Kate scanned her surroundings upon feeling her feet hit the ground.
She hadn’t expected to get teleported away but adapted almost instantly.
The other students were around her, and they had all landed atop a cliff overlooking a sprawling dark oak forest. The sky was painted a reddish tint, and a long crack lined it, revealing a pitch-black void that was growing with every passing second.
Gazing further, she could see a gothic-style castle looming over the land. Its tall black spire stretched high into the sky as it reflected the red glow of the sun.
"How the hell did they prepare all this???"
Many students voiced their surprise upon seeing the landscape.
It wasn’t like they had actually entered a rift, so where the hell did the academy get the time and money to construct such a set piece for a mere exam?
Just then, the deep voice of the announcer began playing through their wristwatch, introducing them to the scenario laid out before them.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Holy shit, have the instructors finally lost their minds?"
While everyone was still trying to make sense of it, their wristwatch vibrated as an interface screen automatically appeared.
[First Year’s Objective: Advance through the Great Demon Forest and arrive at the outer perimeter of The Demon King’s Castle.
You will automatically fail the event if you receive a fatal injury.]
There were no additional explanations besides that notification.
Several groans could be heard across the cliff.
Most students felt drained just thinking about the task.
Despite its simple instructions, everyone knew the truth.
The simpler something appears, the more dangerous it was, and whatever the instructors had set up for them, it was going to be far from simple.
Kate took one last glance around the gathered students, noting that Lake wasn’t among them.
She frowned but decided to focus on the task at hand instead. Her gaze scanned across the assembled student body, meeting their gaze one by one.
She immediately noticed several familiar faces, including Bradford, Allen, Conner, Fiona, and even Bramble and Iris.
Her gaze paused on the fairies for a moment, particularly noting Sylph’s absentminded state, but did not linger long.
Without saying anything, everyone slowly quieted down after meeting her gaze. They stared at her in silent attention, awaiting her to speak.
"...As everyone can already tell—we’ve been thrown into yet another one of our instructors’ sick, twisted ideas of a test."
Her voice was calm, but the undertone hinted at her equal annoyance at this whole ordeal.
"Our objective is to reach the Demon King’s Castle. I suggest we work together to have a greater chance of survival."
Everyone nodded, already starting to organize themselves into a simple formation.
"We’ll form teams of ten and move in a W formation. Group up with members you’re comfortable with. We’ll set off in a few minutes."
After her simple instructions, everyone started pairing up with those they worked well with. It didn’t even take a minute for all the groups to form, most already having found those they had synergy with through their midnight training sessions.
Seeing that everyone was ready, she also formed her own team, which included Sylph, Bramble, Iris, and six other students whose strength had reached Mid Stage Martial Apprentice.
After another minute, the expedition force set off towards their target destination—The Demon King’s Castle.
Back in the stadium, the audience was having a variety of reactions.
Some were impressed by the technological aspect of the event, admiring the academy’s 3D tracking system and real-time display.
Others were impressed by the spectacle, finding themselves immersed in the scenario, while others were more interested in the students themselves.
Screams of excitement filled the stadium as some of the audience stumbled onto the mysterious fairy race, almost immediately choosing to follow their perspectives.
Their beautiful features left many dazzled, while the air of mystery still surrounding their race drew more people to their live channel.
Guild members gave them a brief glance before focusing on the talents they had come here to scout, already switching through numerous channels and recording promising students’ details.
Evelyn murmured, amazed by one student’s commanding aura.
"Of course she is." Leah whispered smugly, "That’s Kate Blackheart, successor to the Blackheart Guild."
"Mhm." Evelyn nodded.
Even she had heard of the Blackheart Guild, one of the top five ranked guilds in the country and a conglomerate that dipped its foot into numerous industries.
She had even seen on the news that they had recently taken on the task to raid one of the four Megarifts that had spawned a few weeks ago.
Looking at the daughter of such an institution, Evelyn couldn’t help but feel awe seeing her inspiring figure.
"I heard she started a business while she was still in middle school, developing it into a multi-million-dollar company by the time she graduated high school." Leah continued to add, her smirk growing bigger as she recalled another piece of information.
"Not to mention, she seems to be an awakened Martial Warrior!"
Evelyn’s eyes widened in surprise.
It was almost unheard of for someone to have reached the Martial Warrior Realm before the age of twenty. Not to mention that she was also an awakened hunter, one of the rarest kinds to exist.
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but recall another awakened hunter she knew of but immediately suppressed the thought.
’No, I promised I won’t think of him while I’m here!’
Trying to force his image out of her head, she refocused on the scene unfolding through the holographic interface. She had chosen to spectate Kate, finding her commander role the most entertaining to watch.
They had just crossed a ravine at the bottom of the cliff and had officially entered the forest.
Kate led the formation from the middle, positioning talented students like Allen and Bradford to lead other fronts, with the backup squads following not far behind them.
From the time they entered the forest, visibility dropped to a low, the thick foliage above obscuring the reddish light from the sky.
They could hear all sorts of noises and roars around them.
After about five minutes of marching, the first sign of monsters had revealed themselves.
A pack of wild wolf-like creatures had caught their scent, rushing towards them with hunger written all over their faces.
After a short battle, the group managed to defeat most of them as a few ran off in fear. Minimal stamina had been used, and no injuries were sustained, allowing them to continue their march without much delay.
However, only after three minutes of walking, they ran into another group of beasts, this time in the form of owl-like bears.
It took them two minutes to dispatch the owlbears, but not even a minute later, another group of creatures had appeared, attracted by the sounds of battle.
It didn’t take Kate long to realize the pattern. Making a split-second decision, she gave the order to push through, starting what was essentially a race towards the castle.
The spectating guild members and even some intelligent members of the audience felt that her decision to do this was a little rash.
How could she expect students who were barely Martial Apprentices to keep up with her Martial Warrior speed and stamina?
"Hah, still too inexperienced after all."
"My guildmates will laugh when I tell them about this."
"So much for the genius."
Mockery rippled through the crowd, though some understood her reasoning.
"With monster numbers increasing, this might be her only option to avoid being overwhelmed."
"Unfortunate. This strategy might work with second or third-years, but she’s expecting too much from kids who’ve only trained for two months."
Seasoned hunters offered these assessments based on personal experience.
Typically, first-years barely qualified as Low-Rank Martial Apprentices by festival time—this had held true throughout the event’s history.
Occasionally a prodigy like the Silverveil Princess emerged, reaching High-Rank Apprentice status before the festival, but they were exceptions.
As the event continued, everyone expected the first years to start showing signs of exhaustions at any moment, some even guessing how many would fail the event because of this. However, when they saw the first-years continue to run with little change in pace or even signs of exhaustion, they started to have second doubts.
Time trickled by, with seconds turning into minutes, and minutes turning into an hour.
Even after so long had passed, the students still continued their advance at breakneck speeds, already crossing a third of the outlined forest zone!
Along the way, they ran into various monsters such as ghouls, giant vampire bats, razor claws, and even a tribe of orcs. Despite these fearsome foes that would’ve given even a High Rank Apprentice a run for their money, not a single student had fallen!
This level of survival ability and stamina made everyone rethink their earlier logic.
Some of the scouts even began to catalog the data and came to a shocking conclusion.
All of the students on the field, in order to match the current pace and not collapse to fatigue or fall to the monsters, had to be at least Mid Rank Apprentices!
This revelation sent not just shockwaves through the live audience but through the online ones too, who were watching the livestream from home.
Soon, the internet was abuzz with the suspected level of this group of first-years.