Chapter 107: Feeling pressured

Now they were both standing on their feet when Sly flung himself for the last time in Khaldun’s arms, they hugged fiercely until the bells rang and forced them to separate, lunch time was officially over.

"I’ll be going now Sly, take care of yourself and be good, please don’t get involved in anything dangerous while I’m gone."

"I won’t," promised Sly wholeheartedly.

Khaldun ruffled his hair and the two finally parted ways at the park, going in opposite directions Sly trudged his way over to the Guide Learning Center.

Even though Khaldun said the mission would only be a week, Sly had the instinctive feeling it would be much longer.

If he was Khaldun’s exclusive guide then he would have been able to go with him on the mission and they wouldn’t have to part like this, Sly unclenched his fists that he didn’t realize was like this until now.

Dean Drakos was doing everything he could to keep them apart, Khaldun didn’t have to say it, Sly could read between the lines.

Feeling under the weather from exam stress, his classmates like himself were still in the midst of exams and finally had a free session after lunch before the arrival of Instructor Emma.

Instead of studying which they were advised by staff to use the free periods wisely some of his classmates were finding other ways to let off steam.

Right now they were bullying a beta guide, a couple of his tormentors were spirit beast users whose beasts could manipulate wind.

Instructor Emma would be disappointed if she saw what she taught her students was being exploited by a few misbehaving students.

Since they were far from ordinary humans, guides’ memory capacity and learning speed was far advanced and it was easier for guides to acquire knowledge easily.

With great power comes great responsibility.

What the average boneless human took years to learn, guides could learn it all in a few months and never forget or even improve upon the subject matter.

The instructor had been preparing them for weeks and now it was mandatory that Instructor Emma assess their understanding of the current curriculum.

Based on their results, they could work on their weaknesses before the upcoming trials and adjust the pacing of the lessons accordingly.

Everyone was breezing through the theoretical exams that were mostly essay based or multiple choice paper based questions.

It was the physical exams that remained that had most of Sly’s classmates in a chokehold.

Sly had found himself relentlessly prying apart Verde’s brain for any advice regarding the practical exams.

Even Sly found himself being manipulated by exam pressure and was taking this part seriously.

It was a known fact that a guide’s spirit energy levels were generally judged by the size of their spirit landscape.

His particular class struggled the most and had a warm time keeping up with the higher tiers because of their smaller spirit landscapes, barely visible at first glance.

No one expected his class to perform well and as the assistant class monitor it was more obvious to Sly to see how the other streams were treated in comparison to the lower end B-tier class.

For the practical exams, each student was on their own as these physical tests were conducted individually.

Each student had to go to a special isolated room, specially prepared for exam conditions so that no student could even think of cheating.

They had to pass through a special scanner that ensured they weren’t carrying anything other than the approved spiritbracelet or spirtchoker before they entered the room.

There were even certified blockers installed to monitor the wavelength of the approved devices so that the students could use them to cheat.

Just like Instructor Emma had taught them they would work under a time limit to use their mental tendrils to soothe a simulated chaotic sentinel’s spirit landscape.

The more proficiently they could use their mental tendrils and spirit energy sufficiently the higher the score.

If they could recreate a brand new or refurbished spirit landscape for the sentinel then the student would achieve higher scores from exceeding the invigilators expectations.

As the room gave off the feeling of being placed under a microscope as the instructor tested the student.

Feeling pressured, guides wanted to blow off exam stress just like anyone else but this was clearly not the right outlet.

Others were not intervening just standing watching and laughing outrageously as those idiots tormented the nerdy gangly looking beta guide.

One of his tormentors was using his giant eagle that could create massive windstorms just by flapping their wings to deliberately provoke the beta guide.

They kept interrupting his study session by blowing the worksheets off his desk when the nerd would restack them, then blew the papers off again.

So he got up to close the window thinking it was some freak wind outside.

That’s when his tormentors intensified the strength of the wind.

Now they were blowing his study sheets around the classroom laughing when the guy had to jump to catch them before they stuck to the ceiling.

After his recent dealings with Victor, Sly felt like kindred spirits with the beta guide his instincts urged him to do something.

Like maybe intervene and go smack one of those air manipulators around but then he remembered his predicament.

Sly was still on probation he couldn’t pick a fight with everyone and pray it would go unnoticed if he continued on this track eventually news of Sly getting into fights would ultimately reach Dean Drakos ears.

Not when Khaldun Wolfe drilled it into his ears last night to stay out of trouble and off of Dean Drakos radar.

So Sly had to settle for shooting the beta guide’s tormentors a look of disgust as Sly walked towards his desk.

As he did that, a sturdy hand shot out of nowhere and gripped Sly’s left arm tightly.

It was Cassian.

Sly’s face lit up, "Cassian, you’re finally out of the hospital, welcome back."

Fortunately Cassian didnt appear to have any interest much less notice the torture session going on around him.

Cassian had been absorbed in a game trying to advance to the next level when his character died, coincidentally he managed to hold his head up and saw Sly was about to pass him.

He flashed Sly a sheepish smile and then awkwardly let go of his friend’s hand.

Slowly more students began to trickle into the classroom and the atmosphere became more serious as everyone started cramming for tests and finishing last minute assignments before Instructor Emma waltzed into the classroom.