Chapter 188: Rooting around

Evergreen brought the group to a large limestone building near the center of campus, but just far enough into it that Noah had never seen it before. He’d yet to have a chance to truly explore the entirety of Arbitage – though, even if he wanted to, finding out where every single thing was probably would have taken him months of dedicated work. The school was the size of a city, and even that might have been an understatement.

A guard stood at the door of the building. He gave them a cursory glance as they arrived, but stepped to the side, clearly recognizing Evergreen. They stepped inside and were greeted by a single, square room. A dozen beautifully carved marble doors ran along the walls.

The floor of the building was tiled with smooth quartz, and there was only a single story. There wasn’t any form of other decoration in the main room. It was completely empty aside from the doors.

Evergreen walked straight up to the door directly across from the entrance, and the rest of them followed her. Before they even reached the door, it swung open soundlessly to grant entry into a smaller room.

Several soft, leather chairs were arranged around a large stone cube that floated ominously in the small room’s center. Noah resisted the urge to throw himself into one of them. Lee had no such inhibitions and sprung into one of the chairs, vanishing for a moment as it sank beneath her.

Evergreen didn’t seem to care. She just walked up to one of the other chairs and lowered herself into it. Noah sat down beside Lee, and Moxie took the seat beside him. To his delight, the chair was as comfortable as it had looked. The door shut soundlessly behind them, and the room was plunged into darkness.

It only lasted for a moment. Warm yellow lights blinked to life along the floor, illuminating their room in a soft glow. The lights ran up one of the walls, illuminating two doors that Noah hadn’t noticed before. It reminded Noah of the lighting in a movie theatre shortly before the show started.

“We can observe the exam from here,” Evergreen said, leaning her staff against the table. “It will likely be one of the shorter ones in recent years, but it still might go for some time. Since you’ve insisted on getting more involved in my affairs, Vermil, I trust you’ll have no objections.”

“Of course not,” Noah replied easily. “I’m honored that you’d share your viewing room with me.”

Where the hell are we supposed to watch, though?

“You paid for it with that scroll,” Evergreen replied. “And I’m certain that this will be most enlightening.”

Noah repressed a shudder. He didn’t like the tone of Evergreen’s voice, but having her focus on him was much better than if it was on Moxie. He’d handled Father, and from what Noah could tell, Father was much more devious than Evergreen.

Then again, he hadn’t spent more than a few minutes talking with Father at any point. Noah kept his face placid as he looked around the room, desperately hoping something would break the awkward silence so he wouldn’t have to keep talking to Evergreen.

His prayers were answered. The floating stone cube suddenly let out a hum. A line of light ascended from the ground, connecting to its base before washing out across its features in a bloom of color. A field of thick white took form, followed by sparsely scattered trees and a dim sun hanging behind a bed of clouds.

And, standing in the center of the image, was Tenfort. All around him, students popped out and appeared in the snow.

“Observe two groups,” Evergreen said, her voice raised and clear.

The cube let out a hum.

“Group one, Eline. Group two, Emily,” Evergreen continued.

The screens on each side of the cube split, blurring as they shifted. On the left, an image of Eline appeared. She stood, her arms crossed and alone, staring up at Tenfort as he stood atop his flying sword.

On the other screen, Emily stood beside Isabel, Todd, and James. They were all looking around warily, observing the other students as they appeared around them.

“Get comfortable,” Evergreen said, amusement in her voice. “I have it on good word that the exam this year will be very entertaining.”

***

“Take a moment to get situated. I’ll be explaining the rules of the survival exam shortly,” Tenfort called, raising a hand.

Isabel’s fingers twitched at her sides. The dim sun wasn’t anywhere near enough to fight off the stark chill that enveloped them. She shivered as a cold breeze blew through her hair, stepping closer to Todd to try to maintain some of her warmth.

At least most of the other students didn’t look too pleased with things either. Almost everyone was either huddled together or shivering, but that also helped in another thing – everyone that wasn’t shivering had some sort of heat or fire Rune.

Isabel turned in a circle, mentally taking note of everyone that still looked comfortable. There weren’t a lot of them, so it wasn’t too great of a task. She turned her attention back to Tenfort as he cleared his throat.

“Right. Everyone’s here. Let’s get things properly started,” Tenfort said. He held his hands out. “We’re currently in Snowfield. Very creative name, I know. I think it lives up to what it sounds like, though. This is the area you’ll be spending the next few days in.”

“How are we going to stay for more than a day if we used the transport cannon?” A boy called.

“It’s been specially charged,” Tenfort replied. “We’ve got an Enforcer pumping it up with some extra power today. Don’t get used to using it for long trips, but it’ll last long enough for this exam.”

That mollified everyone, allowing Tenfort to continue in his introductory speech.

“The rules of the survival exam are a little different every year. Of course, the most obvious one is that you must survive. You’ll notice that any belongings you attempted to bring with you aside from Shields and bags are gone.”

Isabel’s hand shot down to her travel bag. It had been so cold that she hadn’t noticed, but the bag was completely empty. Her lips pressed thin. They’d all packed water and food for the exam to make sure they wouldn’t have to worry about hunting if they didn’t need to. Evidently, that wasn’t going to be allowed.

They took my healing potion as well. That’s not fair. I don’t have a shield, shouldn’t I at least be allowed to keep my potion?

“I know this is a disappointment to some of you, but it’s not proper survival if you’re relying on a bunch of pre-prepared supplies,” Tenfort continued. “Your supplies will be returned to you when you get back to Arbitage. Any questions there?”

Nobody spoke up. Tenfort waited a few moments, then nodded.

“Good. There will be two objectives for this year’s survival exam. You must complete both to pass. The first and most obvious is that you must survive. If I or another professor is forced to bail you out, you fail. Clear enough, right?”

Once again, there was silence. Everyone just stared up at Tenfort, shivering. He sighed.

“No enthusiasm. No matter. The second objective is that we have scattered some monsters throughout Snowfield. I will not be telling you what they are, but they’ve all been marked and will be easy to tell apart from the standard monsters that reside in this area. For every person in your group, you must defeat one of these unique monsters. Clear?”

A girl raised her hand. Tenfort nodded to her.

“How do we prove that we defeated them?”

“The monsters will disappear once they receive critical damage,” Tenfort replied. “When they do, they’ll drop a small token. Hold onto that. It’ll be your proof that you defeated the monster. I should mention that the tokens are individual – if you’re a group of four and you show up with three tokens, then the three with the tokens pass and the one without fails.”

All the proof is just having a token? Then that means defeating the monsters isn’t the requirement at all – having the tokens is. You could just attack another group or try to steal from them. There’s no way Arbitage overlooked that on accident. They’re saying we’re all enemies, and the structure is such that groups will turn on themselves if they can’t get enough tokens.

Isabel exchanged a glance with Todd, who inclined his head slightly to show that he’d caught on to the same thing that she had.

“You guys caught that too, right?” Emily asked in a low whisper.

“Yeah,” Isabel replied, matching Emily’s tone. “The monsters aren’t going to be the only things we have to worry about. Honestly, they’ll probably be the easiest part.”

Dull chatter rose in the snowy clearing as the other groups all whispered to each other. Isabel doubted that Tenfort’s implication had gone past any of them. Within a few seconds, everyone knew what the exam’s true threat was – each other.

“Right then,” Tenfort said. “That’s about it. You’ll be here for seven days. You’ve got until then to procure your tokens and then survive for long enough to turn them back in when the transport cannon pulls you back. Pretty simple. Is everyone ready?”

He was once again greeted by silence. Tenfort heaved a sigh.

“It’s like talking to a crowd of ghosts. Please link hands with your team members. Do not let go until I’m finished. Once I am, you may consider the exam started.”

Isabel took Emily and Todd’s hands, and they linked up with James. A second later, Tenfort lifted his arms into the air. A loud gale filled the air and a swirling ball of wind erupted around them.

None of them got a chance to react. The ball of wind jerked, somehow staying solid beneath their feet. It swirled so violently that it was impossible to see through the wall of magic, but Isabel could tell it was moving them somewhere.

Todd yelled something, but Isabel couldn’t hear it over the howl of the wind. She just shook her head and focused on keeping a firm grip on Todd and Emily’s hands. She wasn’t sure what would happen if they let go, but she didn’t want to find out.

Their surprise trip ended as quickly as it had started. The ball vanished in a whoosh, and they all dropped onto the snow. Tenfort had deposited them on the side of a mountain, beside a small patch of thin trees.

Below them, Isabel could see a sheet of endless white stretching out in every direction. It was broken by spotty forests and several other mountains scattered throughout it. The wind around them intensified. It was stronger up here than it had been in the flat area that they’d arrived in.

Isabel pressed herself against Todd, greedily stealing the warmth from his Heat runes. It helped staved off the chill, but did little for the sharp wind.

“We should start by scouting out an area and setting up a temporary camp,” Todd suggested. “I don’t think the side of a mountain is a great spot for that. It’s too exposed. Let’s go look for a place to plan.”

The trees around them creaked. Isabel’s brow furrowed. Before she could say anything, they pulled free of the ground. Snow sloughed down as a wooden form rose from the ground before them. It looked just like the Root Fiends that the professors had fought on the trip to the Linwick Estate, but only twice their height instead of being as tall as a mountain.

Isabel pulled from the ground, drawing stone up and encasing her body in it. Evidently, they weren’t going to get a chance to plan yet. The Root Fiend let out a creaky roar, two ice blue eyes lighting in its head as it looked down at the group.

Then it attacked.