Whispers resounded through the crowd.

"survival? It's survival!"

"Is it individual? Or can we make teams?"

"I don't know, I hope we can, I don't think I can pass without teaming up..."

Arron looked around curiously to gouge reactions out of all the faces around. Rynia had her hand on her chin thoughtful about it.

"We are also glad to announce that the exam will take place in a tropical setting. Inside of the virtual simulation arena!" The vice principal exclaimed throwing his hand in the air. This brought a whole other wave of gasps and whispers.

Rynia's eyes widened as a wide excited smile creased it's way to her face. "Holy crap we're doing the test there?!"

But before the surprise and excitement could escalate. The vice principal announced, "Now for the rules!" He stole everyone's attention to him. His eyes flickered with mischief as he smirked.

"First! This is a free for all, so you can absolutely team up with anyone you want. However! Do it at your own risk, you may be betrayed. That is on you if it happens though." He shrugged as he held a finger up. Then he held another finger up.

"Second! No weapons of your own. We cannot afford for others to get an advantage of equipment, you will be provided everything by the academy." He said calmly before he held up another finger.

"Third!" He grinned, "There is no third rule, just a reminder that you will be provided special magical suits that will detect if your life is in danger and send a notice to the arena to teleport you out."

"Any lethal wound will count as a defeat and you will be teleported out. Any incoming attack that is deemed lethal will count as a defeat as well. So if the suit judges you aren't durable enough to survive let's say, a fire ball that levels an entire city block you will be teleported out thought, I doubt anyone could achieve that level of destruction among you fledglings." He chuckled softly.

"Well, without further ado, let's start right away!"

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Arron stood in on sand, his fingers wrapped around a sword's hilt tightly as he looked himself over, checking out his new suit that was provided to him by the academy. He whistled before he looked around, "Why did they have to put me all the way at shore?" Arron raised an eyebrow as he looked around him. The exam already begun, so if he found others he should probably be ready for a fight.

He took a few steps around, checking out the beautiful island. He couldn't believe how this could be a simulation by a magic machine. He reached down and picked up a handful of sand in his hands. He then let it pour down back to the beach. It looked so realistic, identical to normal sand.

"This is really cool!" Arron exclaimed with an excited chuckle. Now he gets why Rynia was excited to do the exam in this arena.

"It's cool isn't it?" an unfamiliar feminine voice resounded behind him. Arron turned around quicker than he ever had before. And he saw her...

"Virtual simulations, woven with magical energy. It's almost impossible to fathom the complexity of this device isn't it?" A short figure of a woman stepped out from the shroud of the trees...

Vibrant curly short blonde hair. Round face and pointy small nose. Her hand wrapped around a tree branch as she fixed Arron with her blood red eyes. "I think we should team up, don't you think so as well? Hero~" She giggled as she walked closer.

"H-hero?" Arron tilted his head to the side, confused at the strange compliment. "I'm not a hero though?"

"Meh, you just strike me as one." The blonde haired girl sauntered over to him. "Come on, do you wanna team up or not~?" The girl had an impatient look on her face as she stood before him.

"Uhhh..." Arron looked around a little awkward, eventually he nodded, "Okay... Let's team up then..."

"Awesome! My name's Regina, Regina Domina. What about you mister hero?" She spoke, a hint of mischief lingering in her words. "Arron."

Regina waited expectantly for him to continue.

"Just Arron..."

"Eh? You don't have a last name? Why is that?" Regina's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"I'm going to assume you're a noble, by the way you're surprised." Arron sighed, "Most commoners don't have a last name, you know."

"... Really?" Regina frowned, "I didn't know that... and you're a commoner? That's tough buddy. You'll have a hard time in the academy."

Arron shook his head a few times.

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The two started walking along the beachside, "so, are commoners really rare in the academy?" Arron asked, turning towards his right where Regina sauntered giddily. The girl was a bubbly one that's for sure, and a little strange too...

"I mean... yeah. Commoners don't usually have the resources to strengthen themselves. They would have to get in through sheer talent alone." Regina shrugged.

"And like, nobles have a lot of resources." Regina threw her hand around, her voice sounded really obnoxious in Arron's point of view.

"Yeah, I can understand that." Arron nodded.

Suddenly, a loud explosion sounded out from the forest to their left. Their heads snapped towards the source when they saw a flying figure crashing into the ground. "What the..." Arron narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look at the figure sprawled out on the ground.

It was a boy, short green hair. A bow slung around his shoulder as he gasped for air. Only after a moment did Arron notice this boy's ears. They were elongated, he wasn't human. "Is that an elf?" Regina asked from beside him. "That's awesome. It's not common to see elves trying to get into Prism. But it looks like he's in a bit of a pickle." She giggled as she walked over to him. "Come on! Let's help him hero!"

"For the last time! I'm not a hero!" Arron yelled as he ran up after her.

It took only a few seconds to reach the crater where the elf sat. "Agh... Cough* F-fuck..." He cursed as he sat up. The green haired elf untangled his bow from his shoulders before he stood up, pointing it at the forest where he was blown away from.

"Hey!" Arron called out to him but the elf was startled. He turned swiftly and fired an arrow blindly. Arron was startled and barely had enough time to draw his sword. However, out of nowhere Regina appeared and broke the arrow in half.

"You have to be careful how you use that weapon, you stupid elf!" Regina stepped towards the still startled elf as he stepped back.

"W-what. Stay back!" The elf yelled notching an arrow as he aimed it straight at Regina.

Arron's eyes widened, "Wait! Stop! Everyone just stop!" Arron yelled as the two turned to him.

"Listen, we're not here to hurt you. We're just curious on what happened." Arron slowly and cautiously stepped towards the elf. At his words, the elf visibly relaxed, the tension leaving his shoulders. "There's a fire mage that's blowing everybody apart. He sent me all the way over here... He's powerful, be careful." He said as he sighed and plopped himself down on the sand.

"I need to relax..." The elf lied down on the ground breathing heavily.

Regina narrowed her eyes on him, furrowing her brows before she turned to Arron. She stared at him for a moment before she shook her head and walked over to a big rock.

"Regina? What are you doing?" Arron asked raising an eyebrow. "I'm getting him a pillow." Regina said calmly as she hefted the big rock over her shoulders.

"I think the sand is actually a better pillow than a big rock." Arron said holding in his chuckle.

"Yeah. I'm sure it is." She said, Arron could have sworn he saw Regina grinning.

"Hey! Elf. Here you go!" Regina said hover the big rock over the elf's head before.

"What? He-"

"Regina what are you-"

The rock dropped on the elf's head and right before it connected. The elf disappeared into light blue particles.

"Wha- Regina! What the hell did you do that for?!" Arron yelled, his brows furrowed in both anger and confusion. There was no reason to eliminate him... Right?

"Shhh!" Regina shushed him as she pressed a finger to his lips and waited. Arron stumped by her sudden move, angrily slapped her hand away. He opened his mouth to demand answers from her again however.

Ping!

player eliminated!

+1 points

"What..." Arron's eyes widened at the blue screen that had appeared in front of Regina. The blonde girl simply smiled and nodded while rubbing her chin. "That's what I thought."

"What? What is going on?" Arron asked, his previous anger melted to give way for confusion.

"Points. We have a points system. This changes everything..." Regina's smile widened into a grin. Her eyes glinted in mischief as she spoke once more. "This changes the exam's type to points gathering..."

Arron frowned, "What does that mean?"

Regina glanced at him, "It means we have to gather as many points as we can to get a higher placement in classes." Regina said as she looked back at the blue screen in front of her. She swiped her hand through the screen, the screen dematerialized into similar blue particles to those that appeared when the green haired elf was eliminated.

"And to gather these points we have to eliminate players?" Arron pressed a hand to his temple.

Regina shook her head. "No, there are probably more ways than one to gather points. I suspect staying alive till the end will give a huge amount of points."

"Wait, hold on. Earlier you said something about class placement. What does that mean?" Arron asked. He was curious what these classes meant.

"You don't know Prism's ranking system?" Regina turned to him a perplexed expression on her face. "How do you not know it?"

Arron shrugged. "Whatever. I'll just tell you."

"Students in Prism are divided by classes, ranking from F all the way to A." Regina said.

"What about S rank?" Arron asked tilting his head. This was similar to the mercenaries ranking system. "There is no S- class. Instead there is the royal class." Regina said as she smirked. "That's where I'm trying to land so I better gather as many points as I can." Regina rubbed her chin.

"We need to act quickly. Once everyone realizes the type of exam we're in they will start hunting for players left and right... And we can't afford them taking all the points!"

"So we have to eliminate players?"

"Yeah, but also look for other ways to gather points." Regina smirked, her smirk then faltered as she seemed to recall something. She turned to him eyeing his sword as she looked up at him smiling sweetly. Arron could tell it was false sweetness from the getgo. "Hey... So I actually forgot to pick a weapon... I just took this little combat knife..." Arron raised an eyebrow at her. "Can you give me your sword-"

"No." Arron shook his head dismissively.

"Meanie!" Regina pouted, puffing her cheeks up as she crossed her arms.

"Let's just go... We have a lot of work to do if I want to end up in the royal class." Regina sighed after a while.

"Alright..." Arron took in a deep breath as he unsheathed his sword. "All we have to do is eliminate players... How hard could it be?"