What should i do?' Khaos thought as his heartbeat sped up by the second. 'I can just go back to Galor and look for Lyra, then come back in 10 years for the next recruitment'. Khaos looked around and most of the other participants were already flying away, some looked undecided like him, and a small number looked determined.
Gother said i can come back anytime and his offer will still stand'. he thought, 'I can live in relative peace for 10 years and even raise my power. But if i stay here, i will die, the chances of survival are so small they are in-existent'.
Mother and father would not even want me to risk my life in order to avenge their deaths. They would want me to stay as safe as possible. If i leave, i live. But if i stay i die. There is no other option only those two, life or death i have to choose', he clenched his fist.
There is not even a need to think this long, i do not want to die, i want to live. No one in their right minds would chose to stay, even suicide is better than this. This is just suicide with the added pain of feeling your body being ripped apart'. His head spun with thoughts as he grit his teeth.
Then why am i still here?, why can't i just fly back to Galor. Why?' It was then that a certain feeling washed over him. He had experienced this feeling once before. Back in Lator when he was lying on the corpse of that one monster, he had felt helpless when a horde of beats charged in his direction.
Back then, he had accepted his death. He was ready to die and he was not afraid of it. Khaos then took a deep breath as his heartbeat slowed down. In a few seconds, he had made his decision and a small smile appeared on his face.
I do not know why, but i guess i am staying'.
Khaos internal battle had actually lasted 3 seconds, but in that three seconds over 97% of the participants had left. It was either death or wait 10 years. Obviously any sane person would just choose to wait. However there were exceptions. 30 Cultivators including Khaos had chosen to stay.
Seeing this number, Instructor Black shook his head slowly. "Humanity thanks you for your sacrifice", he said in a grave tone before signaling for them to fly up to his level.
"You all will come with me, 8 of the portals appeared in a small village not far from here. We will go there and rescue as many people as we can", he then sighed. "This is your last chance to change your minds, you can leave and return in 10 years i will not hold it against you". When he saw that no one moved he nodded slightly.
"Congratulations, you all have passed the exam and are now official members of the Black Academy", he said, and the 30 Cultivators all had confused expressions. They already knew that they were part of the Academy, so why was Instructor Blake repeating himself?.
"I can see that you do not understand". Blake said with a smile. "I am actually the Dean of this Academy, and everything i said about the Portal burst was a lie."
"That was the exam, it's useless for us to nurture students who are not ready to die for the human race. Those would just be a waste of resources, so we had to weed out the weak willed", he shrugged.
Needless to say, his words shocked the new students. "So there is no such thing as a portal burst?" Khaos asked. Inwardly very relieved that he would not die today.
"Oh portal bursts do very much exist, they are just very rare and the last one was 600 years ago. Anyway welcome to my Academy", with those words Dean Blake flew into the top floor of the building.
At this moment, all the Cultivators that had left the Academy a few minutes ago returned and flew into the building at different floors. But one Cultivator stopped in front of the group of students. Khaos recognised her as Instructor Kira.
"Follow me", she said before flying towards the ground. The students quickly followed, and Khaos also noticed that Kato was still there. 'Oh yeah, i still need to kill that guy', he thought. Kato had attacked Khaos, and if Khaos had not reacted fast enough, that initial water attack would have killed him.
The group landed on the ground walked though the open doors. Actually calling them doors isn't specifically correct since it was just a rectangular hole in the wall.
"We do not need doors here. It's not like anyone unauthorised will just walk in anyway". Instructor Kira shrugged.
"Why not?" Khaos asked, "What is stopping anyone from just walking in here?"
"How did we get here?, what direction did we fly in from?" Kira asked.
"Easy we..". Khaos' eyes opened wide. "I...forgot", he realised in shock.
"Seriously?" Kato snorted. "Instructor this building is to the..", he narrowed his eyes. "But how?, i know how to get here, i know the directions, but if i try to say them out loud i forget all of it".
"Even if someone randomly flies in this direction, they will not see the building. And if they happen to be heading straight for it, they will unconsciously fly around it". Kira said.
"Then what use is the wall?" Khaos asked. Kira's words were shocking, but in the world of Cultivation, very few things were impossible, Khaos knew that.
"Well the Law which obscures the Academies works by tricking and influencing intelligent minds....."
"So it doesn't work on monsters", Khaos interrupted.
"Beasts". Kira corrected. "Anyway let's go in".
The group entered the building and just as expected, there were a lot of Cultivators wearing the Black Academy colours moving around.
Khaos took a deep breath when he realised that he could not feel the power of anyone in the building. 'Everyone here is stronger than me', he thought as they followed Kira.
"This is the Academy lounge, were students meet to just talk and relax with each other." Kira said as she pointed at the many students sitting around on some tables talking and laughing.
The floor was just a large space with nothing but the tables and chairs, there were also mats on which some students were cultivating.
"At the end over there is the quest board, for anything not beast related like escorting merchants or finding rare plants and stuff. Right next to the quest board is the shop, you will explore on your own time". Kira said before walking back outside.
"Let's go to the first floor to continue the tour".