Soon atleast, half of the crowd floated in the air, wind surrounding their body.
The youths panicked and yelled confusedly.
"These examinees were eliminated." he announced shocking the crowd. The people floating in the air paled.
Many people from the prominent family narrowed their eyes. Unlike other people who have guts to complained, they weren't mindless enough to voice out their opinions.
Soon, the examinees understand that this is part of the exams and they calm down. They also started to recognized Ramon and kept their mouth shut.
Ramon nodded his head after seeing them cooled down.
Numerous people wearing Milan Academy's uniform came and took each of the examinees and took them away.
"In a battle, letting your guard down meant asking to be killed. I hope you remember this." Ramon's word made Liam awed.
If he's the one who said that, these bunch of youths wouldn't even listened to him. But Ramon's charisma and presence is very strong. Too strong for a bunch of F-rank.
"This also happened to G-rank and E-rank. You don't need to worry that you're the only one who got tested." Ramon kindly explained.
No one responded.
"Now, I want everyone to look at the rooms om both sides."
Everyone finally noticed the transparent rooms that suddenly appeared. Liam and other examinees who was well-off realized what those rooms are.
"For those who don't know what these rooms are, let me explain them to you." his voice rang in the spacious floor.
"These rooms are called Virtual Emergence Space, also known as Virtual Room. It is capable of producing a realistic subjects. It can copy existing terrains and monsters or create it's own based on the adjustment of the person who will used it." Ramon explained a few more features before introducing the role it will play.
"Now for the second part of the exam, each of you will enter these rooms. We already made adjustments and customized it to the level an F-rank like you can clear. The alloted time is ten minutes each person. You are allowed to used whatever weapons or skills you have. Each person will be grade based on his/her performance inside. Head count, adaptability, strategy, and basic combat attributes will be considered."
"There will be ten waves, from weakest to strongest. The wave will come right after you clear the first wave but even if you didn't, after one minute, the next wave will come so be prepared. If you clear it ahead of time there will be additional points. The terrain and monsters you will fight will be randomized and the difficulty will be graded. The harder it is, the higher the additional points are."
Many low whispers spread the crowd. Many were nervous. Even Liam who knew about the exam and trained based from it was anxious.
He breathe heavily.
Ramon waited for them to absorb the information before speaking.
"Everyone will enter based on their badge number. You will enter from the lowest number to highest number. After you're done, you will be guided so be sure to follow them."
Their badges vibrate indicating an update and everyone checked it. Inside was the number of the room they will enter and their batch.
There are thirty VR in this floor. Liam was VR19 and part of the third batch. Twenty minutes should be enough for him to prepare.
"Now, all of you go to your respective VR and patiently wait for your turn."
The examinees instantly went to their VR and formed a line. He can't recognized anyone in VR19 line so he was calm. Liam casually sweot a glance and saw Lorthon lining up for VR5, he seems to be five on the line.
He also take note of other people he could recognized.
Liam's gaze soon stopped on a girl with blue hair. Then his eyes widened. Keziah! That's Keziah!
Remembering the clue he got, Liam was tempted to run over and grabbed Keziah's shoulder asking her to spill the beans. But he held on. He narrowed his eyes before shifting his gaze back to the front.
He can't act to suspicious. Tsk. He clicked his tongue, dissatisfied.
Doesn't matter. He'll have his chance.
***
Time passed steadily and it was finally his turn. In twenty minutes, he made eye contact with Lorthon who pouted before looking away with a 'hmph'.
Very childish.
Liam was helpless and planned to coaxed the other later. He couldn't believe himself when he thought of it.
It's very ridiculous. But he have no choice. Lorthon is an important person for his plan. He need him.
The white room turned transparent and the sliding door opened. Liam immediately moved forward to walk inside.
After he entered, the VR turned white again and soon his surroundings began to change.
It was dark at first before the ground started cracking and holes appeared.
"...!"
Liam jumped backwards when magma suddenly shoot up to the sky from the position he was in before.
Feeling complicated, Liam look around as heat slowly made it's way to his body.
Sweat started forming in his skin.
Of all terrains, why volcano?
Liam had trained in different terrains and these kind together with water type was the hardest. Since in water, you won't be able to move freely, same as volcano although not as worse.
But he still like water more since the burning heat coming from magma is unbearable compared to the cool water.
[Examinee 594. The exam will now start. Allotted time: 10 minutes. Beast type: Fiery Salamander. Difficulty: Hard. Good luck.]
The 'good luck' seem to be mocking him making Liam annoyed.
Suddenly in the dark cave, filled with magma, red salamander crawled out of the countless craters around him. Their skin is red and he could see black spikes on their tails.
There's also black spots on their back. Their slimy and permeable skin was covered in magma. They have long tongues and sharp teeth.
Although they look scary, Fiery Salamander's highest discovered grade was five, equivalent to C-rank which is low compared to other beasts.
However, they have great self-healing capabilities and can re-grow limbs in a second so they are very annoying.
Liam unsheathed his sword. The heat was still bearable at this level so he decided not to coat himself with mana to preserve energy.
The Fiery Salamander's weakness is of course their core which is located in their head. It was very fragile and a crack would leave the beast unable to function normally.
If destroyed, then the Fiery Salamander is dead.
However, when faced with stronger salamander, it was much harder to do it than one might expect. Especially since they attack in groups.
They have weak hearing but have good eyesight and were nocturnal.
Another point, Liam need to not only deal with salamanders, he also need to make sure he wasn't directly hit by the magma.
Wherever he saw it, this is gonna be tough.
There are ten of them and if Liam guess correctly, the number would decrease but the strength will increase. It will also get hotter, wave after wave.
Liam clicked his tongue once again.
The salamander was big so they couldn't attack together so Liam had to face five at a time. Which is already not bad.
One of the Fiery Salamander swung his tail towards him, he was about to jumped backwards when he felt a heat on his back making him jumped high instead.
There was a magma pool on his back.
Liam cut the other salamander's tongue that tried to grab him using their tongue.
As if provoked, the other salamanders released magma from their back and shoot it towards him with a loud cry.
Liam was like a monkey, jumping from here and then.
With a slash, he killed the salamanders one after another, hitting their cores to stun them or directly killed them. The Fiery Salamanders will dissolved into pixels after dying. He only have one minute after all, he can't eat too much time.
He just managed to clear all of them when another wave was coming.
The salamanders crawling form the magma pools were much bigger. They were also stronger and skin tougher than the previous one.
Luckily, there are only nine this time. Confirming his guess. However, just like he also anticipated, the magma boiled harder and new craters formed.
Liam look at them and sighed. Fuck it.
***
In the Luminous Guild building, Edward look around Henry's office.
The office was in the color of brown, black, and white. There are only a few paintings in the white wall and some picture frames.
Beside the glass window, was a platform where Henry's wooden desk is located. There are stacks of paper on top of it and a computer as well as a coffee mug.
Edward sat on the sofa and leaned back while drinking his tea. Looking relaxed and comfortable. Henry's mouth twitched.
"Don't get this on the wrong way, but why are you here?" Henry spoke first after a moment of silence.
Edward look at him. "Ah!" as if he just remember his purpose he exclaimed.
This made Henry sighed.
Edward was embarrassed and quickly put the tea on the coffee table.
"Well... I came here to inform you that the situation from before seem to be bigger than expected." he stated with a serious expression.
Henry straightened his back with a frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"Laura was getting involved in the investigation."
As soon as this sentence left his mouth, Henry exhaled sharply.
"Laura?" he asked, surprised.
Edward nodded seriously. "Yes. We were informed by the chairman about it just yesterday. It seems like the Transgressor Revolution had been causing large troubles one after another."
"The association was caught off guard for the first time so the casualties on the Beast Area was huge. But after that, although the group went around causing troubles, they were able to prevent it. Until, Laura was almost assassinated."
This time, Henry wasn't able to speak for a whole minute.
"Laura is a peak SS-rank hero that were now on the verge of breaking through SSS-rank. However, she almost died. I didn't know about the specifics but it seems that, atleast ten peak SS-rank awakener attacked her together."
Henry finally understood the gravity of the situation. His face turned bad and he fell into a deep thought.
"How are they sure that it's that organization that attack her?"
Edward shook his head. "I don't really know but there's a rumor that Laura was not the only one who got attacked on that day."
The two stare at each other for a moment and no one wanted to speak. After a few minutes, Henry was the first one to broke the silence.
"I see. Thank you for telling me this. I'll be careful not to touch something I shouldn't."
***