A loud snap echoed through the assembly hall as the headmistress's fingers clicked together.
It reverberated like a gunshot, slicing through the murmurs and nervous shuffling of the students.
In that instant, Silva vanished from Eclipse's side.
No, it wasn't just Silva—everyone vanished.
The room, the students, even the walls around him dissolved as if they'd been wiped from existence.
Eclipse was suddenly, utterly alone, suspended in an endless void.
And then, he fell.
He tumbled through a silent darkness, weightless and twisting, his heart racing with each passing second.
There was no sound, no end in sight, just the sense of accelerating downward, as if he'd been plummeting for hours.
But just as a real sense of panic began to creep in, something shifted.
Thick branches and tangled vines whipped against his arms, scratching his skin as he crashed through a canopy of trees.
He finally hit the ground with an ungraceful thud, face-first into damp earth and scattered leaves.
Eclipse groaned, pushing himself up, dirt clinging to his clothes as he tried to blink away the sting of grit in his eyes.
He let out a low, annoyed grumble. Of all the ways to enter the Mist Forest, that had to be the worst.
As he adjusted to his surroundings, he noticed a massive blue light pentagram high in the sky above, pulsing faintly, a mark of his entrance.
A quick, steadying breath helped him regain his bearings, and he glanced around, taking in the dense mist and towering trees around him.
The Mist Forest.
In the game, it had been a formidable zone, renowned for its eerie, otherworldly fog that crept along the ground, curling around ancient trees with twisted roots that looked more like fingers reaching up from the underworld.
A thrill of both excitement and anxiety buzzed through him.
He'd known the Mist Forest inside and out on a screen, but feeling the earth underfoot, hearing the subtle rustling of unseen creatures, smelling the damp rot—it was different, alive.
And the consequences here were real.
He dusted off his clothes, suppressing a half-smile.
His eyes scanned the fog-drenched landscape for Silva's familiar figure, hoping for the comforting sight of her precise, composed form.
But there was nothing.
No Silva, no familiar voices, just the oppressive, unnerving quiet of the Mist Forest.
That answered one of his question about the trial...
"Great," he muttered under his breath. "They sent me here without backup… and took my maid."
He frowned, wondering what she was doing and if his dagger was enough to keep her safe in this dangerous place.
With Silva absent, he'd be facing this trial solo, a hard realization that reminded him of the Mist Forest's brutal introduction mechanics.
The game's objective here was straightforward: find and gather three specific herbs—Bloodfern, Silverroot, and Shadowbloom.
Seemed simple enough, but he knew better.
In the game, collecting the herbs was only half the battle—somewhere along the way, students would be ambushed, turning a quiet gathering task into a chaotic, desperate scramble for survival.
And I'd really like to avoid that.
Looking around, he noticed a small leather bag at his feet, likely left by the Academy as a starting kit.
He shook his head, glancing up at the faint sun peeking through the canopy.
Drawing on his game knowledge, he oriented himself southward, where the herbs grew plentifully, and where monster encounters were rare.
But the reality of his situation settled over him.
It was one thing to play this alone in a game; it was another to be physically isolated in a hostile environment.
And he knew he couldn't rely on his own strength.
Food, supplies, and maybe even allies would be essential if he was going to survive the next three days of this trial.
His noble status might buy him support from others, though Eclipse doubted anyone here was eager to make friends with him.
He started to walk and look around for people.
A voice rang out, cutting through the muffled fog ahead.
Eclipse froze, dread prickling down his spine. A monster, already?
It wasn't.
It was much worse.
Through the mist, a figure in a flowing, light blue robe approached, her presence as commanding as it was unmistakable.
Seraphine.
She strode toward him, her expression cold and entirely unamused, arms crossed as her gaze locked onto him with a familiar frown of contempt.
She looked every bit as annoyed to see him as he was to see her.
Eclipse suppressed a groan. So It had to be like this...
Seraphine's dark eyes narrowed.
"Well, this is just wonderful," she said, her voice dripping with irritation. "As if being thrown into a death trap wasn't enough, I had to run into you."
Eclipse mustered a casual shrug, trying to mask his own frustration.
"What can I say? You've got impeccable timing."
Her frown deepened, and she looked him over with a scrutinizing gaze that was as icy as her words.
"I don't know why, but every time I run into you, I feel like I'm about to witness a disaster in the making."
"Oh... okay."
She pouted at that simple response.
Seraphine was an S-tier mage, the kind of player whose spells could obliterate most enemies.
But she was also insufferably proud, fiercely loyal to the Academy's Hero, Caelum, and had a reputation for disregarding anyone she considered "unworthy"—which, unfortunately, included him.
For a moment, she studied him, her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.
Eclipse knew her well enough to see that any request to work together would be swiftly rebuffed.
She wouldn't dream of collaborating with someone she considered beneath her station.
And finding other people that might want to work under me was impossible now.
In the game, apparently, they isolated Seraphine from others people on the first day. So no matter how hard Eclipse looked around, it'd be futile.
With an irritated sigh, he turned and began to walk away.
To the south alone, I guess.
Yet, to his dismay, the sound of footsteps followed him.
"Where are you going? Are you going to cause trouble somewhere else? Hey, hey! Are you seriously just going to ignore me?" she called, her voice half-annoyed, half-mocking.
I'd rather deal with a slime, he thought, as he struggled to keep his cool.
As he picked up his pace, Seraphine quickened hers, refusing to be dismissed.
After what felt like hours of her running commentary, they reached a quiet stretch of forest.
Eclipse finally stopped, turning to her with an exasperated glare. "Why are you following me?"
"I'm not. I'm... supervising."
"Okay, can you stop doing that?"
Seraphine's lips curved into a smirk, "I don't take orders from other nobles. Especially not ones with an attitude problem."
With a resigned sigh, Eclipse turned back toward the path, knowing full well that she wouldn't relent.
Together, they pressed onward through the mist, both too stubborn to go their separate ways.
And as they moved deeper into the forest, Eclipse felt a chill prickle at the back of his neck.
With an S-tier mage trailing him, he might be shielded from the forest's lesser creatures, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the real danger found them both.