The clinic near their classroom was now filled with sixty or so unconscious bodies. Although it took them a considerable amount of time they managed to bring everyone in. The space within the clinic was oddly enough, not even remotely full. There was still a large amount of beds that were unoccupied despite the already numerous students resting there.

After so long, Barlot managed to regain his senses, faster than the rest. A point that Elliot managed to notice. From his observations, there seemed to be some kind of correlation between regeneration, injury, and strength. This made him glance at Sefi, who was still sleeping in an eerie position as she seemed like a corpse ready to be processed in a morgue. Although her injuries weren’t as severe as Barlot’s she still managed to recover almost instantaneously.

If Sefi really wanted to, she could leave right now. Other than her bloodied uniform, everything else had already been remolded into its pristine state.

Barlot woke up to see five of their original group huddled around this area. Although he was a little weak and groggy, he could still vividly remember losing to Arin. Numerous thoughts rushed in his mind yet what prevailed the most was how the outcome of the fight could’ve gone in his favor if he exerted that much more force.

He looked at the group and lethargically said, “Thank you… for bringing me here.” His entire body felt lifeless as he could barely exert half his strength anymore. Although he was only injured around his stomach, his entire body could feel the effects of the clinic. The payoff for returning their bodies back to their natural state was weakness.

“Good, you’re awake now. Elliot, what was our adviser on about?” Liana looked at Elliot. Liam was still hiding behind Liana the entire time, surprisingly shy. Even though he helped in bringing in some of the bodies, he still seemed to not be that open to the others yet.

“Professor Ferial tested us.” Liam looked around to explain properly, even gesturing his hands to emphasize some of the points. “She wanted to see who’d react the best faced with a sudden scenario.”

“So that means… we passed right?” Alclair offered his insight into the topic. He was sitting right beside Elliot.

“We passed? Liana, you heard that? We passed! That’s great!” Liam seemed completely ecstatic at the news, even grabbing onto his sister’s shoulders and shaking her.

Liana grabbed ahold of Liam’s arms and firmly grabbed, “Stop that! Calm down, it looks like Elliot has something else to say.”

“But from the looks of it, we all failed. There was only one person who caught her attention, Arin.” Elliot calmly expressed his own thoughts and calculations. He recalled the spot where Arin marked back then, it was another way out, similar to how Arin left. If Elliot followed Arin’s marker then he would’ve gotten out and received Ferial’s attention as well.

Despite being given a way out, he still didn’t take it. There were just far too many implications of following through with this path.

“Arin…” Alclair finally spoke once more. “I remember now… that’s the guy who singlehandedly made the Rising Syndicate look like a bunch of clowns.”

“He’s insane,” Barlot mumbled out. “I can’t believe he can still walk after that.”

“What do you mean?” Elliot asked.

“I take pride in my strength to the point that I have to hold myself back. Otherwise…” Barlot reached out to the metal railing on his bed and casually ripped it off.

Seeing this casual motion of his, everyone’s eyes bulged. This was inhuman strength. To be able to bend metal like it was nothing despite being weakened by the clinic meant that Barlot truly wasn’t lying. He was a freak of nature.

“So, what do we do now?” Alclair asked everyone. They were all sitting around doing nothing. They all knew their schedules so as far as they were concerned, their meeting would Ferial would last until lunchtime but they finished far too early. Until then, there was nothing for them to realistically do.

“We’re going to see the facilities,” Liana interjected. She could feel Liam nudging her from behind irritating her. “Tch, fine. Do you want to come with us?”

Elliot thought about their current situation. Their classmates should be safe for the time being and their adviser had already left to god knows where. As of now, it could be considered as free time for them. Going with the twins wouldn’t be an issue but Elliot had other plans.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to join you for now. I need to go somewhere.” Elliot received instructions from his father on where to go to find the Student Body Committee. He was going to finish his obligation and take his rightful place as Fiona’s right-hand man.

“I’ll join you, Elliot. I don’t have much going for me.” Alclair followed up.

“All right, see you around, losers.” Liana sneered at everyone else. Liam felt a little terrified at the thought of making the people in the group hostile towards them so he immediately followed up, “S-She didn’t mean that!”

Elliot waved them goodbye. After the twins left, Elliot and Alclair followed suit, leaving Barlot sitting on his bed and Sefi sleeping like a corpse.

~~~

Waiting at a distance, Arin leaned at a wall as the classroom’s solid metal door shot up. There was a jolly voice vibrantly talking to his class.

“Good job! Phenomenal! Fantastic! You all did well!” The professor of this class sounded like a jovial man. “I’m so happy that you managed to solve this mandatory mock Trial. I hope you all managed to learn something from today!”

Arin looked inside, waiting for two people he had an eye on. As for the scene inside, it was completely contradictory to the jovial man’s voice. Compared to their own mock Trial that only used nerve poison to inflict pain, this room’s mock trial was filled with the stench of blood. Numerous students’ limbs were cut off as saw blades filled the room. Some students were bleeding out so much that they seemed to have died from blood loss.

The gruesome nature of this situation didn’t even faze Arin. He was all too familiar with such a scene.

In the middle were eleven students, two of whom were very familiar with Arin. None of them had any injuries, not even a single scratch on their bodies. They all gave relieved sighs at finally finishing this torturous encounter. One of them even broke down in tears at the absurdity of what they had just gone through.

Despite fully knowing the dangers that they are going to be subjected to, people never truly realize the gravity of the situation unless they see it for themselves.

Each chair had saw blades coming out of the armrest and the legs, intending to amputate those that sat there. There were a few students that were caught in this trap, causing them to bleed out. As for the majority of the students, they were actually on the floor, scattered all around while their bodies were drenched in blood.

On the board in front, numerous words were written which explained how the entire trial worked. There were a bunch of rules that they had to follow and if they didn’t they would suffer immensely. Some rules stated that they could only open one eye, and another rule stated that no one could act suspiciously. These numerous rules were varied, some being clear-cut while others were so vague that it could mean anything.

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“Oh, a guest?” The jovial professor showed a kind smile as he walked over to greet Arin. His purely white suit hadn’t been stained by a single droplet of blood despite the entire room reeking of iron. “You aren’t in my class… What’s your purpose here?”

“I’m here for those two.” Arin pointed at Robert and Patrick who were feeling extremely relieved at the fact that it was finally over. After the pair heard this, they became furious at the fact that another dangerous situation had presented itself to them.

“Mmm? Robert Imon and Patrick Versat? What do you want with them?” After the jovial professor looked back and saw the fear in Robert and Patrick’s eyes, finally realized. “Ohoho, don’t have too much fun now.”

As soon as the jovial professor left, the remaining students who weren’t injured at all suddenly stared at Arin with hostile gazes.

The de facto leader spoke up, “Who are you?” He seemed to be the type of person who led by example, showing initiative. He led everyone to finish this mock trial given by their adviser and managed to protect a tenth of their class.

“Someone trying to make a name for himself.” Arin blatantly walked forward, without any fear. From his perspective, this batch was a notch weaker than his own class. If he could relate their strengths then the leader in front of him was only half Alclair’s strength, a far cry from the top powerhouses in his class such as Barlot.

“What do you want?” The leader was about to stand his ground when Robert and Patrick obediently went over to Arin’s side. “You two… what’s doing on?” He just saw two of their most physically strong members give up in the face of this new face.

“It’s better to just listen to him,” Robert warned them. “There’s no point in fighting back at this point. So, Arin, what do you want?”

As they were talking between themselves Arin looked at one of the students who were previously on the brink of death suddenly stopped bleeding. This caught his intrigue, he looked at another student who had the same condition and also slightly recovered. Arin immediately smirked, “Does this mean every classroom has the effect of being in a clinic? Interesting, so that’s why Professor Ferial left them, they would’ve healed back up normally. Though it looks like it’s much weaker.”

Patrick immediately felt chills straight down his spine. Hearing Arin say this out loud made everyone in this class look at their classmates whom they thought had died. They were indeed still alive, barely alive but still alive. In Patrick’s mind, Arin was implying something inhumane.

“What do you want us to do? We’ll comply.” Patrick went in front of Robert, trying to protect his friend in case Arin decided to torture them again.

“What I want is simple.” Arin reached out his hand which made Robert and Patrick finally realize that this was him extorting them for money. “100 Federation coins per person.”

Hearing this, one of the people as strong as Robert and Patrick roared out, “That’s all I have! There’s no way I’m giving you-”

Arin didn’t even need to say anything as Robert immediately came and punched his own ally in the face. Although there wasn’t a lot of force behind it, it was more than enough to send him flying. “Warren, do me a favor and tell everyone to just give in. He’s not a person we can deal with.”

Warren, the de facto leader, heard this and was about to retaliate when he looked at the current state of their group right now. Although they weren’t injured, they were at the very least tired.

“Fine, I’ll pay for everyone’s fee. That work?”

Arin nodded, it didn’t matter to him the details, all he needed was the amount. There were a full hundred students here, contrary to Arin’s own class. Seeing the sheer difference in both attitude and personality from both classes, Arin connected the dots and realized that they were grouped according to a specific metric. What this metric was, he hadn’t gotten enough information to pinpoint what it was exactly.

“You’re a Labyrinth Solver’s son, why do you need the money?” Robert questioned him.

“I don’t. I just need a reason.”

Robert didn’t even need to clarify what the reason was because it was just too obvious.

“Let’s go to the other classes.” Arin didn’t even bother letting the duo speak. They followed right behind him unwillingly. But before they left the class Arin said something to Warren, “Keep your head down. If you’re angry then do something about it.”

“You can’t be serious…” Warren muttered under his breath as he saw Arin leave their room. Against something so irrational, he couldn’t do anything about it.

The three had started traveling to the other nearby classes.

“Who’s next?” Arin looked around for the next class they were going to steal from next.

Robert heard Arin’s words and couldn’t help but sigh at the unlucky few. The lifestyle in Seal Academy was one of the hardest things to adapt to due to the constant fights happening all around the academy. Everything Arin was doing was nothing but a daily occurrence.

The next classroom they encountered was already done with their mock Trial by the time they got there. From the looks of it, half or even more of the students managed to complete it. This made Arin curious, what was the mock trial they went through, and what kind of people were in there? Arin was looking forward to it.

Arin saw a few students already walking away so he had no other choice but to grab them by their collars, throwing them back inside the room. This caused everyone inside to immediately turn vigilant to what just happened.

“Professor Malter, is this part of the mock Trial too?” A student nearby their adviser asked him. He was extremely wary of what could happen next. Half of their class had been wiped out already.

“The mock trial has already finished.” Professor Altier fixed his glasses and calmly walked outside the room. “It appears to be someone wanting to stir a bit of trouble. Well, I’m in no place to stop you, carry on.”

Professor Altier immediately walked away, ignoring the cries of confusion that came from behind him. This made the students behind him suddenly feel awkward, their adviser during the mock Trial was helping them understand how to properly process the clues at hand and how they could solve them. Seeing their adviser suddenly leave without any warning made them all baffled.

“Who’s the toughest guy here? Make it quick, I have a few more rooms to go through.” Arin raised his voice demandingly.

“Who the hell are you?” A female student got agitated at how confident Arin was at showing up to everyone here with nothing but two lackeys. She took a puzzle piece, a metal rod, and went up to Arin, furiously glaring at him. A few students backed off when she did this, signifying that they had witnessed her personal prowess before.

“You?” Arin walked up in response with nothing but his fists and a slightly mocking smile. Robert could already see the outcome if Arin made a move so he was forced to intervene. The poor girl would be battered beyond recognition and she might even be humiliated in front of everyone, a sight that Robert wouldn’t be able to agree with.

“Wait, I’ll do it.” Robert immediately came in front of Arin, trying to stop him from moving any further. “You don’t need to worry about this one, I’ll handle it. Patrick go with him.”

Arin saw what Robert was trying to do here, he was trying to stop him from terrorizing the other students. As much as Arin wanted to savagely rip apart someone’s limbs, he still had to prioritize his goal.

Despite Robert saying as such, Arin came up to her and delivered one strike directly in her gut. His movements were faster than anyone could register. Before the girl noticed, she had already been set flying back. She was breathing quite heavily as that strike took out a lot from her.

“I’ll be waiting for the good news.” Arin shook his hand left alongside Patrick who was following closely behind him. Everyone could see just how brutal the end would’ve been if Arin continued on.

Patrick gave Robert a knowing look and understood what he had to do. They both internally knew that it was their own job to prevent Arin from letting loose in the academy. Although they wouldn’t be rewarded with such a task, they morally felt obliged to do so.

After Arin left, Robert was now forced to face every single student here alone. Climbing out of the rubble she was under, she took grabbed the metal rod before her and rushed forward. The girl was enraged, they were completely looking down on her. “I’ll show you!”

The girl speedily ran up with her metal rod in hand, striking at Robert’s face. With the monster gone, Robert finally felt at ease, such ease that he didn’t even feel the threat of the girl’s attack. Make no mistake, the force behind her strike would definitely break and shatter bone yet it wouldn’t matter if she wasn’t able to hit it at all.

Robert easily dodged to the side, letting the metal rod slam against the frame of the door, denting it ever so slightly. With the material that they used to create the academy it was definitely something high quality, for a student who had only entered the academy to do such a feat was quite a sight. It was sheer brute force that seemed unparalleled for the current students.

From this interaction, Robert definitely felt that her strength was top-tier. Unfortunately, her speed was lacking to the point that she was essentially in slow motion in Robert’s eyes.

Robert didn’t know if Arin’s strike weakened her. She was definitely injured yet for some reason she still kept fighting on.

“This is going to be a fight all right,” Robert muttered under his breath as he prepared for his first genuine battle in Seal Academy. It was time for him to show everyone what he was made of.