"Now now little ones. It wouldn"t exactly be fair for you to have a fourth member, considering the talent each of you possesses. You"ll have to make do with a little handicap since you wanted to pair up with each other so badly." Professor Mildred said. A slight chuckle left her mouth, and the old lady pa.s.sed each of them a small blue gem.

The gem felt cold to the touch once Favian got his hands on it. Looking deeper into it, he saw what looked like the ocean, and could even smell the seawater from it. After a quick inspection, Favian noticed that he could push some arcana into the stone, however, he didn"t know what its effect would be.

Professor Mildred smiled seeing Favian"s curiosity. "That"s a distress stone. It"ll signal to one of us professor"s that you need urgent help. Be warned though, using this will immediately disqualify you if you didn"t pa.s.s the first month of testing."

"First month? I thought the whole test lasts only for one month professor." Licht jumped in once she heard this conflicting piece of information. The headmaster had stated before that they would spend 1 month in the beast range.

The professor quickly started to sweat a tiny bit, having been fl.u.s.tered by Licht picking up on her leak of information. "Sorry honey, I didn"t quite catch that. Oh wait, look at the time. My cookies are going to be done at any moment. Good luck you three." Mildred exclaimed as she made her way away from the bunch as fast as possible, having feigned deafness.

"That was.." Favian looked at the seemingly ancient woman breeze past them and towards the entrance of the a.s.sembly hall, her strides faster than even his own would be capable of.

"Really weird. That was really weird Favian." Dunkel finished the sentence Favian was not about to finish anytime soon.

After all of the groups had been a.s.sembled in the hall, the students were finally transported to their various locations. One by one, groups were taken into an inconspicuous door that stood to the side of the platform of the hall, where the headmaster had previously been stood giving his speech. The door was very simple, with just a metal doork.n.o.b hanging off it.

Favian stood in the queue with Dunkel and Licht, and just like most of the other students, they murmured, wondering what was behind that d.a.m.n door. It was the first time that he"d seen the door, not having noticed it during yesterday"s a.s.sembly. Now that he was aware of it, he could feel large amounts of energy pulsating from behind the door.

"How on Earth did they manage to hide so much energy when we had the a.s.sembly? I didn"t even notice it at all!" Favian said. His progress to the front of the queue was relatively slow, with his group currently in the middle.

Licht stared at Favian with a confused look. "What is Earth, Favian?" she asked.

"Oh my G.o.d, why did I slip up. I"ve got to stop using that phrase." Favian thought, reprimanding himself strictly.

"Oh it"s nothing, just a figure of speech." he replied, not looking at Licht as he said so.

Licht looked at him suspiciously but didn"t push him for the information.

"I think there"s some barrier placed on the door, or the energy behind it was dormant until today. Who knows?" Dunkel shrugged as he said this.

After approximately an hour, the trio finally reached the front of the line. It was now their turn to enter the room, and see what awaited them. A teacher waved at them to come over when it was their turn, and opened the door for them. The rush of energy that Favian felt when he entered the room was amazing. "I don"t know how to put it, but this feels like the most arcana in a single place I"ve experienced yet." Licht and Dunkel, on the other hand, weren"t too impressed with this amount of arcana in the air, acting like this was just another normal existence.

All three of them were gobsmacked once they saw the room, however. An empty room. In front of the three was just a small, empty room, with absolutely nothing inside it. The only thing that made this room unique was that there was some sort of rune circle on the floor, and the headmaster was currently stood inside. Quickly the three bowed. Just as they were about to speak out their group name, the headmaster stopped them.

"Haha no need for introductions, I know you three as well as I do my own children." Headmaster Reckless exclaimed. "I"ve had eyes on the two of you since before you even arrived at the academy." he looked at Dunkel and Licht as he said that. His sharp eyes met Favian"s upon which he gave a big smile. "You though, Favian, I haven"t had the pleasure to find out as much about. I know who you are, but then, who are you really boy?"

"What? Does he know what I am? There"s no way, he couldn"t." Favian was now freaking out, the headmaster seemed extremely perceptive. As this internal monologue was going on, Reckless simply winked at Favian, almost as if he was listening to his thoughts.

"Let"s get started shall we. You already know why you have no fourth member, so I expect great things from you all. I"m going to place you in the middle of the Kalari Desert. Now come, step onto this sigil." the headmaster said, his voice energetic, putting even Dunkel"s usual energy to shame.

As the three walked up towards the sigil, the headmaster touched each of their heads, having transmitted some information to them. Moments after, the room lit up in a bright green glow, blinding the three. A feeling of weightlessness took over Favian, and then a feeling of nausea came after. Favian fought to try and keep himself from vomiting, but it was futile. He wretched forward and hurled vomit like a projectile, stopping only after 10 seconds full of spewing.

Patting on his back brought Favian back to his senses, after which he quickly pulled out some water from his s.p.a.ce pouch and rinsed his mouth, gurgling on the water until it felt right to spit it out on the floor. The floor now consisted of dark red particles, which seemed like it was blood-soaked. Favian realised that this was the sand and that he was now in the desert.

Favian looked around to see something that would completely shift the way he thought about the continent of Ortu Solis. He was in a desert, yet there were mountains and trees everywhere in the vicinity. "This is impossible, there"s got to be no rainfall here, and the sand doesn"t have the nutrients needed to allow trees to grow" he thought. He quickly concluded that there must be some unknown reason related to arcana that caused this.

The sun was still high on the horizon, and the blistering heat pounded onto the group. Their vision was filled with an endless road of large trees. In the air, there were even floating landma.s.ses, with the what seemed like the same ecosystem as what they stood on.

"So, what did the headmaster tell you all? He clearly transmitted some different information to us all." Dunkel was alert of his surroundings, but still found the time to create idle chit chat.

"Nothing much, he just asked that I make my father proud." Licht said with little emotion. She was no longer the little girl seeking for constant approval from her parents. "What about you Dunkel?"

"Oh, he just said something about me not creating too many problems for us. I mean, he ain"t wrong, but we"ll be fine don"t worry." Dunkel nonchalantly said. Again, he shrugged his shoulders, this having become his signature move by now. "What about you Favian?"

Favian somehow had managed to completely forget the information transmit that had happened, but it quickly flowed back into his mind. His face went white as a sheet, and fear was evident on it.

"Hey, are you okay?" Dunkel asked, as he saw his friend, who had just vomited, become as pale as a ghost.

"Nothing to worry about. Anyways, what should we do now?" Favian asked, trying his best to divert the attention away from himself. All he could currently think about was the headmaster saying, "I expect lots from you Mr. Umbra." when he linked his mind to Favian"s.

"How does he know my last name is Umbra? I don"t have a last name because this boy was an orphan." Favian came to the realisation that the headmaster knew a lot more about himself than he would ever have thought possible.

"Where the h.e.l.l did I trip up?"