20 Shady business.

He just said that them not saving his bunch was an impossibility....

With such confidence on top of it....

Could it be?

"You knew about it from the start?" The robotic man wavered.

"Mhm", Blake nodded.

"How?"

"Too weak", Blake's lips moved more but no voice came from his throat after those two words.

"Too weak, what?" He asked again.

"I think he's talking about the explosion", Awiergan got some clues from the conversation. When Blake said 'weak', his mind wandered off to the explosion which caused the earth to hole up. It was surely too weak. Not enough to even harm a normal human. He knew it because he was the closest to it when it exploded. Moreover, he could tell when his curse was acting and at that time, it was not. This means that nothing harmful or dangerous was going to happen to him.

"Sir, was this all...", Sajjad also realized what was happening here.

"A test, no terrorists or any other problem", the robotic man confirmed.

"This..." A test was so dangerous?

"We did not expect you guys to take the second route. You were supposed to go in the dry tunnel. Fight a few monsters and reach the end after about two hours", the robotic man sighed. Every motion of his had at least one line of symmetry, even when he sighed.

"Why did you take the river when there was dry land?" The robotic man turned towards Blake.

"Shortcut"

"How did you get past the rocks? You didn't hit any?"

"Smashed 'em to smithereens"

"Sigh! Let's go back. You all pass...", the robotic man did not question Blake's ability in the least. After all, Blake had a 'Stone' in his name.

The river had taken them far to the north east to the edge of the woods where a small but tall mountain range ended abruptly at the sea in the east with a thin strip of the southern desert reaching out to act like a border and a beach.

The location was about a league away from the academy so they reached back in the dormitories in no time.

In the middle of June... A certain house had its heaters on...

The bunch of seven were huddled close together with cups of hot chocolate held tightly in their hands. The robotic man, who introduced himself as Sevrin, the teacher in-charge of them, dropped them here, saying that they were free for today. Tomorrow will be the welcome ceremony and classes would start the day after.

Blake went to bed with Sproule behind him. The rest of the five used the time to get as much heat inside their bodies as possible. They were still cold.

Everyone, except Blake, had caught a cold. Orbona's had mysteriously been cured.

...

The following day.

Everyone woke up early but found that the two who slept for the whole day had pulled an all-nighter playing SBz.

A white sheet of paper was lying between the two.

Sproule- Blake

53- 97

A total of 150 matches?

There were some terms written behind the sheet which were apparent from a dog ear. Seeing that they were immersed in another match, Lucy sneakily picked it up and brought it back to the five.

10 wins= 1 command token.

This was similar to what Blake and Ivory had done but if this went on... Would not Blake eventually gain another slave? Ivory could be considered one, right?

After reminding them about the Welcome Ceremony which would start at eight, two hours from now, they went back to get ready. When they gathered at the lounge again at seven thirty, one from their ranks was missing. Orbona found Sajjad had joined in with the SBz players. He had already secured three wins under his belt. There was a 1v1v1 mode in SBz, too.

7:50 am

Ivory was only left with the choice of plugging out the console's power cable, preventing Sajjad's fourth consecutive win but he did not mind it much, saying that he would just have more wins later.

A dark horse!

Mr. Sevrin arrived at 7:57 sharp since it took precisely two minutes and fifteen seconds to reach the Assembly Hall.

The place was bustling and lively. The hall was enormous, with the setup of a lucture-room meant for ten thousand students. The seven got their seats in the first row, right in front of the stage.

The process was the usual performances and speeches. The opening was the school anthem sung by a few sophomores. After that came the old principal for his speech, it was not long and boring. Just three sentences : "I was supposed to show my face here. Look at it well. Your principal has a similar one."

Then came the people who the students needed to know. After that was the student disciplinary committee and so on.

The students left the hall at 10:00 to the cafeteria for breakfast. After that, everyone was free.

Classes were starting from tomorrow. The girls wanted to check out the Academy's famous market so they dragged the rest of the group to 'escort' them. Only Sajjad willingly stood up due to his religious part telling him that 'women must not go out alone'- he had already taken the three as his sisters. Blake also, surprisingly, showed no resistance, however, he disappeared the moment they arrived at the market, off to buy his own stuff.

The market covered a large area, spanning over more than a square kilometer. Many merchants had opened shops and stores selling all kinds of stuff. The fact that they were able to get inside the Academy proved the reliability of their goods.

There were even somethings that caught Sproule's eyes. Like those super rare and powerful SBz game cards!

When the seven decided to head back after spending the afternoon in the market, Blake suddenly emerged from some hidden corner and silently rejoined them. His face clearly told that he had been doing some shady business.

Even the academy's private market could not escape from this dark patch?

Exhaustion was evident in everyone's eyes as they wanted to get back to the dorms and lie flat on their respective beds but Blake urged them to follow him in the opposite direction, towards the north. Everyone kept complaining about this and that but still followed him as the stone pathways ended into a strip of grasslands outside the northern woods. They were curious about why he was taking them here. When he had used his mouth to word out, "Follow me, something great", they could not say 'No' to him. It was extremely rare for him to speak.