Next day early morning, the sky was filled with clouds and a beautiful rising sun could be seen among those clouds.
In the training ground of the first-year students, Professor Aliza stood on a circular stage in front of the rows of students. She was wearing a navy blue jacket with black pants. Her beautiful long hair was tied in a ponytail.
On her left side, Professor Aster was standing wearing a white shirt with black pants. They glanced at the students but a frown appeared on Aliza's face because a few familiar faces were missing.
Some of the students discussed among themselves nervously while some were excited about the soon to be held practical exam.
In the middle of the students, two gorgeous girls were standing wearing blue uniforms. One looked aloof and cold while the other looked innocent yet charming. A few young boys were even taking secret glances at the girls but they didn't dare to approach because the girls were strong enough to beat them up.
Mia looked at the students around them with squinted eyes and whispered to Lara.
"Where are Alec and Carcel?"
Lara gazed at her and shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know."
While the both of them were talking four individuals entered the training ground. They were on time but because everyone else was a little early their entrance brought silence inside the training ground.
All the students stared at them while they made their way inside. Even Professor Aliza and Aster glanced at the new arrivals with narrowed eyes.
Alec, Carcel, and Kyle felt a little embarrassed being stared but Nine smirked. He was the reason why they were late. He wanted a special and memorable entry! He even forced Kyle and the others to wear the Academy uniform.
Nine was leading with a satisfied expression as they all approached the students who were staring daggers at them. After walking among the quiet crowd they stood beside Lara and Mia who were staring at them with raised brows.
-'Nice entry! Your friend knows how to become famous!'
Bia exclaimed while sitting on top of Kyle's head. A lot of eyes were staring at her but she was already used to it.
Kyle glanced at himself with a sigh. It was the first time he wore the Academy uniform. Unlike his normal loose clothes, the blue shirt was a little tight, making him a little uncomfortable.
Alec gazed at Lara and Mia.
"Hey, it's been a while."
Lara's face was emotionless but when she glanced at Alec a small smile appeared on her face. She gazed at Carcel, Kyle, and Nine with a nod. Kyle was pleasantly surprised but he just nodded in return.
He wanted to look away but from the corner of his eyes, he noticed something that made him click his tongue inwardly.
Mia was standing beside Carcel and they nodded at each other but Kyle could see the mighty prince's ears were red.
'Tsk, it seemed after Nine the second one to find a partner is Carcel.'
It seemed a pure crush because the couple himself didn't notice. Kyle's eyes lingered on them and he saw Mia's sweet smile.
-'Stop staring. It's not a good habit.'
Bia's voice resounded inside Kyle's head and he immediately turned his eyes away like he never saw anything.
With a sigh, Professor Aliza clapped her hands to gather everyone's attention.
"Good morning, Girls and boys. I hope everyone is fine and working hard."
"I was one of the people who designed the theoretical exam and I have to say I am very disappointed in some of the students. The result is not out yet but the few papers I checked were so terrible that I badly wanted to fail those individuals!"
Her sharp gaze swept through the crowd of students. A few of them even started sweating because their papers were almost empty.
"Anyway, that's the topic we will discuss later inside the classroom because the results will probably come out after a week."
With a serious expression, Aliza pointed at the ground.
"Now look at your feet, there are many white circles present on the ground. Start moving and stand on a nearby circle you see. These circles are connected to an Array so only one individual can stand on a single circle."
The students instantly looked down. Indeed a lot of circles were present underneath their feet. Under Aliza's gaze, they hurriedly moved and stood on the circles.
Aliza nodded and started explaining about the practical exam.
"Alright. These circles will take everyone to a separate space where the practical exam will be held. It's just like an artificial dungeon but a little different because you won't appear inside a forest or open field. Instead, everyone will appear on top of a separate stage."
"The stage will be surrounded by white fog and you can't go outside the stage. After you are there a countdown will start and within a minute various monsters will appear from the fog. At the start, the monsters will be low-ranked but with time they will become stronger. They will attack and try to injure the person standing on the stage. Killing the monsters will give you points that will decide everyone's ranking."
She paused for a few seconds to let the students digest all the information.
"The moment any student is heavily injured or loudly admitted defeat they will be ejected out from the dungeon. Those who came out can see their final scores through that projection."
Her hand pointed at a large projection floating above the student's head. The projection showed numbers from 1 to 200 but right now no name was written in front of the numbers.
"Am I clear or does anyone want to ask a question?"
There was silence for a moment before some students raised their hands and asked some stupid questions like are the monsters dangerous? Or If they defeat all the monsters inside the dungeon how will they come out?
Aliza rolled her beautiful eyes and glared at the students.
"I see some of you have a lot of unnecessary worries but let me clear them. First, It's not possible to last for a long time inside the dungeon because with every monster you kill a new and more powerful monster will attack you."
"Second, I don't think anyone has such high stamina to last for a few days inside the dungeon without getting tired. Lastly, If someone can last a few days inside and kill all the monsters attacking him or her then that student will automatically come out."
She said the last line with a scoff and then her gaze landed on Kyle who was listening attentively.
"Kyle leave your bounded beast behind."
Kyle stared at her with a frown but Aliza sighed.
"If you don't, it will be considered cheating because you won't be fighting alone. The purpose of this exam is to test each individual's strengths separately. Don't worry you can leave it with...."
Her sentence was cut short when two old men entered the training ground. One was Elder Han and the other had black hair.
They looked at the students and Elder Han waved at Aliza.
"We are only here to activate the Array."
Aliza nodded and again looked at Kyle who raised his hand.
"Alright."
Bia gazed at the beautiful lady. Her eyes sparkled she wanted to go toward Aliza but Kyle's voice made her mood sour.
'Bia stay with master for a while.'
-'Agh.. Okay!'
With a reluctant expression, she started flying and went toward Elder Han who was busy placing some crystals around the training ground.
A surprised expression appeared on his old face when he saw Bia suddenly coming toward him. Professor Aliza also looked at Bia's figure.
After Bia settled down on Elder Han's shoulder he looked at Kyle with a sigh. He somewhat had an idea of Kyle's personality after seeing him so many times. Kyle was good-natured and somewhat quiet but he didn't easily trust others.
"I will take care of her."
He said and resumed his work. A lot of students gazed at Bia. Even Professor Aster's curious gaze lingered on her body. He scoffed inwardly with an annoyed expression.
'It's too dangerous to act inside the Academy right now. Even though my identity is clean the Principal is here that's why I can't take a risk.'
'Anyway, I just need to report back. It's not my job to do everything.'
His gaze landed on Alec for a second before his thunderous voice resounded inside the training ground.
"That's it, I am sending you all inside the dungeon now. Be ready."
With that, Professor Aster looked at the two elders who were setting up the crystals on the ground. They nodded and placed a few more crystals at the other edge of the training ground.
Kyle gazed at his feet. A white circle was present around him. He felt a familiar sensation before his vision turned dark for a few seconds and he arrived on top of a stage.
Just like Professor Aliza said a layer of thick fog surrounded the stage. He stepped forward and tried to walk inside the fog but a transparent blanket appeared at the edges of the stage, blocking him from entering the fog.
