Franchesca Von Themys: landed in the northern area and is currently climbing the rock elevation in the northwestern part of the island.
Theo Der Botcam and Elizabeth Bato: landed in the northern area and are currently gathering resources and studying the terrain.
Cecil Treyaro, Lyon Alva, and Ximuss Yolte: landed on the eastern side and are currently fighting their way westward.
Alen: landed in the southeast and is walking along his route as an examiner.
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"I didn't expect someone to come at me this early." Kafka Crowbell let out a long sigh at the sight of a student standing in front of him.
Franchesca gripped her spear. Of all the teachers she could have run into, it had to be the one considered the most difficult target.
"Scram. I'll give you some time. Come back once you're more prepared." Crowbell waved his hand dismissively.
But to Franchesca, this felt like a golden opportunity. As their homeroom teacher, Crowbell was strict and uncompromising, pushing the S class to the highest standards.
She spun her spear and readied herself to lunge.
"I'm giving you one last chance—and you're not taking it..." Crowbell muttered, slightly annoyed that one of his students was prepared to fight him.
"I wasn't taught to back down from a fight. My mother raised me to believe that once you point your weapon, the fight has already begun," she explained, circling him.
Crowbell tracked the princess's movements carefully, making sure never to show his back.
Franchesca lunged, thrusting straight ahead. The teacher sidestepped.
The white-haired princess followed with a horizontal swing, which he avoided by stepping back.
She spun with the momentum, turning her whole body before leaping and bringing her spear down with crushing force. The ground cracked where the weapon landed, even though Crowbell had dodged.
Franchesca pressed on. Planting her feet, she swung the spear upward, hurling dust and rocks at her teacher.
From Crowbell's perspective, the dust became a screen, obscuring the girl's movements.
Not even a second later, the spear's tip burst through the cloud, aimed directly at him.
In an instant, Crowbell planted his feet, straightened his back, one arm extended forward and the other raised high.
He had adopted the Stance of Water, activating his Elemental Defense skill.
The spear's tip pierced into a watery bubble and stuck, its momentum lost.
Franchesca struggled, first trying to drive the spear forward, then pulling it back. Neither worked.
Crowbell seized the shaft with his extended arm. The shift in stance disrupted the Elemental Defense, and the water bubble collapsed, splashing down.
"Blow a freezing air."
"[Icy Breath]"
Franchesca had only enough time for the quick-cast version of the tier-one spell. A gust of icy wind burst from her mouth toward the teacher.
"Blow them all away."
"[Gust]"
Kafka cast a quick-cast wind spell, tier one as well. His magic overpowered hers, reversing the icy wind back toward Franchesca. She remained unaffected by her own spell.
The teacher lowered his raised arm in a sharp strike toward her.
But Franchesca caught the blow with one hand, still gripping her spear with the other. She was confident in her strength.
Now both student and teacher wrestled for control, each anchoring the spear with one hand.
"Propagate your coldness through all surfaces I touch."
"[Ice Contact]"
At once, ice spread from Franchesca's hand along the spear's shaft.
Crowbell released it immediately, leaping back. If he had held on, his hand would have been frozen, leaving her with an advantage.
Still, it was a lose-lose situation. The ice didn't bother Franchesca in the slightest; she was already accustomed to freezing cold. To her, it felt like a weaker version of elemental infusion spells.
For ice, tier-one infusion was Snow Infusion, while Ice Infusion was a tier-three spell.
Weaker or not, it was still a power boost.
"That was quick thinking, princess. However, I advise you once again to leave and rethink your strategy. Nothing good will come from fighting me this early—or ever, for that matter." Crowbell adjusted his sleeves, which had rolled up during the fight.
"I told you already, I'm not backing down, no matter what. Once I start a fight, I see it through to the end."
"Think for a moment. You only have a simple second-degree affinity. There's little you can do against a mage with multiple affinities like me."
In Terra, being simple affinity meant a mage could wield only one element. While the average mage had two affinities, single-element users were often stronger overall, since their training wasn't spread thin.
The degrees of affinity categorized the nine elements by rarity:
First-degree affinities (most common): Rock, Fire, Water, Wind.
Second-degree affinities (rarer): Lightning, Ice, Nature.
Third-degree affinities (rarest): Light, Dark.
These ranks weren't about power. In fact, common elements were often stronger in practice, since more mages experimented with them, creating more spells.
Of course, affinities varied among races. Elves, for example, were the most likely to develop Nature affinity.
This was all material Crowbell had taught in class.
Kafka Crowbell himself wielded Fire, Wind, Water, and Dark. Far more than Franchesca, who had only Ice.
"Let me demonstrate."
He began chanting a fire spell—but Franchesca wasn't about to stand idle.
She darted forward with quick, precise movements.
"Tch..." Crowbell clicked his tongue, forced back into dodging her relentless strikes.
In the game Dragon's Roar, Crowbell had been a Sage, an advanced mage class—powerful magically, but weak physically.
Magical starter classes were Mage, Dark Mage, and Sister. Their advanced forms were Sage, Occultist, and Nun.
The difference between classes came down to passive skills, playstyle, and elemental affinity. For example, only simple Dark affinity users could become Dark Mages, while only simple Light affinity users could become Sisters.
How these passives translated into reality remained unclear. Alen had felt the effects of his Thief class's passives, as well as his unique one, but he never understood how or why they existed.
The world at large didn't seem to care about class labels—knight, fighter, bandit—despite their significance in the game.
To Alen, falling into a class seemed almost like coincidence.
At least, that's what he believed.
"If you're not backing down, princess, then I hope you're ready to face me." Crowbell tied his long, dark hair into a ponytail and rolled up his sleeves.
"I'm not planning on backing down. I'll steal the badge and go on my own," she replied coldly, her eyes fixed on the item she had to take to pass the test.
Kafka felt like he could finally release some steam after such a stressful week. Not only had he been responsible for organizing today's exam, he had also endured endless complaints from parents earlier in the week.
Now, standing against the top two student of the first-year S class, he felt even more justified in unleashing his full strength.
Or, at least, an amount of strength that makes this fight incredibly difficult for the princess, while still being passable for the test.
"Frigid spears born from the deep frost, gather at my back and wait in silence. When the moment comes, fly forth as relentless hunters of the cold, and impale my enemy with the judgment of winter."
"Lingering embers, fragments of the eternal flame—settle upon this ground and awaken its heat. Let the warmth spread, steady and unyielding, until all is claimed by your quiet fire."
Both chanted their incantations, determined to fight with everything they had.
"[Ice Shard]"
"[Embers]"
Shards of ice formed behind Franchesca, sharp and gleaming, hovering in place as they awaited her command.
From her time training alongside Alen—and what she dismissively called the "bugs that get between me and Alen," namely Theo, Cecil, Atro, and Silva—she had gained valuable insight. Alen had shown her how this particular spell could be used as more than just a weapon.
Though [Ice Shard] was modest on its own, it excelled as a supportive tool. Paired with lower-damage single-target spells, it added consistent pressure, caught opponents off guard, and wore them down piece by piece.
But [Embers], despite being considered weak, had its own hidden strength. The spell summoned faint flames in a perimeter around where they were first cast, spreading gradually over time. The more flames appeared, the hotter the battlefield grew—slowly melting ice spells and forcing an Ice mage to climb tiers of magic they might not yet be capable of wielding.
And because it was only a tier-one spell, Franchesca, who had only unlocked her second circle, would struggle to break through its effect.
Even so, she refused to yield. She couldn't afford to.
This wasn't just about stealing the badge for extra points. She needed to crush the black-haired teacher outright, to secure a perfect victory—so that she could earn enough to begin searching for Alen's whereabouts.
No... it wasn't just about points.
It was about finally stepping into dungeons with her very first friend.
She'd make sure her first ever friend never again gets injured on a dungeon. She'll do the what his useless partners never could.