After the timer started, Imperium Master Tek and Magister Lavery entered the building, which turned out to be the magister’s place. The management has offered her a generous salary and a home as long as she would work for them. Her taking care of the North Forest was the result of that.

In contrast with Lavery’s messy appearance, the interior was neat and arranged. The floor was free of dust and not one piece of furniture was out of place.

“Your house is cleaner than yourself,” Tek insulted.

“Shut up! I don’t want those little chunks to rely on me if they see me at school. They have to earn my respect, of course,” Lavery reasoned out.

On the far side of the room, a desk with multiple black slates was placed like a grid. A controller powered by an artificial essence core was placed at the desk, and as Lavery pressed a button, the black slates were filling with images from the vision cores.

Rather than images, they were real-time feeds of Class 1A running through the forest. One vision core is above a small clearing with a wooden 10-by-10-foot crate standing in the center of it. It was so blatantly large and obvious that it would be in anyone’s instincts to rush towards it for the win.

“There’s something hidden beneath the coin stash, right?” Tek curiously noticed something different with the coin stash.

“Of course! I’m not a generous person, the 250 D-Coins isn’t just waiting for anyone like some type of dropped money,” Lavery responded with a smile.

After some time…

“10 minutes have passed, but nothing’s happened yet?” Lavery keeps switching the main screen, unable to focus on one student. “This year’s test is too boring.”

“You speak too early,” Tek was watching a particular student, “One of them has a power level of 34,220. It’ll be interesting to see how she controls her powers from injuring anyone severely.”

“Really, hmm…” Lavery was still unamused. “I’d like to see that person from the entrance exam, though. The one with the crazy summon!” She suddenly beamed up that she began looking at the grid of live feeds as well.

“They say that his summon has an estimated summon level of 670,000, but you never know!” She excitedly said.

Tek seems to recall that moment clearly when the summon disintegrated a whole uninhabited building block.

“A summon that wields blue flame, is it?” Tek mused.

—●—●—●—●—●

While Adrian was running, he activated his only passive skills.

“Passive Skills On: Featherfall, Jump Strength, Farsight.” His Featherfall passive lightens the weight in his whole body, prompting him to run faster than he could. He can also fall at a much slower pace. His Farsight passive allows him to see up to a distance of 250 meters. His Jump Strength passive increases his leg strength by 10%.

“Alright, this should help me avoid people,” He said to himself.

The time was ticking down, and there was still no sight of D-Coin stash nor any of his classmates. That is, until he heard an eagle cawing in the skies.

“CAW!” Its presence alerted him with its mighty call, and then it went silent.

Adrian’s instincts told him to slow his pace down so as to not make any increasing noise until he comes to a complete stop.

“I’m being watched,” Adrian thought. He surveyed his surroundings, but he didn’t see anyone. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up, as he let himself fall down to the ground.

He felt a strong breeze of air pass through his hair because of an eagle that swooped in from behind him. The eagle’s claws barely missed him.

Adrian gritted his teeth as he got back up to his feet, “That eagle’s trying to kill me!”

He put his hand on the ground as he uttered the skill, “Summon Skill: Hawking!” The ground glowed as a green summoning circle materialized from his palm at the center. A green glowing figure of a hawk emerged from the circle, and as it fully rose, its glowing figure disappeared, replaced with a summoned hawk.

“Hawking! Attack the eagle before it comes to me again!” Adrian ordered, and his Hawking complied. It flew in front of him to intercept the eagle, but before it could attack, the eagle bared its beak at his hawking.

It wasn’t an even match, as the eagle instantly killed his hawking. Adrian’s summon disappeared, only leaving a few green particles left from its essence.

He noticed a slice on the eagle’s head that glowed bright green, realizing that the eagle must’ve been a summon.

“High Leap!” Adrian cast his skill to jump sidewards with great speed and distance, avoiding the eagle’s lethal attack intentionally this time. As he recovered, he cast, “Summon Skills: Cavern Lion, Octofrogmin!”

Two monsters emerged from the summoning circle. A lion whose neck fur was silver-colored with a head of an artic panther, and a giant frog with four eyes on its head and four eyes on its back.

“Cavern Lion, attack any human you smell that you can right now. Octofrogmin, defeat the eagle that’s trying to kill me!”

And as Adrian’s summons started to move, he followed his Cavern Lion as it already detected someone close to them. “I knew it, someone’s attacking me from close by!”

Because of Adrian’s passive skills, he can keep up with the lion’s speed without putting much effort.

It didn’t take too long for his Cavern Lion to bare its iron-hard claws behind a tree, completely chipping it down with just a single slash. As he expected, he saw a black-haired male with white streaks of hair all over it.

He stroke an annoyed look at the lion as it tried to attack again.

“Great Shield!” His classmate casted, and a blue translucent shield appeared in front of him so he can defend against the lion’s attack.

“High Leap!” Adrian used this opportunity of distraction to quickly close his distance to the black-haired male and steal his status band, but a bored sigh came out of his classmate’s mouth.

“So weak,” He said, as he followed with a skill cast, “Air Explosion!”

A large gust of air exploded from him in all directions, throwing the Cavern Lion out of balance and him to the air. The exploded air was so strong that he flew to a tree. He crashed against it with his back but the force wasn’t as strong as it would be without his Featherfall passive.

He slowly fell to the ground as his back ached from the force of the crash he sustained, but he recovered just in time to see his Octofrogmin attacking the eagle from above with its long tongue. Because of the eyes behind the Octofrogmin, even the eagle couldn’t attack it from behind. Its swift motion through the air was making it hard for its tongue to catch it on the other hand.

“Air Ravine!” His opponent cast. Air Ravine was a spell that was on a much higher tier than Air Slice, which Adrian has. The slice traveled long enough to slice multiple trees beside him, cleanly slicing those that got affected and clearing the way for the black-haired boy to approach Adrian.

At this point, Adrian felt the difference in their skill that he began to act desperately.

“Cavern Lion! Attack—what?!” When he felt his essence core lighten up, it meant that one of his summons disappeared. In reality, both his Cavern Lion and Octofrogmin were defeated.

The black-haired male casually approached Adrian. He spoke in a carefree tone, “Like I said, you’re no match for me!”

As he got closer to Adrian, he noticed that he already had two status bands on his hand. “You already have another status band!” He pointed out, “Why are you still attacking me?!”

“Simple. It’s ‘cause I’m bored as hell,” The black-haired male said. “I might as well collect all the status bands that I can. My rankings will be way up everyone in that way.”

“He’s crazy!” Adrian didn’t have the power to fight this guy, but he already had a plan to escape.

“Summon Skill: Hawking! Attack his eyes!” And as soon as the hawk materialized, he went straight for his eyes.

“Like I said, there’s no use struggling! Air Ravine!” Another cast of that spell sliced multiple trees in the vicinity, giving Adrian the chance to escape from his clutches.

“Stealth Increase!” He quietly chanted his active skill and he quickly ducked into a nearby bush. While that skill doesn’t make him completely invisible, it was potent enough to make him less susceptible to monsters with sharp eyes. The eagle flew past through where he was standing earlier, but it didn’t notice the hiding Adrian.

He was completely still and quiet. Despite his exhaustion, he breathed in his nose at long intervals just to ensure that he makes the least absolute noise possible.

The eagle cawed close to him, but this time, his opponent emerged from the pathway in front of him. Upon close inspection, Adrian recognized his face and his slightly twisted expression, but he couldn’t quite point it out. He was part of his class, but he couldn’t quite recall his name.

The eagle landed on his unknown classmate’s arm, where it made a squeaking noise to its owner.

“That’s no problem. We can just look for others to steal their status bands. If you see any suspicious building in the middle of the forest, let me know as soon as possible,” He caringly said to his eagle, to which the animal flew up the skies again.

But he didn’t move out. He looked around where the trees weren’t destroyed, muttering, “He couldn’t have gone far, did he?”

“CAW!” His eagle called him from the skies again, to which he responded, “I hope this next one would entertain me, at the very least.”

He ran towards the eagle. As the sounds of his footsteps disappeared, silence filled the area around him. The only sound he was hearing was the constant rustling of the leaves from the wind.

Adrian was deeply gasping for air, while also doubly relieved that he managed to escape from his crazily strong classmate. “I can’t believe I survived that…” He uttered, and while he was about to get out of his bush and out to the pathway, he was grabbed from behind. One hand covering his mouth, and one hand grabbing the stomach part of this blazer.

Adrian struggled from the person’s grip. If he tried to scream, they would simply grip his mouth tighter to the point that it would hurt. He struggled in vain, until he was dragged to a cliff with a small cave opening at its base.

He was released from the monster-like grip when they arrived at the small cave. “What the he—?!”

“Shhh! Stop shouting, you dimwit!” It was a female’s voice that spoke, and a familiar one at that. Adrian recognized the voice. After all, she was the first person who spoke to him on the way to the Academy.

“Kiara? Why did you drag me here?” Adrian could barely make out Kiara’s appearance, but her pink hair reflected the sunlight that went through the entrance of the cave.

“To save your butt, of course! When you were going out of your cover, you make yourself visible to the eagle’s sight. He destroyed those trees so his eagle can see you better, you know?” Kiara pouted.

Adrian wanted to argue, but she actually had a point. He first thought that the black-haired male was mindlessly destroying his surroundings just because he could.

“Well… Thank you…” Adrian swallowed his pride and thanked her.

“That’s right! I was the one who saved you after all!” Kiara proudly nodded in agreement.

“I think the coast is clear now, let’s search for the D-Coin stash together, we don’t have much time left!”

Time remaining:

0:27:12

Adrian normally expressed doubts about trusting her, that she might use him so she can get the D-Coin stash all for herself while simultaneously stealing Adrian’s status band.

Just to assure his trust, Adrian questioned her.

“Why didn’t you attack me back at the cave earlier?” He said. “I was defenseless and tired, you shouldn’t have had any trouble attacking me.”

Kiara answered almost instantly, “It’s bad to attack friends even if this is a test, so I shouldn’t do it at all, right?”

“Are we friends?” Adrian asked, but he regretted it soon after as he saw the girl getting teary-eyed while they were running.

“You’re mean! Of course we are, we talk lots!” Kiara pouted again as she turned her face away from him.

“O-okay, fine… We’re friends,” To which the pink-hair responded with a deceivingly cute smile. Adrian gave up questioning her at this point with a sigh.

After their short conversation, his doubts were now overshadowed by undeniable proof. With Kiara saving Adrian from getting caught by the eagle and her seemingly genuine expressions, he decided to trust her for this test.

Adrian had to run slower than usual to match Kiara’s pace. They were running at the shaded part of the trees to keep themselves safe from the eagle summon. Even though they were covering quite a good bit of distance with each passing minute, the forest didn’t seem to have any end.

“We aren’t seeing anything! Is there any way to make this faster?” Kiara complained.

“We just have to wait. I don’t think anyone’s reached us after running for so long—wait, I see something!” Adrian alerted Kiara, gesturing for her to follow him after they turned their running direction a bit to the right. It was a small wooden crate that was just as tall as the trees. Because it was brown-colored, no one could’ve noticed what it was if they weren’t close enough to see it. Adrian’s Farsight allowed him to notice it at a much further distance.

“I can see it!” Kiara beamed with a smile as they got closer to the huge crate. “All we need to do is to touch it right? Let’s do it together!”

For the first time in a while, Adrian smiled. The image of victory was standing right in front of him, along with an additional prize. There didn’t seem to be anyone close to them as well.

But Adrian’s wasn’t caught off guard by the obvious display of their prize.

Too obvious.

When those two words entered his mind, he quickly stopped running when he still had quite a bit of distance between him and the crate.

“Kiara! Don’t come any closer!” He alerted her, but he shouted it too late.

Before the pink-hair could stop, the ground beneath it shook as if it were mud, and a circular lake suddenly materialized around the wooden crate.

Kiara cried out as she thought she was falling into the lake, but a tentacle made up of living vines emerged from the water of the newly created swamp. A green, sticky liquid enveloped the vines as it caught Kiara in midair, just before she fell. The girl tried to struggle, to no avail.

“This trap monster is… ridiculously strong!” Kiara tried to cast magic as well by chanting, “Aquarazor!”

But no magic spell came out. “Run! It… saps out the magic… from your essence core—” Soon after, Kiara stopped struggling. The vine has sapped her of her magic and energy that she didn’t even have the energy to shout. She was only breathing with her exhausted eyes looking at Adrian, as if she was pleading with him to save himself.

Adrian gritted his teeth, seeing that he had no other option.

He pointed his hands towards the vines, his palms open, as a certain magic circle appeared from both his palms. The trap monster saw it as an immediate threat, using all of its other vines to attack Adrian, with more vines emerging from the swamp. It charged towards him, but not a single one reached him as he casted,

“True Blaze!”

Blue flame engulfed everything in front of him. The trees, the vines, the crate, and even Kiara as well. His blue flames bellowed even more, but he didn’t feel any heat searing his skin. He only kept it up for five seconds before it weakened, causing Adrian to fall on his knees after the last bits of his flame completely dissipated.

Everything in front of him, except for the trap monster, was disintegrated. The wooden crate, the trees, and the Kiara were fine and unharmed. The last bits of the swamp monster that managed to survive that raging blue blaze was slowly being eaten by the small bit of flame in one end of its remains, before completely disintegrating into thin air.

“Haah… Haah…” Adrian was gasping for air very hard that it was raspy. Using True Blaze consumes a big portion of his energy and essence core capacity, mostly because his power level was too small, to begin with.

Regardless, True Blaze is a skill he rarely uses because it wasn’t his skill.

“Oh right… The crate. I have to touch it,” Adrian reminded himself. He tried to walk towards it, but he couldn’t even stand up without losing balance. He fell down on his side after trying to stand up as invasive thoughts entered him.

“Am I going to fail after all this effort…?”

His vision was slowly getting blurry as well the only indication of the crate was a big, brown blur in front of him.

Adrian tried to stand up, but once again, he couldn’t make himself do so. He finally got both his legs standing up, but he swerved right as his blurred vision couldn’t tell whether he was standing up or falling.

Someone caught him before he was about to fall. Kiara acted as his support, letting him lean on her shoulder as she put his hand behind her back. “I got you,” She smiled. Kiara was also tired herself, but she knew Adrian was in a much worse condition. After all, he was the one who saved her.

Kiara continued, “You saved me again, Adrian.”

As Kiara placed both of their hands on the crate, their status bands buzzed.

QUEST CLEAR!

—●—●—●—●—●

“A-AHHHH! TEK, DID YOU SEE THAT?!” Lavery was practically jumping on her seat as she was spectating the black-haired male destroy everything in his path. Every time he attacked, a long line of trees would always be cut in half that which made the vision cores’ tracking system confused for a bit before distancing its artificial bodies away from danger.

“He’s using Air Ravine! What’s his power level, and how did he learn it?!”

Tek was holding a board with a rather large paper that acted as his notepad. “His name is Velhold Orloc. His power level is 1878.”

Lavery was even more intrigued, “Really?! He doesn’t have the power level required to cast Air Ravine… Interesting! Very interesting!”

While the short teacher was busy watching Velhold take his classmates’ status bands through sheer intimidation, Tek abruptly told her, “Two students found the D-Coin stash. Switch the main screen to the crate.”

And so, the large screen displayed the two running toward the crate.

Upon close inspection, he noticed an odd formation in the perimeter of the crate, about a few meters wide. Tek finally recognized what Lavery did, and he revealed it.

“That’s a Threnker. A trap monster,” Velhold narrated.

“Yes yes! Not just any Threnker, I modified it so that it will sap the magic of anyone that gets trapped in it! Devilish and difficult, am I right?” Lavery smirked as she watched the screen. “And there goes the cute girl! What about her companion?”

Lavery’s evil plan eagerly waited for the green-haired boy to get caught in the trap as well, but he didn’t take any step forward.

“Oho~? That boy noticed the trap, or did he just bait the cute girl into getting trapped?! Is he evil enough to do that? Is he interesting as well?” Lavery pressured leaning her face closer to Tek, but the tall intimidating professor didn’t react any bit.

“Adrian Valdanes. His power level is only 243—”

“Oh, so he was just lucky then?” Lavery uninterestingly responded after hearing about his power level. Tek, on the other hand, watched intently at what he was going to do.

The vision core was hiding among the trees in front of the crate, facing Adrian. For some odd reason, it ascended high past the trees that they couldn’t see what was happening below. The vision core focused perpendicular to the ground.

Before any of the teachers could question it, their screens were filled with a bursting blue-colored flame from below. “AH! That flame! Is it the same one from the entrance exam?!” Lavery excitingly asked Tek.

He responded after taking a moment to process what had just happened. Even he was surprised, “Judging from how the trees that got caught in the flame didn’t burn, then it is highly possible that it is.”

“Mm! Interesting! Definitely interesting! Adrian gets my approval, he can have the 250 D-Coins for all he wants!” Magister Lavery happily skipped inside her own home as if she was a celebrating child.

The vision core returned to its original position earlier, now showing a feed of Kiara helping Adrian touch the crate so they can claim their prize. While the female teacher was fiddling with her status band so she can send the quest results to those who just won, Tek reminded her, “You shouldn’t keep your eyes on just one first-year. This year’s batch is extremely promising, you know?”