Vice Principal Seris leaned back in her chair, her arms crossed as she studied the rows of floating screens before her.
Each one showed different groups of students scattered across the wide simulation.
The faint hum of the projection devices filled the quiet chamber, the only sound aside from the occasional shuffle of robes from the professors who stood behind them.
Principal Lucian watched with a steady gaze, his hands clasped behind his back.
His expression gave little away, but when he noticed more students beginning to cooperate, a small nod slipped from him.
"They're learning," He murmured, half to himself.
"They don't have a choice," Seris replied.
The test had been designed for that very purpose, not to measure how many monsters the students could cut down, but to force them to think, to lean on one another, to face the truth of the world outside the academy.
