Waking up early in the morning, Asher and the other youths were escorted to the middle of the city, past the bustling part and into a more exclusive part, where a huge academy was located.
The dark clouds hung in the sky, threatened to rain at any moment.
"We have arrived at our destination! Thank you for picking Mac transportation for your services, Mac transportation appreciates you." The Chauffeur robot said.
The car stopped at the gate and the kids got out.
In front of them, a large blue dome with hexagonal lines, stretched out to the horizons. The name of the school was displayed on the dome, along with greenery animations. Despite being similar to glass it wasn't see-through.
At the entrance of the dome, a large number of kids stood in line.
After waiting in line for a few minutes, Asher's group, went through a crazy security check, before they were given a direction to go to.
Strangely enough, as soon as they entered the dome, they were struck by sunlight, which felt uncomfortable at first, but their bodies then relaxed. The cold breeze felt refreshingly fresh.
Most people hadn't experienced sunshine in a very long time. Except for a few days, it was rare.
The academy campus was like another world, clear blue skies, a bright-warm sphere was dangling above them.
They looked around and saw the technological components, decorated by natural features. The grass was accompanied by thick trees, wrapped up but concrete and metal, and decorated with pieces of technology that mixed nicely.
Along the way, neither of them spoke to each other. They weren't friends and didn't need to stick together, but they were going to the same place.
The place was clean, the white floors and buildings seemed to be made of a special metal.
Students wearing different coloured uniforms, moved about, some students were sitting on benches, others sat under a tree, while some flew around on hover-boards. Except not all students were human, some students had pointy ears, while others had white wings on their backs.
Everything resembled a university life.
Quickly, the group came in front of a large building, a marble statue of an angel with 2 wings behind it, stood by the entrance. Someone in the group inquired and they quickly found a small line, where others were waiting.
Although Asher's group were taking the entrance exam. Mac Builders had ensured them that, so long as they had an affinity, they could guarantee their enrolment, but that didn't mean they shouldn't try.
This also showed the companies capabilities.
Time quickly elapsed, more and more students arrived. An hour passed and the deadline was reached.
A student, led everyone to a large square, with a raised platform at the front.
"Attention!"
Suddenly a tall muscular man appeared on the previously empty platform. The man was bald with a serious expression.
Unlike the student's and teacher's attire they had seen thus far, this man wasn't wearing the school's attire. He was clad in hard armor that looked warn out but sturdy. A large great-sword was plastered on his back.
Seeing the man, a lot of students started gossiping amongst themselves, obviously recognizing the man. Asher perked up his ears.
Nicknamed the people's champion, and named Dandy, he was a very powerful Saint, from the first generations. He was ranked among the top 20 powerful saints in Saints city, with astonishing achievements to his name.
All year round he was mostly at the frontlines, fighting demons and reclaiming territories. The reason he became a teacher at Saint's Academy, was unknown.
"I said Attention!" Dandy's voice exploded in the atmosphere, filled with power.
Hearing his voice, everyone quieted down, their bodies tensed up, and their backs straightened. The man's voice was very commanding.
"My name is Dandy but I insist you call me Mr. Dandy! All of you are here today to take the entrance exam, and I'm here to see if your qualified!" Mr. Dandy's gaze slowly scanned the crowd.
Due to multiple circumstances, it was quite hard to enrol at Saint's academy, but even then, there was at least two hundred candidates here today.
Mr. Dandy continued shouting, "I'll be overseeing the entrance exam this year, and one thing you should know about me, is that I have zero tolarance for bullshit and misbehaviour!"
Mr. Dandy's voice sent chills down everybody's spines.
"It's gonna be a long day so the first fifty students, follow me! The rest of you, if you make a ruckus, I'll immediately send you home and ban you from ever enrolling here!" he threteningly scanned the students with his eyes.
With that, Mr.dandy turned and left, behind him, was fifty students quietly following behind him.
"The thing we value the most here isn't your strength, we can train stronger people then you." Walking along the corridor the Mr. Dandy said.
Despite not shouting anymore, every student was able to hear his voice.
"What we value the most is your conviction. What your willing to do, when faced with those demons."
After walking some distance, the group arrived in front of a large warehouse-like building with 3 stories.
The inside of the building looked empty, devoide of any furniture. On the other side, a plethora of doors stretching out into the distance.
"Ahead is your exams, your given an hour to complete it, then you'll move on to the next test. If you fail, then you can quickly go home." Mr.Dandy explained.
His words caused the students to be serious.
"What are you waiting for, your time has already started."
As soon as he spoke, everyone rushed towards a door. If they were given an hour for a test, it wasn't simple, and this was a prestigious academy no less, where would a second chance come from.
Asher pushed opened his door and was greeted by a tropical rainforest. Confused he looked behind and saw the previous room.
He looked up and noticed that the ceiling was replaced by the starry sky, the moon was out, illuminating everything.
Must be a different space right?
"Not simple." Roland muttered, pushing away the leaves. The door behind him automatically closed.
At the same time, Mr. Dandy sat down in another room, where there were fifty screen, each displaying a potential student, and a few technicians monitoring the screens.
Asher cautiously, walked forward, not knowing what the test is.
[Offense or defence]
Suddenly, a floating screen appeared in front of him. Showing two options, with no extra information.
'Is this a hologram?' Asher pondered as he touched the leaves and ground, everything felt real.
He suddenly thought of something and another, holographic screen appeared, this one stayed at his center of vision, regardless of where he turned.
[Requiring a baptism to start the system]
The flashing words, had been with him all his life. He had done some research and only found one hint, and that was the Saints.
After more extensive research, he found out that every Saints must go through a baptism to boost their mana and physical strength.
Looking at the screens side by side, one moved around when he moved his head while the other didn't. In fact the other one gave him an inexplicable feeling, as if it was real and apart of him, this was the one he had for a long time.
'Does every saint have a system? What is the system anyway? And where did I get mine?' these thoughts suddenly grabbed his attention.
He shook his head and looked at the two options, without much details he simply pressed Offense.
[Kill the enemy=10-100 point
Answering a question = 10-12 point.]
The following screen popped up immediately.
Enemy? Question?
Seeing this, Asher's gaze became more vigilant and he stopped walking.
[Who is humanities enemy?] The screen changed again.
Seeing the question Asher already understood the test. It was like a mixture of a physical and academic test, killing two birds with one stone.
"Demons and creatures of the demon world."
After typing his answer, he pressed enter, the screen turned grey and Asher noticed the small timer at the corner of the screen.
"I guess this is to prevent others from focusing on questions." Asher minimized the screen and continued to move forward.
After a bit of traversal, he came to a clearing, where he saw small footprints on the ground.
Asher decided to follow the footprints, but instead of walking on the path, he chose the grass that was covered by the trees.
[Ding]
He walked for a bit longer, when suddenly he heard a sound in his ears.
Confused he opened the screen and saw that his answer had been marked correctly, after that 10 points were added to his score.
[Question 2. Why does the world need Saints?]
It took two minutes for the question to get be changed, that means a minimum of 30 questions in an hour.
"People are needed in the front lines to reclaim our planet and push the demons back to hell." Asher answered, he suddenly thought of something.
He added something. "Then we can eradicate all the demons, and we can live freely once more."
Just as Asher was minimizing the screen, he suddenly heard a rustle in the leaves.
In front of him, a short hedious figure, with green skin, pointy ears and a noise, was peeing in the bushes. A Goblin!
Coincidentally, the goblin also made eye contact with him.
*Sriiik!!*
The goblin reacted first, ignoring it's call with nature, screamed out and threw out it's machete.
*Thud*
Asher reacted and the machete lodged into a tree behind him. Years of combat experience helped him handle the fear.
Just as he grabbed the machete, he felt a kick landing in his stomach, sending him crashing on the floor.
The goblin's feet landed on the ground after jumping and kicking the worthless human.
*skriii*
The goblin celebrated.
Seeing the human slowly getting up, the goblin quickly ran at him, opening it's palms, it's claw like daggers came out, intending to finish it.
"You threw your blade and followed up by jumping then landing an attack. That's a great way of attacking while covering the distance, let me try." Asher slowly said as he got up.
Just as the Goblin was a few meters away, it's body stagnated before falling on the ground. It's own machete was lodged into it's head.
It all happened to fast for it to react.
[Ding. +10 points]
The screen appeared besides Asher.
"These guys aren't completly real but they aren't fake either." Asher examined the body of the goblin and concluded.
'Demon' is a term used by the public to generalise all the monsters that kill humans.
Among the demons, Goblins were the weakest one's yet they were still stronger then normal humans.
Asher removed the machete from the goblin and carried on with his journey.
Not long After, he heard cheering and laughing, all in a weird language and horrible voices.
Quickly he arrived at a goblin camp, a bonfire was in the middle, half surrounded by small huts. Around the fire, goblins were dancing and drinking, their numbers around fifty.
[Ding]
Two minutes had passed and another question appeared.
[Question 3. What is the origin church?]
"For a prestigious school, these questions are kinda basic..." Asher found these questions, suspiciously easy but he still answered.
From the sky, where the world angels came from, lied another world. In that world, the is one existence that rules everything and that is the origin church.
The origin church worshipped the origin God. The church was the reason humanity still existed.
"That should be about it." Asher answered the question and looked at the view in front of him.
His brows suddenly frowned with displeasure.