**Monday, Astral Mystic Institute**
As the sun rose, it’s morning light filtered through the glass wall of dorm room 79. The rays fell on the absurdly handsome figure sprawled on the massive king sized bed.
Who was it if not yours truly, the one who got caught with the trend of time travel and traversed... oops, I mean transmigrated into a novel.
I stirred from my slumber with a light groan, before opening my eyes to the sight I’d been waking up to for the past two weeks.
Today was the day of the mock exam, or at least the day it was set to start, after all, it was going to last for two days. And I wasn’t the tiniest bit excited about it to say the least.
According to what instructor Black said, it was going to be class against class. Which according to the students in 1–Alpha alone, wasn’t very fair. But then again, life wasn’t fair.
It was a forgone conclusion that our class was winning this thing. Just Imagine it, having most of the top ten ranks in 1–Alpha, not only that, two students had omega ranked physiques, the main characters all had Alpha ranked physiques, except for the white haired bitch of course who had a Gamma ranked physique.
Hell, even Dion had a Beta ranked physique.
The only students in the top ten that weren’t in our class were the ranks 6, 7, 9, and 10. All the top students were packed in 1–Alpha, leaving the rest for the other two classes.
Anyway, I freshened up, and made my way to the cafeteria. As expected, the crowd was livelier than ever today, even the occasional whisperings about me were absent today, as the mob were too busy chatting animatedly about today’s event.
I quietly finished my meal, then began the long walk towards the dome. We had already been told where to gather beforehand, so I went over, though, I was quite earlier than I’d like.
As I entered the stadium next to the combat grounds, I saw that only a few students had arrived. And the worst part was that Delilah and Anastasia were part of those few.
My interaction with these two had been almost nonexistent since we came back from Spira city a little over a week ago. The only times we even saw each other throughout last week were during class on Monday, and then Thursday.
My presence didn’t cause a stir like it used to, if you exclude the death glare Delilah sent my way, and Anastasia’s signature fake smile.
So I went to one side by myself, and thankfully, it didn’t take long before Dion also arrived, and following his arrival, the rest of the class followed.
The instant it clocked 8:20 am, instructor Black appeared in the stadium, drawing attention to himself. Though it took a few seconds before others noticed his arrival.
"I had a good morning, thanks for not asking." The moustached man began. "But I’ll have an even better week if you do not fumble this mock exam over."
A collective snort sounded from the students at instructor Black’s words.
The moustached man didn’t bother with that and continued. "Like I had said four days prior, the mock exam would take place in a simulated environment.
The theme of this mock exam is ’Capture the flag’. Each class will find themselves in a castle, serving as their base. Each castle will have a flag planted at its top.
The condition for winning is to get the flags of the other two classes, and plant them on top of your castle alongside your own flag.
Keep in mind that if your own flag gets taken, even if you have the flags of the other two classes, you cannot win. And also, the locations of the other castles will be random. That might be advantageous or disadvantageous to you depending on their locations. So you’ll have to be careful of that also." The instructor warned.
Meanwhile, I was kind of shocked. The mock exam not being a brute force challenge significantly reduced the 100 percent opinion I had of us winning. Unique physique abilities could be extremely bizarre, and could vary from the most unremarkable bubble blowing ability, to extremely powerful abilities like mine and that of the main characters.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone from another class with some bizarre ability stole our flag right under our noses.
"So like I said earlier," instructor Black continued. "You better not lose. Also, you can’t die as long as you are in that simulated environment, so there are no rules whatsoever." the instructor paused, taking in the expressions of everyone. "So feel free to be absolutely brutal, even more so than in the combat class." A chilling grin crept up his face.
A collective chaotic murmur ensued at the Instructor’s words. Just like the first day of class, some were excited and looking forward to that prospect, while some were thinking about what would happen if they were the ones caught by members of the other classes.
’Ohohohoho, things just got a lot more interesting.’ I inwardly chuckled. And now i was kind of looking forward to the mock exam.
The simulated environment the instructor was talking about was... how should I put it? Let’s say a sorcery–tech if you will. It was kind of like a pocket dimension where the terrain and environment could be changed to anything the one in control desired.
It was also where the midterms would take place. Also, the reason why the instructor said you can’t die as long as you’re inside is because the moment one is near death, or is about to be dealt a sure kill blow, they would instantly be transported out of the simulated environment, and to the best healers the institute had.
"Oh I forgot to mention." Instructor Black spoke once again. "The highest ranked student in each class is the leader. So Ms Necron here is your lord commander, or lady commander if you will. The responsibility to choose her vice commander, strategist, and other subordinates falls on her."
’And now my excitement has been killed.’ I inwardly sighed, glancing at the redhead who seemed unbothered. It was suddenly not so exciting anymore.
Just then, two staffs rolled in a mobile teleporter into the stadium. Did I forget to mention, we could only enter the dimension through a portal. Even in the novel it was never explained why teleportation matrixes weren’t used to enter the dimension.
But if I had to guess, it’ll most likely be because teleportation matrixes were anchored to coordinates of our own dimension, that is, the actual reality. And that portals have a better hold on the dimension we would be accessing. But then again, that was just my theory, for all I know it could be bullshit– which it probably is.
Anyway, the staffs began setting up the portal while the students chatted.
-"Wow, it’s going to be a lot more exciting than I thought." A girl chirped.
-"Tell me about it. With all the monsters we have in our class, we are sure to win." Said another.
-"Especially Alistair, he’s so dreamy."
Okay, that was my cue to stop listening. The talk was about to devolve to how cool and dreamy Alistair was, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to listen to that.
"Bro, we’re gonna be killing it!" Dion exclaimed. "Ms Necron would most likely choose you as her vice commander." he chirped.
"Yeah, that’s not happening." I bursted his bubble. With the way she and Delilah were joined at the hip, Delilah was most likely getting that position.
"Why?, you were pretty good at coming up with a plan when we were in Spira city. Here’s 10 gold knotts that says she would."
"My 20 gold knotts says she wouldn’t."
"Fine deal!" he exclaimed, probably wanting to seal the deal as quickly as possible so I couldn’t go back on my word. He most probably wanted payback for what happened in Rivermark city.
A smile crept up my face as I shook my head. If Dion was hell bent on losing money to me, I would gladly accept it. Her choosing me as her vice commander? Don’t make me laugh.
"At half an hour to 9am," Instructor Black spoke for the nth time. I wonder why he wouldn’t just say everything at once. "You all will begin stepping into the portal. It’ll take you all directly to your assigned castle." he continued. "And don’t let your overconfidence blind you and lead to you making rash decisions. There is a reason the others classes also made it to the institute when countless others did not."
The instructor kept shut after that, there were still five minutes to the time he stated, so Dion and I chatted over our bet, while the others chatted over whatever they were chatting over.
"It’s time, rank 1 head into the portal." Once it was time, Instructor Black called for Anastasia to head into the portal first. Following her were the rest of the main characters, then a few others, then Dion, and surprise surprise, out of the forty students in our class, I was 19th in terms of rank. And these bloody extras still had the gall to call me trash.
Entering the portal, I realized the experience wasn’t quite as pleasant as the teleportation matrixes, but it was not as exaggerated as it was made to be in some fictions I had read.
soon opened my eyes to the smell of wet grass, and found myself in front of a dull castle. The only thing remarkable about it being the silver flag atop it, on which the words 1–Alpha were written.
***********
THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT! KEEP THEM POWER STONES COMING.