"Greetings Elders!"
"Greetings Elders!"
…
Everyone started greeting them after realizing that they were the Elders of the academy. Max and company did the same.
"Mhm." Elder Jack and other two female Elders nodded slightly and then glanced around.
"Today, the one-month period of outing has completed. Those of you who had used their talisman had failed and move to the left side." One of the Female Elders said.
Many disciples' face became gloomy upon hearing this and they started to move to the left side.
However, not everyone was honest and some tried to test their luck and didn't move to the left side.
"Everyone come out." After around 30 disciples had moved to the side, Elder Jack shouted.
"Come out? Who?" The disciples were confused hearing this.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Suddenly, a total of ten figures came out of the forest and landed behind the Elders.
Some disciples who hadn't moved to the left side had their expressions turn pale seeing them and immediately regretted their decision.
Other disciples seemed to realize something after seeing their expressions. Some sighed in pity while others had gloating expressions.
"Elders, I also used my talisman. I apologize for not going to the side." One female disciple hurriedly came out and apologised aa she bowed.
One of the female Elder glared at her and said coldly "Aren't you under my charge? How dare you try to trick us?"
The disciple was frightened seeing the Elder become angry.
"However, since you admitted your mistake, I won't kick you out of the academy. "Instead, as punishment, you won't recieve the monthly resources for the next two years." The Elder said.
Hearing this, her expression froze and she was overwhelmed with regret. If she had come out earlier, her monthly resources would have only halved.
However, after the regret she felt relieved and nodded her head before going to the left side.
Everyone knew that Cloud Academy was very strict with rules, so, she felt relieved of the fact that she wouldn't get kicked out of the academy for trying to trick the Elders.
Seeing her monthly resources cut down completely for two years, The disciple who had obediently gone to the left side sighed in relief. At least they will get half of the monthly resources.
One should know that the monthly resources were everything for the disciples who didn't have the ability to complete missions or kill the beasts to earn mana stones by themselves.
So, it could be imagined how bitter her struggle would be for the next two years.
"Elder, please forgive me too. I didn't come out before."
"Yes Elder, I was wrong to try to trick you…."
Following the girl's example, a few other disciples also came out and apologized.
The Elders weren't too strict and 'forgave' them after giving the similar punishments to them.
Some disciples understood that the Elders were only trying to scare them so they will stay obedient in future.
They couldn't really afford to kick them out just for these small offences even the rules were strict, since their academy already had very few disciples compared to other academies.
After that, the people behind the Elders started writing the names of the failed disciples.
…
After a while, they were done. They then took back the unused distress talismans from the passed disciples and also checked if they had at least ten beast cores or not.
Clap!
Elder Jack clapped his hands to gather the attention of everyone and said "From the initial one hundred and fifty disciples that had come to this mountain, only you hundred managed to survive, even though some of you failed. Although this result isn't ideal, you guys did well."
He then asked in a stern voice "After this experience, did you realize anything?"
"Yes Elder!!" All the disciples shouted at the same time.
Elder Jack nodded and pointed at one disciple "Tell me what did you realize?"
The disciple was startled slightly. However, he instantly calmed down and said aloud "I realised that I'm too weak and need to improve myself more."
"That's right. You guys are too weak right now." Elder Jack said without mercy.
He the continued "Therefore, you need to work hard many times and become stronger as soon as possible. The world you have seen until now isn't that dangerous compared to the real dangers out there."
Elder Jack then glanced at other two Elders and nodded before they all whistled.
Immediately after, three white hawks shot into the sky from the forest and came flying towards them at astonishing speed.
Whoosh!
The wind from the flapping of their wings pushed back most of the disciples. Only some, such as Max, Belen, Tylor, Evangeline and a few others remained in their place with much difficulty.
Shua!
The three Elders jumped up and landed on hawks' backs.
One of the female Elders looked towards the disciples and smiled faintly "Come up disciples. Let's go back to the academy."
All the disciples became excite and frantically started to climb up. The Elder watched them with faint smiles.
After Max and company climbed the Elder Jack's hawk, they realised that this time, there lot of space empty for them to sit or lie down leisurely since there were more than a dozen disciples less in their group.
Max couldn't help but sigh at this. At the same time, he shivered upon thinking that if he didn't have the system that helped him improve, he also would have been one of the missing disciples right now.
...
After everyone had climbed on to the hawks, they took off towards the Academy.
After a few minutes, Elder Jack came to where Max was sitting with Belen and others.
"Elder!"
They bowed while sitting, in greeting.
Elder Jack nodded slightly and looked at Max and said "I noticed that your group has made the most improvements with your improvements being highest."
Hearing this, Max became alert but smiled "It's all because of your teachings Elder."
"Don't be too polite. It's your hard work that made it possible." Elder Jack shook his head and glanced at Belen and others and said "You girls also seemed to have worked very hard this past month. Good job keep it up."
Leticia, Belen and Rima became red hearing this and stiffly nodded "Y-Yes Elder."
