The Practical Exam (1)

Dark green shadows with bursts of bright blue shining through.

The tickle of small, soft points brushing my skin.

The smooth, grainy texture flowing through my hands.

The sound of leaves churning and wind blowing.

The smell of nature: beautiful, florescent, fearful, deadly.

The taste of the clean air as it entered my lungs-

"HUGHHHH!"

I took a deep long breath as my consciousness fully returned to an awake state. That one breath was the first of many, creating an upheaval of breathing. Once my body was filled with oxygen, I was able to think, starting with, where am I?

I looked around, the green foliage that covered the ground, my left and right, and almost entirely above me made it abundantly clear that I was in the jungle. But why was I in the jungle? And then it hit me, whatever was inhibiting me from using my full brainpower disappeared, letting me finally remember all of the details I was missing. I had insider information for this school year's practical exam, so once I finally became sober, I already knew where I was.

'This exam is taking place outside of the sect, inside the jungle surrounding it to be exact. That is why Convir and Medisma made sure that everything was as safe as possible. Of course, they also couldn't rig a 2nd half Coal Class Wild Beast to appear if it were inside of the sect so that contributed to their reason as well. This is good for me because it gives me more freedom during these midterms to do what I need to do.'

Now that I had grasped my train of thought, I had to figure out where I was. Medisma and Convir didn't show me where I would be placed, to make my reaction more authentic, so I had to rely on myself for this. I had memorized the maps of the surrounding areas, but I wouldn't be able to tell where I was even with the image of the map in my mind due to it being too unspecific. I had to find some sort of landmark that I could recognize and then move from there. So I chose a random direction and ran.

After about five minutes of running, I finally came across something familiar. The jungle had slowly changed from viny thick trees into thin, tall, branchless trees with short grass growing under them. But where I was, tens of trees were knocked over and there were an assortment of small caves poking out of the many small hills. This was where I faked Pulchra's death and my near death. This gave me a good enough idea of where I was to figure out where I should be going. So once I got the image in my mind and found where a good spot for obtaining points would be, I moved in that direction.

I had no need for points, but it was still apparent I made a show of my skill. Every year, both the midterms and finals are broadcast live straight to the coliseum. I'm unsure of how it works, but I do know that it involves the old man's wooden spies. He and some others use as many as they can handle and, somehow, the video gets sent over to the large screens in the coliseum in less than a second. That was how Medisma and Convir planned to show me off to the sect. This was how they would say that they held the power to forcefully take over, but only chose not to. Unfortunately for them, they let the key players slip right out from under them.

For now though, I needed to go along with Medisma's plan, it wasn't yet the time for me to act. I first needed to defeat the Wild Beast they planned for me to make a show of before I acted out of line. I would use their plan of getting others to respect my strength, and then enact the second part of my plan from there.

That was the main idea of the plan, get some attention going, eventually enter the main event, and then take over as the host. Of course, that was only a straightforward idea. I also wanted to get, at the very least, those couple key students on my roster, before the second part if possible. But the odds of that weren't in my favor. I didn't expect to be able to do how I wanted it to be done, and I wouldn't stretch myself to do it. It was too risky to do that, and it would only give meager gains. The students are secondary to me. In fact, I wouldn't be afraid to kill all of the students if it meant my main goal was saved; I would feel some heartache from losing Capcis though, she was a valuable resource.

The only person I was sure that I would, at the very least, kill, was Spiravit. In fact, I didn't even have to do anything to find him; he would bring himself to me. He would search for me, and once he found me demand for me to give over all of my gains and then help him from there henceforth, or something of the sort. However, he will only end up walking into the lion's den without realizing it. Such is the way of humans. They can get so tunnel-visioned into what they think is true and their emotions that they lose all reason and forget that reality isn't so comforting because of it. It's an indisputable weakness of humans. I was also a victim of it, multiple times even.

Suddenly, as I was thinking and running through the jungle, I felt my spine tingle and ducked down. Just a second after I did so, I could feel and hear a "woosh" pass over my head. I immediately activated my Genesis Essence, and because the enemy was inside of my still meager range, I was able to identify it based on its shape and density of Genesis Essence. It was a Flame Anaconda Wild Beast, a Stone Class one. It was probably near the lower end of Stone Class and was one that I would consider to be common.

I frowned, 'How come this Wild Beast is over here? If I remember, their territory lies farther north from here... unless... I see now. So that's what Convir meant by the Wild Beasts being in a frenzy. A ruler over a large area disappeared so now they're moving to try and take it over. In that case, the territories marked on the maps I read wouldn't be of much use. I just have to search for individual Wild Beasts like this and hope for the best. Luck is another part of cultivation, so this makes sense.'

I could see a bulge form in the snake's throat, quickly moving into its mouth before the snake opened its mouth and a ball of fire was sent toward me. If you weren't a cultivator, you'd probably have a hole in your stomach before you could even take a breath of anticipation, but to me, this fireball was very... snail-like.

I scoffed, before dodging the fireball and saying, "You're too slow."

I coated my hand in magic circle-infused Genesis Liquid, focusing it into a blade-like shape at the edge of my hand where my pinky resided. Once that was done, I leaped at the snake, and before it was able to even react, my hand sliced through its neck like a noble's son going through his allowance.

It was not a clean cut. The head was lobbed off into the air with its bone sticking out and its guts hanging, along with a healthy dose of squirting blood. Some blood landed on my white robe, but I didn't mind, in fact I welcomed it. The entire reason I wore a white robe, despite wanting to mimic how I used to dress, was to watch as it was slowly dyed red.

I walked over the the lifeless corpse of the snake and picked up the crooked head that was barbarically cut off. I focused hard enough and was able to put the head in my Duranian. With the upgrade of my Class, I was also able to put more things inside of my Duranian which was yet another boon I had no idea about until discovering it.

"So that's ten points already... that won't be nearly enough."

I looked in the surrounding forest, before choosing a seemingly random direction and running off.

Before I left though, I made sure to say loud enough for any Video Device to hear me, "I need more blood. For the crime of killing my brethren."

____________________________________________

Spiravit's POV:

"Ughhhh."

I rubbed my head as I slowly stood on my two feet. The pain in my head was apparent, but fading, so I was able to get over it as I took a second to look at my surroundings. Tall trees, dense leaves, the smell of damp air, and the feeling of being watched: I was definitely inside the wilds of the Jungle Region. Which meant... yes that's right. I'm in the middle of the midterms.

Let me do a quick review. What is it that I want? That's easy, to outdo everyone. Can I do that with my strength by itself? No, I can admit that Quis is stronger than me, and Iusus is probably better suited for this type of test. So what could I do to get around that? I had to use my other strengths. What are my other strengths? I hold Quis, the strongest by far, by a tight leash. How can I most effectively use that advantage to support my goal? First, I had to find him and have him do the work for me.

I was able to single out what my next move should be quickly. I had to find Quis, but that also raised the question: How do I find Quis? That was a much more difficult question to answer than the others. I didn't have any real way to track him, and I also didn't even know where I was in the first place. There was only one answer to this, I had to solve this problem logarithmically.

First I would travel in one direction until I was stopped by someone. Then I would turn to my left, run until I hit the next wall, turn the other way, and then stop once I hit the next wall. That'll leave me with one definite wall. I'll do this until I have found however many walls comprise the area and then I'll search the entire area looking for Quis. Eventually, I would have to find him. Of course, a large downside of this strategy is time. I'll be so busy that I'll be missing out on many points. That was fine though, because once I found Quis, I would just take away all of his hard work. And if I'm lucky enough, I'll just run into Quis along the way.

...

Wait... but isn't that assuming that Quis doesn't move at all from his original spot?... That's unlikely... Well, I suppose instead, after I figure out the limitations of the battlegrounds, I'll move toward the center. If I had to guess, Convir didn't choose this area at random and probably made it so that the closer to the center you got, the more powerful enemies you encountered. That way the weak would stay with the weak and the strong would stay with the strong.

If I was able to come to such a conclusion, Quis must've as well. That means as long as I find my way to the center, I'll meet him, and then I'll claim the points he owes me. Just imagining the sight of him reluctantly handing his hard-earned kills over to me while I gave him a smug smirk made my body tingle in anticipation. This was the feeling of being at the top of the food chain, and it wasn't one I would ever give up.

I turned around, facing a random direction, and moved forward.

My body motivated by the endless time spent training.

My mind motivated by the strain of thought I put into that well-thought-out plan.

And my soul motivated by the thought of placing my foot on Quis' back while I laughed out loud, claiming my title of emperor.

With all motivations combined...

I was determined.