The First Test

Sage grimaced upon hearing the different voice of the robotic countdown. He ran his hand over his face, grumbling, blinked a few times, and cast a glance at the person in front of him. The same person who started the debate minutes before the ceremony began, the same one who looked like a child arguing.

— Great, a child. — The tone was gentle, as if she were truly happy and that person was indeed a child.

The man huffed in irritation, and it was possible to see the corners of his eyes tremble with annoyance. At that moment, he seemed to be holding back, biting his lower lip hard and controlling the acidic response that was on the tip of his tongue.

Sage lowered her gaze to his wrist, seeing the pearl bracelet. She looked at her wrist, seeing she was wearing one too. The colour was the same, and it seemed to be the only thing different he wore. To her, it could only mean one thing, they were both freshmen. This made her feel more and more antipathy towards him. The way he carried himself on the outside made anyone think he was someone important in his senior year, at least someone good-looking. His appearance was so ordinary that it was almost boring, someone you would see in the crowd but would forget about the moment after.

— Focus on what is important. Leave the discussion for later. — The female voice came out of nowhere, making Sage take a small step back, startled.

The gaze went straight to the bracelet; if she were right, the woman's would probably be different. Well, Sage was right, instead of pearl white, the shade was silver. Maybe second year?

The woman's expression was serious. She seemed to analyse everyone there. The sharp eyes that tried to read and note every weak and strong point. When the eyes reached Sage, they lingered there for a few more seconds, and then a trace of doubt appeared in their gaze.

— Miranda, second year. Yuge, first year, and Arabela, third year. — Miranda pointed to each of them and then to the bracelets, silver, bronze, and gold.

— We are here to give tips on how not to lose all three lives in less than three minutes. — She forced a smile. — If you don't want the advice, just ignore it. We can't choose for you, or directly interfere in your decisions. Nor fight for you.

Miranda brought her hand to the silver bracelet, and the holographic image of the island formed between them. Sage analysed each of the highlighted points that were classified from 1 to 5. All spread across the map, and the region became redder as the zone number increased.

— Don't think we're going to do the work for you. Don't trust yourselves too much, if you think you're at a level... subtract that level by... twenty? Twenty is a good number! — Arabela said with a playful voice and laughter.

The attention of the five was stolen when the sixth person appeared, emerging from the bushes and making an exaggerated noise due to their clumsy way of walking. He was a short boy, with pale skin. The way he shrank back reminded Sage of a frightened squirrel.

Yuge shook his head the moment the last person from the team appeared. All three veterans seemed to understand each other without needing to exchange many words, exchanging glances and responses in just a few seconds. By their expression, was it something like disappointment?

Sage observed each of their reactions and the silent discussion, trying to understand their exact role there. They seemed more like an audience, not people who were there to help them.

— Is there any reason for you to be here? — Sage's furrowed brows betrayed the great doubt in her mind, but the three seemed extremely willing to ignore the question.

The registration forms of the three freshmen appeared next to the map. None of the upperclassmen felt like explaining anything. They pointed at the map, grumbling among themselves, as if the other three were invisible.

Sage could see on the face of the boy from Myrophale that he was starting to get irritated. It was the first time he managed to agree with him on something, all of that was annoying.

"It seems like you guys are going to decide everything and leave us to do our own thing." Sage brought the tips of his fingers to his forehead, grumbling upon hearing his voice.

Even agreeing with him, his voice remained irritating.

Arabela diverted her attention from the map, focusing on the boy; the expression was not pleasant.

 It seemed to be staring at a creature that couldn't stay still. Seeing the small impasse forming, Sage cast a quick glance at his file, having a bit of difficulty understanding the name.

 — Plato? What an ugly name. — He straightened his posture, returning to look at the map. — This point has no classification, but it's darker than all the others. What is it?

All five of them held back their laughter. Sage was sure that she hadn't missed any explanation from the coordinator, so she didn't understand what was so funny about her question.

— It's the white zone, the Immortals don't think it's fair to place Kyros in the same category as the others. So there is no classification for him. It's a warning, if you want to have any chance, don't go there. — Yuge pointed to the center of the map and marked it with a danger sign. — There are 5 points we recommend, they are on the way to the meeting point. They are observation points 1 to 3, it's better to stay between points 1 and 2. That way, they will have hope for something.

Yuge was pointing at the spots on the map, the white band covering his eyes created a doubt in Sage's mind. She had heard about people who chose not to see. They used to say that vision was a hindrance, but she never understood how they seemed to see so well.

— There's a level 3 station nearby, I want to start there and, if it goes well, we'll move to levels 4 and 5. Going to levels 1 and 2 is a waste of time. — Platon's proud voice irritated Sage's ears. — I won't end up with a bad score because of a fairy.

— The posts are protected by veterans. From last year. I'm sure level 1 isn't your child's training in Myrophale. — Sage rolled her eyes upon seeing a nearby level 2 post. — Let's go to that level 2 one, so we can determine if level 3 is easy or difficult.

— We have three chances if something goes wrong. Do you really consider yourself that weak? — Sage rolled her eyes, it was better to let him talk to himself.

He ran his hand through his brown hair, shaking his head. If he stomped his foot like a child, then he would be treated like a child. The orange eyes turned to the sixth member of the group, who remained slightly isolated, just observing the interaction of the rest of the group.

His skin was so white that Sage wondered if he was really alive. She had never heard of the Academy accepting ghosts.

— Almost a ghost. — Sage was startled by the look at him. — Some wizard from my family decided to test the limits of life and death, and now my entire family is almost a ghost. Living ghosts... I think I can call them that.

Sage opened her mouth wanting to justify herself. To say that she wasn't judging him, nor thinking anything bad about him, she was just curious.

— I've seen that kind of look many times. I wasn't offended, don't worry. — He smiled without expressing any kind of hurt in his tone.

— Sorry, I didn't mean to come across so much... — both were interrupted by an impatient sigh from Platon.

— Let's go already.

Sage stared at the veterans, who remained silent throughout the entire conversation. She expected some kind of order or something like that, but they seemed completely indifferent to that kind of thing.

— What? — Arabela pointed to herself and the two colleagues, then stifled a laugh. — We can't interfere in your decisions, our advice was ignored. We are not the leaders of this team. Go ahead, if we receive any kind of notice, we'll help, if not... good luck! — Her smile grew even bigger.

— If I may give another piece of advice. If you go to zone 3 without passing through at least one zone 2, you will die. — This time the voice was Miranda's, she was intertwining her fingers in the greenish strands with a bored expression. — Almost all the newbies think zone 3 is easy, the intention of the test is for you to evolve. Zone one and two are for the veterans who have more patience.

Platon gave a forced laugh, rubbing his hand over his eye as if he were wiping away a fake tear.

— They wouldn't put a difficult test in the ranking, it's just something silly to know our level. The only challenge should be Kyros and Zone 5, but they probably won't even be able to use all their skills. — Platon started walking ahead, tossing his brown hair as a way to mock those behind him.

— Can we let him lose all three lives and move on without him? — Sage jumped slightly, startled by the presence behind him. — And is it Miro or Miros, Miroslav… I find it weird, so I prefer Miro.

— Okay... just don't appear behind me out of nowhere, please. — He said with his hand on his chest, trying to calm down after the scare. — I really wanted him to lose all three lives, but I think that affects our evaluation. It just seems like no one cares whether he lives or dies. — He looked at the three veterans who were still standing there, waiting.

— We can accept losing points for that. — Miranda shrugged, and Sage just nodded slightly in agreement.

She couldn't judge; if she lost points for abandoning Platon, she wouldn't feel guilty. She let out a low sigh and was the first to start walking. She touched one of the pearls on her wrist, causing a small map to be projected in front of her. A dot showed Platon a few meters ahead. He was walking quickly towards Zone 3. Sage felt like letting him go in there alone, so he would lose lives, but she knew that would give her more headaches.

— How much can veterans really use their strength?

— As much as they want. This is just another test to measure the veterans who can actually rank something. The zones are their individual rankings. Your ranking will be based on whether you are smart or egotistical enough to go to the difficult Zones and how long it takes for you to lose all three lives. We have to try to stop you from dying to the veterans so quickly. — Miranda continued with a bored expression, showing no real interest in all of it. — It's not that zones 1 and 2 are weak. They just aren't as aggressive. Most freshmen seem to have an ego bigger than their brain.

— This is basically to find out how useless you all are. — Yuge's sincere words were slightly offensive, but it was understandable.

— You were worse than them, Miranda, you went to a Zone Five thinking it would be an amusement park. — Arabela's tone was accusatory, reminding her friend that she couldn't judge others. — We all did the same, except for Yuge, he took the right path. We tried to make sure you wouldn't make the same mistakes we did.

Sage shook her head, despite the grimace at the unfriendly words, she understood the situation. It was just not so simple to accept that they were so insignificant like that. From the moment they received the invitation card, everyone started treating you like an extremely important person, as if you had achieved something impossible. But they needed to remember that they had just arrived at a place where everyone there had already achieved the same thing they had.

— If everyone is special, no one is special... — Sage muttered to herself, shaking her head. — Let's go after Platon before he loses all three lives and we all get punished for it

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