Chapter 20: Preparations
The exam has finally arrived.
We are required to meet at the west side of the city where we'll be led to a remote camp in the mammoth forest.
I strapped the last of my equipment, a canteen, onto my belt. The potions I bought the day before yesterday are not equipped on me but they are stored in what I call a "Shadow storage." By the name, I think you can tell what it does. I can just deposit anything into the shadows, though it's only limited to small items.
After that, I picked up Nyx and walked down to the first floor. I'll be gone for five days so I'll need someone to take care of her. I only discovered yesterday that she is only a few months old, so it's best to have someone take care of her since she is so young.
Eventually, I just left her with the cat girl.
I looked at the time and it read 10 o'clock. The exam doesn't start until noon so I might as well buy some breakfast while I'm at it. I'll just buy a sandwich.
We aren't allowed to take any food to the exam. The reason why is that we have to make our own. That means we need to make a campfire and all that. Just hope there are some monsters that are edible.
Now then…
Oh crap, I just realized how far the west side of the city is. I'm currently on the east side of the city. Let's see, it takes me about ten minutes to get to the academy which is located between the center and south of the city so from here to there is about half an hour.
Wish I could use magic right now, it would help a bunch but according to the laws I'm prohibited from using magic anywhere in the city unless given permission. That includes the use of vigor and your spirito.
I shouldn't waste any time now. It's time I got going.
***
I finally arrived at the west gate. Outside of the gate there were other students just lingering around. It seems that the teachers haven't arrived yet. There were some students hanging around near a café drinking tea, coffee, etc. I guess I can get a quick drink.
Entering the café, I looked around for a clock. I spotted a wooden clock near the wall and it was currently 11:15 am. Guess I took longer than I expected.
I had my doubts to get a drink when I saw the line. There were so many people lining up. Guess it looks like people need some caffeine before they head off.
Maybe I should've gone to the central plaza for some coffee. It's never crowded there but the drinks are extremely expensive. I would go get one right now since I haven't drunken anything yet but looks like it's too late for that.
Maybe I should've just gotten some coffee from the nearest shop in the east ward.
After waiting for the line to shrink(which never did), I eventually just left the shop. If only this world has energy drinks or some soda. That would help a bunch.
Before I left, the clock read 11:25. Ten minutes and the line still hasn't shrunk? They must be really busy.
Exiting the west gates, the people that were there a minute ago were now entering wagons. There were others using their wings to fly into the air.
If I were to guess, the students entering the wagons are students that have spiritos that don't have access to wings, and those that do can well just fly over to the camp.
"Oh Seiya, you're here!"
A familiar voice yelled. I looked over to the right to see Ordos waving his hand in the air.
"You're not late? Impressive."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Anyway, what's going on?"
"We're being led to the camp. We're just waiting for our teacher."
"Ms. Trisha?"
"Yeah. Speaking of Ms. Trisha, she's actually behind you."
"…what?"
Suddenly I felt a certain warmth that placed an eerie feeling into my heart. I didn't sense her at all. How the hell did she get behind me?
I slowly looked over my shoulder to see a light-blonde woman with lust-crazed eyes staring at me.
We stood there staring at each other for a few seconds. M-maybe if I move slowly, she won't go after me.
But as soon as I took a step forward, I was suddenly jumped and knocked to the ground.
"G-get off me!"
"I'll have you know I've been enduring for so long. Now, let me teach you a lesson right here and now."
No! NO! I'm gonna be raped right here in front of everyone. Someone, help!
"Ahem!"
A stern female voice spoke and Trisha would suddenly let go of my arm. Finally, I am freed! I got onto my feet and looked over to Trisha.
"Ms. Trisha, I think I'm going to have to report you to the headmaster."
"A-anything but that…"
The person who stopped me from eventually getting raped was a familiar person, Mia.
"I think we should get going, shouldn't we?"
Mia said with a smile and Trisha nodded. Trisha would walk off and started gathering the others who were trying not to laugh at what just happened.
"Thank you Mia."
"Fufufu…"
Huh? She's laughing? Why is she laughing?
"If I didn't stop her, someone would've been jealous."
"Who?"
"No one in particular… hehe."
Who is this woman talking about? She seems to be looking at someone. I turned around to see who, but whoever she seemed to be looking at was gone. I'm pretty sure I sensed someone looking at me but now it's gone. Who was she looking at?
While deep in thought, it was about time we headed out. We all had our wings ready to follow Trisha.
"Alright, let us departure."
Trisha leaped into the air and morphed into her spirito, a luminous eagle. Eventually there was a large bright bird flying in the sky. We would begin to fly after her.
As everyone was in the air, I on the other hand was still on the ground. My wings were slowly expanding and cracking sounds could be heard. Reason why is because my wings are currently stretching. Due to how large my wings are, they need to stretch first, or else I'll be getting cramps when I fly. This is the problem with having such large wings.
"Yo Seiya, let's go man!"
Ordos yelled from the air.
"Why are you still waiting for me? Just go without me, I'll catch up."
It's like my wings have a mind of their own. Everyone can shrink their wings into these mini versions but mine says otherwise. The best I could do is fold them down.
After what felt like an eternity, my wings would finally listen to me.
Dmmmm~
My wings started humming and glowing. I would then leap into the air and follow after the others.
It was only a few minutes but I caught up with them. Good thing with large wings is that you can fly faster than others.
A few minutes passed and I was wondering if we were there yet, but I don't think I needed to think any further because in the distance there was an orchard of large trees with bushy… blue leaves?
I've been researching of what the mammoth forest is and what creatures dwell there. Now they did mention something about strange colored trees, and I didn't really believe it until now. It was so strange, yet beautiful. The blue color is… well, now it's hurting my eyes. I've never seen pure blue leaves before.
Everybody was landing in the large camp but they were passing this large dome. I'm guessing it's a barrier. Actually, I didn't have to guess at all. Anyway, I followed, slowly descending.
As I reached the ground, I heard a familiar voice.
"Oh, you've finally arrived huh?"
Damn it, not now.
I turned and Marth was walking up, clad in light armor which was dyed blue. There were 5 people walking behind him. Guessing they are his lackeys.
"I've hope you've been training because if you haven't well, you could give up right now by kneeling to me."
Marth said as his lackeys began snickering. How cocky can one be?
"Well, you could always just say you're scared to fight me. How about that?"
That seemed to work because his expression changed.
"Don't get so cocky."
"I could say the same for you."
The ground between us began heating up. Now we would've fought right there and then if it wasn't for the teachers.
After a few minutes later, the headmaster who had just arrived began to call everyone together.
"Alright, it is only five minutes before noon so I will explain to you the rules and the conditions of the exam."
I'll just sum it up for you.
Basically, the test starts at 12:00 but I didn't have to tell you that, just wanted to throw it in there if any of you forgot. We have 120 hours to survive, so that means the test will end on Saturday at noon.
Everybody will be graded on four components. First is how long you survive. You'll be given a 1 if you survive for a day, 2 if you survive for two, and you get the idea. The Second being survival skills meaning what choices you will perform during the exam and whether they are good or not. The third will be teamwork. Basically… well, you get the idea, and lastly, duels. This, I don't need to explain.
Now you may be wondering how they will be grading us on this. Well, they'll be giving us these bracelets which will track our progress. Now, in order to prevent any death, these bracelets are enchanted to instantly teleport you back to here(camp) when you are about to receive a life-threatening blow, about to get slaughtered, and etc.
On the way here I noticed some animals flying in the air. They didn't look like normal creatures, well actually there are no "normal" creatures in this world. To me.
These animal's vision will be projected to one of the teachers so they can watch over us. Pretty smart I must say.
We were then given information on what creatures are inhabiting this forest. To sum it up, there are:
640 D-ranks, 310 C-ranks, 40 B-ranks, 9 A-ranks, and 1 S-rank. Basically, 1000 monsters in total.
I noticed everyone getting all nervous when they heard that there was an S-rank in the forest but they relaxed after hearing that the S-rank is in slumber. Well, some were relaxed.
Now we aren't allowed to attack anyone on the first day so we have 12 hours of safety. That's a relief because if they didn't add that, I would've gone after Marth immediately.
And that's basically everything.
There were only ten seconds left before the exam started so everyone was getting ready to leave the camp barrier.
I looked around to see where Marth had gone but he was nowhere in sight.
Guess he's not gonna do a dick move where he stays near me until 12 hours have passed, then get me with my pants down.
"3… 2… 1… the exams will now commence!"
And with that, everyone rushed into the forest.
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Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone