Alex found himself standing on a beach after regaining his senses.
Fortunately, no one else was around. This was a deliberate decision made by Rowan to ensure that every candidate had enough time and space to ready themselves before they started the trial.
The island was at least sixteen square miles. The thousand trial takers were spread out across the entire island, and they had all been teleported a distance away from each other.
But Alex knew that thirty minutes from now, the giant island would gradually shrink, forcing those on the edges to move closer to the center.
Being sent to the outer edges might seem advantageous to him, but in truth, it was not the case at all.
The most fortunate in this trial were those who had been sent closer to the center, for they could get to searching for a hiding spot early on and buy themselves a day or two of peace where they wouldn’t need to find anyone.
Meanwhile, Alex would have to constantly move closer to the center, which meant that he was more likely to encounter potential enemies.
Of course, this wasn’t that much of a problem. After all, Alex had a cheat!
The young man immediately opened his status page and checked his map for his current location.
Four dots the size of a quail egg blinked at the north, south, east, and west of the island, as if signifying the four cardinal directions.
The dots were red, orange, yellow, and blue.
Alex immediately recognized these threats as the Boss Monsters, which the Headmaster had mentioned earlier.
Aside from that, he also saw two green blinking dots on the map, which represented his allies, Lavinia and Charles.
The young lady was located near the center of the map, while Charles was sent to the northern edge of the island.
Alex was in the south, so if he wished to reunite with his friends, he would need to head to the center and regroup with Lavinia first.
’I knew this would not be easy,’ Alex thought as he stared at the map. Most of it was still shrouded in black fog, signifying unexplored territory.
He could only access the paths and other information after he passed through them.
’Let’s see if this works,’ Alex mused as he activated the Map of Forgotten Paths.
Immediately, several yellow blinking dots appeared on the map. At the sight of that, the young man did a fist bump.
The yellow blinking dots were labeled as "treasures," which confirmed his assumption that there were treasures scattered around the island.
"Dim Dim, let’s do a bit of treasure hunting first," Alex said. "Let’s avoid any confrontation for now. So, if you sense anyone around, warn me right away."
Dim Dim nodded in understanding. "Dim!"
Since he only had three hours to collect treasures, Alex no longer hesitated and ran toward the nearest yellow dot. Despite his excitement, he reminded himself to remain alert.
North of the Island...
Charles slowly explored his surroundings, making sure to be as careful as possible.
After unlocking his ability, Void-Touched, he had become more sensitive to signs of life around him.
He didn’t want to fight anyone if possible. But that didn’t mean he would not retaliate if he was targeted by the other trial takers.
His priority was to regroup with Alex and Lavinia since they were the only people he could trust on the island.
’I better play it safe,’ Charles thought.
The teenage boy then pressed both of his hands on the ground. After a few seconds, a magic circle formed around him.
A moment later, eight black ants, each roughly the length of a forearm, appeared around him.
"Scout the area and report to me immediately if you encounter monsters and humans,’ Charles commanded.
The Ants heeded their master’s command and spread out. Although Charles was still in the process of learning his new powers, he could already do this much.
At the center of the Island...
A trial taker turned into particles of light as Lavinia’s sword whip pierced through their body.
After going through a dungeon outbreak, the young lady had not only grown stronger but also more proficient in using her skills and abilities.
While she didn’t know where she currently was, she believed that Alex and Dim Dim would come to find her.
All she needed to do was survive until then.
Just like Charles, Lavinia didn’t trust anyone aside from her friends.
The young man she killed earlier had tried to ambush her. Unfortunately for him, Lavinia had already detected his presence and deliberately feigned weakness to bait him out of hiding.
"You chose the wrong target," Lavinia muttered before walking away. "One down, 998 to go."
Unlike others who planned to hide, the young lady wished to challenge herself and seek other candidates to fight against.
She wanted to push herself to the limit and see just how far she could go in the second trial.
For her, this trial was only meant to hone her skills further.
Unlike Alex and Charles, who had no backing, Lavinia was different.
Her grandfather was friends with the Headmaster of the Academy, and her tuition fee had already been paid.
She had decided to join the trial to accompany Alex simply out of worry.
Aside from seeking strong opponents, her goal was to help the young man pass the trial so both of them could study together in the academy.
’Now, where should I go?’ Lavinia wondered.
Unlike Alex, who had a map, the other trial takers had no idea where they currently were.
Because of this, they simply followed their gut instincts and hoped that they could avoid any confrontations until the last day of the battle royale.
Outside of the domain...
The staff of the academy were looking over hundreds of projections that appeared in the plaza.
Each projection represented a candidate, allowing the Professors to see if there were any outstanding teenagers among the applicants for this year’s scholarship test.
"Another one disappeared," a Professor commented. "It seems some of our aspiring students are very eager to eliminate their competitors."
"I hope we can get some talented students this year," a Professor commented. "The scholarship students last year weren’t bad, but they’re average at best."
"Isn’t that why we have decided to limit the number of scholarship students to twenty and switched the trial format to a battle royale?" another teacher replied. "I’m sure we can find some swans among the chickens."
Rowan listened to the discussion of his staff before shifting his gaze to a projection showing Alex and Dim Dim.
He had been paying close attention to Alex, Charles, and Lavinia, the trio who experienced the Dungeon Outbreak together.
During the investigation, the Professors had been left baffled because the magical energy reading of the Dungeon of Beginnings had turned out to be normal.
This meant that a dungeon outbreak couldn’t possibly have happened because there was no reason for it to happen.
However, a dungeon outbreak "did" happen, which made the Headmaster very suspicious of the three trial takers, the survivors of a calamity no one had seen coming.