Thump ~ thump~ thump~
the sound of heartbeat could be heard, it was came from their own chests
The air was different, It felt like it was tickling the nerves
Their body wouldn't move as if the ground they were standing on was made of mud.
Sharp wind blew past her face, causing her to close her eyes, just to find herself unable to open them again
Then a voice, a faint whisper, carried by wind from a far away
Kneel, bow , beg
She couldn't hear it properly
It came again, closer this time
Kneel, bow, beg
And this time she could hear it
Before she could mull over the words, it appeared again, but this time it came from beside her, inches away from her ears
Kneel, Bow, Beg,
Then it grew louder, erratic and each word caused a wave of nausea
Kneel, Bow, Beg
It didn't stop there
Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,Kneel, Bow, Beg,
Even amidst the loud chatter, she knew what was happening
'A mental attack'
There were two ways one can resist a mental attack
Either by resisting it, if your will is greater than the caster this method works
Or by denying reality
So Rowayne did the latter because she was weak for the former
Its not real, its not real,Its not real, its not real,Its not real, its not real,Its not real, its not real,
But before she could resist the attack something else happened
A sound of something akin to a vase cracking could be hear
overlapped with sound of someone clapping
Clap-! Clap-! Clap-!
Opening her eyes, Rowayne found herself in a room, sitting across an old man with grey hair
"Congratulations on getting out of the illusion, I thought you would fail for a second there"
"Sir,you are?" She asked, calmly as if waking up to find herself in some kind of study was a random tuesday thing for her
"Oh, I see I got too excited and forgot to introduce myself there. The name's epstein,
Frey exciel and I am your headmaster, or I will be if you pass the second phase of the exam that is.
'He mentioned an illusion, does that mean the test was an illusion? Since when? But more importantly'
"When did anne pass" she asked
"Why are you sure she passed?"
"No one gives away their gift's special effects like that, if they any"
"You know that and yet you couldn't tell if you were in illusion?"
"and how was I supposed to know that this was an illusion?" she fired back
"The illusion was 98% identical to the real world with 2% difference, the difference was... well different for everyone and for you, it was the absence of wind, the one of the most obvious ones so far."
"oh"
Now did she think about it, there wasn't really any wind blowing throughout trial
"and secondly , there were 50,000 participants, on 10 trains, that's 5,000 per train
don't you think the starting area would be a lot more congested?"
"anyway, while the passing condition was getting out of illusion, the objective was to reach the exam centre
you are one of the few who did both"
Frey then threw a black coin towards Rowayne who promptly caught it
"what's this?" She asked
"Special credits, rewards for clearing both passing condition and objective" Frey then added lazy "you got one, you need nine more to pass 1st year"
"How many got it before me" Rowayne asked because if oldie was providing information, might as well exploit it
"4 people, this year"
"oh, and can you tell m-"
Clap-!
***
Rowayne found herself back at her bed
'So the whole city was under the illusion, and from the start'
Her phone buzzed twice, signaling a notification
'Congratulations student Rowayne for passing 1st phase of examination, please connect the device to the charger beside the bed to acess the 2nd phase'
She did as instructed and the bed split open from the middle
The two sides of the bed then retracted into the ground
While in the place where the bed once stood, was a pod
The light of the room turned green and a mechanical voice could be heard
'Please enter the simulation pod for the 2nd phase'
The pod opened and Rowayne stepped in
When the pod closed, her vision slowly faded to black
When she opened her eyes, she found herself in what seemed like a forest
Just as she was starting to get up a familiar voice rang across the entire simulation stage
"Yoo, Missed This vice principle of yours?, WELL worry not because I am back and I brought with me the second phase of the exam so.... Lets get the introductions done so we can witness some epic fights scenes, I trust that you have been training past months for this?"
"So as you can see we have spawned you somewhere in the zone randomly, worry not there are no monsters in the simulation, Your goal is far simpler
What you need to do,to pass the selection criteria,
Firstly is to find and touch your waystone, the cordinates to which will be provided to you on the 2nd day or when only 5,000 students will be left standing wherever happens first
Secondly, You need atleast one kill person.
The ranking criteria will be revealed when only 2,000 students remain standing
Those who do not meet the selection criteria
will not partake in ranking
Anything goes, and say the name of the weapon you want out loud and it will appear before you, one person can choose only weapon"
"Oh, and last but not the least, the use of gifts is allowed during this phase
Have fun~~, I know i will"
***
meanwhile at another location inside the academic realm
Inside a large hall stood a large mahogany table flanked by chairs carved of stone, behind each chair was a symbol
All seats, 13 in number were filled with people of varying ages
Only thing common between them was that, they were elders of the council, The voice behind all decisions regarding academic realm and today they have gathered once again to discuss stuff
"The second phase of elite selection should have started by now, we should start as well,
Elder Cecil, Elder Rova and Elder Ameer may I ask why have you called the council meeting at this hour?"
the burly with a thick beard man asked, looking at a teen boy with flowing hair , a grown woman with blob cut and a old man with a white beard
The old man with a white beard spoke up
"Elder zephyr, I called us here because to discuss about matter concerning the new admissions, Elder Rova, if you will show them the statistics that you have shown us"
"Yes elder Ameer", Said elder Rova
She then tapped the table twice, the symbol behind her chair lit up and in front of her an hologram appeared for all of them to see
"These are the statistics regarding average blessed ones each year.
As you can discern from the graph, before the abyss gate incident in veînorśe continent
number of blessed born in our species were roughly 200 Thousand per generation
This number dropped sharply right after the gate incident to 100 thousand per generation and kept dropping each year
And this year we are down to mere 30 blessed, predictions say we might stop having blessed altogether next generation
The above data suggests the world have forsaken our species"
"but how can that be, It was not our fault that incident happened how can our world forsake us because of sins of some lunatics"
"Elder Wong, you know as well I and all of us present here, that world does not differ between actions of an individual and the actions of a species besides what happened in the veînorśe continent could have been, no it should have been prevented"
"What elder Chen said is correct, Elder Wong, we have lost world's favour due to our own negligence we were too confident
But we are not here to discuss about past mistakes, no we have more pressing matter to attend to,
Among the non-human races the vampires and beastkin have noticed the gaps in our frontlines that are created due to lack of blessed ones, the gatekeepers are already swarmed enough due to matters regarding gates
Dragons still remain neutrals but history have long since taught us to not trust those overgrown lizards"
"Get to the point, Elder Rova none of us who are present here give a damn about outside world as long as peace within the realm is maintained"
"Very well, Elder Rowen, I am saying that we should change our ways, because of these uncertain times"
"and change what exactly elder Rova?"
"The elite academy curriculum and selection process, Elder Zephyr", elder Cecil who have been silent from the start spoke up
"YOU ARE TELLING US TO FORSAKE FAIRNESS?"
"Calm down elder Wong and yes THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I AM SAYING" elder Cecil looked elder Wong dead in the eyes and continued
"I am proposing we let the 30 blessed enter regardless of how they do"
"BUT WHAT OF OUR TRADITIONS, THE ACADEMY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN UNBAISED, UNMOVED IN THE FACE OF POWER OR INFLUENCE"
"We can choose to honour our traditions or we can choose to survive, we can't do both"
"why now, if we had to change you could have suggested it before doing it gradually and subtly instead of abruptly"
"I will answer to that, Elder Rowan", Elder Ameer spoke, in a grave voice
"15 years ago, the frontline was breached once and vampires managed to attack a city under Association's control
many were killed but many adult males and females were missing, association had its suspicions but yesterday
the association and United front's spies have confirmation that humans as taken as prisoners and are kept alive to this day
Now riddle me this, why would vampires who have farms dedicated to blood production, take human prisoners?"
"You don't mean..."
"yes, They have been used as a breeding stock to create those half bloods and half bloods can't be detected unless they awaken their inhuman side"
"they won't go that far"
"Are you sure about that?" , that made elder Rowan go silent
"Now i just saying that we change selection criteria in elite academy, those in favour raise you hands"
7 hands were raised
"Can you at least elaborate on how you plan to change an ongoing test?"
"Sure, Instead of usual top 2,000 getting in, we let top 1,000 in and as for remaining 1,000 we chose based on gifts, I have already instructed Carter to withhold information regarding ranking "
"Won't it create dissatisfaction between students?"
"Its 1000 unhappy students vs 48,000 hopeful ones, i see no problems"
"fine"
Remaining doubts were quelled and hands started rising
Until all 12 were up
"SO by unanimous voting we conclude this topic"