CHAPTER 19

Kyle had already achieved the purpose of his visit to this mountain range. On top of that, he wasn't interested in fighting with injured wrists, so he decided to visit this mountain range next time when he was in better condition and had better stats.

Thinking of this, Kyle headed back to Accelente City, booked a room at an inn and teleported back to his house.

....

The door of the classroom opened and a youngster with short brown hair and a rather good looking face walked inside. But as soon as his gaze scanned the room, his expression turned dark.

"Why are you here? Who dared to give you the keys to the clubroom?" Ryan flared up.

"Guess..." Kyle said without taking his attention off the book he was reading. Ever since he thought about it for the first time, the feeling that the war was drawing nearer became more and more prominent in Kyle's heart and he had developed a new interest in strategies of wars.

Ever since he fused with the race command seal, Kyle had a vague feeling that at some point, he would have to step out and lead a group if not the entire humanity in a war against something....

"You.." Ryan wanted to say something, but stopped. 'Why should he be bothered by the presence of this villager? If he hadn't come to this backward place on his father's instruction, would this villager even be qualified to meet him?'

The door opened once again and Elina walked inside. Seeing the club president arrive, Ryan walked towards her and nodded towards her while signalling towards Kyle with his eyes.

Elina reciprocated the greeting while looking towards the direction where Ryan was signalling. Feeling Elina's gaze, Kyle nodded at her before continuing to read his book.

"He is also a member. I called him here to discuss about the assignment this weekend." Saying so, she walked towards her chair and sat down.

Ryan closed his eyes and smiled lightly to hide the dissatisfaction on his face. He wasn't even told about Kyle joining the club.

'Was there any use of hiding this from him? Was it necessary to guard against him as if he would harm this villager?' As he thought this, Ryan's mood turned gloomy.

At this moment, Ryan felt a small fire lit up inside him which was growing stronger every passing second. If Elina thought that she could protect Kyle just by guarding against him, he didn't mind showing her that if he wanted to harm Kyle, there was no use even if she guarded against him with all her might.

The thought of harming Kyle which was just a fleeting spark in his mind soon turned to a raging wildfire. Before long, Ryan couldn't help but come up with different scenarios of hurting Kyle in his mind.

"Starting this year, there will be a significant change in all the assignments and examinations." Everyone turned towards Elina as soon as she uttered her first sentence.

"As we all know that the former education system had completely collapsed with the appearance of the Ascension Temple and the Twilight Guild was single handedly responsible for the introduction and implementation of the current education system. A few days ago, Twilight guild was on top of news headlines due to the two announcements they made."

"Wasn't there only one announcement that they would be officially joining the Ascendence Pletenen." A girl asked.

"There were actually two." Elina continued "First was about them giving full administrative rights to the Ascendence Pletenen and the second was about making some changes to the education policy."

"Since this happens every few years, this news was overshadowed by the shocking news about the guild being completely absorbed in the Ascendence Pletenen."

"So is this change that they announced something significant?" Veldic asked.

"Yes. Yesterday, Twilight guild or rather Ascendence Pletenen released a new proposal which should be announced publicly in a few days. Till now, all our assignments and exams took place in a controlled environment under the strict surveillance of teachers, but starting with our batch, all high-school examinations and assignments will be held in unrestricted conditions. This means that there is a certain chance that people might die during the assignments."

The entire club room turned silent as soon as these words were uttered. Death was no joking matter. Even if people could be resurrected using life tokens, life tokens in themselves were very rare.

Even Kyle's parents, both of whom were the vice guild leaders of a continental level guild, could only spare four of them for Kyle. There was no way that anyone without a significant background or talent could possess spare life tokens.

Seeing their solemn expressions, Elina continued. "Also, I won't be participating in this assignment. Same goes for Ryan. We will both be given separate assignments due to our higher levels."

"What! This is unfair. Won't we perform better if two of our strongest members don't take part in the assignment?" A girl suddenly stood up. Ryan who had been sitting idly all this while suddenly turned towards Kyle with a slight smirk on his face and after making sure that Kyle had seen it, he went back to doing nothing.

"Relicia, you don't need to worry about it. The school should be responsible for maintaining fairness in the assignment. This was already decided at the time of our admission. And the club should be getting something in return as well."

"Back to our discussion, since there are nine of us remaining, we will be participating in two groups of four and five people each. We will decide the groups later, but there is something that I must tell you before that."

"Since the assignment takes place in 'unrestricted natural conditions', it is very likely that we may encounter wild beasts. Try to prioritise hunting beasts over the androids. They provide the same number of points while there are also some additional benefits. The second year students have some similar assignments and their clubs get additional fundings based on the number of beasts they hunt."

"So, does this mean that we can get additional fundings from the school if we bring back corpses of the wild beasts in the assignment?" Veldic asked.

"Most likely." Elina replied. "Even if you will be participating as two different groups, there is no rule stating that two or more groups can't team up."

"So we can all gather together once we enter the forest. This will also make it easier to hunt the wild beasts." Veldic said with an excited look on his face.

"Yes, but all the clubs whether big or small will also be doing the same, so you will also have to be on guard against them." Elina added seriously.

....

....

"Kyle, are you ready?" Veldic asked as he alighted the school bus after Kyle.

"Yeah! What about you?" Kyle replied as he looked at the dense forest before him.

"It's alright, but I don't understand..why would they change the content of the assignments and examinations at the last moment?" Veldic asked in a curious tone.

"I don't know either." Kyle replied in a flat tone.

Although he said that, Kyle had a guess why all the assignments were changed from combat in a controlled environment to group combat in unrestricted natural environments.

"Everyone pay attention." As soon as everyone had alighted the school bus, the teacher incharge of this assignment immediately called them to gather near him.

"This time, due to changes made in the education policy, we will hold the assignments and examinations in unrestricted conditions."

"Combat-centred androids which can each rival ascenders level 1,2 and 3 have been scattered all over this forest. The number on these androids respectively represents their levels. Level 1 androids give you 5 points each, Level 2 androids 25 points each and Level 3 androids carry 50 points each. Points will carry the highest weightage while calculating your score along with some other factors."

"This much is similar to all the assignments from previous years, but what's different is that this assignment will take place in a real forest, which means that you will encounter real beasts."

"Each beast carries the same number of points as the android counterpart, except that they do not stop when your vital signs fall below a certain level."

"So, it is absolutely possible that some situations which can threaten your lives may occur. We will ask those of you who do not have any life tokens on them presently to step aside. You people will take part in the assignments that happen in controlled situations. Although points will be deducted for it, you should always remember that staying alive is much more important."

Everyone was stunned. Many students had just entered the Ascension Temple for a few months and had never experienced death. As such, when they were told that there was a chance to die, all of them were inevitably taken aback.

"Why would they change the regular assignments with something like this?"

"I am just a student. Why are they making me risk my life for a stupid assignment? I won't do it."

"I am already a member of Soulence Castle. I don't think that I need to continue at school if all these assignments require me to throw away my life."

"Umm...Mister Luke, I don't have any life tokens on me currently. Can I opt for the assignment with fewer points?"

Every student had different thoughts after listening to their teacher's speech. Some had excited expressions while others had pale faces while chatting in hushed voices.

"Does anyone among us have tracking or scouting abilities?" Veldic asked while successfully drawing the attention of all those present.

"Um.. I can try." A petite looking girl raised her hand while looking straight in Veldic's eyes.