23 Ants
It was not possible for one to paint on Pure Wood Stone because of its 'pure' attributes so they could guess the reason behind molding gold to form the words before hanging them. It was not their place to say and they were not picky but the gold seemed to be a last-minute job. It was made too uglily.
A waste of precious materials.
The hall was completely bare with nothing else to take note of. The group entered the corridor in the left most corner of the hall with seemingly no other choice left.
The corridor was not long and winding like they expected it to be. It was less than five meters in terms of length and wide enough for three to pass through easily at once.
The corridor only had two rooms at the side with locked metal doors. The locks were the latest models and the 'cultivator-kind' so they immediately gave up the thought of exploring the rooms since they did not possess the correct tools. The art of lock-picking was out of fashion.
The corridor ended at yet another hall but this one had colored tiles laid over the floor in a regular pattern. The walls were bare with a single chandelier hanging from the ceiling providing enough light to fill the room. The passage continued at the farther end of the hall.
Blake, who was in the lead, kept the rest from entering the hall. Taking out a coin from his pocket, he tossed it randomly at the floor in front of him. The tile it landed in sank a little in the ground.
Whoosh!
Several arrows shot out from the right but, finding no targets, disappeared at the left.
"The place is boobytrapped", Awiergan gasped, the faint hint of excitement was not hidden in his tone.
"The mechanism isn't too bad. The missed arrows can be re-used since they are automatically re-collected! Reminds me of the thirteenth stage of the eighteenth SBz booth model!", seems like Sproule was not the only walking SBz-encyclopedia in the team- Sajjad was a true veteran.
Blake did not waste time as he pushed on a seemingly random part of the wall besides them, which was easily pushed inside.
Crack! Crumble!
Most of the tiles cracked and crumbled as they slowly fell down to reveal utter darkness beneath the floor. The remaining tiles stood firmly and sturdily, forming a long, winding and narrow path towards the farther end of the hall. Blake stepped up without hesitating, the rest followed behind.
Orbona suddenly sneezed extremely loudly which caused her to almost slip and fall down the track but fortunately, Awiergan, who was right behind her, caught her in time. Seems like at least one of them will be sneezing just like this fifteen days from now.
But just when they finally reached the solid ground of the pathway...
Sou!
"Give me your names along with a solid reason what you were doing near the northern forests at this hour?"
A tall figure of a man in black suddenly appeared in front of them like the wind. With the large hood, loose robes and silky cape along with those gloves and boots, his overall appearance looked even more suspicious than the kids'.
If not for the huge register in his hands which had the logo of the Academy on it- a hand overlapping and covering a fist but the fist's thumb sticking out from the side and getting on top of the hand, they would not have been able to differ him from an intruder. He was flipping through the pages to find his last writing so he could continue from where he last left off. By the looks of it, he intended to record their 'crimes'.
"Lets see... Barging into a restricted area... Can you provide me with your names?" The man started to scribble on the register.
...
After an earful of scolding, the group was finally lead back to their dorm. They noticed the building now had a nameplate besides the front door saying: "ANTS".
They knew it was the name allocated to their team and group.
The team's logo was drawn under the four letters, it was a simple yet unique symbol of the face of an ant.
Everyone: "..."
Ants?
Well, whatever. Nothing can be done anyway.
Thinking about it, being called as the 'Ants' sounded a little cool? No, this is definitely the brain trying to console itself!
They decided to just sit down and think about their luck that the mister happened to bump into them instead of about their new identity. Turns out, a few of the defensive formations of the 'hidden chamber' had expired causing the backup formations to activate. This made the complex web of formations unstable and full of holes just like the sinkhole they encountered earlier. If not for the mister guiding them, they would have surely trapped themselves to death one way or another. About the hidden chamber, they were strictly restricted from going there ever again.
The adventure had not been fruitless, though; they got a chance to permanently refine their skins, enabling them to up their defense by several notches despite their weak cultivation. Secondly, they got the chance to hear Blake's voice again, which was shaky and a little hoarse but good to the ears. Whenever he said something, it was, for some reason, hard to say 'No' to him.
It was already past sunset when they reached back so except Sajjad, who disappeared to some corner of the building to offer his prayers, everyone dove into their respective beds.
The next day.
Today would be the first lecture they would be attending since arriving at the academy. Awiergan and the three girls woke up early to find Sproule and Sajjad finishing with their morning SBz. Blake was nowhere to be found.
They waited for him for a while but having no signs of his return, they headed to the set classroom without him.
The classroom was more like an arena, circular in shape, terraced borders acting as seats, a hanging writing board which can be lifted up to clear space during practice matches or demonstrations and a rack containing weapons and first aid.
The teacher was already present in the class, standing in the center of the arena. Tens of students of varying ages scattered all over the terraces, the only thing in common among them was the fact that they started cultivation just recently.
The teacher was not old, about thirty to forty years old. Half his hair was white while the rest was black, and he wore a suit similar to Mr. Sevrin's.
"Let's begin!", he decided after he checked it was time.
