a Quest. Depending on the type of Dungeon and what it looks like the final Boss could be left alive for a bit longer so scholars can investigate the insides of the Dungeons and write down anything that could be of use.
The last task, one most Heroes only really deal with near the end of their training, was an Adventure. An Adventure is at its most basic a long term Quest. It could be hunting down an entire cult over the area of multiple towns and cities, or it could be searching and recovering an ancient artifact. What has to be done on an Adventure does not fully matter, what does matter is the time it takes to complete the Adventure. The shortest recorded Adventure in the history of Remnant was the last Search for Gilgamesh, which took 4 months to be completed.
Soon a bunch of workers got to work on preparing a quick but filling breakfast for the students and once everyone had eaten and finished their last checks the groups went off to their respective Dungeons.
Y/ns group did not have to travel far to reach the broken remains of a bakery that housed their target.
Y/n: "Before we enter you should decide on two things, first the leader, that will be tasked with keeping the conditions of the groupmembers in check, make changes to the formation and give out orders, second will be the begining formation, it might be changed later, but the first formation is often the one you stay in the longest." Y/n explained to his group, all of them listened with great interest, even Cardin although he tried to act like he did not care.
The six other members of his group decided to make Cardin the leader, mainly it was his lackies voting for him that made that decision.
It took longer for them to decide on the formation. In the end Cardin would go first with Dove right next to him. The two were the best suited as the frontline. Behind Cardin and Dove would be Flora and Russle and behind them Sky and Jae. Y/n took the back, but stayed further away to allow Grimm an easier access to the backline, therefore making the experience as close to Y/n not being there as possible.
They saw the giant oven that once could bake at least 100 loafs of bread at once and that now allowed the group to enter into the Dungeon that formed a set of stairs leading into the ground.
Cardin took out a torch and got to work lighting it and once the flame burned brightly they began their decend into the darkness under the bakery. It took them a few minutes till they spotted the first light of the Dungeon. A few seconds later all except of Y/n looked in awe at the sight in front of them.
There, below the ruined city of Mount Glenn, they stood at the entrance to an underground paradise. Lush green grass, tall trees almost bending from all the fruit the bear and a perfectly clear stream leading right through the middle of it all.
It only took another second to remind the 6 students of Y/ns group that Dungeons were dangerous.
A swarm of black butterflies errupted from a tree that began to decay right as the almost invisible black powder that was shed from the wings of the Grimm touched it.
That is it for this chapter I hope you liked it.
Let me know in the comments below.
Wolfy out.