First Test: Monster Attack

Up in the air, within the zeppelin, Zero put away the mental mic and walked to the commander's chair positioned at the centre of the control room. At the front was a wide screen that showed the locations of all forty-eight teams on the map.

"That's an incredibly smaller number of teams than I expected. What's more, quite a bunch of the top fifty actually teamed up together and over thirty teams used the entire allocation numbers. I have to say, I am intrigued by this logic of theirs. A true mage should always learn to take risks and explore on their own, not depend on numbers or the strength of others."

A young man, about twenty-seven years old or so walked up from behind and stood beside Zero. On his neck was a loose black neck band[1] with the number '1' written on it in white.

Just like Zero, the young adult was part of the Grading panel and was called 'One'. However, unlike the other members of the Grading panel including the head, Zero, One didn't wear a mask. This was because, unlike the other members, he wasn't a true citizen of the Great Dawn kingdom and was transferred into the academy all the way from the Purple Sun sacred land. He was charged with grading the works of students in the special department which consisted of the top 10 students from the third-year tests[2]. Since he was not involved in grading the results of the other students and being a foreigner, there was no need for him to keep his identity hidden and One did just that. Although he came from the sacred land, as per the rules of the academy, he was still under Zero's authority.

"Sometimes it's best to be cautious than to risk it all. I believe the same rule applies to some in the sacred land." Zero replied.

"Hehe. That's why they are the bottom feeders there." One hit back.

The atmosphere turned cold as everyone on board in the control room felt irritated by One's comment, but he acted as if he said nothing wrong.

"Are all preparations in place?" Zero spoke.

One's lips twitched as he noticed that Zero's voice was still the same plain cold tone, unaffected by his words.

"Yes, sir." One of the staff operating the equipment on the dashboard replied.

"Good. Release the monsters." Zero's eyes chilled.

. . .

Below the zeppelin, within the Manchurian forest, the forty-five teams of students had already begun exploring the area while looking out for other teams and also, monsters. With Zero having informed them of their location, the students were now all on alert for not just other students but also monsters. However, over twelve minutes had gone by since the first team was dropped off till when Zero had permitted them to move around, but there was no sign of any monsters during that period, not even a rabbit or a bird. Logically, this should be impossible since the Manchurian forest was always being hailed to be filled with monsters and considering that the students were seemingly dropped off in random spots, this made no sense.

"The Manchurian forest? More like the Silent forest, am I right folks?"

"Haha."

A group of young teens laughed as they made their way through the forest. This team was made of seven students with none of them being a top fifty rankers.

With quite a lot of top 50 joining the same teams, like Aurora Castellan's team -the eldest of the twin princesses- which was made up of eight top 50 rankers. This arrangement made it such that quite a lot of students were without teams, so Zero made an exception and granted some students the right to become group leaders. The group leader of this team was one such student that enjoyed that right.

"Hey leader, why don't we send one or two ahead to scout the area just in case?"

One of the students who seemed a bit more cautious than the others said.

"Huh? No need. Tomune's wind magic is good at jobs like scouting and such. As long as a player or monster comes within range, he would notice them. Instead, focus on thinking of ways we can use and find the other teams. We need to target the weaker ones like ourselves and avoid the top guys." The group leader waved him off.

"But Tomune's magic only accounts for a 10 metres radius. That's only useful against slow-moving monsters or if we haven't been spotted yet." The young boy argued but no one paid him any attention.

"Don't worry." A teammate patted him on the back.

"We might not be that strong, but we still number a lot. Even a first-stage Guardian would easily be taken down by us much less a thoughtless monster. We have nothing to fear."

The boy remained unconvinced but seeing as he was the only one who was bothered, he could do nothing about it.

Roar!

"What was that?" The team of seven suddenly stopped.

"Tomune." The team leader faced a young teen by his side.

"I don't…a monster. A big one. It's fast. It's onto us!"

Tomune originally spoke carefully, but his voice abruptly increased in pitch until it was obvious that he was screaming in fear.

"Shit." The team leader cursed.

"Look now. I freaking warned you guys." The teen from earlier complained.

"Now's not the time for an 'I said it'. Prepare for battle." The team leader lashed back.

The teammates immediately went into formation. Although they lacked battle experience, they were still the elites of the kingdom's future generation and students of the best academy in the kingdom.

Roar.

A two metres tall monster appeared in front of the group.

"It's big."

The students couldn't help but exclaim and be shocked.

"Approximate its strength." The team leader whispered.

"First stage Guardian, probably at the mid-rank or so." Someone said.

"We can handle it then. Stay on your feet and don't lose your guard. It might not be the only one out there." The team leader replied.

Similar scenes were taking place at the locations of the other forty-four groups as they seemed to have all encountered monsters roughly at the same time. The strength of the monsters was pretty much the same as each other; a mid-rank first-stage Guardian monster. However, each monster had different skills, specialities and builds. Some were strength-type monsters while others had their advantage in speed. This was all intentional on the academy's part.

Even before the exercise had begun, they had already selected specific regions for the students and used monster repellant in those places. This made the drop zone of the students free from monsters even after ten minutes had passed. Also, the staff in charge of the exercise had captured a bunch of monsters and kept them on standby for each group. In truth, they had abducted fifty monsters but didn't need five any longer. Those monsters were kept in the fifty selected drop-off spots for teams and once the exercise officially began, they would be set free to target the players. Unlike the normal monsters in the forest, these monsters were made to be resistant to the monster repellant, so they attacked right after the signal was given.

This was the first test in this wilderness survival exercise, and it was expected that 99% of the teams passed, with the 1% being just a marginal percentage for calculation error.

'But who are we kidding? If they can't survive this, then it means that the past two and a half years were pointless.' Zero narrowed his eyes.

[1] Imagine some ninja headband but on the neck, kinda like some certain ninjas from a certain shōnen.

[2] The third-year test is divided into a theory and a practical test with the practical test being further divided into two. Only one aspect of the practical test has been announced so far, which is the Wildlife experience test.