I waited in this molten cavern for about twenty minutes before seeing some movement of the illusory matrix. Now I'm pretty sure I fucked up, the strange white flame that was released from the scepter and made a hole in the cave and it looks like it must have done some damage to the illusory matrix, I wonder what exactly that white flame was.
Obviously, it wasn't a normal fire, but my biggest problem was in her behavior, not only did she not spread like a flame should and she didn't give off as much heat. She must have some form of rudimentary intelligence, her behavior was much more like a magical beast than a flame should have, I've read about different flames, but not one of the descriptions matches the white flame I saw today.
The toasted cave's silence was broken when a colored mist appeared in the cave, just as before it enveloped me and would take me to the next test, but reality proved different when I found myself in my open field that had become a basic form.
Around me there are several people, professors, institute staff, some students, and what I believe to be the rune masters and their teams, they are operating and repairing the illusory matrix. I think my audition is over but I'm being the target of a lot of intense looks and most of them I feel are hostile to me, I think I'm being hated by a lot of people right now.
I left where I am, I don't think it would be smart to stand still at the output of the illusory matrix, even if the matrix has several outputs and better not to stay in even one of them. As I exit the platform, I start looking for any familiar faces.
It doesn't take me long to find Professor Frey, he is inside a tent that was set up to protect the core of the matrix he and three other people are operating the matrix. It would be nice to get in there, but I doubt the guards at the front of the tent will let me in, they're already looking at me with a 'get the fuck out' face, and I'm only standing a few seconds in front of the tent.
As I keep moving through the camp, I decided to stop by the wards to see if I could find some of my friends. As I spent a lot of time on the third test, I believe there must be a lot of other students who have finished their tests, but I don't know if it's luck or bad luck that I didn't find even one of my friends in the five tents.
In the tents I saw some faces known as Isabela, it looks like she got hurt on her last test, she has a broken arm and several cuts on her body, I could only see the cuts on her face, but she told me she faced a kind of blade covered monster. I had never heard or read about this type of monster, but Isabela told me that this was a monster found in one of the dungeons in the capital, they are feared as deadly enemies against swordsmen.
The closer you fight this type of monster, the more damage it will deal you. Duelist fighting style is characterized by surrounding and controlling your enemy in close combat, against this monster this tactic means being cut by countless blades, but I'm glad Isabela managed to pass her third test.
I even saw the faces of some of the black core fighters who were on the same test as me but I didn't really feel like talking to them the only fighter who stood out was Jon but he's in no condition to speak. It looks like his last test almost made him fail, he got hurt a lot and passed out at the end of his test, it's a shame he failed right at the end of the test, but as he survives the test, I say it's a win.
As I don't have anything better to do and as no one else gave me another instruction, I decided to leave. I cannot eavesdrop on the team that is operating the illusory matrix or the team of teachers.
So, I went back to my room to wash and rest, maybe the result doesn't come out until tomorrow or later. I bet the grades will be assigned by various factors and only after calculating for all the surviving students, the institute will pass them on to the students with the rewards and punishments.
I hope you won't be punished.
After a few hours I had already woken up from my nap, realizing that I must have slept at least two and a half hours, I decided to take a second tour of the camp if the guards would allow me to enter again.
As I sneaked past the guards, I passed the nurses' tents. I looked for my friends and this time I found one of them. Raziel is about to fall asleep on one of the beds, I approached him and lightly kicked his bed.
"Hey, how was the test? Funny?"
"Go to shit. I'm trying to sleep, I was hurt, I need to rest."
"Don't be so soft, talk to me."
"What you want to know?"
"Killed some students during the test, Raziel?"
"No, it takes a really idiot to do this today, I wonder how many idiots are going to be executed by Professor Balder today. Did you kill someone?"
"Yes, I wanted to see if I could get away with it after killing an idiot."
"Are you kidding me. Did you really kill a student?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I do that?"
"You are insane. Professor Balder won't feel sorry for you, because you're alive here bothering me, shouldn't you be dead already?"
"I'm glad my possible death sentence makes you so happy, Raziel, but I believe I won't suffer that kind of punishment, I had a good excuse to kill an idiot."
"What's the excuse?"
"I killed him because he was an idiot."
"That doesn't sound like a good excuse, I don't doubt you're crazy enough to do it, but I don't think the teachers will think that's a good excuse, and don't forget his family. Last time you've already become a target by beating the shit out of some stupid noble trash, this time you've killed a nobleman I doubt his family won't try to get revenge."
"The institute will not report that the idiot was killed by min, nor will one of the witnesses sell me because they all can also be considered accomplices in the accidental death. Being an idiot is an easy crime to prove and justify the accident."
"How is being an idiot a crime on the test? As far as I remember sabotage is punishable by death and not incompetence."
"It's simple, the idiot wanted to be a leader but he's too dumb to be able to conquer that position, so he tries violence since his core is in the final stage, but he fails to realize that his aggressive attitude can be considered sabotaging the test. Not even one of his buddies defended him, the idiot must have screwed up his buddies a lot during the first test, in fact I don't even know his name, I should try to find out his name."
"It's finding out the name of the student you killed seems like a smart thing, Ulric. Remember that now being stupid is a crime and the punishment is death."
"Pretty funny, how was your test, Raziel?"
"Much less bloodthirsty than yours, he doesn't hear a single death in my group during the four tests, but by the end of the fourth test he hears several serious injuries like broken limbs and injured organs, not even the mage was saved. My time's mage was of the fire element and ended up being burned by one of the monsters, he lost a lot of his hair and if he doesn't spend a lot of money on the healer, he'll have burn marks on his face for the rest of his pathetic life. "
"Is it really shameful for a fire elemental mage to burn out of a test like this, was he a black core mage?"
"No, he was in the early stage of the gray core, it was only burned because he was an idiot. If he had been on your team, you would have killed him for being an idiot too, what would be the excuse? He sabotaged the team by being a fire element wizard who was burned by the enemy."
"How was his testing? Mine was basically taking a fort and then defending it."
"Only had two tests?"
"The third was different, let's leave it without comment. I think I did a lot of shit on him."
"Ok, my first test I also had to invade and kill a fort, it wasn't very difficult the test because I killed half of the golems that were in the fort, my team killed the rest later. Did you notice that most of the golems were women and some were in very fancy clothes?"
"Yeah, I noticed this trend too, the person who was hired to make the golems spent a lot of time customizing them. In my second test there was a golem shaped like an orc rider and I have to admit that the creator of this golem spent a lot of time on it, and her outfit was basically a fur loincloth that unfortunately didn't break during the fight."
"Serious? In mine there were only a few elves that wore leather, to be exact they had several leather straps on their bodies, the warrior of my team lost her composure and killed the elves while screaming that they were perverted bitches that should be purified by the flames of goddess Helena, it was an epic senna that I will keep in my memory forever."
Raziel and I were talking about the comical and absurd scenes of the tests, we were talking until I was kicked out of the tent by one of the nurses, we were making a lot of noise.