Far From Male Copper

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am the examiner for this year's exam—Hutori."

The examiner, who called himself Hutori, was not nervous facing the gazes of the examinees.

"The venue for this year's exam is this Monster Forest on the Aijin Continent."

"Because we felt it would be too much trouble to change the venue, all of us examiners decided to just do it all in one place this year."

"The exam content concerns two aspects—treasure hunting and gourmet food." Hutori stood in the center of the crowd with his arms crossed, his voice steady.

"Regarding treasure hunting, I'll explain it," Bindo suddenly walked into view from behind the crowd, speaking with a gentle expression.

"Simply put, several of us examiners have buried quite a bit of treasure in this forest, and you need to find them within the next seven days. Only the top ten examinees who find the treasure with the highest value will pass," he said with a smile, his demeanor a bit too gentle.

Rogov, whose face was faintly turning green, also slowly spoke up, "Gourmet food means that for the seven days of the exam, your task is to prepare our three meals. If any one of us three finds it unpalatable, you will fail."

"Of course, if you manage to impress all three of us with a single meal during the exam period, you will pass."

"Only those who pass both will be considered truly qualified."

Most people present looked troubled.

Fighting and killing was easy for them, but cooking...

Hutori stood to the side, his voice low, "I have no requirements."

After all, just finding the treasure with the highest value was enough to disqualify many.

"Now, the exam begins," Bindo announced, clapping his hands.

In an instant, most of the examinees rushed off in all directions, their figures disappearing into the forest in the blink of an eye.

As for the remaining small portion, like Su Wu, like the few drowned rats who had just crawled out of the sea and were lying on the ground, and also like...

Hisoka, who only slowly followed after the two non-humans started moving.

Good, the pervert's attention is completely diverted by the two non-humans. I don't have to worry about him sticking to me.

Although it's not good to say this, but...

I'm really not gay, Hisoka should go play with someone else.

Su Wu thought expressionlessly, got up, and disappeared into the forest with a few leaps.

It wasn't very convenient to use Swiftness in the forest due to the excessive trees, but fortunately, his speed wasn't slow to begin with.

Treasure isn't alive and doesn't have any so-called energy, so it should be difficult to find.

However, the people who buried the treasure had energy, and the treasures that passed through their hands would have residual traces of energy. Therefore, by following those subtle residual energies, one could find the location where the items were hidden.

For Su Wu, the most difficult parts were actually appraising the treasure's value and personally preparing food.

Heaven knows his living standards were infinitely close to zero. He had never even washed his own clothes before. Even after arriving in Meteor City, he didn't wash them himself, as he had the children of District 12 help him.

The children naturally disagreed at first, but after his "physical persuasion," they had no choice but to agree with tears in their eyes.

After he left Meteor City, he would just throw away his dirty clothes and buy new ones, and he always ate at restaurants.

He had never bothered himself with such matters.

"I have no idea about the value, I'm not some jewelry appraiser..." Su Wu stood in front of a tree, looking up at it.

It was a tree about five meters tall, purple-black in color, with black holes on its trunk that resembled eyes and a mouth. It even had branch-like appendages on both sides that looked like hands.

The art style was very sanity-draining, like a plant from a bizarre world.

Especially when Six Eyes observed that this tree's life energy was more vigorous than that of ninety percent of the examinees.

"Devil Tree?" Su Wu casually gave the tree a name.

Then, the tree suddenly moved.

The hole on the trunk, which should have been its mouth, opened wide, emitting a chanting sound as if from hell, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—"

Black, thorny vines swung around, as if dancing, but they whipped towards Su Wu every time.

It was clearly an attack.

"So unpleasant..." Su Wu covered his ears, his expression of disgust clearly visible.

He couldn't stand it anymore.

He extended his left hand, and a black-blue energy ball gradually grew in his palm. The invisible gravitational pull drew surrounding fallen leaves towards him, only to be instantly crushed into powder. Even the leaves of the grass and trees were forced to turn towards him.

"Screech—" The black-blue energy ball was pushed towards the tree.

In the next instant, where the tree had been, only a scorched pit remained.

A long, scorched gully also appeared in front of it.

"Well, after all, Cang is a large-area attack..." Su Wu retracted his hand, looking at the scene and nodding with slight satisfaction.

The power of the Azure he used now was much greater than when he first used it.

"I shouldn't be penalized for destroying the greenery here, right?" he pondered.

Since it's being used as an exam venue, it should be fine, right?

He squatted down, pushed aside the scorched soil beneath the tree roots, and dug out a treasure chest.

Opening the chest, he saw a mirror inside. The silver frame was inlaid with sapphires, and the mirror surface was clear.

It looked quite nice, but "Silverware probably isn't worth much, though the sapphires on it might be a bit pricey..." Su Wu weighed the mirror in his hand.

"However, with antiques, if they have a special history, their value becomes extraordinary..." He examined the mirror, contemplating whether it possessed any such special history.

But he knew absolutely nothing about the historical background of this world.

This was the first time in Su Wu's life he'd experienced the pain of insufficient knowledge.

He was, in fact, illiterate.

"There's no other way, only one method left," Su Wu sighed, making his decision.

The proctor didn't say we couldn't steal, did they? As long as everyone else couldn't find treasure, and only he had it, wouldn't his treasure be the most valuable?

He'd decided. After everyone else found their treasure, he'd go and steal all their treasures.

After all, some people would definitely either not find treasure at all or die by the hands of Magical Beasts or plants.

Just like the mirror he found, it was buried next to the roots of that Devil Tree.

Other treasure chests were probably placed next to some strange plants or in the lairs of dangerous beasts.

He just needed to keep an eye on everyone's movements with Six Eyes, ready to loot at any moment.

"Everyone, keep up the good work."

"How good my results will be depends on how hard you all work," he said, sitting on a branch, leaning against the trunk, admiring the moon, his voice full of cheer.

From this angle, the moon was beautiful tonight too.

Of course, the pathetic and ugly states of the other examinees were even more worth looking forward to.

He should add a little more fuel to the fire.

He closed his eyes and observed the surrounding life energy. When he detected two individuals about to encounter each other, he opened his eyes.

He pushed off the tree trunk with his right foot, and his figure vanished from the spot.