"…" – The group stared at Evelyn with mixed expressions. They understood what she meant but most still found it annoying to have spent so much time doing this charade.
Evelyn noticed their gazes but maintained a smile in response – "Before I go deeper in explaining more about this training, I have two things to tell you." – She tapped her bio-system and sent a message to all of them – "First, and most important, it seems that you all are getting pushed to be an official team. You have received an exam." – Her eyes glanced at the details of the mission.
[Exam #1 – Stronghold invasion
Mission: The group #4545807 is to invade the stronghold at the designed location, and either destroy or capture the stronghold.
Instructor: Evelyn
Members: Akihiko, Beatrix, Bianca, Darlan, Diana, Eric, Lathz, Melissa, Melody, Monica, Nyza, Olivia, Roxanne
Deadline: 2 days after receiving the notification.
Coordinates: …]
"An exam?" – Diana blinked her eyes and looked at Evelyn – "Is this correct, Miss Evelyn?"
"Indeed. It's also a first for me, seeing one arriving so soon." – Evelyn commented and started to fix her hair – "However, this is an official exam."
The group stared at their screens with a mix of surprise, anxiety, and anticipation.
In Rose Garden at the End of the World, the exams from the Academy are rare, and special events that seldom appear.
In the game, those events serve more as a way to gain rare resources and large amounts of XP for each character. In reality, however, those exams allow for the examinees to have more "leeway" concerning where they will work and with whom. If they manage to accumulate enough "good grades", they might even receive some other privileges from the Academy, so the exams are always both good and bad news.
There are rewards too, but those are mostly just the side-dish of what exams represent.
*Clap*
Clapping her hands once, Evelyn got everyone's attention – "Now, we will depart tonight to the location of the stronghold, so prepare your things when we go back." – She let them digest the situation before going to another topic – "And before we go back, I will now give you an evaluation of your performance, both as an individual and as a group."
The group nodded and waited.
"First, I will start with Elizabeth." – She turned her eyes to the white-haired beauty – "For starters, you're by far the most exceptional mage I have ever seen among examinees." – Evelyn's purple eyes stared straight into Elizabeth's crimson ones – "I don't know how many spells you know but as far as I have seen, you're a jack-of-all-trades and know your way around things, also serving as a good leader. Your decision of not rushing to finish the task but instead organizing a strategy with the others even when you weren't technically in the same team, is something that greenhorns normally end up ignoring." – She complimented.
Both Akihiko and Melody nodded. They were familiar with the trope of the protagonist being ridiculously strong or talented, and Elizabeth was a monster with both plus a bright brain when it doesn't concern relationships.
Akihiko himself who has been with her for years isn't sure of how many spells she can use or how far her magic goes, especially considering that each time she seems to surpass herself.
As far as he knows, Elizabeth can use telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis, elemental magic, clones, and reinforcement magic. However, he knows that she must be able to use far more than those.
She is truly a broken character when compared to her peers.
"Oh…" – Elizabeth nodded absentmindedly, not sure how to take the sudden compliment.
"Coupling this with your beauty, I don't think you'll ever have a hard time in the military as long as you don't make stupid decisions, and as far as the definition of "hard time" goes." – Evelyn nodded and briefly glanced at the others to see them agreeing with her, especially the women – "Just don't get complacent and remember: you just need to be alive to die." – She finished her evaluation with a reminder.
Then, her eyes turned to Akihiko and her face briefly contorted – "Before I start your evaluation, Akihiko, what the hell was that number of weapons?" – A frown appeared on her forehead.
She didn't have the chance to ask before but when they took the victims from the massacre at the Conference to safer bases, they gave medical treatment to all of them. And when the healers attended Akihiko, they noticed he still had hidden weapons in his body.
This was something that most shinobis do, and thus, no one found it odd.
However, when the medics took off all his weapons and when Evelyn checked the cameras from the Conference, she was stunned at the sheer number of weapons.
Shinobis and some assassins have a set of skills that allows them to hide weapons, even if they defy the laws of physics and logic. Most shinobis carry around a few dozen weapons, with the most senior ones being able to hide up to a hundred weapons in their bodies in some cases.
However, when counted, Akihiko was carrying roughly 400 weapons with him, all hidden in his body.
It was an absurd number, even for shinobi's standards. And it was even more absurd when considered that the weapons ranged from spears to great swords.
The surprise became even greater when Evelyn noticed the weight of all those weapons was something around half a ton, a weight that is possible for someone to lift, but unthinkable for an examinee to just carry around the battlefield. And when considering that he has been stealthily walking around and maneuvering his body in the air as if it was nothing, it was astonishing, to say the least.
"…" – Akihiko faced Evelyn without any reaction for a few seconds. Noticing that it wasn't a rhetorical question, he answered through hand signals.
Evelyn raised an eyebrow at his answer – "I don't know if your chances of survival increase or drop with you training like that." – Although there were several things she wanted to comment on, she didn't pursue this topic further. She isn't in the position to question his training methods when she is doing something just as crazy – "Well, I will leave this at that."
Except for Elizabeth, the others didn't understand and alternately looked at Evelyn and Akihiko with curious gazes.
"Anyway, Akihiko, I don't think I need to say much about your performance. It was nearly flawless." – Surprising them once more, Evelyn shot a compliment straight at the target's face – "You were the only one who managed to get within 1 meter from the dimensional bunnies without being noticed. Your stealth is scary as always." – Her smile widened a little.
Elizabeth is a monster with immense talent and will. She also has it in her to work hard and is smart. Everything coupled with the fact that she is an all-rounder mage just makes her the strongest and most important examinee of this generation.
She is essentially the "perfect soldier' and practically guaranteed to reach the 7-star rank if given enough time.
When compared with her, Akihiko falls short in skill, talent, and mana. However, instead of just a "person who is a bit strong", which is how most people in those cases can end up at best, Akihiko is by far the most monstrous examinee Evelyn ever trained.
"Besides your stealth, your speed was also adjusted not to disturb the wind too much and scare them away, which is another plus." – She continued with her praise and now the others were starting to find it weird – "My advice remains the same: just get better in working with a team. That's the only thing I can point out." – Evelyn's purple eyes remained on the young man's figure for a few more instants before turning to the others.
"Alright, focus here." – Evelyn got the others' attention again and when she saw they were looking at her, she opened her mouth – "Elizabeth and Akihiko are basically priceless gems. They have the power and wits to survive on the battlefield." – Her eyes narrowed slightly – "However, most of you don't."
"…" – The others stared at her in silence. It hurt to hear it but it was the truth, and they experienced it firsthand back at the Conference.
"I'm not singling them out like this to depress you." – Evelyn spoke with a calm tone – "I'm saying this because I want you to be aware of how you are and what you're lacking. If you felt offended, sorry but this is the truth." – Her gaze swept through the group – "I'm training you to at least survive out there. No one thinks we will seriously win this war. I mean, no one except the fanatics but they don't count." – She corrected herself – "If you want to do my training half-heartedly, you can. However, it's not because you don't possess the will to work that I won't work you to the bone."
Gradually, the gazes of those among the group started to brighten. Not blindly inspired by her words but feeling the will to not be yet just another soldier to die.
"You will die on the battlefield and so will I. Maybe even our family will too." – Evelyn dumped a bucket of cold water on their determination – "However, that we will die, we already knew since we were born. So, that's not a reason to do things half-heartedly." – Her lips arced into a smile – "I'm only saying this so you prepare yourselves. I don't think that the attack at the Conference will be the last of that kind, especially if we consider the Garden's Fall from a decade ago."
When she mentioned those words, Akihiko twitched slightly and the air around him changed momentarily, becoming abnormally cold but it returned to normal as quickly as it came.
Elizabeth hastily turned to him with a worried look.
"I will be changing your training based on your performance in the exam. Keep this in mind, I will work you to death so you can avoid death for a little longer." – Evelyn's smile turned into something scary to the group.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
##############
Curiosity: When they were little, Elizabeth and Akihiko trained together from time to time.
Once, Elizabeth, feeling confident in her new magic and wanting to win against him, asked Akihiko to fight her seriously, as if he was fighting a monster.
After that day, Elizabeth grew stronger and learned new spells at the cost of acquiring PTSD.
Unless necessary, she refuses to fight against Akihiko seriously.
##############
----------------
Hope you have enjoyed the chapter!
If you want to support my job, consider buying me a coffee at: https://ko-fi.com/kyle_kingsmaker.
It costs only $1.
---------------
A/N: Hello there, I hope you're having a wonderful day!
So, what are your opinions and thoughts about this chapter, the novel in general, and/or a specific thing?
Did you like this chapter's curiosity? Or was it too weak?
This chapter was to hype both Elizabeth and Akihiko a bit more and to show that while the former is strong due to being a protagonist, Akihiko doesn't fall behind because he lacks skills and/or is a mob. However, did any of you think that it came off as cringe or too much hype?
Please comment, leave a review, and share your thoughts with me! I always enjoy interacting with readers as long as it is with respect.
Well, this is it for today, see ya~
Peace out~🍷😎