The dining facility was pretty big, enough for a few dozen people to eat at once. Currently it was occupied by a few candidates.
Entering the cafetaria, Acheron quickly assessed those few candidates. Only two of them managed to catch his eye, a young man and a young woman. They caught his eye because of the way they carried themselves. They clearly felt some slight disdain towards the other candidates.
After thinking a bit, he decides to approach them, hoping to glean some information from them. He quickly put on a mask of superiority. Being dressed quite nicely, in all black attire, he managed to put on a good performance.
The young woman, seeing his kind of handsome face and his 'arrogant' attitude, quickly warmed up to him.
"Do the two of you have any idea what the next exams will be about? My father told me there would be combat exams but he acted all mysterious when I asked him for the details." said Acheron, faking a slight trepidation.
The young woman looked at the other person sitting opposite of her. Clearly she was hoping he could answer in her stead.
Feeling the attention of the young lady on him, he quickly answers a bit nervously "My father has some connections with one of the professors teaching at the academy. He didn't tell me the details either, but apparently the death rate is quite high for those without combat experience."
Thinking about what was said, both of them became strangely silent. Apparently, the exam wasn't as simple as advertised. They probably placed a gag order on how this exam is carried out.
Acheron wasn't as shocked as he pretended to be. To him, it seemed normal to make this exam ridiculously difficult. Not to mention that this dangerous part is most likely there to get rid of participants that weren't trained in combat by their households, indirectly getting rid of the commoners, of those that aren't 'in-the-know'.
As for the families of the participants, they were probably either payed off or silenced directly. Acheron felt that the current government of the Human Coalition couldn't be anymore sketchy. In other words, if he died on the exam grounds, his family would most likely die with him.
Getting the useful information he wanted, Acheron finds an empty table and begins devouring tray after tray of food, only stopping after the fifth tray. The cooks were looking at him as if he was a monster.
Quickly living the dining facility, he returns to his room for meditation. At this point, most of his sleeping time has been replaced with meditation. He only slept once in a while, only for the sake of dreams. Dreams are always a source of entertainment for Acheron.
Ten days later, they've reached the academy grounds. It had its own private spaceport, and was situated on Marhem Planet, in a star system that was very far away from the Dark Zone, where Red Gaia was situated.
During this journey, they made several other stops. Seemingly to pick up more of the participants.
This planet was very close to the border the Human Coalition had with an alien species called Jo'ku, a similarly rising country in the universe. Unsurprisingly, they were currently at war with them for multiple undisclosed reasons.
'The Crimson Dragon Academy would probably send us to the battlefield in order to gather some experience at one point.' thought Acheron while carrying his big hiking backpack, filled with a few clothes and necessities.
He didn't need that many clothes, as the academy grounds basically had its own small city. Not to mention they also provided students with free uniforms.
Currently, all the candidates in his group were being led to their accommodations by an older student. The combat exams would only begin a few days later, once everyone has arrived. Along the way, they happened to see many other students. Still, nobody tried to talk to them.
Finally, as they were about to reach their temporary accomodations, the student guiding them took it upon himself to explain the combat exams.
Another special thing about the Marhem Planet was that it possessed a large population of magical beasts. Although planets with magical beasts were rare in the Human Coalition, those that had them were usually brimming with them, requiring constant supervising from the military.
Considering this, the academy's exam was simply fighting and killing captured magical beasts. All examinees had to do was kill magical beasts in order to gather points for the exam. This is why the death rate was high. All the candidates that came from middle-class or lower families usually had a hard time passing this test.
These magical beasts were neither too strong, nor too weak. They had just enough power in order for the students to have a fair enough challenge while using their mortal bodies.
Many of the participants that came from normal families were obviously scared by the exam. Some of them even decided to give up their chance, knowing their own lack of combat expertise.
Thankfully, those smart enough to give up were offered another chance. While they would lose a lot of resources by not participating in the combat exam, they can also continue to the technology exam, where engineering talent and problem-solving capabilities are tested more in-depth.
The most important part of the combat exam was being able to enter the freshman ranking, which would allow students to receive many points that can be used to opt for different academic services, all the way from personal mentors to advanced techniques.
Three days later, Acheron and the other participants, which easily numbered in the thousands, were led to the trial grounds, a nearby forest which was maintained by the academy. This is where various weak magical beasts were captured and kept for the sole purpose of the exams.
Usually, managing to kill one magical beast was enough in order to receive access to more advanced combat courses. The more one killed, the more attention they would get from the academy, especially the top ten candidates.
Everyone was given instructions on how to take out the magic core of the beasts, hidden in either their heart or their brain. This method would be used to track the kills. Those who wanted to opt out of combat exams simply had to leave back to their accomodations.
After the professor responsible for the exam finished his explanations, he ordered the examinees to pick up a weapon and a backpack from the side and enter the forest. The exam would take the duration of four hours. Thankfully the forest size and number of beasts were enough to accomodate the thousands of participants.
While some of them decided to form teams, which wasn't prohibited, Acheron quickly made his way into the forest, alone. The weapon he picked was a normal-looking longsword made out of an advanced alloy, for lack of a better choice. He was hoping they would offer giant swords which are much more useful when fighting gigantic beasts.
'I will probably have to find another place to procure one from. Maybe they have some of them in the academy's armory. Thankfully, as long as I take first place in both exams I should have enough points to even order a custom-made one.' thought Acheron.
As he continued through the forest at a fast pace, Acheron finally manages to find some tracks left behind by a magical beast. The pawprints left in the dirt were about double the size of his hands.
Soon after, following the trail and with his improves senses, he easily catches the scent of the beast.
Reaching a small clearing, he saw it. It was an above-average size bear with dark fur. Currently, it was busy drinking from a small river. Quickly deciding on a plan, Acheron springs into action.