The two brave warriors who are going to enter the forest unarmed are without even a gear other than the clothes on their backs, and when I say clothes it's thick leather pants it's an ordinary linen shirt, not a drop of mana the elemental energy in them, they are common clothes for villagers. I thought they would allow them to wear tougher clothes, even though a suit cannot defend an armor, I thought the school would let them wear clothes made from tier one materials, with the villager clothes they are wearing. their own aura can damage their clothing.
These clothes more hinder than help for two warriors in the final stage of the gray core, one of them has an elemental seed with the elements of fire and earth and the second with a smaller physical structure has the elements of wind and shadow, if they're not careful they they'll be naked in the forest on their first fight, that's probably the goal of the teachers who have a smirk on their faces, after suffering so much to make the principal's test come true teachers must be very prone to screw with the students. It's always relaxing than doing bad jokes or creative jokes on other people, the teachers or contracted team members are not saints, I doubt that any of them will miss the chance to play with a student, I hope that during this test I won't be the target of nobody in the last test the pranks I was the target made me pass a good level of risk.
The two warriors must be seniors, only after years of training and combat experience would anyone be able to develop the confidence or arrogance of entering a forest full of level one and two animals and where there is a good chance of finding magical beasts or they were hit in the head with a shovel when they were kids, you have to be really stupid to want to take a chance like that only to be rewarded with even more danger. I doubt they will relax if they pass the test, they will probably be sent to an experimental camp to hone their skills to be leaders in the elite suicide teams of the army, they must have a lot of fun being the nail that stands out among the others.
But during the test I hope I don't bump into them, they may not have good equipment now, but I doubt they won't be able to steal from other students and of course this is their plan, I even considered doing the same, but I doubt now worth standing out for. I may not be their initial target, but my weapons make me a good final target for them, but only if I find them in the forest, then I'll avoid them during the test.
My thoughts are interrupted by the voice of the principal, who by the way is very excited this morning to the point that even I feel a little angry that she chose this time on purpose.
"Good morning to all my lovely students! Did you rest well? It would be a shame if I hadn't made it, because you're going to spend the whole day in the forest and that's pretty tiring."
"This test is so much fun! All of you will be divided over a large area of forest, don't worry the displacement matrix will send you to your destinations. During this test you will have to navigate through the maze of matrices that were created in the emerald forest, the various ways to go through the matrices and the main one will be given to you upon entering the matrix, but I advise anyone trying to break a matrix, force is a Wasted energy, they were created to keep green core warriors and mages stuck, even though you could team up to break the matrix you didn't get extra points by destroying the matrixes in the forest."
"During this test each student will start with zero points, and each matrix they pass will add its value to their score, killing animals and magical beasts will also give points, but these tests will be few and more about passing matrices than killing the animals and magical beasts in the forest."
"I think I don't need to say anymore killing another student inside the forest will be penalized and I will rip your spine with my bare hands in front of everyone, but those who are afraid of dying at the hand of another student don't worry because all of you will be being watched during the test, so no chance for no one to die without a teacher seeing, and as I said before I will avenge your death by giving an agonizing death to your murderer."
"But before starting the march to the displacement matrix I want to introduce two cute students, these are Richard and Mars, they both decided to be late on purpose to enter the forest without even equipment or supplies, they accepted my challenge. If they pass the test with a good score, they won't have to take any more tests, and they'll get a nice reward for it, but I still have a lot of fun news for all of you."
"Richard and Mars won't be the only ones to enter the forest without equipment, they will have one more companion, he may not be late and doesn't even want to enter the forest without equipment, but in the last test he caused me big problems. I had to fill out a lot of paperwork and I had to apologize to an idiot and an annoying mummy who should have died a long time ago, it made me very upset so he's going to be punished now."
"Everyone gives a round of applause to Ulric Ferris! You will enter the forest without even a gear in the forest along with Richard and Mars, you three are people of great courage facing this challenge without equipment. Now we're all going to the matrix entrance!"
"Before I forget, one of the professors should go get the troubled brat's equipment, I want him to check at headquarters with just the clothes on his back."
I'm screwed, I didn't expect this one, is the headmistress really getting back at me? I thought the elemental fairy problem had already been solved and I was out of harm's way.
Before I could have too much reaction to my punishment, I was surrounded by three teachers I don't know, they all have an annoying smile, they are having a lot of fun with my disgrace.
"Student Ulric, you must give us all your equipment, but as we sympathize with your situation, we will let you keep a single piece of armor. At the end of the day, you are only in the early stage of the gray core now, it would be very mean to ask you to be completely unarmed in this test, and this exception has already been authorized by the director, she likes you a lot."
What an asshole, his voice is dripping with sarcasm. I don't remember offending these three stooges, nor do I recognize them, and that must be intentional.
These idiots must not be real teachers, this maybe not exactly the headmistress' revenge or penalty, this must be happening to appease that family of vengeful elves. It wasn't my fault they lost the elemental fairy if they shouldn't have put her to the test and given her directly to their family member.
These three idiots who are taking my gear must be Eliure family minions, they must be here to make sure I get thrown into the test without even a gear or in this case just a gear, I won't send them to shit as a piece of equipment will help me a lot, my gloves or boots are not only resistant but also able to amplify my aura is elemental energy, an armor with runes is much more useful than an armor without them.
Calen found it very strange when I ordered this effect on my gloves and boots, the most used enchantments are to increase the resistance and conductivity of the aura and elemental energy in the armor piece, normally only weapons have the characteristic of amplifying aura, mana and elemental energy. Putting them on my glove and boots allowed me to be able to fight better unarmed, but this weakens the defensive effect and conductivity of my energies to my weapons.
I had my own doubts when I first came up with this idea it was unusual and potentially useless, but the memory of the first time I entered a magical matrix is still very vivid in my mind, I may have mastered my enemies in the matrix, but that's because they were weak and small in stature, I had many advantages over them.
Even with Calen's protests saying it was a waste to use these runes on a piece of armor, I still insisted and as the customer is always right, even when he is asking for something weird, Calen ended up making this type of rune on my armor. I didn't expect them to be used this way so soon, in reality I would rather not have to wear my gloves or boots to fight my enemies, but I'm glad I made the preparations for that.
As I followed the group I passed my backpack, sword, knife, bow, arrows and pieces of my armor to the three idiots, in one of them I could see greed when he noticed the quality of my weapons and armor and it made me feel good. nervous. It's never good to have people lusting after your tools, I don't think the idiot has the guts to try to steal from me as so many people are witnesses that they're in charge of taking care of my equipment.
I decided to keep my gloves on, I'm better at using my strength with my hands than my feet, I may have practiced my kicks a bit, but I don't even have an art that can be with this kind of movement, so I thought better keep my gloves on.
When I stood next to Richard and Mars, I was wearing the same kind of clothes as them, the only difference was that I had gloves and they didn't. They both looked at me with a raised eyebrow, my gloves standing out in my situation, in my defense I pointed to the three idiots holding my gear a few feet away.
Students will gather in a circle formed by several runes, but before entering it I was pulled back, and looking at the person who pulled me I was shocked, because it was the headmistress.
"Be careful with Mars and the elves, they all won't miss a chance to target you during the test. Don't worry about scoring, focus on staying hidden throughout the test, even if they can't kill you, they can seriously injure you."
"Leave the test unscathed and I will take care of your grade and participation in the rest of the tests, Ulric. I wouldn't have agreed to do this with you if I didn't have full confidence that you're capable of handling all of this and if you have problems go after Richard."
Now I'm a little confused because of this latest information, the Eliure family is really after this punishment and it looks like they're going to piss me off during the audition. I have no idea which of my unequipped colleagues is Mars or Richard, which is my possible ally, or which is my confirmed enemy.