The ship moved through the day and into the night, and it soon became extremely cold. Everyone was struggling to keep themselves warm. They put on the extra clothes they had brought along and anything else they could use to keep warm.
But a select few were not doing anything, a few like Riven. It wasn’t that he wasn’t doing anything to stop the cold, but he used fire manipulation.
And the fire didn’t start from outside the body, no, it started from inside. So all he had to do was keep the heat just on his skin, and he was good to go.
He stared at the students inside the cabin. Every now and then, you could hear their teeth clattering.
Despite how cold and hard the floor was, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off into sleep.
When the rays of the sun seeped through the window of the ship, they had already arrived at the location.
The route used to get there was completely unknown. All they knew was that the ship landed on an isolated island and the doors opened for them to come out.
One after the other, the students trooped out of the ship and onto the shore of the island. Riven followed as well, coming out of the ship.
When he came down, he noticed that Quin wasn’t the only instructor there. There was the instructor with silver hair—the female instructor that kept pushing for Quin to save Riven and Noel when they were in that barrier with the demonized—and the muscular bald man.
"Welcome, students, to where you’ll be spending a good amount of your time," Quin said. The students looked at the massive forest on the island.
"I feel it’s time we tell you that this competition is going to be graded as a mid-semester examination," the somber-haired man stepped forward.
"For those of you that might not know me, I’m Instructor Richard, and this is Instructor Elizabeth and Rion." The man introduced the other instructors and then continued with what he was saying. "The examination will be graded like so: the amount of points you gather as a class will determine if your class passes, and then your individual points will say what position you ranked in class.
That being said, this examination doesn’t shift your current position no matter what you get. Real change in position only comes after the semester. The only thing you can use this one for is to brag or whatever.
The instructors are here in case of emergencies, though we doubt there will be any, as this island is specially run by the academy.
With that out of the way, your examination starts now," Richard said. The students were stunned for a moment. What were they supposed to do now?
They looked at the instructors, but all four of them were no longer paying attention; they were busy listening to something that Quin was saying.
"Are we heading in?" Noel came up to Riven and asked.
"Yeah, I think our time has started," Riven said and started walking toward the forest. Following his lead, the rest of Class A started walking.
The other classes too began walking. They didn’t want to be left behind and find it difficult to find a cabin for their team.
Soon all the students made it into the forest and vanished from sight. The instructors watched them go, and as soon as they left, Richard spoke. "So anything happen in the ship?"
"Yeah, a scandal between Class C and B. B was provoking C because of the loss their class suffered. It turned into a fight, and B easily dominated.
But soon after, Riven stepped in, and basically, he and Class B are not on good terms. So from the looks of things, Class B is going to be the ones to have a harder time in the examination. Class A is an unreachable height for the other classes, and that’s because of their strength.
If they decide to suppress B, there is nothing B can do. And from how it looked, Riven will definitely be against Class B, and with the top ten listening to him, the rest of the class will too," Quin said.
"Hmm, so this Riven kid, he stands for justice?" Elizabeth asked.
"No, he is much like me. He stands for convenience—for himself. He doesn’t have any major goals like saving the world, but he wants to be able to keep things the way they are and control the flow, much like me.
He doesn’t know this about himself, but I’ve seen it. The kid is trying to create a setup that makes things flow in the direction he wants.
And the reason for that is simple—because he feels there is a task he must carry out, something he must protect, someone he must be. The weight is what is controlling him to be what he is now," Quin said.
"I see. Much like you, the one above, you have to make everything work, or else you believe the world will fall," Rion said.
Quin flashed a smile and spoke, "But we can’t really control life, especially not at this stage of his life. The kid is going to go through a lot before he truly finds himself," Quin said. He looked in the direction Riven left.
’If he finds himself, he’ll be able to reach his true strength, but if he keeps allowing preordained pressure and obligations weigh him down, he’ll end up like me,’ Quin thought.
After a few more minutes, a smaller ship landed on the island. And the second-year Class A walked out, all fifty of them.
"Great, now everyone needed to be here is here," Quin said.
The instructor who brought the second-years walked up to Quin and pulled him aside. He was a tall man with short hair and a very sharp face.
"Quin, something is coming, and it’s dangerous," the instructor led with that.