A steam train arrived at its destination, releasing a large amount of steam as it stopped. From within its carriage, a black-haired young man calmly walked out with a lethargic expression, seemingly bored. Compared to yesterday’s confrontation, there wasn’t any problem that arose since he went through the proper channel this time.
Today was going to be a whole new day filled with action, he still needed to build upon his reputation in the academy. On the second day, it was finally time for the students to go to class, finally taking their first steps in learning the ropes of becoming a Solver.
As a 1st-year student, Arin had responsibilities and leeway, as did other students. All of the 1st-year students were segmented in a whole other area, isolated from their seniors, similar to being caged for their own safety. This made it so that the other older students wouldn’t one-sidedly take advantage of the newbies. This also made it easier for them to integrate into how Seal Academy operates.
To put into perspective how many students there were in Seal Academy, the number of 1st-years that attended the assembly was only 1/10th of the total amount of students, barely a fraction of their true number. As for those who attended the assembly, it only numbered a feeble 3,000 students, meaning that there were a total of 30,000 students in each year, totaling 120,000 students in Seal Academy. A ludicrous amount of people at first glance but when you realize that the true students here are only a percent of the total number, 1,200, it doesn’t seem so overwhelming anymore.
The true students, the true predators reign at the top controlling everything and everyone to follow their every whim. All the other canon fodder only served to be chess pieces for this single percent to fight with one another, growing stronger with each clash.
As for Arin, he knew that Seal Academy had always followed this core principle, the strong devouring the weak, which made him wonder why the dean would ever let someone like Fiona take the most prestigious position as a 2nd-year student. Her idealistic thoughts of every single student helping each other grow was too unrealistic, it was essentially changing how the very foundation of the academy worked. Even the amount of resources she was giving out made Arin wonder if there really was a resource drought happening.
He made his way to his first class, he didn’t know what it was exactly about but he still joined in. He first had to see whether this class was worth listening to, if it was something he already knew or didn’t need then he would cut classes but if it was interesting enough or useful for him then he wouldn’t mind following along.
The hallways were long and dragging, there were a lot of paintings of well-established Solvers who graduated from Seal Academy lining the walls. These Solvers’ names, grades, current strength, and current status were all displayed, it seemed as if it would take a lot of work to constantly monitor their alumni’s statuses but when you see that most of these people were labeled as dead, it didn’t seem as much work as it looked. Arin could see numerous names crossed out in red to signify that they were gone, even he was surprised as to why they put up these dreary portraits. Whether it was to intimidate or to encourage, he just couldn’t tell.
Arin finally found his room and entered it, from his expectation, it was an extremely large auditorium making space for a hundred students. Although it was an extremely large room, there were only sixty or so students currently sitting there, which gave Arin a lot of room to choose where he could sit.
Arin immediately chose to sit at the closest seat, not even bothering to think about it. He observed the current students from his position which wasn’t hard at all since the seats were arranged in an arc, all pointing in the middle where a female professor was still reading her book. As expected, luck didn’t find his way as he didn’t see Robert or Patrick in this class, however, he did spot someone familiar, Elliot.
Elliot saw Arin casually waving at him and felt his body tremble slightly.
“Mmm? Is that all?” The female professor had her legs propped up on the table, completely unprofessionally. She still kept her book in her hand as she projected her voice, “I guess that’ll do. Well, first things first, they want everyone to announce that the highest-scoring person in the mock exam was… Elliot! Whoever that kid is, a round of applause everybody. Anyways, onto my actual job, I’m your adviser for the time being.”
A curious kid raised his hand, his heart seemed to have been beating wildly as he did so. He also held the same name, he wanted to know if he was the one who had hit it big.
“You.” The female professor pointed at that kid and asked. “What do you want?”
“What’s his… full name?”
The female professor rubbed her temples and asked, “What’s your name, kid?”
“Elliot Reain.” There was a hopeful glint in his eyes as he said so. There was a slight possibility that he was the ‘Elliot’ who achieved the highest score.
“Sit down it’s not you. They already know who they are, any more stupid questions and I’ll throw you out. Got it?” The female professor said in an extremely rude tone, if not for her attire then one would’ve thought that she was a delinquent.
“Now before I am rudely interrupted again, my name is Ferial. You can call me Professor Ferial. I don’t want you rookies ruining my free time so don’t even think about finding out anything about me.” Professor Ferial jumped up on her desk and stretched her limbs, showing off her figure which made a few students blush. “Now, since you got admitted to Seal Academy you should know you’re going to get beat up, a lot and by a lot, I mean every day. You should already know this but there’s a clinic placed everywhere in the school, if you go there before you kick the bucket then you’ll recover perfectly. Well, as long as you get injured in school, if you got stabbed outside school and tried to get healed here then tough luck, not happening.”
Professor Ferial then yawned and got up, walking off to the entrance, “Well that’s it, figure out the rest by yourselves.” Ferial left completely empty-handed, a detail that Arin noticed.
As soon as Professor Ferial left the room, the door shut off in an extremely odd way, closing everyone inside. From the looks of it, they were trapped inside the room without any way out. Arin was immediately intrigued as he casually walked over to Professor Ferial’s desk, grabbing the book she was reading.
Most of the students didn’t quite understand what was happening and just looked at Arin react on his own. They were still confused if the class already ended or if there was still something they needed to do.
While they were all still confused, Elliot immediately made his move and went up to Arin, trying to talk to him. As everyone else was doing their own thing, Arin was reading the book Ferial left behind which made him quite entertained.
“Arin.” Elliot gathered up his courage as he asked. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Arin kept on reading the book while he half-attentively said, “Yeah?”
“I’m the one who got the highest score so… I have Fiona helping me out now.”
Arin gave Elliot a glance and nodded, “Sure. Anything else?” Arin immediately continued on to read the book their adviser left behind, it was filled with bits and pieces of information that he was interested in. It was all about how to approach different kinds of trials and how to go about it. It was filled with her thoughts and mindset on how one should react.
What made Arin really like this book was the quote that Professor Ferial kept following throughout her writing, “Self-preservation above all else.” There was even a trial where she threw one of her fellow Solvers under the bus and caused him to die a gruesome death. She remarked this as one of her best decisions due to this one singular death saving herself and most of her party, a necessary sacrifice.
“Arin? Are you really just… letting me go?” Elliot weakly asked. He knew what his father wanted, he knew that Arin was a person with great strength and status yet even still this was not the path he wanted to go down. He wanted to be like Fiona, helping those in need and changing for the better.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“You do what you want.” Arin still had his eyes glued on the text before him, even slightly smiling at how logical and ruthless Ferial acted in her conquests.
Arin finally saw a trial that Ferial did, which was extremely similar to this one. There was only one obvious escape route and those who were left behind were forced to struggle to solve the time-gated puzzle or else they all died. Arin sadistically smiled, “Elliot, you want to save people, right?”
“T-That’s right.” Elliot mustered up the courage to say this out loud.
“All right, here.” Arin tossed Elliot the book he had in his hand. “Good luck.” Arin went into the middle of the room and looked around, trying to find that escape route. After seeing a questionably placed bookcase, he went over and fiddled with the books, opening a hidden door that he entered.
As soon as Arin entered the hidden compartment, red lights immediately shone inside the room as a visible gas started to get emitted from the surroundings. Everyone immediately panicked, they didn’t expect this to happen all of a sudden. When one brave student went close, he gave a quick yelp of pain before falling to the ground in pure agony, his eyes were bloodshot and veins were popping out of his body. He wanted nothing more than to escape this fog slowly enveloping his body but couldn’t.
Elliot immediately noticed what kind of gas it was, “It’s a nerve poison! Everyone back off! Inhale that and you’ll be paralyzed with pain!”
Once they heard Elliot say this, they were all immediately reminded of a certain event that paralyzed an entire district from the neck down for an entire week, all the meanwhile they were all crying in anguish as all their senses were burning. Although they were all caught up and treated in time, there were a few deaths due to over-simulation of the senses.
“Arin!” Elliot immediately shouted out but… he couldn’t really say anything. Arin had no reason to tell him anything, in fact, he should be glad that Arin didn’t get mad at him at all. Now he was faced with such a daunting task, he needed to figure out how to deal with this as soon as possible.
He immediately put the pieces together as immediately skipped to the middle part of the book, speed-reading as fast as he could. Reading Ferial’s book, he realized that this was filled with her experiences and thought processes on how to go about solving different kinds of trials. He read about how she keeps opting for the most straightforward method, even throwing her fellow Solvers aside for her own benefit.
Elliot felt disgusted at how Ferial acted yet despite this he couldn’t purely hate her, this maze was cruel, warping people’s personalities to become cruel themselves. He understood that his thinking was naive and idealistic yet even so he chose to push through, wanting to follow Fiona’s example even if he was against the world. This was the path he decided to go down, even if his father might look down on his decision, it was one he believed to be the right one. As for whether it was the correct decision, only the future could tell.
The encroaching fog was coming closer, huddling everyone up. A well-built man immediately shouted, “Everyone back off! You, with the book, what’s written there?”
“It’s our adviser’s notes, her experiences with dealing with trials.” Elliot immediately responded as he kept on speed-reading the contents, trying to find the one that Arin saw. This was the only plausible outcome, Arin saw the same scenario they were in and immediately acted on it.
The fog came even closer than before, forcing everyone to close in together. At this point, the students panicked, they didn’t want to suffer like that one poor soul who tested it out for everyone else. With how close the nerve poison was coming in and how tight the safe spot became, it was finally time for someone to make a move.
All it needed to break the tension was one small movement, one small nudge, one small push. A terrified man saw how close the fog was leaning in and took a defenseless girl behind him and threw her into the gas. She was the sacrificial lamb that started everyone’s fight for their own survival. As she shockingly looked at the person who threw her into the fog, she could feel her own body stiffen and her senses burn beyond what could be described with words.
No matter how much suffering she endured it did nothing to stop the fog from leaning in even closer. Seeing someone finally do the deed, they all followed suit as they threw each other behind them. It was total chaos.
Elliot’s fingers dug into the cover of the book even deeper, knowing that the sooner he found the trial that Arin found, the more people he would be able to save. Saying words such as ‘stop it,’ ‘don’t do it,’ was useless, most of the people here were mindlessly moving based on their instincts, and they wouldn’t rationally change their actions just because he said something. This was something he learned from Arin, if he wanted people to listen to him then he had to show some strength. Unfortunately, he was too weak right now, he had nothing but his wits.
As people were being thrown aside like waste, Elliot finally saw the exact same trial that Arin did, even the first escape route was vaguely mentioned, similar to how Arin left. Elliot quickly read everything and digested all the information he needed to know.
By the time he finally finished everything, there were only a fraction of the students left. The well-built man came to right beside Elliot, protecting him, “So, you got it?”
“Yeah, fortunately, what we needed to do isn’t that hard, the bad news is that…” Elliot’s voice trailed off as he realized something weird, the man in front of him had been protecting him the entire time. “Wait a minute, who are you?”
“The name’s Alclair, nice to meet you, Elliot.” Alclair reached out his hand to give Elliot a firm handshake, completely ignoring the current situation at hand. “Anyways, the details can wait until later, all you need to know is that I’m on your side.”
Elliot didn’t have time to chitchat either, the fog was closing in on them real quick, out of the sixty students within this room, there were only ten left who weren’t thrown out to be sacrificed. Each of them had their own capabilities to speak for themselves, other than Elliot whom Alclair protected this entire time, everyone else had strong physiques.
“Tch, Elliot? So you’re the one that woman mentioned who got the top marks.” Another man scoffed at the sight of Elliot being protected, from his point of view, Elliot may have the wits but that didn’t matter in Seal Academy where strength reigned supreme.
A lithe girl looked at Elliot curiously, when all of a sudden she nimbly poked another person’s neck, rendering them unconscious as she threw them out to be sacrificed. There was this tinge of insanity within her eyes that couldn’t be masked with her innocent facade. “Elliot? You should know how to get us out of here, right?” She moved her head in a way that made it seem as if she didn’t have a neckbone, turning her head sideways at a ninety-degree angle, a disturbing posture.
“I do but based on Professor Ferial’s book, there are a total of three ways to get out of here unscathed. The first one’s already taken since Arin went ahead of us taking the easy route. The second method’s to wait out the gas-”
“What’s the last one?!” Another muscular man threw two other people to the gas, completely overwhelming them with pure strength. He stared Elliot down but Alclair stood in front of him, clearly intending to protect Elliot. This muscular man wanted to clear out even more people as they were starting to close in on each other even more but the remaining few were people he couldn’t just easily get rid of.
“The last one is finding a switch to turn off the gas mechanism.” Elliot seriously said. Everyone immediately felt helpless with what Elliot said, all their options just seemed hopeless. If it weren’t for Arin forcing everyone into the fire then this wouldn’t have happened. “These are what Professor Ferial’s book said but I think there’s another way.”
Everyone immediately perked their ears in interest, they had their backs backed up to the wall, anything that could possibly help them out of this situation would be a godsend right about now.
“The nerve poison is denser than air, that’s why it flows down from above downward. This means that as long as we manage to get to an elevation high enough then we wouldn’t be affected. If we hang on long enough then we will be able to get out of this safely.” Elliot quickly suggested his thoughts, he didn’t even bother holding his thoughts, every second counted.
The problem now was simple, how do they get to a high elevation? Elliot looked around to see that there really wasn’t anything that they could climb on other than their adviser’s desk. Alclair immediately reacted and made the desk sideways, gaining that tiny bit more elevation.
“Elliot, is this enough?” Alclair quickly said.
Elliot judged the area of effect and clenched his fists, “It’s not enough! Wait, do you see that?” Elliot pointed at the very top of the room, there were support beams at the very top. He quickly glanced at the remaining seven people and judged that they would barely be able to reach that point.
“Are you serious?” The muscular man groaned, he had never expected such an idiotic plan to make this much sense before, at this point, this was their greatest chance.
The lithe girl creepily laughed, “Sounds good, who’s on the bottom?” Everyone immediately looked at the muscular man, he seemed to be the only person who could handle everyone’s weight, “Tch, fine! You all owe me for this one!”
Everyone immediately went to their positions, with Elliot and Alclair at the very top and the muscular man at the very bottom. They all swiftly moved in a synchronized manner standing on top of each other’s shoulders as they quickly reached the top. As soon as Elliot managed to grab hold of the support beam, he pulled himself up immediately changing his position to try and pull them back up.
This was the plan when Elliot suddenly laughed maniacally, “You guys aren’t going to believe this.” Everyone suddenly got worried, “Elliot? What are you doing?”
Elliot didn’t respond to them when he pushed a very noticeable red button that said, “You win!” As soon as he pressed the button, there was an extremely strong suction force siphoning up all the gas still stored inside while shutting off the shutters for the nerve poison to come out.
Everyone gave off a relieved sigh as they took Elliot back and went back down. Who knew their desperate play was actually their only play in finishing this trial? The blocked-off door opened a few moments later showing Ferial giving off an interested look while Arin casually talked to her with his arms crossed.
Once the door opened, Arin showed an extremely devilish smile, “A lot more survived than I thought.”
“A lot more indeed.” Professor Ferial tried to sound annoyed but her interest in this batch was growing by the second.