Strange Portal

After the instructors in charge of the Portal barked some orders, they took the students toward their ride.

The new X-Runner model, custom-made by the Alcaeus Academy itself. By using its top speed, it could arrive anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes.

This was the result of something being powered by Power Stones.

Very quickly, every student embarked on the futuristic designed plane that was neither too small, nor too large.

"The scientific branch, please follow me," said Professor Atomus before walking in a certain direction with the other professors in tow.

"The combat students, please follow me." The same man who stopped Lux and Nia on the first day of Academy at the gates, Alexander Leone, spoke to the rest.

He was the instructor in charge, and also the strongest man who would follow them inside the Portal.

"Brother, if there's something wrong, please request help or abandon the test and run. There's no need to endanger your life for something as meaningless as this."

Before leaving with Instructor Leone and the others, Nia made sure to warn Lux.

To this, the latter only nodded at her.

"You too, make sure you do the same."

"Hehe, with the equipment you gave me, there shouldn't be any problems at all." Sticking her tongue out, Nia quickly hopped away.

Lux shook his head seeing this and followed after the other students and professors.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at a spacious hall, one that had different aircraft ready to take flight.

"Now that everyone is here, let me tell you the requirements to pass this test," Professor Atomus said before making a pause.

"First, your main mission is to find any kind of new material or herb that may be useful. The second mission is to try and get your hands on different monster meat and blood. As you may know, we are currently researching pills that can increase an individual's power based on this."

"As for the third mission… Every single piece of intelligence found about the monsters living inside would be rewarded."

"Your findings would be converted to Points after the test is over, and you can use those points to exchange them for everything inside the Academy, as long as you have enough."

"If some of you want to give up now, that's your only chance to do so."

As Professor Atomus finished his speech, he waited to see if there was any student who raised their hand to leave, but surprisingly, no one said anything.

"Good. Another thing, the first one hundred kilometers from the entrance of the Portal were cleared by Alexander and other instructors. This also means that the combat students would only truly begin after the one hundred kilometer mark."

"So there's no chance you can help or receive help from them. But even if there's no monster in the surrounding area after the cleanup, this doesn't mean that no one sneaked in once again, so please be careful."

"The landing will commence in one minute."

A mechanical voice was heard, announcing the landing.

Everyone was a bit nervous, with the exception of Lux.

He was the calmest of the lot.

Meanwhile, on Nia's side, a few people already gave up the test when they heard that it will take place over one hundred kilometers deep inside the Portal.

This made many of them rethink their choice of participating in the test, where they could potentially lose their life at any moment or simply give up and keep their life intact.

Nine students raised their hands to announce that they were giving up, leaving their twenty colleagues to fend for themselves in an unknown Portal.

"Those who gave up, please wait on the ship with the other Academy's personnel; the rest of you, follow me."

As Alexander said this, the ship just landed, and curiously enough, there was no sound of impact to announce it.

Following Alexander from the other side of the ship, the combat students looked on the other side to see Professor Atomus leading the other half of the Special Class, from where none of the students retreated.

"Instructor Alexander, weren't we sixty students? If nine retreated and we're only twenty, then…"

A student suddenly asked, and now that he said this, the others' interest was quickly piqued.

"Your other classmate is already inside; she's just waiting at the entrance per her wishes."

As they heard that, many of them gulped; they couldn't understand why someone would choose to stay alone inside the Portal of their own volition.

After a few hundred meters, they finally saw it, the orange-hued Portal that was tens of meters tall.

"I guess everyone already knows, but I'll say it again. After finishing your tasks, make sure to leave the Portal at once. It's a given that only those who enter inside the Portal from an entrance could exit it the same way, so no monster would be able to follow you outside."

Saying so, Alexander made the first step inside the Portal, the other instructors soon followed after, and then the combat students.

Professor Atomus and the others patiently waited for ten minutes; this was so that the two separate teams of the Special Class wouldn't meet each other.

"That's enough time; let's go inside."

Not giving anyone enough time to react, Professor Atomus was already inside the Portal.

Without much of a choice, everyone followed him inside.

Lux was surprised to see some dead monsters forming a small group, all of them dead, seemingly killed by a single person.

As Professor Atomus looked at the monsters that didn't have any breath left in them, he thought of something, 'That girl should have found something to do to keep away her boredom.'

Not thinking about it anymore, he directly ordered.

"Starting from now on, you have exactly twenty-four hours to meet the requirements for the test; go."

"My job here is done, so I'm going with the other professors to try our luck deep inside the Portal."

With a bang, Professor Atomus and the other professors leaped from their spots and soon disappeared from the confused students' faces.

"This…"

"They really left us to fend for ourselves."

There was soon a small commotion that followed the professors' leave, but it soon died down, as many students left to complete their mission.

Lux was the only one who stood behind; he didn't seem to care too much about what happened.

'Interesting, the one who slayed the monsters is surely only a student judging from the wounds she left behind on their bodies.'

'But not only that, she also thought of leaving the corpses behind for our mission. Sigh… If these guys had a brain, they would've first checked the bodies and took a sample of their blood and meat. Whatever…'

Unknowingly to everyone, Lux was already in the lead.