Days had passed since the Sefi’s incident.
The situation inside the school has changed quite drastically ever since. After seeing that someone had already managed to own quite a troublesome Fragment so early on, wary eyes were placed on Sefi.
She quickly gained notoriety from her peers due to how much trouble she had caused during her outbreak. Numerous students were lured into madness as they viciously attacked those all around them without a care for their own safety. If not for Fiona quickly stepping in, there might have actually been a casualty.
Not to mention Elliot, who had managed to become the Student Body Vice President due to his staggering Rating of 319, an entire fifty points higher than second place. He had also caused quite a commotion as he had managed to form his own faction, being one of the three current heads of this batch.
Of course, these two already promising figures weren’t the most outstanding ones out of their class. The man who had managed to face against one of the leaders and caused the other two faction leaders to submit to him, Arin. After creating a massive show, he didn’t do anything at all except for everyone to pay their dues.
Being one of the very few Labyrinth Solvers in the city meant that he had prestige that was well above others. Such a title wasn’t something that anyone could just brush off.
The only question left in everyone’s minds was what Arin was thinking of. After asserting his dominance, his actions have been quite quiet ever since. He merely goes to class, follows along quietly, and does not interact with anyone.
Even Elliot, the person who had already made the name of being a brainiac couldn’t understand what Arin was planning. The downtime after such a big event gave everyone enough time to adapt to life in the academy.
This did not mean that there was no trouble at all, in fact, there was even greater trouble brewing than ever before. Fights were constantly happening amongst the lower-skilled combatants. They were either fighting it out due to one of them being in the mood for it or they were trying to take something from the other.
Such an atmosphere quickly forced the three faction leaders to try and calm their members down. Alexander, the one who faced Arin, used his strength to speak and calm his people down. He even used some of his men to discipline those who were too unruly so that they would know the consequences of trying their luck.
If before, he would’ve propagated it instead, forcing those below him to start struggling against one another to strengthen each other through battles. Unfortunately, an extremely odd person appeared who personally preached against it, Fiona.
Fiona had turned out to have started personally interfering with those troublemakers. As such, violence was suppressed to a degree.
Elliot used his currently rising reputation to try and form a shield of protection under his people. Due to the drastic difference in his people’s skills, he was the faction leader who was having trouble the most. Most of them were weak and unskilled, only there to hide and gain some protection to tide through the dangers ahead. As for the few highly skilled members who were part of the Student Body Committee, they weren’t as active here due to having their own responsibilities.
As for the mysterious veiled girl, she had it the easiest. All it took was a single word from her and everyone was silenced. It was the most eerie group out of the three yet it was the most stable one.
~~~
Professor Ferial opened the door to her class. As soon as she did, most of the murmurs inside immediately quietened down. It was so quiet that her every step echoed throughout the room, making it seem as if it was empty.
She went to the middle where her desk was and sat down, not even bothering to greet her students. “Is everyone finally here?”
“Professor Ferial, there are still three more students who have not attended up until now.” A meek voice responded.
“Three… ah, whatever. We’re already behind schedule as it is.” Professor Ferial took out her book, the very same book that Arin had sifted through when they were locked inside. “If you have friends… acquaintances in the other classes then you should already know that we learn here practically.”
She clasped the book closed and an odd blurry wave spread out from all around her. This caused everyone in the class to slightly lose their vision. They could still make out what was in front of them but it was far too blurry to see any specific details.
After this wave passed by them, the very next moment that they blinked, they were already somewhere else. Their classroom morphed and changed into a blank canvas where the empty white void stretched out as far as the eye could see.
“Instead of suddenly throwing you to an unforeseen circumstance, this time I’ll be explaining what’s happening in detail. This also means that it would now be graded, carefully. Do well and you’ll be rewarded. Do bad and you’ll be forgotten. Keep up.” Professor Ferial spoke in a monotone voice as if she had grown tired of speaking the same sentiment over and over again.
As for the class, most of the students recalled how they were taken out far too easily. This time they would finally make up for with mistakes by doing well in this assessment.
The twins, Liam and Lianna, took their own area. As one of the few people who managed to successfully finish the first trial, they were one of the most promising prospects of taking the top spots.
As for Elliot, there were two people standing beside him as of now, Barlot and Alclair. His group seems to be the most promising one out of everyone with the proclaimed smartest and strongest pair working together. Their group just seemed to be far too synergistic to fail.
The mysterious student who was very keen on obtaining knowledge was also on his own. Due to his erratic personality, no one had managed to get close to him at all. This… except for one other person, Arin.
He slowly made his way near to Arin and started bothering him, “Do you know what’s going to happen now?”
“I don’t.” Arin’s cold response could only show just how much he put thought into this conversation. He was currently too busy trying to figure out far too many things well beyond what he should currently know. Things such as Malum.
“Alright, if you want my help then just let me know. I’m sure there’s something interesting you’re holding on to.” The mysterious student backed off as numerous students eyed him. Approaching such a lunatic like Arin and not paying some sort of price was just unbelievable.
“Settle down! I’m not going to repeat myself.” Professor Ferial spoke up after seeing that most of the students managed to form their own groups. Some were extremely stacked like Elliot’s group while some decided to be on their own just like Arin.
“As you should understand by now, the classrooms in Seal Academy aren’t normal. They can mimic Trials accordingly based on a certain parameter. I won’t bore you with the details so just know that if we have that trial recorded then we can recreate it.”
Professor Ferial snapped her fingers and the surroundings immediately started to change, “There’s no reward nor punishment while doing trials here. Though there’s still the Completion Rate which for the purposes of this academy, is your grade. That’s all you need to know from me. Your mind will be filled in with the details of what you need to do. Work together or fight against each other, it doesn’t matter to me.”
Saying so, Professor Ferial disappeared before everyone’s eyes. Their surrounding immediately changed as the white void was starting to fill itself with an odd runic stone, enclosing everyone inside it. It didn’t take long before everything was simulated in front of them.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Blue runes were carved into the stone which shined a bright glow, lighting up the entire premises. There were numerous pathways leading to unknown destinations, they were all marked with random symbols. The floor had a circle drawn into it with numerous spots. If one were to describe this circle, it would be similar to the moon.
As everything finally managed to materialize, Arin and everyone else finally managed to gain the necessary information they needed.
Trial: The Moon Runic Ruins
Difficulty: Maze
Participants: No Limit (Modified)
Restrictions: 30 Minutes
Goal: Escape the Runic Maze
Rewards: None (Modified)
“I don’t see the Sepirah counter…” Arin muttered to himself. “That does make sense since this isn’t a real Trial.”
Elliot took the initiative to look in even more depth at the surroundings. In the middle of the room, there was a giant obelisk that had more detailed runes alongside it. When he came closer, it showed a series of symbols corresponding to the ones above each path.
“Hey everyone, check this out.” Elliot pointed at the symbols on the obelisk and relayed the information he obtained to everyone. “It looks like it’s guiding us to the correct paths to take.”
Everyone came to examine the symbols and verified that they really were the exact same. The only problem now was are they willing enough to try it out. At this moment, everyone looked at one person.
Brian, the bravest person here, put his hand on his chest, “I’ll test it out!” He ran headfirst to the pathway that had the symbol corresponding to the highest one on the obelisk. After he did so, nothing peculiar happened, he just kept on running until no one could see him anymore.
“It looks like there’s no danger so far. Even so, I doubt that it’s that safe, right?” One of the students said out loud.
“Right.” Another one agreed with him.
Arin was watching everyone twiddle their thumbs trying to figure out what they should do next meanwhile he was looking out for one specific detail instead. As it turns out, taking initiative really did him well. When he first skimmed through Professor Ferial’s book, this exact situation was one of the scenarios he managed to read through.
This meant that he already knew how to clear this trial. There wasn’t any suspense on his part at all, he just needed to do what was said in the book perfectly to pass.
“Though there’s a problem, the recorded way to pass only had a 73% Completion Rate. That can’t be the highest one someone had managed to get here. This means that there’s something else I’m not seeing yet. Elliot, show me what you got.” Arin glanced at Elliot, the only other person who had managed to read the contents of the book.
Elliot looked behind him to see that Arin was carefully watching him as well. They both knew how to safely pass this trial, the only problem was how they were going to go above that. He wanted to get a higher score than Arin to try and reason with him. He needed some kind of platform to stand on first if he wanted to do that.
“Alclair, Barlot, I have something to tell you…” The trio huddled up and Elliot spilled the beans already. He informed both of them of the current guaranteed way to pass which also caused them to look at Arin’s direction.
The mysterious youth smiled and noticed this, he wanted to ask Arin about it but seeing as Elliot also knew something, he decided to try his luck here. Seeing him, Elliot didn’t immediately shun him away since this youth had the ability to be here.
As they were conversing everyone else was trying to figure out how to get through this area.
“Nothing happened so far, do you think it’s safe to try now?” A boy glanced at the pathway that Brian took.
“You can try, I’m willing to wait it out for now.” Another guy spoke his mind.
“The symbols are definitely connected, though I feel as if we’re missing something.” A girl muttered as she looked at the symbols in more depth. “It looks like… wait, that’s a crescent shape, the other one has a jagged side and an oval side, and the other one is a half-circle. It’s like they’re all the halves of a circle!”
She managed to accurately pinpoint one key detail that Arin and Elliot had known. There truly was a small gimmick here and it was that the symbols weren’t exactly directly correlated but were in fact, the other half of the correct pathway they needed to go to.
The following thing they heard further solidified their understanding.
“Brian Thompson, Completion Rate 14%.” Professor Ferial informed everyone using an unknown method. Her voice echoed throughout the trial which caused the shining runes to slightly shimmer.
What made everyone sigh in relief was that the path wasn’t blocked off. It seemed as if everyone could get the same score if they did it the same. In this case, there was no reason for them to rush it.
“That’s it! This must mean that-” The girl who had managed to pinpoint the small gimmick here was immediately grabbed by her shoulder.
Sefi, who had been quiet this entire time, finally made her move. Her very existence caused everyone in the vicinity to feel their strength drain away. Her madness was only behind Arin.
“How about you whisper to me what you found out?” Sefi spoke out aloud, not even bothering to hide the fact that she was using her strength to force someone else to speak. Seeing this, Elliot wanted to stop her yet the mysterious youth grabbed his shoulder.
“As long as no one gets hurt, it shouldn’t be a problem, right? Don’t interfere right now. Besides, she’s pretty mad at you right now so I’d rather not push it.” The mysterious youth offered some words of advice and let go.
Elliot looked at the current situation and it seemed like Sefi just wanted to finish this up. She wasn’t particularly smart but what she lacked, she made up with pure instincts.
The girl tried to contain her fear and whispered, “The higher the symbol, the greater the Completion Rate, if you take the path that lets the symbol complete a circle then you will get a better score.”
Sefi leaned in closer, their eyes could almost touch each other, “You’re not lying, right? This is just a small test so don't throw away your life here…”
“I promise! I swear I’m not lying!” The girl yelled out in fear. She wanted to clarify something first, “I… I’ll do it first! The paths don’t get blocked off so you can just follow me…”
“Too slow, I’ll find it out after. You better pray you didn’t lie to me.” Sefi yawned and took a step forward toward the path that was the corresponding pair of the symbol on the top of the obelisk. Everyone saw this but when she took her next step, she immediately disappeared.
The only thing that was left was a small gust of wind that slightly forced everyone beside her away. Followed by Professor Ferial’s voice.
“Sefi Moile, Completion Rate 63%.”
Seeing this, the girl who was on the verge of crying sighed in pure relief. Luckily she didn’t make a mistake. Although she was supposed to be one of the greatest talents, compared to such terrifying brute force, she could do nothing but cower in the face of it.
Another guy soon followed in Sefi’s footsteps.
“Opal Nuertre, Completion Rate 62%.” The expected score that they achieved didn’t appear but was instead reduced. If you think about it, it only made sense, if everyone used the same solution then it wouldn’t be that competitive anymore. This slight reduction in Completion Rate was more than enough to force people to panic.
After all, a point is a point, every bit matters. Most of the students were now struck with frenzy as they all ran off trying to get to the finish line first before everyone else. Some of them were smarter and decided to take the unclaimed paths which still gave them the full points.
A series of announcements were made.
“Houston Myers, Completion Rate 61%.”
“Davidson Erthoulough, Completion Rate 56%.”
“Mina Fethly, Completion Rate 65%.”
Everything was going well except for one thing. A person managed to get a higher score than everyone expected. A Completion Rate of 65% was the current highest one that anyone had managed to get. And this particular girl was the very same one that Sefi threatened.
Amidst the chaos, no one had managed to figure out where Mina went but one thing was for certain, there was still something hiding within this trial that they needed to solve.
Arin was closely observing everyone and saw what Mina did. “Clever. That solves one problem, that should get me to… around a Completion Rate of 80%. There’s still something missing with the puzzle.”
If Arin had managed to notice this then Elliot definitely did so as well. They both tried to verify with each other what they managed to uncover. Arin pointed in one direction with his eyes while Elliot pointed in another direction. Despite that, they both managed to confirm that they both managed to pinpoint one missing element.
“He’s testing me.” Elliot immediately figured out what Arin was doing. His results on the test were definitely high but that was only during a controlled environment. Arin was still testing whether Elliot had the necessary skills he wanted from him.
Ever since the beginning with him giving him the book, Arin had been constantly testing Elliot’s competency and this was just one of his tests. Elliot had no idea if this attention was good or bad so he needed to maintain the status quo.
“As expected, a Rating of 319 should be able to do this at least. That’s enough for now, I need to find out how to get the Perfect Clear here. In the Moon Runic Ruins, if the shape of the circle represents the moon, the runes represent the pairing symbols, which only gives me a fragment of what I need. How does Ruins factor into all this?” Arin casually walked forward to finally examine it on his own.
At this point, only ten or so students were left to make their own decisions. As for the remaining time, there were only twelve minutes left before the trial finished. Seeing Arin make his move, Elliot decided to lead his group to finish this as well.
“Let’s move. I think I got it.” Elliot informed his group. “I might not be able to promise you a Perfect Clear but I can assure you that you will get a Completion Rate of 90% at the least.”