"I will never use this ability again." Ember kept walking forward, irritated. Her face was burning with embarrassment, and she couldn't even look at the boy.
"Wait, at least be a little more careful! We might run into more golems along the way, you know?" Davi ran after the girl, trying to calm her down.
Amidst this slightly foolish interaction, the two ended up finding the key they needed. With that, the test was complete.
Then they returned to the base.
"Wait, why are you naked?" Ana asked, looking a bit embarrassed at the boy in front of her.
"My clothes were destroyed by the golem's attack." Embarrassed, the boy told the lie he had prepared as he returned to the base.
He couldn't admit that Ember had transformed into a hot succubus, burned his clothes, and had sex with him for two hours straight until he was completely exhausted.
At least, for the first time, Davi wasn't nearly dead after the fight, even though he was almost as worn out as he was during other battles.
Also, for the first time, they weren't teleported to the infirmary, and Amelia didn't even bother to check on them. It was definitely a day of first times.
The rest of the day was spent resting in their rooms. During that time, Davi helped Ember practice some martial arts, but there wasn't much they could do. It was a bit strange that the post-battle period was so calm this time.
In this unusually peaceful manner, a few days passed. For the first time, Davi didn't spend those days unconscious in a hospital bed. Even so, he couldn't recall a single remarkable thing that happened during those days.
Then, on yet another random night, the boy's sleep was interrupted as familiar lights surrounded him. Before him, Davi saw Amelia, who didn't even bother to teleport her paperwork away or change her chair.
"Do you know what time it is? Why did you summon me now of all times?" Davi complained.
The woman chuckled softly. "Sorry about that, I've been really busy today," she said, sighing with exhaustion. The deep dark circles under her eyes confirmed she was telling the truth.
"And what do you need from me?"
"That's quite an interesting ability you managed to give that girl, isn't it? Did you know there's no transformation cataloged with the ability to alter someone's personality like that? It almost seemed like you briefly brought someone from another world."
"Wait, you were watching that?"
"Of course, I'm always watching the interesting things that happen," she said with a big smile. Davi decided to ignore what he had just heard.
"Can you just tell me why you called me?"
"I wanted to give you a warning," the playful smile on her face slowly faded. "Be careful in the next phase."
"Why are you saying that all of a sudden?" he asked, concerned.
"You've already managed to attract the hostility of quite a few people, you know?" she said in an impressed tone, though it was actually bad news. "And unfortunately, I won't be around for a while. I have to go defeat one of the big ones."
She didn't offer any further explanation, simply emphasizing her recommendation for him to be cautious. Finally, she tossed him something that looked like an ordinary coin.
"What's this?" Davi asked.
The woman explained it was an item that would transport him out of the testing zone the moment he said 'I give up'. By the way, the boy wasn't the only one receiving such an item; since the next phase would be more dangerous, everyone was getting something like that.
"And why are you giving this to me now?" he asked, naturally suspicious.
"If you'd prefer, I can make it appear in your pocket, like I did for everyone else just now. Don't be such a complainer," Amélia countered.
"And another thing, wouldn't something like this have been useful from the start?"
"No, the chance of death in the first phase is almost zero. The golems are programmed to attack only with enough force to cause serious injuries. Unless some idiot decides to step in the way of an attack meant for someone else."
In other words, Ember wasn't going to die from that attack. And since she was tougher than Davi, she probably would have taken less damage than him and wouldn't have been in a near-death state, just badly injured.
"So my sacrifice was in vain?!"
"Of course not. It was top-tier entertainment," she said with a light smile. "Now, I must take my leave, but I have high expectations for you, so go and win. Prove your worth." The woman added in a more serious tone, "And please, don't die."
Without giving the boy a chance to say anything else, the woman disappeared. Davi then felt a light envelop him, and soon he was in a white room, standing before a monitor with his two teammates.
The screen in front of them displayed some instructions. More specifically, it described that the next phase would involve surviving in the environment of a rift. There were also instructions on how to activate the coin of surrender.
Finally, there was a very important rule: to prevent the groups formed in the first phase from cooperating in the second, they would be separated. Because of this, there were three rift options to enter, and each person had to choose one.
Of course, it would still be possible to form teams in the second phase, in fact, it was expected. But theoretically, everyone would need to get to know each other and form alliances while dealing with the tension of surviving the test, which made everything much more challenging.
The one most devastated by this rule was Ana, who realized she could no longer rely on Davi to carry her to rank S. As for Davi, he was slightly concerned about Ember's relationship level dropping too much, considering the second phase of the test would last a week.
That said, during the days he had spent apart from Luna, her relationship level had dropped by only one. Since Ember had reached level 4 after everything that happened in the least test, they could stay apart for at least 24 days before it became an issue.
As for Ana, it was possible she might be eliminated at some point, given her level 2 relationship status.
With that, the three of them parted ways, wishing each other good luck.
Then a bright light enveloped all three.
𓊖𓊖𓊖
Still getting used to the new environment, Davi felt an unpleasant smell of sulfur invade his nostrils. At the same time, the intense heat and humidity suffocated him.
All around him stretched a dense forest, with trees and roots that seemed to float over the murky waters.
He quickly realized he was perched on a tree in the middle of a swamp.
Croak!
The croak of a frog echoed, breaking the damp silence and catching his attention.
Suddenly, the environment was engulfed in flames, consuming the vegetation and painting the sky orange and gray with ashes.
The boy reacted quickly, jumping to a nearby tree. But he soon became a target again, so he continued jumping from tree to tree.
He definitely didn't want to fall into the swamp water because he didn't know what kind of monsters awaited him below.
Giving it his all, he kept dodging as best as he could.
His enemies were frogs the size of a domestic cat. At first glance, there was nothing threatening about them.
However, the abilities of those creatures seemed to be twofold: producing a flammable gas and igniting it at will.
The biggest problem, though, was their sheer number. If things continued this way, Davi would end up defeated by exhaustion from dodging so much.
If only he had some kind of weapon to attack his enemies, life would be much easier, but the pistol Luna had given him had already reached its limit during the fight against Rowan.
Of course, if he used one of Ember's abilities, he could probably annihilate his enemies. However, if he did, he'd be unable to fight for the rest of the day.
Having only ten minutes was far too little, and the limitations of his ability were clear.
What if he bypassed the system? Like that one time when he used all that power in an instant. Maybe he could activate the ability for just a brief moment, unleash a storm of fire, and then deactivate it right after.
There was just one catch: that's not how things worked. He had no idea how to regain that level of control. Usually, once a time-limited ability was activated, it would remain active until the timer ran out.
With all this in mind, the boy continued to flee desperately until he finally managed to escape that cursed swamp. Ahead of him stretched something that looked like a savanna.
And that was absolute proof that he was inside a supernatural world. After all, it made no sense to have two such contrasting biomes right next to each other.
In any case, he kept walking under the blazing sun until he found a cave where he decided to take temporary shelter.
He cautiously inspected the area, confirming that there were no monsters inside.
Then, he pulled a manual from his pocket with more instructions about the place, which he tried to read diligently.
Apparently, the teachers had set up mini castles scattered across various locations in this place. These could be explored and, of course, conquered.
Moreover, these locations seemed to hold rewards, including a little bit of food and other survival items.
In other words, there were two main strategies to get through this phase: gather a group of people and conquer a castle, or go around causing trouble for other participants and collect 10 coins.
Well, it was also possible to look for coins left behind by those defeated by monsters. But the place was so vast that this wasn't a realistic option unless one had a class with convenient searching skills.
After reading all this, Davi decided he would need to look for one of those structures. If things went well, he could form a team and take advantage of the seven days in the rift.
Of course, things wouldn't be that easy.
"Let's start by mapping out the area around me," Davi murmured to himself as he activated the other two drones he had left.
It was much safer to study his surroundings with them. However, one of the poor mechanical "bugs" quickly died after being attacked by a monster.
The other drone encountered a combat scene.
A young man with short hair and a fierce expression was standing between a visibly terrified girl and three threatening figures, who were closing in with hungry looks in their eyes.
What was most surprising was that the brave knight protecting the girl didn't take the initiative to attack at any moment.
He created a shield around the girl and then continued to use a bodily hardening ability while withstanding blow after blow.
The man even vomited blood, clearly at his limit, but he got back up and managed to keep defending the girl.
Still, why wasn't he at least trying to attack?
Anyway, Davi considered it best to ignore the whole situation. However, it was at this moment that he looked more closely at the girl being protected.
It was Lara, the girl who had been with Ember in the bath. As far as he remembered, the two were close friends.
"I'd feel guilty if I just ignored her best friend like this," he murmured to himself. "Besides, I need allies."
So he decided to leave his cave.