"As for introductions, you can call me K or Mr K. You won't be seeing me during this phase, but you will be hearing from me a lot.
Before you folks run off to get your food you better listen to me very carefully." Suddenly everyone who was running around looking for the sign for food halted.
"As soon as this announcement ends the 2nd phase of the test will start. This test will be called Survival. The rules are pretty simple, one person amongst the thousands of you is a predator and the rest of you are prey.
Get touched by the predator once and you will become a minion for the predator and help the predator hunt the prey. Make sure you won't be touched by both the minion and the predator.
You all will earn point depending on what faction you are in.
The predator faction earns points simply by turning preys into a minion. You will get 1 point per prey turned into a minion.
The prey faction earns points in 2 ways: by taking the badge of the minions you have taken down and in doing so the points amassed by that minion till then is given to that badge holder of the prey faction. The second way is to survive. Every hour you survive as the prey earns you 1 point and your goal as the prey is to survive for the next 48 hours.
Now for those who want to enter the special ranking category.
There will be 2 types of minions: slave minions and loyal minions. Slave minions are minions who were turned into minions by the predator faction. When prey is converted to a minion he/she will lose all their amassed point till that moment.
Loyal minions are minions who willingly got turned into a minion by the predator. Anyone who converts to a loyal minion within 1 hour from now will make you eligible to participate in the special ranking. You can still be a loyal minion after the 1-hour mark, it's just that you won't be eligible to the special ranking after the 1-hour mark.
Loyal minion unlike slave minions won't lose any of their points when being converted, so if you want a safe journey once you collected enough points just find the predator and state your intention before he converts, or other minions can convert you.
There are also mini-games thrown around the fields and inside the buildings. Just find them and complete them if you want to enter the special ranking without being converted." The voice broke off there to let what K just said sink in.
'If what I had guessed is right then everyone here is trapped and will be participating in this phase regardless of their status from the previous round.' Ellis had already identified the voice to Kristof.
'Now all I have to do is to make sure I and Phil are in the opposite faction till I find him, then, whatever happens, can be justified.' Ellis smirked
"Now you all might be thinking what is stopping you all from being in the predator faction. Well, the thing is those who are in the predator faction are unable to enter the safe zone containing food, meaning all those in the predator faction will be starving for food and water until the end of the round." As Kristof finished his announcement there were several outcries from the students. Kristof right now was so glad Prince John had told him to just do the announcements instead of making a public appearance like Archer.
"I could simply care less for what you brats think. You all have 48 hours to survive. In all honesty I think this is a fair round considering there is close to 10,000 of you against 1 single starving person.
Also, I suggest all of you to at least have 75 points by the end of the round. Anyone below that will fail to move forward no matter the faction, except for the predator, unless you have a golden ticket that is.
The predator will be chosen amongst from the person who scored the highest in the hard paper in the previous exam.
The predator will be a guaranteed pass, whilst his/her score increasing with the number of people who they convert." The few nobles who had managed to successfully pass last round in the hard paper suddenly prayed that they were chosen to be a predator. Although being a predator meant having no food, it guaranteed a safe and secure pass as long as they managed to convert a few people.
"After I finish my announcement you can identify someone from the predator faction by their badge colour. People who have a green badge will be in the predator faction and those without any colour belongs to the prey faction.
In the predator faction, the one with gold border badge will be the predator. While the one with the silver border will be a loyal minion and the one without any border will simply be a slave minion.
None of you are allowed to hide or cover up your badge. Any attempt to do so will score a deduction of points, how many point will be deduced by the impact caused by you hiding your badge. If your badge is captured by someone in the prey faction, it will be your responsibility to get it back, if you want to pass this round.
All of you will have a small number under your badge outlining your total points. I don't have to tell you guys not to paint a target on yourself by having huge points." Everyone suddenly looked at their badge, along with keeping an eye the surrounding peoples badge for the gold-bordered green badge.
"Your score will be posted tomorrow outside the examination hall for a duration of 5 hours. Anyone who hasn't gotten a look by then won't be able to check their score till the end of the exam, along with being denied access to the free food.
Those who want to drop out of this exam are free to do so. But your time to drop out starts as soon as the results are out and it ends when the scoreboard vanishes.
Those who are disqualified might be wondering why you are still here. Well, you are here because you have been given another chance. As long as you find a golden ticket you can still join in the exam.
So, if you want to drop out of the exam or if you are disqualified and have no hope of getting a golden ticket then I suggest you arrive where the exam results are posted and snap your badge in half inside the marked area you will see. Anyone else that break their badge outside of the area will not be considered as dropping out, neither will it be count when someone does it on your behalf.
Also, anyone with a high score in any of the mini-games at the end of each day will be given a golden ticket, that is if you can manage to complete one. You will hear from me if there are any additional announcements. Good luck!" As the announcement ended everyone suddenly tensed and looked around for the predator.
Suddenly a large pillar of green ordained on a single person in the field. Seeing this everyone's attention was drawn to the person.
'Darn it! I should have known these guys were to dumb to score higher than me.' Ellis thought as he quickly started casting a camouflage spell.
"Quick stop him!" Someone from the crowd shouted as a volley of spell launched towards him.
"Holy crap! That's Ellis." Rondell shouted as he looked at the spells flying towards Ellis who stood there without moving away from the barrage of ice, earth, fire and other elemental spikes.
"What is that he doing? MOVE you, idiot!" Ian shouted at the same time towards Ellis who stood there without moving.
"Law!" Ruby shouted towards Law who started to prepare a shield spell while getting ready to run forward to protect Ellis.
Suddenly Natasha moved forwards and stopped Law from interfering.
They turned towards Natasha who just said one-word "Watch!"
Suddenly a veil of fog descended into the surrounding area of Ellis.
*Twang* *Clank*
As the spells entered the fog there was a second of silence before a series of sounds of something being hit arrived from the fog.
"Ahh!"
"My Arm!"
"Somebody help!"
A series of cries and screams ensued. Everyone looked at the source of cries to notice few people standing close to the fog was struck by spikes of different elements.
"Did he cast all those spikes and that fog?" Maisy asked in daze.
"No, he casted the fog. Those spikes are the result of his swordsmanship." Natasha answered as she squinted at the fog trying to make out where Ellis was.
"Swordsmanship? He knows an art, since when? Which one?" Ian asked in shock.
He knew how difficult and strenuous sword arts were to master. Ellis mastering one in the span of months along with finding time to accumulate magi particles with his low talent is shocking.
"Repelling sword art. He seems to have already mastered the first stage. I think he is about to move." Natasha replied as a shadow emerged from the fog.
Not a single scratch laid on the clothes of the player of the game realm, despite the massive barrage of spells.
"Not a single scratch on him. How?" Ruby asked in shock seeing Ellis emerge without a tear in his clothes.
"We need to move now unless you guys want to be minions." Natasha warned as she saw Ellis running towards the group of people that launched the spells.
"Wait, look!" Rondell said in admiration as he saw Ellis deflecting and dodging the spells launched towards him elegantly.
"How is he so good? He could barely put up a fight in the combat training classes few months ago. Natasha just what exactly happened to him." Lewies asked in disbelief.
"I don't know. The report never said he was this good." Natasha started mumbling as she saw Ellis weaving through the group of people holding his long ice spike as a crude ice sword.
"You guys think we can take him?" Rondell asked while his fists started shaking in excitement.
Ian shook his head "At least 1 of us will be converted if we fight him."
"No, it's 3." Law replied in pure amazement while shaking his head.
"What?" Lewies asked back.
"At least 3 of us will be converted fighting him. He is a rank 2 magi." Law pointed towards the rank 1 spell fog.
"..." Everyone except Natasha gawked at the fog.
"Natasha just who exactly is he working under?" Maisy finally spoke, while wondering just how much resources were spent on a low talent like Ellis and why they would do something like that?
As Maisy's question dawned on everyone they saw how Ellis quickly converted everyone in the assault group into slave minions without a single person touching him.
"He is moving, unless you guys want to be trampled by other students or become converted, start moving now." Natasha warned them again.
"Where to?" Ruby asked as she looked around for a safe exit.
"Safe zone. We will eat something before deciding what to do." Law said as they started running towards the big flashing board that displayed 'Food here'.