Chapter 204:Final Exam (2)

Chapter 204: 204:Final Exam (2)

"Ready?"

Raymond glared at her, of course to Ellen. His glare looked more cute if anything.

"Jeez, don’t be so mad. I was just helping you adapt faster! You should be thanking me instead you know?"

Her shameless words were so powerful, Raymond had to close his eyes. Taking a deep inhale and exhale to cool down his emotions.

"Besides, don’t tell me you didn’t like it? I honestly think I did a pretty good job."

Inhale.

Exhale.

He forced a smile,"After this I’m going to summon a new possibility."

She smiled back at him, "Let’s hope you get a good one."

"..."

Zachary stared at the two, before quietly letting out a cough.

"Not to interrupt you two. But we’re entering the arena in twenty minutes can we please spend it being productive?"

"What’s there to be productive about? We’ve already prepared as best as we could, we just need to stay alive, pick off anyone we can and wait for them to duke it out amongst themselves."

"That’s not going to work as well as we thought it would."

"I know, I’m detecting a lot of foul play here but it should still work well enough."

"What does a chicken have to do with this?"

"What..? No foul, with a u. F o u l—why would I bring up chickens?"

Now Raymond didn’t want to point any fingers without proof.

But when there just so happened to be a collective prize pool where the winners were dependant on who eliminated the special class students. With up to seven thousand points just for eliminating one of them. Raymond could only think of one person who would do such a thing.

Ellen smiled, "It’s fine. Me and Raymond did a lot of...training~"

He stiffened, something which caught the glance of the others. Eyes burning with curiosity. Combined with his reddened expression, it was very clear that they were not training. Not a single lick of it. The word itself didn’t even exist in the same atmosphere as them.

Fortunately none of them were psychic. Otherwise they would have heard an unbelievable amount of internal screaming.

The rest of them finished suiting up. Durable and flexible clothing underneath, layered and overlapping composite plating armor for vital regions and limbs. Each customized to their own needs. Suitable for any outdoor environment.

Raymond had to admit, compared to Erde and many other dimensions. The Terra style of armor was definitely the coolest!

The unique blend of mana and technology was what made him so attracted to Terra in the first place after all. It was a delicate balance between magic and technology, too much reliance on one made the other redundant. Whether it was Erde utilizing mainly plate and chain mail. Or the Galactic Society almost entirely forgoing mana for technology. Nowhere else had this style that Terra did.

Although the exoskeletons and power armor of the Galactic Society were also pretty damn cool.

’...I’m going to steal a set when I can.’

Raymond quietly added another item onto his list.

Soon, the nine of them were teleported into the arena set up by the academy. Consisting of five different regions with one team in each region. Each region was the size of a small town. Featuring their own microclimates and temporary built environments. Currently they were separated by a wall, but soon the walls would drop and they would be able to cross over into other regions.

Behind them stood a large banner nearly the size of a person. A large letter S clearly emblazoned on it in shiny gold lettering.

Using their own respective methods, each of them scanned the surroundings.

"There’s some kind of tower in front of us. I’m assuming there’s going to be the basic supplies inside."

Every student was allowed to bring one personal equipment in with them. Like Raymond’s staff or Ellen’s Kairos Bow. While supplies and loot would be spread throughout the map. Getting better the closer to the borders of the other teams regions.

There were basic supplies like weak regeneration potions, rations and water. Going up to the best tier which let you bring in another piece of personal equipment, and there were also special tier loot that let you do things like bring back someone that was eliminated or relocate the banner.

Audrina looked in the direction, "I’ll go get it first."

"Then I’ll set up a few protection spells while the wall is still up."

Annoyingly, as the banner suggested. The current setup by the academy was a capture the flag style match. Since they couldn’t move the banner itself, one of them was always required to watch over it. A pretty big drawback considering there were only nine of them.

Even after getting an enemy team banner, they still had to bring it to the center and defend it for ten minutes before that team would be officially out.

The exam was also expected to last for several days, hence the food and water supplies.

While Raymond set up his barriers and trips, the rest split into groups of two. Going off to scavenge for more equipment.

Lucy, Cador, and Ellen each in their own pairs. With their senses, they had the best searching capabilities.

Pretty soon each of them returned, with Audrina for some reason bringing along a rabbit she had found.

"What’s with the rabbit?"

"...food."

Raymond quietly snuck a glance at Lucy, who raised her eyebrow in return.

"What? I still eat meat you know."

"Nevermind."

It just seemed a bit strange that someone who cared for rabbits also didn’t seem to mind eating them.

’Would she ever eat a snake..?’

Raymond stared at the blue serpent currently poking its head out of her collar.

’...probably not.’

"The rabbit is nice and all, but how are we supposed to cook it?"

Audrina tilted her head, staring at the limp rabbit in her hand. As if just realizing that it needed to be cooked before eating. Which probably wasn’t that far off from what she was thinking.

"...Thomas can cook it."

With that, she put it down onto the ground and walked away. Ending that conversation.

The rest of them turned to each other.

They were all people who grew up civilized. None of them knew how to butcher an animal after all, not to mention the fact that they didn’t even have any cooking supplies for Thomas to use.

***

Arthur quietly stood at the edge of the cliff, arms crossed with only a simple sword on his waist. A long red cloak fluttering in the wind behind him as he overlooked the plain. Three large walls surrounded them. Blocking them in from the front and the sides.

"Sir. We’ve managed to find a golden chest. But right now, they’re fighting over who should be the one to open it and use it."

Arthur let out a sigh.

He wasn’t sure when exactly it was. But ever since creating that little bet against the special class students. He had been referred to as sir and commander more and more lately. Faced with their expectations, he had no choice but to become the ’leader’ of this temporary alliance between teams.

Honestly, he didn’t even expect it to work out so well. Although Arthur personally suspected the academy was pulling a few strings behind the scenes as well.

"Who found it?"

"Matero found it."

Dammit, if it was anyone else Arthur could use the excuse that Elise (their strongest member on the team) deserved it more. But he couldn’t use that excuse on Matero.

"Tell Matero to keep it but don’t open it, he gets dibs on the next one we find."

He didn’t know how much time they had left until the walls dropped, and they didn’t know just how many of the golden chests were located in the arena. Right now, it was more important to keep them unopened in order to guarantee the key players got them.

He soon left, leaving Arthur standing alone at the edge of the cliff.

’I hope that was a good enough justification.’

Being in charge of hundreds of students like this was probably the most nerve-wracking thing Arthur had ever done. Things like running a gambling ring and smuggling goods into the academy couldn’t even compare.

But he did these things anyways, because to him. It was also unbelievably exciting!

Sure, at first he had started doing these things mainly out of boredom. He knew he was just a side character when compared to people like Zachary and Raymond. With all the impending signs of a war with the demons again. Arthur wanted to contribute in a way that mattered more then just fighting.

But the adrenaline, the rush that he felt was so unbelievably amazing. Maybe it was the suspension bridge effect. He wouldn’t be surprised.

Another set of footsteps behind him. This time with a voice he recognized.

"Wow, our commander looks so cool."

"Go away, you’re ruining my aura."

Lily scoffed at him, before handing him a pair of vambraces.

"They’re distributing some of the things they found. This one’s for you."

Arthur accepted it wordlessly, putting it onto his forearms.

Lily looked at him, then at his cloak which was fluttering in the wind: "...are you using your Arts right now in order to create wind?"

"..."

"You actually are. I was wondering why we didn’t seem to get any wind. We’re in a flat area after all."

Arthur rolled his eyes, "I need to look confident alright? You try being in charge of hundreds of others."

The two of them continued chatting for a while. With Arthur having to occasionally manage any problems that came up.

Soon, when the sun reached three quarters of the way through the sky. They could see it. The massive walls of concrete that blocked everything seemed to shimmer out of existence. Like it was an illusion in the first place. Revealing the other regions where the other teams were located.

Arthur’s eye sight wasn’t the best, but he was still an awakened with above average eye sight.

The five regions were all side by side, like a donut. In the middle where the hole of the donut would be was a perfectly flat plain. More dusty and arid compared to the more grassy plains that made up their current region. The most neutral fighting ground the academy could create that wasn’t just straight up concrete again.

To their left was some kind of taiga, tall triangular trees making up most of the region. While their right held some kind of desert, dunes and sand making up the majority.

"Is Lens ready?"

"Yes sir."

Arthur nodded, "Tell him to send out the flare now."

Several glass lenses were fixed into the air. With some extra help from the others. Holding a flashlight at the bottom most lens. It formed an almost perfect number one in the sky. So glaringly obvious that it was impossible to ignore. Lens was a useful guy, his glass attunement being versatile and developed enough that he had a good arsenal of spells and Arts to choose from. The only caveat being his name, Lens for a guy that could manipulate glass was a little too on the nose.

Soon, Arthur could see several other signals as well. The two teams in the regions next to them put up their own signal, a two and a three. Followed up by a four from the one next to the one on their right. Each using their own methods to create their own signals. Massive columns of flame, a pillar of metal and glass, and a waterfall of ink.

Which just left only one team.

The forested region.

"Found them. They’re in the region opposite of us to the left."